The Curse of Oberon (The Inglewood Chronicles Book 3)

by Croston, Jeremy

  “I’m sorry, but you’re people have a long track record of deceit and treachery. I want to trust your friends, I really do, but can you honestly blame me?”

  Considering Jonathan was the Hammer of Jehovah, no I could not. So with that, we relied on Kristie and her network to quietly get us on a flight to Istanbul. The flight was smooth and by the time we touched down, both of us were in better moods.

  The last time I had been to this city it had been called Constantinople. I was just as much a stranger as Bernard, yet I was the one who carried the burden of finding the place Jonathan was after. “Your brother was much more suited for detective work than I am.”

  Bernard fashioned me a smile. “Who do you think taught him?” He made a good point. “I might not know where I am, but I do know police work. Give me an idea of what kind of places we should be looking for and maybe I can help.”

  I found us a nice little corner café to sit down in. My Turkish was almost nonexistent, but the waiter who served us also spoke German, which I was fluent. With a few drinks ordered, I told Bernard everything I could think of. “Vampires have always kept low profiles, yet had a flair for the dramatic. The place we are going to be looking for will be well hidden yet extravagant, if that makes sense.”

  He almost looked like Vic, with his notebook out jotting down notes. “So the first thing we’ll want to carefully ask around for is a place the locals know about, but wouldn’t necessarily be a tourist spot.” The waiter was returning with our drinks. “You should see if he knows anything, since you two can communicate.”

  It was quite easy to strike up a conversation with our new friend, Aslan. I told him my brother and I were here for business but had a few days to sightsee. “We saw the literature from the hotel, but we have always preferred sites that only the locals know about. Are there any of interest?”

  He pulled up a chair from an adjacent table and spoke with such enthusiasm. “My lady, there are many wonders to behold around the city!” He listed places we should go that had roots all the way back to the Byzantine Empire. His pride for his city was evident. Then he listed one place that really struck my attention. “Outside the city limits, should you have time, there’s a tower. Not many know about it, but its beauty is unrivaled.”

  I held up a finger. Back in English, “He says there is a place on the outskirts of the city, a tower that not many know about.”

  “Ask him how would we get there and is it safe?”

  Aslan sat there, happy as a lark while we talked. Rejoining the conversation with him, “My brother wants to know if we can get there easily and is the path safe?”

  He excused himself and hurried back into the café. Bernard and I looked a bit concerned, had something we said given him cause to flee? Our fears were put to rest when he came back out with a map – a bit worn by the looks of it. Setting it on the table, “If you don’t mind boats, a ferry can take you to the shores where it sits along the Black Sea. Hardly anyone goes there seeing as you can’t get in!”

  This tossed cold water on our hot lead. “Oh, how come?”

  “Over the years, the Black Sea has slowly taken back what belongs to it. I’m sure the entrance is now buried under sand, or even below water.”

  With that, the conversation wrapped up and our waiter went back to the other customers out on the terrace. The tower seemed like the perfect place to go, yet if there was no way to enter… “I think we should still go there.”

  Bernard absent-mindedly tilted his cup back and forth. “It makes sense you know? A tomb to a long captured vampire wouldn’t be easily accessed.” He stopped fidgeting. “There’s a chance he’s already awoken this Cain, you know that?”

  It was something that I did not wish to think about. “Hopefully we caught up to him in time. Otherwise, it might not matter who else had come with us.”

  We spent the rest of the day getting prepared for the journey we were about to embark on. I found us passage to the beach fairly easily, yes with the use of my charms. In a seedier district, we were able to procure weapons. If you knew where to look, there were always ones aware there was more to the world and had appropriate wears to sell.

  The next morning we were on the ferry. It was only Bernard and I, as the ferry captain, who spoke broken English said only fools with too much money waste their time going here. The sea was calm, almost an eerie omen as to what was coming.

