Shades of Grey

VIKKA— AUGUST 1844

I tensed in shock, gasping loudly as white hot venom began coursing through me, realising what had happened: Evan had gathered his remaining strength and made one final attack.

“No!” Forma screamed in horror as she let go of me to pry Evan’s fangs out of my neck. With no external support, my weakened legs buckled and I was left to writhe on the ground, struggling for breath.

“May the future you fear soon come to pass!” I heard him choke and sputter under her frenzied grip. “Beg for mercy from your Council! Let them see the monster you will become!”

“Oh just die, you filthy vampire!” Forma cried as she threw him across the room into the wreckage of one of the buildings, quickly lifting me to help ease my struggles for breath.

“Grey, stay with me! You’ve got to fight it!”

She held me with the stout strength of someone who had seen far too much death (and God knows she had) and who refused to see any more. I looked up in her direction with my useless eyes, choking as I felt my airways begin to constrict.

“Forma…” I said through a gasp as a crippling nausea suddenly gripped my stomach. I tensed up and began to double over as the venom spread.

“No!” Forma shouted. “Don’t die, please don’t die!”

No sooner had she spoken the words than a distant gruesomely high-pitched scream struck the air. It was one of the worst, most painful sounds I had ever heard in my life and more sounds like it soon emerged until the unearthly screams echoed off the huge marble sphere that engulfed the city in a thunderously grating symphony.

Amidst the screaming, another sound resonated; the distinct sound of the city’s infrastructure whining and shuddering. I could hear the sound of every building beginning to collapse: the weight of the two landmark battles that had stretched across the city was too much and the monstrously malformed structure was now collapsing.

“They’re dying…” Forma said aloud, more to herself than to me. “They’re dying along with their city.”

A dark scream suddenly broke from within me, a terrifying feral scream that matched those around us. I then felt a piercing pain clamp itself around my heart: my link to Forma was dying, just as I was.

“Forma!” I tried to shout.

“No!” Forma countered as she felt it too, lifting me and easily taking flight. “You will not die tonight!”

She immediately flew up to the marble sphere around the city, smashing through it in one strong show of determined force. I listened as the sounds of the falling city began to fade into the distance: the whining of crushed machines, the snapping of the molded wood buildings, the cracking of the sphere around the city, the cries of dying vampires…

“Be strong, Grey,” Forma encouraged as she flew faster through the crisp night air. I gasped as the cold air irritated my lacerations, crying out in vain as I felt my link to Forma burning away.

“Come on, Grey!” Forma cried through tears as she felt the link fading as well. “You have to be strong!”

“I….can’t…” I barely managed to whisper. “So tired…”

“No!” she shouted strongly. “You have to stay awake! Tell me a story!”

I would have chuckled, had I the energy. I recalled the night I had rushed back to Farrah’s guesthouse with the sick Forma in my arms, begging her to stay awake. The cruel irony was almost tangible.

I tried to speak for as long as possible, telling her everything I remembered from school: every famous Hunter, every possible way to defeat Gnomes and every weapon used for herding Water Sprites out of a lake and into the sea…so many words, so much energy…

“Good job, Grey,” she commended as she flew quickly through two double doors and through what sounded like a very large stone foyer. She flew left and then burst through another pair of thick doors before skidding to a stop on a thick carpet. I heard muffled voices of surprise and I had my suspicions as to where she had taken me.

“Maisling Forma and Hunter Echo,” said a distant, wizened voice from somewhere on my left. “Welcome to Alfheim, home of the Elf Council.”

A solitary beat passed before Forma placed me gently on the carpeted floor at her feet. I heard shocked breaths at my haggard appearance, no doubt a first in their chamber. Alfheim was supposedly the most beautiful place one could imagine, but no Hunter or Maisling could find it until they needed it most so it was rare that anyone ever got to see it. I felt a brief sting of embarrassment that my first time seeing the Council was as a dying, blind, half-Dragon Hunter.

“Please, wise and knowing Elf Council,” Forma begged, gasping from her exhaustingly fast flight. “Please… save my Hunter.”

I could hear the Elf council whispering to each other frantically, even over my wheezing gasps for air.

“Stand back, Maisling Forma,” I heard one of the males command as he raced forward.

Forma obeyed and seconds later I felt him grip my left hand, placing his other hand on my forehead, surveying my condition.

“She is dying,” he stated flatly.

“I know that!” Forma shouted, groaning in pain as she felt our link fading. “Save her!”

