Otherworld amulets bestow a thief and a young girl with occult powers, leading them to a parallel Earth devastated by nuclear war and a vampire apocalypse.
She knew she was dreaming, but this was also a memory, a memory pushed to the back of her unconscious mind like a shirt shoved in a dresser drawer that she was too embarrassed to wear... deep down, Ana knew she had done nothing wrong, her only crime was trying to help her beloved grandfather escape a fate worse than death.
Her sister had left her in Dodo's bedroom. She sat with her legs crossed on his bed, looking through a folder of photos he had taken of the Temple of Zorya in the Geghama Mountains. Dodo was lying in the cool bath water, fighting his fever. Ana knew the fever would not be abated by standard medical science; the eldritch virus coursing through Dodo's veins was far beyond such rudimentary healing practices, such was the bite of the Azhdahak.
Ana felt Dodo's sudden presence behind her. She turned to find him standing in the bathroom doorway as cold bathwater dripped from his soaked nightgown. His eyes had gone bone white- he was now a receiver to the whims of the Uninvited. "Ana..." His voice no longer sounded like his; it had a deep hollowness that frightened her. "...help me..."
She knew what he wanted: to burn the virus from his body, to set him free. Dodo had no desire or wish to be an undead thrall of the Uninvited. She led him back to the tub, where he got in. He sat for a minute before he turned to her, his pupils returning to their usual dark blue. He was himself again. The question was, for how long?
"Ana, you must focus your power. I believe you can do it. I know you can do it. When your guardian gave you to your adoptive parents as a child infant six years ago, they knew you had been placed in this world for a reason. Whoever your birth parents may have been, they tried to give you a second chance at life in this world. Your gift is essential for your survival and perhaps the survival of us all. And it would be best if you used that power now to free me. Khndrum yem ognir indz, little Firebird. Here..." Dodo took Ana's hand in his. "I want you to pray. Pray for your power to release me. We will pray together."
As Ana held Dodo's hand, his grip tightened. Her hand ached. "You're hurting me. Dodo."
Dodo twitched violently in the bath-– his soulless eyes peered at her, and his mouth dripped saliva as the hunger consumed him...
The flames, the heat, the fire that burns...the screams of anguish... it burns... it burns it to ash...
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The water trickles and the ash turns to mud...
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