The Vampire And The Orphan
Chapter Sixteen

Lettie had jumped into the void many times, but this was different. This time, it was like being in a vacuum, but it was so fast she hardly had time to fathom it before they landed, quickly and with a jolt. With a vivid grip, Prue held tight to Lettie’s arm as they came to a standstill. Lettie’s eyes were squeezed tight, and she was afraid to open them.

“Where are we?” Prue spoke, and Lettie finally opened her eyes.

Lettie looked up to see hundreds of fireflies lighting up the vast sky. It was dark but not as dark as the cave she and Nathanial ended up in; a faint blueish glow illuminated the wide field they stood in, it was void of any grass, but it had some trees surrounding it. A faint buzzing could the noise be heard from the fireflies above.

“Give me back my necklace,” Lettie demanded.

“Here.” Prue handed it to her. “I’m sorry, Lettie. I was desperate. Do you think it worked?”

“I don’t think so,” Lettie said as she concentrated on the necklace, causing much light to flow. “The cloud sucked us up here.”

“I know this place! It’s the battlefield where the last battle occurred before The Order was formed. Or it was.” Prue started walking the field, and Lettie followed her.

“These realms are replicas of where they were created,” Lettie explained. “I have to find the void.”

“The void?”

“The hole we can get back out of,” Lettie said as she frantically scanned for it, she nearly tripped on a branch, but Prue’s vampire reflexes saved her quickly.

“I got you.” Prue righted her quickly.

“Why help me now?” Lettie frowned as their gazes met.

“I never stopped helping you,” Prue insisted. “We need these answers.”

“I was figuring out another way.” Lettie felt so betrayed and angry; she had never had feelings like those before; they were horrible.

“Because Nate wouldn’t let you do it your way,” Prue pressed. “You should get to choose for yourself. I saw in your eyes that you wanted to do it.”

“Nathanial and I decide together. What if he thinks I betrayed him now?” Lettie shuddered at the thought of him feeling as she did.

“He knows you would never.”

“You had no right. I trusted you.” Lettie found tears burning her eyes. “No one has ever fooled me like that before. I hate this feeling.”

“I’m so sorry, Lettie,” as Prue spoke, her eyes filled with remorse. “The Order, they found us. I got desperate. But listen, this is good. You should know anger and stuff like that; we are about to be up against some evil ass beings.”

“I know,” Lettie bit her lip nervously at that. “Let’s keep going.”

“What are we looking for?”

“The sky will look darker, nearly pitch black in a large area; that’s the void,” Lettie explained as they walked up ahead.

Lettie saw a long narrow path surrounded by trees and started that way, Prue caught up quickly to her.

“I have been watching your back since I got the vision, faery girl,” Prue said as they walked. “I even turned myself and denounced all my powers to keep that vision to myself.”

“I saw myself how upset it made the other witches,” Lettie murmured.

“I get creative sometimes and think what you will; I do it for a reason. Do you think the five-hundred-year vow was just for fun? It wasn’t. I knew Nate needed a purpose to keep going.”

“What do you mean?”

“I chose Nathanial of all the vampires Nyx trained to protect my line because my instincts strongly told me he would do right by the world. But he held so much guilt over the things he did. Without a long-standing purpose, he wouldn’t have gone on.”

Lettie believed that to be true, she saw the sorrow in young Nathanial’s eyes herself.

“Thank you,” Lettie said, “for caring for him before I could.”

“Whoa.” The small vampire girl came to a sudden halt.

“What? What is it, Prue?”

“Don’t look down.”

’Why...? Oh my! Bodies?” Lettie gasped as she stepped past Prue into the open field. It was littered with dozens of dead bodies; at first glimpse, they looked human, but then she saw the wings, nearly translucent on the backs, very similar to the fireflies buzzing around them.

“There will be more.” Jael’s menacing voice filled the air, and Lettie grabbed Prue on instinct, holding tightly to her arm.