“Bring me the phial!” commanded the Councilman. I listened as other footsteps raced into the room and a phial of mysterious liquid was then brought quickly to my lips.

“Drink, Hunter Echo,” he said. “I know it’s difficult, but you must.”

He lifted my head and I tried to silence my laboured breathing long enough to take a drink of the phial. The liquid poured down my throat and I suddenly felt a spark of energy surge through me. I tensed and cried out before falling limp against the floor.

“What did you do?” Forma asked, gripping my hand. “What did you do to her?”

“What you asked,” replied the Elf.

As he spoke, I could feel my link to Forma beginning to mend. However, my brief feeling of relief was shattered as I realised that I could not move any part of my body. Every nerve ending felt as though it were paralysed with unendurable fire — I couldn’t blink, speak or even breathe.

“Grey?!” Forma whispered in horror as she gently lifted my head. “Grey, can you hear me?!”

The paralysis was so strong that I could not even respond telepathically. My lungs burned for oxygen but I could not take in a breath. I had no control over any of my limbs, not even my telepathic voice: I could do nothing but wait in my silent, flaming prison.

“What have you done?!” Forma cried as she tried to take my pulse, which was so slow I could barely feel it myself.

“We did what you asked. She is not dead; she will waken momentarily, but she will be…changed…”

Then I realised what the councilman had just done: the Vanguard venom was still present inside me but it wasn’t killing me anymore. The Councillor had saved me from dying with the Vanguards, but he couldn’t save me from becoming one of them.

“Grey?” Forma asked gently. She carefully moved my limp form into her lap and cradled my motionless head in her thin, badly beaten arms. I heard her broken bones grinding as she moved. My already knotted stomach took another sickening guilty fold.

“No…” she exhaled again, realising what they had done.

“What’s done is done,” stated another Elf. “We cannot reverse the transformation but we have prevented it from completely taking over.”

I could hear the shock and rage grip Forma as she tightened her grip around me.

“WHAT?!”

“We have halted the progression of the venom but we cannot heal the damaged tissue. I am sorry, Maisling Forma,” a male calmly replied. “She will awaken as a newborn.”

I briefly recalled my father telling my mother about a similar decree from the Council. “You heard the Council. What’s done is done.”

“NO!” Forma shouted. “YOU’RE THE ELF COUNCIL! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! YOU HAVE TO SAVE HER!”

“In this case, there is little we can do,” replied a female. “I’m sorry.”

“You should look upon this as a blessing, not a curse,” quipped one of the males.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Forma exclaimed in wrath.

The wood of the desk creaked loudly as one of the Elves leaned forward.

“The creatures that fell from the Rip are all linked together. As one dies, that species becomes collectively weaker, enhancing the possibility for a quicker extinction. This is why we choose to train so many Hunters at once. When the Rip first occurred, Evan the Vanguard was the first Creature to touch the Earth, therein linking him to all the Creatures that followed and making Evan the one who carries the fate of them all.”

A stitch of nauseating realisation struck my paralysed body.

“So…are all the Creatures dead?” Forma asked in a snarky voice of disbelief. “The Vanguards have certainly fallen.”

I heard each member of the council nod knowingly.

“Yes, the Vanguards have fallen and every single species of Creature has now grown sufficiently weaker. Given time after she has mastered her newly acquired Vanguard powers, Grey could destroy them all singlehandedly.”

There was a pause as Forma assessed this information, letting my useless body rest limply against the floor. I heard her sigh and run her hands through her hair as she stood.

“Well, what is to happen to me? As a vampire, is she not classified as dead? And as a Hunter, does this not violate the Code? And if she will be able to do this single-handedly, will she not need me anymore?”

A pang of horror shot through me. I would always need Forma; she should have known that by now! The Council had to realise that fact. A Hunter would always need her Maisling, no matter what sort of ridiculous vampiric powers the Hunter would adopt.

I held my breath as I heard the female lean forward, anxiously praying that she would voice my feelings.

“You must never doubt your worth as a Maisling. We have written the specifics of the Hunter/Maisling relationship and modified them over centuries of practice. I can assure you, no matter what sort of powers she has inherited she will come to need you more than ever in the coming days. You must be strong for her.”

I felt a single tear of appreciation fall from my left eye. I could not have found more perfect words to explain it and I would never be able to express my gratitude to the female Elf for reassuring Forma of her worth. I would always need her.

