Vanquish Read online

  Copyright © 2015 by Flaming Hearts Press LLC

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ISBN: 978-0-9849884-7-1

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Apart from Ze Feldis

  2. Protecting the Passageway

  3. In Transition

  4. Behind the Basement Door

  5. Bursting at the Seams

  6. Bloodsuckers

  7. The Sisterly Connection

  8. The Clarity Clone

  9. Shams Tells All

  10. Hidden in the Dark

  11. The Refugees

  12. The Arrival

  13. Get on Your Mark

  14. The Scepter’s Strike

  15. Treeshotka...

  16. The Glooms…

  17. Skee…

  18. Andarra

  19. Ol

  20. Mashlands

  21. Nowhere

  22. On the Day of Restoration

  23. Denouement

  Zill and Vayle…

  Glo and Finn…

  Tapeetha and Leto

  Fawn and Ben…

  Adore and Chex…

  Navi and Telman…

  Clarity and Baron…

  To all the fans of the Parched series, who have journeyed this far. Much Love.

  Prologue

  THE END IS THE BEGINNING…

  “Get us out of here! Now!” Finn roars.

  The morning is silent and lightless. Only minutes ago, the sounds of speeding wind and rumbling earth thundered as we battled the Evil and banished the second-generation Selells and, as an unexpected result, the sun to the universe somewhere beneath Jari. The sun is still missing, and because of it, Finn sees them coming. I feel them coming—scores of what must be first-generation vampires who are starved for the ripe lifeblood that belongs to my sisters and me.

  My legs are heavy as I stand with my cheek pressed against the swell of Baron’s chest. I want to escape into him, but instead, I feel like a fly that’s trapped on sticky paper, unable to wriggle free while in the sights of a bloodthirsty black widow. I’m weak. My thoughts are uncharacteristically slow. I finally think to spread shields of numbness and blindness over us so the Selells can’t see or sense us, but I’m having trouble doing that.

  “I cannot!” Tapeetha yells, also panicking. She too is having problems igniting her powers.

  “I can!” Leto Danto shouts, to my relief.

  The Selells are almost close enough to seize us. I feel their thirst and their anticipation of quenching it with our blood. It’s the survival of the fittest. The early bird gets the cocktail.

  But just as Baron’s forearm tightens around my ribs and he readies his dagger to slice off the head of the first opposing Selell, my entire body loses density. I turn into particles, but the strange weightlessness doesn’t last long before I’m fully re-formed and standing on my own two feet. Baron and the others aren’t with me.

  I behold a gigantic tree. The branches are loaded with tulip-shaped, bloodred flowers that flutter as if they’re being tickled by a whispery breeze. The trunk is smooth to the eye, and probably to the touch, like polished ivory. It’s loaded with plum-shaped fruit the same hue as the flowers, which sprout on the limbs. The mere sight of them makes my mouth water.

  Suddenly I remember where I saw this tree once upon a time.

  “It grew,” I whisper in amazement.

  It’s the Tree of Life from Enu; I’m sure of it.

  “It has,” my father, Felix Benel, says, appearing out of nowhere.

  He’s beside me, but I’m unable to take my eyes off the tree. However, I recognize the scent of his subtly tangy but sweet cologne and fresh mint soap.

  It’s a sunny day here, but the air isn’t Enu warm; it’s Earth warm. I turn to look at my father. “Are we on the estate?”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “And the sun is back?” My tone is laced with optimism.

  “The sun is still in Tetra,” he replies, spoiling my hope.

  I’m confused. “Tetra?”

  “It’s the universe beneath the plains of Jari.”

  “But how do I bring it back to Earth?” I ask in distress.

  “Clarity, I need you to extract from the depths of your intellect,” he says.

  I can tell by his tone that he won’t answer my question. My father brought me here for a reason, and he will not digress.

  “Why would this tree be able to sustain its life here on Earth?” he asks.

