by Jamie Ott
She and the men grazed over a buffet, and then left at 8 a.m.
"Be safe," Adam said, kissing her on both cheeks; Mitch did the same.
"Tell Madam Balaji we miss her."
Starr sat behind Seth on the old bus. He groaned with the way the gears were old and stubborn, and kept getting stuck. She bounced up and down in her seat as the bus made its way down the windy road.
"You seem different," he said, looking at her in the mirror.
"I feel better, today."
The trip was long and uneventful. When they passed through Sibiu, Starr noticed that the population was still thriving. Months ago the parliament was stormed by vamped out vampires but the people seemed to be doing alright, although traffic was slight.
A little while later, they continued down a desolate road, onto a freeway with parked cars. As they wound their way through cars, they saw that many of them still had their dead patrons inside. Their dead and rotted bodies had clearly been torn apart by the vamped out vamps.
Starr nodded off.
~~~
Gold heated her eyelids and face, making her uncomfortable. She turned her head, trying to escape, but it was all around, soaking up her scalp.
She opened her eyes and saw they were in the countryside.
Miles and miles of forest surrounded them.
"We're almost there," shouted Seth, over the loud grumble of the engine.
She stood up and stretch in her seat.
Just as she sat down, she was lifted from her seat. It happened so fast that she didn't have time to register that she'd been flung to the end of the bus.
Covered in strange debris, she shook her head and felt many things fling off her, and make shattering noises.
Realizing it was the sound of glass, she vigorously shook her hands, and pulled the inside of her sweater over her face and wiped her eyes. Gently, she opened them and looked around.
All the windows were shattered, and nearly all of the clansmen had disappeared.
"Are you okay?" asked Druce, from a few feet away. He struggled to stand, and then brushed glass of his chest.
"Yeah, I'm alright."
Several young fledglings heaved themselves up and slid their way to the door of the bus. It was then she realized that they'd been flipped, and the seats were now above her head.
Starr and Druce left the bus.
Outside, the bodies of the clansman were flung everywhere. Ikael was alright, but he was resetting his leg which was separated from his body. Others were moaning, but a few were okay. Some of the men were missing, though.
Starr turned and walked around to the other side of the flipped bus and saw Aine, on the ground, twitching in a pool of blood.
"Oh my god!" Starr shouted. "Druce, Ciaran, get over here!"
She ran and fell to her knees, beside her.
"What? Where?" was all she could get out. It seemed like her body was in pieces. The blood made it hard to see where exactly she needed to be put back together.
Druce and Ciaran fell to the ground, next to her.
Aine's mouth opened and closed, as a blood bubble formed over her lips.
"What do we do?"
Then she realized that she didn't see Seth anywhere."
Seth?"she called.
She stood up and ran to the other side of the bus. There he was, in the distance, running up a winding road. At the top was a large castle; the one from her dreams.
Starr turned around on the spot, trying to sense if anyone was there. It seemed whoever attacked the bus had gone.
She ran back around to Druce and Ciaran.
"Seth's headed up the mountain. He must be going for help. I'm gonna go after him. Whoever attacked is gone, and I don't sense anyone else. Will you be okay?"
"Yes, just make it quick. If no one's there, come back. We can move everyone up there to the castle, to heal and rest."
Syncing Essence
Chapter 6
She ran across the field, calling "Seeeth!"but he didn't turn. From him, she got a sense of eagerness. Something was wrong.
He reached the top of the mountain as Starr was half way up the road. The further up she got, the more the place looked familiar to her as well, and not just from her dreams or visions.
At the top, there was an enormous gate that had a double door set built into it. Starr slipped through the door and immediately was taken aback by the scents that sent her mind reeling.
She turned on foot over and over. The air was spinning; she was so dizzy. She felt the pounding of hundreds of feet on the ground. Arrows whizzed past her, and a man lost his head to her swift blow of her sword.
Gravel cut into her knees painfully, making her moan, and drawing her back to sanity. She breathed in ward and looked around - no one was there. She didn't know what was going on, but she had to get help, and get to Seth.
Trying to brush off whatever just happened, she followed his scent through the open doors of the entrance.
"Seeeth!" she called, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Quickly, she went through the entrance, and turned right and found herself going down a hall. Mentally, she looked into as many of the rooms as she could, but saw nothing. She sensed nothing, but then she stopped in front of an arched wood door.
She felt warm; a tickle traveled down her back. Her fingers trembled as she reached out to the door with the familiar circular carving. In the center of the familiar carving was a large black eye.
She pushed back the door.
Inside was a large canopied bed. Portraits hung everywhere, and a large desk sat in the corner.
However, while she saw the bed and bland wallpaper, what surfaced in her mind, behind her eyes was a large stone walled room. Directly across from where she stood, in the doorway, a large shutter was opened in a glassless window; through it, she saw a gray, rainy cloud.
She looked left to the fireplace in the wall. On the hearth was a plate of bread and a small roasted bird.
Starr walked in, looking around. A familiar red tapestry hung on the wall.
She walked to the shuttered window and looked out. Instead of the upturned bus, and the bodies of clansmen, she saw a farm of animals roaming about.
Starr knew she needed to help the clansman, but she was frozen in fear. Was she going crazy?
Suddenly, it was like someone turned out the lights. Black bled from the corners of her mind, moving to the front of her field of vision.
She tried to wake, to force open the lids of her eyes.
When she finally opened them, it was to find she was in bed.
Someone burst into her room and said, "It's time to go, my lady."
Starr walked across the room to get something, though it wasn't really she who walked across the room. As before, it was like her consciousness was tied to the woman, and it saw what she saw yet held no influence over her actions.
They walked to the mantle and picked up a brush; then stood in front of a large mirror and proceeded to brush their long, thigh length hair.
Starr's consciousness, in an ethereal sense, gasped. There, in the glass, she stood, but she wore a long, grey linen dress; something women of the Middle Ages wore.
From her ears hung rubies, and atop her head, a jewel encrusted crown.
Someone called to her. "Starr," the voice said.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't respond. She was stuck in that time and in that body. Although she cried, the woman didn't notice anything was wrong.
Starr was so scared that it felt as if her soul was weeping.
More about the series:
Lost and want to play catch up?
Visit the Vampin Box Set Year One Books 1-9, and Year 2, 10-15.
Vampin Year 2 Series to Date:
#10 Primordial
#11 Valhol
#12 Road to Heaven
#13 Lyssa
#14 Starr
#15 Syncing Essence
#16 No information yet
Originally a monthly short with the Black Press Online, Vampin is now available as a monthly teen series.
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