The Phantom Oracle (Vampire Innocent Book 5)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “Not entirely. They only warded the doors and windows.”

  “Oh, okay. I guess I’ll just bash a hole in the bricks.”

  Coralie winces.

  “And hey, what if a vampire wanted singing lessons?”

  She laughs. “They’d have to go to a different school.”

  “Ugh. So unless I somehow learn how to teleport, I’m screwed. What about the library one?”

  “Follow me.”

  Coralie walks across the courtyard, down the street, and into the Broadway-Edison building. I act as casual as I can for someone walking into the building after 9:30 p.m., and follow her to the main library. Of course, it’s closed at this hour. She phases right through the wall and keeps going. Short of ripping the doors off their hinges, I don’t have any way inside. My new friend appears to notice this and stops, then hurries back over. She sticks her hand into the frame and the lock emits a sharp click.

  “Ooh. That’s a neat trick. Bet you’re fun at parties. What’s a little casual breaking and entering?”

  She looks at me, confused, then walks in.

  I slip in, pull the door shut behind me, and hurry down the shelves, chasing her into the back.

  Upon reaching the end of a row of giant, old reference books, she points at a fat book on a shelf to the left. “Behind that. There’s a brass fitting that looks like a shelf bracket. Push on it.”

  “Okay…” I tug the book out of the way and peer into the space behind it. Sure enough, a metal bracket juts out at the top corner. It appears to be an ordinary part of the shelf, but when I reach in and press a finger against it, it moves back a millimeter with a soft click.

  The shelf straight in front of me at the end of the aisle swings inward like a door, revealing a cramped set of spiral stairs.

  “Oh, ick. There’s going to be bugs in there.”

  Coralie blinks at me.

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. Vampire grossed out by bugs is kinda lame, but I’m still me. At least I’m not afraid of the dark.”

  She laughs.

  “Well, okay. I am a little afraid of the dark, but nothing is dark to me anymore.”

  “You are a walking contradiction. A vampire afraid of the dark and bugs.” She giggles.

  “And the most evil thing I’ve done with my powers is compelling people to buy my kid sisters’ Girl Scout cookies.”

  Coralie gapes at me. “They make cookies out of girl scouts?”

  “Are you pulling my leg?”

  “No, I am standing here.”

  I really can’t tell if this girl is playing with me or not. She’s got an awesome poker face. I guess you could say she’s ‘dead’ calm. Ugh. There I go again channeling the spirit of my father. While making my way down the cramped stairs, I explain the whole cookie thing. She seems surprised that the girls aren’t making them, and thinks it’s sad that everything in the world is mass produced now. I don’t bother saying anything about public health concerns and how people would freak out at kid-made cookies being sold to the general public. Bad enough they’re conscripting children into a sales force, they don’t need to set up cookie sweat shops.

  Okay, that kinda gets me giggling to myself, picturing this Dickensian run-down warehouse full of beleaguered girl scouts slaving away over giant ovens and cookie sheets. Of course, in my head, all the grimy, hopeless little girls break into sudden song about how horrible a life they have in the cookie factory.

  Yeah. Maybe I do need help.

  I’m pretty sure we’re in the basement by the time the stairwell corkscrews to a stop. This section of hallway doesn’t look like it’s normally part of the school… more like something from a World War II bunker. A few pipes run along the ceiling and the place smells like wet mold. Muddy footprints go in both directions, though not a great deal of them. Given the dampness here, I can’t tell how long ago someone walked by.

  Coralie leads me about forty feet to the end of the corridor and a right turn that ends at a big steel door reinforced with thick metal bands. An odd herbal-industrial smell hangs in the air, like someone roasting plants on a cookie sheet covered in motor oil. This thing looks like it belongs on the front of an evil mastermind’s lair from the 1890s. The bronze handle is sculpted in the image of a dragon, wings tucked against its side. I grab it to pull, despite expecting the door to be locked. It’s as hot as a boiling kettle. I yelp and jump back, waving my hand around. Once the pain stops, I look at my palm, dreading what I’m going to see… but it appears fine.

