“Is it too hot in here? I added too much firewood to the fire, I knew it. You kids look like you are burning up!”
My eyes flashed to Nick’s and a small giggle escaped before I could prevent it. His lips firmed as he held his amusement in.
Jerry handed us the bag and I peeked inside. Syringes, vials, permanent marker and a few other things I couldn’t identify at a glance.
“Make sure when you get the samples you label them, okay? Date, time, and especially who they belong to, alright? Where are you meeting up with Elise?”
Nick answered, looking at me to confirm, “At the portal into Wyndoor. From inside Drae Hallow.”
I added, “I’m hoping they’ll have made it back with her grandfather by the time we get there, though in hindsight, maybe I should have brought them. You could have taken their samples while they were here.”
Jerry shrugged. “No biggie. Make sure and get them before you bring that back, though. I’m curious as to why everyone else at Wyndoor was afflicted, but they were not. We find the answer to that and we may just solve the entire mystery.”
#
It was Nick that saved us both.
We should have been paying better attention to the state of the trail we were taking back to the portal that skirted the edge of Bane Lake. The signs were there in the trampled foliage and the muddy prints visible in the wet earth. Way too many for a couple vamps.
My mind was on other things. I had spent little time thinking about Nick’s and my relationship. I liked him and he apparently didn’t find me near as annoying as I’d thought. But I hadn’t taken the extra step in my mind and made us a pair.
So when we rounded the westernmost tip of Bane Lake, less than a 100 yards from where we were to meet Elise, my mind was otherwise preoccupied.
It was Nick that gave a soft gasp of warning and whirled on me, snagging me about the waist and hauling me off the trail and back under the dense cover of the forest. He snugged me close as we hid. What was coming up the trail at us wasn’t two vampires.
Instead, we watched in horror as a party of no fewer than seven angled along the path. Several of them were Rule 9 Guards. But there were vampires there too, and Judge Vas led them. Between them, restrained and terrified, marched Elise and Emerald.
I tried to control my panicked breathing and Nick covered my mouth with his hand. We both shuddered with alarm.
As I’d feared, with their preternatural sense of smell and acute hearing, they screeched to a halt as they passed by the spot we’d left the trail. We saw Judge Fino Vas lift his head and his nostrils flare with awareness. He barked a short order and sent several of the troops off the trail to check the woods… to look for us.
We needed to run! But even as I tried to jerk away, Nick squeezed my arm in warning with one hand. His other was raised above our heads and I watched his fingers weave the air as he called his concealment spell. The glittery mist drifted down over the both of us and cascaded all the way to the ground, hiding us from sight. I wondered if it would block our scent as well.
The sentries were thorough, coming to within a matter of feet from where we stood hiding in plain sight. But after several moments of searching, they returned to Fino Vas empty handed.
The Judge’s eyes narrowed in speculation, but finally, he gave the group a terse nod, and they moved on.
When they disappeared up the trail, the blanket evaporated as Nick called the spell back. I steadied him as he swayed.
Our eyes met. Now what?
#
Elise stumbled and would have gone down if not for the quick reflexes of one of the Rule 9 guards. Her relief was temporary as the chain gave a sharp yank, pulling her forward several yards and causing Emerald to cry out in pain behind her. She stared up into the cruel eyes of Judge Vas and shuddered as he fingered the steel links with a satisfied smile.
They’d been waiting when Emerald and she had come through the portal, and she should have paid better attention. It was foolish of her to assume he hadn’t noticed her in the woods, peering at him on the top of The Commons steps. Fino Vas was an Elder and more powerful than she would be in a millennium.
They were headed back towards bitterroot and the cell that still gave her nightmares on occasion. It was a journey she’d hoped to never be forced to make again, and most likely her last. She didn’t hold out much hope of getting out of this mess alive. The last time they’d been lucky. But she knew the Judge wouldn’t be taking any chances this time.
A glimmer of hope made Elise look wildly around when they stopped and Judge Vas sent several guards to explore the woods. Were Sadie and Nicholas out there even now, watching, waiting? Her head dipped when the sentries returned and they continued on. What good if they were? They had no chance against an armed detail of Magicals and an ancient vampire. Further, if they tried anything at all and the judge caught wind? They’d only be incriminating themselves.
She couldn’t blame them if they were hightailing it as fast as they could in the opposite direction.
#
I followed Nick through the door. He tossed his pack on the counter and yelled for his father, moving at a fast clip. My heart was still racing from the mad dash along the trails into Bitterroot ahead of the guards. I followed on Nick’s heels, noticing the clean lines and lack of clutter in Nick’s home as I entered it for the first time. They’d set the kitchen up to be completely handicap accessible. For Wendy Seul; Nick’s mother and my instructor for Shifting 101.
We found him in his office. He looked up, startled, when Nick burst through the door and I followed. I was used to seeing him in his Mayor’s robes, dressed for business. This was a different view of Lucas Seul; a man in stonewashed jeans and a crisp Henley, the sleeves pushed up past his elbows and his hair less than neat.
He turned away from his computer in alarm. Nick opened his mouth to speak, but snapped it shut when Lucas swiftly made a slashing motion with his hands and then held two fingers to his lips. He stood up and pushed away from his chair and strode from the room. We followed.
