by N M Thorn
Even though Cole opened the back door for her, she halted and tilted her head slightly, gaping at Damian with unconcealed curiosity in her dark eyes. Turning to Cole, she gave him a tiny shake of her head, making her high ponytail bounce, and for some reason, she reminded Damian of a little, energetic bird.
“Wow, Mr. Adams, now I see why you said your friend would be better off in the front seat,” she chirped, a wide grin splitting her face.
“You have no idea,” murmured Cole, turning to his brother. “Damian, this is Ace Rogers, and she will be our tour guide today.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am,” said Damian, offering her his hand.
She took it, her tiny hand disappearing in his wide palm. “No one has called me ma’am yet.” Standing next to him, she barely reached his chest. As her eyes glided up and down his body, she exhaled, “You are ginormous.” Then she gasped, pressing her hand to her mouth, and her eyes flickered to Cole and then back to Damian. “I’m sorry, I was trying to say, you’re very big... No, tall! Oh jeez, I’m going to shut up now.”
Damian exchanged a quick look with Cole, and the vampire bit his lip to stop himself from laughing.
“He’s not as tall as you think, Ace,” he said, gesturing for her to get in the back seat. “Only two inches taller than me.”
“Yes, but unlike you, he looks like a—” She cut herself off, climbing to the back. “Can we just drive before I say something I will get fired for?”
Damian got into the passenger seat and closed the door, working hard not to burst out laughing. Her awkwardness and bubbly personality seemed to make the day a little brighter, and he didn’t mind some blissful normality around for a change. Cole started the car, directing it around Paradise Manor and into the desert. For a while, they drove in silence with Ace giving occasional directions.
“Damian, did you have another sleepless night?” Cole asked carefully after a while, and added, catching Damian’s puzzled gaze, “River said you needed to get some sleep.”
“Just another night terror. A trip to a winter wonderland,” muttered Damian, staring out the window.
Cole nodded and didn’t press the issue. After a while, they left the road and turned into the open desert. As the monotonous landscape stretched around them, Damian wondered how Ace knew her way around. There were no visible landmarks, and all the cacti looked the same to him.
It was past four o’clock when Ace asked Cole to stop the car. They walked out, and she directed them toward a large, old pit in the ground. The time and elements had made the edges of the pit less defined, and dry grass and desert plants inhabited its walls. Moving carefully, the young woman made her way down the slope to the bottom of the pit and headed toward the opposite wall.
She stopped there, an expression of shock making her dark eyes look like two round plates. “It was here,” she said, pointing at a wall of yellow-brown sand. “I swear, I know my way around, and I was here less than a year ago. There was a door right there.”
Ace dug into the wall with her hand, removing handfuls of sand, throwing it next to her feet, but there was nothing there except for more sand. As the cloud of reddish dust settled down, she turned around, throwing a desperate glance at Cole.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “We believe you. Let me check it out. Can you show me the exact location where the door used to be?”
She drew a rectangle with her finger, pointing at the wall. Cole approached it and placed his hands against it, closing his eyes. Damian detected the spike of the vampiric energy around him as his eyes lit up with the scarlet glow beneath his dark sunglasses.
“It’s here, alright,” murmured Cole so quietly that Damian could barely make out his words, positive that Ace couldn’t hear him at all.
Turning his back to Ace, he channeled his magic and reached forward, whispering, “Latentius revelare.” The air between him and the wall of the pit shimmered, and the dim outline of a door revealed itself, glowing with a barely detectible white light. Cole stepped behind him, his fingers squeezing his elbow.
“Check out the corners,” he breathed out.
“Concealment magic and some wards,” murmured Damian so quietly that only the vampire’s sharp hearing could catch his words. He let go of his magic, turning to his brother half-way. “Powerful. But not as powerful as those in the house.”
“Can you break them?” whispered Cole.
Damian nodded. “I think this spell work was built more to hide it than to lock it.” He threw a quick glance at Ace and added, “But I can’t take the chance of exposing the World of Magic.”
