by Deanna Chase
P.S. I’m back.
Chapter 38
I put my hands on my thighs and tried to breathe in deep gulps of air. Little stars were swimming before my eyeballs. It felt like a punch to the gut. Like a great big vise was squeezing my adrenal glands and causing my heart to beat at fifty times the rate it was supposed to.
Mom.
My uncle had made it through.
And he had her.
Killian had left my side and came back with a paper bag. He handed it to me and I placed it over my mouth and nose, trying to focus on inhaling regularly. I know he was rubbing my back and stroking my hair in a comforting manner.
Next thing I know, I’m staring up at him and he’s smacking my face, saying, “Wake up!”
“I’m awake!” I muttered. “I’m awake.”
It took me a second to figure out where I was and what was going on, but then it came rushing back with Technicolor clarity.
“No…” I began to cry, “No…”
Killian gathered me up in to his arms and held me there against his chest as I wept, seemingly unaffected by the snot bubbles coming out of my nose and streams of water leaking out of my eyes.
“We will get her back,” he murmured. “We will get her back.”
Slowly I was able to pull myself together. I wiped my face on the back of my sleeve and looked at Killian apologetically, “Sorry about your shirt.”
He laughed and brushed back a sweaty hair from my blotchy red face, “I shall run a load of laundry before we kick the bad guys’ asses.”
I hiccupped out a laugh, “Wouldn’t want to get your shirt dirtied up before it got vampire guts all over it.”
He gave me another hug, “You are going to be okay.”
I gave him a nod. I wasn’t, but I was as okay as I was going to be under present conditions.
He helped me up to my feet. I had a banger of a headache.
“Get cleaned up. See if anything comes to you. I will look around for clues.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he turned me around and pushed me towards my mom’s over-decorated guest bathroom, “No arguments. Go. You are of no use to me like this.”
I gave him a grateful smile and he kissed me on the top of my head, “Go.”
I ran the cold water and hoped that it would chase the red from my face and eyes. I leaned my hands against the side of the sink and tried not to think about the fact my mom might be getting tortured or killed or turned at that moment.
How could she have not seen this coming?
I needed to calm down. I was going to become sloppy and miss something important if I didn’t get my emotions under wrap. I splashed the water on my face.
Uncle Ulrich made it across the border somehow. Yet despite the fact that he finally made it, despite the fact he had my mom, he still wanted that damned diamond lion.
And unfortunately, he and the vampires were under the false belief that I had it. Even more unfortunate, Dad had taken that lion and I couldn’t get it back.
I started to shiver and it wasn’t from the cold.
I slammed off the water. The more I thought, the pissier I got.
How dare they? They made me leave Earth. They took my dad away from me. They destroyed my family. Now they had my mom. I started getting so angry I was shaking.
Mad was better.
Mad I could use.
Mad made me want to punch someone in the nose and right now all that ire was aimed at a guy whose name began with “U” and rhymed with “Ulrich”.
I grabbed a clean towel off of the rack. It smelled of rose soap.
“I swear I’ll find you,” I vowed to any gods who might be listening.
I was my mother’s daughter and I wouldn’t rest until I got her back. Any undead being that thought they could get away with something like this obviously didn’t know the women in my family.
Chapter 39
When I emerged, Killian was busy loading up a bunch of my mom’s spice jars into a grocery bag.
“You ready?” he asked, looking up.
“Yah,” I replied.
He grabbed the clanking bag and followed me outside.
I shut the door behind us, promising that the next person to open it would be my mom.
We got into the car and drove to my place. I brought in the manila folders about the vampire attacks and pulled a bunch of maps out of the back of my coat closet. Within minutes, I had a war room set up on my dining table, the local area laid out like a game of Stratego. I was so focused, even my cat knew not to come sit in the middle of my work.
Killian disappeared into the kitchen with his bag. I heard him rattling around, but it wasn’t until I smelled something positively awful in the air about an hour later that I went in to see what he was up to.
My mom’s jars with their curlicue labels were all over the counter. Killian was putting a pinch of this and a sprinkle of that into the little Pyrex glass bowl I usually reserved for salsa or nuking eggs.
I was never really good with potions or magic. Across the board, my life skills pretty much end at “innate ability”. I can barely bake a cake from start to finish without screwing something up. The first of any recipe always turns out great because I follow the steps word for word. But after that, I like to pretend I am a master chef who doesn’t need a stinking cookbook. It never ends well.
I made the decision that if I couldn’t work some sensory magic with a little flour and eggs, I was categorically banned from experimenting with ingredients that could actually mess up something important.
Killian’s mixture slowly began to glow.
He turned to me, “May I borrow your hand?”
He took me by the wrist and picked up a sewing needle.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I am not cool with black magic there, bucko!” I said pulling back.
He shook his head, “It is not. Uncle Ulrich’s invitation will let the magic know who we want to find, but we need to let the magic know that you are the seeker.”
If I wasn’t looking for my mom, my answer would have consisted of two words, one being “no” and the other beginning with the letter “f”, but since it was my mom, I held out my arm. I looked up at the ceiling while he poked me and squeezed out three drops into the potion.
