by Waters, Carl
“And do you value your life, Geoffrey?” the man asked, a slight hiss in his voice.
Geoff nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Suddenly the man opened his mouth and snarled, revealing not only a shockingly white set of teeth, but also—Geoff gasped—a set of fangs, there at the corner of his mouth.
“Then run!” the man shouted.
Geoff didn’t take time to think. He didn’t even question it. Dropping his axe, he turned and ran as if his life depended on it. Which, he thought, it most likely did.
* * *
Geoff drew to a stop, his chest heaving, and ducked down into a bush at the base of a tree. Beyond that, he knew, there was a hollow trunk—he’d used it for hiding in when he didn’t want to go to work as a child. Now he prayed that it was still there. And that it was still secure. It was, he thought, his last chance, for he was too far from home to make it back to his house, and even if he did, he didn’t know whether it would be safe.
He was truly scared. For the past eternity, whenever he’d thought he was safe, and in a spot that would offer him security, those people had found him. No, not people. They were vampires. Creatures, Louis would say, that he had grown too old to believe in. But at this point, he believed in them, and their ability to track him. And their wish to do him harm.
He crawled into the trunk and lay there, facing upward, trying to slow his breath. If only he could keep himself completely quiet, he thought, maybe they would pass him by. He knew they wouldn’t be able to see him, and perhaps … perhaps the smell of rotting earth, wood, and moss would disguise his scent when they passed through the clearing. Then, lying as still as he could and wishing his heart would stop making so much noise, he waited. And waited.
And waited.
Suddenly, just as he thought that perhaps it was safe to come out, the top of the trunk disintegrated above him. Geoff put up his arms, shielding his eyes from the flying splinters, and screamed. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the four vampires standing above him.
And they were all smiling, baring their fangs at him.
Geoff jumped to his feet, desperate now. “You’ll never take me alive,” he hissed.
But the largest of the men simply lashed out at him, landing a blow as hard as a donkey’s kick, and sent Geoffrey flying back against the nearest tree.
“Fool!” the man hissed. “Thinking that you could outrun us. That you could hide from us!”
“What sort of demons are you?” Geoff asked, his voice shaking. “What do you want with me? Why won’t you leave me alone?”
The four … vampires, he thought, terrified … laughed long and loud at this, their voices echoing through the darkness around them, and Geoff noticed that true night had fallen now. There was no sign of daylight or even fire around him. He was well and truly alone, and in the dark of the night. Just as Angeline had told them not to be.
“We don’t want anything from you,” the woman finally said, her voice little more than a purr. She stepped forward and ran her nails up Geoff’s arm, to his neck, and then into his hair. Then she leaned in and licked his ear. “We merely want to have you over for dinner.”
More laughter, and a moment later something struck Geoff on the head, and everything went black.
13
Angeline awoke from a brief nap to a pounding on the door and jumped out of bed nearly before her mind had caught up with her feet. Within moments, she found herself at the front door of her cottage, Adela two steps behind her.
“Who is it?” the girl breathed, her voice both intense and frightened.
Angeline reached down to grasp the handle of the dagger she kept strapped to her thigh and pulled the weapon from its sheath. She was never without some form of weapon … but if the creature she expected was on the other side of that door, the small dagger wouldn’t be enough to protect them, its silver hilt notwithstanding.
Silver, after all, only slowed a vampire down. Unless, of course, it pierced their heart.
She heard another set of footsteps behind her and realized that Alison had joined them as well. The knocking was loud indeed, then, to wake the younger of the two girls when it was still this dark out.
“Go back to your rooms,” she told them quietly. “This does not concern you, yet, and I will not have either of you in danger.”
“Mother—” Adela began.
“Go!” Angeline snapped. If the vampire had come for her, she didn’t want the girls in the way.
And she certainly didn’t want them to see what might happen when she opened the door.
There was a slight mumble, and then she heard the girls’ footsteps retreating back toward the stairs. They stopped at the foot of the staircase, but she didn’t lecture them for disobeying her. Because the pounding had started on the door again.
She was, she realized suddenly, out of time. Why, oh why, hadn’t she been more careful? Why didn’t she keep more of her weapons here in the house, rather than outside in the shed that bellied up to the back of the cottage? Why hadn’t she worked harder to choose one of the girls? If something happened to her tonight …
Cutting the thought off, she reached forward and grasped the handle of the door. Second-guessing herself would do her no good now. She had but one choice: open the door and face what had come for her.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and threw the door open, ready to fight for her life.
To her surprise, though, she saw nothing on her doorstep but Louis, the very boy she’d sent home earlier in the evening, and Piers, the woodcutter.
“What? Why are you here?” she asked, confused but forcing her tongue to obey her. She reached forward and pulled the men into the house then turned back to the darkness outside and peered into the forest. Still full of shadows, and black as the pots in her kitchen. Whatever they’d come for, Piers and Louis had been fools to venture out while it was still dark.
She turned on them, suddenly furious. “What are you doing out of your homes? Louis, did I not tell you to stay indoors until the sun rose? Did I not tell you to light the fire, and avoid anyone that came to your door? What are you doing here?”
