CHAPTER 122: THE VAMPIRE’S CONCERN

Dmitri POV

The scent of dimensional magic hit me like a slap across the face as I ran through the trees toward the chaos. Three hundred years of life had taught me to recognize that particular smell - like burning copper mixed with the emptiness between stars. It meant someone was playing with forces they didn’t understand.

I burst into the area just as Caleb’s anguished howl echoed through the trees. What I saw made my dead heart clench with old fear.

Lily was flickering in and out of existence like a light in the wind. Her body phased between solid and transparent, and I could see the obvious shimmer around her edges that meant dimensional displacement. I’d seen it once before, two centuries ago, when a witch tried to open a portal to the shadow world.

She’d been lost forever.

"Get away from her!" Caleb snarled at me, his wolf form bristling with protective rage.

"You fool," I snapped, dropping to my knees beside Lily’s disappearing form. "I’m trying to help her!"

The werewolf’s eyes blazed with distrust. "Since when do vampires help anyone?"

"Since I’ve seen this before and know what happens next," I said grimly, putting my hands carefully near Lily’s flickering form. "She’s caught between worlds. If we don’t stabilize her soon, she’ll scatter across endless realities and never find her way back."

Elder Iris stumbled closer, her face pale with understanding. "You know about dimensional displacement?"

"My maker was obsessed with crossing between worlds," I explained, watching Lily’s form wobble dangerously. " He tested on dozens of creatures before the Council stopped him. Most of them simply disappeared. The few we managed to save..." I shuddered at the thought. "They were never the same."

Lily’s eyes suddenly snapped open, but they weren’t focused on our world. She was seeing something else entirely.

"The trees are made of silver here," she whispered in a voice that seemed to come from far away. "And the sky is green. Caleb, why is your hair white?"

"I’m here, Lily," Caleb said desperately, trying to touch her face. His hand passed through her cheek. "My hair isn’t white. You’re seeing another world."

"No," she said, her voice splitting into various tones again. "I’m seeing three worlds. In one, you’re old and sad. In another, you’re..." Her face crumpled with fear. "You’re dead. There’s so much blood."

Caleb made a choked sound of pain. I could smell his misery, sharp and bitter in the air.

"Listen to me carefully," I said, leaning closer to Lily’s changing form. "You need to focus on this fact. Find something that anchors you here - a memory, a feeling, anything that’s truly yours in this world."

"I can’t," she gasped. "They’re all calling to me. The other forms of myself. They want me to join them."

A chill ran down my spine. This was worse than I’d thought. "What other versions?"

"The one who died saving the pack," she said, her voice becoming dreamy and faraway. "She’s so peaceful now. No more pain, no more burden. And there’s another who never became the Triple Moon holder. She’s normal, happy, invisible again."

"Those aren’t real," I said confidently, though I wasn’t entirely sure. Dimensional displacement could show true alternate worlds or create false ones. Either way was dangerous. "This is your world. These are your people."

But even as I spoke, I noticed something that made my blood run cold. The shadow creatures lurking at the edge of the clearing weren’t just from other worlds - they were being drawn here by Lily’s unstable energy like moths to a flame.

One of them, a twisted thing that might have once been human, crept closer. Its eyes were holes in reality, and when it spoke, its voice was the sound of dying worlds.

"Let her go," it whispered. "Let her join us in the spaces between. She belongs with the lost ones now."

"Never," Caleb growled, placing himself between the thing and Lily.

But I could see more shadows forming. Dozens of them, all different shapes and sizes, all drawn by the dimensional rifts Lily was making. Some looked like perverted animals. Others looked to be the remnants of people who had been lost between worlds.

"She’s becoming a beacon," I realized with rising horror. "Every time she phases, she creates a signal that calls to everything lost in the dimensional void."

Elder Iris grabbed my arm. "Can you stop it?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. "The only person I ever saw survive dimensional displacement had to be grounded by someone who loved them more than life itself. But even then..."

"What?" Caleb demanded.

I met his desperate eyes. "The anchor had to gladly follow them into the void and pull them back. Most of the time, both were lost forever."

The words hit Caleb like a physical blow. I could see him calculating, weighing the risks. The love in his eyes was so bright it almost hurt to look at.

"If I go after her," he said slowly, "what are the chances we both make it back?"

Before I could answer, Lily let out a sound of pure fear. Her form was becoming more transparent by the second, and I could see through her to the trees behind.

"They’re here," she whispered. "In all three places. The Void King’s army is using the bridges I’m making. They’re coming through."

That’s when I saw them - not the smaller shadow creatures we’d been dealing with, but true Void Lieutenants. Massive beings of living darkness that existed to eat light and hope. They were stepping through the dimensional cracks like they were doors.

"How many worlds has he conquered?" I breathed, counting at least a dozen of the things.

"All of them," Lily said, her voice now barely audible. "In every reality where I failed to stop him. And now he’s using me to invade the ones where I succeeded."

The biggest Lieutenant, a thing that hurt to look at directly, turned its attention to me. When it spoke, its voice was the sound of worlds ending.

"Ancient blood-drinker," it said, somehow knowing what I was though we’d never met. "You think your small experience with dimensional magic can stop what comes? You understand nothing."

"Maybe not," I said, standing to face the thing. "But I know enough to recognize a trap when I see one."

The Lieutenant smiled, showing teeth made of fallen stars. "Too late. The light is already lit. Soon, our master will step through, and this world will join all the others we have claimed."

That’s when Lily’s form suddenly snapped back to full rigidity. She gasped, her eyes focusing on our world for the first time in what felt like hours.

"Dmitri," she said, her voice clear and anxious. "I know how to stop this. But you’re not going to like it."

"Tell me," I said, though dread was already growing in my chest.

She looked at me with eyes that held the weight of infinite sadness. "I have to become like you. I have to die and come back changed. It’s the only way to sever my connection to the other realities without destroying myself totally."

The clearing fell silent except for the whisper of shadow things closing in around us.

"Lily, no," Caleb said, his voice breaking.

But I knew what she was asking. And I knew she was right - it might be the only way to save not just her, but all of reality.

The question was: could I bring myself to kill the one person who might be able to stop the Void King?

And more scary still - what if she was wrong, and I damned us all by trying?