Chapter Seventeen

Children of the Revolution

The atmosphere in the basement was hot and thick. The group yelled over each other, each brain seeming to work individually now. Valek tried to listen in on each point, but decided it was impossible. It was like watching some complicated twelve-person tennis match.

“We’ve got to strike now!” Lusian roared.

“We have to bust down those walls!” Sasha yelled from the back of the group. Valek heard some of them agreeing with him, raising fists high.

None of them were silent, except for him. He sat very still in a chair, watching the fire dance. His eyes were distant as the flames melted their normal icy color. His mind swam with the various conflicts circulating through the room but every so often, the noise fused into the background and thoughts of Charlotte would spring up in his mind. Her glassy eyes, her lips, her cheeks. She was sleeping. He blinked away from Charlotte’s mind and tried to listen to the room again. To focus.

“Quiet!” Francis’ voice shattered the yelling as everyone turned to face him. He stepped away from the corner and pushed through the clump of rogues toward where Valek sat.

They all looked to Valek now. Francis bent until he was eye to eye with the other Vampire and stayed that way for a few seconds, listening.

“Well?” Lusian folded his arms expectantly at Francis.

“Hold on. Hold on.” The flamboyant Vampire batted a claw at Lusian and continued to gaze at Valek. “Valek,” he spoke softly.

Valek glowered at him.

“If the girl is going to be a distraction, she needs to go. I too know what it’s like to lust for someone you should be a father figure to.” Francis placed a solemn hand on Valek’s shoulder. “I understand how confusing it is, but even when you and I had our little situation, I was at least able to focus on other aspects of my life.” He backed away and straightened.

“I’m not getting rid of her.”

“Well, of course you aren’t. We need her here as much as you do, but I’m asking you to please concentrate right now.”

With his elbows on his knees, Valek rubbed his face into his hands. Something awful flashed in his mind.

“No. You cannot change her. We are keeping our promise. We are not harming her.” Francis spoke quickly. “Aside from that, do you know how stupid it would be to have a newly created Vampire with us now? I need your leadership, my friend. It’s time to start thinking clearly.”

Valek grimaced and looked away, trying his hardest to guard where his mind was and to focus on the task at hand. The war. What if Sarah could put some sort of enchantment on the house? Something that would attract rogue occult creatures of the dark while they moved away from Prague and up into the mountains? They could increase their numbers by the hundreds. They could build an army and begin the uprising. A secret society.

Abruptly, Valek slammed his eyes shut when he heard the sound of Charlotte screaming from upstairs. He quickly got to his feet and spun to face the tunnel.

Francis sighed and rolled his eyes. “This is exactly what I mean! When I need you here most, you are always running to her!”

“She is in pain.” His eyes scorched, blinking violently for the sound to fade in his mind.

“She’s not. She is simply having a nightmare,” Francis explained. He grabbed Valek by the shoulders and steadied him back down into his seat. “The sun is coming up. You don’t have time right now to go to her, anyway. We need to establish a solid plan before the day comes again. I never thought I would be saying this, but we are running out of time to live.”

Valek looked up into Francis’ face and quickly began to mentally unfold all of his war strategies. He mapped out each step one by one as Francis and the rest of them listened.

A new, ghastly shriek suddenly permeated the clan’s sensitive ears. Immediately, they all looked to the upper levels of the house. Valek was the first one who took off toward the gaping hole in the ceiling. Francis frowned but gestured for the rest to follow.

They ascended one by one, each landing stealthily and silently on the upper floor. Valek stood frozen, listening for another sign. When he sensed nothing, he bolted in the direction of the closest body warmth he could feel and found Sarah in her den, sitting in front of a crackling fireplace, her tiny white hand clasped firmly over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and shiny, fixated on the dying flames.

Francis pushed past Valek and ran over to the Witch, getting down on one knee beside her. “Sarah.” He shook her. “Sarah, darling. What did you see?”

Sarah’s face stayed frozen. Her eyes didn’t even shift. Francis looked up at Valek and the rest of the coven, now crowding behind him.

“This only occurs when she has a pretty serious vision. I have never seen her out this long.” His gaze moved again to Sarah, and he stroked her hair.

“Vision?” Valek questioned.

“Sarah only gets them once in a while. A perception of the things to definitely come. An intervention of fate.” He looked worriedly back at Valek. “These visions normally are not something positive. If I were you, I’d go check on your precious girl,” Francis said darkly.

Valek squinted at him before turning and pushing past the rest, flying as quickly as he could up the stairs. He got to Charlotte’s door and threw it open. “Lottie!”

Charlotte was writhing in the center of the mattress, clawing violently at the bed sheets. She screamed his name, and then something completely unintelligible.

He ran over to her and shook her. “Charlotte!”

Her eyelids shot open and she froze, looking at him, her breathing staggered.

“Charlotte, are you okay?”

Her mouth opened in a silent yelp, and she shook her head back and forth, tears streaming down her face.

