As Charlie ducked under a low and heavy branch, the twins approached him silently.
“We were wondering…,” Lisa said in a quiet whisper.
“How much do the others know?” finished Liev. He brushed some dirt off his white jeans. “About Hunter’s Key, we mean.”
“Not much,” said Charlie, tripping over a root. “We didn’t tell any of them about that thing you were wrestling with—”
“Domovoi,” interrupted Lisa.
“What?”
“That ‘thing,’ it’s called a domovoi.”
“Oh. Right. We didn’t tell them about the…domovoi. But everyone agrees that something is up with Hunter’s Key.”
There was a moment where all that was heard was the crunch, crunch, crackle, crunch of their footsteps, before Lisa asked, “Why is Witherington here, though?”
“It’s…a long story.”
“Shhh!”
They all stopped and looked up. Dink had a finger to his lips. He beckoned to them urgently.
Charlie, Nash, Lisa, Liev, and Darcy all hurried to catch up to Fish and Dink. The group reached the top, where the ground leveled back out. Up in the sky and through the trees ahead, Charlie saw lights in the Towers of Hunter’s Key. They looked bigger from this close. He pointed a slightly shaking finger.
Darcy scowled. “Who’s up there?” she asked.
“Whatever you were looking for,” said Fish, “get on with finding it, will you? Don’t want to be out here in these woods too long, with what crawls ‘round here at night.”
That last statement seemed to freeze the blood in their veins, as if it needed any help on this chilly night. And though they were not aware of it, something indeed was watching from the trees—waiting, searching.
Charlie nodded at Fish and walked forward, Nash right behind them, trying their best to be quiet.
“What are we looking for?” Darcy asked.
Liev smiled with mischief. “Anything that looks like blood, clothing scraps, or maybe fur.”
Lisa punched her brother in the arm, but did not offer any more appealing suggestions.
Charlie felt a small headache coming on. “A book,” he blurted out, though not sure why.
Nash frowned at Charlie, who was rubbing furiously at his eyes. A book?
“We need to find a decent sized hole in the gate,” said Nash. “It’s old, there’s got to be one somewhere.”
The others nodded approvingly at his practical assessment. They all fanned out, like a search party, before realizing what they were doing, Charlie walking in the middle. It was strange, that they should work together so naturally, this unlikely mix of teens.
As quietly as they could manage, with Fish and Dink now silently behind them, they walked to the edge of the woods near Hunter’s Key and stared upward, regarding it with reverence. They were nearest to the Teeth Wing, unknown to them, and found themselves entranced by the foreboding height of the Towers. They also noticed how awkwardly the Teeth Wing Tower stood, on the very edge of the house. More apparent to them was the sinister, disapproving way it glared down at them.
To their left, a black car sped out of the trees. Everyone shrunk back reflexively.
Headlights swung over their hiding places as the car turned around an enormous, inactive fountain, but the driver did not seem to notice them.
This is the dark stranger, thought Charlie. This is it.
Terror—and a little excitement—ran up and down his spine, making him shiver. His head felt like it was splitting in two.
The others were having similar sentiments, minus the headache. The twins watched excitedly, trying to decide what monstrosity lay beneath the stranger’s human skin. Nash was less scared, and less than excited. If Mrs. McBranson had been hurt…. He was just ready to break down some doors and start a fight.
Beside them, Darcy simply frowned at the car on her father’s property. On what would one day be her property.
As the car came to a stop near the garages, much too close to the watchers hidden in the trees, Lisa and Liev leaned forward in anticipation. They wondered if the suspected monster was a pricolici, or a strigoi, or even some other creature from their childhood stories, like the terrible nalapsi. It was perhaps true that their imaginations were getting the best of them.
Many yards away, the dark stranger exited the car and walked to the garage to pull it open. He was frustrated tonight, unsuccessful in his search.
From the woods a twig snapped.
Like the night before, the stranger snapped to attention. He walked forward and heard the scatter of someone trying to get further into the woods. It was not hard to see them—not with his right eye, which was red. The urge to laugh was bubbling up from his stomach, but he fought it.
The stranger could see one or two of their faces, clear as daylight. Teenagers, probably bored and looking for adventure up at the spooky house on a hill. Little did they know.
He looked right through them and their two woodsmen guides, pretending to scan the trees before shrugging his shoulders and going back to open the four-car garage. He drove the black car in and closed the door.
Back in the woods, the group let out a collective breath of relief. They all turned to glare at Charlie, since he had been the one who stepped on the twig and fall on his butt, horrified.
In his own defense, Charlie held up an ornate, leather book.
“I found something,” he said. “A book.”
The twins came forward, momentarily forgiving him, more interested in the old book. It looked priceless, and menacing; a dark mahogany color, inlaid with intricate lines of blood-red ink. The lines made up a complex, almost tribal pattern. It looked otherworldly to them.
Everyone stared at Charlie—even Fish and Dink. A book, he had told them. And a book he had found. Surely this was not coincidence, even if the alternative was insane superstition.
“Alright,” said Nash, finally spooked. “So we know he’s up here. And we have…a book. I say we call it a night. We can report it to the police or something from this point.”
