A Shade of Halloween

by Robin Todd

  “Okay. We’re getting somewhere.” Viktor stated. “Selena, did you manage to see the building where they kept him?”

  “I only saw inside the room because I somehow appeared there in my dream.” I replied.

  “Let us raid Vladek’s mansion right now.” Ros roared.

  His voice sounded very close to clatter of a raging thunder storm and I didn’t realize when I held my breath.

  “We could do that but what if Ryan’s not there? We would pretty much have tipped Vladek off and the consequences might be dire.” Viktor replied.

  “The consequences are already dire. The first generation will be here any minute now and they’ll rip our heads off if we can’t produce the culprits. I’m surprised they aren’t even here yet.” Ros countered.

  “Wait. What do you mean they’ll rip our heads off?” Trina asked.

  “I didn’t exactly tell you the consequences of planning a strike on the first generation. The moment they sense that one of their own is dead, they’ll move for a convergence. That’s like a gathering of all the other members of that generation and no one knows the location where that happens. They visit the highest seat of power of the lower generation and demand the culprits. If the leader of the biggest clan can produce them, then he is pardoned and the culprits will have their heads ripped off. If he can’t, then everyone else dies.” Ros replied. “We only just figured out who the culprits are. If we can’t find them before the first generation gets here, we’re all going to die.”

  His eyes had assumed their regular deep green color again, an indication that his fury had waned a bit.

  “How long does it take for the first generation to show up after the murder of one of them?” Trina asked.

  “According to the history books, it usually takes about 24 hours but that time frame could be up to 48 hours.” Viktor replied. “No takeover attempt has happened in my lifetime.”

  “When was the first generation vampire you referred to earlier murdered?” Trina asked.

  “About 24 hours ago.” Ros replied.

  “That gives us less than 24 hours to save Ryan and arrest the culprits.” Trina stated.

  “Exactly!” Ros concurred. “Do you see why I can’t afford a lengthy investigation?”

  “I see that but at the end of the day, we want to get Ryan back safe.” I stated.

  “Selena.” Trina called. “I think you’re the only one that can find him in the short amount of time we have.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “You were there in your dream or vision or whatever it was. That’s why they were able to cut you. I think you projected yourself there somehow because you were asleep on the sofa. So if you can go back there and maybe look around this time for anything we can identify the house with, we can go straight there.” She replied.

  I hadn’t thought of that before and it sounded like a good idea.

  “The only problem is that I don’t know how I did it the first time. I was asleep. For all I know, Ryan made the connection and I projected myself to his call.” I replied.

  “I think you should just try. Ryan’s life might depend on it. You’ve made the connection once, I’m sure you can do it again.” Trina stated.

  I looked at everyone in the room and nodded.

  “I’ll try.” I said, drawing in a deep breath and closing my eyes.

  Chapter Twenty

  Selena’s POV

  Viktor showed me to a chair on which I sat. I folded my legs towards myself and placed the back of my palms above my knees in a meditative yoga pose. My eyelids slowly closed, covering up my vision and unlocking my inner sight. I pictured Ryan’s bloody face and felt the gripping tug in my heart that was the result of seeing him so hurt. I focused my imagination on the room I saw in my dream. Its grey walls and dull brown wooden flooring came back to my thoughts and I let out a low hum.

  “Ostedelium semita.” I whispered to myself. “Et ad viam scire.”

  It felt like a canvas was rolled out in front of my eyes. Right above that canvas, I saw blinking golden rings very similar to those Trina and I saw back at the alternate city. The shape of the canvas shifted and spread out on all sides, transforming from a two dimensional view to a three dimensional one. The blinking golden rings lined the canvas straight ahead, looking more or less like indicators showing me the way. I attempted to follow the rings and felt myself floating for a bit. I didn’t know if the feeling of floating disappeared or I was distracted by a different feeling but my attention shifted to my surroundings. I could feel everything around me. The ground below was solid, and the air around me gently teased my skin as I walked. Time took on a different meaning because it felt like I was walking at my normal pace but I was covering distances too great to be covered at the pace I walked. Every time I caught up to the last golden ring on the path, more rings appeared further ahead, causing me to continue on the path. The rings led me to a nineteenth century styled mansion with massive grey gates just outside the city. I could see other golden rings beyond the gate and could tell that my path required me to go inside. However, I had no idea how to get through. I stood in front of the gate and looked inside at the different people going about their normal businesses.

