The Blood of Vampire: Chapter 7 - Beneath the Dragon's Sightless Gaze
The Dragon's Claw Mountains were a labyrinth of jagged, spiritual granite, constantly shifting, their sheer faces too treacherous for conventional travel. Jatex had to move through the hidden cave network, a dizzying maze of mineral veins and underground rivers.
He was deep inside a massive, silent cavern—a space so large the air felt thin—when he encountered the unexpected.
Not a Vaelanar, not a soldier, but a human woman: Ryn.
Ryn was a scavenger and a geomantic rogue, perhaps twenty years old, wearing patched leather armor and carrying a rusty coil of specialized wire. She was small, quick, and currently trying to dismantle a highly sophisticated seismic sensor—a Vorlag military device.
Jatex watched from the black ceiling, using his Stillness to achieve perfect spiritual and physical silence. The sensor was keyed to the seismic shifts of the mountain—exactly what Jatex's heavy-footed movements would trigger.
Ryn worked with frantic, focused energy. Her fingers were taped, moving with the precision of a jeweler. But she was running out of time. A low, rhythmic thump began resonating through the granite—the tell-tale sound of General Commander Vorlag's reinforced shock-troops approaching the cavern entrance.
Ryn cursed silently, failing to disengage the final wire. She was trapped.
Jatex knew the troops would flood the cavern in ninety seconds. They would detect his Shadow-Blood and Ryn's intrusion simultaneously. He had two choices: continue his perfect silence and leave her to be captured, or risk exposure to gain a tactical advantage.
Law demands sacrifice. But Aeliana sacrificed for life.
He chose the latter. He dropped silently onto the stone floor twenty feet behind Ryn.
Ryn spun, her eyes wide with terror, her small knife flashing. She saw the boy—a figure of utter, chilling stillness, his eyes reflecting the cold chaos he had consumed.
"A Vaelanar," she whispered, already braced for the Siphon.
Jatex ignored the knife. He focused his Shadow-Blood on the seismic sensor. He didn't touch it. He executed a massive, controlled Siphon of Grief, spiking his power.
The resultant chaotic energy wave slammed into the sensitive circuits, not with force, but with a precise, high-frequency distortion.
The sensor exploded inward, collapsing into inert dust.
"You don't Siphon," Ryn whispered, utterly confused, her knife lowering fractionally.
Jatex didn't speak. He pointed to the entrance where the thumping of Vorlag's troops was now deafening. He then pointed to a narrow, hidden fissure high on the cavern wall—a path only a seasoned climber or a panicked fugitive would know.
Trust me, the silent command radiated from his eyes. Or die here.
Ryn stared at the supernatural, self-consuming boy. She chose to trust the eyes.