  He sounds as though he’s quizzing me, and I immediately revert back to my old, eager-to-satisfy-him-with-the-correct-answer self, which means that any hesitation must be brief—two seconds tops. “Because all seven sisters are on the earth.” I hope I’m right, because that would mean that Adore is here and I’d be seeing her soon.

  His smile is dimmed by deep thoughts and feelings that I wish my abilities allowed me to sense. My father is the one individual I could never read.

  “Yes. All seven of my daughters have met the earth. However, Adore is lost, for the moment.” He mumbles the last part.

  A heavy lump of worry forms in the pit of my belly. “I don’t understand. If she’s lost, then can’t I find her?”

  My father snorts, amused. “I’m happy that you’ve grown confident in your abilities, Clarity, but you will have to leave the task of finding Adore to me.”

  That’s his very gracious way of saying that if he can’t find her, then there’s no way in the world I can. But I barrel forward and try to encase her anyway. I flinch from the impact of slamming right into the hard, red haze. I’m reminded of how weak my limbs are right now.

  Felix studies me with slightly tapered eyes. He knows what I just did, but it’s not my father’s style to call me on my failures—which he doesn’t. “We’re running out of time.” He turns to feast his eyes on the red tree. “I’ve strengthened you some, but you’re fading. You need to eat the mek’u’u, the fruit of life. Now.”

  Fawn and Zill appear on my right and Glo and Tapeetha on my left. Felix has vanished just as clandestinely as he materialized. My sisters whip themselves around, turning this way and that. Zill and Glo are wondering where they are. Fawn and Tapeetha instantly recognize what’s planted before them. However, now I really feel it. My arms and legs are weak again. I’m so exhausted that I want to curl up in bed and sleep for weeks.

  “The Garden of Naught?” Fawn whispers in wonderment.

  “The tree grows,” Tapeetha gasps in her uniquely accented English.

  Zill sways from side to side, barely able to stand on her own. “I don’t feel good.”

  Tapeetha tilts her head back to gaze at the blue sky. “The sun has returned?” Her voice drags. She’s drained too.

  “Only on the Estate, which is where we are,” I say in a rush. “But we have to hurry up and eat the…”

  “The mek’u’u,” Fawn tiredly whispers.

  Both Fawn and Tapeetha take slow steps toward the tree and pull a fruit off the branch. Zill, on the other hand, is still swaying back and forth. Her eyelids flutter. She appears to be on the verge of fainting. I muster up enough energy to grab her around the waist and guide her forward. I throw my heavy arm up to snatch a mek’u’u off a branch and put it in her hand.

  “Eat it,” I tell her.

  She takes it, and I make sure she does what she’s told. It’s time for me to grab my portion, but I can’t lift my arm high enough to reach the lowest-hanging fruit.

  “You eat this, Cl’auta,” Tapeetha says, coming to the rescue. She presses the sw
eet red flesh of the mek’u’u against my lips.

  I bite into it greedily. The skin is tender, like a red cherry. I expect it to taste like one too, but it doesn’t. Sweet lime and mint fill my mouth as I chew. It tastes like my blood! Each bite makes me crave another and another.

  Finally, I’m standing strong. I can fly. Run on the wind. If there’s a shield that needs to be generated, I can create it a million times over.

  A flash of light bursts around us, and when the rays subside, we’re in the living room of my old Manhattan flat, all of us, including Baron, Finn Elo, Leto Danto, Ben Artiste, and Vayle. Strangely enough, we’re standing exactly as we were on the grassy field in Sao Tome, only now I feel strong, revitalized. The taste of the mek’u’u still coats my tongue.

  Chapter 1

  Apart from Ze Feldis

  CLARITY

  The sixty-inch flat-screen television mounted on the wall above the unlit fireplace is airing a news program. Seeing the light flicker from the tube is strange; it was hardly ever on during the years I lived here alone.

  “Where is this place?” Leto Danto asks. “This isn’t where I took us.”

