by Lana Melyan
“Where are you going, girl?” said another one. “Don’t you want to have some fun?” He smiled, showing his sharp teeth.
“They have no idea who we are,” whispered Eleanor, rolling the axe in her hand.
“No,” said Hanna.
If they killed one, the others wouldn’t run. They’d attack, and then she and Eleanor would have to fight all of them. But the vampires were in her way, and she was too angry. She leaned forward and grabbed the one who was still holding the bridle by his clothes.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked, piercing him with a gaze. “I am a Hunter.” She pushed him away. “Step aside or we’ll kill you all,” she said, staring furiously at the crowd.
“Fray warned us that you’d say that, that you’d try to scare us,” said a tall, broad vampire, stepping to her.
Hanna and Eleanor glanced at each other and gritted their teeth.
“You shouldn’t have said that name,” hissed Hanna.
She swung her ax and chopped the vampire’s head off. Silence fell on the meadow for a few seconds, and then, screaming and roaring, the vampires ran at Hanna and Eleanor. Eleanor led her horse against them to one side and Hanna to the other. The vampire’s bodies fell down one after another. But they were too many.
Usually, when Hanna and Eleanor hunted, they wore their slinky hunting clothes. Now, their dresses were restricting their movements. The vampires encircled the horses and clung to Hanna’s and Eleanor’s skirts and legs, trying to pull them down.
Hanna jumped down from the horse, grabbed one of them and spun him around, knocking down a few others. Eleanor freed her legs, stood on the horse’s back, and jumped over the crowd, landing behind it.
Many of the vampires had knives. Hanna and Eleanor had several cuts, and blood covered their torn dresses.
Suddenly, many hands at once clutched their fingers around Hanna’s arms and pulled her back.
A moment later, Eleanor was surrounded, too. Growling vampires dragged her to a tree and pressed her to it, trying to force her arms around the trunk. One of them wrestled the axe out of her hand and swung it above Eleanor.
But another hand snatched his wrist and yanked the axe out of his grip. Standing behind the vampire, Craig turned him around and chopped off his head. Two others opened their mouths and hit the ground, choking, staked by Ruben.
With his Dao sword, Edmond chopped off the hands holding Hanna. Riley sliced their owners with a sword, one after another.
Hanna saw Samson crushing the rest of the vampires and ran forward. She grabbed one of them and pulled him away from Samson. She turned the vampire around and, staring at his young, terrified face, yelled, “Where is he? Where did he go?”
Everybody looked at her. They had never seen Hanna so full of rage and hatred.
“I don’t know,” said the vampire, cringing in fear.
“Don’t lie to me!” Hanna raised her axe above his head. “Where did you come from?”
“Two . . .” the vampire put his hand between him and the axe. “Two days ago I woke up in some church. An old, abandoned church. . . . But I don’t know where it was. They brought us here in covered wagons.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Fray and one other. His name is Gregor.”
“How long did it take to get here?” asked Riley, stepping closer.
The vampire shuddered.
“I don’t know . . . five, maybe six hours.”
Riley pulled him out of Hanna’s hands and snapped his neck.
Samson looked at Hanna with eyes full of sorrow. She met his gaze, her lips trembling and tears streaming down her cheeks. She flashed to her horse, jumped on it, and sped toward the castle.
As Hanna returned, she ran to Gabriella and Samson’s bedroom. She looked at the blue dress lying on the armchair. Choking from the pain in her chest, she began madly sweeping the presents from the bed. When it was empty, she gazed at it for a moment, then, sobbing, went to the study.
Hanna knelt before the sofa and took Gabriella’s hand. She kissed it, and then pressed to her cheek.
“You were my mother,” she muttered, burying her face in Gabriella’s side. “I can’t do this again.”
Somebody entered the room. She looked back and saw Samson. She ran to him, and he hugged her. Hanna felt his wet cheek and wept harder.
The others were standing in the hall around the dry blood stain.
“Lucy,” said Craig, “could you bring us a cup, please.”
Lucy, wiping her nose with her apron, went to the kitchen.
“It’s here,” said Ruben, coming back from the small living room with the Map in his hand.”
“Oh, thank God,” sobbed Eleanor.
After they scraped as much blood as they could from the floor and collected it in the cup, they headed to the library. Craig noticed that Riley wasn’t with them. He turned around and saw the closing front door. Ruben was looking in the same direction. They exchanged a sad look and bowed their heads.
Through the darkness, Riley ran toward Gabriella’s garden. When he reached it, he threw himself face down on the grass beside the lilac shrubs, and let out the pain he couldn’t suppress any longer. His big, strong shoulders shuddered.
Samson, with Gabriella in his arms, walked into their bedroom and put her on her side of the bed. Without taking his eyes off of her, he went around and lay down next to her. He stroked her soft black hair, kissed it, then buried his face in her neck and cried.
24
TODAY
After a few seconds of falling through the darkness, Amanda hit something soft. When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t screaming anymore, but her mouth was still open. She sat up and looked around. She was in the same bedroom of the same old, abandoned house from the dream she’d had a few nights ago.
