Page 59 of Darkest Heart

Hesitantly, I raised the key, unlocking the first padlock. A metal click sounded throughout the room, and the door creaked open. The man crawled out, and I helped him down onto the ground. I unlocked another, a young girl, with large blue eyes and a wavering smile as she thanked me, her voice as soft and quiet as the breeze. “Please, tell the others and stay quiet. Move slowly, I know it’s hard,” I sympathized, knowing how weak they must have been. The two moved, the burly man with the thick mustache helping the young girl walk, hushing whispers to more mortals. I unlocked another, coming face to face with a small, round face of a boy, no older than eight. My stomach knotted. His parents must miss him, searching desperately for him. My breaths quickened, and he reached a fragile hand to mine, probably as he’d been taught. To hold the adult's hand. “Stay back here until this is over, okay,” I whispered. “Don’t run. I promise it’s going to be okay. I’m going to get you out of here, but it’s going to be scary for a bit, but I want you stay back here.”

He nodded, tears sliding down his grimy cheeks. I unlocked more cages, when someone further up who mustn’t have gotten the message yet screamed. “She’s letting us out!”

The people I’d let out shushed her, but it was too late. Footsteps pounded on the floorboards above, and my I ran cold.

“Listen to me!” I shouted, goosebumps spreading over my arms as I knew there was no going back now. Speaking as fast as I could, I threw the key to the burly man, who appeared healthier than the others. He unlocked cages as I raced to the middle of the room, ensuring my voice could be heard by the hundreds of people gripping to their caged doors. “You have to listen to me first. You must. Your survival counts on it. I know you all have families and lives you want to get back to. No one here wants to die. Especially not at the hands of these creatures. You’ve seen what they do to the bodies.”

Most of you are weak, but you are human, and that counts for more than you know. There’s a reason that vampires are stuck on this small island. It’s because they cannot take on the human spirit.” I shouted. “What gives us the edge on them, is that we are united. Unlike them, we look out for each other. It will be tempting to try to save only yourself, to escape, but I promise you,” my voice raised, resonating throughout the room. “You will not make it off this island alive if you go it alone. We must stand up and fight for ourselves and, most importantly, for each other because that’s how we will win. I know you think you won’t,” I gulped as the soul vampires grappled at the dead bolted door. Fuck.“I am not a vampire, but I am immortal. I will fight for you today, for us, but I cannot do this alone. Okay. I need you to find that fighting, human spirit that is unbreakable. I need you to push past your fear and stand with me.”

A woman rattled her cage door. “Just let us out of here.” A chorus of chatter agreed with her.

I sucked in a deep breath. “If I let you go, and you try to flee, you will die!”

A man’s voice boomed from a cage near the front. “I will fight with you.” His voice wasn’t as raspy as the others, I figured he must have been from the most recent batch brought in. “I’ll fuck them up. Even if I die, at least it’ll be on my own terms.”

More and more voices agreed, many with a fight behind their words. The door rattled as the vampires slammed against it, splintering the frame around the steel.

“When you get out, grab anything you can that can be used as a weapon and aim for the head, cut it off, or remove the heart. There is no other way to kill them. They are faster and stronger, but they’re only out for themselves.”

I looked over the pale, scared faces, but saw warriors amongst them. Determined stares, gritted teeth. I ran to a cage, tearing the bolt from the cage door with my bare hands. I would have done it before. I had the strength, but the key made less noise. But it didn’t matter now. I ran to the next, moving faster than the others, tearing off locks until my nails bled.

The man unlocked more cages, but wasn’t moving as fast as me. I rushed to the front, letting them out next. Each crawled out, some pulling at the locks as I was, but they couldn’t get them off. Another fought the man for the key, saying he could unlock them faster. “Do not fight,” I yelled, stilling them both. “Now is not the time. Work together.”

I ripped off another thirty or so locks within a minute, speeding as fast as I could from one to another, thankful for my immortal abilities.

I caught a flash of the woman who’d begged me to let her go run for the door. “Don’t!” I bellowed, but the door came flying outward. As fast as I could, I unlocked more cages until the soul vampires speared down the steps. The leader grabbed the screaming woman, pleading to spare her, gripping his fingers into her shoulders. Another jumped behind her, pulling on her head until it popped up, detaching from her body, blood splattering over the far wall. My lips fell open, but I couldn’t get emotional. I couldn’t tell them the truth?that most of them would die in this fight, but I had to give them hope. It was the only way some of us would get out of here alive, and it was this or inevitable, painful deaths for all of us, eventually. Because they would kill me for this.

They’d pinned their hopes on me, but I was doing the same thing with them. “Keep unlocking doors, keep going!” I shouted at the man as I unlocked another two. “Do not stop. I will hold them off.”

“Will you?” An aniccipere stepped in front of me, beady eyes narrowing on me. Its pointed tongue ran over its teeth, tapping its blood-soaked fingers against its cheeks. “Do your people know you have just submitted them to die?”

My jaw clenched, shoulders tensing as I poised to fight. “Because they stood a chance, anyway?”

It tilted its head, a sadistic grin spreading over its face as all the aniccipere in the house joined him. Emerging from the shadowy entrance, twenty of the hunched over creatures snarled, sniffing the air. A year ago, I would have fainted at the sight. Now, I tasted the sweet rage growling from within. My magic simmered, ready to be used. But I was still weak.

The aniccipere thought so, too. They looked down on mortals, as if they were nothing. But they didn’t see what I did in Baldoria. Our people were fierce, and our souls were stronger than any knew.

Every dark and horrible thing I’d done to gain their trust, the more they chipped away at my morality, had to be worth something. It couldn’t be in vain. Our lives mattered. I stepped forward, reaching inward for my magic, shutting out the mortal’s emotions, my barrier stronger than ever.

I couldn’t afford to get distracted.

“You”—one pointed a yellow talon at me, its expression warping—“will die first.”

I scoffed a laugh, trying to hold them off while the man continued to let more of them out, each click of a lock opening music to my ears. “There’s a reason the sangaree look down on you,” I said, hitting a sore spot. They may have identified my weakness, but they weren’t the only ones paying attention. “You are all worthless, disgusting monsters.”

It stepped up to me, a growl reverberating from its thin torso. “You could have run. We thought you were dead.”

“I’d rather die doing the right thing, then live like any of you,” I spat in its face. One of them moved for the mortal standing closely behind me, her breathing rapid in my ears. “But I played you all.” I shouted, dragging their attention back to me, biding them more time. We needed numbers. I thought about the little boy at the back, at the promise I had made to him. “You made it so easy. That is why your kind will never rule. You’re all fucking weak.”

The leader blurred through the air, lunging at my neck, but my reflexes were sharper than a vampire. I dodged it, my hand connecting with its rib cage, flinging it back against a cage.

I may not have had fangs or wings, but I had gifts from the gods, and the magic of a sorceress. It wasn’t weak, it couldn’t be. I’d brought down my enemies, and I was done with anyone thinking that I wasn’t as strong as them.

I was more powerful.

It dragged itself back up, and the rest of them rushed forward. Its talons sunk into my neck as I was wrenched off the ground, the air whooshing from my lungs as it slammed me against the wall. “Our king will take your throne.”

“Your king is a fraud.”

---