“Okay, you two!” Ace’s voice sounded behind him, ringing with irritation. “Why are you whispering like two secret lovers in a corner?”
Both Damian and Cole turned around at once. She stood with her hands folded over her chest, fuming like a little girl who was about to throw a temper tantrum to her parents.
“You could hear what we were saying?” asked Damian, flabbergasted.
“Well...” She dropped her arms, and a guilty smile crossed her face. “I could hear you whispering, but I couldn’t quite make out the words.” She scratched the back of her head, which made her look even guiltier. “Too bad, you know?”
“Secret lovers? That would be more than awkward. Don’t you think, Dima?”
Cole whispered even quieter than before, but Ace threw her hands in the air. “That’s what I mean.” She narrowed her eyes at Cole, placing her hands on her hips. “I always had sharp hearing. I can hear you whispering, Mr. Adams. I just can’t hear your exact words.”
“Fascinating,” Cole murmured under this breath. He approached her, staring down into her wide-open eyes. For a moment, his vampiric energy spiked around him, but then he stepped back and gave her an arched stare. “Anything else we need to know about you, Ms. Rogers?”
“I could also see...” Her voice wavered as she pointed at the wall where the door was supposed to be.
“What did you see?” asked Damian softly.
“Nothing at the moment.” Moving around Cole, she approached the wall and traced the invisible door with her finger, drawing its shape in the sand. “I saw the glowing outline of the door and some strange symbols,” she said, gazing up at Damian. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” She touched Damian’s hand gently. “What was it? You can trust me. I won’t tell anyone. Pinky promise.” She lifted her fist with her pinky up, a prankish grin on her face.
Damian pressed his hand over his eyes and ran it down his face, staring at Cole over the young woman’s head. She had magic, there was no doubt about that. Without his second sight, he couldn’t tell how powerful she was or what type of magic she had, but that wasn’t the problem. What troubled him the most was that obviously, Ace hadn’t been exposed to the World of Magic yet, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to send another innocent soul down that painful and dangerous path. There were hundreds of people who possessed some magical or elemental energy, but since it was never developed, they lived their entire life, leading an absolutely normal human existence none the wiser about what goes bump in the night.
Meeting Damian’s eyes, Cole touched his sunglasses and gave him a sharp nod. Damian swallowed hard, clearly reading his brother’s message. Cole wanted him to tell Ace the truth, promising to glamor her later, making her forget everything. He frowned, his fingers rubbing the rough surface of his leather bracelet as he hesitated, not sure he was okay with Cole messing around with Ace’s memories.
“Damian,” asked Ace, breaking his train of thoughts. “Can you open this glowing door?” Since Damian didn’t reply, she continued, “Let’s say—purely hypothetical—you or Mr. Adams can open the door into the mines. What are you going to do after? Do you know where to go? Where the main entrance is? There are so many passages there, you’ll get lost in no time without me.”
She tilted her head, a wicked grin on her face. Damian glanced at Cole, frowning. She was right. He had no idea in which direction to go once inside. Ace s
quatted and drew two circles on the sand, connecting them with a straight line.
“It’s kind of like this,” she said, craning her head back, her eyes moving from Damian to Cole. “This is where we are, and this line is the main corridor.” She pointed at the circle she drew on the left. “This is the main entrance, or rather the place it had been before it got leveled down.”
She drew a few more lines pointing in a few directions from the second circle, creating something that resembled a sun drawn by a five-year-old child.
“Let’s look at it logically. There are many corridors and passages going in every direction from the main entrance. Some of them lead somewhere and some are dead ends. Many of them are dangerously unstable. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can wander in there forever. I grew up exploring these mines. I can get you in, out and to any place you want to explore.” She drew a smiley face inside her ‘sun’ and got up, shaking the sand off her pants. “So, what is it going to be, guys?”
