The church.
“The entrance to the Underworld in Clover Bay is beneath the old church,” Lana said. “Of course, that’s where it would be.”
“Are you going to take Elijah?” Rae asked.
Lana thought for a moment to their conversation. When the vampires were caught, they were taken into the old church and burned. If they knew where the entrance to the Underworld was, they could have easily slipped away, and they would never have been killed in that fire. On the other hand, maybe they didn’t know about the entrance and they truly died in that church. Either way, taking Elijah could cause him to question their potential existence as she was just now.
“If I take him, he may become conflicted and would not be able to help me find Kyle’s body,” Lana said. “Or what’s left of his body, technically.”
“At the same time, Elijah should know where you’re going just in case something happens.”
“That’s a great idea, Rae. You tell him.” Lana closed her eyes and thought back to the day Micah led her through the tall grass to go to church during the summer she’d spent in the Bay. The white church came into view, Lana feeling the wind on her cheeks. She’d done it again, transported herself to the old church grounds.
All that was left of the old building was a decrepit fireplace that once stood two stories high. She had never been in the basement of the building, but remembered there was a storm cellar behind the church. Hidden beneath pine needles, leaves and overgrowth, Lana found the door to the cellar, running her hands over the splintered wood for the handle.
Beneath the old church grounds, the cellar had barrels of rotted potatoes, flour, and oats, jars of questionable fluids and planks of wood for repairs when the building was in its prime.
“Are you crazy?” Elijah’s voice made Lana jump. “You seriously think that going into the Underworld in your condition is a good idea… You’re out of your mind.”
“It’s the only way to get rid of the demon, and Kyle,” Lana said. “I knew if I brought you here you’d have issues and you wouldn’t be able to help.”
“Well I’m fine, and you’re still crazy,” Elijah said. “You also don’t have fire to burn his bones if you find them.”
“When I find them.”
“Whatever.”
“You know how to make a fire. Go make a torch or something.”
Elijah brought a torch back after creating a small flame from a thin stick and some brush. With the cellar illuminated, the two searched the walls for a hidden passage. Behind one of the makeshift storage cabinets, Elijah saw what looked like a small knob protruding from the wall. He pushed the cabinet to the side, tugging on the knob.
A door the size of a two-foot by four-foot crawlspace crumbled, revealing a dirt hole big enough for them to crawl through. Elijah went first, leading the way with the light.
Five minutes into the crawlspace, Elijah and Lana fell through a hollow point in the path, landing in a shallow pool of water. All around them, darkness ensued, the cool smell of damp earth and sewage nauseating them. Elijah pulled Lana up the ramp and through a small archway, light not far from them. Shadows of flames danced on the walls, the torches lining the corridor.
“So where is this guy’s body anyway?” Elijah whispered.
“It said under the church,” Lana said. They followed the corridor until it turned, searching for a way that circled back to beneath the church.
“You there!” a dark-hooded man yelled behind them. “State your business.”
Elijah motioned for Lana to get behind him, placing himself between her and the figure. “We’re here to speak with Kyle.”
“Why?” the man asked. Lana could see a scar across his mouth that angled up from the left side of his chin toward his right cheekbone.
“He summoned a Holanshee,” Elijah stated.
The man took a step back, grabbing at one of the torches behind him. “The summoning of a Holanshee is strictly forbidden.”
Elijah said nothing, strengthening his grip on Lana’s wrist behind him. “Will you take me to him?”
The figure nodded, pushing past them. He took them down another corridor, this one unlit, down two flights of stone stairs and through a thick wooden door. He pushed the door to the side, lighting two additional torches inside the tomb. Lining the walls of the room were skeletons clothed in whatever they died in. Lana searched the clothed bones until she found one she recognized. Kyle wore khakis almost every day they were together. There was only one skeleton clothed in khakis.
The hooded figure walked straight to the bones, taking a vial of red liquid from his pocket.
“Kyle Thomas, Demon Hunter of Clover Bay, you are hereby relieved of duty for failing to obey a direct order and for the forbidden summoning of a greater demon, the Holanshee,” the figure stated. He dropped the vial on the bones and handed the torch to Lana.
“Kyle has told me about you, Lana McDowall of Clover Bay,” the figure stated. “I give you the honor of vanquishing the demon and its hunter for he has broken far too many rules.”
“Thank you,” Lana said softly.
“I expect you will leave as quietly as you came,” the figure said. “Do not leave this room and venture further into the Underworld.”
She nodded, the figure leaving and closing the door behind him. Lana dropped the torch onto Kyle’s now drenched bones, the combination of flame to liquid forcing her into Elijah. The blast blew out the remaining torches, leaving them encased in darkness. Lana took Elijah’s hand as the flames fizzled out, and thought of Rae’s living room. The two returned to the sectional, Cathy and Rae eagerly awaiting their return.
Chapter 14
“So, he just, like, led you to him and let you burn his corpse?” Rae asked of the hooded figure in the Underworld. “Why does that seem like it was a trap?”
