by SARA FREITES
“Pluie torrentielle," I whispered as I waited in the bathroom.
The words rolled off my tongue, and I dropped the crystal in the cup of water. Just like the instructions directed, I grabbed the glass and tossed the water high into the air. Coincidently, I’d aimed just above the tub, and I’m glad I did. I never expected what happened next. Even though I felt the spell’s translation sounded pretty self-explanatory, the sight of billowing smoke gathering in the corner of the small room still shocked me. I freaked when water began pouring from it like a monsoon.
I darted out of the bathroom in fear of what I’d done, hiding beside the bed. I listened while water dumped into the bathtub. After ten seconds went by, I peeked around the corner. The smoke had thickened into a dark raincloud and began to dissipate along with the rain. By the time the water stopped pouring, the bathtub came close to overflowing and slowly drained, the floor around it soaked. I swiftly took every towel from the rack and soaked up the watery disaster. Giggling to myself, I tossed the wet towels in my laundry basket. I set the glass with the crystal on the sink until I could find the perfect opportunity to use this spell.
I didn’t have to wait long.
I was getting ready for bed the following night when I heard the back door open. I waited to hear the “clang” when it shut, but it never came. I imagined it left wide open with a bright light shining through, despite being night out. Running straight out of the back door to escape would have been the obvious thing to do, but I knew the vampires would stop me before I made it. But I wouldn’t have to worry about that if they couldn’t see me.
I listened to a small but boisterous group of vampires enter from the Sanctum. I darted for the bathroom and chanted the invisibility spell with my hand against the sink’s mirror. When my reflection faded before my eyes, I filled the glass I’d left there with water, the crystal sloshing around at the bottom. I made my way down the staircase with it so fast I didn’t have time to completely think through what I was about to do. Hell, I didn't even have time to put my shoes on.
The invisibility spell would only last about twenty more seconds, so I had to hurry. I had a long way to go. Somehow, I had to make it at least halfway around the outside of the building before the spell wore off.
The vampires’ voices rose from the entryway. Waiting on the landing, I crouched behind the staircase’s half wall. I felt like a mischievous little child waiting nervously to make my move, wondering how much trouble I’d get in if I got caught.
Without hesitation, I recited the rainstorm spell in a whisper. I tossed the water and crystal into the air. Before gravity took hold of the liquid to bring it showering back down over me, the water shot across the room. It gathered in a corner as smoke formed around a growing mass of liquid. The smoke expanded and spread across the ceiling and into the kitchen. There, it thickened into rolling rainclouds and made its way into the living room. Water burst from it, dousing the entire first level. I could hear it pounding against the hardwood floors.
I also heard the vampires curse and move about. An adrenaline rush kicked in. I dropped and shattered the drinking glass. I blazed through the hallway. Drenched instantly, I weaved between soaking wet vampires. I had to stop myself from laughing at the scene around me.
“Oh my God, I’m gonna kill her!” Thade shouted through the relentlessly pouring water.
I winced at his roaring voice but didn’t let it stop me from racing through the back door.
Freedom!
The second my wet socked feet hit the long grass outside, the sight of Thade caused my chest to tighten. He stood in my way, his arms crossed. I stopped there in confusion, wondering how he could see me. Had the invisibility spell already worn off?
“We don’t have to see you to know you’re there,” he snarled. “You don’t smell human, but like a vampire, you have a scent of your own. And when you’re close enough, I can hear you every time you take a breath—not to mention the beating of your rambunctious little heart.”
The invisibility spell wore off at his last word. He pointed over my head at the Sanctum. I halfheartedly turned back to it. He led me inside where I noticed my storm cloud had vanished. Left behind were puddles of water everywhere I could see. Seven other vampires waited, their clothes soaked through and dripping with water. They stared hard back at me. Blake stood apart from them, unsuccessfully holding back a smile.
“Apologize, please,” Thade ordered.
Frustrated, I cut my eyes at him. “Sorry,” I insincerely said.