He sat on the edge of the bed, cradling her in his arms. He stroked her face. “It was just a dream, Lottie. That’s all.” He rocked her back and forth and saw what she saw. “Just a dream.” A horrible dream about a thousand mouths clinging to every part of her body. Draining her. Killing her. Valek closed his eyes, the guilt drowning him.

Charlotte moved her head to rest just at the base of his throat. “I don’t want you to feel badly,” she said quietly, fiddling with his tousled hair.

He lay next to her. “Lottie, I need to you to know, no matter what happens, you and I will never be separated. Do you understand? We will be safe together again, like we used to be. I’m never going to break that promise.”

She wiggled higher on the bed to kiss him lightly.

They were interrupted when Francis cleared his throat in the bedroom doorway. They both peered curiously at him.

“Sorry.” He looked at the floor. “I think you both should come downstairs.”

In Sarah’s den, Valek found Sarah had finally come to, being comforted by Andela and Lusian. She continued to stare into the empty fireplace as Lusian held her.

“Is she okay?” Valek asked, stepping in front of Charlotte.

Sarah slowly looked toward them. She got to her feet and stumbled over to him, grasping at his shoulders with all her force. She choked out her words. “You have got to get her out of Prague!”

“What did you see?” Valek asked.

Sarah blinked back tears and turned to a horrified Charlotte. “I know what your lines mean, Charlotte! In your hands. I know everything.” The way she spoke was split between pleading and warning. She had this horrible, crazy look in her eyes as she grabbed her hand. She held the palm up to the coven of Vampires. “You see? Do you see it?”

“Sarah, explain to me what you’re talking about,” Francis demanded.

“She does not have the fates of a normal human being in her hand. There are two lines that deliberately cross each other.” Sarah brought Charlotte’s palm close to her face, tracing one faint line with her fingernail. “Valek.” And then the other. “Aiden.”

Charlotte squinted at her palm. “I don’t understand.”

Sarah flexed her sharp index finger at the fireplace. “I saw you…I saw….” The Witch stopped suddenly. Her face went blank again in front of Charlotte’s glassy eyes. “I saw you in a wedding gown. That is what I saw.”

Everyone grew eerily quiet. Valek watched as Charlotte looked around nervously, her heart spinning faster than her thoughts. “No. There has to be some mistake. Who would I be getting married to?” She glanced nervously up at Valek, their eyes locking.

“Sarah never makes mistakes with visions like those,” Francis interjected. “Visions like these are sent to her by some sort of divine force we believe—things we are meant to see.”

Charlotte clasped her palm with her other hand in an effort to shamefully hide the lines from everyone. Valek remained silent.

“Who else was in the vision?” Charlotte asked, more to Valek than anyone else. He couldn’t say anything; an immense lump in his throat silenced him. But Charlotte knew, as his sorrowful expression must have told the story better than any of his words possibly could have.

“Charlotte, I’m not saying you would marry him out of free will….” Sarah began more comfortingly than before. She was to returning to her normal mental state.

“You guys have to believe me. I’m in love with Valek,” Charlotte pleaded with Sarah, somehow causing the lump in Valek’s throat to swell larger. “You know that.”

Sarah put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We do.”

“But what about the line that belongs to Valek?” Charlotte asked, hope coloring her voice. “That must count for something. Valek can prevent this from happening, can’t he?”

“It matches the line he has in his palm. That is true,” Sarah whispered. “You are linked to each other, but I’m not sure what it will all mean when faced with a situation like this.”

To Valek’s surprise, Andela, the tall blonde Vampire who had given Charlotte such a wicked look earlier that evening, walked over to her, surrounding Charlotte in her wiry arms.

“This is all going to get better, Charlotte.” The deep, jagged edges of Andela’s face were painted with eerie shadows by the firelight. It made her look like an angel of death, cradling his Lottie in her arms. “I think I speak for the whole group when I say we consider you a part of our clan.”

Charlotte looked around the room at the others who regarded her a lot more softly than they had at first. Jorge was nodding in agreement. The baleful Sasha was even smiling.

“For you to be as brave as you were today, that says a lot.” Dusana spoke this time. “None of the human beings I ever knew were as brave as you are.”

This was enough to cause Valek to crack at least a faint smile. All they said were true. He glanced at Francis. His was the only face that wasn’t kind. It had taken on a sickly, green shade, and Valek knew exactly why.

“The sun is a half an hour away.” Andela turned back to the others before smiling at Charlotte one last time. “We will figure this out.” She bent to kiss Charlotte on the forehead and with a smile toward Valek, she walked out.

“Dobry den, Charlotte,” Dusana repeated as well.

“Dobry den,” Lusian chimed in. So did a few others on their way out. Francis only nodded politely at the two of them before he disappeared around the corner as well.

“Sweet dreams,” Charlotte said quietly to the floor.

