As Shadows Fade (The Gardella Vampire Chronicles 5)

Nothing. Not even a scratch.

And, oddly, no droplets of water splattered when he pulled out. Instead, it dripped off in heavy spherical drops, like mercury, sliding back into the pool and fading into invisibility.

He looked down and immersed his hand once again. This time, although he felt the cut of the water, he ignored it and began to gingerly seek the orb, unsure what other surprises he might find.

Beneath the surface, the pool felt just like any other body of water: surging, pressing, and wet. Sebastian moved his fingers around, feeling along for anything spherical. He touched a sandy bottom, smooth and without the slime of seaweed or the random bump of stone.

He inched closer to the edge of the water, and felt Victoria’s hands close around his shoulders, holding him steady and safe. That allowed him to seek further, and he stared at the image of his face on the water, with Victoria and her dark, tousled curls and anxious expression above and to the side of his.

He focused on the image of them together while using his hand to feel around, looking at her, and himself, his fingers brushing the soft bottom of the pool. He felt something sharp and pointed and paused, running his fingers around it, wishing he had another set of five rings so that he could use both hands to seek.

The object felt pyramid-shaped, heavy, larger than his hand, definitely not the orb. But he wondered what it might be.

Reluctantly leaving it in place, for the vampire eyes watched him closely, he slid his hand around to the right, sweeping farther and farther. As he searched, he concentrated by keeping his eyes focused on Victoria’s gaze in the image reflected below.

Having swept through most of the large section of the pool, he slid this time into the baylike bulge on the side. The water was deeper here, and it reached past his elbow when he brushed the bottom.

Then his bare fingers moved something hard and rough, very different from the sandy bottom or a glass sphere.

Then the rough object… opened, or gave way, or somehow changed under the pressure of his hand, and his arm slid deeper into the water. Sebastian felt a little zing of awareness trip through him as he felt something close around his hand and wrist… like sand or the mud of a bog.

He couldn’t move for a moment, couldn’t pull his hand out, and his breathing caught, his vision spotted.

There was a soft rustle in his ears, deep in his mind, whispering in the back of his head. Sebastian blinked and shook his head, refocusing on the mirrorlike pool where his hand remained immersed. He saw his face on the surface, and Giulia’s behind him, her long, dark hair falling over her shoulder and onto his.

Her lips moved. She was speaking, urgently, her eyes big and dark. Save me.

He cried out, reached out automatically behind him, yanking his hand from the water and twisting to touch her, flinging the ball-like droplets every which way. They bounced back into the pool as he realized no one was there behind him.

No one but Victoria, who, upon his exclamation of surprise, had pulled him back from the pool so that he tumbled onto his arse on the ground behind him. The black spots in his vision had gone, his hand was unharmed, and the little zing of awareness went away. His breathing rough, Sebastian shook his head and regained his focus.

Was he going mad, or had the pool triggered one of his dreams?

She’d never spoken to him like that before. Pleading, begging. Save me.

But how. Bloody damn how ?

“Sebastian.” He looked up to find Victoria bending over him, her face close and definitely not like Giulia’s, except for the dark hair and dark eyes. Perhaps it wasn’t so far-fetched that his mind had played such a trick. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” he replied shortly. “I was merely startled.”

“What happened? Perhaps I should try-”

“No, damn it. Move out of the way, and let me try again. There’s not much more I haven’t searched, so if the orb is there, I’ll find it.” His hand was fine, and though that had been an odd sensation, he was unharmed. He’d never felt as though the pool was sucking him in or meant to drag him down. It hadn’t been… threatening.

Not threatening, but, perhaps… enlightening.

Ignoring the sharp look Victoria gave him, Sebastian moved to the opposite side of the pool and knelt there. The sun had gone completely to bed, and the only light was from the anemic half-moon and the orange cast from the torches. This, along with the position of the mountain behind him now, left the reflection of the pool darker and more indistinct. Just as well. He didn’t need to see Giulia crying for help.

Taking a deep breath, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, Sebastian plunged his hand in once more. This time, the cut of the water hardly bothered him. His fingers moved deftly in this area of the pool, sifting over the soft piles of sand until at last they brushed something hard and smooth. Rounded.

The orb.

He covered it with his hand; it fit into his palm neatly enough, and felt warm and… pleasant. Gently tingly, lightly comforting, and solid.

Settling back on his haunches, he pulled his hand out, and there it was. The shining blue Tached’s Orb.

Its glow illuminated Victoria’s face as she bent closer. It bathed her cheeks and lips, the tips of her curls, with rays of silvery aqua. As he held it, he felt the continued heat of comfort and… peace. It was the only word he could think of to describe the well-being that trickled through him.

“Now remove the rings,” said Mercy in her grating voice. “I’ll have them.” Her eyes glowed greedily red-violet, and her fangs poked into her bottom lip. “There is one other item I wish to retrieve from below.”

Sebastian thought of the prism he’d touched earlier. “What is it you seek?”

“Take off the rings,” Mercy repeated, but then her words trailed off.

Victoria had moved and now had a stake in her hand, and a sword in the other. “You seem to have forgotten your manners, vampire,” she said. Her eyes glittered, and Sebastian could see that she spoiled for a fight.

“It’s of no use to mortals,” Mercy said. “Only to the undead.”

“I see no reason to accommodate your undeadness,” Victoria replied. “Now move away, and we’ll be off to the portal. Or… Brim?”

Sebastian looked to see that Brim had, for all of his massive bulk, moved quickly and quietly to capture the Guardian vampire. He held him from behind, stake poised over his undead heart.

Mercy cast a quick glance, then shrugged. “You’ll face Lilith’s wrath if the three of us don’t return.”