Chapter 120
Daniel POV
Hyacinth took me through the spell, warned me about how dangerous it would be, and what could go wrong, but I didn’t see any other way. There was only 3 of us now, against hundreds, we needed to minimise their numbers, and we had nothing else that could hurt them, and no time to find anything. But Hyacinth was refusing to cast the spell, out of fear of what would happen to her people, leaving us stuck. Kasa had returned after pulling himself together, and agreed with me, the spell was our only option, but Hyacinth still refused. She buried herself in the books and ignored our pleas until we gave up, the silence hanging heavily in the room.
“What if you cast the spell to hit our barrier, away from their barrier, and put a small barrier around us to protect us from the blast?” Kasa asked, after several tense and quiet minutes.
“If I wanted to die, yes I could do all that, but I would have to use what little is left of my essence.” Hyacinth replied dryly, never taking her eyes off her book.
“Can you get more essence?” Kasa shrugged, like me he had no clue what essence was.
“Your essence is your soul, your life force. You can’t buy it in the shops! And it’s impossible to magically generate more.” Hyacinth huffed, getting annoyed again and putting her book down. She raised an eyebrow eager to get the argument over with so she could keep researching.
“But you borrowed some from those witches?” I asked, an idea forming.
“Yes, out of necessity, and it killed Aine!” Hyacinth cried, still raw and feeling responsible for the death of her friend.
“So, you could borrow ours?” I asked, with a smile.
“No, not to cast all three spells at the same time, but it could be enough for two...” Hyacinth said quietly, her mind elsewhere as she worked through the problem. I noticed for the first time how similar she looked to my mother in that moment. “I would have to drop the outer barrier, erect a barrier around us, then use pairing crystals to set off the bomb outside of the barrier, all before the vampires get to us.” She said, as she struggled to work the problem.
“If you can set off the bomb remotely, we could be positioned anywhere within the barrier, and if we leave setting the bomb off at the last second, we could lure them in, kill more of them.” Kasa mused, only seeing positives.
“I need to know how fast they move.” Hyacinth suddenly announced, standing and heading for the front door, without another word, forcing me to chase after her.
“Hyacinth, talk to us, we can help but you have to let us know what we are doing.” I angrily snapped as I caught up with her, Kasa gave me a nod to take care of Hyacinth as he turned to do a sweep of the perimeter, giving us space to talk.
“I need to know how long I would have to erect a barrier. I had the one around my home linked to the village’s barrier, mine would only activate if the larger one failed. I don’t have the time to create the same link this time, so I would have to create a barrier from scratch. I can do all the prep work before the outer barrier fails, but I need to know exactly how long I would have to get the one around us up and running. I also need to know the best place for us to stand, and the right time to activate the bomb, and I will need my crystals.” Hyacinth listed as she walked, our presence seemed to make the vampires crazed. They bit and clawed at each other to get closer to the barrier, and in turn us. Their dead black eyes following our every step as they flung themselves at the barrier with reckless abandon, stomping on their own men, to take a run at it. Hyacinth inspected them for a moment, before running parallel with the barrier, watching, assessing how they moved with her, how quickly they could change directions. “Some of these are less than a year old, some won’t live much longer if they don’t get blood soon, and some, are perfect soldiers.” She explained, as she walked back to where she had left me.
“How do you know?” I asked confused and looking back at the poor malformed beings.
“Another difference between bitten and born, is the teeth. Born vampires have teeth not unlike a human, just sharper, really, but bitten vampires, they grow sharp fangs. Their human teeth fall out over the course of their first year, and are replaced by thinner, sharper teeth. They develop in rows, like shark’s teeth actually. Some of those creatures still have their human teeth.” She added quietly, shocking me.
“But some are obviously older, because they have more teeth?” I asked, hoping I was getting it right.
“Not just an absence of human teeth, but new fangs are evidently coming in on more than half.” Hyacinth explained as we headed back to the house.
“Which proves they’ve had fangs for a while. But you think this means a replaced fang, not a human tooth?” I asked, to be sure.
“No, they come in differently when it’s their first fang compared to if it’s their third or fourth.” She muttered as we got to the front door.
