Heart of Ashes

Ebony Coffin

Dmitri opened the vault. He knew that, as long as that poker stayed in his chest, Caine would be harmless. He passed Vlad's mirror and stared, for a moment, at the mannequin which previously displayed Vlad's magic armour. It was then that he swore to himself that he would find the armour and he would return it to the vault.

He went into the back of the vault, in search of what he'd originally gone in there for; a large coffin made from ebony wood. It had been made to hold Caine. In between the wood and the lining, in both the lid and the coffin, was a layer of silver and it had silver latches with silver padlocks on both sides to hold the lid down. He took hold of one of the leather handles then hauled it out of the vault.

He'd also taken the liberty of collecting the biggest, strongest chain he could find and an almighty padlock as well. Ragnar had the chain over his shoulder and he was the one to help Dmitri take the massive coffin down to the dungeons.

***

Evelyn folded her arms, her eyebrow creeping further up her forehead the longer she stared, "A coffin? Are you kidding me?"

Dmitri shrugged, "It's the only thing that holds him and it's not cheesy at all. I think it's kind of fitting, considering."

Anthony also seemed to be having a little trouble taking the scene unfolding in front of him seriously, "Of course you would," he said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dmitri shot back.

Anthony shook his head, "Never mind, let's just get this done. Talk about adding insult to injury."

He and Dmitri lifted Caine into the coffin while Theodore got ready to pull the poker put and Ragnar stood by with a giant chain. Once Caine was in the coffin, Theodore yanked the poker out and Ragnar hastily wrapped the chain around him. The chain was secured with a padlock and, just as they were getting ready to shut the coffin, Caine opened his eyes. They'd gone back to their deep, bloody, red and his face betrayed no sign that, just moments before, he'd turned into a rampaging monster who'd tried to kill everyone.

"Ragnar," he said, looking at the giant padlock on his chest, "this is not how you earn brownie points. What the hell are you all doing? And how did I get here?"

Evelyn looked into his eyes. He seemed completely sincere and his eyebrows were knitted in, what appeared to be, genuine confusion.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" his confusion was quickly turning into panic as he appeared to fill in the pieces for himself, "Dmitri, why are you covered in blood? Why am I covered in blood? I demand to know what the hell is going on!"

He wriggled furiously in the chains, causing them to clank, loudly, against the sides of the coffin. Evelyn put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down, gently.

"Caine, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked again, her tone much softer this time.

He blinked then looked up into her eyes, "I was standing in the ballroom looking at a portrait of Lillith..." he trailed off as he moved a little bit, "are these my formal clothes?"

"Apparently, your version of sleek and sensual," Ragnar replied.

"What?" Caine's voice was so full of confusion it sounded like it was hurting him, "You aren't implying that I said something like that, are you?"

Ragnar shook his head, "I'm not implying that you said anything like that. I'm stating that you said exactly that."

Caine sighed and screwed his eyes shut, "Oh, for the love of all that is good and holy. What else did I do?"

"You tried to kill me," Evelyn said, waiting to see if he remembered anything about the Book.

His eyes shot open again, "I what? Oh, Evelyn, I am so sorry."

She shrugged and gave a little smile, "It's alright, you also said you loved me."

A weary smile tugged at his lips and he tried to reach up to touch her face but the chain stopped him. His face twisted in frustration then softened again, back into a tired smile. Evelyn could see that he'd been weakened and probably wasn't much of a threat to anybody, but she also knew that all of it could be another trick.

"I do," he said, his voice barely a whisper, "love you, I mean."

She continued to smile at him, "I know."

"You ripped my throat out," Dmitri said, interrupting the moment so Evelyn wanted to hit him, "a few times. You also killed a couple of vampires. Oh and you nearly devoured my heart."

"Really?" Caine said, with a smirk only Evelyn could see, "Luckily you managed to fight me off."

Evelyn didn't say a word about having stabbed a poker through his heart but she knew he knew.

"Actually it is Evelyn that I owe my life to," he said, "she stabbed you with a fireplace poker."

Evelyn looked down and she saw Caine's shoulders shaking, slightly, with silent laughter and she had to disguise a giggle by pretending to sneeze. Dmitri regarded them with an expression as blunt as a butter knife.

"I think I preferred you when you were trying to eat me," Dmitri said.

Evelyn heard Anthony mutter something under his breath and she was almost one hundred percent certain that it was 'that's what he said'. She gave his ankle a light kick and saw Caine was still smiling.

"Did I do anything else that I'm probably going to regret?" he asked.

Evelyn looked around, she wasn't sure whether to say anything about the Book out loud because, as far as she knew, they were all as clueless as Caine. She decided to whisper it to him.

"You took the real copy out of the mirror," she whispered as close to his ear and as softly as she could manage.
"I what the what?" he hissed, "You don't mean...?"

She nodded, "Yes."

A string of profanities came out of his mouth and he started to wriggle, "You need to let me out of this now!"

Dmitri snorted, "Are you out of your damned mind? What am I saying? Of course you are. You're not getting out of that."

Caine tried to look at him over the rim of the coffin, "Dmitri, if I were a real threat, I'd have broken out of these chains and you'd all have been dead long ago."

"Or it's a trick," Dmitri said.

"Dmitri!" Caine growled, "I know it's a lot to ask but you need to trust me right now! Evelyn?"

Evelyn looked into Caine's eyes, they were full of pleading. His face, the picture of panic. She knew he was telling the truth.

Evelyn looked up, straight into Dmitri's stern, chocolate coloured eyes, "He's telling the truth."