“And what about our son?” Sera snapped, practically in tears. “Jade,” she snapped again, using the name as a weapon. “Have you so conveniently forgotten about him? Does he mean nothing to you?”
Caleb felt tears well in his eyes at the thought of his son. He missed him dearly, every day, but nothing he could would bring him back now. He’d finally come to peace with that.
“I’m sorry, Sera, but Jade is gone. Nothing we can do will ever change that.” Caleb turned and began to walk away, realizing that nothing he said would change her mind, and hoping that maybe she would just disappear.
But moments later, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder, and felt it yank him, spin him back around.
Now, she was scowling, her face transformed by rage.
“You dare to disrespect me?” Sera asked. “Me? The one that you have loved for centuries?” She looked Caleb up and down, as if he were an insect. “How far you have fallen. Now you are just a pathetic creature.”
“Are you finished?” Caleb asked.
Her face deepened with rage.
“No. I’m not finished. I will never be finished. No one rejects me. No one! ” She was practically spitting the words, like a madwoman. “Today, you have made the greatest mistake of your life. If I cannot be a part of your life, then neither can she. And if you will not have me as a lover, then you will have me as an enemy. On this day, right before your wedding, I lay upon you a curse: I pronounce that I will devote the rest of my life tearing you two apart. Destroying what you have built. From here on in, I am your sworn enemy.”
Caleb saw the different colors flashing in her eyes, and as he did, he felt the seriousness of her curse—and it sent a cold shiver up his spine. It was like a curse uttered from the depths of hell. And he could tell that she meant it.
Before he could open his mouth to respond, Sera suddenly turned and launched into the air, flying away, her huge black wings flapping.
As Caleb watched her rise into a fog, he felt a deepening sense of apprehension. He felt the cold and the damp rise up around him, and he knew that wherever she was flying, it couldn’t possibly be good.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As Kyle swung in the air, upside down, tied by his feet to the silver rope, he looked up at Rynd—those large, lifeless black eyes, that awful scowl—and watched him swing the huge silver sword, aiming right for his throat. He knew this moment might be his last on earth. In a way, Kyle was relieved. He had been living for centuries too long, he knew that, and death might bring a peaceful reprieve.
On the other hand, as Kyle thought about it, he realized that death, in his case, would not bring a reprieve at all—but rather a quick descent into hell. He knew what he had to look forward to was a millennium of battling with demons, of being tortured by sick creatures, and he was not especially looking forward to. More importantly, he still had unfinished business on earth. He thought of Caitlin, of Caleb, of Sam, of how much he hated them all, and of how he just couldn’t leave without tearing each one of them to pieces, making them suffer as he had suffered—and it gave him a whole new determination to live.
Kyle summoned one last breath, and quickly screamed out the one thing he knew that might, just might, stop Rynd from finishing his swing:
“I can lead you to the Holy Grail!”
As Kyle watched, Rynd stopped his swing in mid-air, just inches before it reached his throat. He slowly, gradually, lowered it, scowling down.
“You?” Rynd spat. “How?”
Kyle could see him thinking. He’d recalled that the Grail meant the world to Rynd, that he’d been obsessed with pursuing it his entire existence. Rynd had always been convinced that once he found it, he would have the secret to vampire immortality—a rare type of immortality that made even vampires impervious to any sort of attack or death—that it would make him the strongest vampire that ever lived. Kyle himself didn’t believe the Grail existed—but he knew that was the bait needed to convince Rynd.
Kyle swallowed.
“Caitlin—the girl I’ve come back in time to find—she is on a quest for the ancient shield. And she can’t find that shield without first finding the Grail. I know it to be true. Even now, her path is set in motion to find it. I’ve come to stop her. And I need you to help me.”
“Why don’t you just kill her yourself?” Rynd snarled. “Have you become that old and weak and stupid that you cannot achieve anything on your own?”
Kyle heard the vampires snicker all around him, and he felt his temper flaring. But he summoned all his reserves to keep it in check. After all, he was still, for now, at Rynd’s mercy.
“She has grown powerful—stronger than you can believe. Sam, her brother, has the same skill that you do. Shapeshifting. I need someone to combat it. I need someone to use that skill against her. To dupe her, so that I can kill her once and for all.”
“Well, how flattered I am,” said Rynd slowly, in a mocking voice. “You mean, you felt that you could use me. For your ends.”
Rynd swung the sword back slowly, preparing to strike again.
“NO!” Kyle pleaded. “Not to use you. To help you. You will help me get to them. And then, they will lead us to the Grail. And I will turn it over to you.”
“Or maybe I’ll just kill you here, and leave you to hang with the others. Food for the bats.” Kyle swallowed.
“But what good would that do you?”
Rynd leaned back and laughed, a dark, sinister laugh.
“I don’t always do things for my good. Sometimes I do things just because I enjoy them.” With that, Rynd pulled back the sword, stepped forward, and brought it down in a mighty swing.
Kyle closed his eyes, feeling the air of the swing, realizing that in another split-second, he would be gone. There was nothing more he could say. This was his final moment on Earth. And to his own surprise, he was afraid.
A moment later, Kyle felt himself plunging downward, face-down, and he wondered if this was what it felt like to plunge down to hell.
But then his face hit something hard, and he realized he’d actually landed face first into the dirt.
The rest of his body followed, hitting the ground too, and as he looked up, he realized that Rynd had swung at the rope instead, cutting it. It had sent Kyle diving to the ground. Still bound, but alive.
Kyle breathed a sigh of relief.
Rynd stepped forward, his boot just missing Kyle’s face, and sliced the ropes binding Kyle’s feet.