It was one of those days, there was no rain, just a gloomy looking sky and a sun that decided to shine without giving off any heat.
It was in that late morning that Nella sat on an uncomfortable chair, in the cheap motel that The Guardian had conjured up, watching him talk about what they were going to do.
Kenneth had a mug of coffee sitting in front of him, the strong scent filling his nostrils, how the coffee was conjured up, he was not keen on knowing, all he knew was that The Guardian was explaining what they had to do to destroy Upir.
And no one was understanding a word of it.
“Ok please stop before I lose my mind.” Evan said, holding his head.
The Guardian stopped, what had he done now?
“We don’t understand what you’re saying!” Evan said again.
“What do you not understand?” The Guardian asked innocently.
“For five minutes you have been talking about spells and names we have never heard about,” Nella said, calmly.
“Well you’re right,” The Guardian said, “you don’t belong to the abyssal realm so you may not understand.”
“May?” Kenneth said, raising an eyebrow.
“What is this abyssal realm anyway?” Evan asked.
“And how did Upir manage to get there – and escape?” Nella chipped in.
“Well I suppose you should know how it all started.” The Guardian said, sitting upright.
“A history lesson,” Kenneth said dully , raising his mug of coffee in a mock toast, “yay!”
The Guardian observed Kenneth for a moment and then decided to ignore him, you could never be so sure about these vampires.
“You see in this reality we live in – or world as you may call it, there are several realms,” The Guardian started, “you vampires, as well as werewolves are from the same realm but demons belong to another, as do angels and many other beings.
The abyssal realm is a new realm, well it is new to you now because you have only just begun to hear of it. It was actually one of the last realms to be created.”
“By who?” Nella interjected.
“By the Creator,” The Guardian said and carried on, “now the abyssal realm is meant for creatures and beings that posses such power that they simply cannot exist peacefully in any other realm than the abyssal realm. It is also meant as a place of punishment for powerful beings from other realms that have become too reckless with their power.”
“So if Upir could manage to escape the abyssal realm then why are the other beings not coming out?” Evan asked.
“Because she is not a native of the abyssal realm,” The Guardian replied, “she is free to leave when she wishes. We who are natives however have a veil between us and this realm you live in – or this world to be more precise. We cannot leave, except those like me who have been assigned special duties by the Creator.”
The Guardian waited as the information sank in.
“I need you to help me because as I have told you before, I cannot interfere directly with the affairs of a realm outside my native realm.” The Guardian pleaded, “besides, what Upir has in store for everyone is not something we should sit around and wait for.”
“But from what you just said, we aren’t natives of this realm either,” Nella said, “this realm belongs to the humans.”
“You all were once humans,” The Guardian responded, “you belong to two realms – one for humans , and one for the Srua – the undead.”
The vampires took in this new piece of information.
“So how exactly are we going to destroy this mad she devil?” Kenneth asked.
“I thought you’d never ask.” The Guardian said, smiling and rubbing his hands together.
Upir walked through the park alongside Lehi, cursing the gloomy weather. No child would want to come to the park on such a day. How was she supposed to get children to sacrifice when there was no child around?
“The weather must have kept them in, as well as the recent night occurrences” Lehi said, noticing her agitation and trying to hint that the werewolves running wild at night were not helping matters. He wondered if Upir had thought about how they would kidnap the child – or children without attracting attention in the ever busy town of Darfalls. That was the problem with Upir, she would not tell you her plans until she was halfway through planning it or even executing it.
For hell’s sake he was supposed to be working with her and not for her!
But he held his tongue, he would hold it fast till he got what he wanted and what he wanted was power, lots of it.
“Look at that child,” Upir said, looking in the direction of a little boy of about seven with red hair and freckles.
“Is he good enough?” Lehi asked, trying to find out if there was criteria for finding a child.
“He will do.” Upir replied and waved a hand in the child’s direction.
The child’s mother was busy with her phone, too busy to notice that her child had stopped blabbing about how he wanted to go on the slide even though he had hurt his legs only the day before.
The child made eye contact with Upir who smiled and mouthed to him:
“Come.”
A dull vibration coursed through the child’s head once he saw Upir mouth that word. He suddenly saw a bright beautiful garden. The woman that had just smiled at him was holding a basket of candy. Elsie his friend was in the garden calling him to join her on the slide. There were two, no, three rainbows, all laughing happily at him.
He was climbing a staircase now, his feet were light and chocolate covered the staircase.
Elsie told him to run. It would soon rain, she said.
The boy walked quickly along the staircase. Suddenly there were no more stairs to climb, and Elsie was still far away from him.
“Jump.” The woman who had smiled at him said in his head.
And jump he did. The child jumped off a slide and broke his neck, dying on the spot.
As his alarmed mother and a few passers-by ran to the child, Upir and Lehi quietly slipped out.
They went to their usual hideout, Lehi’s spacious apartment . Most of Upir’s puppets, vampire and werewolf alike reported to her there.
Upir knew that as she gained more hold on the power she sought, she would need a better accommodation – one fit for the mother of vampires herself.
But for the time being, she had to make do with Lehi’s apartment.
As soon as they got there, Upir immediately took off the ring she was wearing on her index finger. It had a small red stone on it which glinted in the sun. Lehi had made it for Upir so she could trap the souls of the children in it. At least she had let him in on that.
She took off the ring and placed it on the table.
Lehi streched his hands over the ring. Upir held them and together, they started chanting.
The little red stone on the ring shone as the soul of the boy was trapped securely inside the ring.
It would stay there until they gathered enough souls inside the ring to tear the veil between them and the abyssal realm.
Lehi and Upir stopped chanting and looked at the ring which had gone back to normal.
They let go of each other’s hands.
Upir wore the ring back on her finger, she was slowly regaining her place as the mother of vampires.
Suddenly, Lehi held a hand to his head. He was feeling a strange energy, it was raw and it seemed to burn like fire in him.
He groaned and held his head, trying to decipher the energy. He could pick up magical energies and even trace them (which was what he did to Lighthood coven) but this one was too much for him to even focus enough to trace it.
Upir ran over to him, held his head in her hands and forced him to look into her eyes.
Lehi’s grey eyes burned with pain and confusion.
Upir closed her eyes and began chanting. She would mine him, after all she was a vampire like him and so she could be the link.
Soon Lehi’s pain doubled and he found himself almost screaming like a mad man. Upir herself was in pain but she did not scream because that would disrupt the spell.
After a moment of intense pain, the two of them crumpled to the ground, almost unconscious but sure of one thing :
Someone somewhere was using abyssal magic – and they had to find the person.