“Cold logic, alright.” Cole smirked, shaking his head. “No wonder you are one of my best programmers.” Switching his attention to Damian, he gave him a short nod. “Do it, Damian. Let’s see what’s behind this door.”
“Stay back,” muttered Damian, focusing on the task at hand.
He waited until his brother pulled Ace a few feet back, stepping in front of her, and connected with the energy of Earth. The ground quaked as he spread his arms wide, gathering the energy from his surroundings. Then he moved his arms forward, redirecting his attention to the mass of sand concealing the hidden door. His muscles tensed and a low growl vibrated in his throat as he wielded his power, bending the elemental energy to his will.
A large block of sand separated from the wall of the pit, lingering in the air. Damian waved his hand and moved it out of the way, dumping it to the side. He whispered a spell and touched the four points where he’d seen the runes, sending some of his energy through them. A bright, white light erupted from under his fingers, and for a few long seconds, he could see the energy of the concealment spell work. It disappeared in white, swirling wisps, and an outline of the actual door appeared under a thin layer of dirt and a web of entwined roots.
Damian released the elemental energy and exhaled, breathing laboriously. Before his powers had been stripped, something like this wouldn’t have made him break a sweat. Now, any use of his magical or elemental energy came at a price. Wiping the perspiration off his forehead, he approached the door and brushed his fingers over it.
“Latentius revelare,” he whispered and checked the entrance through the shimmering layer of the revealing spell. As he expected, the original spell work wasn’t performed to stop someone from entering, but rather to conceal the door. Removing his spell, he turned around and caught a soft smile on Cole’s face. He waved at the entrance over his shoulder. “The coast is clear. Would you like to give it a try?”
The door was pressed tightly into the pit, its edges fused seamlessly with the ground around, and he didn’t want to exhaust more of his physical strength. Erring on the side of caution, he wanted to preserve his strength, physical and magical, in case he needed to use his power while they were inside. His brother, on the other hand, was an ancient vampire—super strength and high velocity came with the territory. Besides, it was practically impossible to get a vampire tired.
Cole stepped in front of the door and tilted his head slightly. “Break it or remove it... Hmmm... Always a dilemma.” He flicked his eyebrow, and a bright grin appeared on his face. “Breaking is always a lot more fun.”
Taking a half-step back, he hit it with his foot, the old wood exploding into a fountain of splinters under his powerful push kick. A cloud of dust puffed from the inside of the old mine, engulfing them with the smell of dirt and gravel.
“Whoa... that’s just so awesome,” Ace exhaled, staring at Cole in awe, her large eyes alight with excitement. “You two are something else.” She pointed at Damian. “You’re probably a wizard, right, Damian?” Without waiting for his response, she turned to Cole. “And what are you, Mr. Adams? Super strength. Just so-o-o cool!”
“I’m the owner of the company you work for,” Cole grumbled, plastering a fake frown on his face, but couldn’t keep it long and burst out laughing.
Damian glanced at her over his shoulder, thinking that for a person who wasn’t touched by the World of Magic she sure accepted all his hocus-pocus easily, as if she had always known magic and the supernatural were real.
Once the dust settled, Damian peeked inside. A single passage ran from the entrance, disappearing into the darkness. He conjured a few light orbs and threw them inside, illuminating the path with their shimmering blue light.
“Ace,” he said, turning toward the young woman, “I’ll go first, and I want you to stay close to me. Cole will be behind you.”
Damian stepped inside, with surprise realizing that the passage was tall enough for him to walk without bending down. The path was clean and unobstructed as if the workers had left the mines just yesterday. He didn’t know much about mines, but the supporting wooden beams seemed to be sturdy enough, and the walls didn’t look like they were ready to cave in. He shuddered, thinking about going farther through these confined corridors, but surrounded by his element, he didn’t feel as bad about it.
For a while, they walked quietly, following the main pathway. A few smaller passages separated from it, going left and right, but Ace told them to keep moving straight, sounding confident. After a while, the corridor became slightly wider, merging inside a large opening. Most of it looked just as sturdy as everything they’d seen so far, but on the right, a large pile of rocks and debris concealed the wall.
