Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE: LEAVING

            As I left the cave with Terrace, who had just informed Saroph of his resignment, I swore loudly. “I never found out about Dominic! And I had questions for Saroph!” I sighed – I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. “Oh, well.” Terrace ignored me. “What, are you mad? Did you like Anna, too?” Terrace rolled his eyes. “No, Hazel. Anna is three years younger than me just in body. You are six years younger than me in body. In spirit, I surpass you both by centuries. So if you’re trying to make Anna or Cedar jealous, it won’t work.” I smiled slightly, my mouth just barely curving at the edges. “Not my plan exactly; don’t flatter yourself. I simply want Cedar to know I’m serious. I’ll go back in a few nights’ time.” Terrace looked at me curiously. “That’s what I told Saroph. You’ll ask your questions after all. I needed a break anyway – I never did like Anna much.” I looked at him curiously. “Um?” He didn’t look at me. “Just….”

            “When Saroph ‘found’ Anna – really, she’d stumbled across the cave while looking for Cedar – he treated her like a queen. I mean, he was infatuated with her. I was upset; Saroph would do anything for her and he was throwing caution to the winds! Being the primary guard – Saroph turned me himself – this was hard to take. But he got his senses back. He was back to normal eventually. But Anna wasn’t, whatever normal for her is. She didn’t take kindly to being put in her place. She’s a spoiled brat, basically.” Terrace looked more than a little miffed, even after all these years. I started laughing. “You were jealous of her!” I gasped between giggles. “Yes, I suppose,” Terrace replied, smiling. “Well, in any case, we should find somewhere to spend the day. Unless you want to go back now.” I moaned. “Not a chance. We just left.” Terrace nodded professionally. “Then how about by the river? There’s plenty of trees there for shade. No problems with hunting, either.” I readily agreed, and we set off at a swift lope towards the river.

            An hour of night awaited us still until the dawn would come. I left Terrace and hunted, and before long I’d drank from three large deer. I returned to our resting place with my lips coated in blood. “Hello, Terrace,” I sang out, my irritation dissipated. “Hi,” he replied, anxiety filling his voice. Puzzled, I felt fear and apprehension seep into me in a torrent. “Terrace?” I asked, beginning to feel scared myself. He didn’t reply.

            A high pitched scream fills the forest. Saroph lies bleeding on the ground. The wolves leap onto his body and begin to pull him apart piece by piece. A dark-haired, white-skinned creature looks at the scene and laughs. Anna is beside him, crying hysterically. Cedar is gone.

            The young vampire is a blur as he races towards where he knows Hazel is. Anna is in trouble. On some level, he knows Hazel won’t want to help him. On another, he hopes she will.

            Terrace shook his head suddenly, and a high-pitched scream filled the air. “No!” he yelled, and took off running, leaving me to follow. I raced after him, pushing myself faster. The scream stopped suddenly and I felt a new feeling take shape in Terrace: agony. It was then that I felt Cedar’s familiar rush from speed. He was nearby. I loped quicker, wishing he would appear and hoping that he wouldn’t. A dark shape rustled the bushes next to Terrace and I felt a stream of air. As the thing doubled back, I launched myself into the air. Below me, Cedar laughed manically. “Hello, Hazel.”

            I fell to the ground gracefully, turned slowly as if we had all the time in the world, and screamed, “What the hell!” He looked bewildered. “You come here after Terrace is all scared and expect me to welcome you back here with open arms? Not a chance,” I spat. He looked at me pleadingly. “Really, Hazel. I love you, not my own sister, not that way at least. But I can’t argue with you now. Anna is in trouble.” Quickly, Cedar explained what I supposed Terrace had already known. “Saroph is dead, I’m sorry,” Cedar said to Terrace, who merely nodded. “Yes, I know.”

            Much as I despised Anna, I had to avenge Saroph’s death – a vampire obligation: protect the ancient blood-drinkers at all costs and kill their murderers. I noticed Terrace struggling to keep a straight face as Cedar told me the obligation. (Later, he said Cedar was lying – there were no vampire obligations.) We traveled for a fortnight, exercising extreme care. I didn’t speak to Cedar; he noticed my selective silence but didn’t comment or question.

            Nights later, we arrived at a dark mountain cave. My nose wrinkled as I smelled werewolf. “This is it,” Cedar said. I opened my connections as wide as I could and tried to feel anyone – Anna, the wolves, Dominic, and any other accomplices. With a start, I remembered Jack. This type of scheme would be more like Leonard’s thinking. I refused to believe that Jack would betray us like that. I tried to think of some explanation for the betrayal. There was none.

            We approached the cave carefully, and Cedar attempted to charge the mouth of the cave. Terrace held him back. “No!” He whispered fiercely. “We know nothing about what we’re getting into!” At that moment, Terrace’s eyes went blank and he wavered before falling to the ground.