“Actually,” said Lisa, “you should all come over to our place. We need to talk.”
Liev nodded in agreement. “And we’d like to see that book.”
Charlie was a little freaked out, wanting to run home and never have anything to do with Hunter’s Key or the book again. But he was in too deep. If Charlie backed down now, it would haunt him in every nightmare and daydream for the rest of his life.
“I’ll come,” said Charlie.
He looked around at Nash, Darcy, and also Fish and Dink.
Darcy crossed her arms. She wanted nothing to do with the Vadiknovs, but this was all too much to walk away from. Especially with a stranger living in the mayoral mansion.
“Fine,” she said.
“Alright,” said Nash.
“You guys go on ahead without us,” said Fish. “I’ve got some business I need to tend to. But we’ll make sure you find your way out of the woods,” he added, rubbing his rabbit foot charm.
As the group retreated back into the woods, the Chief of Assistants looked down on them from a nearby tree.
His heart felt crushed. They had his master’s diary! The little monster scurried down the tree, careful to remain hidden. He should follow them and take it but they were too many, even for him. He hopped from foot to foot as they started to leave, trying to think of how to get the diary, wringing his hands and gnashing his teeth with nervous energy. He beat himself on the head and punched a tree with frustration, leaving behind a small dent in the bark.
And then his master beckoned him. He wanted to follow the humans, but he could not disobey the call.
The diary was so close, and yet just out of his reach.
The Chief of Assistants wept profusely as he skittered behind Hunter’s Key, returning to his master.
Meanwhile, the dark stranger stood in the shadows, watching with his red eye as the five te
ens and their guides left the property. He crossed his arms and decided not to go after them. They might cause trouble with the town officials, but he doubted it. He was good at reading people.
If they were going to do anything at all, they would do it personally. At which time he would deal with them.
The Vadiknov house was well organized and simply decorated, until you entered the library.
It was crowded with books. Big books, small books. Books with polished and modern covers, books that were ancient and falling apart at the spine, books that looked as though they belonged in some European museum, and some books that were only pages long. It was as if the twins were competing with Mrs. Nutterwicke and the school library.
A white door and a black door, which presumably led to Lisa and Liev’s bedrooms, stood on opposite walls. Both doors were shut.
Mr. and Mrs. Vadiknov were already in bed, but Lisa closed the library door anyway. Liev invited everyone to sit and make themselves at home.
Several chairs and two tables dotted the library floor. Five chairs were dragged in a rough circle by the fireplace. Its warmth helped soothe some of the tension from the evening’s events. Only Darcy remained rigid and uncomfortable.
Lisa held her hand out to Charlie. He scanned the book’s cover and reluctantly handed it over.
Everyone could see it better in the light, which was not necessarily a good thing. Now they realized the inlaid red lines on its cover made a horrible pattern. It depicted the face of a frightening, horned wolf. For some reason, the runic face of the beast sent a chill into the room.
Lisa examined the book and tried to open it, but found she was unable to. There was a clasp on the book—a tiny metal dragon with ruby eyes. Its diminutive claws hugged the front and back covers, keeping the book closed like a lock. But strangely, there was no keyhole. Lisa continued to struggle with the thing until Liev, grinning, gestured for the book.
Grumbling, she handed it to him.
Charlie felt a sudden pain stab the space behind his eyes. Nash gave him a concerned look, but Charlie waved it off.
Liev squinted to read something on the back of the small dragon.
“Look at this,” he said.
Lisa leaned over. “What is it? Is that Latin?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s it say?”
“It says EXSECRIFER. I don’t recognize that.”
“Hang on,” said Lisa, going to get a Latin dictionary.
“It’s kind of a cute little dragon,” Liev mused, receiving a few strange looks from Charlie, Nash, and Darcy.
“Exsecrifer. It means curse bearer,” said Lisa.
“That doesn’t sound too good,” said Charlie.
Darcy rolled her eyes. “Please. Obviously, someone created this thing as a joke or something and it got lost on Hunter’s Point.”
“Don’t say that!” Liev pretended to scold. “You’ll hurt Exsecrifer’s feelings!”
He petted the dragon’s spine lovingly, and perhaps that was what activated it. Suddenly, it came to life, ruby eyes glowing. Its metal body moved with a grating sound—the sound of thousands of microscopic metal scales scraping together.
Everyone jumped back. Liev stood up, but held onto the book, careful not to drop it.
The dragon shook its small body as if trying to wake up. It let go of the book’s cover and crawled onto the front of the book, peering up at Liev. Then, it bared a mouthful of miniature, needle-like fangs and sunk into Liev’s left thumb. He yelped and finally dropped the book, nursing his bleeding digit.
Jumping down to the book, the dragon curled into a circle on the book’s spine, flattening itself in a round depression before its ruby eyes stopped glowing. As quickly as the dragon had come to life, it became nothing more than another of the book’s decorative pieces.
“Are you okay?” asked Lisa, rushing to Liev’s side. He seemed shaken, and blood seeped through his clenched fingers, but he laughed it off.
“You know, that hurt…but who else can say they’ve been bitten by a dragon?”
