Caleb threw his arms back and managed to throw it off, sending it flying and knocking into several others. But still more came.
Aiden swung his staff, and Caleb was shocked to see the staff stretch out before him, grow before his eyes. It grew to fifty feet, then a hundred. As it did, Aiden swung it around in a wide circle.
It had a tremendous effect. Aiden managed to knock down every creature that came within a hundred feet of him, in the shape of a huge circle. He killed a hundred creatures in a single blow.
Now, with Blake here, and Aiden’s staff, the momentum was beginning to turn. Caleb felt as if they might stand a chance, especially as he spotted Aiden’s coven members: these soldiers, dressed in their white robes, each wielded a staff of his own, and each swung them in slow but deliberate ways. They were channeling some sort of energy Caleb was not aware of, and as they spun their staffs, they each managed to knock out twenty vampires in a single blow. Clearly, Aiden’s men were infused with a special power, a high state of training that Caleb had never seen.
Caleb lunged forward, transformed in his fury and newfound confidence, and killed a dozen vampires in a few seconds. Blake did the same. Within moments, Caleb and Blake were fighting back to back, each guarding the other. And they were succeeding. The tide was turning.
“Caleb,” came a voice.
Caleb immediately spun. It was a voice he would recognize anywhere, and it sent an electric shock through his system. But it couldn’t be. How could she be here?
“Help me, please!”
As he turned, Caleb was astounded to see who was standing there. Just a few feet away, right before him, stood Caitlin. She stood there, fighting off hordes of vampires, and they were beating her. He couldn’t understand how she could be here, how she could have appeared so quickly, came out of nowhere. Maybe she had dove down, and in the chaos, he had missed her.
He didn’t have time to think about that. His first impulse was to save her, and he leapt into action, landing before her and striking back the vampires attacking her. In moments, he managed to kill a dozen of them, and the others kept a wary distance.
Caleb quickly turned and looked at her. She stood there, looking so helpless, so afraid—and so beautiful. It was the Caitlin he knew. And he felt overjoyed to see her.
Yet at the same time, something bristled inside him. Something deep down told him that something wasn’t right. But he wasn’t quite sure what.
He was so overjoyed to see her, he brushed his premonitions aside as he stepped forward to embrace her. She had been good to her word. She had come back.
“I came back for you,” Caitlin said. “I couldn’t stay away. I had to come and help you.”
She stepped forward, lowering her sword to her side.
“Won’t you give your wife a hug?” she asked.
Caleb stepped forward, took three big steps, opened his arms wide, and came in to hug her.
But as he got closer and closer, his body became colder, and something inside him screamed that something wasn’t right. He didn’t understand it, didn’t know what it could be.
And by the time he realized, it was too late.
Caleb took one more, fatal, step towards Caitlin.
At the last moment, Caitlin’s face collapsed into a scowl, as she pulled back her short silver sword, and plunged it right through Caleb’s heart. She embraced him with one arm, holding the sword with the other, hugging him, driving it all the way through.
Caleb felt the breath rush out of him. The pain was so intense, so startling, his eyes opened wide, and he could hardly breathe.
But even worse, was the pain of betrayal. He had been stabbed in the heart by the one he loved the most, by the person he loved more than anything in the world.
Caleb looked up, into Caitlin’s eyes, wondering how she could do such a thing.
“I told you I would have vengeance,” she said, looking down at him.
Caleb didn’t understand what she was saying. His whole world was going light, blurry, as he felt all the sensation leaving his body. He felt himself growing lighter and lighter, outside of himself as he watched his own body slump to the floor.
In his final seconds, lying on the ground, Caleb looked over at the battleground before him. It came to him in flashes. He saw Blake standing there, looking over, amazed, and then saw Rynd grab Blake from behind, while Kyle stepped forward and brought down his axe, killing him.
He saw Kyle take a long, silver spear, one he had never seen before, and charge, right towards Aiden. Somehow, he penetrated the shield, and the spear struck Aiden, right through the heart. He watched as Aiden slumped to the ground, lifeless.
He saw more and more graves open up, and Aiden’s remaining warriors swamped by vampires and shadow creatures in every direction, getting killed left and right.
And then, finally, he looked up, one last time, back at Caitlin.
At that moment, her face changed: it became the face of his ex-wife. Sera. Scowling down, triumphant.
“I learned the shape shifting trick from Sam,” she said with a sneer.
But Caleb was too delirious. He did not see her face transform, did not hear her last words. In his last moments, he left the earth still thinking that it was Caitlin, his wife, his one and only love, who had betrayed him.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Caitlin slowly opened her eyes, in excruciating pain. As the light hit her eyes, it felt like knives entering her forehead, forcing her to squint—even though it was dim in here, lit only by torches.
She had a splitting headache and felt aches and pains all over her body, and as she tried to move, she realized she was chained. She struggled against her shackles, and soon realized they were silver. She looked over and saw chains binding her hands and feet to a wall. She was standing upright, arms and legs outstretched, chained, her back against a cold stone wall, the cold metal digging into her wrists and ankles.
She felt a huge welt forming on her cheek, and realized that was the spot where Sam must have hit her. The thought of that hurt her more than the lump. Sam. Her own brother. She could hardly conceive it. Had he so thoroughly turned to the dark side that he would attack even her?
Apparently, he had. And that hurt her more than she could contemplate. Sam, she realized, was no longer her brother. Their relationship was over. He was a stranger to her now. Worse: he was an adversary. That thought made her feel more alone in the universe than ever.
She flashed back, trying to remember the chain of events. She remembered the last supper. Judas, leaving for the garden…Jesus…his words…the sky darkening….Sam. Immediately, she thought of Scarlet. She forced herself to open her eyes all the way, to look about the room.