He opened the door to the basement and flipped the light switch and started down with us after. The space below was further divided into one large central space, with a couple of smaller rooms to the side. He led us deeper into one of them and I realized we were in the laundry room.
Without speaking he opened the washer, emptied the clothes there into the dryer and started it. He added a basket of dirty laundry to the washer, added soap and then started that too. The ensuing racket echoed off the walls in the tiny space.
Finished, he turned and stared at us, expression grim and forbidding. “I can’t rule out the possibility that someone is watching the house or more. This is the safest place I can think of. Something is up with you two. I have my own problems I’m dealing with. I’d be thrilled if you told me they weren’t related.” But his face said he didn’t hold out much hope of that being the case.
“They have Elise and her daughter, sir.” I started, and once I did, I couldn’t stop. I told him everything about the afflicted vampires in Wyndoor, Elise and Emerald’s bid for help, and the resulting trip to Jerry’s.
“The vampire guard was waiting for them when they came back through the portal into Drae Hallow. They were supposed to meet us…” Nick admitted, looking guilty.
I knew how he felt. Father or no, Lucas Seul was still the Mayor and he had a town to protect and a duty to uphold.
Worry creased his brow in fine lines as he listened, not saying much. As the ramifications of what could have happened to both of us sank in, we watched the color leach from his cheeks. When we finally wound down, he started winding up.
“Of all the idiotic, hair-brained… Do I have to explain the consequences of your actions should they have caught you? The Vampire Nation is huge and powerful. They stay out of our business only, and I repeat, solely because we stay well away from theirs. They have their own set of laws and they are harsh and final. If they decide you are interfering and breaking t
heir laws? They’ll come after you. You will be tried as adults, and you will be put to death right alongside Elise and any of her family old enough to stand trial. There will be no mercy and nothing I can do to prevent it. Are you hearing me?”
Nick’s mouth had drawn into a thin line. “I’m not stupid, I know the risks. But what is happening is just as wrong this time as last. The Judge is a monster…”
“None of that matters! Not to me, not when it’s you!” Lucas shouted, cringing and lowering his voice when the words carried into the next room over the machinery.
A huge dose of guilt slammed into me. I couldn’t remember ever seeing Lucas Seul scared. I didn’t want to repeat the experience. I knew he would do whatever it took to protect his son, and I couldn’t blame him.
“You can’t help us, can you Mr. Seul?” I asked, the words a whisper, but he heard them just the same.
His mouth flattened to a thin line as he turned to stare hard at me. “No. And you need to cut your losses and remove yourself from the situation too. You can’t help Elise, not this time. And I can’t interfere. Vas already suspects my involvement in Elise and her families’ escape last time. I have no desire to confirm it. I had no choice but to offer the services of the Rule 9 Guard when he asked. Only way I could think of to keep track of what he’s about. My jurisdiction doesn’t extend to keeping them out of Drae Hallow if there is a possibility of vampire involvement. I can’t afford to make him any more suspicious than he already is.”
I shook my head. “I know you are doing what you have to. But I don’t think we can just sit back and ignore this, sir. I think it’s too late for any of us to turn our backs.”
#
Judge Fino Vas stared in at the prisoners as they huddled alone and afraid on the cot, as deep in the shadows as the small cell would allow. He wasn’t fooled. Elise was anything but weak. They’d tricked him once, the woman and her family. And he was certain they’d had help, but he lacked evidence to prove it. He wouldn’t be so complacent this time.
He looked at the guards behind him. To the Rule 9 Magicals he spoke. “You are dismissed. Go back to your other posts, you can check in with Mayor Seul first if you wish.” He watched them leave before turning to his own sentries, vampires like him.
“You need to guard the prisoners around the clock. Work in pairs and spell each other breaks, but they are not ever to be left alone. I will not be pleased if they should escape on your watch, am I clear.”
The naturally pale complexions of the four men blanched further. They nodded, well aware of the consequences of failure.
Abruptly, Judge Vas turned on his heel and left, his greatcoat swirling around him and brushing the edge of the doorway as he exited.
Behind him, the sentries took up their positions.
#
Lucas stared at the Judge, careful to conceal his dislike of the older man.
“As soon as possible we will transport the prisoners by helicopter to Seattle where they will be more secure. No need for another trial. Her verdict was decided long before this. It just needs to be carried out.” The judge’s eyes never wavered as he spoke, enunciating each word with satisfaction.
Lucas glanced in at the child, huddled next to Elise and whimpering every once in a while. Her mother’s whispers of encouragement were useless, offering comfort when there could be none.
“What about her—the daughter?” he asked, his stomach twisting.
Fino smiled thinly. “I’m not heartless. She is still young enough to be adopted out to some needy couple. Again, vampire children are too precious to waste.”
Lucas gave a jerk of his head in acknowledgment and spoke up. “One more thing, when they are transported, I would like to accompany them as far as Seattle.”
The Judge frowned, “I don’t think…”
Lucas gaze grew hard, snagging Elise’s bleak gaze for just a second. “You misunderstand. I wasn’t asking. The prisoners are still under my jurisdiction here in Drae Hallow until we deliver them to yours.
