Fire & Pain - A Vampire's Tragedy

Sophia

The crowd of scholars surrounding me grew larger and larger, and while I already immobilized a few of them, hoping I didn’t kill them by accident, I still wasn’t sure how much longer I would be able to push through.

Keeping the wall of fire soaring into the air drained me a lot faster than I had anticipated.

Another scholar dared to jump through the wall, shielding his body with a soft shimmering blanket of magic, as he rushed with me with crazy wide eyes, a shimmering ball of light forming in his hands as he neared me.

He let it go flying only a few steps away from me, rushing through the air with a buzzing sound. I jumped out of the way, watching the ball fly through the flames, sizzling when it touched them.

He was ready to cast another ball, aiming at me and letting it go with even less precision. The group of scholars I had encountered in my backyard seemed a lot more skilled than him, but it also could be that weird blood bond that Adam was talking about and that he just wasn’t able to perform his best because of his own thoughts holding him back.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, jumping out of the way when another ball soared toward me. His eyes never left me as the sweat ran down the sides of his temples.

“If you don’t want to hurt me, why are you attacking us?” He asked, not waiting for an answer as he jumped forward, trying to punch me in the face.

I shrieked and ducked, relieved that Ottfried taught me how to defend myself without weapons, too.

“Even if I explained it to you, you wouldn’t believe me anyway,” I answered, not even sure why I tried to speak to him. He shook his head, his face pale now. I doubt he would be able to hold on any longer. Either the heat was getting to him or the magic he had used was taking a toll on him. He dropped to one knee, taking a staggering breath.

“You should better leave before you hurt yourself.”

He whipped his head up to glower at me, but only a second later, his eyes rolled back and he dropped to the floor with a thud. I walked a little closer, just to make sure he was still breathing, before stepping away again.

“How much longer do you need?” I asked Adam, worried that more scholars would risk jumping through the flames. I was still surprised that no more had tried to pass them or even destroyed them yet, considering they should be relatively strong and well-trained. At least that I would expect when they work for the strongest mentor in Tierelia.

“I need a little more time. Can you still hold on?” His voice was soft through the communication bug and I was worried that it might die soon. He never told me how long it was meant to last and I decided to not use it unless it was absolutely necessary, before it runs out of energy.

I glanced around, seeing even more scholars stumbling over themselves in front of the wall of fire and I pushed more energy into it. My energy core was wheezing, even though I didn’t activate my powers Adam taught me to do, I knew it wouldn’t have been enough. The anger and hatred burning in my veins were the fuel to the fire.

“I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up. Your scholar colleagues seem to get braver, too,” I answered him and he hummed in agreement, without adding anything more. I pressed my lips into a thin line, glaring at the scholars opposite me. I could barely see them through the bright fire, shining in all sorts of colors between yellow, red, and blue, but I hoped they would feel my gaze and wouldn’t attempt to cross me. More for my sake than theirs, but they didn’t have to know that.

The wall sizzled and white lights danced in front of my eyes. From one second to the next, I felt like my body was going to shut down. I took a staggering breath, my lungs feeling constricted, and panic rushed through me. I wanted to ask Adam how much longer he needed, but it was as if I had forgotten how to use the link, my brain feeling mushy and tired. I swayed on my feet, everything spinning around me. For a moment, the walls lowered to the ground before I grit my teeth and raised them again. I couldn’t give up now, not when I was this close.

It’s when the ground started to shake, vibrating below my feet and rattling my body. Could this be an earthquake? We never had such a thing here before, but to my demise, it was much worse than that. The ground in front of me parted, a dark, deep hole forming, green glistering smoke emitting out of it, and only a second later, Samuel shot out of it, soaring into the air, before landing next to the split open ground with ease. The ground rattled once more, as the opening closed again and the last person I wanted to see patted remains of small stones and dust off his dark brown coat.

He looked up at me, a smile on his face. “Ms. Jones, I knew it would only be a matter of time until you would visit me here on my humble estate.”

I balled my hands into fists as the fire took a deep breath, rising even higher into the sky.

Samuel raised a brow and nodded as he scratched his chin. “Remarkable, it really is. I heard a thing or two about your magic, but nothing of what I’ve heard represents what I see here with my own eyes. Did you have a good teacher?”

My heart sank and I bit the insides of my cheeks. He didn’t figure out that one of his scholars was helping me, right? “What does it matter to you?”

“My, I was only curious, there is no need to be so defensive. Why don’t you drop your wall and we can talk about what you’re doing here?”

I eyed him, staring into his glistening eyes. It doomed me that I might have stepped into some sort of trap, but how would he have known that I was coming unless someone told him? The only person who knew about this plan was Adam and he wouldn’t betray me, right?