Sarah gave her a tight hug around the middle. “I never saw you coming, Charlotte. But I am so glad you did. Which is why I told Valek we need to get you out of here as soon as possible. You’re not safe in this city. He will be looking for you.”

“What is the point? What you see is in stone, is it not?” Valek said grimly, and walked out of the room.

The hallways were a blur of dark indigoes and lavenders as he sped past and up the staircase to Charlotte’s bedroom, knowing she wouldn’t be too long after. A sick feeling wound his gut around what felt like steel rods. The possibilities of keeping her safe seemed to grow slimmer and slimmer with each passing night. Valek collapsed onto the bed and started massaging the bridge of his nose. Where could they leave to now? He could skip countries. Go into Germany. They could run all the way to Spain and hop the next boat to America. Yes, it would have to be a boat, he thought. People on a plane might stare horrifyingly at the man smoldering in his seat when the sun came up. Or, he could wait for Aiden to find them. The vision of his teeth tearing out the Elf’s jugular caused him to smirk a bit.

Charlotte sheepishly cracked open the bedroom door then. Valek held his outstretched arm to her as she padded to the bed and slid in next to him. He turned on his side so he could encase her more completely. “I just want to hide you from the whole world. Just hide you somewhere where no one would ever think to look. And then I want to disappear, too, so no one could ever find me and ask me where you’ve gone,” he whispered, his lips pressed to her forehead.

“You’ve got half an hour.”

“I know.” He sighed. “I don’t think I could find a good enough hiding place that quickly.”

“Valek.” She took his left hand. “The other line in my hand matches yours, Sarah said.”

He smiled, though the feeling came bitter with a slight jabbing in his chest. “So what does this mean? I have to share you with that lunatic?”

“No. I think it means, no matter what happens, you and I will always be connected. That’s good news, right?” Charlotte lay straight on her back and studied her hand over her face.

“What is the bad news then? Good news always comes with bad news.” Valek shut his eyes tight.

“The bad news is, Aiden will always be trying to change fate.”

“Aiden won’t have an ‘always’ if he’s dead.”

Charlotte didn’t say anything in response. She only continued to trace the line in Valek’s left hand back and forth.

“You cannot ever leave me. I was a lost soul before I found you. I’ll be lost again.”

“I love you, Valek,” she said quietly.

“This is all entirely my fault.” He sighed, rolling onto his back.

“What do you mean?”

“Charlotte, I have to tell you something now. How would you feel if I told you I was the one singularly responsible for all of this? What if I said this war the Regime is waging was entirely my fault?” Valek gazed, tortured, at the ceiling, absently following some of Sarah’s twinkling star bewitchments.

“Valek—”

“My intentions were good, Lottie. I did it with the idea of liberating our entire magical world from the dictatorship that is the Regime. It was the night I found you. I was completely drunk off the fact I hadn’t fed in days. How could I when I could not ever leave the Occult borders? I had to be so careful, consumed by my visions of seeing Vladislov fall from his throne.” He paused. “I was experiencing this strange bout of rage.”

“Valek.” Charlotte leaned on her elbow. “You are the Vampire they were talking about in the basement? The one who tried to kill Vladislov?”

“Yes.” He looked at her, afraid to make eye contact. “I am that Vampire. I am the one who got away. The one they are still searching for.”

She reached over to trace the delicate cracks on his cheek left by the sunlight. Her fingers ran all the way down the side of his face to his neck and stopped just at the collar of his shirt.

“Did this hurt?” she asked.

“Some people wonder if death hurts. I imagine that moment was quite similar to a mortal death. There is a bright light you recognize from some distant memory, but you can’t recall the last time you saw it. You only know it appeared just as beautiful in your memory as it does when you’re finally faced with it again. You feel the desire and you must go toward it, all the while it is killing you slowly.”

She withdrew her hand, and he missed the warmth of her fingertips.

“Valek, I think what you did was very brave. And I don’t think the others blame you at all. I only think you blame yourself.”

“I only think you give me too much credit.”

“Perfection is blind and so is love,” she said, and rolled away from him, pulling the covers up around her shoulders.

“What is that supposed to mean?” He reached to turn her back toward him.

“It means,” she paused for a moment, “you can’t see how perfect you really are to me.”

He leaned down and barely kissed her.

“I was thinking about something,” she said when he pulled away.

“You always are.” He sighed.

“I want to be with you forever, but—”

“Lottie, we don’t have to talk about that right now. I don’t want you to worry about it.”

“I know it doesn’t have to be right now. But I just wanted to make sure, when that day comes that I do want to be like you, you’ll still want me.”

“Charlotte.” He kissed her again. “No matter what happens, I am always going to want you. When you’re ready.” He rolled onto his back then, folded his hands neatly on his stomach, closed his eyes, and waited.

“Is the sun coming?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes.” The muscles in his neck tensed, but the rest of his body stayed totally relaxed.

He felt her settle in next to him, grabbing tightly onto his hand. “I’m here, Valek.”

“Charlotte?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to need you to close the curtains.”