He rotated my hand so that it was now palm down and dipped my fingers into the mix. He muttered something in elfish and then used my hand like a paintbrush across the ransom note. I left trails of light with every stroke.
When every last bit had been covered on the page, he let go of my hand.
Killian laid the note out on my dish drainer, “It has been spelled with light to find your mother. When we are facing the right way, it will glow brighter. When we are faced the wrong way, it will dim. We just need a general area to get started.”
“We’re playing ‘Hotter/Colder’ with my mom’s life?”
“Yes.”
At least he was telling it to me straight. I stuck my finger in my mouth to stop the blood with my tongue and waved Killian into the dining room.
I motioned to the map, “It looks like we have a concentration of attacks close to the eastern border.”
Killian looked over my shoulder and traced the roads we needed to follow to get there, “Do you believe we should leave before dark?”
“I don’t think we can afford to wait.”
He didn’t have to say a word for me to know he agreed.
Chapter 40
Yah, we headed in the right direction all right. We had driven through the night, guided by the glow of Uncle Ulrich’s macabre party invitation. The road wound out of the city and into the countryside.
As the sun began to rise, we drove into a tiny village town hunkered down at the base of a completely sinister mountain. It was a quaint little place with thatched buildings and Tudor styled architecture. It even had a little fountain in the cobblestoned square. But every eave was covered in garlic bulbs and flowerbeds had been replaced with stakes poking out of the ground for
easy access.
I pulled our now not-so-out-of-place car in front of an inn. The windows were shuttered and the doors locked.
“Looks like they might have had some experience with vampire types,” I muttered as I stepped out of the car.
“Your keen observational skills would put a Dark Elf to shame,” replied Killian dryly, his eyes scanning the sky for trouble.
I pulled a crossbow out of the trunk and strapped it to my back, “I think I deserve a raise.”
“Done,” said Killian.
The door to the inn opened and the proprietor cautiously stuck his head out, white horseshoe hair sticking up like he had just rolled out of bed. He startled at the sight of Killian and me. He might have been old, but before I could even twitch, he had a crossbow aimed at my heart with the safety off. I mean, I know after our all night journey we probably looked like hell, but that doesn’t mean we were actually FROM hell.
I put my hands up, “Just travelers.”
“Many say that,” he stated matter-of-factly, “but you were here before sunrise.”
“That’s true…”
“I’ll need you to take a drink from the fountain,” he said, motioning to font in the center of town.
I lowered my hands a little and looked at him skeptically, “Now, I don’t have much room to argue, because you’ve got an arrow pointed at my heart, but do you mind me asking why?”
“It’s full of holy water. If you are a creature of darkness, you’ll not be able to touch it.”
The fountain was hewn from stone and the clean looking water bubbled softly from terraced level to terraced level, but I could see that the original design had been altered to feature religious symbols and wards.
“It’s not poison to people?” I asked.
“Not to people,” he said.
The innkeeper gave me the room to make up my mind, but I could see he wasn’t going to budge. I was going to drink or I was going to die and he was fine with whatever I decided. I gave Killian a shrug, “Shall we get on with it? I’m a little thirsty.”
He looked at the fountain, “We do not appear to have much choice.”
He and I walked over and stood at the edge for a moment. Man, I hoped it wasn’t some spelled potion that was going to turn us into mud statues or something. In unison, we dipped our hands into it and raised the liquid to our lips.
Water. It was just plain, old-fashioned, holy water.
I actually reached down and scooped up another handful.
We turned back to the innkeeper. He had lowered his crossbow and walked over to us with his hand out, “My name’s Gus. I apologize. We can’t be too careful around here anymore, not since the vampires moved into the mountains. We can’t even trust the sun to reveal the dark ones. It is a sorry day that I should have to greet weary travelers in such a manner.”
I took his hand and shook it, “We understand completely. This is Killian, I’m Maggie.”
“An elf come all this way?” asked Gus, noting Killian’s ears.
“An elf and a tracker,” I replied. “We have had our own fair share of scuffles with vampires. In fact, they are the reason we’re here.”
“You’re not in cahoots with them, are you?” asked Gus, his friendly manner turning a little cautiously frosty. This guy had a hair trigger suspicion button just waiting to be pushed.
“They kidnapped my mother,” I said. “We’re here to get her back.”
“Your mum,” said the innkeeper, rubbing his jowls and shaking his head, “I’m afraid you’ll need all the help you can get.”
“Tell me about it.”
“If you can follow me across my threshold without an invitation, I’ll have some breakfast for you and a place where you can put your feet up. There’s not many of us here, but we do what we can, and any enemy of our enemy is a friend of ours.”
Chapter 41
We were comfortably tucked in at the table as Gus placed plates heaped with scrambled eggs and skillet potatoes before us. I’d never been so hungry in my entire life.
He sat down as we ate and started unfolding a brief accounting of recent local vampire lore.
