Lisa climbs over the edge of the cubicle that shelters the church bell. She stands on the rim of a spire so steep its incline is almost straight up, or down. Now there’s nothing between her and the ground except a hundred feet of thin air.
Lisa takes a step forward. There’s room for only one step. Yet in that last instant her will finally bursts to the surface and for a few seconds I think she’s going to escape.
Unfortunately, the children are too strong. Lisa’s outstretched leg wobbles. Try as she might, she can’t bring it back in, she can’t replant her feet, nor can she regain her balance. The wobble reaches her hips and sets off a tremor that flows down her other leg. She sways back and forth before finally pitching forward. She falls.
The Cradle releases its hold and watches. They take delight in Lisa’s screams. They love the sickening moment of impact. The instant of agony. The slow fall into darkness. If they are even capable of love. It feels more like gluttony to me.
Suddenly, I’m back in the circular room with Lark, Jolie, and the other members of the Lens. I see it through a thick fog and realize my eyes are still shut. The pressure at the back of my head is awful. A small part of my mind remains with Lisa as her blood leaks from her crushed skull. But the bulk of my awareness watches as the crystal vase at the center of the room begins to fill with blood. I’m not sure if the blood is physical or if it’s just an illusion. But it looks real.
Then I see them, the creatures Cindy warned me about, the beings I told her were all in her subconscious. There are two dozen of them, one for each child. They stand behind each of the seated kids, their hands resting on their shoulders. Umara has told me about them as well. She called them Familiars and equated them to a witch’s black cat, the true source of the witch’s power.
Umara said that a great deal of mystery surrounded the Familiars. They were the batteries that gave the kids their power, and in another sense they were the entities that possessed them. When I asked Umara who was really in charge, she said, “In the end, the Familiar always claims the soul of its mortal partner.”
At first glance they look like oversized kachina dolls, something a Hopi Indian might make for a ceremony. But whereas kachinas represent friendly spirits or natural forces—like rain, wind, fire—there’s something distinctly unnatural about these beings. In place of a crown of feathers, they have rows of impaled blades. They wear hides, although they are far from the carefully prepared skins of buffalo or deer. They look more like the raw scalps of human beings and other intelligent creatures from alien worlds. I get the clear impression these beings are not bound to our earth.
With a shock I’ve seldom known in my five thousand years, I become aware of two hands resting on my shoulders. Apparently, with my sacrifice of Lisa, I’ve become an official member of the Cradle, and a Familiar has been assigned to me.
As I try twisting around to see what it looks like, its hand comes off my right shoulder and touches my head at my temple. The feel of it on my hair, and on my bare skin, is revolting and I want to vomit. It’s as if a slimy mucus coating on its fingers has rubbed off onto me. However, it has an insubstantial quality; I’m not even sure if it’s there.
But the hand stops me from turning around.
The creature isn’t going to let me see it. Not yet.
My eyes are still shut. However, my vision is forced back toward the center of the circle. My mind is no longer with Lisa. But just as her blood seemed to fill the vase, now I sense the Familiars emptying it. Even though they remain standing behind their respective wards, the level of the blood in the crystal vase slowly drops until it’s totally drained. I hear a licking sound. Like they don’t want to waste a single drop.
The pressure on the back of my skull eases up.
I feel my body sag forward. Someone squeezes my hand; it’s Jolie. Someone else pats me on the back; that’s Lark. I hear the noises of the real room and when I do open my eyes, the lights are back on and the kids are standing and stretching. I look up and Lark offers me his hand.
“How do you feel?” he asks as he pulls me to my feet.
“Weird.” I let go of his hand and touch the back of my skull. “Like someone just operated on my brain.”
“The first time can be rough but it gets easier.”
“I threw up the first time,” Jolie says, holding on to Mr. Topper.
“When we sit together like this, our minds link,” Lark says. “We become one.”
Their remarks confirm they meet regularly.
“Does that mean you were able to read my mind?” I’m curious because I wasn’t able to pick up their specific thoughts, although I could sense their overall mood. For example, their feeling of satisfaction when Lisa struck the ground. Lark shakes his head.
“I felt your emotions more than your thoughts,” he says. “I know you were shocked when you realized your friend was innocent.”
I frown. “I wouldn’t say she was innocent.”
“Then you didn’t see into her mind. She never betrayed you.” Lark grins. “You didn’t have to offer such an innocent victim. Yet you have pleased the powers, and been accepted into the Cradle. A great being has been assigned to you.”
I feel sick at heart with what I have done to Lisa. I struggle to hide my pain.
“Are you talking about that thing that was standing behind me?” I ask.
“That Familiar is your master now. If I were you, I’d speak of him with more respect. He’s very special.”
“How do you know? Did you see him?”
Lark’s eyes shine. But he doesn’t answer my question.
EIGHTEEN
Brutran wants to speak to me after my firsthand experience with the Cradle but I feel the need to be alone. There’s a room on the fourth floor that was ordinarily used as an overnight suite for IIC executives that were working late and didn’t have time to go home. I have appropriated it as my own private quarters. After speaking to Lark, I hurry upstairs and lock the door.
Already I feel I’m in deeper than I planned. Mentally linking with the Cradle reminds me of the time the Telar tortured me with a device called the Pulse. The purpose of the Telar’s invention was simple—to induce agony. But in practice it caused so much pain it made me lose even my sense of “I.” Sharing a psychic connection with the kids has a similar effect on me. With both, I feel I’m no longer myself.
Yet I fear the long-term effects of the Cradle will be worse than the Pulse. Alone in my room, I don’t feel alone. It’s as if I have two shadows instead of one, and this second shadow doesn’t conform to my movements. It follows me, it gives the impression it will never leave me, but it does what it wants. I worry that in time I will do what it wants.
I feel watched.
Eyes staring at the back of my skull.
Invisible hands on my shoulders.
Most of all I feel fear.
Yes, I, the fearless vampire—the thing terrifies me.
I throw myself down on the suite bed and try to sleep. Since I have entered the IIC stronghold, I have slept at most three hours, and my nerves are ragged from fatigue.
I feel a desperate need to hear a friendly voice. Matt has given me what he swears is a secure cell phone. I pick it up and give Umara a call. She answers right away.
“How are you?” she asks.
“I feel like I’m losing my mind,” I say.
“That’s to be expected. Tell me everything that’s happened.”
I give Umara a quick but thorough overview. It doesn’t take long with her because she grasps situations quickly. Plus she was in a similar position thousands of years ago. When I finish, she asks if I want help.
“Not yet,” I reply. “No matter how much Brutran opens up to me, I don’t trust her. There’s no predicting how she’ll react when the Telar’s top people have been killed.”
“When she’s done using you, she’ll try to get rid of you.”
“Probably. But she’s more desperate than you would imagine. This will sound strange but it’s like she clings to me.”
“It’s probably an act. She’s a master manipulator,” Umara says.
“It could be genuine. And she still might be planning to kill me.”
“The devil’s at his most dangerous when he’s telling the truth.”
“Speaking of devils, how do I get rid of this feeling that the Familiar is still attached to me?”
“You can’t. It is attached to you. And it will grow stronger the more you feed it.”
“With pain and suffering?”
“I think for a creature as advanced as your Familiar, that’s probably dessert. I’m sure it’s listening to every word we’re saying, while drawing up long-term plans.”
“For what? Me? The world?”
“Both. Sita, I’m sorry but I did warn you.”
“When you spoke in the car on the drive down, I don’t know, it all felt like an old fable. I didn’t really think I’d be battling demons.”
“The battle has yet to start. Right now you’re allies.”