Detective Spring Ch 07

"So you have visions then?...Is that what your sister was referring to when she said you're not supposed to be able to do that? Why?" Arden asked quietly.

"I had visions a long time ago and I ended up hurting a lot of people, so a witch bound me. That's why I'm not supposed to be able to do that, it's also why I passed out and got dizzy and lightheaded, it's fighting against the bond." I said as I leaned into him, making myself more comfortable than I should have considering where we are in my vision is not where we are here, in real life. He wrapped his arms around me tightly as if this was the only place in the world he wanted to be.

"In your vision, what happened? How far did you see?" He asked but I knew he had another question on the tip of his tongue.

So I told him everything, well almost everything, I left out the part of my needing blood and what happened between us. No matter how far we got I still didn't know that much about him, I wanted to know that it mattered enough to him not to shy away from asking.

"And that's it, nothing else?" He asked, it was then I realized that Cadence was driving and in fact we had made it to the edge of town already. I was so lost in him that I lost track of everything else.

"Maybe...there was a bit more, but do you really want me to share it now?" I said motioning to the front seat and then yawned with a stretch. "I guess we're to far out to get any coffee huh?" I asked begrudgingly, I should have been paying attention. I drink way too much coffee to survive a full day with out some and I've already had bourbon, which won't make me drunk but it does have a sleepy effect on me in that quantity.

"Look down." Cadence called and sure enough in between the center console and the back seat was a drink tray with four coffees in it. "Figured it would tip over if we took our coffees before you did." I picked up the tray and found that Cadence, John and Arden apparently took their coffee black. I handed out the coffee and took my hazelnut, I loved it as one of my serious weaknesses.

Arden's hand had idly worked its way under my sweater and onto my stomach and side. He just rested it there, occasionally stroking his thumb back and forth against my ribs, the feel of being wrapped in his embrace was a very comforting, protective feeling. I don't think I have ever felt this comfortable with anyone no less a man, it was an all too sobering idea that this man is like no other and therefore should be my mate, feels like my mate. I can see it clear as day that John and Cadence are meant for each other, no doubts there. But it's always easier to see the destiny of others, right?

I looked at them and found them holding hands, just as casually as a normal couple would. It was normal, everything about this felt so normal, so comfortable. It almost felt wrong, I didn't want it to but suddenly everything felt off as if this was a vision, but it couldn't be I just came out of a vision. I sat up and looked at Arden and then looked around, we were driving through the countryside, we hadn't been driving long enough to be out in the country yet.

"Whats wrong?" Arden asked giving me that same look of confusion from the end of the first vision I had.

"Visions...I never had visions before I was bound." I said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Cadence asked.

"Of course you have visions." John said.

"You've always had the gift." Arden said.

They were almost talking on top of each other as if it was one person talking but coming out of three persons mouths. Their faces started to look smudged, and that was when I realized it. This wasn't real, these weren't my real friends. I frantically started looking around, and when the three of them tried to lunge at me I jumped out of the moving vehicle and started running as fast as I could.

It was then the world started to melt away, as if someone poured paint thinner on a work of art. I fell hard and fast, into nothing at all. I opened my eyes and realized that my worst fears had come true. I was chained to the ceiling and floor, and Mark was standing in front of me.

"Did you enjoy your little trip? I've never met anyone that has worked their way out of my world before. Very impressive, although it's too bad you won't live long enough to test out that trick again. We're going to break you, and when we do, you will confess to the council what you are and the crimes you have committed." He moved back against the bars and nodded at someone behind me. Apparently he wasn't kidding; he really was going to have me whipped. It's gonna take a lot more than that to break me.

-------------------

#Cadence

"I don't get it, that fool has kept us here for two weeks and done nothing. What's his game?" John asked, sounding frustrated as he gripped the bars for the umpteenth time and tried to remove them.

"His game has something to do with Alys, and if I get my hands on him I'll rip his head off for laying his filthy hands on her." Arden growled from his bench inside of his cell where he sat with his head in his hands. He was so worried about her he was close to pulling his own hair out.

