Balthazar!I really need you!
“Should we take him with us?”the Eyros Vampire asked.“Legion did wish it to hurt.There’s hardly a moment to do that here.”
“They’ll be able to track him.Best to just get it done.There’s plenty of space for us to work.”The Ashyr Vampire actuallyyawnedas if whatever evil they had planned for him bored her.
Balthazar!
The Ashyr Vampire stared back at the undulating mound of sand that kept the Marrowstalker from striking.A faint moue of distaste crossed her cupid’s bow lips.
“I reallydowant to know how this is happening!”She stamped one slender foot.
“It’s probably Daemon.He’s pulling himself back in from his communing.We really have no time,” the Eyros Vampire said.
And they were right.Well, about the time thing.Not about the Daemon thing.The moonlight began to dim as the wave rose so high that it blocked out some of the moons’ radiance.It was then that the Vampires saw it.Both their mouths opened as one as the tidal wave bore down upon them.
Grayson was about to curl his gift around him and Fiona to keep the water from crushing and smashing them.But the shock of seeing the one-hundred foot wave must have loosened their grip enough upon Fiona that she grabbed his wrist and teleported them away.
Between one blink and the next, they went from being on the beach to standing at an open-air shrine five hundred feet away and up high.They had the perfect view as the wave thundered down upon where they had just been standing.The Kaly slices and the Marrowstalker were subsumed under the water.Quite a bit of the forest near the beach was consumed, too.Trees were uprooted and washed away in the terrible tide.The water kept going until it reached half a mile inland before it began to retreat, leaving destruction in its wake.
“Goodness, Grayson,” Fiona breathed.“You did that?”
He nodded, feeling a little bit lightheaded.There were stone benches around the circular shrine that he sat heavily down upon as both of them watched the water recede.
“It likely didn’t kill them.Just damaged them a bit,” Grayson said.“Besides, I don’t think even if they’re capable of coming after us that they’ll do so now.They had a deadline and they missed it.Though we’re still alone.”He craned his head around to look for Balthazar or any other Vampires.“This is the Shrine of Eternity, isn’t it? Where are the others?”
Fiona nodded.“The Order said that this was the place where Daemon’s spirit came and blessed the first ever Preceptor of the Order.Of course, then the location of the city was lost… conveniently.”
Grayson looked at the pale marble altar that stood in the very center of a round disk of matching marble that was five feet high and fifty-feet across.The stone benches circled the entire thing.There looked to be worn glyphs on the stone disk’s surface.He vaguely remembered them glowing at one point and all of the Immortals standing in a circle around Daemon, but the memory faded.
“I think this may have been where we started the process for Daemon to go into suspension,” Grayson said.
“All these things you remember.Part of me wants to remember them, too but then–Grayson!”Fiona cried.
He’d slumped forward and was hanging his head between his knees.Exhaustion was flowing through him much like the tidal wave had.It had hit him so hard that it had taken his breath away.He hadn’t felt it before, but he did now.It seemed like his soul was scraped clean.
“It’s okay.I’m okay.Just used… used too much power,” he admitted.
“I would take you back to the dorm, but I can’t imagine water–even a tidal wave–will stop that Marrowstalker forever,” she said as she put a gentle hand on his brow and helped him sit up.“We should stay here until the others come.”
“No, I suppose it won’t stay away.This was where we were supposed to lead it,” Grayson said with a grimace.“I suppose that you can teleport us if it gets close again?”
“Don’t worry.”Her brows drew together in anger.“I won’t be caught off guard again.”
“I’m not worried.I know you can handle whatever comes.”
He sagged forward again.She rubbed his back.
All I want to do is go to bed in Ryder’s arms.But we can’t even do that.He has to shift to be safe around me.But I need him.I need him now!
Maybe wanting to be Weryn’s chosen one wasn’t that far off from how he really felt.
Balthazar?Can you hear me?We’re at the Shrine.Where are you?
“I’m not hearing Balthazar yet,” Fiona admitted.“I don’t sense that other Eyros Vampire, but–”
“It was Kaly.Both of them were Kaly,” Grayson got out.“That’s why they hold you for so long.If they were normal, they couldn’t have done that to you.”
Fiona lifted an eyebrow.“Now my pride feels better.”