  As we turned a corner, we lost view of the city on one side but gained the tower to the front of us. From this distance, it looked as if it was indeed falling back into the sea. I would need to examine it closer to find passage to the inside.

  When we got closer to shore, the captain anchored the boat and rowed us the rest of the way in. I gave him a nice tip for the gesture, as it was awfully hard work. “I be back at dusk.” With limited English, that was all he offered, plus a few thank you’s for the tip.

  On a closer inspection, I saw old faded bits and pieces of Arabic carved into the stone side. Traces of gold and silver also marked the faded white walls of the tower, the precious metals stolen from their homes age ago by scavengers. “This is the place.”

  Bernard sniffed the air; I guess that was just a werewolf thing. “How can you tell?”

  “This looks like something a powerful vampire would have built. How it became his eternal prison, that I am sure is quite the story.”

  There was not much written in our history about Cain, the first vampire. Even my mother and father knew very little on the subject. Caesar Alexis, the leader and most knowledgeable historian, never shared much of what he found. He preferred to keep his scrolls hidden from view, fearing if others learned what he knew, he would be overthrown.

  Roderick, at the end of the uprising, gave the ancient scrolls to the Vatican for safe keeping. The religious leaders knew not of what they were given, only that the scrolls contained dark information that the world was not ready for. Obviously Jonathan, probably with the help of the late elder Forte, had gotten access to those scrolls. What other information did he have that I was not privy to?

  I looked around, hoping for an obvious sign of entrance. Maybe Jonathon had done the hard work already. The tower sat right on the shoreline, even at low tide a good deal of it had sunken below the water’s surface. The one spot that had not was slowly being buried by sand after years of shifting tides. This was not going to be easy. “How do you feel about going for a swim?”

  The water was cold and my werewolf partner looked rather uneasy about it. “I think I’ll pass on jumping into the Black Sea thank you.”

  Well if he was not going to I was. Walking down to where land met sea, I was prepared to dive in and see what I could find. Then I heard laughing from behind me. “If you think this is so funny then-”

  “It’s not me Liz, we have company.” I saw Bernard ready, at moment’s notice he was about to transform into the large Red wolf.

  But I recognized the voice. “Wait Bernard, that is Anders. I know him.”

  The lean South American vampire must have come out of nowhere. “Elizabeth, a pleasure to see you here. I must say, unexpected as Cristof led us to believe you were in Ireland.”

  “Jonathan’s trail has led me here.” It was my turn for questions. “How did you find this place?”

  “Kai and Lemoyne are with me. Both entered the tower right before sunrise, also on the trail of Jonathan. I preferred to stand guard in case anything-” The quiet of the morning was broken by a loud crashing noise from inside the tower, close to the top. Chunks of rock fell from the tower, raining down upon us. The entire beach shook, sending me to the sand below.

  “Guys,” Bernard was the only one still standing, “I smell traces of dark magic, the same as from Anita. I think we’ve found Jonathan.”

  Chapter 31

  The werewolves had bolted five minutes after we landed at the abandoned hangar where my whole adventure begun. I got the feeling Skylar never liked me, but Caroline seemed cool. When I asked them what they were goi
ng to do, she didn’t really know. Pan had taken a lot from them, so going home might not have been an option. The four of us bid farewell and went our separate ways. I was in a hurry to get back to London.

  The first place I went to when I was back in the city limits was a convenience store to purchase a new cell phone. I didn’t remember many numbers, mostly because everyone was listed by name, but I knew my old house line. The phone rang, “C’mon Michael, be home.”

  I knew at the fifth ring it’d hit the answering machine, so I was getting ready to leave a message when an out of breath man answered. “Hello?”

  “Michael, is that you?”

  A stunned hush hit the phone. Then, breathlessly, “Victor? Praise the Father…”

  “Back from the dead apparently, but yeah it’s me.”

  I’m pretty sure I heard sobbing on the other end. “The Lord works in mysterious ways!” My friend and house guest didn’t hold back. “My word son, your family is going to be so happy!”

