Annie and Spencer ran to the nearest window and whipped it open, just enough for them to teleport through the opening. Spencer grabbed Annie’s wrist and shimmered away.
Chapter 15
Annie stared at her phone, which shook in her hand as she dialed. She dreaded the conversation she was about to have.
“Hey, on your way home?” Cham sounded cheerful. He must have slept well last night.
“Amelie killed her mother,” Annie said in a whisper. Beside her, Spencer feverishly attempted to reach the Amborix wizard guards; neither had answered his calls.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure!” she shouted. She crossed the floor of the shack in three large steps and turned.
“I’m sorry. I just… Annie, I’m sorry,” he said softly.
“It’s a mess. We got in and got to the queen’s apartment. Amelie was standing over the body. The queen, she was alive at first, but… it was too late. She was bleeding from her neck, and Amelie… Amelie was dripping with blood. Cham.” Annie swallowed the lump in her throat.
“You got away before the security found you. What do you need us to do?”
“I’m not sure. Amelie pushed the button to call the security team and escaped in a secret tunnel. We had no choice but to leave.” Annie sat on the cot. It squeaked under her petite frame. She sighed deeply, falling back against the thin wooden wall.
Cham pulled the phone from his face and spoke to someone else—she assumed it was Milo—explaining the newest development.
Spencer tapped against his screen, dialing the same two numbers, only to receive the beeping and buzzing of an unanswered phone.
Annie glanced out the small, dirt-covered window. It was hard to miss the additional military teams that entered the forest, marching in rhythm with the new sirens that wailed in the darkness.
Milo’s voice became clearer. They were now on speaker.
“And the Amborix wizard guards? Were they with you?” Milo asked, rather calmly considering the situation. Annie glanced at Spencer. He sighed in frustration, walked to the window, and watched the unfolding scene outside the shack.
“They remained behind to find Amelie. Spencer’s been trying to reach them since we escaped.” Annie’s voice quivered, but she held back the tears.
“Cham will advise Ryan. He’ll deal with the Amborix Wizard Council, and I’ll call the Amborix Wizard Guard and see if Phillipe and Marcus made it out okay.” His voice crackled across the phone. “Annie, this was supposed to be a quick kill. What the hell happened?”
What the hell happened? They had come across Amelie on several occasions, and yet she had escaped them each time.
“I underestimated her wiliness, her smarts.”
“We need to send you backup,” Milo said.
“Not yet. Not yet. We’ll get her,” Annie pleaded. She wanted time to rectify this problem, though a nagging thought in the back of her head told her she should take him up on the offer even at the expense of dealing with the Amborix and French wizard guards.
“Before she kills anyone else,” Milo ordered.
“If we bring in more wizard guards, you know we have to get permission for a full scale operation. The Amborix Wizard Guard won’t agree to that,” Annie reminded him.
He knows. He just doesn’t care.
“Annie, this is dangerous. Do you realize how close we are to exposure?” His voice lowered. “If we just forget the others, we could have this finished. You can’t let her be seen. Don’t tell them, but I’ll send a small team to assist.” He sighed. The weight of the case seemed to be wearing on him; his voice no longer boomed as it usually did.
“Milo. We’ll get her. I promise,” Annie said.
“Annie, we have the team on standby. You find her, and we’ll be there when you say,” Cham said.
She weighed her options. If she did that, could they find and kill the vampire without any of the other Wizard Guard units knowing they pulled off a full scale operation?
What if we do and they find out?
“Not yet,” she said aloud. “We’re blamed already. I don’t want to risk what little respect we may still have.”
“We’re here and waiting. This is top priority,” Cham reminded her.
“Use Sturtagaard,” Milo advised.
“I need to go. Call if you hear something.” She sighed and said goodbye, unable to let Cham know what she really wanted him to know.
“Anything on the wizard guards?” Annie asked Spencer.
“They’re not answering. We need to leave,” he said.
Glancing once out the window and deciding they were clear, Spencer held Annie around the waist and teleported back to France.