“Lifespans are growing shorter. We are growing weaker.” He materialized right before them, and both girls gaped at him.

He was smaller than she expected him to be, Jael, only standing a few inches taller than Lettie. He wore a long dark cloak and black pants. His eyes were a piercing silver and seemed to look right through her, while his hair was long and white and cascaded down his back. His translucent wings, lit up with a blue haze, spread past his shoulders, lighting the area around him in a blueish haze.

“We want to help.” The moment Prue spoke, Jael’s silver eyes darkened with hate. He lifted his hands, and a cloud of black energy, a much smaller one, was shoved at Prue. It circled her throat, squeezing it so tight her eyes widened, and she started to flair her arms.

“Die abomination.” Jael stepped forward, extending his hand with ease, and Prue flew backward, her back hitting a tree. Jael pulled a stake from his cloak, his eyes shimmering with delight as he looked at it.

“Been too long since I had a good kill.” He let his finger graze the sharp tip.

“Stop!” Lettie screamed at him.

“Why would you stop me? She betrayed you.”

“She had her reasons, and I have forgiven her. She has been keeping me safe.”

“I will not allow a vampire into my realm, Olette.”

“You will, or I will leave and not come back,” Lettie threatened, stepping before him. “I know you need me.”

“Threats are useless when you don’t know the way out,” Jael taunted.

“I’ll find it; my mom did. I will,” Lettie said firmly. “Now let her go.”

“If she harms even one fae here. It will be on you,” he said darkly, and Lettie gulped.

“I don’t kill for food,” Prue muttered as the dark cloud left her throat, and she fell against the tree.

“They say that, and then they do,” Jael said in a dark tone to Lettie, then stepped back and whistled.

Lettie watched in wonder as two male faeries came flying into the field. Both were tall and slender, one with long blueish-white hair and the other braided grey. They wore shabby and torn clothes and looked dirty, but their broad, translucent wings, which were lit like the fireflies above, were so beautiful it mesmerized her. They flew so smoothly through the air and then they landed softly on either side of Jael; they both shifted their gazes to Lettie for a moment but quickly fixed them on Prue.

“Take the vampire and chain her up in the cellar.” Jael directed them, and they moved forward, steely gazes fixed on Prue. “Fight them, and I will kill you.”

The two men grabbed Prue’s arms, and she let them pull her up willingly walking with them.

“You’ll know what to do,” Ella had said.

The trouble was, Lettie didn’t have a clue what to do, but she did know she needed to be witty, and outsmart Jael somehow.

The men dragged Prue past her, and Lettie gave the vampire one short nod, letting her know she’d find a way out of this mess; Prue got them in.

**

“That seemed too easy.” Nathanial looked down at the dozen or so street vampires that littered the entrance to the cave below. Between himself and Nyx and a few others, the young vampires didn’t stand a chance; they’d all been killed within minutes.

“Because it was intended to be,” Nyx replied. “Everyone leave. The Order will know we’re here now.”

“They sent them here to scout,” Nathanial realized. The makers would know when their sires perished, which would be proof enough that this place was worth a visit.

“Where do we go?” Someone asked as panicked vampires dove down the cave to retrieve their spouses and partners.

“The last location for now,” Nyx directed. “Go!”

Nathanial felt Lettie’s absence before climbing down the cave entrance, but he refused to believe it until he’d scoured every inch of the hideout and didn’t find her or Prue.

Why did she go into the void? She was still safe down here, and she’d promised him... not to bait herself to Jael...

Did she anyway? No, she wouldn’t.

“She is safe then if they went into another realm,” Nyx was behind him. “We need to go.”

“When she comes back, it’ll be through here,” Nathanial said. “I need to be here to protect her.”

“You can’t protect her if you’re dead.”

“Just go, Nyx.”

“No.” He stood next to Nathanial. “You have no chance alone.”