  “Apertus  facmelia intoire”. I whispered.

  I neither remembered the gates opening nor walking through at any point. I even had no clue what funny words I was whispering or why I was whispering them. What I saw was myself inside the property, facing the front door. I turned around and saw the gates behind me, still locked. It didn’t feel weird at all. What I felt instead was the need to go inside. I followed the rings through the hallways until I got inside a room I recognized. I instantly ran to the bloody frame of the familiar figure hanging from silver chain suspenders. I didn’t need to see his face to know who he was this time. It was Ryan, and he was barely breathing. He seemed to be alone because I couldn’t spot anyone else around. I touched his face and felt his skin against my fingers. It didn’t look like he noticed me because his head remained down and he didn’t move.

  “I’m so sorry, Ryan. I’ll get you out of here.” I said, trying my best to pry his hands free of the suspenders that held him captive. His head slowly lifted and his eyes met my gaze. I saw the hint of recognition in his eyes and the faintest of smiles spread across his lips.

  “My Selena. Am I dreaming?” He asked.

  Tears welled up in my eyes as I threw my body at him, hugging him so tight. He saw me... he really saw me.

  “No, you’re not, my dearest.” I replied.

  I pulled away from him and smiled in his face as our eyes fell on each other one more time. I saw his dark green eyes light up and my tears fell freely.

  “I’m going to get you out of here.” I whispered.

  “No, my Selena. You need to leave.” He said, weakly.

  “I can’t. Not without you.” I protested.

  “Selena!”

  I heard someone yell my name and looked behind me. Everything else happened so fast. The walls of the room dissolved, and were replaced by a bright yellow glow that was similar to the color of the golden rings that led me across the three dimensional canvas. My eyelids flung open and I met the worried stares of three pairs of eyes.

  I was back to the room in Viktor’s mansion and could tell I was crying because my cheeks felt wet. My body also felt sticky but I didn’t need to look down to know it was Ryan’s blood that had seeped through my shirt.

  “Are you okay?” Trina’s worried voice was the first to come through.

  “What the hell happened in there?” Ros’s voice followed suit, but I couldn’t tell if he was worried or just irritated.

  “Did you see him?” Viktor’s voice remained icy but not in a bad way.

  “I’m fine. I was just overwhelmed.” I whispered.

   Trina was already by my side, holding on to my shirt.

  “It’s not my blood.” I said, and she instantly calmed down.

  “I was scared it was for a second
there.” She replied. “What did you see?”

  “I saw Ryan and he’s badly hurt. He’s being held in an orange, stone-walled nineteenth century styled mansion with grey gates. It’s just outside the city, about three miles off the first major intersection from the freeway. He was alone in the room at the time I was there but he was cuffed with silver chain suspenders.” I replied. “I didn’t see the other people in the mansion, but I felt them around. They are exactly twenty in number but two of those are being held against their wish.”

  “How can you tell these things?” Trina asked.

  “I have no idea.” I replied.

  “...and were those spells you were casting?” Ros asked.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “When your eyes were closed, you said a couple of things in a strange language.” Trina replied.

  “I did?” I asked.

  “Um-hum.” Trina replied.

  “I could have sworn I was speaking in English, if you all didn’t have that weird look on your faces right now.” I replied.

  “Viktor, do you know of an orange mansion outside the city?” Ros asked.

  “No, but we’ll find out tonight.” He replied.

  “You girls stay here. We’ll be back.” Ros said, and made to speed out of Viktor’s mansion.

  Trina grabbed him by the wrist and he stopped to look at her with a puzzled expression.

