by N M Thorn
When he woke up, the sun was blasting through the window, and the clock on the bed stand was showing past three o’clock. He pulled the blanket down and sat up, rubbing his chin. His eyes fell on a white box next to the clock, and he frowned, trying to recall if it had been there last night. A folded paper lay on top of the box, his name written on it.
He took the paper and unfolded it.
“Hi, Day.”
He read the first sentence and smirked at the nickname River had given him, shaking his head.
“As promised, inside this box, you’ll find your new cellphone. I picked it up earlier this morning for you. Don’t argue with me, soldier.
I can almost hear you saying, ‘I don’t need it, ma’am.’
Yes, you do. Since you’re my bodyguard, I should have a way to get hold of you if I need your help, so please keep it with you at all times. I’ve completed most of the setup, so it’s fully functional. If you need my help with the security settings, I’ll help you tonight when I get back from work.
I took the liberty of adding three phone numbers to your contact list—mine, my father’s, and Cole Adams’. He’s going to call you later on today.
See you later,
River.
P.S. I know you’re not going to tell me what happened here last night. But whatever it was, I have a feeling it was about me and my safety... So, thank you.”
Chuckling, he put the letter on the bedstand and opened the box. Inside, there was a smartphone in a black protective case. He pulled it out and almost dropped it as it started to ring and vibrate in his hand.
As the screen lit up, he read the name on the caller ID.
Cole Adams.
Chapter 15
~ Cole Adams ~
With a digital tablet in his hand, Cole walked into a conference room and closed the door. As soon as he appeared, the chatter died down, and all five employees turned around, looking at him with expectation in their eyes. He smiled easily, greeting them with a wave of his hand, and then headed toward the leather chair at the head of the table.
“Okay, Dennis, let’s do it.” Cole sat down and raised his eyebrows, looking at a young man at the other end of the table.
Dennis smiled and got up, holding a remote control in his hand. Pressing a button, he lowered the shutters over the outside windows and the glass walls of the room. Now, the only light in the room was emitted by a large projector positioned in the center of the conference table.
“Cole,” started the young man, “we finally processed all the feedback we’ve received from our beta-testers in the last two weeks. We had a few different test groups, but surprisingly, the feedback we received was very similar.”
“What did they say?” asked Cole, opening his tablet and getting ready to type. “Let’s start with the overall impression. Interface, graphics, rules, settings.”
“They loved it!” A proud grin split Dennis’ face, making him look like a happy young boy. “All age groups said the game is captivating, and the story is interesting. They had no problem navigating it or understanding the options. While they found the higher levels quite challenging, they enjoyed the game, nonetheless. The graphics, movements and action scenes were described as incredibly realistic, movie-like...”
Cole listened to the young programmer’s report, processing only every other word, his mind elsewhere. For so many years he had been searching for his brother just to find him here, in Blue Creek, Arizona. It had flipped his life upside down in more ways than one, making it increasingly dangerous, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t wait for the workday to be over so he could see him again.
Being an old vampire, he knew that there were no coincidences in the World of Magic, and if Damian showed up in his life now, there had to be a good reason for that. He just didn’t know what it was. Not yet. There were too many unanswered questions between them, and more than a thousand years of lost memories to be filled in. They had to sit down and have an uninterrupted talk. But most of all, he had to figure out how to handle the situation with the Queen.
Normally, Cole loved spending time taking care of his company, despite the fact that all his employees were human, and he constantly had to keep his true nature under control. But not today. Detective Evans texted Damian’s phone number earlier, asking him not to call him until later to give him a chance to rest. Now, the cellphone was burning a hole in his pocket, and Cole couldn’t wait for this endless meeting to be over so he could call his brother, feeling eager like a little boy.
“...it’s interesting that most of the players pointed out the same small issue with the story.” Dennis’ voice cut through his train of thoughts, and Cole focused on his lead developer.
“What issue?” he asked, twirling a pen between his fingers.
“Ace, show it, please.” Dennis nodded to a slim young woman with long black hair tied in a high ponytail on the back of her head. She pressed a button on the projector, and a videoclip of the game started playing, displayed on the white wall. In a large room filled with mirrors, two men were engaged in a deadly sword fight. She pressed another button, freezing the frame.
“Right here,” said Dennis, pointing at the picture. “You can see Arigel’s reflection in all the mirrors?”
“Yes, so?” Cole leaned forward, observing the image.
“He’s a vampire.” Dennis threw his hands up. “Almost every beta-tester pointed it out, stating that it would never happen like this in real life. Vampires have no reflection.”
“I see.” Cole smirked, recalling a very similar conversation he had with his brother just a few hours ago. “And since when are vampires real? In real life, how many vampires do you know?” He shook his head, laughter bubbling up in his chest. “Who’s to say that if vampires truly existed, they wouldn’t have a nice, clean reflection?”
“Be that as it may, sir.” Dennis sighed wistfully, the expression on his face suggesting that in real life, he would much rather deal with angry vampires than with his teenage beta-testers. “Should we change this? You know how it is. In all popular fantasy books and movies, vampires don’t have a reflection. Market expectations.” He rolled his eyes.
