Bereft: Demise

61 (pt. 2) | Of a Fallen Voice

I woke with a start and found myself once more on the floor of the grimy cell. The electric lights had been killed, but thin streamers of sunlight pierced the covering of the far window. My parents and I were in the dead center of the script laid to catch Darius, huddled together for what vestiges of warmth we could find.

I held my left hand aloft. It was whole and unblemished, my nails perfectly blunt and pale. What was that...?

Luc was on his back, breathing deeply in sleep, while Eleanor sat ram-rod straight, staring at the distant stairwell. In her fair hands was a rock-hard bagel she was tearing into crumbs.

"Mom...." I croaked as I sat up, causing the dried blood on my face to crack and crinkle in unpleasant ways. Eleanor turned, her eyes wide with fear, then blinked and muttered a quiet oath as she helped me up.

"Oh thank God, you're awake."

I swallowed the dry ache in my throat as I looked at my mother. She was drawn and pale, the lines of her makeup smeared in the hollows of her eyes and her neck marked with healing bruises. Her brown hair, normally so sleek and maintained, was a tangled mess. The chill tinged her fingers and nose a deep red.

Luc was still asleep. His breathing was deep and regular, and each puff of air that escaped his lungs came out in a white cloud. The side of his mouth was cut and swollen, as was his injured cheek. Black flecks of blood dotted the front of his cable-knit sweater.

Before I could speak, Eleanor held a finger to her lips. "Speak softly," she murmured, eyes darting toward the room beyond our sectioned off cell. "Those...things...are s-sleeping."

Her words stuttered from cold, not fear. I searched the shadows of the cluttered room and eventually found the two vampires bunched for warmth just out of sight. Only their feet and part of his legs were visible.

"T-that monster...." Eleanor gulped as the dried husk of a bagel disintegrated between her hands. "He was angry after you p-passed out, but something was w-wrong with him. He began to s-scream and...disappeared. H-he hasn't been back in hours."

I didn't tell her there was a lot wrong with Sethan, that he was utterly insane in the worst possible way. I studied what I could see of the sleeping vampires for any sign of movement, but they were utterly still and hidden from any possible stray sunbeams managing to breach the window's shade. Though the sunlight was visible, it was numerous degrees below freezing.

"Sara, what is going on?" Eleanor demanded as I turned my gaze back to her. "What does that m-man want from you? From us?"

"It's a long story." I rose and was relieved to find no lasting injuries. Sethan must have healed them all before vanishing for fear of my dying early. I laid my fingers on the cell door and felt the slight give of the hinges swinging until the lock caught. The enclosure was painted with old claw marks and dents, so I wagered the door was stronger than it appeared if he had held wilder creatures than us. Besides, one kick at the lock would bring the vampires down upon us.

"Well?" Eleanor snapped, a wisp of her imperious tone surfacing. "It's not like I've somewhere e-else to go."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Darius's shade rose to attention like a wolf intuiting its prey's approach. It lay in a nebulous veil of smoke above the gurgling creek of my soul's energy. Every small channel those meandering waters carved through my being were highlighted in my inner eye. 

Being torn so forcibly from my own mind only to be dropped back inside it was disconcerting and had unintentionally given me a new perspective to my own soul, like a driver getting resituated behind the wheel. Everything was the same, but I was more attentive. I recognized the magic in a way I never had before, as though it had always been there I'd just been too blind to see it.