“Not to me.” Thade nodded at the vampires ahead of us.
I reluctantly made eye contact with each of them. “Sorry,” I repeated.
“You didn’t happen to come across a spell in that book that would clean up a mess like this, did you?” Thade asked harshly.
I shook my head.
“Okay, then. There are to be no more spells used in the Sanctum. Hand it over.”
He held his hand out to me. Holding back to urge to tell him to go to hell, I withdrew the spell book from the waistband of my pants. He swiped it away. The forming knot in my throat dissolved. With that, the vampire leader guided me to the large closet just under the stairs, the laundry closet. From between the washer and dryer, he took out an old mop and towels that looked as if they hadn’t been touched in years. He shoved them at me. I spent the rest of the evening drying the floors and overanalyzing my failed attempts to escape.
As I finished mopping up the water, I caught sight of the shattered glass and chandelier crystal I’d left behind. I eased the crystal into my pocket, cleaned up the broken glass and discarded it so Thade wouldn’t figure out what I’d used to make the spell work. Knowing him, he’d probably have every single drinking glass and chandelier removed from the entire greystone.
While I lay in bed that night, I couldn’t sleep, absolutely infuriated with myself. My mind swirled with emotions. If only I’d had a chance to search that spell book one last time. But then, through my thoughts, I remembered that night on the street when I leapt sixty feet into the air. That night, I scaled a skyscraper with ten times my normal strength and moved like I never had before. The guardian spell, that massive armored feline. And I remembered the spell word-for-word. I rolled over in bed, checking the nightstand for Jacoby’s pocketknife. I poked my fingers into the drawer and felt the cold metal of the sheath. A smile tugged at my lips. I took it from the nightstand and clipped it to the side of my cotton shorts.
“Lève-toi, gardien,” I said in a hushed voice.
Everything hidden in the darkness of the room became visible when I spoke those words. When I’d used this spell before, I didn’t remember feeling my body transforming, but now I could feel my arms and legs growing longer and larger. My sense of smell heightened. Oddly enough, the first thing I caught a whiff of was my leftover dinner in the refrigerator downstairs. Next, I picked up on what my brain told me was the scent of the vampires. I can’t explain the way they smelled because it wasn’t exactly a scent, but more of a sensation. It was like inhaling cold air, and it caused my nose to tingle almost painfully. A hint of dried earth filled my nostrils along with this, possibly the scent of their never-aging skin and old blood.
I collapsed on all fours when my knees bent backward. My upper back and shoulders spread wide. Fur the color of a crow with a hint of violet sprouted from every part of my body while my spine extended, becoming a single-bladed tail. I felt no pain at all, only a prickling sensation and a mild pressure all over my body. The last of my transformation took place when my muzzle bulged. This allowed my saber teeth to grow in. And finally, the bones of my fingers ripped from my skin and melded into wicked, finger-like claws.
I huffed, adjusted to my new body and went straight to work. With my bone-paws, I shredded the boards on my window. I shattered the glass, leapt through the rain and landed in the backyard. But the vampires must have been watching. In groups, they came, and together, they were so much stronger than me, even in this form. They easily wrestle
d my massive feline body to the ground with their ice-cold hands. They pushed me down with one side of my face buried in the grass and mud. Unseen at first, Thade called out my name. My eyes found him breaking through the vampires. Blake appeared just behind him, his eyes sad as he stared after me. I bared my fangs at Thade. That’s when I realized I must have bitten my tongue in the scuffle. The blood tasted terrible, and I could see it mix with the mud. Because of this, I knew the spell would start to fade any minute.
“Autumn, I’ve told you,” Thade moaned as I shrank and shriveled into my human form. “We cannot let you leave. I’m being generous by allowing you a room of your own with a comfortable bed, allowing you to wander about the upper levels as you please. I am begging you, for your sake, for the last time. Do not force me to have you locked away in our prison. By trying to escape, you will only cause more unhappiness for yourself.”