“Let’s do the change. After all, unlike real life, fantasy must make sense, right? Let’s make people happy, Dennis,” said Cole with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Anything else I need to know?”
“Just one more thing,” continued Dennis, sitting down in his chair. “If you remember the maze level?” Cole nodded with a light flick of his hand, and the lead developer continued, “In the maze level, the player must escape the underground mines. Originally, the maze was supposed to have only one exit—the one that leads to the forest. But when we started to design, we created a second door. It was a happy accident, you know? But then we liked it, and the product managers agreed with us. So, we decided to keep it to see how it would work during the usability testing. Interestingly, the alpha-testers—most of them—chose to use the small backdoor that leads into the vampire’s castle at the edge of the forest, and so did the beta-testers.” He shrugged. “It makes no sense. Why would they want to exit into a castle full of evil vampires? But they said it was more fun.”
“Wait... what?” Cole rose, leaning forward slightly, his mind on high alert. “What did you say about the second door?”
The programmers exchanged a puzzled look.
“I said that the mines in the maze level have two doors,” repeated Dennis. “The tiny backdoor we created by mistake exits into the castle at the edge of the forest. Should we keep it? The users like it.”
I’ll be damned...
Noticing troubled looks, he smiled. “Of course, keep it. Thank you, guys. You’re the best,” he said, heading toward the door. “In the next sprint, let’s fix the last reported bugs with high and medium priority status and finish whatever user stories we have left in the product backlog. Hopefully, we can start getting ready for the last phase of beta testing soon. The faster we get this game to the market, the better
.”
He walked out the door and rushed through the narrow corridor between the cubicles, struggling to maintain an appropriate pace for a company owner. Walking into his office, he slammed the door shut and ran toward his computer.
“What if...” He opened a browser and typed in search criteria into the window. Clicking enter, he stared into the screen without blinking while the search results were loading—too slow for the eyes of a vampire.
He spent a few hours trying to find anything about the history of mines in Blue Creek. Since there wasn’t much on the web, he started to search the history of the town and the background of the three founding families. Except for what he had already known, he didn’t find anything new. Leaning back in his executive leather chair, he rubbed his chin, thinking. Then he got up and lifted the stationary phone receiver, dialing an extension.
“Ace?” he said softly. “Can you please come to my office?” He waited a moment and added, “Yes, now, please.”
A few seconds later, Ace knocked on the door and cracked it open, peeking inside, her dark eyes wide.
“Please come in.” Cole smiled, hoping his smile was friendly enough to get her in a relaxed state of mind.
The young woman came inside and halted by the door, her fingers fumbling with a leather string wrapped around her wrist. She was slender and short as it was, but her black jeans and shirt made her look even smaller. Standing by the entrance, shifting from foot to foot, she gave off a vibe of fear and discomfort.
“Cole... um... Mr. Adams?” she mumbled, her large brown eyes getting wider as her face became paler.
“Ace, relax,” he said with a sigh. “I called you because I need your help.”
“You’re not firing me?” she whispered, hope lighting up her heart-shaped face.
“Not today, Ace. Unless you want me to, of course.”
She hopped in place and pressed her hand to her mouth. “Dennis was saying something about that backdoor,” she spoke in one breath, walking closer to his desk. “I’m sorry, sir, I was the one who added it. I thought you were going to fire me for doing that, and I was—”
“Ace, stop. Have I ever fired anyone for coloring outside the lines? Or for trying something new?” asked Cole, raising his hand to stop her. “I need your help, and it has nothing to do with our work. It’s personal.”
“Anything, Mr. Adams,” she replied breathlessly, gazing up at him with googly eyes.
“I have my friend of many years visiting Blue Creek,” started Cole. “He asked me a few questions about the local gold mines, which I couldn’t answer. He wanted to know where the door into the mines is, but I can’t find anything on the internet. Can you help me with that?”
For a brief moment, Ace stood, blinking at him with her mouth open. “You want to go underground?”
Cole nodded.
“You?” Her eyebrows climbed up.
He chuckled. “Why not?”
“You’re so... um... clean...” she mumbled, and pressed her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to be rude. I just had no idea you were the type.”
“What type?” Cole all but snorted.
“The type to take a hike across Apache trail or climb the Superstition mountains,” she replied with a half-shrug. “You don’t strike me as one of those people who take midnight runs into the desert to search for rattlesnakes and scorpions. I don’t know about your friend, of course.”
Cole laughed, leaning forward a little. “So, can you find any information about these mines for me?”
She approached him and jerked her chin toward his computer, a lopsided smirk playing on her lips. “Can I use your PC, please?”
“Be my guest.” He stepped away, gesturing for her to sit down. Folding his arms, he watched over her shoulders as she was typing something vigorously, her fingers hitting the buttons as if they were her worst enemies. A few minutes later, she looked up at him, a winning smile tugging at her lips. She pointed at the screen, inviting him to take a look.
