Turn: The Kresova Vampire Harems: Aurora

by Graceley Knox

  Both Reina and I gawk at the impossible size of the rooms, the high ceilings, and the sheer opulence of marble and gilt throughout the place.

  “Wow,” Reina says, spinning in a circle.

  “Yeah.” I had hopes that I’d get some sort of pull once we were inside the building that would lead me to Abe, but the size of the thing is overwhelming.

  “Come on,” Reina yanks at my arm and pulls me to what looks like a gift shop.

  “Reina, we don’t have time to shop now.”

  “I have an idea,” she says. Inside the gift shop she pulls a tourist map of the museum and then heads for the jewelry.

  I’m getting antsy now, like I feel eyes watching me.

  “Ah hah!” she says triumphantly as she finds a necklace with a natural crystal. “Buy this.”

  “What? Why?

  “Just do it.”

  “Reina, I love ya, but we aren’t here to souvenir shop.”

  “It’s not for that,” she says under her breath.

  Lucian’s voice crackles over the poor connection, “Everything all right?”

  “Yes,” I assure him, “Reina’s got some brilliant idea, apparently.”

  “Ever hear of crystal scrying?” She says.

  “No.”

  “Yes,” This time Lucian answers. “But what—”

  “You’ll see. Just tell Aura to buy this thing. I think it is our best shot.”

  “It can’t hurt,” Lucian says.

  “Okay, but we’re leaving after this. I think we’re being watched.”

  I buy the crystal necklace which wasn’t as expensive as I thought. Barely 75 leus which worked out to be about twenty bucks. The cashier spins around to find a box for the necklace, but I don’t like how long it takes her, so I scoop it up.

  “Let’s go.”

  Reina leans over and pulls off the receipt from the register. “In case someone tries to say we stole it.”

  I can’t shake this feeling, like eyes are watching. We hurry out as gracefully as we can without appearing like we’re escaping a four-alarm fire. As we pass an angel statue standing in the corner, I get the weird sense of being watched again.

  I glance up toward the angelic face and almost topple in to Reina.

  What in the actual fuck.

  I swear the eyelids blinked. I’m not a big Doctor Who fan but I know what the evil Weeping Angels are and I feel more freaked out than ever. Stifling the urge to say “run!” I pull at Reina’s arm and don’t relax until we’re out and well away from the building.

  “What was that all about?” She asks.

  “You didn’t see it?”

  “What?”

  “The statues were watching us.”

  Reina looks at me with raised brows, “Aura, those statues were just that. Statues.”

  “No, no, they weren’t,” I insist.

  She wraps my arm in hers, “Not everything is alive and after you, babe.”

  “I’m telling you. This isn’t paranoia. I think—”

  “Meet us back at the hotel,” Lucian says over our earpieces.

  We hustle along the streets getting to the large commercial international hotel, before Lucian does. The place is swanky—and in the real world, I’d never be able to afford a night here. Apparently, they even have a few floors administered by a concierge, which is exactly where we are staying.

  Lucian used his investment banker to secure the rooms on the private floor, with the cover that he’s meeting privacy minded Romanian investors.

  When we slip in our key and pass through the threshold, I go right to the mini-bar and down the first whiskey I can find.

  “You’re seriously freaked out, aren’t you?”

  “I swear, I never felt anything like it. And when I saw that angel blink, I had to get out of there.”

  “Blink? No way.”

  “Yes,” Lucian says as he enters the room, Row close behind him. “It’s entirely possible that Morana had a witch spell them. Perhaps a form of supernatural surveillance units.”

  Normally unflappable Reina sink into a chair and reaches her arm out to the whiskey in my hand. She grabs the bottle and downs a good shot worth.

  “Guys, I’ve been riding freaky here with you all along, but this is by far the craziest of the crazy.” She waves a hand through the air, “A ring made into a protective talisman I can understand. A museum full of creepster peeper angels? That’s too much.”

  “Reina,” I say, “Anytime you want to step away, I understand.”