  The fact they had to think their kid was dead broke my heart, but I couldn’t wait to talk to mom and dad. “How is everyone? I miss ‘em all so much.”

  He cleared his throat. “Victor, I don’t know much, but I do know Bernard left with that vampire girl of yours. They’re after your murderer.”

  “Of course they are.” Both of those hot heads would be out for trouble. “Listen, I need to get a hold of Liz, but can you do me a huge favor?” He agreed naturally. “Can you tell my parents I’m alive and that I’ll reach out to them soon?”

  “I most certainly will. Bringing good news to your family is just what we needed.”

  Before we hung up, I had him get my address book with some numbers in it. With Bernard and Liz’s cell numbers in hand; I hung up only promising Michael I’d call my parents.

  “Everything go okay?”

  Isa was standing behind me, still tagging along. Against my better wishes, she’d nicked us some new clothing and some deodorant. I smelled awful and needed a shower more than you could imagine. “Yeah, Michael’s a good guy. He’ll spread the word quickly for me.”

  She looked down at the numbers I’d written down. “I’m guessing Bernard’s your brother and of course Liz.”

  “Yeah. I got to get a hold of ‘em and find out what’s happening.” I dialed Liz’s number as we spoke. “I don’t need ‘em to do anything stupid, if they already haven’t.”

  The call connected but went straight to voicemail. I left her a message proclaiming my rising from the grave and to call me quickly. When I called Bernard, it too went right to his message. “I don’t like this.”

  “They might be some place that doesn’t have good service.”

  Isa was right; don’t get too out of sorts yet. “True. Let’s go to Roderick’s and see if he has any info.”

  She looked at me like she didn’t particularly care one way or the other. With no money on us, we’d have to make the walk out to his place, which didn’t sound very fun.

  It wasn’t. It took a while, but we finally got to the overdone vampire lord’s house. As we approached, two figures were exiting, heading to the car. Isa grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a few bushes out front. “What’re you doing?”

  “Do you know them?”

  I focused on the man and woman who were putting bags in the trunk. “Nope, never saw ‘em in my life.”

  She gave me that use your head look. “If you don’t know them, shouldn’t you use a bit more caution?”

  Well damn, another vampire who uses their brains more than I do. Where do I keep finding these girls? “True, we’ll wait until they leave, then we’ll go up to the house.”

  Once their bags were packed, the couple got into the car and pulled out, back on to the main road. When they were out of eyeshot, we left the safety of the bushes and headed towards the front door. I gave it a good solid knock, but no answer. “He had guests; I can’t imagine him not being home.”

  Isa gripped the handle and gave it a good solid turn, breaking the lock. “Let’s go in and see what’s happened.”

  Turns out the house was vacant. I searched all the rooms in the place, but finding no one. It was obvious people had been here, recently too, but they weren’t here anymore. I met with Isa back down in the foyer, as she took the basement area. “Find anyone?”

  “No, not a soul.”

  Looking around, “I guess we can wait here until someone gets back. Maybe see if we can find any clues to what was going on?”

  I had a good place to start with that. Isa followed me back up to Roderick’s office on the second floor. Inside she drifted over to the bookshelves, while I went up to the big wooden desk in the middle. The top was surprisingly clear, so I tried to open the middle drawer; it was locked.

  I gave it a couple of good hard tugs, but it wasn’t budging. Go figure, this desk probably was reinforced to keep supernatural intruders out. “Hey muscle, get over here.”

  Putting the book she was reading down, “I was busy.” But that didn’t stop her from coming over. “Do you need me to open this for you too?”

  I gave her an extended bow. “By all means please, be my guest.”

  She grabbed it and pulled, but it didn’t give. I couldn’t help but smirk at that. Annoyed, she put a bit more behind her motion this time and whatever was keeping the drawer locked snapped off. She walked by me, patting me on the shoulder. “You’re adorable, helpless most of the time, but adorable.”