*
“We should have teleported to the room,” Annie groused.
“It’s time for a reappearance,” Spencer said.
They had left by the front door when they traveled to Amborix, so they needed to be seen upon their return. They brought with them the cold wind, waking the night clerk from his mundane bookkeeping. He glanced at them and offered a short nod before returning to his paperwork. It was three o’clock in the morning.
Annie’s body screamed for sleep; each step up the narrow wooden staircase to their room made her wince. But sleep would have to wait. Sturtagaard stood at the window, leering into the empty parking lot across the street.
“He was in here,” Sturtagaard told them.
“Who?” Annie climbed onto the bed, adjusted the pillows behind her, and glared at the vampire, surprised he hadn’t left.
What does he really want?
Sturtagaard, still with his back toward her said, “The day manager.” His fangs extended.
“What did he want?” Annie yawned and pulled the blanket up over herself, removing the damp chill that seeped through her. Her body ached from shivering, from worry and anxiety.
It’s gonna be a long night.
“With that damn bag on my head, I couldn’t tell much.” Sturtagaard sat on the chair and tilted it back, his legs resting on bed beside Annie. She grimaced.
“Your vampire hearing not working, asshole?” Spencer summoned a stake, but Sturtagaard jeered as if it meant nothing.
“Fine. He looked in the dressers and under the bed. He nearly opened the closet before he was called away.”
“Why are you still here then?” Spencer asked. He unrolled his sleeping bag across the floor.
“I can’t go back without helping. That was the deal,” Sturtagaard reminded them. He stretched his arms above his head and rested them at his neck. “And since you’re back here, I’m thinking you still didn’t get the princess.” He offered a large smile, complete with fangs. “You still need me.”
“That might be true. Maybe it’s not.” Annie shifted position to yet another location on the bed that offered little comfort to her weary body. Turning toward the window, she stared through the thin window lining into the eerie darkness beyond the curtains.
“Your bindings weren’t tight enough,” the vampire said.
“It wasn’t a mistake,” Spencer said. He strolled across the small room, summoned a thick rope. “We expected you to leave. Actually, I would have preferred it.” He pulled the rope across Sturtagaard’s chest, then around his arms to hold them tightly to the chair.
“This is a little overkill; don’t you think?” Sturtagaard asked.
Spencer tied the rope ends together, securing them with a magical sticking spell. When the vampire was tightly secure, he worked on the vampire’s legs, attaching thick iron shackles around his ankles, attached together by a thick iron chain.
“So why are you really here?” Annie asked.
“Have you ever wondered why the Wizard Council has outlawed my staking?” Sturtagaard asked thoughtfully.
All employees at Wizard Hall understood there was an agreement between the vampire and the Wizard Council, but Annie didn’t know the specifics.
Why had I never thought to ask?
“Y
es. We wonder all the time. So why do they keep you alive? Your ‘helpfulness’ isn’t always helpful,” she quipped.
“I suggest you ask that question and seek out the answer. That will tell you why I’m still here.”
Annie rolled her eyes and readjusted herself on the bed. For the first time since her concussion was healed, she had the opportunity to notice her arm. The shoulder that had been dislocated was again throbbing with all the action of the last few days. She lay a pillow under it to steady it and closed her eyes. A very large headache pounded against her temple. She was keenly aware that they needed to keep moving in order to find Amelie and stake her. Being here in this room, sleeping, would only kill time they didn’t have.
Rather than sleeping, she turned to Sturtagaard and asked, “What did you do after your revenge kill?”
Sturtagaard thought before answering. His smile made Annie think that remembering his first kills, his revenge murders, were pleasant memories for him.
“It’s exhausting to exact revenge… I hid in the hills. In a cave away from people. It’s a high to kill those who did you wrong. And after the high, you crash. You just crash to the lowest low,” he said thoughtfully, almost lovingly. “I expect the princess will go somewhere to hide, to recoup, to regain her strength.”
