by Morgana Best
“Valkyrie is plenty old enough to have fangs now,” Aunt Maude said. “She just has to learn how to use them.”
“All right then. We’ll talk about it later.” Aunt Agnes addressed the comment to me. “Now you have a good sleep, Valkyrie. You’ve been through a lot and it must be a terrible strain on you. Have a nice sleep. The cat will keep you company.”
The cat meowed in response.
I must have drifted off into a deep sleep. At some point, I remembered waking up and turning off the TV, but the rest was hazy. I dreamt I heard someone ringing the doorbell. I woke up, wondering if it had been a dream, but no one was ringing it any more, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up again, the cat wasn’t there.
I sat up gingerly, feeling that awful yet fleeting sick feeling one gets when waking up suddenly from a deep sleep. I couldn’t see anything around that had been responsible for waking me. I yawned and stretched and then winced at the pain in my neck. I had been lying at a funny angle on the couch. Still, I felt more relaxed than I had in a while.
And then it all came flooding back to me. I was a vampire.
I touched my hand to my mouth and felt along my teeth. There was not a single pointy one there. I wished the aunts had explained about fangs before they’d left. Still, as modern day vampires apparently didn’t bite anyone, I supposed they didn’t need big, unwieldy fangs. I hoped so, anyway.
And something else occurred to me in my newly awakened state. If I were to have a long-term boyfriend, he would have to be a vampire too, or I would outlive him. This wasn’t good. It was hard enough finding a suitable man. Gosh, I hadn’t even managed to do that yet, and now I had to find a suitable man who was also a vampire. What were the chances of that?
I threw up my hands in horror. My life was rapidly going downhill. Here I was, a vampire living with my elderly vampire aunts who weren’t really elderly but wanted to look that way, at a Bed and Breakfast that didn’t actually serve breakfast, but had bizarrely themed cottages. And then there was the Yowie Shifter locked upstairs in the magical cage. I lay back down and rubbed my throbbing temples.
Just as I did so, I heard a noise directly above me in the bedroom. I could tell it was from my newly improved hearing, which I figured was a result of the Witches’ Brew. I sensed it wasn’t the aunts. Was it the Yowie Shifter? Had he escaped? I trembled with fear.
I held my breath and listened again, but this person, if it was a person, was moving around quietly. I imagined that if the Shifter had escaped, he would hightail it to freedom rather than go on a tour of the house.
With that thought boosting what little courage I had, I quietly walked in the direction of the stairs. I sneaked up the stairs, alarmed that most of them creaked under my weight, and then headed in the direction of the aunts’ bedroom wing. When I reached Aunt Agnes’s door, I saw a man inside.
I ducked back, and tried to catch my breath. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and did the breathing exercises, as best I could.
I risked another glance and to my shock, it was Marius. He was looking through the drawers and shoving jewellery in bags. He was the burglar!
What was I to do? I was unarmed, and I didn’t know if he was. What’s more, I didn’t know if he was a Shifter, but if he was, I figured he would have already released his accomplice. No, this was a burglary, plain and simple.
Still, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be in danger from him, if he were to discover me. I backtracked until I came to a fork in the hallway and I ducked down it. I had entered the sergeant’s number into my phone, and I at once sent him a text, after being careful to turn off the sound on the phone first. I would be discovered for sure if my phone rang right now.
I texted Owen and told him that Marius Jones was currently robbing the house and I was hiding in the house. The text was at once marked as delivered, but I didn’t know if he had actually read it. I decided to give him a few moments and then I would call. With that in mind, I edged further away from Marius so he wouldn’t hear me if I had to make a call.
I hadn’t got far before Owen texted me back. He told me to hide and that the police would be there any minute.
Then I had a horrible thought. What if Owen came upstairs and found the room with the Shifter? Should I try to draw Marius downstairs before Owen got there? I was at a loss as to what to do.
Just then, I heard Marius coming my way. I hoped he would go straight back down the staircase and not in the direction of the Shifter. Another horrible thought occurred to me. What if Marius heard the police coming and ran for cover down to the room with the Shifter?
There was nothing else for it. I had to prevent that at all costs. I took off at a fast pace and ran to the corridor, and stood there, blocking the way to the room.
I didn’t know what I would do if Marius came my way, but I hoped that my fangs would somehow appear in the case of emergency.