Fino Vas’ eyes narrowed. “As you wish…” he conceded.
#
No one was riding to the rescue. Not this time. The judge was taking no chances, which was nothing less than Elise had expected.
Elise stared at her daughter, fall of bright red hair over her shoulders, less than neat, eyes bright and curious as they looked around.
She bit her lip; Emerald was so young and didn’t understand the finality of what was coming. The innocence of youth protected her.
“Emerald, we are being transported later this afternoon. I want you to know, whatever happens, you were the brightest star your father and I ever created. He loves you so much, as do I.”
Her daughter looked up and caught her eye with a soft smile. She held one slim white hand out, finger extended as a small moth flitted through the open bars of the top window. It fluttered about at random in the stale air before perching on the farthest tip of Emerald’s small finger. As moths went, this one was not anything special. Cream-colored wings graced with darker gold crescents tapered to a fat body and dark antennae that tipped this way and that.
Emerald nodded and tipped her head, listening. Then she watched as the little insect took to the air once more with a dip of its powdery wings and left the way it had come.
The child looked at the adult, as Elise attempted to conceal her grief and fear. Scooting closer, she lifted her arms and crawled into her mother’s lap to rest her head beneath her chin.
“Momma?”
“Yes, child?” Elise whispered, stroking her fingers through the tangles and laying them straight.
“Do you believe in miracles?”
Elise considered lying but discarded the notion and settled on the truth. “I used to, when I was young.”
Emerald sighed and leaned into her mother’s gentle hands. “Well, I do. Sometimes help comes when we least expect it, and from the most unlikely source.”
Elise’s fingers stilled. “Did you have another vision, Emerald?”
But the child didn’t answer; she’d fallen asleep, a soft smile curving her lips.
#
Elise didn’t delude herself as she stared out across the open parking lot behind the courthouse at the helicopter that whirred to life in the center, blades kicking up dust and debris and sending them flying in their direction.
The guards were there, prodding both of them from behind, and Elise pulled back in protest, wanting to fight, her teeth filling her mouth and her eyes gleaming cherry red. Once she stepped on that iron machine she knew she was as good as dead. And then who would protect Emerald from the monsters of the world?
The judge smiled in delight, and snatched Emerald up by her hair, pulling her up on her toes with a savage twist and holding a thin blade to the childish throat. And just like that, all the fight left Elise. She shook with the need to rip him apart, to wipe the triumphant smile from his smug face. But she wouldn’t risk her daughter.
Lucas spoke up beside them, his expression seething. “Was that necessary?”
Fino stared at the Mayor, gaze calculating and cold. “I believe it was. You grow soft, sorcerer.”
Lucas ground his teeth, his fists heating until they glowed orange beneath the sleeves of his robes.
They were halfway across the tarmac when the small procession came to a screeching halt. Comical expressions of disbelief spread across the features of every member of the group as they stared at what had emerged from the woods and was running straight at them…
CHAPTER EIGHT
The two of us followed from a distance, helpless to do anything but watch. The judge was there too, and enough guards to make his job easy. Nick’s fingers tightened on mine painfully when the judge grabbed Emerald up by her hair and she cried out.
“Unimaginable bastard,” Nicholas hissed, his bright blue eyes heated. Tension bubbled beneath my skin and I know he had to feel the explosion of scales as they burst along my arms and the backs of my hand in his. But he didn�
��t let go.
We were united this time in our need to bust in and save the day. But we were also outnumbered by far, and if the Judge had proof of our involvement, expulsion would be the least of our worries. So we waited and we watched the scene before us unfold, unable to do a thing to help them. Inside, my dragon screamed in rage.
#
It was the Willa deer and blind luck that brought the two vampires through the portal into Drae Hallow. Surrounded and with nowhere to go, the deer had taken a mad leap from the ledge into space in their panic to escape—and instead, sailed straight through the portal. The crazed vamps had followed.
Before the drugs from the tainted blood had entered their bodies they had been a happy couple, married for well over a century. Like many of the childless vampires in Wyndoor Castle, they doted on the few children that ran its corridors. It took a village to raise a child, and nowhere was that truer than in a vampire clan.
But now that was no longer the case. They rolled down the hill and came to a snarling heap on the edge of the lake, crazed with hunger and an insane need to kill and destroy that they were beyond controlling. The deer were already long gone. The first thing they saw when the world stopped spinning was a small red animal staring down at them from the top of the hill, huge blue eyes wide with shock. With a startled yip, the red fox turned on a dime and disappeared into the woods.
The two vampires screamed in excitement and gave chase… hunger making them quicker than the crippled animal they gained on, speeding along the forest trail towards Bitterroot.
#
Wendy’s heart beat so fast as she ran that she wondered it didn’t explode from the white ruff of fur on her chest and go bouncing down the trail behind her. Her leg was nearly useless as it flung about, but she had long learned to run nearly as fast as a normal fox on three. The pant of hungry breath mowing down the trail at her back and gaining focused her as nothing else could. She had one thought. Lucas. She needed her husband.
Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2) Page 34