  “It’s my old apartment,” I reply. “Your plan was changed by our father.”

  “How do you feel?” Baron asks, examining my face for signs of weakness. He’s very aware that I was fading before the transport.

  “I’m better.” I’m distracted by the lackluster Manhattan skyline beyond the glass panel wall. The city looks turned off—dead.

  “It’s Heather Dulle!” Fawn gasps, surprised to recognize a face she hasn’t seen in a long time.

  The news finally claims everyone’s full attention. The text at the bottom of the screen identifies the woman with porcelain skin and fine blond hair pulled back into a tight bun as geologist Dr. Heather Dulle from the Jardin Institute in Switzerland. She’s speaking live via satellite feed.

  “Are you acquainted with her?” Ben asks.

  “Yes, I am,” Fawn whispers in a rush. She doesn’t want to miss a word of what Dr. Dulle has to say.

  “That is true. The seven earthquakes measured 10.0 on the Richter scale,” Dr. Dulle answers in an accent that has French and Italian inflections.

  “10.0, all seven of them?” the local anchor, Lydia Guiro, restates for dramatic effect.

  “Yes, but they were short, each lasting only two seconds.”

  “But they occurred simultaneously?”

  “That is true.”

  “Which gave them a greater impact?”

  “Possibly.”

  “One thousand sixty-two deaths worldwide so far?” the anchor asks leadingly. “That is the report, isn’t it? However…” She stops abruptly.

  But I know what she’s thinking. She’s very sure that the earthquakes weren’t the cause of all those deaths.

  “You said earlier that the epicenter of each earthquake couldn’t be located. Why is that?” Lydia Guiro asks, abandoning her previous line of questioning.

  She had received a warning from the powers that be because, just as Dr. Dulle believes, a correlation between the deaths and the quakes has not yet been established. Unfortunately, when Lydia Guiro changes her line of questioning, Dr. Dulle’s thoughts change. I was this close to extracting a secret from her, one that she’s keeping from the interviewer.

  “We are still searching for the answers,” Dr. Dulle says. “We believe the force and location of the earthquakes may have shifted the sun, but only temporarily.”

  “Yet Cal Tech and Columbia are reporting that the sun has completely disappeared. Are you claiming otherwise?” Her tone is challenging, and I know why.

  “Lydia Guiro is afraid,” I reveal. “The station is going to run with a skeleton crew. Everyone else is to immediately return home and stay inside.”

  “The sun cannot disappear. That is impossible,” Dr. Dulle tetchily claims.

  “Well, thank you so much for joining us,” the anchor says in a tone that indicates the interview has ended. “That was Dr. Heather Dulle of the Jardin Institute. As we reported, seven earthquakes occurred yesterday at 5:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, measuring 10.0 on the Richter scale. Geologists are baffled by the lack of structural damage. However, temperatures have fallen below freezing in certain regions of the world and are steadily falling, even here in the United States. The president has officially declared a state of emergency. Citizens are asked to stay indoors, keep the heat running, and use minimal electricity. Utility companies all over the country are dispensing energy without charge until this crisis is resolved.”

  I walk over to press the off button. It’s darker in here without the television on, but suddenly the fireplace beneath the mantel kindles. We all know it was sparked by the hands of our phantom servants.

  Our voices are mute, but our thoughts aren’t. We’re worried. What Dr. Dulle said was wrong, and the others are right. The sun is gone, and that is certainly a devastating occurrence.

  “So you know Dr. Dulle?” I ask Fawn, ending the moment of silence.

  “Yes, I do.” Her voice rings with curiosity.

  “She’s hiding something about the earthquakes, something that she finds disturbing. Do you think you can talk to her and figure out what that is?”

  “Of course,” she replies.

  A chime rings in Baron’s pants pocket. “Forgot I had this,” he mumbles as he digs out a cell phone and studies the name on the screen. “I have to take this.” He strides down the hallway toward my bedroom.

