Page 101 of The Vampire's Thirst
“You’re starting to finish my sentences. That’s scary, demon.”
He laughed as she walked arm in arm with Jace into the arranged room.
Tyr ran in, carrying an armload of candles. “Got ’em.”
Skyler plucked them one-by-one from the warlock, replacing the burned-out pillars. “Time to leave, everyone. This is a solo event.” She gave her mate a peck on his stubbled jaw. He swatted her ass. The man had no shame.
Once the room was empty, Skyler sat cross-legged on a yoga mat. She started with a relaxation exercise to encourage visions. She rolled her head, stretching her neck. She raised her shoulders to her ears and lowered them. Straightening her legs, she bent at the waist, resting her head on one knee, grabbing her toes and pulling. She switched legs.
Enya’s “Echoes in Rain” played softly on her cellphone as vanilla-scented candles flickered in the darkened room.
For this process, some mages used mirrors, glass, crystal balls, anything reflective. Skyler’s medium was the ice inside her. That, along with her astral projection ability, made her unique.
When she closed her eyes, clouds floated in front of her, followed by the void of space. Stars brightened the dark sky. Rain fell. Freezing rain. She imagined herself encased in ice. She became the ice. When her frozen mind awoke, she skimmed over fields of green grass, rode air currents across desert sands, and flew above woods thick with trees and ferns.
Skyler clasped Celene’s necklace to her heart. Though her lids opened, her pupils didn’t see the stronghold chamber. They saw a house in North Shelters where she hovered high enough to recognize the area’s mountain range.
While she waited for a door to open so she could slip inside, Skyler settled barefoot in lush grass, enjoying the moisture on the soles of her feet, the tickle of the blades as she curled her toes.
A trainer had explained that physical laws, no less real than Brownian Motion or Einstein’s Mass-Energy Equation, governed the Scrying Principle, or more specifically in her case, Etheric Travel. Her body remained at Firebrand headquarters while her spirit roamed, existing in air and composed of the same gaseous substance. But in that form, she could not use already occupied space. No passing through objects and no grabbing them. She could feel a doorknob, but she couldn’t turn it. When she asked for a clearer explanation, her trainer clapped hands to hips, frowned, and snapped, “Just accept it. You will never float through walls.”
When a large man opened the door, Skyler floated inside behind him. In the kitchen, a woman sat at a round oak table which had seen better days, head in hands. She appeared listless, sad shoulders slumped forward. The man who had unknowingly let Skyler inside leaned against the refrigerator, arms folded over his chest.
The vision crumbled, pixel by pixel. Skyler tried to hold on with her mind but had no choice in the matter. Her visions ended when they wanted. Her eyes focused on the candle-lit room in the stronghold, on Enya’s ethereal sounds, and on the scent of vanilla. With shaky legs, she rose to her feet to cross to the door. When she struggled to open it, Kole pushed in to grab her around the waist. She leaned her head against his warm, comforting chest.
“I saw her. Get me a map. I can show you where the house is.”
Tyr brushed a tear from Jace’s cheek as they listened to Skyler.
****
Roarkhid in an alley within sight of the portal where a band of Aeternals crossed to Earth. No army waited at this gateway, but the local police scrambled to it when chaos erupted, panicked humans having punched 911.
Squad cars, vans, and emergency vehicles arrived on the scene, sirens blaring. Uniforms and plainclothesmen took cover. Their firepower was not enough to stop the invaders from turning the streets into a killing field as they sped through, tossing bodies aside like yesterday’s garbage.
When a news van parked nearby, a tall slender female wearing a blue suit and heels jumped down from the passenger seat. She and the driver rushed to the back end where she pulled out a microphone while he hefted a camera onto his shoulders.
Taking lipstick out of her pocket, she applied the bright red without using a mirror. Occupational skill, Roark guessed. She looked in a van window, fluffing her shoulder-length dark hair. Then her mouth guppied as she spoke a series of nonsense words. Probably preparing to babble eloquently as reporters do.
Breaking news.
The cameraman signaled the female. She smoothed her skirt, glanced over her shoulder at the chaotic scene, and held up the mic. The man gave her the countdown.
Roark’s enhanced hearing, like all Aeternals, allowed him to filter out other sounds and listen to the reporter despite the distance.
“Thank you, Roger. Twenty minutes ago, creatures the police chief is calling mutants invaded Seattle. We are outside the Westlake Center Terminal where SPD is set up to contain them. These mutants are extremely dangerous. In the meantime, stay inside and lock your doors. Do not approach them.”
She paused to glance at the mayhem behind her, the hand holding the mic quivering as the action moved closer. Taking a deep breath, as if steeling herself, she nodded at the cameraman, resuming her report.
“This station has received tips that citizens are arming to patrol the streets. Do not do this. These mutants are strong and fast. Though our own Seattle PD is struggling, the chief assures us the situation will be contained. Do not take matters into your own hands.”
Roark crossed his arms, his attention moving from the newswoman to the vampire beside him. “So, do we pull them back or let them keep going until they’re caught or killed?”
Lort shoved his hands into the pockets of his Arisen Dawn uniform, his gaze fixed on his soldiers.
An incubus streaked by chasing a twenty-something male dressed in a pinstriped business suit. The Aeternal caught up with the guy, wrapping an arm around his neck. Tears streamed down the young man’s cheeks as the incubus slapped a hand to the Earther’s chest to feed on his lifeforce. After several moments, the drained human collapsed to the ground, an empty husk, trash in the gutter.
“The Gold Dusters are as good as dead anyway,” said Lort. “Even if the Earthers don’t eliminate them, they will eventually die from their addiction to the drug. But in the meantime, they are terrorizing the humans.”