“They moved in about six months ago. Took over the ruins of an old fortress up the mountainside a bit. Used to be a stronghold for other demon types. It had been abandoned for decades, but they had it good as new practically overnight. They remind me of wasps building a paper hive. It’s a terrible place, vampires flying in and out of it at all hours. Folks say that the new master is a creature named Vaclav. They tried to create trouble when they first came, but they’ve left us well enough alone now that they understand we won’t be caught unawares.”
He jerked his thumb to some rather nasty looking weaponry hanging next to every single door, window, and fireplace in the inn. I certainly wouldn’t want to run into this guy on a dark and stormy night.
“Grabbed a couple kids in those first days. I don’t know much, but I’m smart enough to know you don’t go pissing off a mother if you want to last on this Side. Older vampires would have known, but these were young ones, recently formed, hungry and dumb. We got ‘em the next night they tried to come back. A few tried to come back for revenge. We got them, too.”
I threw down my fork, “Well, they’re about to discover they’re not going to last very long on this Side if they go pissing off daughters, too.” I looked over at Killian, “We need to hit them during the day when their strength is weakest.”
Gus held up his hands, “Now, now. You’re not speaking of storming that fortress all by yourselves there, lassie…”
“Oh, that is precisely what she is speaking of,” replied Killian.
“I’ve got to,” I said to Gus. “They’ve got my mom.”
“You won’t last ten minutes,” he warned, wagging his finger at me, “Believe you me, there has been many a traveler come to take those creatures down, but none came back. I can’t let you go in there guns blazing. Your poor mother would never forgive me.”
“What would you suggest?” I asked, being smart enough to listen when someone older and wiser than me told me I was a dumbass.
“Let me loan you some horses. Your car would be limping along with busted tires before you got around the second bend. I can draw you a map. You’ll also need some disguises…”
“If you can furnish us with appropriate garb, I can take care of the rest,” said Killian.
I looked at him in surprise.
“Fairy glamour. It is not just for seducing the ladies,” he replied.
Naturally.
“Okay, Gus. We’ve got some fairy glamour and some horses. What else?” I asked.
“I assume you’re armed?”
“To the teeth.” I paused as Killian and Gus looked at me, “No pun intended.”
“Then all you need is my good wishes,” said Gus as he pushed himself up from the table. “You’re lucky you’re going in now. The sky was dark with vampires flying out yesterday. I would suggest getting this rescue done before they return.”
“Well, nothing like a deadline to get me motivated,” I paused again. “No pun…”
Gus just cut me off, “I’ll make sure there are clean linens on the beds for when you return.”
“Plan for three guests,” I replied, giving him a firm handshake to seal the deal.
Chapter 42
The monstrosity of a castle hung on the side of a cliff. It was like if a boulder and a gorilla got together and had a squat, fat baby building. Even though the afternoon sun was high in the sky, the entire place was shrouded in an unnatural gloom that made my skin crawl - as they say, the better to eat you with, my dear.
We had left our horses hitched up the road while we wandered to the overlook for this little reconnaissance/stalling mission. Normal vampires would have just transformed into bats and then flown to the castle, but our disguises weren’t that good. I hoped they would accept that we were out-of-towners in for a visit.
“Killian, this was a really dumb idea and I’m t
hinking I would like to reconsider the plan.”
He patted me firmly on the shoulder, “I am sure this is not the first time this castle has been stormed.”
“Do you think anyone ever won?”
“They were all probably eaten alive at the following new moon banquet.”
“Peachy,” I replied.
Killian gave me a smile, “The advantage we have is that we are not storming the castle.”
“Man, I hope they don’t figure out that we’re here…” I said, staring up at the dark parapets as shadowy figures paced between the towers.
“Our disguises should protect us.”
Killian’s outfit sure had me fooled. If I hadn’t known it was him, I would have been looking for something stake-like right about now. His wavy blonde hair had been replaced by a shiny black mane that would put a Geisha to shame. His teeth were ever so pointy and his eyeballs had that eerie red glint to them that made my stomach clench in a whole “kill or be killed” sort of way.
“Want to know a secret?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re totally creeping me out.”
He smiled at me, “The feeling is mutual.”
I was now a blondie with an alabaster undead pallor. My jeans and t-shirt had been replaced by a Victorian style riding frock in stylish black lace and swaths of material, perfect for protecting sensitive skin from the sun, from neck to toe. A dandy little top hat was perched upon my pile of Gibson curls. I flicked the black veil back over my face with a black-gloved hand and climbed the path back over to the main road to continue our ride to the castle.
Horses don’t particularly enjoy hanging out amongst the damned, but these were two work nags. They had obviously seen worse and I’m sure would use the story of “that time we carried two crazy people into the heart of the vampires’ lair” to entertain the other barnyard animals for years.
Killian looked over at me and I mustered up a little “here goes nuthin” spirit. I can’t say that I was particularly saddened that our horses were dragging their feet.
But unfortunately, we eventually did arrive at the castle. Our mounts’ hooves clomped hollowly across the drawbridge and into the covered courtyard of the keep.