"I know what he wants. He wants her to prove to the council what she is. Because we smell human and taste human, unless we show or tell people otherwise there is no proof. He needs to make her want to spill our secret, and I can assure you he's not asking nicely. We've been here for two weeks because my sister does not crack easily." I exclaimed from yet another cell.

We had been in the warehouse district investigating the murder of Marcus Hadden when we were attacked and taken prisoner by Mark Dumont. Arden hadn't been taken, but when he tried to rescue us he hadn't realized that the dungeons of the vampire council's headquarters were magic proof and gotten himself captured as well. The room we were in only had six cells in it. Three were empty and the other three held us. There was a door at each end; the one next to us had a staircase going down and the other best I could tell led to a hallway.

"I can tell you one thing, we're not getting out of here unless she comes up with a plan, or they kill her. If that happens, they'll be coming for me next." I said as I moved to the back of the cell. It was then that we heard a bloodcurdling scream echo from downstairs, and pain rushed through my heart. It had sounded like Alys.

"I'll fucking kill him!" Arden roared as he gripped the bars and tried to free himself, eyes glowing blue as his fangs extended.

"Oh don't look so angry, traitor. It's almost time for your witch and her sister to be judged. You should save your anger for then, when you die along with them." Mark said smugly as he walked up the stairs and into the doorway.

"It may be hard to kill a Shade but I'm willing to take the time and figure out every way to really hurt and kill you once and for all." I seethed, pacing back and forth in my cell.

"You don't know the hell I will bring you once I am free." Arden said with deceptive calm.

"One more hour and we will see if you will ever be free again...But the abominations will burn." He said matter of factly and turned back down the stairs.

"We will see who will burn." I heard Arden barely even whisper.

An hour passed, and then two, yet nothing happened. Something had to have gone wrong; While Mark was an asshole and the enemy, but since capturing us he had been true to his word on everything he said.

I whispered to myself, "As soon as I see her I will say it. I'll say it, and damn the consequences."

"What are you talking about? Say what?" Arden asked quietly.

"She would probably kill me for just thinking of it, but I would rather have a sister and deal with the consequences. I would live that hell all over just so she could live." I swore to the old gods and the new that I would give my life for hers if that's what it took.

"Cadence, what are you going on about?" John said, starting to get irritated.

I knelt down next to the bars like I would if I were telling a story to children and they joined me, I spoke quietly. "Three days after our parents were killed, Alys and I turned fifteen. That is when we inherited our power, except I only received a glimmer of what she got. We were in a dark place, and hers was even darker because she watched them be murdered. For the next hundred years, she was blind to the havoc she caused. All she saw was pain and therefore everyone else would feel it too. Until one day, a witch was able to bind her. A couple of days later we crossed paths with the witch again, and expecting us to want revenge, she was ready to fight to the very last. Instead we thanked her. It was then that the witch took pity on us, and told me the spell to lift her binding. I alone am the only one who knows it." I said quietly.

"We have to find a way to get to her." Arden contemplated.

I started hearing footsteps from a way off down the hallway and a single pair of them from down the staircase. They were finally coming for us.

Mark entered the hall from the stairs and a group of men, dressed like soldiers entered from the hallway.

"They have come to take you to meet your destiny." Mark said calmly, almost disappointedly, as the men started opening the cells and putting us in chains.

"Where is my sister?" I asked just as they started opening my cell door.

"She's dead. It seems my men were a bit too aggressive with her. She was very stubborn, even up to the very end she would not give in." He had moved past the soldiers towards the hallway, three men stood between me and the cell door. I was in shock, my body was going into overdrive and I could feel the blood in my veins pumping at an exponential rate. Flinging myself at the men using my full supernatural speed, I tore the heads off of two and threw the other on into the stone wall at the back of my cell, hearing his bones snap and crunch against it sickeningly. Glancing over, I saw that John and Arden were fighting with their guards as well.

