A Dawn of Strength (A Shade of Vampire #14)(22)

“But didn’t it take us at least a day last time when we took the cure? Counting up the time we spent in the pit, and then recovery time with the help of the witches… What if you didn’t even recover in time?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take, and why I need to enter the Pit immediately.”

“Then why are we headed toward the Sanctuary? Don’t we need to fetch immune blood from the cooling chambers?”

“Corrine usually keeps a small stock in her potion room and her home is closer than the cooling chambers.”

Since Corrine and Ibrahim had gone to the Armory along with all the other supernaturals on the island, we found the witch’s temple empty. The door was unlocked, thankfully, so we walked right inside and headed to the potion room. Derek had been right. There were half a dozen vials of blood in the drawer beneath her sink. Derek grabbed a couple and opened each of them up, sniffing them just to be sure. The scent was unmistakable. We raced out of the witch’s temple again and made our way toward the dreaded Pit.

We stopped outside the gate leading up to it. Twisting open both vials, Derek downed them in a few gulps. He looked down at me reproachfully. “You don’t have to put yourself through staying with me, darling.”

“You must be joking,” I said, pulling him down toward me so I could kiss his lips. “I’m not budging from here until you’re back in my arms.”

He didn’t argue, probably because he saw there was no point. Letting go of me, he walked slowly toward the gate. Gripping the handle, he creaked it open. I caught sight of his brilliant blue eyes one last time before he slammed the gate shut.

As my husband began to groan, I leaned my back against a tree trunk and slid down to the ground. As always, this was going to be a long, agonizing wait.

The only thing I could comfort myself with was the fact that Derek had taken the cure before and pulled through it without complications, as had many other vampires on the island. Yes, it was a dangerous and potentially fatal procedure, but this time should be no different from all the others.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chapter 17: Caleb

I was surprised that Derek would place me so quickly in such a position of responsibility. I supposed he thought it would be valuable to have someone in charge who’d witnessed a black witch’s palms being damaged firsthand.

After Derek gave the word, we rushed everyone to the Armory. The hall was far too small to hold the entire crowd, so we gathered everyone outside in the training grounds. Eli, Aiden, Mona and I stood in a circle.

“The first thing we ought to do is make sure everyone understands the witches’ weakness.” Aiden fixed his attention on me. “Would you like to brief them all, Caleb?”

I gave him a curt nod and cleared my throat. I leapt up onto the roof of the Armory and stared down at the sea of faces. I briefly recounted the incident with Rose and Rhys on the circus boat. Even as I spoke, it felt strange to have all these strangers accepting me as an authority so readily, when only a short while ago they must have perceived me as an enemy.

I climbed back down and turned to face the other three once I’d finished.

“As for weapons,” I said, “first and foremost, everyone should be equipped with a gun. Anything that can’t be used long distance won’t be of much use.”

We entered the Armory with the rest of the witches accompanying us and began gathering together every gun in the building. To my dismay, most turned out to be UV guns.

“These only work on vampires, right?” I asked, picking one up and examining its barrel.

Eli shook his head. “The type we have will cause damage to anything you shoot at.”

Mona levitated the huge pile of guns along with several crates of ammunition out into the center of the training fields.

“Arm yourselves, everyone,” Aiden shouted.

“Hey, Caleb.”

I spun around to see who had called my name. It was Micah. He ran up to me and gripped my hand.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“Long story, my friend,” he muttered darkly. “I’m glad you and Rose made it back here safely.”

“How are the wounds healing, Micah?” Lucinda, one of the witches, asked.

“They’re healing well, thanks. I’m strong enough to help fight.”

Lucinda frowned. “I wouldn’t recommend that just yet…”

Micah grimaced and waited for the witch to pass by before clutching my shoulder. “I’m going to help fight these bastards if it’s the last thing I do.”

With that, he stepped back and walked toward the pile of weapons, which was rapidly diminishing as everyone hurried forward to collect theirs.

“It looks like we’re ready for armor now,” Eli said, looking around the crowd.

I turned around toward the entrance of the Armory in time to see Mona and three other witches walking out from it, this time with a huge pile of steel armor. Again, it was placed on the field.

Mona addressed the entire group of witches who hurried toward her. “Every single person joining in this battle must have their armor checked by us. Not all the pieces will end up fitting everyone, so we have to make adjustments quickly.”

Corrine breathed out, rubbing her forehead with her palm. “There are so many of us here. Let’s hurry.”