  “Hell no. I’m Sam to your Frodo, Aura. I’m not going anywhere but to the depths of Mount Doom, if that’s what it takes.”

  Deep gratitude spreads through me for her loyalty. She doesn’t have to walk with me into danger but she would anyway.

  “Besides, someone has to keep an eye on this guy here,” she grins wickedly at Row. “And there is nothing I like better than that.”

  “Oh no?” Row slides his arms over her shoulders and kisses the top of her head. “I thought there was one thing.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she says. “There is that.”

  I roll my eyes. “I’d say get a room but we don’t have time for that. If the creepster statues have alerted Morana, we have less time than we thought.”

  “You’re right,” Lucian moves closer to me. “She so paranoid that she’ll have dozens of her assassins here in a few hours time. Especially, if she thinks something is up with Abe’s hiding place.”

  Lucian pulls out the chair to my side and slides into it.

  “So what’s the plan? I think a midnight raid is definitely out. There is too much conventional surveillance to make hunting Abe in the museum seriously problematic. And at night, they’ll have not only extra security measures, but extra guards too.”

  Reina holds up her hand. “I think I figured out a way to zero in on Abe.” She pulls out the crystal from her pocket and then the museum map from her handbag, spreading it out over the table.

  “And what do you plan to do with that?” I say.

  “Not me. You. You’re the one with magical powers.”

  “I do not have magic powers.”

  “Getting visions of the future isn’t a magical power?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “This is no different, just done in a different way. Hold the crystal over the map and concentrate hard on Abe. When the crystal locates him it’ll drop.”

  “With me holding it?”

  “You’ll feel the tug and you’ll want it to drop.”

  “Again, you know this how?”

  “Watching reruns of Charmed.”

  I’m not sure it’s best to leave our fate dependent upon a woman whose watched too many seasons of Supernatural. Now I find out she’s into a witchy soap operas too.

  “What do you have to lose?” Determination lights her face and I know I’m not getting out of this without giving it a try. Besides, what other choice do we have?

  I take the crystal from her hand and hold it over the map of the museum. It does nothing but hang limply over the map as the minutes tick by. If I was still human my arm would start to hurt.

  I sigh. “It’s not working.”

  “Just be patient.”

  “For how long?”

  “As long as it takes.” Reina answers.

  I groan and lean onto the table as the room falls silent.

  “You’re a vampire with an eternity ahead of you, Aura. A few minutes isn’t going to kill you.”

  I stick my tongue out at her and as ten more minutes pass, I lean onto my elbow. My mind already wondering what the next option is.

  “Focus.” She says.

  “I am.”

  “No you’re not. You have to believe, Aura. It’s the only way it will work.”

  “I want to believe.” I joke, mocking Reina’s other favorite show, The X-Files.

  Lucian places his hand on the small of my back. Without words he’s asking me to be serious.

  “Fine.” I say, closing m
y eyes. I imagine Abe’s face as I’d seen him from the visions. I call to him over and over in the fog of my mind. Moments later, he appears, standing only a few feet from me. He looks over my face, then smiles. “Aura you’ve found me.” He says, and my eyes snap open.

  “Look,” Reina whispers.

  The crystal moves and begins to circle. Again and again it spins, and I feel my hand pull to a certain area of the map. I let my arm go there, and the crystal tugs downward suddenly. I let it drop and we all stare at it and the word under the crystal.

  “She’s one sick puppy,” Reina says.

  Row swears.

  “She knows we’re coming,” Lucian adds.

  “Fuck,” I say.

  Abe’s being held somewhere in the area of the American Gallery.

  “What the hell do we do now?” I ask.

  Reina pulls the tour map out from under the crystal and points to a boxed area printed in several languages, including English. It says, ‘Gallery access for private parties granted for a fee.’

  “Hold a party, of course.”

  Chapter 7

  I want Lucian with me.

  Maybe it’s because I already feel naked and vulnerable with Carver locked away to suffer under whatever tortures Morana’s inflicting on him.