“Adam, we have a problem. Samuel returned earlier than expected, but I’ll try to distract him. I don’t think he realized you’re there.”

There was a clicking sound in the line before I could hear Adam’s voice so quiet, I barely heard it. “That’s not good. Are you sure you can handle him?”

Samuel tilted his head to the side, waiting for my reply.

“I have to. We’ve come too far to stop now. I’ll let you know when things change.”

I waited for a reply, but the line remained silent. Hopefully, the communication bugs didn’t run out of juice yet, but I was too afraid to test it.

“You know exactly what I’m doing here.”

He let out a puff of air and shook his head slowly. “Is this about your sister? Ms. Jones, I know you don’t trust me and suspect that my scholars and I had something to do with her disappearance, but that’s not the case. I don’t know where your sister is, but she isn’t here.”

“Stop lying to me! We both know you were behind the murder of my family and kidnapped my sister!”

The flames roared into the night sky, the heat rising, licking my skin as if they tried to comfort me.

“What proof do you have of that besides spotting scholars in your house and apparently seeing my signature there?”

“Isn’t that more than enough proof? You even sent them after me again in the middle of the night, a few days ago!”

He looked at me, his brows drawn together, as the silence stretched out between us. Couldn’t he just tell the truth? No one would believe me anyway, but if he was admitting to his crimes, I would at least get some closure, even if he wouldn’t have to pay for it. Yet.

“So, nothing else to say?” I asked.

“Are you aware that I’m selling my services to other people in Tierelia? It’s entirely possible that someone bought a spell and used it for something they shouldn’t have. That’s outside of my control. Of course, I could hide my signature, but that would be against the rules. It puts a target on my back, though, just like it does now.”

I laughed bitterly, remembering that Adam told me he would be great at hiding his signature. “And you expect me to believe that?”

His eyes widened. “I would be a fool to think that I could easily change your mind after what you’ve seen. But I do want to try and change your mind.”

“You must think that I’m stupid. I saw your scholars in my backyard! They attacked me and you can’t change my mind about it.”

He nodded as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Sophia, I can understand your doubt, I really do. I also understand your pain and your cautiousness. I lost my family when I was young too and I always had to fight for myself. No one took me seriously. Everyone always whispered about me and my magic. Just like you, I had trouble coming into my power and instead of helping me, I got pushed aside. The mage community was making me a laughingstock, the vampires didn’t even glance at me as I was penniless and the shifters only wrinkled their noses, not baring to be close to a mage. But look where I’m now. I have power, and fame and I’m a respectable member of society. I’m working hard to unite the communities, slowly but surely, starting with a good bond between the mages and vampires. I want to improve the lives of all those people who need someone to fight for them, so no one has to feel the way I did growing up and make Tierelia a safe place to live. After coming so far, why would I risk all of that?”

There was an honesty in his eyes that made me falter and think for a moment. He never looked at me like this before or was I always judging him wrongly? Maybe I saw things that weren’t there simply because I was convinced they should be. Because in my mind, there was no other way than to suspect him.

“If I would have been behind it, I can assure you, that you wouldn’t stand here now breathing a word about it. Such a grave mistake could only be done by an amateur,” he added.

I tried to spot the lie in his words, but I couldn’t, and uncertainty clouded my mind. My parents wanted to work with him and my father always used to be a good judge of character. He would have realized Samuel was plotting something, wouldn’t he? But Adam seemed genuine, too. Why would he lie?

“That doesn’t explain the scholars I have seen. They belonged to you, that I’m sure of,” I said.

“Have you ever heard of cloaking? It’s possible that an illegal cloaking spell was purchased on the forbidden market and used to look like my scholars. Someone obviously wants to frame me and it might even be someone within my own lines who wants to punish me. When money is on the line, people turn into horrible creatures. I’m known for picking everyone to join me because I want to give everyone a chance, but not everyone sees the debt they have to pay back to me as favorable. Some think I’m using them for my own gain, but nothing in life comes for free. I can’t shelter and train people and not expect something in return. But there are many scholars under my care who have seen horrible things and they are willing to do anything if that means they could lead an even better life.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine as I held my breath. My flames stumbled, shrinking to the ground as I thought about what he said. All of it made sense and it also more or less matched with what Adam had said, just that Samuel portrayed it much differently, a lot more favorable for his side.

He smiled. “As you see, Sophia, I don’t want us to be enemies. I want us to work together, just like I had planned to with the entire Jones family. Your family and I had grand plans and I hope we could achieve what your family couldn’t. I can even speak to the Elders and propose that you keep your assets. Of course, I don’t know what I can do about the company, as I wouldn’t want to interfere with what the Elders have planned, but at least the house should be yours. I want to help you, not hurt you.”

