Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Home

Anaya’s P.O.V:

I don’t know which direction I was running in, but I knew that I hadn’t gotten very far. The groaning sounds of those red eyed creatures were all around me. Maybe they were everywhere; I couldn’t tell. I was too busy trying to prevent my heart from bursting out of my chest and to stay on my feet.

I was never this comfortable in heels but today I was glad I had worn them because it kept my feet well above the sharp ground. I came to a sudden halt when the red light emitting from the pendant grew brighter.

“What the-“

It was a good thing that I stopped, because the ground ended only two feet in front of me.

“A cliff?” I asked myself as I tried to look at what was down below. But it looked more like the road ahead had been broken by something heavy. Small shards of the black rock lay scattered on the ground but I couldn’t see a thing that lied below the edge.

Suddenly, a hand came up from the darkness and grabbed on to the edge. I screamed and backed away from the edge, but my feet slipped on one of the shards on the ground and I fell back on the ground.

A hot flash of pain seared through my body and my vision went temporarily blind. When my mind was finally able to think past the pain, I opened my eyes to find the creature with red orbs, climbing on top of my body. It was the first time I noticed what kind of creatures they were and I wished I had never opened my eyes. A strangled scream tore through me as it bared its teeth at me and let out a loud moan and it was wide enough for me to see its entails.

It was horror personified. Made of a slimy black substance that clung to bones, it was almost similar to the zombies I saw in horror movies; except, this was very, very real. And worse was, the slime that covered its body was dripping on to my body and wherever it fell, it burned a hole right through my dress and then burned through my skin.

“Somebody! Help!” I screamed as tears streamed my eyes, but there was no one other than the creature and me. “Please!” I begged. “Help me!”

But no one came. Only, the creature moaned once again, this time louder and slowly crept up my body.

“No, stop! Please, stop! Please!” I kept begging but the creature was almost up to my chest.

I wanted desperately to shove it with my hands but I was terrified that the acid slime in his body will burn right through my hand, or worse, it might even cut off my hand with its skeletal teeth.

Suddenly, I noticed a stray shard of rock from the corner of my eyes. It was long enough that I could hold it with my hand and slicing sounded a lot better than being burned by acid. So I moved my hand to try to grab the shard, but instantly, the creatures head whipped around to follow my hand.

It was now or never.

“Lancelot!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I grabbed the shard in my hand and jabbed it into the creatures head, right between its eyes.

For a second the creature became absolutely still, before opening its sharp, pointed teeth and letting out a loud moan that very much sounded like nails being dragged down a black board.

I screamed and covered my ears with my bleeding hands. But also, taking advantage that the creature was distracted, I used all my strength to bring my legs up to my chest from under the creature and pushed back on its chest with my heels, sending it flying back into the abyss where it had crawled.

I collapsed on the ground, crying in momentary relief, not bothering that the ground was cutting into my skin. I was in unimaginable pain, but somehow, I knew this wasn’t the end. I couldn’t die here, so far away from Lance, not knowing how he was. I had to get back to him. I had to know how he was! I needed to be back in his arms!

Suddenly, a flash of blue light filled the entire landscape. The light was so bright that it blinded me. I flailed my hands around to get a hold of another one of those shards to defend against the new enemy, but just as soon as I took another stone in my hand, this one shorter, I heard a voice I never thought I’d hear again.

“Anna!”

There was not a single doubt in my mind as to whose voice it was.

“Lance!” I yelled back with all the strength I had left, my vision still unclear. “Lance, is that really you?”

“Anna!” Lance yelled again. “I’m coming for you!”

“Lance…” I whispered, finally opening my eyes. The light still hurt my eyes but I could see now. “Lance?” I called out again.

“I’m here!” His voice sounded nearer. “Where are you? I can’t see you!”

It was only then that I remembered that I was wearing a black dress and lying on a black ground. With much difficulty, I sat up using the dress for support. My arms were already shredded beyond repair, any more and they’re slice completely off my body. I stood up on trembling legs and that was when Lance must have finally seen me.

“Anna!” He yelled and came bounding towards me and took me into his arms.

“Lance! Oh, Lance!” I cried into his chest. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

“Never!” Lance whispered into my hair. “I’d never leave you alone, I promise.”