“You’re not lying to placate us, are you?” Annie was too tired to trade jibes. She stared him down.
“I have nothing to gain by lying. I want back in the States. If I’m being untruthful, you might be able to stake me after all.”
Annie closed her eyes. Sleep was so close, and yet she was overtaken by thoughts of the queen lying on the sofa as her final breath was taken. She shuddered as Spencer’s phone buzzed.
“Anything important?” Annie asked, her eyes still closed.
“Good news for Phillipe and Marcus. They managed to escape from the queen’s apartment. They’re safe.”
He typed a return message and read it aloud. Back in France to regroup. We think Amelie is hiding for the night and will head out in the morning.
The response came soon: Call when you’re ready, and we’ll help.
“Everything okay?” Annie asked. Spencer placed the muffle bag over Sturtagaard’s head. The vampire tugged at his constraints, just enough that the chair scraped against the wood floor and his shackles jingled. Spencer threw a small jinx, silencing the vampire.
“Yeah. All good. Get some sleep. We raid Louis’s mansion in three hours.” Spencer curled inside his sleeping bag.
Under the muffle bag, Sturtagaard complained. After one more low energy jinx aimed at his arm, he quieted and slumped forward in the chair.
Annie chuckled, closed her eyes, and felt the world spin away.
Chapter 16
Glancing down to the street below, Annie saw a delivery truck backing into a narrow street. Across from the hotel, a small market had sprung up. Several booths sold bread and cheeses, flowers, and fruit and vegetables. The cheese shop beside the hotel had opened; the owner was sweeping the sidewalk outside the front door.
Picture perfect, Annie thought. She opened the window and let the morning chill kiss her cheeks. The yeasty scent of warm bread and sweets wafted up to her. Her mouth watered. She stretched her arm and noted that it no longer ached.
“Want breakfast?” she asked a still-sleeping Spencer. He grunted lightly and rolled over.
The muffle bag vibrated slightly as the angry vampire said something.
“You’ll get yours soon,” she said.
After finally getting some sleep, Annie had a bounce in her step. She waved to the day manager, who was just starting his early shift, and skipped outside the door.
A faint scent of smoke still lingered, but mostly she was accosted by the smells of market—the breads, the flowers, the fruits—wafting toward her. She strolled slowly, trailing her fingers across several swatches of colorful fabrics. She bent over the flowers and sniffed the lavender and a bunch of roses.
Another booth sold handmade paintings, small and colorful. Annie spent several moments peering at a picture of a girl dancing in the arms of a man. For just a quick minute, she looked up and saw her partially open window. Her eyes looked downward to their teleportation spot in the narrow alley.
After paying for bread, apples, and several cheeses, Annie snuck inside the alley. Taking one last look down the street, she teleported through the window.
“Some breakfast,” Annie said as she placed the food on the bed.
“Anyone see you leave?” Spencer asked as he pulled off a piece of cheese and some bread. While he partook in his portion Annie played with hers and glanced out the window, not looking at anything in particular.
“Albert,” she murmured. Her mind raced to their next location, to the next step in catching Princess Amelie.
I don’t want to meet the French wizard guards.
Annie had taken so much grief from the Amborix Wizard Guard over Amelie returning as a vampire, she didn’t relish spending time with another unit.
I should have taken Milo up on his offer.
As the sun rose higher, crowds grew in the Farmer’s Market.
“We should go while the crowds are manageable.” Annie sighed.
They hadn’t unpacked, so there wasn’t much to clean up. Spencer pulled out his crystal and walked through the room, pulling out any magic that may have been left by their presence.
“You take him. I’ll deal with Albert,” Spencer said. He finished by rolling his sleeping bag and shoving it in his field pack.
“Anything else?” Annie asked. She walked the room, opened the armoire, looked under the bed, and peered in the bathroom.
“No, we’re good. Ready?”