“He knew my name, and knew Kyle’s. He said that Kyle talked about me, and that he had broken many rules, and that summoning the demon was the last straw,” Lana said.
“And forbidden,” Cathy stated, sipping lemonade.
“Is it forbidden because you can’t kill the demon without going into the Underworld?” Rae asked.
Her mother nodded, gathering her supplies and returning them to their hiding place in the basement.
“So, what now?” Rae asked. “We go home?”
“We go home,” Lana nodded.
~
A cabinet at the far side of the art room held a sketchpad with the front covered in colored sketches of mountains, a castle on fire and light beaming from clouds over the fancy architecture. A phoenix rose from ashes at the base of the castle. A lake with a moon’s reflection was close to the bottom of the sketchpad.
He pulled a drawing pencil from his book bag and searched for a blank page. When he found one, he immediately began drawing Lana’s face. He started on the oval shape of her face and the slight curve of her chin. He moved to her eyes then, tracing the circular shape of her pupils and shading them in lightly.
Aiden reached into his bag and pulled out a group of colored pencils, searching for a light blue and a red colored one to add a little violet to her eyes.
Perfectly imperfect.
He spent the next half hour sketching her nose and mouth, adding her hair last.
He pictured her with longer hair, but stuck with how he saw her Monday. Aiden started with her bangs, how they swept across her forehead from the left to the right and were tucked behind her ear. He pictured the Gemini zodiac tattoo behind her ear and drew it on the side of the page. He finished the drawing by adding the small diamond nose stud on her right nostril, and shading her eyelids a light lavender color.
Although he knew the sketch would never compare to how she looked in person, Aiden felt accomplished, closing the sketchpad. He hesitated, staring at the drawing on the front of the pad. The way the castle and the flames spiraled into the air and met the dark clouds mesmerized him for a moment, threatening to take him back to a place he wished to forget.<
br />
He quickly flipped the sketchpad over and left the table, heat rising to the surface and staining his cheeks and ears a bright red. He stood, taking the pad back to the cabinet where it stayed most of the time. He closed the cabinet door, walking away as quickly as he could.
Students filtered in through both entrances of the room, Aiden pushing past them until he was out of the room. At the top of the steps, he saw Rae heading to her class, free of Lana. He jogged to catch up with her, tapping her shoulder.
“Hey, you’re Lana’s friend, right?” he asked. “I’m Aiden.”
“I’m gonna be late; sorry, I can’t chat right now,” Rae scurried off, leaving Aiden behind.
“What’s with girls around you?” Dimitri asked.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?” Aiden asked.
“Because we need you to come to the club house,” Dimitri said. “It’s getting harder and harder to wait for the Darkness to come to us; we need to go to them.”
“We know when they’re going to attack, why can’t we just wait?” he asked.
Over Dimitri’s shoulder, Aiden saw Lana walking toward the Art building. “Lana!”
He passed Dimitri, meeting her halfway. “I didn’t see you yesterday, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just wasn’t feeling very good,” she lied. He could see plum-colored skin peeking out behind her hair she’d intentionally curled and left down. Aiden lifted it away from her neck, seeing a partially covered up bruise and a similar mark on the other side. Lana backed away, running her fingers through her hair to cover the bruises back up.
“What happened? Did that guy come back?” Aiden asked.
“Drop it, please?” she asked. She went the opposite way of the Art building, heading toward the quad.
“Lana,” Aiden touched her arm. She turned to face him. “If he’s hurting you…”
She blinked away tears, wet drops streamed one by one down her cheeks. Lana shrugged her shoulders, wiping tears away. “There’s nothing you can do. He’s gone.”
“Is there anywhere you can go that’s safe?” he asked.
“I said he’s gone,” she stared at him for a moment, watching his left eye twitch.
“Okay,” he dropped the subject.
“Why aren’t you in class?” she asked.
“I have a lot on my mind,” he said. “As do you…”
Her eyes looked over her dirty sneakers. She’d tossed on some jeans and a baggy sweatshirt earlier, not caring what people thought of her appearance. It didn’t faze Aiden, he still found her beautiful.
“I think you should go home, get some rest.”
“Do you now?” she huffed.
“Hey, I’m concerned about you,” Aiden said. “All I’m trying to do is make sure you’re okay, and that you’re safe.”
“I appreciate the thought, really I do. But you can’t honestly think that after everything that’s happened, I’d still be…”
“I don’t care if you’re interested in me,” Aiden said. “In fact, I’ve come to the realization that you aren’t, and I’m okay with that.”
“Then why keep trying?”
“It has nothing to do with my interest in you, and everything to do with the fact that I’m a caring individual who wants to make sure that those around me are okay…”
Dimitri chuckled. He’d never seen Aiden care about anyone other than Leressi, the sole reason the Crusade occurred. Aiden had sworn off romance after she’d betrayed him, yet here he was fawning over a woman he believed to be human.
“Thank you for your concern,” she said. “I know it’s not till Saturday, but will you be at the lake?”
He nodded, “I’m performing at the bonfire, yeah.”
