Two hours later and Gia and Anais were keeping James company.
A James who was sitting on the edge of his bed and slowly losing his mind.
He pressed his fingertips into his eyes and tried to think.
The whole building was in an uproar, but Charlotte Gillespie seemed to have disappeared into thin air.
"The Order have got her," he whispered as an icy fist clutched his heart, his gut.
Anais held his hand and squeezed. "We don't know that?"
"When was the last time you saw her?" James asked her for what felt like the tenth time.
Patiently Anais went over the minutes when she'd left Charlotte at the door to their apartment. "We visited Gia. Watched her and Saira bond. Then we talked for about half-an-hour and I walked her right to the door. I saw her unlock it and go in. There was no one around. She said she was going to read for a while and then have a nap. I didn't hear a sound or see anything suspicious. Nothing."
James reached out to slide his hand down Anais's dark hair, he pulled her close and kissed her cheek.
"Thank you." He stood. "I can't sit around here doing nothing. I need to talk to my father, to Ezekiel and my brothers. We need a plan."
He left.
Gia sank to the spot James had left, and felt an icy hand cover hers.
"I just don't understand it," she said as she turned to a desperately pale Anais. "How could she just vanish? Her eReader is still on the bed. You can see the imprint of her body on the comforter where she lay."
She rose and began to slowly step around the perimeter of the spacious room. Her fingers lingered on a large couch of ruby velvet and a side table resting against the wall, which held a big clear glass vase of fresh flowers. Charlotte loved flowers. She came to the enormous mirror at rest against the wall. She stared at her reflection and read the worry and confusion in her own eyes. There must be some sort of logical explanation. Then the hair on the back of her neck rose, as did gooseflesh on her arms.
Her vampyre growled a warning in her mind.
The sensation that washed over her skin reminded her of her reaction when Ezekiel had come too close.
She edged nearer and her antenna that something was... off, intensified.
Without taking her eyes from her reflection and with her heart beating too fast, she spoke softly, "Anais, come here."
Anais moved to stand beside her and their eyes met in the looking glass.
"What do you feel?" whispered Gia, almost terrified of the answer.
Anais reached out a hand to touch the glass, but Gia beat her to it and her hand seemed to sink into the glass.
She snatched it back.
"Jesus," she breathed the word.
Then she reached for the mirror, or whatever the hell it was, again.
Now her vampyre rose.
Later, much later, she'd wonder how the hell she could have done something so idiotic, but she turned her head, eyes wide, to stare at an Anais whose eyes were like saucers.
Before she could string two words together, her body was literally sucked into another place.
"Gia!" screamed an Anais who couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing.
"I'm here!" Gia called out sounding very far away.
God, Gia could hear her?
"Can you get back?"
Silence.
"Nope. Seems to be one way."
"Omigod, Gia."
"Stop panicking. I'm fine. It's freezing cold and I seem to be in some sort of ancient castle. Think the pit and the pendulum. Creeeeepy. You'll need to go for help. Listen, this must be how they took Charlotte. I'm going to do a little reconnaissance and see if I can find out not only who the hell took her, but where we are. I'll be back in a minute."
Stop panicking?
Was the woman insane?
"NO! No, stay exactly where you are."
Silence.
"GIA?"
Silence.
And just at that moment Saira entered the bedroom and Anais had never been so glad to see anyone in her entire life.
Her voice shook as she pointed a trembling hand to the mirror.
"Gia has just disappeared into... that."
Saira's dark eyes went huge.
"For fuck's sake," she muttered then raced out of the room.
Anais stayed right where she was in case Gia came back.
All of a sudden the air chilled as if a cold wind emanated from the mirror and she wrapped her arms around herself.
When she heard the sound of people coming at a run, she closed her eyes in heady relief.
Daniel, she just knew it, was going to go ballistic.
Then she heard Gia call her name and she stepped close enough to place her fingertip on what appeared to be glass.
And that was her fatal mistake.
The sensation was one of her whole body being sucked into a void.
She only had time to let out a little yip when she found herself in a circular room with a wide-eyed Gia.
"Shitty, shit, shit," yelled Gia. "You idiot! Marcus is going to kill you."
She was an idiot all right.
Heart booming against her ribs, Anais tipped back her head to check out the height of the ceiling, about thirty feet.
Bloody hell.
"Hang on, hang on. Are you telling me Gia disappeared into the mirror?" yelled a very pale Daniel with an even paler James at his heels.
"Yes!" said Saira.
Daniel skidded to a stop in front of the mirror or device or whatever it was and found himself rubbing the place where his heart was thundering against his ribs.
"Gia?" he yelled at the top of his voice.
He had a very bad feeling about this.
Very bad.
Silence.
"Wanna bet she's in there investigating what's happened to Charlotte?" muttered Saira.
James went to dive through what was obviously some sort of Gateway, but to where?
As one his brothers sprang to grab him and hold him back.
"Wait. Wait," yelled a Marcus who sounded as if he was hanging on to his sanity by his fingernails. "Think about it. We don't know where the fuck it ends up? It might be a portal."