  Maybe it’s because I just need his strength alongside mine and Row’s.

  Maybe if I’m even more honest with myself, it’s because he’s my chosen, and I feel out of step when he’s gone almost as much as I do when Carver’s away from me. Part of me feels lost without him next to me. Like physically lost. Not like I can’t take care of myself, but like a piece is missing.

  But he has to stay away, to run interference with the museum staff and his party guests. Within hours of Reina’s brilliant suggestion, Lucian had his office set up a wine and cheese party for tonight in the next gallery over from the American space. His cover? A party for his private investors in Romania.

  I can imagine his entire office turned over in the project, from ordering food and drinks, waiters and tables, to plates, glasses, and silverware. No doubt another bank of people worked the phones finding a flock of investors that would keep the staff of the museum busy.

  Lucian wanted to call the museum director himself to impress upon the man that his investors wanted the utmost privacy, and they were inclined to give a generous donation to the museum if they could enjoy the evening incognito. But he couldn’t, not without tripping a “we are here to steal the patriarch of all the vampires alarm.”

  My normally calm and stoic lover had paced the floors until his Managing Sales Director of Investments called and told him that everything was set.

  And now, he’s playing the distraction while Row, Reina, and I go for the more daring breakout of Abehartach.

  I worried about those statues reporting back to Morana, but at the last minute, hit upon an idea from my time with Leander. He said the incantation he gave me should undo any magic spell. Which meant if we could ‘touch’ the statues without using our flesh, we could still cast the spell and ‘blind them’ from spying on our every move. Reina came up with the idea of using spring water in spray bottles, and we both snuck out an hour before our stakeout to collect what we could from a nearby river.

  Now, we walk into the museum, each of us on our mans’ arms, carrying our bottles as casually as possible within the tiny clutches we’ve brought. We hang back as Lucian and Row talk with the museum director who greets us, ushering us toward the gallery where the party is being held.

  We briefly lose ourselves in a tangle of similarly attired guests and let them pass by before we split off toward the American gallery. Outside the entrance, we encounter the first set of statues flanking either side of the wall.

  I nod to Reina and as we slowly approach, we tug out our bottles and splash water on them. Their eyes seem to open with surprise, and we chant in a hurried unison, uncertain of how much time they need to send info back to their master.

  “I snuff the magic that enlivens you; I drown the light that fills you, I cast out the power within you.”

  I swear I hear a far off scream. But when I look, the statue seems as lifeless as it should be.

  “I think that worked,” Reina smiles at me.

  I grab her arm, “Let’s not sit around and test the theory.”

  Unexpectedly, a finger taps my shoulder and I spin around, practically punching Row, who’s just joined us, square in the nose. “Holy fuck, dude!” I yell-whisper at him.

  He raises his hands palms out, “Sorry. Shit, I thought you heard me coming.”

  “No. I didn’t” I take another swing at him but he moves out of the way.

  Reina squeezes in between us, clearly trying protect her vampire from me. “That’s enough. You can kick his ass another day.” She glances from him to me, “Right now, we have more important things to do, right?”

  “Right.” I say, dusting off imaginary dirt from my dress, “Let’s go find Abe.”

  The three of us trail down the hall and into an empty bathroom, slipping off our formal wear and into more appropriate clothes.

  I have no idea what condition we’ll find Abe in or If I can even raise him alone and without the other Drias. Lord knows he’ll be so effing disoriented. The last place he remembers is that fortress stronghold in Romania that was a total bust. He’s been moved since then and centuries upon centuries have passed.

  I know Abe’s been reaching out to me, mind to mind, but how much of that is instinct? How much of a sentient and hopefully benevolent king is left behind in him?

  Can we even get him out?

  I don’t know what to expect, and I wish I had all my team with me. Sighing, I keep my head down and, like Row, gather closer to Reina.