The vampires released me while the last of my fur melted together and became my clothes again. As Thade spoke, I thought of my next plan—to escape during the day with the guardian spell since the vampires couldn’t follow me out into the daylight unless they were wearing their big cloaks.
But then, Thade swiped the pocketknife from my shorts. Eden must have told him. She was the only one who knew about it, and it would’ve been the only way Thade could’ve known my knife was what made that spell work. And now, that final plan would never be as long as I didn’t have that knife. As I sat there, I promised myself I wouldn’t tell Eden anything I didn’t want Thade to know. She was my friend, but she was a haviden and Thade’s daughter first.
I sat up covered in mud and grass, feeling sick. That was it. I’d tried everything to see my family. There was nothing else I could do.
“Inside!” Thade shouted, and the vampires made their way into the Sanctum.
I sat there as they maneuvered around me, leaving Blake, Thade and me alone in the backyard. My chest heaved. Thade and Blake’s eyes softened on me. I gasped, crying into the back of my hand. The frigid rain mixed with the tears running down my face. I tried to stand but slipped in the mud. Blake started for me, but Thade held up a hand to stop him. Thade came to me and offered his hand. I shooed him away, sobbing so hard my stomach started hurting.
“Autumn,” Thade waited over me with his outstretched arm. “I understand your pain. But you are only making this harder on yourself. I assure you, if you cooperate with us, everything will become so much easier for you. Let’s get you inside.”
I waited before taking his hand. Once he helped me up, he moved me against the house out of the rain as I tried fighting back more tears. Blake slowly followed us. Thade rested a hand on the wall beside me. His other hand bopped my chin to lift my gaze. We stared at one another while I cried. His dark eyes studied my face.
“I am sorry, Autumn,” he said. “We are doing this for your own good. Let us protect you. Please.”
I wiped my face with my arm, unable to reply.
“Go inside and clean up before you catch a cold,” he advised.
I briskly moved past Blake and into the Sanctum, too embarrassed to even look at him.
*
It was a quiet Wednesday night, fifty-four days since I’d been taken in by the vampires…but it felt much longer. It’d been about a week since that last failed attempt to escape, and I had given up since then. I felt drained, worn out from my efforts and constant overthinking that had gotten me nowhere. I'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that I’d never leave the Sanctum. I'd busied myself for days cleaning the upper levels, doing dishes and trying to cook my meals when Eden hadn't beat me to the stove or microwave.
Thade and a few others talked in the living room as I washed my dinner plate. Eden emerged from downstairs. She walked through the kitchen to join them but stopped.
“How are you?” she asked me quietly.
“I’m okay,” I barely replied.
“I knew you'd feel better after getting some food in your stomach. It won't heal you emotionally but should help you physically feel better. Everything will be okay,” she promised with a smile.
I nodded, drying my plate. She went to join the vampire group. I tiptoed to reach the cabinet, set the plate inside and paused. A noise from the nearest window had lured me from my thoughts. I sat still at first, listening. The noise ceased, and I started to leave the room. I stopped in the doorway when I heard it again. This time, I spun back to the boarded-up window. Cautiously, I approached it. I hesitated by the table when I swore I heard a pressure on the glass, and then it quietly popped.
“Eden?” I called in concern, and my hand found the back of the chair I’d left out from the table.
“Yeah?” she called from the other room.
“Come here a sec!” I called back.
I could hear the strain in my own voice. From between the boards, a small radiant orb shone against the night.
“Yes?” Eden asked as she came to me.
I heard Thade’s cell phone ring, the familiar chime sounded throughout the greystone.
“Thade! Non-human on property!” someone’s urgent shout rose from the basement.
The boards burst from the window, sending plywood shooting across the room. The noise it made deafened me as glass blew inside. A body came with it, flying through the air at Eden and me. It plowed into the chair in front of me and knocked it and me down. I screamed. I landed flat on my back with the chair on top of me. The man fell over it. The chair cracked as it acted as a barrier against the man's attempts to attack me. With his face distorted, he clawed at the chair and ripped it off me. Eden seized him by the back of his shirt, but two more men sprang from the window. They knocked her to the ground.
