The Society of Imaginary Friends

Valerie’s body was thrown on the stone floor. She hit the ground hard, but despite how disoriented she was from her vision and her whirlwind visit to Thai, she had the sense to immediately leap to her feet and assume a fighting stance, though she doubted that she could take on all of the guards in addition to Sanguina.

It didn’t help that she couldn’t even guess how many people were surrounding her. She was in total darkness. Not even one of the dim balls of light was near to give her a sense of the layout of the room and the location of her enemies. She was defenseless without the use of her sight. How could she possibly fight Sanguina when she couldn’t even see where she was standing?

“Glad you’ve come out to play,” Zunya’s voice slithered through the darkness. Valerie’s power dipped, and a hopeless fear gripped her heart. She would be completely defenseless in the battle to come with Zunya present to subdue her power.

“Leave us,” Sanguina’s raspy voice commanded. Valerie heard the light tread of the guards’ footsteps as they left the room. “You, too, Zunya. I don’t need your help with this.”

“I should stay, in case—” he started to say, clearly annoyed at her order.

“Get out—NOW!” Sanguina’s voice exploded. Zunya opened the door to leave, looking back once at Valerie with his vicious yellow eyes.

Then the door slammed closed, and she was alone with Sanguina and completely blind. She took a few practice kicks, preparing herself for Sanguina’s attack. But the onslaught of blows never came.

“I didn’t bring you here to fight me. I’ve already proven that I could kill you without making much of an effort,” Sanguina whispered in Valerie’s ear, the threat of violence in her voice. Valerie’s chest tightened as the fear that she couldn’t hold back gushed through her.

“Then why am I here?” she asked. She was ashamed of how childlike her voice sounded in the darkness. The Laurel Circle was freezing, reminding her that it was only her fear holding her back now—not her skills. She forced herself to breathe more slowly and fight back against her terror.

“To answer some questions for me. If I like the answers, maybe your little lightweaver friend will see his family again. And if I don’t…” One of Sanguina’s long, sharp fingernails raked across Valerie’s arm, cutting into her skin. She cried out in pain and a thin trickle of blood dripped down her arm where Sanguina had sliced her.

Valerie punched the air wildly, but in the darkness she could make contact with nothing. “What do you want to know?” she asked, desperate.

“What did you mean when you asked me about haunting your dreams?” Sanguina shouted from somewhere nearby. “It means something; I know it. And you’re going to tell me.”

“I don’t know!”

“Liar!” Without warning, Sanguina landed a fierce punch across her left cheek. Sanguina’s fist was a rock, and Valerie’s brain rattled in her skull and the skin on her cheek split open. Her ears rang from the blow and her head throbbed, but she managed to stay on her feet. She was already losing her tentative hold on her magic. She knew that if Sanguina tried to control her mind right now, she wouldn’t be able to fight her off.

“I saw you in a dream or a vision, and you were always really angry, that’s all,” she relented, knowing she had to give some kind of answer.

There was a short pause, as if Sanguina didn’t know what to make of her answer. Switching tactics, she said, “How do you know the boy, Henry?”

“Henry? Never heard of—” Valerie broke off in a scream as Sanguina threw her to the ground by her hair.

“You’ll tell me everything you know about Henry, or I swear I will kill that boy in the dungeon!”

“Kill me,” Valerie begged. “Let Cyrus and Henry go.”

“I will never let you go—or Henry. You are both mine,” Sanguina’s voice was low and deadly.

But instead of terrifying her, the confidence in Sanguina’s voice awoke something in Valerie. She was still afraid, but overwhelming her fear was her explosive anger. This monster would never own her—or her brother. The Laurel Circle suddenly blazed hot on her thumb, and Valerie knew that her fear wouldn’t swallow her up this time as it had done before.

Her rage was uncontrollable inside of her, and she almost hurtled herself toward Sanguina so that she could finally hit her. But she forced herself not to attack wildly. Instead, she contained all of her energy and power inside her, and prepared to channel it into a more intelligent assault.