  Ignoring her barbs, I went back to work investigating the drawer. A file folder was the first thing I spotted, a man had written ‘Updates’ on it. That was easy. I opened it up and found a letter penned to Roderick.

  Roderick,

  By the time you return from Neverland, I will be back in the States. I hope you are able to bring Victor home, as this would be wonderful for all involved.

  Lemoyne and his contingent have reached their destination in Turkey. Underneath this letter is the exact coordinates of Cain’s prison. We cannot let this get into the wrong hands.

  I have yet to hear from Elizabeth and fear the worst. I also cannot get in touch with Connor or Kristie for that matter. Something bad has happened in Ireland, I feel it in my blood.

  Dark times may be on their way, but with some luck, maybe we can prevent them.

  -Cristof

  I had to read the letter twice. Roderick went to Neverland? They knew I was alive? “Shit Isa, there’s no reason to stay here anymore.”

  Her head was in another book. “Why? Did something there point to Roderick’s location?”

  “Yeah, he went to Neverland. Somehow, they found out I was alive and he’d gone over.” The second helicopter! It all made so much sense.

  She gently closed the book. “There was no way he made it off.”

  I couldn’t say I liked him a lot, but Roderick seemed to have been a good man. I knew Liz looked up to him like a father, but it didn’t sound like her situation was any better. Apparently she’d been in Ireland when everyone lost contact with her.

  The letter had mentioned Connor and Kristie. Maybe they were important people and Roderick would have their numbers in a directory. I opened up drawer after drawer, looking for something with telephone numbers in it. He was old school; I knew he’d have a physical back up somewhere.

  Finally, I found a black leather book with neatly written names and numbers. I went to the C’s and found five Connors listed. That wasn’t helpful. Next, to the K’s and fortunately only one Kristie. She had two numbers, an office and a cell. I tried the cell first.

  “Hell, it goes right to voicemail!” I was really getting worried. “If the office number doesn’t work…”

  Isa didn’t say anything, but her expression matched my worry. I punched in the office line and the seconds it took to connect felt like hours. On the second ring, a guarded voice answered. “Who is this?”

  “Is this Kristie? My name’s Victor Inglewood and I’m looking for Elizabeth.”

  I heard a click and I thoug
ht she hung up on me. Apparently I’d been on speaker phone and she was clicking over to the receiver. “This isn’t a trick is it?”

  “No tricks, I just got back from Neverland and I need to find her right now.”

  This Kristie seemed a bit standoffish, but she gave me a direction at least. “She’s after her brother. Her and another werewolf named Bernard left Ireland and were headed to Turkey. They left last night.”

  I didn’t have any time for pleasantries. I gave her a quick thank you and hung up. With a smile, “Well, looks like I’m headed to Turkey. You in?”

  Without even hesitating, “Sure, why not? I get the feeling someone needs to tag along to keep you alive.”

  Chapter 32

  You ever try to fly internationally with no passport or no money? Yeah, I don’t recommend it. You have to use the slimy underbelly of civilization to get stuff and at the end of the day it makes you feel dirty. Plus, peddling off a dead man’s money never sits well with you, no matter how good the cause might be.

  At least I had the okay to do it. I guess Cristof was still in the air, but Gregory answered for me. After about five minutes of convincing him this was no hoax, he started to listen. I got through the whole situation with limited commercials interruptions thankfully. I’m sure he had a boat load of questions, but he kept it simple. “How on Earth did you survive?”

  “That’s a long story, one I unfortunately don’t have time to get to.” I needed him to understand the urgency. “I need to get to Turkey man and I don’t have anything on me.”

  There was a girl in the background, Rissa I guessed. Her British accent was still as perky as ever. “Remember where the two of us first met?”

  How could I not? It was my fault she was a citizen of the night. “That bar you worked at, what about it?”

  “A guy by the name of Toby works there. Tell him Rissa sent you and it’s an emergency. He’ll want payment, so either take something incredibly valuable or a lot of cash.”