The haviden over me shot backward and hit the wall. Thade loomed over me suddenly, ripping one of the havidens off Eden. Two more men came through the window. I rolled under the table as Harper and Blake ran to stop them. Garrett shouted down the stairwell for backup and more vampires were there in an instant. I lost count of how many more havidens came through the window as the vampires fought them off around me. I curled into a terrified ball under the table. Dishes crashed to the ground when more vampires came into sight from downstairs. I heard something smash above me and the kitchen light went out. Blood splattered next to me. I squealed and moved away from it. Bodies started hitting the floor, and I covered my eyes. It wasn't long before the house fell silent.
“Autumn?” Thade called.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I assured him.
Guarded, I crawled out from under the table, wishing I’d just stayed under it after I found myself in this dim scene—blood spattered all over the walls and cabinets along with dismembered body parts that lay all over the floor. I couldn’t tell where one body ended and the other started.
Looking up, I studied the vampires. They all stood motionless in the sea of corpses. Haviden blood stained the vampires’ clothes and faces. In Thade’s right hand hung a severed head. I ripped my eyes away in awe.
“Eden? Will you take Autumn away until I call for you?” Thade asked.
Eden came to me with blood all over her hands. She nodded for me to follow. I gave the room a once-over and caught a glimpse of Blake. Blood, seemingly someone else’s, ran down one side of his face and stained his shirt. He looked to me, and I hastily looked away to go with Eden.
“I can’t…I can’t believe what just happened,” I stammered as we walked downstairs.
“Me either,” she breathed.
We reached the basement when she veered off, leaving me by one of the large couches.
“I’m going to clean some of this blood off. I’ll be right back,” she told me.
She disappeared into one of the many rooms lining the wall. I sat down, trying to calm myself and checked my clothes over for blood spatter. Moments later, Eden came back in a different shirt and freshly washed hands.
“I’ll get that window fixed, but I’ll need a few others to help me clean that mess up,” said a vampire who walked by.
“I can’t believe they attacked above ground. That’s the first time that’s ever happened,” another said, tailing him. “Why would they do that…”
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s the reincarnation,” the first blurted. “They don’t care about drawing human attention to themselves anymore.”
“I know,” Thade sighed loudly to someone on his way down. “It might be the only choice we have right now.”
“If Arlos knows she’s here and these attacks are a direct correlation to that, they will continue happening and more frequently,” a voice warned—it sounded like Terry. “They‘re trying to flush us out. And it will eventually work. We’re not ready for wave after wave of attacks. The Sanctum isn’t built for it, either. It would be great if Arlos showed his face during all of this, but we don’t have the daggers yet. The girl is not as safe here as she once was, and in due course, we won’t be, either.”
“He’s right,” Garrett agreed. “Soon, Arlos will try something different. Something bigger.”
“He’ll lay off the attacks once he realizes she’s not here anymore,” Terry predicted.
The three paused in the doorway just out of sight.
“We can relocate her in secret,” Terry suggested. “They won’t sense her here and the attacks should cease. Should.”
“That’s true. Arlos will have them scouring the city instead of wasting their time attacking us. Does sound a little rash, though. Doesn’t it?” Garrett asked. “Maybe even desperate.”
“At this point, we are desperate,” Thade responded with a boldness in his voice.
“It’s not as reckless as it sounds,” Terry declared. ”As long as we have enough men patrolling the outskirts of the city and around her home, everything should be fine. They can pull her out of there if they spot something suspicious in the area—like a haviden sniffing around her neighborhood. Now that we’ve found the reincarnation, we’ve been focusing too much on searching for Arlos recently. We’ve also wasted time and men protecting this place when we could be out there searching for the daggers. First and foremost, before Arlos and before worrying about attacks, we must focus on finding the daggers. We can worry about drawing Arlos out of his hiding place later.”