Page 67 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

Continuing in this breezy tone, Charlie said in Tanis’ voice, “There is no need to worry. Unfortunately, we had a bit of an issue.” Here, he lifted Tanis’ disguised body as if an exhibit. “But we took care of it. Please go back to your evening.”

No one moved and no one said anything. It took a great effort to keep that calm demeanor on. But he was a professional!

“Thank you so much for your concern,” Charlie said and attempted to step forward, believing–or hoping–that they would part so he and Fiona could simply walk past them.

As uncomfortable as that would have been to walk amongst these silent, staring Order Vampires, when they did not move out of the way, but remained silent and like a wall before them, which forced him to stay in place.

“I don’t think they’re going to let us through, Tanis,” Fiona said sweetly as she put a hand on his forearm.

He expected Fiona to teleport them immediately, but nothing happened. They were still in the hallway. Maybe she was worried about the black soul gem. He’d actually kept the one Tanis had. Was that also causing her problems?

He saw the slightest tightening at the corners of the eyes. Tanis was a Wyvern Vampire, too, and a powerful one, but he wasn’t altogether sure that he should try teleporting them either. The truth was, it was one of the gifts that frightened him to use. He kept imagining being stuck half in one place and half in another. So unless there was absolutely no other choice teleporting was not going to get them out of here.

So talking must do it.

Knowing that Tanis was really a Kaly slice, Charlie took on another aspect of her character and let his eyes flash with anger. “You will move or I will make you move.”

There was a little stirring in the ranks. Charlie wondered if anyone else in that hallway was a Kaly slice. Thankfully, he didn’t see Roan or Artemis. That would have been unfortunate.

“I’ll give you to the count of three,” Charlie warned.

“Who are you?” A slip of a girl asked. She’d come through the crowd almost invisibly to stand at the front. “You’re not Tanis. But you’re quite good at pretending to be her. So a Mirryr Vampire then. But we don’t have many Mirryr in the Order.”

No, they didn’t. He’d made sure of that. His people understood disguises. And the Order had always been an authoritarian, fascist ideology wrapped up in a religion. They’d known that to scratch beyond that surface layer would be to find maggots.

“But you’ve come here. Strange,” the girl remarked as she looked over the three of them. She moved to touch Fiona aka Tanis in his arms. He pulled back but she still managed to brush her fingertips over Tanis’ arm. “Goodness. It’s so real! You’re talented!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, child. But if you don’t stop what you’re doing and get out of my way, I’ll show you just how talented I am,” he growled in Tanis’ voice.

“You even have the way she narrows her eyes when she’s angry!” The child shook her head in amazement. “I’ve met many Mirryrs in my time, but you really do take the cake. It’s a shame that you’re here under false pretenses. But, then again, Mirryrs are the essence of falsity.”

His eyes slid to Fiona and saw a trickle of sweat running down her glamour’s brow. She was trying to use her power and it wasn’t working. Talking wasn’t working either. He was going to have to try teleporting them. Good grief, was he going to kill them both?

“If you think I’m some Mirryr Vampire, it seems strange to me that you’d waste your time bringing all of these Vampires with you. Mirryrs are not known to be great fighters,” he mocked his own Bloodline.

Of course, that wasn’t exactly true. Fiona knew that now. So did Grayson and Ryder. But he’d always been partial to sticking a knife between the ribs, snapping a neck from behind, poisoning a blood meal, or setting an explosive device and then merrily walking out well before it went off. Face to face combat seemed to him overly foolish if one could simply plan everything out in advance, execute it flawlessly and then enjoy victory. Besides, he wasn’t terribly fond of getting messy.

But how am I going to fight when I’m carrying Tanis?

He thought of dropping the body or thrusting it at the girl Vampire and using it as a battering ram. But Fiona was very fond of her First Childe and that would likely cause her pain. Yet what would cause them both more pain would be being ripped apart themselves. Tanis’ body would be left alone then.

“You got this far. The real Tanis took you down below to a place that few may enter and even fewer may leave,” the child Vampire said.

She had black hair cut in a severe bob. Olive-toned skin. High cheekbones and cat-like eyes. Her full lips were almost forming a cupid’s bow. She looked like a little angel.

With fangs.

“The real Tanis?” Fiona spoke up, though she was speaking in the male voice of the ebony-skinned Kaly Vampire they’d bested in Lasting. “Funny you should say that.”

Charlie looked over at her. What was her plan? To reveal the Kaly slices’ existence to these people? The likely wouldn’t believe it though he was just as sure that once one of the Kaly slices knew they’d said this, all these people would be very, very dead. Stuffed into soul gems dead. Used to power Kaly spells dead. Never speaking to anyone but their Kaly master dead.

The girl Vampire lifted a delicate eyebrow.

“You don’t know the real Tanis to tell the difference,” Fiona said. She lifted her voice and her head. “None of you do!”

The Order Vampires stared back at her with blank silver eyes and Charlie wondered if there wasn’t some Eyros Kaly-slice controlling them.

This is a cult. I always knew it was. But this is worse than I thought.