  “We’re coming with you.” She said, firmly.

  “It’s too dangerous. We’re going up against Council vampires that are way stronger than you. Selena’s still mortal and can be hurt.” He replied.

  “You can be hurt too, remember? They have the Archibald stake that can kill all of us. If you’re going in, we are too. We came back to get Ryan. We’re not going to sit back and wait for you to do it alone.” I backed Trina up.

  “Alright, fine. You stay here with Viktor and I’ll take Trina out to feed. We all need to be in top shape for the mission tonight.” Ros replied.

  Ros and Trina sped out of the mansion, leaving me alone with Viktor.

  “No feeding for you?” I asked.

  “I don’t need to feed as regularly as vampire pure-bloods.” He replied. “Are you sure you want to go in with us? It’s going to be really dangerous.”

  “I haven’t been this sure about anything in my life.” I replied.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Selena’s POV

  Ros returned with Trina less than ten minutes after they left.

  “Let’s go.” He ordered.

  Viktor picked up a bag he had packed with silver stakes and hung it over his shoulder.

  “Twenty is a large number, especially when dealing with Council vampires. We’re going to need the weapons.” He stated.

  He was right. The vampires who tortured Ryan were ruthless. The last thing we needed was to be overpowered and I completely agreed with Viktor for taking the stakes that could at least knock them out when pushed through their hearts. I had never staked a vampire before and had no idea if I was going to be able to do it if it came to that.

  “You can. Think of it like hitting the bull’s eye when throwing darts.” I encouraged myself.

  It was either the journey to the city outskirts was short or my mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of Ryan to notice the distance being covered. Before I could completely wrap my head around the details of our rescue mission, I spotted the orange mansion.

  “There it is.” I pointed.

  “Alright everybody. You know what you have to do.” Ros stated. “Our primary aim is to get Ryan out of there safe. When we find him, he becomes your primary responsibility. Selena, you get him off the silver chain suspenders and Trina, your job is to get him and Selena out of there as quickly as possible. Viktor and I will take care of the Council vampires.”

  We all nodded and followed Ros towards the gate.

  “Wait...” Viktor stopped us. “We should go in through the back fence or something. Nothing is more obvious than walking in through the gate.”

  I wondered why we didn’t think of it before. Who goes for a rescue mission and barges in through the front door? We needed to take the mansion’s occupants by surprise, to give us the best chance at success. Ros hesitated for a bit and I wondered why. He finally turned around and walked towards the back fence. He lifted me off the ground and easily scaled the stone wall barrier that separated the mansion from the rest of the world. Viktor and Trina followed suit and once we were inside, I led the way. We walked through the hallways I saw in my locator trance and everything was pretty much the same. The only difference was that I couldn’t sense the other people in the mansion like I did in my trance.

  “Is it just me or is something off?” Trina asked in a whisper. “We haven’t run into anyone since we got here.”

  “The hallways were empty in my dreams as well.” I whispered. “Maybe the vampires are in a different wing of the mansion.”

  We continued walking with as little noise as possible, keeping a close watch over our surroundings. We didn’t want any surprises. If there were other vampires on our path, we needed to be the first to spot them. Thankfully, the hallways remained empty until we got to the door of the room where Ryan was being held. Ros opened the door slowly at first, before quickly pushing it all the way. We all rushed inside the room and were shocked to find it empty. Ryan was nowhere in sight.

  “Wait. Something’s not right here.” I said with a confused frown. “This was the room I saw him. I’m sure of it.”

  “Of course, princess. We moved him to make room for you. We’ve been expecting you.”

  I heard the smirking voice behind me and turned sharply in its direction. The most mysterious looking pair of blue eyes stared back at me with a look that shot daggers. An enraged Ros charged up and made to attack him. He had barely activated his enhanced speed when he gasped and both our eyes widened in shock. Viktor was standing right in front of him, and had plunged one of his precautionary silver stakes into his heart.