“This is where the main entrance used to be,” said Ace, pointing to the right. “So, where do you want to go from here? There are a few corridors that lead from here and some of them are stable enough to explore.”
“Earlier, you mentioned that possibly one of these corridors lead toward Paradise Manor,” said Cole, throwing a heavy glance at Damian. “Do you know which one?”
“Hmm.” Ace turned around slowly and stopped, facing one of the smaller openings. “I told you, Mr. Adams, I don’t believe it to be the truth. I think it’s just another urban legend to hype up the mystery around that building.”
“Humor me,” murmured Cole.
“As you wish.” She pointed at the corridor she was facing. “If it existed—and I don’t believe it does—it would be this one.”
“Let’s see if we can bust this myth.” Giving an arched stare to Damian, he headed toward the doorway, but as soon as he reached it, he halted and turned around, his eye glowing with a scarlet light. “Damian, do you sense it?”
Damian shook his head and raised his arm, ready to cast a spell, but Cole stopped him.
“Preserve your energy,” he said softly. “I can sense it clear enough. There is some kind of magical presence, but it’s not strong. This is why you can’t detect it. So, let’s proceed with caution. I’ll guide you.”
They crossed the threshold and kept moving along the narrow passage. The ceiling became lower, and Damian had to bend down. Soon, he detected a strange energy signature, but just like Cole before, he couldn’t say what it was. However, the farther they moved, the stronger it became. After a while, a layer of rocks and debris blocked their way, completely obscuring the passage.
“I told you.” Ace lifted her shoulders in an apologetical shrug. “Some corridors were unstable. I guess this one collapsed. Sorry, I think this is the end of the road.”
Damian placed his hands on the wall, closed his eyes and connected with his power. The wall didn’t seem to be thick, and he was positive he could easily break through it. Pulling back a little, he struck it with his fist, channeling the elemental energy into his strike. With a loud bang, the wall of rocks blew up, bursting forward.
He stood in front of an opening large enough for them to go through. Damian stepped over the pile of rocks and found himself in a
giant underground cave. It was shaped like a long rectangle, and the light of his magical orbs wasn’t enough to illuminate every corner, leaving the left and the right sides of it obscured by thick shadows. However, at the opposite wall, he noticed a large double door reinforced with iron strips. Even without casting the revealing spell, he could see the runes and sigils inscribed on its surface.
The magical energy signature Cole had detected earlier became stronger, and now he had no problem sensing it. The problem was, it wasn’t a single presence that he sensed. At least two different magical signatures were interlaced tightly—one of them was some kind of protection spell, but the other one he couldn’t place. Nevertheless, it was so powerful that it made his hair stand on end.
“Cole,” he whispered, turning to his brother while carefully gathering as much elemental energy in his hands as he could. “We need to go back. Do you feel it? I don’t think we’re ready to face whatever is hidden here.”
Cole looked around, the vampiric energy around him almost palpable. “Too late for that, I think,” he hissed, his fangs expending, his nails elongating into terrifying claws.
Heavy breathing sounded behind him, making Damian snap around.
“Holy cow,” Ace yelped, her fingers clasping Damian’s arm desperately. “I mean... holy bull.”
Chapter 17
~ Damian Blake ~
An enormous monster with the body of a bull and the head of a horse with a thick horn on its muzzle like that of a rhino stood a few yards in front of them, its eyes burning with a deep red light. It hit the floor with its hoof, and the ground quaked from the sheer force of the impact. It was so massive, Damian had to tilt his head backward to see it. Puffs of light gray smoke burst out of its nostrils as it lowered its terrifying head, pointing its sharp horn at them.
Damian stepped forward, spreading his arms wide to shield Ace and his brother, his heart thudding in his chest as he desperately searched his memory for anything he could use against the monster.