"Go!" Arden yelled over the fighting. Bolting down the stairs, I searched every cell until I finally found her. There in the middle of her cell lay Alys's torn and battered body. She wasn't moving, she wasn't breathing; with shaking hands I pulled her body to me as I knelt down. She made no sign that she was alive at all. My tears spilled onto her ash covered face. Her eyes were closed and her skin was cold as ice, she was no longer bleeding but still covered in blood. I grabbed her hand but it sagged lifelessly in mine.

"Alys." I begged weakly, "Alys, please." I nearly screamed the whisper. I strengthened my resolve, I would try even if it killed me. I bit into my wrist and pressed it to her mouth as I chanted the old Latin, "Vivificet flamma, vivificet flamma, vivificet flamma. Revive the flame. Please drink, Alys. Come back to me." Suddenly I was grabbed from behind and pulled away from her, chained before I could fight back.

I cried and screamed as they dragged me away. I couldn't leave, not now. They dragged me up the stairs to where the Shade had John and Arden bound with his mind. A moment later he had done the same with me and all I could do was move my feet in the direction of the hallway. Tears cascaded down my face and one look at Arden said he would never be the same.

They marched us through a series of hallways and then into a large round room, surrounded by vampires and in the middle on the far side sat the vampiric council. There were five of them, with the one in the middle on a raised seat. They were dressed in dark red and black robes. Mark walked us into the middle of the room and stood next to us while his lackeys backed away.

"What is the crime?" The male on the far right asked in a monotone voice.

"They are hybrids." Mark stated plainly. He could die just as quickly for that statement, as we could.

"Of what manner?" The woman at the opposite end of the table asked, in the same tone.

"John Michelson, vampire and shifter. Arden Haze, vampire and witch. The woman, Cadence Spring, who is unknown to our kind, her hybrid is the worst; vampire and werewolf including magic." He said matter of factly.

"Your proof, that the woman is anything more than human?" The woman on the middle right asked.

"Myself and my men have felt and seen her strength, the proof of her immortality!" He stuttered, as if I had done him the great injustice.

"And the sister?" The male on the middle left asked.

"Alys Spring wasn't willing to cooperate with my methods." He said hesitantly.

"Willing? You tortured her until she died just because you had an idea of what she might be, that she might be something other than human. I swear if I get out of these chains today will be your last." I spat at him. His magic didn't work as well on me as it did Arden and John, apparently.

"Is this true? Did you use excessive force before you had a shred of proof that this woman could be a hybrid?" The woman in the middle finally asked, sounding slightly shocked.

"I had very good reason to believe..." He started but the woman stopped him.

"What was this good reason and where did it come from?" She asked sounding a little angry.

"My mother, Clare Dumont. She claims that Alys Spring was at the signing of the treaty with the wolves, even signed the document herself! She watched her do so." He said, seeming a little uneasy.

"Is Clare Dumont here for questioning?" The woman asked again.

"She is not at these proceedings, but she is in the building. One of my men will bring her at once." He said, starting to sound a little more confident.

I felt a tremor beneath my feet, as if the building was shaking; That would be almost impossible because the building was mostly underground. We would have to be having an earthquake, and in this part of the country that was very unlikely. Again I felt the building shake. Arden was looking down curiously as well this time - I guess I wasn't the only one who had felt it. Again it shook, even stronger this time, and more people were beginning to notice.

"While it is a crime to create a hybrid, it is also a crime to assault a person, claiming them to be something without any proof. This time she is what you think she is, but next time it could be a helpless mortal. This is not a place or time to be careless in our movements...what is that shaking?" She said trying to remain on topic but the shaking had become so much that it could no longer be ignored. Screaming started from far off down the hall, and the closer the screams got the more violent the shaking became. I was afraid the building was going to come down around us when one final scream was heard from just outside of the door. There was a long moment where nothing happened and we all just sat there staring at the door. Suddenly, our chains disintegrated right as the doors practically exploded inwards, instantly killing several of Mark's men that had been standing behind them.

Her brown hair now hung pitch black and heavy like ink against her pale skin, her eyes black orbs of power. She wore only a black slip dress; it looked as though they had been attempting to clean her up, and as she took a few steps with her bare feet on the cold marble floor she walked so gracefully you almost wouldn't notice the cuts and gashes all over her body or the fact that blood was smeared from her bottom lip down to the top of her gown.

