Vigil's Echo

Chapter 10

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Three things became obvious once Kai finally regained consciousness. One, something about the world we'd returned to was seriously messed up. Two, Enzo had, indeed, not been mistaken when he claimed to have seen the supposedly dead Salvatore brother holding Kai captive. And three, all of this somehow had something to do with my cousin, Bonnie Bennett.

"We should focus on refortifying the armory," Enzo announced as he vamped into the kitchenette. I jumped, sending piping hot coffee over the rim of my cup and onto my fingers.

"Shit!" I hissed, releasing the cup into a group of vines that swirled up through the floor and encircled me. "I swear I'm gonna put bells on you both." I rinsed my fingers in cold water at the sink and carefully retrieved my cup just before the vines slithered back into the ground below. "Praeomunio," I whispered, and the floor pieced back together.

"Sorry, gorgeous," Enzo replied sheepishly. "Still, we need to make this place impenetrable. We've no allies and a multitude of enemies. We can't afford to be taken off guard."

"Or we could just find a new hideout," I muttered, sipping at my coffee. The thought of staying in the armory at length made me nauseous.

"I've been working on that. And we have allies...kinda," Kai grouched. "Care to enlighten us on why you hate the armory so much?"

"Just because I'm a half-druid doesn't make the trees our allies, Kai," I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. "Care to explain how you were taken by a vampire in the first place?" I lifted my eyebrow. Kai had been less than forthcoming with the whole truth about what happened one we were all separated.

"I already told you, he caught me off-guard. And it doesn't matter, I'm here and I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth.

"Why weren't you healing? Did he inject you with something?" I asked, sifting through the multitude of emotions pouring out of him every time I asked him these questions. Still, I couldn't get a reading on him or what really happened and he continually evaded answering the questions.

He met my desperate gaze with a bold, fortified one and I knew I wasn't getting any real answers. "I think someone's seriously underestimating their bond with nature," he said, forcing a sarcastic grin before vanishing from the kitchen.

I turned to Enzo with a look of exasperation, but he only shrugged. "I'm starting to think there's something quite odd about this world we've returned to, gorgeous," Enzo said suddenly, vamping away before I could ask what he meant.

So many things weren't adding up or making sense. Stefan Salvatore - according to what little information I could get out of Enzo - was a regular, run of the mill vampire. The only thing that made him "special" was nothing to write home about: he was a ripper. In other words, a vampire with no self-control and a special knack for violence against him victims. Still, he was nothing compared to Kai, a hybrid witch-vampire. How could a vampire catch a heretic off-guard?

Before I could finish examining my thoughts on the matter, a shockwave of magic radiated through the kitchen, sending me crashing to the ground. Branches and vines instinctively encircled me before I hit the linoleum and I could only faintly hear the smashing of ceramics and glass from outside of my wooded cocoon.

I steadied my breathing and closed my eyes, focusing on tracing the bond between Kai, Enzo and me to map out where they were in the armory. I felt Kai's witch magic entwining with mine and pushed out a second druid sphere over him. Luckily, he didn't resist this time.

I continued focusing on reaching Enzo, sensing him near the medical rooms. A gust of anxiety fluttered through my chest as my magic shakily felt around the very rooms I'd been tortured in. After spilling over each room, I finally found him and forced yet another cloaking orb of vines and encircled him. "Phasmatos radium invisique," I whispered, making all three of our protective spheres invisible to whomever could be attacking. Stay silent, I instructed through a temporary mind-link with the two immortals.