“My son has yet to return home,” Piers said shortly. “I knew he’d gone out with Louis, so I waited patiently until I could not stand it any longer. I journeyed to Louis’s house, hoping that Geoffrey was there with him, but found Louis alone but for his mother.”
“Geoffrey and I parted ways last night, just before sunset,” Louis interrupted, his young face both serious and worried. “He was very concerned about getting home before the sun set, to pass your message to his father. He was … ” Here he paused, as if he would say something else but then changed his mind. “He was very concerned. We parted ways, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Angeline narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what that silence had held, and what had passed between Louis and Geoffrey. Something important, perhaps? Had it affected Geoffrey, whatever it was, so that he’d done something stupid? Something like staying out after dark?
No, she realized quickly. Geoff was the most cautious boy she’d ever met, and the most practical. He wouldn’t flirt with danger for the sake of adventure. No matter how much Louis might have spurred him on. But that wouldn’t stop her from asking. Louis obviously had more information than he was giving her.
“I told you both to be indoors before the sun set,” she snapped. “What did you say to him? What would have caused him to stay out longer? Louis, where is he?”
Louis hung his head, chastised, but to Angeline’s surprise, it was Adela who spoke next.
“Louis couldn’t have known, Mother. He says they parted ways. Wherever Geoff is—or whatever happened to him—it happened after Louis and he left each other. There’s no point in lecturing Louis. We need to find Geoff.” And the girl was abruptly at Angeline’s elbow, taking control of the situation—giving orders and making the logical and rational decisions.
Just as a Red Hood would have.
“We will find your son,
Piers,” Angeline said, following Adela’s lead. “Adela is right. I know where the boys split up—the change in directions is clear—and that is where we must search. Somewhere between that split and your cottage, Geoff went missing. We will track him, find the spot where he left the path, and find him. I’m certain of it.”
She rushed out the door, heading for the shed where she kept weapons. She wouldn’t take the girls, she thought. She couldn’t be sure what she would find out there in the woods, with the blackness still coloring the deep shadows, and she wouldn’t put the girls in danger. The men, she might need, and they had already put themselves in danger by venturing out in the night. Weapons enough for the three of them, she decided, as she reached the weapons she and threw open the door.
She lit the torch she kept by the door with the lucifer she’d held when she answered Piers’ call, and then glanced around the room. Weapons lined the walls and were stacked against the bases, while several tables held the more sensitive pieces. Crossbows, staffs, swords, daggers, arrows, throwing knives … it was all here, everything she and Gavin had collected over time, and she’d made good use of it. But she’d also made certain that it was all clean, oiled, and well stored, in case of this situation.
Which meant that every knife, every arrowhead, every dagger was as sharp as it could be, and ready for action. The bows were tightly strung, the staffs balanced and perfectly weighted. Yes, this was the best arsenal in the forest, and perhaps the nation. If there was a vampire to fight, these were the best weapons.
Within moments, she was moving through the room, grabbing weapons as she went. A crossbow—two, she thought, grabbing another. These would be the easiest weapons for the men to handle. She pocketed multiple silver-tipped stakes, a small bottle of holy water, and the silver chain she kept by the door. Silver wouldn’t kill the vampires, but it would stun them, and might give her enough time to draw one of the deadlier weapons. More than that: It might protect her, or the men, in case of hand-to-hand combat. She stopped by the table for a moment, her breath coming harsh and fast, and then picked up four of the larger silver daggers. These she shoved into their sheaths at her waist.
A short, thoughtful pause, and she reached out for two more of the daggers. Daggers were tricky, for they required a defender to let a creature get very close. But they were by far the best weapons for fighting in close quarters.
Turning, she rushed back to the house, her feet flying over the grass and moss that made up the yard in her clearing. When she reached the cottage, she pushed the men to the side and turned to her daughters.
“Take these,” she said, pressing a dagger into Adela’s hands, and another into Alison’s. “Barricade the door behind us. And do not let anyone in—not even us—unless they give you the secret phrase. You remember the one?” She glanced at Adela, who had the stronger memory, and the girl nodded slowly.
“You’d go without us?” Adela asked softly. “You think that safe?”
Angeline lifted her hand and brushed it across the girl’s cheek. “It is not safe. But I will not put you in danger along with myself, my daughters. Stay here. Keep the fire burning until full daylight. Pray for my success, and my return.”
She whirled around, pushed the men out the door, and dashed into the darkness, sending up the same prayer—for both herself and her daughters.
14
“Show me where you last saw him,” she said as she ran. She knew the spot—or at least she thought she did—but it would be best to find it for certain. That was where she would be able to start tracking. That was where, she hoped, they’d pick up the trail.
From there, she’d need to move as quickly as she could, and pray that she arrived in time. If the vampires had taken him, she hoped that it was as bait rather than as a meal. But she wouldn’t know the truth until they found the creatures. Or Geoff himself.