“Fine, I give in. I’ll tell you what you want to know,” Valerie said quietly, remembering her lessons with Jet and Chrome. She needed to gauge where Sanguina was standing in relation to her in order to launch an effective attack, and the only way to do that in the dense darkness was by listening to Sanguina’s voice.

“Yes, you will,” Sanguina replied, and this time, Valerie’s heightened senses told her that Sanguina was two feet behind her.

“Pathos!” Valerie yelled, and immediately her blade was in her hand, glowing brightly in the black room.

Sanguina screamed in agony when the light hit her. Valerie immediately lunged toward her, bringing the blade down forcefully toward her shoulder. But despite her pain, Sanguina managed to dodge the blow with astonishing speed. She darted across the room, and Valerie raced after her.

Sanguina grabbed something hanging on the wall, and this time, when Valerie wielded Pathos, aiming for Sanguina’s heart, she heard the sound of metal meeting metal as Sanguina blocked her with a long, curved rapier of her own. The air was filled with sparks and the sound of their swords crashing against each other.

Valerie’s arms moved faster than they ever had before as she deflected Sanguina’s blows. She was in a trance, and nothing existed except for the fight. The flow of magic inside of her was only a small stream, as her fear kept gnawing at her mind, trying to steal her attention away from the fight. By the glow of Pathos, she could see Sanguina’s confidence in her ability to defeat her. Sanguina’s mouth turned up in a cruel snarl of victory. Valerie’s fear flared, interfering with her concentration, and Sanguina managed to slash Valerie’s leg with the tip of her sword.

“How many times do I have to prove to you that you aren’t good enough to defeat me?” Sanguina jeered.

Valerie refused to let Sanguina know how much pain she was in from this new gash on her leg, from the earlier slash on her arm, and from the dizzying blow to her face. But the pain had the opposite effect from what Valerie had anticipated. Instead of distracting her, adrenaline rushed through her body, sharpening her focus so that she barely noticed the blood trickling down her cheek and leg.

She said nothing, but more of her fear transformed into rage, and the stream of magic inside of her exploded into a torrent. She gave in to her power, fighting purely by instinct. Now Valerie had Sanguina on the defensive, and she slowly backed her into a corner. Sanguina’s face was grim, and Valerie knew that she had to use every ounce of her own strength and speed to fend her off. Sanguina tried to grasp at her brain to control her, but her attempts to claw her way into Valerie’s mind were useless, as if her consciousness was a ball of fire that couldn’t be contained.

Valerie’s heart raced. She was actually winning—but she knew that she couldn’t keep fighting this hard for much longer. Her magic would eventually run out. She needed to try something different. So this time, after blocking Sanguina’s sword from lopping off her right arm, Valerie deliberately flashed the luminous blade in Sanguina’s eyes. The light made her squint and flinch. A second of hesitation was all Valerie needed, and she pressed her advantage. She knocked Sanguina’s hand with the flat of her sword as hard as she could, loosening Sanguina’s grip on her weapon. The rapier clattered onto the ground.

Swiftly, Valerie pressed her blade against Sanguina’s neck. “Surrender,” she said quietly, trying to contain the glorious tide of joy rising inside of her. Had she really won? Sanguina stared at Valerie, her hatred emblazoned across her face.

Suddenly, Valerie’s attention was drawn to light glinting off of a crystal hanging on a chain around Sanguina’s neck. She saw Henry’s image inside the crystal, screaming. With her other hand, Valerie grabbed the chain and yanked it off of Sanguina’s neck. In the process, Sanguina tried to push her away, but she didn’t budge.

Sanguina’s eyes flicked down, noticing Pathos, and suddenly shock replaced the seething hate in her eyes. She looked up at Valerie searchingly. “Why do you have Adelita’s sword? Who are you? Tell me. Now!” Sanguina commanded, but her hatred seemed diluted, as if something had distracted her from their fight.

“This time it’s you who’s not in a position to give orders,” Valerie said, pressing her blade against Sanguina’s throat even harder. “You’re not going to distract me.” But she was genuinely confused at the change in Sanguina.