  “Ow.”

  “Warded,” says Coralie.

  I sigh at the door, wondering if I can knock hard enough. Upon noticing a gap at the bottom, I flatten myself on the ground and peek. More corridor extends beyond it, something straight out of a medieval castle with armor on stands, statues on pedestals, and such. If I could somehow shrink myself to an inch tall, I could fit under the door.

  “Wait a sec. Maybe…”

  Coralie tilts her head.

  I shove myself upright and hold up a finger. “I might have a way to do this. Let me check with a friend.”

  Her turn to raise both eyebrows. “I had been thinking of you using your mental influence on one of them and making them release me.”

  “Oh. Well, yeah I guess that would be easier.”

  She looks around as if worried about eavesdroppers. “Perhaps your way might be better. But they might have protections against mental influence. Better you avoid being seen and identified by them. Though…” Coralie smiles. “You are quite a bit more difficult to recognize than Professor Heath. If I couldn’t feel your energy, I’d never know what you are by looking at you.”

  “Thanks.” I gaze up at the ceiling.

  “So… how long do you think it will take you to speak to your friend?” She flashes a hopeful smile. “Not being pushy, just curious. A little more waiting won’t bother me.”

  “Well.” I smirk at my backpack. “I did just get a shitload of calculus homework.”

  She nods.

  “But… I have until next Wednesday.” I grin.

  12

  Fleeting Shadows

  Finding a gap under a door made me think of Glim and the way he got us out of Petra’s lair.

  I’m hoping he’ll be willing to let me ‘borrow’ that ability the same way Dante loaned me his Fury. Then again, Glim is pretty flashy with that stuff so I don’t really know how much of all that black smoke and such is illusion and which parts are real.

  Still, he got in and out of that night club to take the spyglass and we covered a lot of ground really fast when he did that umm ‘shadow jump’ thing. I hope it’s not like learning to fly an airplane or something terribly complicated.

  I fly to the roof he usually sits on, but he isn’t there. Drat. Guess I shouldn’t assume he spends all his time sitting here watching his family. At that thought, I sigh, feeling bad for him—and feel doubly glad I decided to go home to my family instead of letting them continue to think I’d died. Wonder what Glim is going to do when his sons grow up and no longer live with their mom.

  Knowing him, he’ll probably rotate his time and haunt them all.

  Kinda naïve of me to expect he’ll be on this roof whenever I want to see him. Maybe we should do the normal friend thing and trade cell numbers. Not sure why it’s never come up in conversation between us. Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen him with a phone out. Maybe he spent so much time hiding underground in the Middle East he forgot about technology?

  Though, Shadows do seem to have a way to communicate with each other. Maybe he doesn’t need one? And really, who would he call? He makes Sierra look like an extrovert. So, on that note, I decide to head home.

  Coralie did say she’s not in any tremendous hurry, but does a soul’s freedom rank higher on my list of priorities than the drudgery of math homework? I spend the few minutes the trip takes debating which of the two tasks is more difficult. Perhaps I should be worried that I can’t definitely say stealing (or rescuing) the remains
of a woman who died almost 200 years ago from an ancient mystical order is more daunting than calculus. It’s definitely going to do more good for the universe as a whole. The odds of me ever actually using calculus are pretty low. But, after her comment about it being ‘too much math’ for girls, yeah, I’m gonna own that shit.

  Really, it’s my old laziness coming out. Schoolwork that I found tedious, I made out to be this great big task. Like physics homework and building the Giza Pyramids equated in difficulty. No, this homework isn’t that bad. I’m just dreading doing it because it’s the exact opposite of fun.

  But at least I don’t have to roam around the city to find my calculus book.

  I land in my backyard and walk up onto the deck.

  “Sarah,” says Glim, while materializing out of thin air in a billow of shadows beside me.

  Good thing my heart is only faking it, or it would’ve stopped.

  “Shitrabbits!” I yell, jumping back.

  He tilts his head. “Dare I ask?”