Saira shook her head, as she placed an emergency call on her cell to Ezekiel.
"Nope. Don't think so. We didn't have an earth tremor or the usual rumbling noise. I don't smell spent fireworks, do you?" she said to Marcus.
He shook his head.
Then his brow creased as he turned in a very slow circle.
"Wait a minute. Where the hell is Anais?"
"Oh, hell's bells," whispered Saira.
"ANAIS!" roared Marcus at the top of his voice.
"We're here," called an Anais whose voice wobbled, just a little. "And we're fine. Except that it's bitterly cold."
Marcus pointed to the mirror and Saira pulled his jacket to tug him back.
"Don't you dare fucking move. Do you hear me?" he yelled.
"I bet they can hear you in Australia. Stop yelling at me."
Stop yelling at her?
Why, he'd...
His mind went blank.
He'd what?
He'd no idea.
What a complete and utter cluster-fuck.
James slumped on the edge of his bed, his face grey with worry.
"What is that thing? And where did it come from?"
Marcus held up a hand for silence, he was placing a call to his father.
It was time to bring in the big guns.
"We don't know, but we'll find out."
Daniel Gillespie was an anomaly and a puzzle to his family at times, he knew that.
It was because he was an easy going and pretty laid back vampyre.
He didn't lose it as a rule.
Although when he did, his brothers ducked because it took a helluva lot of pushy shovey before lift-off.
But right this minute, his hand was itching, itching, to paddle the ass of one Gia Del Russo, soon to be Gia Gillespie whether she l
iked it or not. Had a nice ring to it, Gia Gillespie. And talking about rings... he shoved his hand into his pocket, his fingers lingering on the little velvet box. Like a warrior he battled back the fear he might never see her again that had seeped into his bones. No point in having a melt-down before they had the facts.
James was just standing there, before the mirror, or whatever the hell it was, and studying it as if he was chewing tack nails.
Marcus was standing right next to him with the same expression on his face.
Whomever or whatever had their women had better start praying.
Because their days were fucking numbered.
Chapter Twenty-Two
God, it was freeeeezing.
Gia was trembling from head to toe, probably because she was wearing skinny jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt with running shoes, plus her heart was going crazy in her chest. Anais wasn't faring any better in her jeans and light wool sweater.
She looked terribly pale.
"It's like something out of a horror movie set," she whispered.
Gia could only nod in agreement.
The room they'd arrived in was lit by a single torch placed in a black metal sconce, just like something out of a Vincent Price horror movie. Dank stone walls, curved and windowless with large grey stone slabs on a floor that looked ancient. The icy wind screeched through tall, narrow gaps open to the elements. In movies Gia had seen similar gaps used to shoot arrows. It was night. The room was empty except for a bare wooden table and single chair. She took a careful inhale. She smelled wood smoke, damp and mold and stale human sweat. Very slowly she turned in a circle and found a large mirror that matched the one in Charlotte and James's bedroom.
"Maybe it's a two-way mirror and it will it take us home?" she whispered.
Anais stepped forward and placed her hand on the surface.
"It's glass. Maybe it's only one-way?" she whispered back.
Gia shook her head. "There must be a way, we just need to find it. Or find someone who can help us." Then she closed her eyes, when she heard her man scream her name. "God, Daniel is going to kill me for this."
Anais just shook her head. "Marcus, too. I think we might have been a little bit hasty."
Gia nodded. "Yeah, well. Nothing we can do about it now. We need to work out where the hell we are. And we need to find Charlotte."
Anais started a search of the room and found nothing of use except a small piece of chalk.
She moved to the arched wooden door, lifted the black metal ring, lifted the latch.
If it squeaked, they were in deep shit.
Gia held her breath.
The door opened without a sound.
They both checked the narrow hallway lit with what appeared to be gas torches.
She counted six arched doorways just like the one behind them.
"Mark the door with the chalk," she whispered to Anais.
"Like X marks the spot?"
"No, that might be too obvious."
Anais stood before the door, chewed her bottom lip, then she drew a single fine line on one door frame and then the other and a small white circle on the stone floor next to the door hinge.
By this time they were both really feeling the cold.
"Where to?" asked Gia.
To the left were stone stairs.
To the right the hallway curved.
"We'll go right. We need to try the doors and find clothes before we freeze to death."
"Okay."
Holding hands they crept along the hall, keeping their backs to the wall.
All the while listening for any signs of life.
When she came to the next door, Gia pressed her ear to the wood to listen. Anais did the same to the door opposite. Their vampyre hearing strained, but they heard nothing. On her nod, both girls tried the doors. They opened into what appeared to be cells designed for a single occupant. From the hallway's stingy light she saw the only furnishing was a single bed with two folded blankets and a single pillow. She wrinkled her nose at a commode. A wooden stool with a small desk which held an inkwell and nib. There was a single hook made of black metal on the back of the door. That was it.
"It looks like a priest's cell or something out of a nunnery," whispered Gia.