“Could you be… it’s not possible, but…” Sanguina said, so puzzled that she seemed almost unaware of the sharp blade against her neck. “It’s you!” Sanguina cried out, and her face contorted as anger warred with some other emotion that Valerie couldn’t begin to guess.

Pathos had nicked the thin, chalky skin on Sanguina’s neck. It was only a scratch, but Sanguina shrieked in pain. As Valerie watched, the light from Pathos poured into Sanguina through her wound. Valerie pulled her blade away, but it was too late. The light traveled through Sanguina’s body, illuminating her veins from the inside out. The sight was ghastly, as Sanguina appeared to be nothing more than a network of glowing veins in the blackness.

The pitch of Sanguina’s scream became higher, and Valerie knew, without a doubt, that the light was killing her. But instead of triumphant, she was more horrified than she had ever been in her life. Because of her, someone would die. She hated this woman, but suddenly she wished more than anything that she could take it all back. There was no way that she could live with herself, knowing that she had ended a life. She heard a faint clatter in the hall. Someone was coming. But she didn’t care. She didn’t know if she would ever care about anything ever again.

The door to the room burst open, and dim light streamed in. But Valerie couldn’t take her eyes off of Sanguina’s death throes.

Strangest of all, when Sanguina looked at Valerie now, all of the loathing was drained from her eyes. For the first time since Valerie had known her, Sanguina spoke without bitterness, and said, “If I had known who you were, I never would have hurt you.” Then Sanguina’s eyes rolled back in her head.

It was more than Valerie could bear. Agonizing remorse left her frozen in shock.

Something flashed through her like fire. She was burning with an energy that filled her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Sanguina started to fall to the ground, but before she collapsed on the floor, Valerie caught her, and the energy inside her burst from her fingertips and shot through Sanguina. Sanguina’s entire body glowed fiercely with a bright yellow-green light.

Energy flooded out of Valerie and into Sanguina in a torrent. Her strength faded as her field of vision narrowed to a tiny circle. She knew that if she didn’t stem the tide, she would be swept away with it, gone forever. It was as if she were pushing hard on a door inside of herself that didn’t want to close. With a burst of strength, Valerie slammed it shut.

Abruptly, the light inside of Sanguina went out and her body relaxed. She shuddered in Valerie’s arms and sighed. But then something miraculous happened—Valerie heard the sound of ragged breathing. Sanguina was alive.

You saved her. Azra’s soft voice moved through Valerie’s mind, comforting her.

Valerie struggled to remain conscious and not give in to the darkness that surrounded her mind, inviting her to lose herself in its oblivion. She couldn’t let go, not yet. Henry’s life depended on her. With a struggle, she pushed the darkness back inside her.

She blinked, aware for the first time that Azra and Kanti stood in the doorway, and behind them were a crowd of other Conjurors, some, like Gideon and Midnight, whom Valerie recognized, and many she had never seen before. Everyone was staring at her, stunned. Even Azra’s eyes were wide with surprise and sudden understanding.

“I don’t understand.” Valerie said.

You’re a vivicus, a life-giver. It has been many centuries since a Conjuror has been born with this gift. I sensed something untapped inside of you when we first met, but I never guessed… Azra trailed off with a shake of her mane.

“Will Sanguina be okay?” Valerie asked, resting her gently on the ground. In the dim light, Valerie could see that Sanguina’s skin had lost its pasty sheen. She looked almost—human.

Better than okay—you brought Sanguina the woman back to life, but the vampyre in her is dead. She is as she was before she was changed by Zunya.

“Zunya was the one who made her a vampyre? How—” Valerie began, but Henry’s fear ripped through her. “Henry’s still in danger! I have to go to him!” she cried, realizing that she was still clutching Sanguina’s charm for Henry in her hand. Adrenaline burned away her exhaustion.

Go and comfort him as best you can. We will wait.

She gripped the charm and concentrated. In the space of a thought, she was transported to Earth.