Fire & Pain - A Vampire's Tragedy
Chapter 22

Sophia

Adam furrowed his brows. “She might be in the guest quarter on the compound, but I can’t say for sure.”

My heart jumped in my chest. “That sounds amazing!”

He sighed. “Don’t get too excited. I’ve never seen her.”

“Why do you think she is there, then?”

He rubbed his neck. “I heard a female voice when I used a spell to check the sounds in the building. At least, I think whoever is up there is female. I couldn’t make the spell strong enough to be sure. There were scholars inside who might have detected me if I used a stronger spell.”

I bit the insides of my cheeks, wondering if his information could be trusted and if it was worth taking the risk. “Is it a tall building?”

“A tall tower, yes. If she is there, she must be at the top.”

“That’s not the greatest outlook.”

He leaned towards me, his eyes looking a lot more hopeful when I was feeling inside. “No, but we might get her out. I just need a distraction to enter the building safely. There are two entries. The main entry and a side entry. If there was a distraction at the main entry, I could sneak through the other one and go to the top.”

The plan sounds too simple to work. “Let’s say you do reach the top. How are you going to leave? Even if I could distract them long enough, and make everyone leave the tower, you would still need to leave, and I doubt the scholars from the tower are the only ones that are going to be altered. And you never saw the inside of the tower, either. Maybe there are locked doors or trapdoors.”

He straightened his back, his eyes wide. “Who said you’re the distraction?”

“Who else should be? If you start a ruckus, Samuel will punish you on the spot.”

He jumped up. “And he will kill you!”

I shook my head. “Adam, you can’t do both. It’s my sister up there. I want to be part of whatever the plan is. When you came clean to me, I thought we were going to be a team!”

His shoulders dropped as he lowered back on the chair. “You’re being reckless.”

I stared at him, unsure if I heard him right. “I’m reckless? Your entire plan is reckless and full of flaws. But it’s the first clue we have, and we don’t know how much time we have. All I know is that you can’t do everything alone. We need to work on this together, or else it won’t work out at all.”

He furrowed his brows, as he stared intensively at a spot on the desk, before he let out a long sigh. “Fine, okay. What do you think we should do?”

“Instead of taking the obvious entries, can’t you enter through a window or something?”

“There are plenty of windows, but I wouldn’t know where they are leading to. And the last ones are very far up. I can’t exactly climb up there.”

I tried to envision the tower in front of my eyes, but it was hard to do so with the information I had. “What if you didn’t climb but used magic instead? Is there some sort of gravitational spell or something you could use to beam yourself up there?”

“I’m a protector. My strengths are shields and spells for self-defense. Besides that, all I can do are basic little magic tricks, but they aren’t by far strong enough to carry me to the top, let alone bring two people down safely. And buying spells is also out of the question. Those scholars would see those signatures from a mile away.”

We sat in silence, both lost in our thoughts. It would be a lot easier if he was a shifter, a feline one, for example. They are excellent climbers. Ashe popped into my head, and for a second I considered asking her to help when I remembered she was pregnant and bringing her to Samuel’s compound would be too dangerous, even if she wasn’t with child.

“If it wasn’t so high, I could throw a rope up there and use it to climb to the top,” Adam said, disturbing my thoughts.

It’s when an idea popped into my head. “Is the gravitational spell easier to cast on lighter things?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the lighter, the easier, and the spell lasts longer, too.”

“You could cast the spell on a rope then.”

His eyes lit up. “That’s a great idea! If I put a hook in the end, I can secure it at the top. If there is something I can secure it on, but worst case, I can use the gutter of the roof. With a glancing stone, I could see what was going on up there, too. They are inexpensive and have no signature, so they shouldn’t be spotted either.”

“But what if it doesn’t work? What if you can’t replace something to secure it on? The gutter doesn’t sound too robust.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but right now I see it as the best option. I doubt I’ll get a guard position within the tower any time soon. Those are all very close to Samuel, and I’m still too new for that sort of position.”

I sighed, but the idea didn’t sit too well with me. If we mess up, it could mean death for both of us. But if my sister was up there, I had to try everything I could to get her out of there. “Okay, we should try to get her out then. Can you provide the things you need?”

“That’s no issue. I’ll take care of it as soon as I can.”

I nodded, his optimism making me feel a little better. “When do you think we can start?”

“An option would be in three days. Samuel is out for a meeting, and he has already chosen his scholars. This time I’m not one of them. It’s a good chance for me to sneak out of the compound.”

Three days, that was a lot earlier than I expected, but a rush of excitement took hold of me. All of a sudden, all my doubts vanished. I was ready to bring Claire back home. “Should we meet here?”

He nodded. “I think that would be the best idea. We should meet here at around seven in the evening.”

“Okay, I’m going to be there.”

A smile spread over his face. “And now with that out of the way. Let’s see what you’re capable of.”

My mind went blank. “What do you mean?”

He laughed. “Don’t you remember? We said I would help you with your magic the next time we would meet.”

“Oh, right! We did say that. I trained a bit more since the last time I sent flames your way.”

It was technically true, even if my magic was still unpredictable and completely out of control nine out of ten times.

His eyes sparkled. “I’m excited to see your improvement!”

My stomach dropped as I watched him jump up and hurry outside. I suppose he was in for a very disappointing surprise.

Adam

I didn’t want to tell her, but I was worried about the forest. I hoped she wouldn’t set anything on fire by accident. The last two times I had seen her use magic, it more seemed like a brute force than controlled magic. My body felt tense as I walked around the space, trying to replace a suitable spot for us to train without destroying too much. I decided that being close to the water would be the best idea, even when controlling water was my least skillful field of magic. Hopefully, it would be enough to put out a fire.

“Are all the scholars from the other night fine, by the way?” She asked, stopping next to me.

I laughed. “Of course. I protected them, after all.”

She rolled her eyes, but a big, toothy smile spread over her face. “Yes, the amazing protector, Adam. But I have to admit that your shield looked beautiful when it exploded into all those butterflies. You know, butterflies always meant something special to me.”

I stepped back, taking a glimpse of the tattoo behind her left ear again. “Is that why you got the tattoo?”

She smiled and touched the ink behind her ear. “Yeah. I lost my hearing on that side when I was a child. I can’t remember what happened, but I know it had something to do with butterflies. Never negatively, though. It’s more like they gave me a feeling of safety.”

My heart raced in my chest. “You can’t remember why you lost your hearing?”

It was as if it were yesterday when it all happened. The pictures in my head were still so vivid, even though it had been years. I never knew she had lost her hearing.

She shrugged. “I was a little adventurer back in the day. My parents told me I ventured around town someday, and I got lost. Then it started raining, and a huge thunderstorm roared above the city. I hid in an old building, scared of the thunder. There I fell down the stairs and hit my head, which caused the hearing loss. Well, that, and a significant chunk of memory loss. But I have had trouble remembering since I was a small child. I can’t remember my entire childhood. Some sort of rare genetic disease, they said. Guess not even vampires are safe from that. Oh, and I also accidentally set the building on fire in my panic, but well, let’s not talk about that.”

I glanced at her tattoo again, all the things I wanted to tell her on the tip of my tongue. To explain to her what actually happened. But it wasn’t the right time yet. For now, I would dwell on the thought that she had tattooed a symbol of mine on her body, even if she didn’t know that right now. At least she wouldn’t have to remember the dark times that were still torturing me, and instead, she could connect it with positive thoughts.

“So, do you want to stare at my tattoo or train me, as you promised?”

Heat crept up my neck, and I cleared my throat. “Sorry, I got lost in thought for a second. Let’s start then!”