“As for the issue of your powers, as a Maisling whose Hunter has techinically ‘died,’ there will now be limitations on your abilities; but seeing as Grey will only be Half-Vanguard, she will still be able to function as a Hunter in the near future and, given her important status, you will retain your powers of trans—”

The Elf’s words were interrupted by my sudden blood-curdling scream of pain as my usless limbs tensed with life. The previously fiery numbness that had paralysed my body suddenly turned into a sharp, piercing cold that shot through every nerve with stout precision. I began convulsing and screaming wildly at Forma’s feet as the two opposing forces warred within me.

“I strongly suggest that you get her out of here,” pressed the female coldly.

I then screamed louder and with more agony than I ever had in my entire life, shaking the very foundations of the marble room and sending my body into violently powerful convulsions. After several seconds of unbearably hot fire running through my every nerve, I was suddenly locked in the cold paralysis once more, silencing my pained cries.

Then something I did not anticipate began to occur. I gasped as heart palpiltations of unthinkable strength began to plague me. Waves of warm energy flew from my dying heart over my broken body, mending my wounds as they passed. I felt each broken bone slowly fight its way back to completeness and every burst organ begin to make itself whole again, but the most surprising effect was on my scarred face. With each pulsating wave, a tingling began to spread across my skin and a dull burning occurred in my eyes. Little by little, my sight slowly began to return. I stared up through blurred vision at the domed ceiling high above as it slowly came into focus. As the pulsations continued, my sight grew stronger and stronger until it even surpassed where it had been before I lost it. My mouth fell open as my teeth began to elongate and sharpen into venomous Vanguard canines.

“My God…” Forma marvelled.

My body continued to grow stronger with each of my heart’s steadily increasing palpitations. The speed and succession of the palpitations continued until my entire body was tensed in the painful throes of my heart’s last moments… until the final pulsation passed and I fell limp against the cold floor.

“Get her out, now,” pushed the female Elf that sat in the middle of the high wooden desk on the left. “What happens next will not be—”

I then gasped and leapt upwards with the same unearthly grace I had heard Evan move with, but I still could not control any of my limbs. It was a strange sensation: to be aware of my surroundings but no longer be in control of my movements. A secondary consciousness had grown inside of me during my convulsion fits and it had now taken control. I was trapped inside of my own body with a newborn monster at the helm.

My mouth hung open and I heard a feral growl of hunger escape my lips. I watched my newly sharpened eyes sweep the room, absorbing every minute detail of the marble tiled floor and listening to the frantic heartbeats of Forma and the Council. My sight then swung hungrily to a disturbingly bloody Forma, who gasped in horror as she looked at me.

“Grey! Your face!”

My right hand withdrew my Flamesword with horrifying quickness, holding the flat of the blade at eye level in order to examine my new visage. Internally, I gasped in terror as I felt the monster in control inhale in rapacious excitement.

My newly black eyes had risen several inches from their original place on my face. They now sat much higher and much further apart than what would be naturally acceptable, looking even darker against my marble skin. My tongue ran along the edge of my mouth, the new monster revelling at the intimidating sharpness of my new predatory canines. My head then turned abruptly to the Elf Council with voracious hunger. They all collectively flinched at my sharp, eerily graceful movements. My mouth curled into a smile as my sensitive ears picked up the sounds of their escalating heartbeats…the blood rushing through their veins…I cringed as I felt a dark thirst rise in my throat.

“Forma, get her out of here now!” shouted the male Elf on the far right of the desk.

The beast inside of me then lunged for the Elves, clamouring to get at their frantically beating hearts. Thank God Forma was faster. In an instant, she changed into an enormous Mountain Troll and wrapped her arms around my iron hard vampire body. However, my new Vanguard strength was too much and I easily broke her hold, leaping across the room and landing horizontally on one of the many support pillars around the room. The monster that sat in control of my body smiled at its new ability to defy gravity and looked back towards Forma as she transformed back into herself, reaching to me with despairing swollen eyes.

“Grey, please! Listen to me!”

My jaw unhinged, baring my sharpened fangs and roaring with a sonorously dark Vanguard voice. My limbs then shifted smoothly into a large batlike beast and the creature within took my new body into flight, moving swiftly through one of the large stain glass windows and off to the first town I could find. Internally I fought against this horrifying new consciousness that would most likely assume control for a very long time, but I was unable to master the frightening new strength inside of me. I was to be a prisoner to a savagely monstrous urge that would fester for several more years.

I was thirsty.