Part of me wanted to believe him, so I wouldn’t have to doubt my parent’s decision and blindness toward him anymore. I wanted to believe that my parents wouldn’t have made a deal with the devil, but something inside me screamed to not fall for his lies. My energy core pulsated in my chest almost painfully and I took a deep breath, the smoke of the flames rushing into my lungs. But instead of choking, I felt like new life was breathed into me, and I balled my hands into fists.

“We can work together and I forget this ever happened. You just have to tell me who you were working with and everything will be just fine,” he added after I didn’t answer.

“From everything you said, there is only one thing I actually believe. My sister isn’t here. And my parents taught me loyalty and I won’t rat out the person who might be the one helping me find her, because you surely aren’t the one,” I said, just as Adam stumbled through the flames, a shield he used to protect him himself from the flames, bursting into butterflies. A couple of other scholars followed him, glaring at me from the distance as they patted out small patches of fire that ate on their clothes. Adam didn’t seem to realize that others had followed him as his gaze darted back and forth between me and Samuel, pure fear in his eyes.

Warmth spread through my body, knowing for whatever reason that Adam was the one I should be trusting and not Samuel. I just had to put my trust in him now and that I would actually make it out alive after what I was about to do and with that, I dropped the walls of flames to ready myself for something much bigger.

Adam

Sophia glared at Samuel, pure hatred in her eyes. A few scholars were lying on the floor, scattered around her, their clothes partly burned. I wondered if they were alive, but when I saw them still breathing, I quickly focused back on Sophia.

Samuel said something to her, but I couldn’t understand it from here. The murmuring of the group of scholars behind me almost deafened me.

Her face scrunched as she listened to him, and she darted her eyes around the group of scholars until her eyes settled on me. Only for a brief second, our gaze met, before she looked at Samuel, shaking her head.

“Adam, jump in front of Samuel and shield him with the largest shield you can muster,” she said.

My chest tightened. “What? That makes no sense!”

“If you don’t, I’ll kill him!”

I moved closer to them, trying to get her to focus on me again, but she had her gaze fixated on Samuel, her hands balled into fists beside her. If she killed him now, she would be doomed. We didn’t have proof that he had kidnapped her sister and killed her family. It wasn’t the right time to kill him yet.

“I have to do something or he’ll kill me,” she said. “He suspects someone from the inside helped me enter. If you protect him, you can clear your name.”

I wanted to argue with her, telling her that this was a stupid idea, and how was she supposed to flee, but she took a deep breath, and summoned the biggest fireball I had ever seen. My body acted on its own as it jumped forward in front of Samuel. I reached for my magical core almost painfully and slammed a massive shield right in front of us.

Her fire blasted against it with a loud explosion, making my ears ring and throwing several people away from the impact. I screamed, trying to withstand the sheer power she unleashed on me. I peeked through my eyes, trying to see her through the blast of fire. Her blue eyes were blazing in the heat. She looked like a queen, ruling the world.

My heart jumped when my shield started cracking. It slowly started to fall apart as tiny butterflies burst away from it into the night sky. Panic rushed through me, hoping my shield could withstand for as long as she planned to send this fire my way.

Only a second later, the fire stopped, the air suddenly feeling ice-cold. A shiver shook my body as the shield exploded into tiny butterflies. I huffed and fell to my knees, unable to stay upright any longer.

Sophia collapsed to the floor, and it was as if the world had stopped. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. The dry soil covered her pale skin and the ashes flying from the sky slowly covered her, leaving a lingering smell of fire in the air.

She took staggering breaths as she remained motionless. I wanted to do something to help her, but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t move. I could barely keep my eyes open and my mouth was so dry that I couldn’t even swallow properly.

Everyone seemed stunned for a second before everything moved too fast. The scholars surrounding us got into action and ran toward her with sheer anger in their eyes. I fell to the side, my vision blurry as I watched in horror how they surrounded her.

“Sophia, you need to move,” I said, hoping it would reach her, but she didn’t react. My heart clenched, imagining what they would do to her when the air shifted again, and the scholars stumbled away from her as someone jumped through the air, landing right next to her. They were covered in black, a hood hiding their face, as they picked her up in one swift motion and jumped back into the night.

I stared at the empty spot, my ears ringing.

“Sophia!” I screamed over the line, but yet again, only silence greeted me.

~To be continued~

Thank you so much for reading Fire & Pain - A Vampire’s Tragedy! This was book one of the “A Vampire’s Story”-Series.

If you would like to support me, please consider giving the story a like, commenting, or leaving a review. ♥

Book Two will be released in 2023. Stay tuned. :)