Veils Of Eternity

Chapter 16

​The air in the crypt, once stagnant and heavy with the scent of centuries-old dust, was now sharp with the smell of ozone and the cold, metallic scent of high-grade weaponry. Beatrice stood at the threshold of the stone entrance, silhouetted against the moonlight like a vengeful goddess of the modern age. Beside her, the man called Birch held the crossbow with a steady, practiced hand, the tip of the silvered bolt gleaming with a faint, toxic luster.

​Chloe stood frozen on the stairs, her heart thundering against her ribs—a heart that was now beating with an unnatural, frantic strength. She could feel Cassius’s blood coursing through her, a hot, vibrant hum that made her senses painfully sharp. She could hear the rustle of Beatrice’s wool coat; she could smell the peppermint gum Birch was chewing; she could even hear the tiny, rhythmic clicking of the insects in the grass outside.

​"Step away from him, Chloe," Beatrice repeated, her voice as smooth as polished stone. "You’re in shock. You don't understand the physiological influence he’s exerting on you. That 'energy' you feel? It's a chemical leash."

​"It's not a leash, Bea," Chloe rasped, her voice sounding strange to her own ears—richer, deeper. She looked up at her sister, the woman she had looked up to her entire life, and felt a wave of nausea. "He saved me. While you were busy tracking me like an animal, he was keeping me alive."

​"By feeding you his blood?" Beatrice stepped down one rung of the ladder, her eyes flicking to the smear of crimson on Chloe’s lip. Her expression shifted from professional coldness to a flash of genuine disgust. "You have no idea what you’ve just invited into your system. You’re a nurse, Chloe. You know what happens when you introduce a foreign, predatory pathogen into a host."

​Cassius moved then—not a blur, but a slow, deliberate step that put him directly between Birch’s crossbow and Chloe’s back. He loomed in the shadows of the crypt, the lapis lazuli on his finger glinting.

​"The blood will pass," Cassius said, his voice a low, warning growl that vibrated through the stone walls. "In two suns, she will be as she was—fragile and mortal. Unless she tastes the red veil, she is no kin to me. Depart, woman of the fire, before I forget that she shares thy face."

​Birch shifted his grip, his finger tightening on the trigger. "Give the word, Beatrice. He’s talking a lot for a corpse."

​"Wait," Beatrice commanded, her gaze locked on Chloe. "Chloe, listen to me. If you stay with him, you won't survive the transition phase. Your body is going to crave energy. Not blood—not yet—but you’ll burn through your own reserves in hours. You need a controlled environment. You need a hospital."

​"I was at a hospital," Chloe shouted, her anger flaring up again, fueled by the volatile cocktail in her veins. "I was safe until your people started blowing doors off hinges! Why are you doing this? Why do you care about him so much?"

​Beatrice sighed, a sound of weary disappointment. "Because he is the key to everything. The Brotherhood isn't just about hunting, Chloe. It's about understanding. His blood contains a regenerative sequence that could eliminate the need for half the medicines you dispense every day. We aren't trying to kill him. We’re trying to harvest the miracle."

​"Harvest?" Chloe whispered, a chill running through her that had nothing to do with the damp crypt. "He’s a person, Bea. He has a name. He has a history. He’s not a lab rat."

​"He’s a predator that has survived for nearly a millennium while millions of humans died of the plague, of war, of cancer," Beatrice countered. "Don't talk to me about morality while you’re standing in a tomb with a killer."

​Chloe felt a sudden, sharp pang in her stomach—a hollow, gnawing hunger that made her double over. It wasn't the thirst for blood Cassius had described. It was a primal, human hunger, as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. Her body was working at triple speed, fueled by the vampire's essence, and it was demanding fuel.

​Cassius caught her as she stumbled, his hands protective and firm. "She needs sustenance. Human food."

​"There’s a cooler in the SUV," Beatrice said, gesturing vaguely behind her. "Sandwiches, water, glucose tabs. Come up, Chloe. Let Birch secure him, and you can eat. We can talk about this like sisters."

​"No," Chloe gasped, clutching Cassius’s arm. She looked at Birch, who hadn't lowered the crossbow by a single inch. "You’ll take him. You’ll lock him in a box and drain him dry."