Looking over at Arden, I noticed he had fallen to his knees. Glancing at John, I saw that he was as well; looking around the room, everyone was on their knees, even I was, despite not remembering how I had gotten there. The only ones not kneeling were the woman at head of the council, and Mark.

"I was born in 416 BC, did you really think a little bit of torture would end me?! You should learn not to play with toys when you don't know what they are capable of." She hissed. Mark tried to run, but she aggressively threw out an open hand and then gripped it into a fist. Such a simple gesture, but when I looked back at Mark I realized that he could no longer move, and his arms were pinned to his side.

"Coward." She seethed through sharp teeth.

"You will pay for this!" He squealed as he ripped an arm free and tried to use his magic on her, but to no avail as she laughed at his pointless gesture This was a side of Alys that I had wished to never witness again; it was so dark, so evil, that she was a completely different person. Still...I would rather have her back like this, than not at all.

"No, YOU will pay for all you have done. No power should go unchecked, and yours has for far too long." She said looking over at the head of council for a moment before returning her attention to Mark. "My only regret is that this won't last longer for you." She almost sounded sad.

Opening her fist, she turned her palm up, almost like she was beckoning Mark to her. For a split second, hope glimmered in his eyes before Alys flexed her fingers slightly. The next thing anyone knew, Mark was staring at his still-beating heart hovering in front of his horrified face. She released her hold on him and watched impassively as the heart beat once more before succumbing to gravity. It hit the floor with a wet smack, disintegrating into ash even as Mark's eyes rolled lifelessly back into his head, his body crumpling in a heap.

"And you, what is your verdict?" Alys asked, looking at the head of council once again. "Will you condemn us as we always thought you would or will you evolve in an ever evolving world?"

"I think...that I'm not in the mood to piss off an ancient. I may be new to this position but I do believe it would be in our best interest to evolve. And just so we're clear..." She said, standing up. "I don't say this out of fear, but your magic won't work on me. It's why I was selected for the job." She smiled weakly. "Now, you will be given chambers, new clothes, food and let to rest while the council and I come up with a way to evolve. Tomorrow we shall speak as to the best laid plans of men, shall we?"

Alys simply nodded before turning to look at the three of us. Her hair slowly changed back to its natural auburn as her eyes reverted back to their natural silverish grey. The blood covering her face and chest disappeared.

"Thank you." She said in barely a whisper and then her eyes tried to roll back in her head as her knees buckled and her body headed towards the floor. Arden caught her before she had barely begun to fall, picking her up cradling her to his chest. It was then that I realized that blood had been dripping down the back of her legs; I moved her hair aside to look at her back. It was torn to shreds, and even though it was slowly healing, I covered my mouth in shock before I could stop myself. Arden scowled deeply at my reaction, and John gasped when he saw it too. A man came up to us and indicated that we should follow him. He led us down another hallway and into a plush apartment suite containing two bedrooms, each with two beds, and a common area furnished with couches and tables. Arden took Alys to the left bedroom and gently laid her down on one of the beds.

#Arden

My hands were shaking as I pulled her hair away from her back to see the carnage that lay there. I sighed deeply, I barely knew this woman and yet since the moment I met her I knew she was something special. Once I tasted her blood I knew why; she was destined to be my mate.

I bit the tip of my finger and started tracing the blood across some of the smaller cuts, it wouldn't do much for the big ones but I could do this, I reached up and traced one that was on her neck and she sighed softly.

"Don't tease me, Arden." She said sounding happy as she leaned back slightly to look at me. "Don't look so worried. I've lived through worse, just need some time to heal is all...took the blood of ten men, now all I need is time." She said raising a hand to caress the side of my face. I caught it in mine and kissed her palm. She looked around for a moment and then looked back up to me as tears began to fall down the side of her face. "Just...tell me this is real...He put so many things in my head, I don't know if I can tell what's real anymore. When was the last time we saw each other?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly though she tried to hide it.