  I could tell Ros wanted to say something but his skin had already begun to shrivel into its cement cold form. Trina rushed to attack Viktor but fell to the ground, clutching her head and screaming. That was when I saw the witches behind the blue eyed vampire. They had their hands outstretched towards Trina and whatever they were doing was hurting her.

  “Trina!!” I yelled. “Stop it... Stop hurting her.”

  The witches didn’t listen. They continued their attack on Trina and before long, she passed out on the floor. I wasn’t too surprised to see Viktor was working with the culprits. Ryan was right about him. He was a sly, conniving, and power hungry vampire.

  Viktor and the blue eyed vampire seized me by the arm and pulled me out of the room.

  “Let me go! Where are you taking me?” I screamed.

  “To your destiny.” The blue eyed vampire replied.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Ros’s POV

  I got back to Viktor’s house after feeding, all pumped up and ready to go. Selena had been very helpful with getting the required information for the rescue mission and all that was left now was for us to go in there, kick some butts and get my brother back.

  We started off on the trip to the mansion outside the city and I decided to pick Selena up. She was the slowest one in the group and if we had to travel at her pace, there would have been no chance of getting to Ryan in time. We were about half way out of the city when Selena placed both of her palms on my head and mumbled something incoherent.

  “What the...”

  I never completed my sentence. My words were suppressed by the bizarre occurrence playing out in front of my eyes. We were all running on the same street, except Viktor was no longer with us and everything around us was deathly silent. I turned to the girls and was surprised to see that they looked perfectly normal, like they didn’t just experience the same thing I did.

  “Don’t freak out.” Selena said. “This is in Ryan’s best interest.”

&nb
sp; “What are you talking about? What did you do?” I barked.

  I was furious. What on earth made Selena feel that this was the right time to pull a witchy stunt?

  “You will take me back there right now or the universe helps me, I will...” I started, rushing to her with my enhanced speed and grabbing her by the neck.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Her blonde friend warned, cutting me off mid-sentence.

  Who the hell did she think she was to warn me? I was the leader of the most powerful clan of vampires and the bratty blonde thought it was a smart thing to interrupt me and question my actions? My rage was interrupted when something pulled my legs from beneath and I landed on the hard ground with a very painful thud. Whatever it was began to pull me along the ground’s surface, bruising me in the process. When I looked down at my legs, I saw absolutely nothing!

  “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to attack her.” The bratty blonde smiled vindictively.

  “Stop!” Selena stretched her hand out and yelled.

  I came to an abrupt halt and was so freaked out, that I would have made a run for it if I knew any escape routes out of the crazy place.

  “Listen, Ros.” Selena stated. “This is our one shot at getting Ryan back safe and I’m not going to let your pride ruin it. You said you needed my help so trust me.”

  “How can I trust you?” I gave her a puzzled look. “You literally transported me here without my permission! We were on our way to get Ryan and you pulled us out of the mission?”

  “I understand your concern but there was no way I could have told you with Viktor there.” She replied.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I don’t completely believe that Viktor has Ryan’s best interest at heart. I don’t know what exactly he’s planning but it’s safer for all of us if we watch from here.” She replied.

  “So what’s the plan exactly?” I asked, still trying to process everything she was saying.

  “I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.” She replied. “When I tried to find Ryan’s location earlier today, I pretty much went there. It was like I had a replica of myself there in the mansion, while the other replica - the real me, was in Viktor’s mansion. The replicas are connected to each other and that’s why when Ryan’s blood stained my shirt over at the orange mansion, you could see blood on my shirt in Viktor’s mansion. To be able to maintain these replicas, I have to operate at a higher plane from what’s normal and in that state, I can feel the intentions of other people. It’s how I knew there were two vampires being held against their wishes in the orange mansion. Briefly before I merged the two replicas of myself back into one, I felt the intentions of everyone in the room. Yours and Trina’s were good. I could easily tell you were going on the rescue mission to get Ryan back. Viktor on the other hand, had a darker intention around him. There was no time to explain it to you and I didn’t want him to know I was on to him, so I decided to replicate you, Trina and myself up here.” She replied.