  And then two more cell phones chime. Zill and Glo look down at the same time. Zill slides the device out of the hip pocket of her green canvas jacket, and Glo pulls one from the waist pocket of her fashionable black leather motorcycle jacket.

  “Who can be calling you?” Vayle asks Zill with a concerned grimace.

  She shrugs. “I didn’t even know I had this.” She presses the answer button.

  “Hello,” Zill and Glo, who also answers her phone, say at the same time.

  “Deanna?” Zill exclaims.

  “Aries?” Glo gasps in disbelief.

  Every eye in the room watches them as they listen attentively. In this moment, I realize Tapeetha and Leto Danto have left us without notice. I take a second look around just to make sure, and, yes, they’re gone. However, they aren’t together. She is back at the Estate, and he is skulking through a dark, underground cave.

  “Were those your guardians?” Fawn asks after they disconnect their calls.

  “Yeah,” Zill says. “Deanna wants me to meet her at our house. I mean, the one she and I used to live in together, in Moonridge.”

  “But why?” Fawn asks.

  “She says she wants to show me something that will help us.”

  I look around the room. Our group is growing smaller by the minute. Finn is glaring out the window, and he’s only a second away from dashing out into the night of day. He’s been trying to contact the Selell named Chex but has failed. He’s also wondering, where in the hell is Lario Exgesis? A day never goes by without him wanting to answer that question.

  Zill and Vayle decide to head to Moonridge. I cover her with the shields of numbness, so her scent cannot be detected by Selells, and warmth, to keep her from turning into a popsicle made of flesh and blood.

  Finn is also ready to take off. He’s been stationary long enough. Since he can’t locate Lario Exgesis, he’s settling for the next best option—a Selell named Reefer. Finn’s eyes glow when he thinks about the vampire. I have come to understand that as a sign that Reefer is on the vampire slayer’s hit list.

  “Well,” Glo says quietly, “I guess I should see what Aries wants with me.”

  “Forget about it,” Finn barks. “You’re not going out there by yourself. Either you stay here with Clarity or you come with me.”

  Glo’s lips part. She chuckles once, defiantly, and then gives me a “Can you believe this guy?” look. “Screw you, Finn.” However, she’s not surprised by his objection. Glo knows he would never acquiesc
e to her trekking off alone, especially since vampires can roam freely in the never-ending night. Especially when her lifeblood is hot, tasty, and tempting to even the most disciplined vampires.

  “I’m still not letting you go,” he says, standing by his verdict.

  “I’m not your slave, Finn!”

  “And still—I’m not letting you go.”

  Glo considers lighting him on fire, because she knows that’s what it will take to get her way. “Fine,” she grunts. “But after you do what you want to do, we go see Aries.”

  Finn shrugs in agreement.

  Fawn, Ben, Glo, and Finn all leave together. I send shields of numbness and warmth with them as well. I’m alone in my former living room but not for long. Baron fills the empty space beside me, and I find his presence soothing.

  “I’ve been called away, my love,” he whispers in the stifling silence.

  “Is it business?”

  “Yes, it is.” He sighs tiredly.

  I gaze up at his face, examining his expression. Baron only sighs when he’s stressed, being that breathing isn’t a natural function for him. Neither is a heartbeat or a racing pulse—unless he drinks my blood. My blood brings him back to life temporarily, which is a beautiful miracle.

  The orange light from the fireplace illuminates one side of his face, and the shadows from the dusky room fall over the other. He’s gazing at me with a certain look in his eyes. I’m unable to extract his thoughts or emotions. Before we set off to battle the Evil, he drank blood from the vein in my neck. That gave me the ability to use the power of the Encaser on him, which is something I haven’t been able to do on Earth since before we developed an emotional connection. However, Baron is very wise in the ways of withholding his emotions from me. He does it reflexively because he hasn’t learned to trust me with his vulnerabilities, which does concern me to a certain extent.