She sat there for a moment, listening to the silence, then stood up and went to the hallway. Amanda looked at the doors but didn’t check them, since she already knew what was behind them. She took the stairs, which, as she also already knew, lead to the living room. But after a few steps, Amanda stopped. She suddenly realized that, yes, it was the same place, but it wasn’t the same dream.
She ran down the stairs, then stopped again. Even though everything looked absolutely the same, Amanda had the strange feeling that this time she wasn’t alone. The front door was closed, and the key was in its place. When she looked at the floor, she saw that the dust was disturbed in all the same places where she’d walked last time. She even saw her footprints to the armchair, where she’d sat when she felt dizzy.
Her eyes stopped at the end of the room opposite the front door, where heavy curtains covered, as she thought before, big windows. But, when she approached them and pulled the curtains open, she saw wide doors to the backyard. The key was in the keyhole. She unlocked the door and stepped outside.
It was dawn. The first rays of sunshine touched her face. The sensation of their warmth and the smell of the blooming, though entirely neglected garden, were unbelievably real. Not so far away, surrounded by tall grass, stood an old table with chairs around it. Then, a little bit farther, she saw a bench. She stared at it for a moment, and suddenly her eyes prickled. She felt that inexplicable tumult like she’d experienced when she looked into Craig’s eyes. Only this time it was stronger. The pain in her chest and the tears on her cheeks felt real, too, and it scared her. She wanted to wake up. She closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them, she would be in her bedroom again.
In that moment, she heard a weak moan. It sounded like somebody in pain. The moan came from the house. She followed it to the living room. To her left, she saw a door beside the fireplace. She went toward it. With each step, the moan grew louder. She opened the door and walked into a large library. And after a few quick steps, she saw it. It lay on a stand that stuck out from the bookshelves—a big, closed book with an iron cover.
Something erupted inside Amanda, spreading heat all over her body.
She gasped. She k
new it was the book that cried for help, and she knew it was calling her and only her. She ran to it, but at that moment something pulled her back, and she fell into the darkness again.
Amanda opened her eyes and realized she was in Craig’s room. A terrified Melinda stood beside the bed. Behind her, she saw Craig.
Amanda panicked. She wanted to run, to hide. But when she got out of the bed, Melinda stopped before her.
“What did you see?” she asked.
Amanda looked at Craig’s exhausted face and then down at his shirt, cut in several places and covered with blood.
“Is that blood? Oh my God, Craig I’m sorry. . . I. . .”
“Amanda, I’m fine,” said Craig.
“Amanda, honey, what did you see?” Melinda asked again.
“Nothing,” she said, breathing heavily.
“We need to know,” said Melinda, insisting. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to protect you.”
“I was in that house again.” Amanda glanced at Melinda. “Remember? I told you and Dad a few days ago. It was the same old dusty house.” She wiped the cold sweat from her temple with the back of her hand.
“Those dreams you see—they’re very important,” said Craig, his voice anxious. “Did you notice any changes? Did anything attract your attention?”
“No,” said Amanda, staring at the blood on his shirt again. “Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom.”
Melinda stepped aside, and Amanda ran out. On the stairs she bumped into Ruben. Her eyes froze on his shirt, which was also torn and covered with blood.
“Don’t worry,” said Ruben. “I’m fine. And he’s fine too.”
But she could see the pain in his eyes.
She ran past him to the downstairs bathroom.
The fact that Craig saw her in his bed was embarrassing, and the sense of guilt for the blood on his and Ruben’s shirts was unbearable. Her stomach clenched from those horrible feelings. She sat on the edge of the bathtub, her hands wrapped around her, trying to calm her nervous shivering.
She didn’t remember falling asleep. Worry had kept her awake the whole night. When the light coming from the window became brighter, she decided it was time to get up. What happened next was a mystery to her.
“It’s a man. I could feel him,” said Melinda.
“How did you know she was here?” Craig asked, picking up his shirt from the bed.
“I sensed the energy the moment I stepped into the house. The same energy I felt the other time. That son of a bitch is too strong. I barely pulled her back.”
“I think she saw something. She just didn’t want to tell.”
“I think so, too. You scared her with your pretty look. You better change, and then, if you want, we can try again.”
“No,” said Craig. “Not now. She’s in shock. She needs to rest.”
“You, too. Get some sleep, get your strength back. Who knows what’s going to happen next?” said Melinda.
With a sad smile, she looked at Craig absently staring at his bed and walked away.
Amanda, Hanna, and Kimberly ditched school. After the restless, stressful night, they all needed some sleep.
“Are you hungry?” Melinda asked as soon as she and Amanda got home.
“No,” said Amanda, avoiding her eyes.
“Amanda,” said Melinda, shifting from foot to foot, “you probably have questions for me.”
“I do,” Amanda said, looking down. “But not now.”
“All right.” Melinda stepped closer and hugged her. “I just want you to know that I love you.”
But Amanda didn’t hug her back.
“Then you’re probably the only one,” she said coldly.
“That’s not true.” Melinda pulled back.
“Did you see what I did to them?” Amanda yelled suddenly. “That happened to them because of my selfishness.”