  “Uhh, no idea where that came from.” I take a few slow breaths. “You scared the hell out of me.”

  His attempt to hide his amusement fails, though once the shock wears off, I can’t help but laugh. Ash, Michelle and I used to scare-prank each other a lot. Sophia’s no fun, since she winds up crying and makes me feel guilty. Sierra takes revenge in other ways… like tying the laces of all my shoes together so tight I had to go to school in flip flops in the middle of December.

  “You were looking for me?”

  “Yeah.” I glance sideways at the sliding patio door to the kitchen. Lights are on in the living room, which means the parents are still up watching TV. It probably won’t bother them to talk out here unless I scream again. “So… I ran into this ghost at school.”

  I explain the situation with Coralie asking me to help her escape.

  He listens, offering the occasional nod.

  “Anyway, I was wondering about that weird shadowy thing you did when you carried me away from Petra. Is that teleportation? Could that get me inside this place?”

  “Not exactly teleportation. It’s stepping into the spirit world, traversing distance there, then crossing back into this world. We are still covering the same amount of distance, merely in a different place where the rules aren’t exactly the same.”

  “Do you think it could get me inside there, past the wards? There’s a gap under the door. If I could turn into smoke, I could fit in.”

  “Possibly. Are you sure she isn’t manipulating you?”

  “I don’t think so.” I shrug. “She seems so lonely and sad. And really, it’s not like she’s asking me to hurt someone or steal anything valuable… just get her remains away from the people holding her prisoner. That doesn’t sound bad.”

  He nods. “If all she’s requesting is for you to liberate her remains, I’m inclined to agree with you.”

  “Cool.” I smile. “So, I was thinking… can I borrow that shadow hop thing like I borrowed Fury from Dante?”

  He rubs his chin, his nails glinting in the moonlight. Even retracted, his claws are longer than mine fully extended. Of course, being eighteen, my brain jumps straight to what Hunter did with his fingers the other night and I involuntarily cross my legs in pain.

  “Something wrong?”

  “No. Just random bad thoughts of the painful kind.” It’s way too awkward to talk with Glim about intimate stuff, especially the kind of intimate stuff he couldn’t partake in with those swords on his hands. “You seem hesitant. Is it dangerous?”

  Glim bows his head. “I think so, yes. That ability is too close to our core nature. It would be like you loaning me your tolerance for daylight. Too powerful, and wouldn’t last long. Also, if it faded at the wrong time, you could wind up stranded on the other side or disfigured.”

  I shiver at the word ‘disfigured.’ Maybe it wouldn’t be such a great idea to mix such an intrinsic aspect of the most dead-like vampires with the most lifelike one. It’s been awhile since I had chemistry class, but mixing exact opposites rarely ended well.

  “Ahh. Hmm.” I shift my jaw side to side while thinking. “Guess I risk mental influence.”

  “It would be too dangerous for me to feel secure in trying to loan you that ability temporarily. Better I go with you.”

  “Really? I don’t wanna impose.”

  Glim’s broad smile shows off his pointed teeth. “I’m not exactly running late for a business meeting. Besides, I’d rather go along and help than you wind up stuck in a prison cell again.”

  “Ugh, don’t remind me. But these guys aren’t vampires, and it’s dark now so no one’s kidnapping me. Give me a sec to put my bag inside?”

  He nods.

  I unlock the door, slip inside, and head down to my room to deposit my backpack on the bed. The parents don’t notice me, and I don’t want to keep Glim waiting while a long conversation happens… but I can’t let them worry. Ugh. They’re watching Titanic again.

  “Hey guys. Just checking in. Be back in a little while.”

  “Going back out?” asks Dad. “How was school?”

  “Fine. Dr. Mercer’s a bit… I don’t want to say long-winded, she just talks really slow.” I hug them both. “And yeah, gotta go do some vampire stuff.”

  “What is this time?” asks Mom. “Another war between the elders?”

  “Nah. Just going to try and help someone escape a bunch of occultists who’re holding her prisoner for the past century or so.”

  Dad shakes his head. “Seattle’s really going to hell.”