I heard the police siren then. It sounded far away, yet moments later, it seemed much closer. I heard Marius’s footsteps heading my way at speed. Before he reached me, I heard the front door fly open, and someone yell, “Police!”
It was just as I feared. Marius ran from the police straight down to the forbidden corridor. When he saw me, he stopped in his tracks. I bared my teeth at him, willing my fangs to pop out. Nothing happened.
I must have scared him at any rate, as he turned and ran in the opposite direction. I breathed a sigh of relief. I ran down the corridor to see Owen launching himself on top of Marius, and after a brief struggle, Owen handcuffed his arms behind his back. “Take him away,” he said to two uniformed officers. “Pepper, are you all right?”
I realised I was shaking. “I’m not really all right,” I said. “I’ve never been so scared.”
“Well, it’s all over now,” Owen said brightly. “Good work, Pepper. You caught the burglar.”
“You’re the one who actually caught him,” I said with a laugh, relief flooding through me now that Marius was being dragged out the front door in handcuffs by the two uniformed officers. My right eye twitched, but the danger was now over. Marius was the burglar and most likely the Yowie Shifter, too. He simply must not have realised that my aunts were the ones who captured the other Shifter.
Chapter 20
Outside the front door, two uniformed officers hurried up to us. “There’s nothing in his cottage, no sign of any stolen goods,” one said.
Owen muttered something rude.
“I think I know where he might have hidden them,” I said excitedly, after the officers left. “I saw him at the beach earlier today, and I thought he had a shovel. He seemed quite annoyed that I’d seen him and he kind of threatened me.”
Owen took a step towards me. “He threatened you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, it was a veiled threat more than anything explicit as such,” I said. “But if Mr O’Callaghan hadn’t been walking along the beach at the time, goodness knows what would have happened.”
Owen visibly bristled when I mentioned Lucas’s name. “So where did you see this happen?”
“Sorry, I should’ve started from the beginning. I was walking along the off-leash dog beach, and I saw someone off in the scrub. He was bending over, and I was quite sure I saw a shovel. He saw me looking at him and came over.”
“Was he holding a shovel then?”
“He wasn’t holding anything at all.”
Owen frowned. “And you didn’t see a shovel or anything? He wasn’t holding anything?”
I shook my head. “No, nothing.”
“Do you think you’d be able to find that same spot again?”
“I don’t know, it’s hard. One section of beach looks the same as the other, but I might be able to find it. It was just past the submerged rock in the water, and just past a clump of tea trees.” I thought some more. “Yes, I’d probably be able to find it.”
“Can you take me there now?” Owen asked.
“Sure.”
Owen called to the officers who
were putting Marius in the car. “Be very, very careful with him. He could be a lot more dangerous than he looks. Don’t take any chances, he could possibly be the murderer. And if so, he’s very strong, even stronger than he looks. Don’t take any chances,” he said once more.
The officers acknowledged his words and drove away. “I’ll have to leave a note for my aunts,” I said. I made to go back to the house, but Owen touched my arm.
“Here you go, write it on this.” He handed me his notepad and paper.
I scrawled a quick note, telling the aunts about Marius, and that I was showing Owen where I had last seen Marius on the beach. Owen took the notepad from me and ripped out the sheet. “Be right back,” he said, and then he ran up the flagstone path.
We didn’t pass anyone on the way to the beach, and the off-leash dog beach was deserted. This was likely due to the heat. Most people came out early morning or late afternoon in this type of weather.
We walked along the beach making small talk, until I saw the rock. “See that rock there?” I pointed to it and waved my hands at the small rocks around it. “I saw him just past that rock, and see that line of tea trees there, all that scrub? It was just past there.”
Owen and I left the hard, wet sand and walked over to the soft sand at the high section of the beach. It was quite difficult to walk through. I stopped when we came to the sand dunes covered with spinifex grass.
“Now take your time, Pepper,” Owen said. “Think it through. This could be quite important.”
I nodded. I walked around, trying to think where I had seen Marius. “I’m sorry Owen, I thought it was around here, but I just can’t see anything.”
“Are you sure it was around here?”
“Yes, it was definitely here. I had just passed that rock, and he was just past the line of tea trees, but it all looks different from this angle.”