“Voila. This is the map of the area from the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources,” she explained and then shook her head, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “Don’t ask any questions. Plausible deniability.”
“Wasn’t going to...”
“Most of it is accessible to anyone, and you can view it on their public website. But this particular map was behind their... Anyway,” she continued as if she didn’t just hack some state database. “The old entrance into the mines was right here.” She tapped the screen lightly with her finger. “The owners closed the mines sometime in the early nineteen hundreds, but the door wasn’t sealed until later on. Something about being unsafe and structurally unsound. Anyway, kids used to go there all the time, and after a few accidents, the entrance was destroyed. They leveled it to the ground. You won’t be able to get inside, sir. Sorry to disappoint.”
Cole stared at the map of the area, nibbling on his lip. “I wonder if there are any maps or at least original drawings of the layout of the actual mines.”
“I doubt it,” she replied. “These mines are surrounded by so much mystery, it’s ridiculous if you ask me.”
“How so?”
“Well, they were built to mine gold, supposedly, but nothing ever pointed out that there was any gold in this area. The way the underground passages were built wasn’t common either. From the main entrance right here”—she pointed at the screen—“the workers dug into three separate directions. They say one of them leads directly toward Paradise Manor, by the way.”
“Fascinating,” murmured Cole, wondering if his original suspicion triggered by the programming ‘happy accident’ was true. “Do you know if there was more than one entrance into the mines? Maybe some clever worker decided to build a tiny backdoor straight into the vampire’s castle?”
A boyish grin split his face as he gazed down at her, and Ace giggled, a blush coloring her cheeks tender pink.
“If you want to believe local urban legends, there were three entrances into the mines,” she said. “The main entrance that had been sealed by the state authorities and two tiny backdoors. As a matter of fact, one of them led into the vampire’s castle.”
“You don’t say,” murmured Cole, his voice becoming a soft purr as he leaned closer to her. “Please tell me you know where they are.”
She looked up, her eyes just inches away from his, and her breath hitched. “I don’t believe that the door leading into the castle exists... um, I mean into Paradise Manor. It makes no sense, and I don’t think it’s possible. The mansion is too far away from the mines,” she croaked. As Cole straightened and broke their eye contacted, she averted her gaze and cleared her throat uncomfortably. “But I know for sure that a second door exists in the desert.” She searched the screen for a few seconds and then pointed at a seemingly random location on the map. “It’s somewhere here. I can’t show it precisely on the screen, but if you and your friend want, I can take you there.”
“Perfect.” Cole rubbed his hands and reached into his pocket for his cellphone. “Let’s take a trip there now.”
“Now?” she mumbled, gaping at him, blinking. “It’s only three and my workday is not over until five—”
“Then maybe we should ask the owner of the company if he’d let you leave early today?” Cole winked at her and picked up the receiver of the company phone, dialing his executive assistant’s extension. “Mackenzie, please reschedule all my appointments and meetings for the rest of the day.” He waited a moment, listening to his assistant and added, “It’s personal. Just do it, please.”
He hung up the phone and reached into his pocket for his cellphone. Quickly scrolling through the contact list, he found Damian’s number and dialed it.
“Damian,” he said, warmth filling his chest at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Get dressed. I’m going to pick you up in a few. We’re taking a guided tour into the Sonoran Desert.” He listened to Damian’s next question and laughed. �
�No, I’m not driving my sports car into the desert. You’ll be fine. See you soon.”
Chapter 16
~ Damian Blake ~
Damian hung up the phone, staring at the dark screen in disbelief. Over the centuries, his brother hadn’t changed a bit. No matter what the task was, Cole was going from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. He had just learned about the maze of problems Damian was facing with Paradise Manor, and he dove straight in, no questions asked.
A trip to the desert? It had to be something to do with the mines. At least Damian couldn’t see any other explanation, and he didn’t like it in the slightest. Over the years, he got used to working alone. No strings attached. Win or lose, it was only his safety at stake, and he didn’t put anyone else in harm’s way—especially not his brother.
After taking a quick shower, he opened the closet door and stifled a sigh. The closet was larger than the room he used to stay in at the Night Owl Inn, and with the amount of clothes he had, it looked terrifyingly empty. He was sure if he said something, his voice would echo from wall to wall. Getting dressed quickly, he put his jeans and a plain T-shirt on. The bracelet was still on his wrist, and he decided to keep it that way, at least for now.
Damian had enough time to walk to the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee and toast before his new phone rang, announcing Cole’s arrival. Checking the house one more time, he walked outside and locked the front door with the key River had left for him.
A large white Mercedes G-Class SUV was parked in front of the house, and Damian felt something close to instant relief, realizing that he didn’t have to tolerate the limited space of a sports car again.
Before he reached the vehicle, Cole walked around it and opened the front passenger door, offering his hand to a young woman. She barely touched his palm as she jumped to the ground. With her height of no more than five-foot-four, the vehicle seemed to be too high for her to just stepped out.