​"It’s for the greater good!" Beatrice snapped, her patience finally fracturing. "You were always the selfless one, Chloe. The one who sacrificed for everyone else. Why stop now? Sacrifice this monster for the sake of the thousands of people we could save with his genome."

​Chloe looked at Cassius. In his eyes, she didn't see a monster. She saw the widower who had watched his wife burn. She saw the man who had burned his own skin in the sun just to keep her from falling overboard.

​"Because he’s the only one who didn't ask me to sacrifice anything," Chloe said.

​With a sudden surge of strength she didn't know she possessed, Chloe grabbed a heavy stone urn from a nearby shelf—a relic of Cassius’s past—and hurled it at the light Beatrice was holding.

​The crypt plunged into absolute darkness.

​"Birch! Now!" Beatrice screamed.

​The twang of the crossbow echoed through the chamber, but Cassius was already moving. He swept Chloe into his arms, using his knowledge of the crypt’s layout to navigate the blackness. He didn't head for the main entrance. He lunged toward a narrow crevice behind the main sarcophagus, a drainage tunnel built by the original masons to prevent flooding.

​"Hold thy breath," Cassius whispered.

​They slid into the narrow, damp tunnel just as a flare ignited in the main chamber, bathing the stone in a harsh, magnesium white. The bolt thudded into the wooden sarcophagus exactly where Cassius’s heart had been a second before.

​They scrambled through the mud and the tight squeeze of the earth, Chloe’s heart hammering so loudly it felt like it would burst. The hunger in her stomach was turning into a cramp, a physical agony that made her eyes water. She needed to eat, and she needed to do it soon, or her body would begin to consume itself.

​They emerged into a thicket of briars behind the cathedral ruins, the moonlight providing just enough light to see the path.

​"We must find... a village," Cassius panted, his own strength flagging. The silver wound was still a dull ache in his side. "Food for thee. And a place to hide until the blood clears."

​"Two days," Chloe whispered, leaning on him as they stumbled through the woods. "I just have to last two days."

​"And thou must stay away from the red veil," Cassius warned, his grip on her arm tightening. "If thou tastest even a drop of human blood while my essence is within thee... there is no turning back. Thou wilt become as I am. A creature of the moon."

​Chloe nodded, her head spinning. She looked at her hands in the moonlight. They looked the same, but the way she felt—the raw power, the heightened senses, the terrifying hunger—was entirely new. She was a nurse who had accidentally become a biological ticking time bomb.

​As they reached the edge of the forest, they saw the lights of a small, 24-hour diner at a lonely crossroads. The neon sign flickered: Joe's Eat-In.

​"I need... a burger," Chloe groaned, her mouth watering at the faint, distant scent of frying grease.

​But as they stepped toward the parking lot, she saw a man standing by the door. He wasn't a soldier, and he wasn't wearing a suit. He was a local, a trucker by the looks of him, holding a thermos. But when he turned his head, his eyes caught the light in a way that wasn't human.

​Cassius froze, his fangs sliding down. "The Fledglings. They have followed the scent of the master."

​Chloe looked at the diner. It was filled with people—innocent, human people with blood pumping through their veins. She felt a shiver of terror. She wasn't hungry for them, but she knew that in this state, one mistake, one scratch, one drop of blood on her tongue, and her humanity would be gone forever.

​"I can't go in there," she whispered.

​"Thou must," Cassius said, his eyes scanning the shadows. "I will keep the beasts at bay. Go. Eat. I shall watch the perimeter."

​Chloe looked at him, the man she was supposed to be afraid of, and realized he was the only thing standing between her and a hunger she wasn't ready to face.

​She ran for the door of the diner, her feet moving with a speed that blurred the gravel beneath her. She burst inside, the bells above the door jangling like an alarm. The few patrons turned to look at her—a girl covered in mud, blood, and tears.

​"I need... everything you have," she gasped to the stunned waitress. "Now."

​As the waitress hurried away, Chloe looked out the window. In the darkness of the parking lot, she saw a flash of movement—a blur of shadow hitting shadow. Cassius was fighting to keep her human, even as her sister fought to make her a tool.

​Chloe gripped the edge of the table, her knuckles white. She had forty-eight hours left. Forty-eight hours to survive the blood, the hunters, and the monsters at the door. And if she failed, she wouldn't just be a nurse anymore. She would be a queen of the dark.