Rise Above

Chapter Fifteen

Aidan walked into the room, Savanna by his side. "I thought you said it was going to take you at least a month." Amira smiled. "Did you exceed your expectations?"
"How could she not? She's one of you and I didn't realise how much they'd already managed to change you." Amira's smile faded. "It's not a bad thing. How they were about doing it is, but you're much stronger and much more capable that the other people of this world. You're going to have to work out what you're going to do about that. You shouldn't let it go to waste."
"Do you know what they were trying to do, Aidan?"
"No. I have a feeling I know, but they never came to tell me what their plans were." He ran his tongue over his lips. "I was trapped in that place for centuries, both there and here. It was Lady Kahina, before she became a lady, who captured me. She was pretending to be a damsel in distress and I fell for it. After that I found myself in the tunnels, attacking children. The older I became the harder it was. I knew I couldn't get away until the right person entered the tunnels and you were that person. Thank you, Amira."
"You're welcome, but I did do it mostly for the children you were forced to attack." She'd even managed to save Tony and Lloyd. "I think we would have been there for a lot longer if it wasn't for Eugene wanting us to reach the door."
"By sending you the way he did?" Aidan shook his head. "Eugene wanted all three of you dead and instead he got all three of you alive, which I think is far better. He'd invested a lot into your family and that was why he made a decision that must have hurt. When your parents made the decision they weren't going to give you up it was obvious how hard it was going to be for them to be able to control you. Lady Kahina thought differently, but she was never the sort to break the rules. He was."
"Interesting." Amira looked at Savanna. "You okay, Sav? You've been very quiet."
"I'm okay." Savanna smiled. "Being a vampire is hard work. Sometimes I wish it had never happened, because I don't think I'm ever going to be able to spend time the way I did before."
"You will in time. These things always take time and most young vampires would already have attacked Amira." Aidan reached out and squeezed Savanna's shoulder. "You're doing so well, Savanna."
"Thank you." Savanna looked at Amira. " Aidan and I thought it was best to make sure the tunnels couldn't be fixed, so we've been going around to other places the Battle Lords and Ladies call home. We've ended the lives of at least eight of them now."
"Yeah, I heard about that. You're busy changing the world too."