She grabbed a blanket and wound it around her head and shoulders.
Anais did the same.
Then Anais stopped dead and grabbed Gia's hand.
"Omigod," she whispered. "I think we're in Dyunik Monastery."
"Where?"
"It's the headquarters of The Order."
"The what?"
Anais blinked.
"Oh God, didn't Daniel tell you about The Order?" When Gia just gave her a wide-eyed shake of the head, Anais closed her eyes tight. "Shit. Okay. They're religious zealots who hate magic."
Blink.
Blink.
Anais continued, "Charlotte's a witch. A white witch. And The Order want to test her magic. Prince Duncan Gillespie said no way. And it caused a fracture in the vampyre council."
Gia wasn't sure she believed in magic. Not only that, she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
However, if it was indeed true that they were in Dyunik Monastery and that The Order had Charlotte, she made a vow right there and then to free her friend and kick-ass.
Anais was staring at her as if she could read her mind. "Have you had any self-defence or weapons training?" she whispered.
"No. But that doesn't mean I can't fight."
"Aren't you afraid?"
Gia thought about it. On one level she was terrified for Charlotte and her baby. On another she was afraid Daniel was going to be seriously pissed with her, if she got out of this in one piece. But on another level, she felt somehow empowered and strong and, deep down, deadly. Why she knew she was deadly and could defend herself, she'd no idea. But something deep down in her bones told her that she could take on the most powerful vampyre and fight to the death.
"I'm not afraid for myself," was all she said.
Anais gave her vampyre free reign and immediately Gia's rose, too.
"We'll get her back."
As one they hugged the wall, keeping to the shadows as they crept, step by step, down the hall until they came to a wide stairwell.
They stopped to listen.
Abruptly, Gia raised her head to sniff.
Anais did the same.
"Fire," she whispered.
Wood smoke.
Meat cooking.
The low murmur of voices far below.
Men.
Women.
Plus, her enhanced senses realized they were a mix of species.
Human.
Vampyre.
Anais turned to mark the wall with a tiny arrow denoting the way they'd come.
"Good thinking, Batman," said Gia softly.
Anais grinned, stuffed the chalk in her pocket and found... she took it out of her pocket... her cell phone.
Gia's eyes went like saucers as she slid her own out of her back pocket.
"Hot damn!"
Anais grabbed her hand and they moved back the way they came until they found an empty room.
They both flicked on their phones to find... no signal.
Gia's heart fell.
Then she stood on the bed, moved to the narrow gap in the wall and nearly danced a jig on the spot when a faint signal appeared.
"Turn off the volume," Anais hissed. "We don't want them going off at the wrong time."
"We should have our own TV adventure series," whispered a delighted Gia who was as high as a kite since her vampyre was ruling her.
Anais frowned as she studied her face carefully.
"Keep calm. Your eyes are blood red. Control your vampyre. Breathe."
Gia did as she was told and felt marginally better, calmer.
"We need to go higher to receive a signal."
"What's your battery life?"
"Nearly full."
"Mine is half," muttered Anais.
She switched off her phone, tucked it in her bra for safe-keeping.
Gia did the same.
Again they listened hard at the door before they opened it and crept out.
This time they turned left heading for the narrow stairs. Gia went first and using all her vampyre senses, she floated up the stairs making no sound. Up, up, up they went and the air became bitter as at last they came to a locked narrow door. They pressed their ear against it. All they heard was the howl and wail of the wind.
"Place gives me the creeps." Gia slid her cell phone from her pocket and discovered she had a weak signal.
She phoned Daniel.
It rang twice, three times.
Then... "Where are you? Is Anais with you? Is Charlotte with you?"
"Anais is here. She thinks we're in Dyunik Monastery. It's ancient, built of stone and it's freezing here. We need to find Charlotte..."
At his yelled expletive she held the phone away from her ear and made a horrible face at Anais.
Anais snatched her phone.
"Shut up, Daniel. We're fine. The mirror in Charlotte and James's bedroom seems to be some sort of Gateway. But it might be a one way system, we don't know. And that means we're in the Caucuses with no way to get home."
Silence.
Then she heard Marcus's voice.
"What the fuck were you thinking? As soon as you discovered the mirror was not a mirror the pair of you should have come to us!"
Of course he was correct.
Both her and Gia had been beyond stupid.
But what was done was done.
No point in crying over something that couldn't be changed.
"We're going to find Charlotte and bring her home. Try not to worry. Talk later."
And so endeth the call.
"Oh man, they're so going to murder us," whispered a Gia, who didn't sound at all concerned.
If anything, she sounded juiced.
Anais had a weird kind of electricity running through her veins, too.
"Our men need to learn that we're more than able to look after ourselves."
They bumped knuckles.
"Right on, Sista."
"You're so bad," said Anais.
"Better believe it."
"Right, let's find Charlotte and get the hell out of here," whispered Anais. "Although to be honest, I've no idea how we're going to manage it or even where to start."
The Vampyre Legal Chronicles - Daniel: Book: 3 Page 15