“Guys! Hurry up!” A woman’s voice called out through the blue light and Lance pulled away to look back at her.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” He said and then picked me up in his arms and carried me into the light.

One instant, Lance was carrying me out of that dark, wretched place, and the next, we were back in the ballroom where it had all began. The light felt too blinding after spending what felt like an eternity inside darkness, so I look back at the circle of blue light that we just walked through and I found that it was slowly shrinking in size. But just before it closed completely, I swear I could see a pair of amethyst eyes looking back at me from the darkness.

“Oh God!” Ace gasped in horror.

“Miaka, do something!” Lance’s cry sounded more desperate.

“Hold on,” a red haired girl of about fifteen knelt next to me and pulled down the sleeves of her denim jacket to bite her own wrist and draw blood. She then held that wrist next to my lips. “Drink this, hurry. It’ll heal you.”

At that moment, someone could’ve given me poison and I would’ve gladly drunk it like ambrosia, I was so thirsty. So I opened my mouth and Miaka poured in as much of her blood as possible. Strangely, the liquid didn’t feel coppery or iron-like. It was actually sweet…and very thick. Or I might be so thirsty that my mind was playing tricks on me.

Instantly, I started to feel lightheaded. My whole body felt like it was being stretched, my skin felt hot. I don’t know how long it lasted, but once it was gone, I still saw Miaka kneeling down beside me and everyone around me, including the Queen, Lance, Mary and Ace were looking relieved. There was now another man next to Queen Jalyna who looked exactly like Lance, maybe a bit older, and I had no doubt in my mind that it was Lance’s father, the Incubus King.

“What…what happened?” I asked bringing my hand in front of my face and much to my surprise, it was completely healed…and so was the rest of my body. “H-how?”

“My blood.” Miaka answered. “It can heal a lot of wounds. You’ll feel extremely tired for a few days but you’ll recover completely. I’ve taken care of the external injury but there are still a few internal ones present that your body will need to take care of on its own.”

“Thank you.” I told her as Lance helped me up from the floor.

“No problem,” Miaka smiled and it was only then that I noticed just how gorgeous she was. No doubt she was an immortal.

“Son, take her to your room, she needs rest.” The Queen told Lance. “We’ll talk later.”

“Indeed.” Lance helped me walk to the elevator door where I noticed a bunch of guards holding Melinda at sword point.

But as soon as we got near two guards dropped their swords and Melinda charged at me with one of the swords that a guard was holding. The next few seconds happened in a blur.

Lance and Ace both jumped into action, trying to block the attack, but I knew they were too far out of reach to get to me on time, so I held up my hand in self-defense and felt Melinda’s chest come into contact with the stone that I still had in my hand from Shadowland. The stone immediately pierced right through her heart and Melinda gave a loud scream, dropping the sword from her hand.

“Move!” Ace yelled, shoving me out of the way before the sword could land on my head, the force of his shove nearly sending me flying to the floor.

“Anna!” Lance caught me just before I hit the floor. “Are you alright?”

“Yes…” I stood up with his help and we all turned our attention to a dead Melinda lying on the floor, in a pool of her own blood with the black stone sticking out of her chest. She was dead.

“How did she get out?” Lance snapped at the guards, but Ace stopped him.

“It’s not their fault, Lance. By now everyone here has come to know about Melinda’s compulsion. If mother couldn’t escape it, how could they?”

“What I’m more interested in,” said the King as he came to stand next to us. “Is how could you have just killed a hundreds of years old Incubus just with one strike?”

“I didn’t know it would kill her, I swear!” I stuttered in fear. “That rock was from Shadowland. I didn’t even realize it was still in my hand.”

“It’s okay, Anna. You did us all a favor.” Miaka rubbed my back comfortingly. “She was going to die anyway.”

“And my father?” I asked her. “Is he…?” I couldn’t say it.

“He’ll be released.” The King promised. “Seems like Melinda had all of us fooled, so it’s not really his fault. But this will be his last warning.”

“Absolutely.” I bowed down to the king, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Thank you, Your Highness!”

With that, the ballroom started to clear out. The King and Queen went back to their place. Ace and Mary returned back to New York and Lance and I went back to our room to get some much needed rest. But then Miaka joined us for dinner and that night, I heard a story that changed my entire view of the world.

A story about demons, vampires, shifters, and the genesis of the world. A world filled with magic and dread, which I was now a part of.