They dashed through the forest, making faster time than Louis and Geoff would have done, hours earlier. She suspected that they hadn’t been moving as quickly as they should have. She further suspected that they wouldn’t have taken her warning as seriously as they should have. Louis had said that Geoff was concerned, and Angeline had no doubt that left to his own devices, Geoff would have made his way straight home. Louis, though, had ever had an adventurous spirit, and liked to think himself fearless. He would have dawdled, she thought, and perhaps even challenged Geoffrey to do the same.
The smaller boy had never had the strongest will, and she’d seen him give in to Louis before. This time, she feared, had been no different. And it might well have cost Geoffrey his life. Or worse.
“We were at the split in the path, just as you thought,” Louis huffed, drawing up beside her. “I’d said that I was in no hurry to get home, but you know Geoff—he wanted to follow your orders to the letter. He told me I was a fool and turned and started down the path to his own cottage. I stood there and watched him go, thinking him … ” His voice broke slightly as he remembered. “Thinking him a coward,” he finished. “I thought him cowardly for not wanting to fight whatever was out there, and now … now that’s the last thing I’ve thought as I watched him walk away. What if this is all my fault?”
Angeline stopped abruptly and took Louis’s arm. “It is not your fault. This is the work of evil beings beyond our control. It was cruel, what you said to him, but the best thing you can do now is help me find him. Find him, and all will be forgiven. I’m sure of it. Show me where you last saw him.”
For they’d reached the break in the path, and she could already see signs of some sort of scuffle on the path ahead of them—the one that would have led Geoff to his home, and safety.
“There,” Louis confirmed, pointing a place where the path twisted slightly. “I watched him until he hit the turn, and then I went toward my own path. I left him.” Again his voice broke, and Angeline felt almost guilty for having given the boy such a hard time. He couldn’t help his own nature, after all, and if he was responsible for sending Geoffrey into a bad situation … Well, the guilt alone would be more punishment than she thought Louis could take.
“Pray that he’s just got lost, and that we’ll find him hidden in a tree somewhere,” she said comfortingly. She lifted her eyes and met Piers’ gaze, however, and saw the fear and truth there.
With a slight nod, she acknowledged it. The idea that he was merely lost was a comforting one, but she didn’t believe it any more than Piers did. Geoff had grown up in this forest. And he was far too familiar with it to have become lost, even in the middle of the night. Someone or something had taken him, and as she ran along the path and began to study the footsteps and marks, she could see that it had been a violent meeting.
The leaves in the path were scuffed, as if Geoffrey had come to an abrupt stop and then scuttled backward when he encountered something he didn’t like. Ducking down, she traced the footprints. He’d stood here for a mere moment, she saw—not even long enough to sink deeply into the moss on the stones. Then he’d turned and run, right into the forest.
Before she could think too long on it, she was running after him, her eyes scanning the ground as she followed his trail. Louis and Piers crashed after her, but she ignored them, her thoughts only for Geoff. He’d run haphazardly, she realized as she followed the trail. From one tree to the next, stopping every so often in a bush. A couple of times, it looked like he’d even tried to climb the trees, to get away from whatever followed him.
And here was the strange aspect, for Angeline had tracked many animals and never seen anything like this. Geoff had been running from something—of that much she was certain. And he’d been terrified. His footprints were rushed and fearful. He’d been thinking of only one thing: escape. But no matter how she searched, she wasn’t able to find anything else.
Nothing had been chasing him. Or if it was, it hadn’t been running along the ground, as any natural creature would have.
Then the trail abruptly stopped. There was a fallen log there—something that would have looked l
ike ideal shelter for a boy who didn’t know what was chasing him. But the rotted wood had been torn apart. More signs of fighting littered the ground … and then nothing. No matter how Angeline cast about, she couldn’t find a trace of Geoff leaving the sight, or any other footsteps.
“I’m taking you two home,” she said suddenly. The men wouldn’t do her any good from this point on, she didn’t think. She needed to be quiet, to connect with nature, to figure exactly what had happened to the boy. And she now suspected—though she hadn’t thought of it before—that the vampires wouldn’t allow themselves to be discovered until she was alone.
They wanted her, after all. And they wouldn’t let her find them until they thought they could defeat her.
* * *
Angeline crouched down against the wall of the abandoned cottage, her heart racing. She’d been right when she thought that she wouldn’t be able to find the vampires until she was alone; the moment she’d left Piers and Louis at Piers’ cottage, she’d found a trail that didn’t belong in the woods. Something strangely light-footed, which had left almost no marks on the grass. Something that was … unnatural. She’d immediately started following the trail, and it had led her here.
To an abandoned cottage in the woods, with four vampires inside. She hadn’t seen Geoffrey yet—hadn’t wanted to stay too long at the window—but she could hear the vampires speaking, and stayed as still as she could now, attempting to discern their plans.
“She obviously cares for the people here,” one of them said—the one woman, as far as Angeline could tell. There was a slight, unpleasant hiss to her voice, and Angeline felt a chill crawl up her spine. “We’ll use the boy to draw her out. And then, we feed.”
A murmur of assent from several others, but one man—the leader, Angeline thought, by his voice—interrupted their planning.
“The boy matters not,” he hissed. “And you would do better to remember that. The Red Hood is the one we seek. We feed after we have done what we came here to do.”