  I can’t tell if he’s making fun of the situation or didn’t really hear what I said, but… Glim’s outside. “Be back as soon as I can.”

  They nod.

  “Have fun, dear,” says Mom. “And try not to kill anyone who isn’t already dead.”

  I blink. Whoa. Okay. I’m in another dimension now. My parents have gone to Mars.

  “You guys okay?”

  They both look at me.

  “Fine, why?” asks Dad.

  “I just told you guys I’m going to try and rescue someone from occultists and you’re being like super casual about it.”

  Mom fidgets. “Well, I figure you know what you’re doing with this weird stuff now… and, well, we are trying to be as supportive as we can. You’re still our daughter and we love you.”

  “Guys, I’m undead, not out of the closet.”

  “We appreciate you scheduling vampiric shenanigans late enough that they don’t conflict with taking your sister to dance class.” Dad winks.

  “Right… Umm, yeah. Got someone waiting on me so…” I point both thumbs toward the kitchen. “Gonna get going. See you guys soon.”

  They wave and un-pause the movie.

  I’m half tempted to say ‘the boat sinks’ but they’ve already seen the movie. And well, anyone going into that film who is actually surprised that the boat goes down… I can’t even. Mom’s right. Our education system is failing.

  Anyway… I head outside to meet Glim. He takes my hand and we leap into the air again. It’s somewhat odd to see him flying. Well, it’s odd to see a human flying in the first place, but for him, the lack of just poofing into a cloud of darkness is unusual.

  “We’re not jumping into the cloud of black stuff?” I ask.

  “I’m not entirely sure where you wish to go.”

  I point toward Seattle. “There’s a door in a tunnel under the library at Seattle Central College.”

  “Never been there. While I’m sure I could eventually find it, it will be faster for you to lead at the moment.”

  “Okay.”

  Not that there’s a real rush, but I fly as fast as I can make myself go. It’s pretty obvious he’s barely working to keep up with me, which reminds me that I’m pretty weak among vampires. Both for being new and an Innocent. Tolerating sunlight is a huge deal, but other than that, my ‘powers’ are pretty tame. For what I want most right now—being with my family—it’s perfect, but I briefly wo
nder if like two hundred years from now I might feel jealous. Like, once my parents, sibs, and friends are gone and I’m not so closely tied to any living relatives, would I really care about being able to wake up before the sun goes down?

  Throwing cars around could be pretty fun.

  Meh. I’m not unhappy with what I’ve become, not at all. This is still pretty damn cool. No sense grumbling about things beyond my control. And it’s not like I’m Sierra playing an MMO. I don’t have this drive to ‘level up’ and become the most über vampire in the world. I’ll probably wind up collecting cat figurines or something and keeping to myself.

  That gets me wondering if vampires like Aurélie ever imagined cars, airplanes, or space travel. Like, what is the world going to have when I’ve been a vampire as long as she has? Will androids and stuff be everywhere? Cybernetic implants? Could a vampire even use them? Okay, maybe I won’t wonder about that. The idea of sticking computer bits inside my head is kinda disgusting. Maybe vampires will go mainstream and become another minority. Sure would be much less of a pain in the ass than having to keep secrets. Or probably not. People want to hate and kill each other for variances in skin tone that are meaningless. Something like society discovering vampires are real where there actually is a difference? Yeah, out will come the torches and pitchforks.

  I fly us back to Seattle and land in a cluster of trees by the corner. Despite it being after ten, there are still a few people here, but no one noticed us come down. That’s gotta be Glim giving off some kind of ‘don’t see us’ power.

  He looks around. “Which one?”

  “C’mon.”

  Still holding his hand, I hurry across the street and make my way back to the main building. The doors are still open, so we go inside and down the hall to the library. Coralie re-locked it on our way out, so I stop outside the glass doors.

  “Go all the way to the back and left. At the end of the reference section, there’s a secret door in the wall. That goes to a spiral stairwell, then a corridor underground. There’s only one way to go there, so it should be obvious.”