Lisa growled at her brother’s nonchalant attitude when Darcy interrupted. Crouching behind her chair, Darcy sounded both angry and scared.
“Alright guys, you got me. Very funny. Drag the popular girl through the woods, spook her out, and then play a stupid prank on her.”
“What are you whining about now?” Nash said, voice rising. Only Darcy could make this about herself.
In answer, she pointed an unsteady finger at the book.
“Don’t expect me to believe that was real,” she half pleaded.
Liev held his bloody thumb up. Everyone could see the bite marks—dozens of small, jagged holes outlined by torn skin. The wound wasn’t fake.
“Darcy,” said Liev, “if we wanted to play a trick on you, I wouldn’t volunteer getting my hand cut open. I’d volunteer Lisa.”
Lisa punched her brother again and told him to go clean up. He left them all shaky and silent, coming back a few moments later with a freshly bandaged thumb and a splashed face.
Slowly, everyone else sat down again. The strange book lay in the middle of their circle, surrounded like a criminal.
Finally, Liev leaned forward and—hesitantly—picked it up. He held it for a few seconds, seeing if it was safe. When nothing came to life to bite him, he handed it to his sister.
Giving him a wary look, Lisa took it. Without the dragon clasp holding it closed, Lisa flipped open the book….
…and started rattling off in Russian. Some of the words must have been of a colorful nature, because Liev’s eyes grew wide and he quickly tried to calm her down. She showed him the pages and his face fell. Lisa laid the book flat in her lap so the others could see; it was in a language none of them knew.
“That can’t be it,” said Charlie. “There has to be something else here.”
The page seemed to light up, as if Charlie’s voice had awakened it. The letters on the page glowed, almost like ink made from fire. Everyone drew their chairs closer in awe.
When the letters stopped glowing everything was in plain English.
“That’s not possible,” Darcy whispered.
Sharing a glance with everyone—they were perched on the edge of their seats—Lisa leaned back in her chair and began to flip through the pages, slowly at first, then picking up speed. She began to scowl, flipping back and forth, looking very animated. It annoyed just about everyone else, because they wanted to know what it said.
Finally, she passed the book to Liev, holding open a page toward the back.
“It’s a varcolac,” she said.
“What’s a varcolac?” asked Nash, uncomprehending.
“That’s what’s causing the disappearances. It’s a…just think of it as a vampire, only worse.”
Darcy snorted. “A vampire? You must be joking. Or crazy.”
“Yes,” said Nash. “It’s all a joke. Can you leave now?”
“She didn’t see the creature, earlier,” Charlie pointed out.
“It’s called a domovoi,” said Liev.
“What?”
“It was a…never mind.”
Lisa glared at Darcy, closing the book and pointing at the dragon curled up on the spine.
“You saw this thing come to life. You saw what it did!”
“Look,” said Darcy, “maybe weird things have happened tonight. Maybe that dragon statue moved around or something—I don’t know. And someone’s up in Hunter’s Key when they shouldn’t be. But a vampire? Vampires…you know…don’t exist.”
“I saw something today that makes me believe otherwise,” said Charlie, trying to reassure her.
“I saw it, too,” Nash offered.
Liev looked her in the eyes. “We both did,” he said, gesturing at himself and Lisa.
The twins glanced at each other. In their encounter with the Chief of Assistants, the little monster wasn’t the only thing they had discovered, bu
t the twins weren’t ready for the others to know what else had been found just yet.
Darcy stared at them all like they were vampires themselves. She stood up, then sat down. She still wrestled with believing in their crazy theories. Still, it had been a weird night, and she believed more than she wanted to.
Seeing Darcy had exhausted her disbelief for the moment, Lisa turned to her brother, handing him the book.
“Read!”
Liev looked down at the page stained with time itself, and began to read aloud.
“The Hunters’ bindings are beginning to….”
He stopped, frowned, read ahead a little. Then he dove right into it.
The Hunters’ bindings are beginning to wane. Whatever magic the cursed mortals used upon me I am beginning to understand. Some of the Lesser have found holes in the gateway and have crossed back and forth. I myself cannot cross, nor can any of the Greater, but I will find a way soon.
Liev stopped again. He noted that, in the diary, several distinct entries were written back to back.
Lisa nodded to him. He looked down and read on, turning a page as he went.
I’ve started to send the Lesser out again, both to scout and to retrieve. The Ritual is not ready for a sacrifice yet, but I’m running out of slaves to feed on. I, prince of the royal line, have been forced to save the last two of the ancient warriors, as well as those new humans the Lesser have captured. My feeding I restrain to simple bloodletting. A slow, agonizing starvation threatens the fragile hold I have left on this castle.
I take comfort in knowing the barrier is breaking; that I’ll soon feed on them freely.
And then, once I’ve sated my revenge on them, I’ll finally complete the Ritual.
Lisa stopped him, turning a few pages ahead and pointing to another group of entries to read.
“I think this one’s about Mrs. McBranson,” she said, looking ill. “And Bobby Muldor, after that.”
The others shifted uncomfortably in their seats at her tone, Nash in particular. Liev waited a moment before reading aloud the next two entries.
Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: The Varcolac's Diary Page 6