  Row nods to a far door, a heavy, metal number with a fire alarm bar across it. “That’s the one on the plans. It’ll lead straight to basement storage. The damn fire alarm is a decoy and a way to sound out against thieves.”

  I reach into my pocket. The device there is heavy in my palm.

  Lucian has great contacts. Once, his firm helped set up the finances of one of the biggest tech billionaires in Silicon Valley. Oh yeah, I won’t name names, but there’s a famous tech genius who also only drinks O+ blood to unwind. Anyway, that guy was able to give us a small electromagnetic pulse device. Nothing over the top, just a small pulse that would knock out nearby electronics. But this device was expertly calibrated and localized.

  As Row sets it casually on the alarm box of the fake emergency exit door, it activates. The alarm light goes from green to red without a sound.

  Perfect.

  “Reina,” I say. “You know what to do. Be careful and once you find a good place near the door, be on look out.”

  Reina flips her dark blue-black braid over her shoulder. “Bitch, no one can put on a distraction like me. You just get good ole honest Abe up and walking, I’ll take care of the distraction. Now go!” She eyes Rowland for just a minute, a longing look that I assume is Reina for “be careful and I love you” all in one.

  There’s not time for words.

  She’s dashing to the far end of the exhibit floor to the nearest guard, whining up a storm theatrically about having had her cell phone stolen and railing on about how she’s going to call the U.S. embassy right away. I steal a glance at the guard who’s rolling his eyes. Apparently, Reina picked a good routine. There must be upset American tourists chewing guards’ ears off a lot. Great. We’ll blend right in.

  Even if Row and I don’t have heartbeats.

  Once the guard has his back turned to focus on Reina, we hurry through the door and down the stairs. The national museum was built into an ancient castle, an old Wallachian monument from centuries ago. The steps narrow and wind around into spires underground and, even with a flashlight and our own superior senses, it’s a trek to get down without tripping over ourselves. My sneakers squeak on the old stone and I almost slip once on an unexpected divot, but Row catches me.

&nbs
p; He shakes his head and helps me to the level floor of the basement below. “Even as a vampire you’re clumsy.”

  “Tell you what, next time you step on that and don’t fall and then you can snark at me,” I say.

  That’s as much energy as I have for jokes. It’s not exactly a dungeon down here, but the area falls into subterranean maze territory pretty quickly. We wind through boxes stacked ten feet high, old weapons and ancient suits of armor, and even a room with royal family portraits. At least the slight hum and breeze around me seem to indicate there’s a cooling system or some kind of temperature control here for storage. Otherwise, these antiquities would have been toast. Still, I doubt an American museum would be quite as cavalier with its storage. Not exactly sure there’s a basement wing of the Smithsonian, but maybe there is. I’m not a curator either. However, the one thing we don’t see after rows and rows and several rooms of historical items is a single, fucking sarcophagus.

  Reina’s good but she can only keep the guards distracted for so long. Eventually, someone’s going to notice we’re missing and that the emergency exit door alarm isn’t functioning. I want to scream as we pass what seems like the millionth useless box.

  “Mother fucker. Where is he?”

  Row shakes his head and checks the map. “The basement is as big as the museum, a full city block. We’re almost to the far end of everything but not completely there yet. Give it time, Aura.”

  “We don’t have that.”

  He nods to the far wall and at the old, stone door before us. “True, but we’re also to the last section of the museum’s basement. Either Abe’s here or it’s been another wild goose chase. Now, come on.”

  I push the door open first and gasp at the tomb laid out before me. The sarcophagus isn’t intricately engraved. There’s no gold or jewels on it, and I realize that this giant, stone monolith has to be another part of the insult that Morana was trying to hurl at Abehartach. First, she buried him with his human family, as if he were no more than mortal, which, hey to me seems like a good deal. We all have human family we’re attached to. However, I’m starting to get for older vamps that’s a huge fuck you. But it’s more than that now. He’s been shuffled aside to some obscure corner of a museum, a relic so useless that he’s not even given adornments or a name plate.