“Someone’s here.” Nathanial heard the sound of a helicopter landing above them.

The two vampires stood shoulder to shoulder, standing near the hut as that’s where Nathanial assumed Lettie would come from when she came back.

“She’s here.” Nyx shuddered suddenly and the large man didn’t shudder. “She came herself.”

Nathanial felt the presence before he saw her coming out of the cave; she was so powerful, almost as if it radiated off her. He didn’t need an introduction or to have ever met her to know who she was.

She was flanked by two men dressed in all black as they walked swiftly toward them. She was wearing a long black cloak but removed it as they got closer, revealing a deep red pair of leather paints with a lacy black boudoir top. Her black hair cascaded down her shoulders in perfect curls, kissing her bronzed skin. Her almond-shaped mocha eyes narrowed in on Nathanial and Nyx, and her plump red lips curled into a menacing grin.

“Lilith,” Nyx spoke her name in a whisper.

Nathanial had never seen her, only heard of how beautiful the original vampire was; and even he was taken aback momentarily, she was truly stunning, yet still paled compared to Lettie’s innocent beauty.

Thoughts of Lettie quickly sobered him, and he blinked his stupor away.

“Where is she?” Lilith’s eyes shifted solely to Nathanial.

“Who?”

“Don’t play coy,” Lilith sneered as she stepped closer. “Where have you hidden the hybrid girl?”

“What hybrid girl?” Nyx had cleared his head now as well and joined Nathanial.

“I was told the story about a vampire and an orphan, from a bartender in a little dive bar, ring a bell?” Lilith taunted.

Benjamin had betrayed them, and Nathanial wasn’t a bit surprised about it.

“I knew you’d end up finding the rebels. We always knew where you were, by the way, Nyx. We have spies on the inside. I have simply been humoring you by allowing you to live, or maybe humoring myself.”

“What do you want with her?” Nathanial nearly growled and Lilith laughed,

“Ben was right, you’re mated to her.”

“She hasn’t been gone long. I smell her all over you,” Lilith closed the distance between her and Nathanial, gripping her neck in a vice-grip. “Where is she?”

“We don’t know,” Nathanial gritted out. “We sent her away with one of ours, with instructions to not even tell us where they are taking her.”

She seemed to buy that her grip was loosening up some. “You can reach this person, however. Call them and tell them to bring her here.”

“No,” Nathanial said.

She slammed him backward, his back hitting the rock wall of the cave.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” She plunged her hand through his chest, and he groaned as the pain spread through him; her cold hand found his heart squeezing it in her hand. “So, what do you prefer?”

“If you kill me, you’ll never find her,” Nathanial gasped; it didn’t seem Lilith knew Lettie could create realms; that was good, but he needed to get her out of here before Lettie and Prue came back here.

“But if I almost kill you, repeatedly, I might.” A smirk curled over Lilith’s lips as she released her grip from his heart and slipped her hand out, she then held her bloody arm out, and one of her minions came over to wipe it clean.

“Grab them,” Lilith directed once he was done. “We’re taking them back to our base.”

“No one can know where it is, though!” One protested, and Lilith’s eyes flickered angrily as she looked at him.

“Never defy an order!” She barked at him, and he shrunk back as he nodded.

“Nathanial’s soulmate will feel his pain and fear; eventually, she won’t be able to take it anymore; she’ll find him, even if she has to move heaven and earth to do it.” Lilith gave Nathanial a gleeful smile. “So, I will win after all.”

“Did I not tell you two to grab them?” She barked, seeing Nathanial and Nyx still standing there. “Let’s go.”

Nathanial looked at Nyx, letting him know to go along; he needed to get Lilith out of here, even if it meant undergoing torture. Lilith luckily didn’t know that Lettie was in another realm, and as long as she was, she couldn’t feel what was going on with Nathanial.

He only hoped Lettie would stay there; there was no telling what Lilith wanted with her, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

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