“If I don’t see you before Saturday, I’ll see you there.” She turned on her heel and left, stuffing her books in her bag before reaching her car. Although she didn’t want to return to the house, she had no other place to go than the Jacobs’ manor, and even then, she didn’t feel comfortable there either.
“You really like her,” Dimitri stated. “What happens when she grows old and you fail to age?”
“You heard her, she’s not interested,” Aiden said. “I have nothing to worry about.”
“If she were though,” Dimitri proposed. “What if this all blows over, we destroy the Darkness, and she comes around? What would happen?”
“Her best friend is a vampire. I bet he’d turn her if she’d stay around long enough for us to tell her what we are.”
“Elijah would never do that,” Dimitri said. “He would never forgive himself if he did.”
“Then she’d grow old and die.”
“And you’d be okay with that?”
“D,” he looked at the Earth Fury. “I don’t understand why you’re being this way.”
“Now you know how I feel about your infatuation with her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s been 400-something years and suddenly you’ve got a crush,” Dimitri said. “Do you even know who she is? Why would a vampire be around a human and not turn or kill her?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying you should be careful. The last time this happened…”
“I know what happened last time, but it’s different this time,” Aiden said.
“You’re sure about that?”
“Have you ever been drawn to someone so strongly you forget what you are?” His friend shook his head. “When I’m around her, I forget that I’m this…monster. I forget that at any moment someone could piss me off and I could blow up because of this uncontrollable anger within me. Something about her calms me.”
Part of Dimitri wanted to tell Aiden the truth, but knew he’d disappear like he did during the Crusade. “Have you considered telling her?”
“What I am?”
“No, just how she affects you?”
“She’d think I’m crazy,” Aiden shrugged.
“I think you’d be surprised,” Dimitri said. “Stay alert. Christine’s in a rough place and I don’t think she’s going to be any help this weekend.”
Chapter 15
Rae hopped on Lana’s bed, bouncing up and down to wake her.
“So, you know how the bonfire is tonight? Well, we’re going…”
“We already said we were…” Lana said sleepily.
“According to Alexa, the theme is masquerade. There will be carnival booths all around and a huge stage in the middle, where local bands get to perform and entertain.”
Any time Rae got the chance to talk, she took control, making Lana listen and comment when asked.
“We should go shopping so we can find a costume for you,” Rae said. “I’ve only one mask so we need to find one for you before tonight.”
“Does everyone have to wear a mask? Why can’t I just wear a hood all night?” Lana asked.
“Because you are my friend and as my friend you will wear a mask. It’s only fair,” Rae said.
The costume store sat across from The Hideout, with walls adorned with puffy dresses, skimpy nurse and vampire dresses, makeup, and accessories. The girls rummaged through clearance bins, trying to find the right mask for Lana.
“I don’t understand why someone would want to wear masks, you don’t know who anyone is,” Lana said.
“That’s the point.”
“No, it’s not, you’re signing people’s death sentence. It’s dangerous.”
“How is it dangerous? Only certain people know about the party, and everyone knows everyone,” Rae defended.
“Rachel, you know I’m right,” Lana said, her tone of voice changing. “You do not understand.”
“No, you don’t understand Lana, and don’t ever call me Rachel, you know better! Masquerades are meant to be mysterious; people have been hosting them forever. Now stop being a Debbie downer and start being normal.” Rae fumed. She tossed a mask at Lana, leaving the store.
“Rae, I didn’t…”
&n
bsp; “Don’t worry about it. I’m stressed about this party,” Rae interrupted.
“What have I told you this whole time?” Lana took her hand, squeezing it.
“Not to worry,” Rae said. “How am I supposed to do that if I know you might die tonight?”
“Because the key word is might…” Lana said. “Either way, tonight is going to be a night to remember.”
May 28, 1840
"What is the occasion?" Lana asked.
“Does there need to be an occasion?” Micah returned.
His eyes met hers while bubbles rose in her stomach. Her heartbeat escalated slowly as he stepped closer.
One step, two steps.
“What would your father say if he knew you were in here?” Lana said, turning away from him. Each time he got too close, she moved away.
“Why do you do this? Haven’t I shown you that you can trust me?” Micah said, unmoving.
“It is not about trust, Micah,” she said softly. She knew she was hurting him, pushing him away.
“Are you incapable of caring for another?”
At that she turned. Lana had been fidgeting with the lace around her waist, picking at the hem of the velvet ribbon.
“I can’t remember how to,” she admitted finally, fearfully.
“I can show you how, if you let me,” Micah said.
Thud.
The sole of his right shoe skid across the floor, his heels clicking together. She felt her heart skip a beat when he brushed his thumb across her cheek. Her skin was soft beneath the calluses of working in the barn. She felt her cheeks flush with heat while he trailed his fingers down her neck.
“Breathe, Lana,” Micah said. She let her breath out slowly as his other hand rested on her side. He gripped the material of her skirt, pulling her close to him.
Their lips touched, a subtle motion. Lana leaned forward, their lips pressing firmly together. Micah’s hand tangled in her hair, though gently. He pulled away slowly, running his fingers through the loose curls that fell down her back.
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