“So, someone has been creating vampires for over a year, presumably for this attack, and others. Your theory on the born vampires is making more, and more sense.” I admitted as we entered the house, Kasa following behind us.
“Does that barrier go underground?” He asked Hyacinth as she began climbing the stairs.
“Yes. It’s a full spherical barrier spell, why?” She replied.
“Some of them are trying to dig under it, almost dog like, but not at the same time.” Kasa said with an almost traumatised look on his face.
“They can’t get under it, don’t worry. Now Kasa with me to get the crystals, Daniel, let my people know what we are trying, make sure they’re safe.” She said pointedly as she grabbed Kasa’s arm. I could hear her complimenting him on his arms, eyes and skin as they climbed, making me smile for a moment as I slipped into our reading room, and linked her. I had been trying not to think of her for so long I opened the link before I knew what to say. Feeling her with me, gave me a moment of peace I didn’t know I needed until I felt it.
“Charlie?” I could still smell a trace of her in the room, making me want to feel her safe in my arms.
“Daniel? Thank God. People are panicking, some have putting extra protections on their houses, and something called warding, and some want to fight. But they need to hear from Hyacinth, and soon.” I couldn’t help but smile at the exasperation in her voice.
“That’s why I’m linking you. We are going to be casting a spell soon, but to do it, we have to lower our barrier. Hyacinth will make another one around us, but the blast from our spell could take out your barrier, and we know it won’t kill them all. Hyacinth wants you all to stay inside, stay safe, and I will be with you soon. Even if I have to kill every last one of them myself, I am coming to get you, so stay where you are, please? I will be far too tired to chase you all over the village.” I promised, my wolf making a soft whine that caught in my throat.
“How dangerous is this?” I could feel her fear through the bond.
“I’ll be fine, I’m coming to get you, I swear, so just wait for me?” I pleaded, needing her to promise to stay put.
“I’m going to hold you to that promise.” She tried to tease, but even in her head her voice broke a little.
“Promise me, you will stay there.” I demanded.
“I already promised I would stay with Dermot.” She begrudgingly replied. “The people who want to fight will need to hear Hyacinth tell them to stand down.”
“I will come get you.” I vowed to her, as I pictured her blonde hair falling in waves around her face.
“You had better, or I’ll never forgive you.” She replied, and for a moment it felt like she was with me, like I could touch her. It was so intense, and mind boggling it almost broke the link, and made me a little dizzy. “What was that?” I heard Charlie cry as I gripped a bookcase to steady myself.
“I don’t know.” I replied. “Something to worry about another day.” I added, pushing it to the back of my mind so I could focus on what was ahead of me. “I’ll tell Hyacinth to get in touch with Dermot, and I will see you later, at Siobhan and Dermot’s.”
“I love you.” She whispered, like it was an errant thought that slipped through. “I’ll tell their daughters the plan, but they will want to hear it from her.”
“I will tell her to call them, I love you too.” I teased, before closing the link, unsure if I would be able to leave her to fight if I maintained it any longer. I left the room quickly, eager to not smell her scent and have something to focus on. I walked quickly to the meeting room, and found Hyacinth and Kasa had already returned, and were hunched over the table. “What’s next?” I asked them.
“I remembered Aine... had a map of the property from when I bought the place. It shows the building and surrounding land, so we are trying to pin point the perfect place for the bomb, and for us.” Hyacinth sighed as she continued to look. I moved around her and saw the same problem she did. The vast majority of her land was behind the house, and away from the town’s barrier, but the majority of the vampires were at the front of the property. To lure them away wouldn’t be easy, as there were trees on either side of the property, obstructing the view from outside the barrier. We would also have to wait to set off the bomb until after they were all in the open, or the cottage itself could protect some of them from the blast. Giving them time to attack us, and we didn’t know how long Hyacinth’s barrier would last.
“One of us would have to be the bait.” Kasa muttered as he too saw the problem.
“That wouldn’t give me much time to get the barrier up.” Hyacinth added darkly.
“So, I guess we need to pick the fastest runner.” I said with a shrug, seeing no other options.
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