“Just one thing.” She grabbed the vampire by his collar, scrunching the fabric in her tightly balled fist. There was nothing in this world that scared the vampire—except for Annie in that moment. She gritted her teeth as she met him eye to eye, their noses touching. “Do not fuck this up. I don’t care if I have no permission to stake you. I will in a heartbeat.”
She teleported them before he could respond, landing them inside the alley beside the hotel.
“Stay,” she commanded and left the confines of her hiding spot. She found a bench with a direct view of the hotel door and waited for Spencer to join her.
It took time for Spencer to pay the bill before he finally bound out of the hotel room, finding her on the bench.
After trotting across the street, he sat beside her. “Hi, honey. You forgot to eat your breakfast?” Annie smiled and grabbed an apple.
“It went okay?”
She watched the alleyway carefully for any hint of Sturtagaard peering back at them.
She took a bite of the apple. It crunched loudly.
“Yeah. I think Albert was very relieved when I signed us out.” Spencer ripped a hunk of bread and took a bite. “This is good.”
“Madame, monsieur. Are you on your way?” The short, heavy police officer from the other day strolled to them from the police station at the end of the block.
“Yes. You asked us to stay the night. We have. We need to make it to our next location. Family’s expecting us,” Spencer said. Annie watched with trepidation as Sturtagaard poked his head out from the alley. She glared at him. The vampire, finding her immediately in the crowd, smirked.
“Ah, but we still have not resolved the issue. It has bothered us. Why you were there on that street so very late at night.”
A stray dog sniffed at the alley, growling at the vampire. Dogs were known to be distrustful of the creatures. Annie held her breath as Sturtagaard ducked farther into the alley. The insistent dog bared its teeth and followed the vampire deeper inside.
“As we’ve explained, we did walk in that direction, but we did not enter that street. I’m sorry if that doesn’t satisfy your question, but that is the truth,” Spencer said with disdain in his voice.
“Did you set off the bomb?” the taller officer asked.
“No! Damn
it! My wife and I did not set off the bomb! Check our clothes, look for evidence. Stop harassing us and do your jobs.”
The angry dog continued to howl, snarling defensively. Several in the crowd turned toward the alley.
“What is that mutt going on about?” inquired the shorter policeman.
He crossed the street while Annie and Spencer exchanged worried glances. But before anyone had a chance to capture the dog, it lifted its leg and peed in the direction of the vampire. When it finished, the dog scratched the ground beneath him, growled for good measure, and trotted past the police officers.
“Good dog,” said the shorter officer. With nothing left to look at, the two returned to Annie and Spencer. Both officers frowned, as if dealing with the Americans was a nuisance.
Eyeing the tourists cautiously, the taller one said, “We don’t believe you did it. It would be foolish, I think. Do you know who did?”
“Louis Van Alton,” Annie revealed.
The disclosure raised their officers’ eyebrows. They glanced at each other with worry. “That is not possible. The Van Alton family died out decades ago. There is no one left.”
“Well, someone is holed up in that abandoned mansion,” Annie sneered.
“No. No, that can’t be. We thought they had all died.” The short fat officer whispered something to a gathering collection of other officers. “Go, go,” he said as he and his partner scampered off with the others.
“Why’d you tell them that?” Spencer said as the officers climbed into a two-seater car and sped away.
“Leave now, yell later,” Annie groused.
They trotted across the street and slid into the alley.
“Get me out of here,” the vampire growled. The stench of dog pee was strong on his leg.
Annie chuckled. “No problem. Damn, you stink of pee.”
With a rough grab, Spencer pulled Sturtagaard into a teleport. Annie soon followed, leaving Dinan behind them.
*
The trees were cool and out of the sun, shielding Sturtagaard, who stumbled through the underbrush with his fangs extended and spit dribbling down his chin.
“I need food,” he growled.
“Big baby,” Annie murmured. She summoned a woodland creature, a small squirrel that squeaked in her grasp. She sighed as it squirmed in an attempt to escape. Hating what she did, she snapped its neck quickly and handed the creature to Sturtagaard.
Wizard Hall Chronicles Box Set Page 82