            “I hear people at the door,” the husky voice whispers into the darkness. “Please make sure the guards accept them into the cave, Jaice. I don’t want my plans for her to be ruined!” Through the shadows, Anna is visible – in a cage and surrounded by growling, slobbering, hungry wolves.

            Terrace was pale, and I nearly screamed, only just remembering where we were. “Let him be,” a voice behind us said coolly. I turned to see a tall man in a black t-shirt and cut-offs striding towards us. “Can’t help it if he’s seen something he doesn’t like. Damn clairvoyant fools. Could die of shock one day if he doesn’t learn to cope,” he muttered discontentedly. I felt immediately his gruff, disgruntled nature coating a deep hatred and violence brewing inside him. “Cedar –” I began, but he wasn’t listening. With one arm, the lycanthrope lifted Terrace’s still-limp body and started walking out of the cave. Cedar began to follow, but I leapt in front of him to block his path. “No,” I whispered to him. He looked at me incredulously. “Yes!” He replied angrily. “Absolutely! He took Terrace, and we need Anna. Now move.” I didn’t budge. “Liar – we don’t need Anna. You need Anna.” And I stood there in front of the cave and wouldn’t let him follow the stranger.

            Cedar was, of course, furious. “Hazel!” He whisper-screeched at me. “Damn you! I need my sister! I won’t let you stand in my way!” I stood calmly in front of him, my back to the cave. “I already am,” I said, trying not to smile. “No small, meaningless, insignificant obstacle is going to stand in my way!” He said angrily. My resolve was nearly shattered – small, insignificant, meaningless – but I merely glared at Cedar, and my sudden hostility was apparent in my tone when I spoke. “Small, sure. But insignificant? Meaningless? I don’t think so. Try and get by me, honey, go ahead,” I challenged him. He paced back and forth angrily. “Go ahead,” I repeated, sitting down on the rocky slope. “Try me.” He darted forward, but I was up already. I leapt onto his back and knocked him over. He sprawled on the ground and stayed there when I got up. “Small? Sure. Insignificant and meaningless? I don’t think so.”

            I was still stinging from his more than careless remark, but kocking him down had taken away some of the rage. He got up, brushed himself off, and walked away from me. When he looked up, I saw that he was crying. I quietly stood and walked definitively towards the cave. I stopped at the entrance, breathed deeply to calm my racing heart, and descended into the gloomy mist of the cave.

            I knew I had a choice whether to go and save Anna and Terrace. I wanted to – well, not Anna so much, but Terrace, certainly. What really made up my mind, however, was the fact that Cedar was crying. He felt like such a failure; I couldn’t go as far as to let him save Anna and Terrace himself, but I would save them. I wouldn’t be nearly as reckless as he would. And if he really considered me insignificant, this would prove him very wrong.

            I began the long, cold descent into the underground. I could feel, as I got closer to the cell, a growing desperation from Anna, along with an animalistic urge to kill – presumably from Dominic. I began to move faster, narrowly avoiding rocky walls. The darkness swallowed up the road, forcing even me – a vampire – to proceed carefully. I could hear water trickling through the rock. I descended further, closer to Anna and Dominic; voices floated up to me. “We should kill her now!” I heard Dominic say. “No – I believe Cedar or Hazel will follow us down here,” the large werewolf who had carried Terrace replied. “I think the girl…ah, yes, here she is!” Abruptly, moonlight hit my face full-force, illuminating also Dominic, Anna, and – bleeding on the ground – Terrace. I gasped at the long slice along his side; it hadn’t yet stopped bleeding. “Terrace is dead – or he will be in a moment – and Anna is soon to follow. But first, I need your boyfriend to watch her die. And maybe even you – but really, I’d rather not. I have plans for you. No, Anna will do nicely for this sacrifice.” Dominic smiled in satisfaction. I breathed deeply, trying to block the murderous feelings from infecting my body. He laughed. “Too late, Hazel. I don’t care if you feel or not. Not now. I’m going to kill her – brutally, bloody, and then I’ll give her to my guard Jaice to eat. And the whole time, Cedar will watch. But not you,” he added, as I shuffled my feet. “No, you will wait outside, so you won’t be able to help young Cedar’s pain. Not a single bit. I’ll send Jaice up to check on you periodically. So don’t get any ideas. Now, Jaice – kindly escort Hazel up to the entrance, alive, and then bring Cedar down. Keep them quiet.”

            Jaice took me up to Cedar’s level and forced me to sit on the ground – under a rock overhang, of course. Then he took Cedar – red-tinged tears still dripping down his face – down to the brutal execution. From my place in the darkness, I cried.