“It’s because you were hurt, and you didn’t know how dangerous those men are.”
“You don’t have to call them men. I saw everything. I know what they are.” Amanda gazed at Melinda, determined to fend off her questions.
But, to her surprise, Melinda didn’t ask anything. She was nearly smiling.
“I knew you’d figure it out.”
“So it’s true. That blood,” she said startled, “Craig and Ruben . . . were they—”
“No, no.” Melinda hastened to reassure her. “It was just a scratch.”
“Hmm,” scoffed Amanda. “You need to stop lying to me. All of you.”
“They were hurt,” said Melinda. “But they are fine now.”
Amanda nodded and bowed her head.
“I failed them and disappointed them, and, like that wasn’t enough, this morning I embarrassed myself even more.”
“Amanda . . .”
“No. Don’t,” said Amanda, and she went up the stairs to her room.
As she walked in, her phone rang. It was Kimberly.
“Amanda, what happened? When they came back, Melinda said ‘it’s happening,’ and she and Craig ran upstairs. Then you ran out.”
“When they returned, were you asleep, too?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t you wake me?” moaned Amanda.
“I was going to. I just wanted to make coffee first. Why?”
“Why? Because I fell asleep in Craig’s bed, that’s why.”
“Really?”
Amanda could feel that Kimberly was smiling, and she furiously pushed the red button.
She lay on the bed and stared at the wall where sunlight disappeared and reappeared again and again from behind cloud after cloud drifting across the sky.
Amanda thought about her dream. The image of the book was in front of her eyes, and its call for help echoed in her head. Craig said her dreams were very important, and she knew why. She was sure now that her mission was to help the book, to open it. Why was it important to Craig and the others? Why was it important to the vampires? What was the book’s purpose? Her dream didn’t have answers to those questions.
If only Amanda knew where the book was. If the book was real, and she had no doubts that it was, then the house could be real, too.
“Oh, God,” she gasped, “it is.”
She remembered the printed maps on Craig’s table, the roofs surrounded by woods. Then she remembered Hanna, who showed too much interest in her dream and kept asking her for more details. Craig was looking for that house. She had to tell him what she saw this time. She had to tell him about the book.
Then another shock hit her. Her father had seen a book in his dream, and he even tried to open it. Why her father, and why her?
This was complicating everything even more. It was just too much. Amanda’s head was exploding, and she was so tired. She didn’t want to think about it right now. Hoping that maybe the next dream would give her more answers, she closed her eyes.
25
It was nearly twelve a.m. Fray stood in front of the open window in a hotel room and gazed at the black BMW parked on the other side of the street. The young man sitting inside was looking in a newspaper through dark glasses.
Fray knew that he had been followed for the last few days, but now it was time to get rid of the tail. He stopped at Glendale, at this small hotel, before making his next step.
He walked to the table and opened the black case on it. On it’s one side two similar daggers were attached. He pulled one of them out of the sheath. The blade, which once had symbols on it, was now naked. The incantation was gone—it had disappeared the moment the Book was closed. He slowly stroked the blade with his fingers, feeling the cold, slick metal, and stuck the dagger back. Then he took out from the table drawer a small, fat, yellow envelope, closed it in the case, and left the room.
“I hope you enjoyed your stay, Mr. Wald,” said a blond young woman playfully, standing behind the reception desk, and red spots began to spread on her round cheeks.
“It was nice,” he said indifferently and looked around.
N
othing suspicious came to his attention. An old couple were sitting on the couch and examining a guide map, one male beside the entrance was frantically texting, and a bunch of people were heading to the exit.
He went outside, leisurely walked to the small parking place, and unlocked the door of his rental silver Honda with dark tinted glasses. After a moment of hesitation, he shut the door again and walked toward the black BMW. Fray put his hands on its open window and bent to the young man.
“You’ll make a hole in that newspaper,” he said in a casual tone. “What are you looking for? The weather report? I can assure you it will be hot.”
“What is this, a warning?” said the young man, turning the page. “What are you going to do, Fray?” He pulled his glasses up on his head and looked at him. “Kill us?”
“Very soon it’ll become possible, and if somebody tries to double-cross me, I won’t think twice,” said Fray in a serious voice. “Tell Samson that he won’t find it. He’ll never put his hand on it again.”
“Very soon? What makes you so sure?” The young man folded the newspaper and threw it on the passenger seat.
“I can see all the fuss over that girl, and the fact that Craig himself is guarding her is very conclusive. I never saw him around the candidates before. Maybe you should go help him and your Hanna, because here you’re just wasting your time.” Fray walked away.
He got in his car and drove out from the parking lot.
He drove down Colorado Street. He could see in the rearview mirror that the familiar black BMW was only two cars away. When he reached Bethel Latino Temple, he switched on the right turn signal, and the two cars behind him slowed down. Fray turned into the big parking lot. The moment he pulled in, three similar silver Hondas with tinted glasses and the same license plates surrounded his car. Before the BMW caught up, all four of them drove out from the opposite exit, one after another—one car to the right, and the other three to the left, and to different directions at the crossroads.