“Like I said, I’ve just moved to the area,” Owen said, “so are there any buildings around here like isolated old beach shacks, somewhere anyone could hide stolen goods?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t been here for years, but I don’t think there’s anything like that at all. I suppose those trees could be hiding something, but I saw him out here in the open.”
Owen stroked his chin. “Stay here and have a look around, but don’t wander off. I don’t want to have to go searching for you as well as the stolen goods. I’ll just go behind those trees and see if there’s a beach shack hidden there.”
After Owen left in the direction of the tea trees, I skirted around the scrub. Of course, it would be impossible to see if anyone had walked this way, given that it was sandy, so any tracks would be hidden. I couldn’t see anything at all. I walked around in circles, keeping my eyes on the last clump of tea trees as a point of reference.
I looked up; Owen was certainly taking his time. I wondered if he had found something. I turned my attention back to the ground and made yet another circle, and that’s when I saw it. The shovel.
It was lying flat on the ground, but I could see an area next to it that had recently been dug up. I dropped to my knees and felt around with my hands for a bit. I uncovered what looked like a canvas bag close to the surface. The stolen goods!
I stood up. “Owen, I found it!” I called out as loudly as I could in the direction of the trees.
I looked back down at the sand. There was a large area that had recently been dug up. It seemed to me it was sufficiently large to stash a considerable amount of loot, and the ground was quite soft. It had been clever of Marius. No one ever walked this way—people walked their dogs along the beach and didn’t venture across into the sand dunes. They led nowhere and were largely impassable.
Where was Owen? I cupped my hands around my mouth, and called again. “Owen, I found it!”
Then it dawned on me. The man my aunts held captive should be considered missing, as far as the townspeople knew, but there had been no report of a missing person. The only person who appeared to be absent was Ethan Carteron.
I turned around to flee. I saw a flash of brown, and then I saw it, right next to my bare leg. It was an Eastern Brown snake, the second most deadly snake in the whole world, a big one, longer than the shovel next to it. I could see its underbelly, the distinctive orange-pink markings. In a flash, I realised I could see those markings because it was striking at me.
The next thing I knew, I was standing on the other side of the clearing. I gasped. This speed must be a latent vampire power that had been helped along by the Witches’ Brew. I had seen my aunts move swiftly like this, but I hadn’t imagined that I myself would be able to do it. And just as well, too. I didn’t know if snakes could kill vampires, but I figured a bite from a deadly snake wouldn’t do me any good.
I turned around, and there, only inches from my eyes, was a huge hairy chest. I looked up into the face of a Yowie.
The next thing I remembered was waking up in a dark room. I had a moment of blind panic, thinking I was in a coffin. I lifted my hands above my head, and to my relief, I didn’t touch anything. I felt along the wall beside me. It seemed to be brick, and was damp. The unmistakeable scent of mould hung in the air and tickled my nose.
I felt the floor and realised it was concrete. I pulled myself to my feet, and peered into the surrounding gloom.
What had happened to me?
My head was so sore that I figured the Yowie had hit me over the head with something, probably his meaty fist. Tentatively, I felt my scalp, and there was a sizeable lump. It felt ghastly, all spongy, and was painful to touch.
The Yowie had obviously brought me here, but for what purpose? What did it intend to do with me? Had it hurt Owen, or was he the Yowie?
Still, there was no time to feel sorry for myself; I had to find a way of escape. I debated whether to feel around the walls or just sit there and wait for help, but what help could possibly come when no one knew where I was? If Owen wasn’t the Yowie, then my aunts would find the note and come looking for me.
I only hoped my aunts would find me soon.
I edged a little further away from my original position. Where was this? Was it a basement? We rarely had basements in Australia. I didn’t think I was on a boat, because there was no rocking at all. No, I must be in a basement, or a cellar. Yes, that was more like it, a wine cellar. Could I be at the winery? And if so, did that mean Lucas O’Callaghan was the Shifter, after all? And what did he intend to do with me?
I didn’t have long to wait until my eyes adjusted. It made me think it was probably a vampire ability, an ability to see in the dark.
It wasn’t a wine cellar after all; it was a small room with, as I’d guessed, brick walls and a concrete floor. Cartons lay carelessly tossed to one side, covered with cobwebs and dust. A huge huntsman spider ran up the wall, close to me. I recoiled and jumped away, and then tripped over something at my feet.
I looked down and was horrified to see a body.
I bent down, and could make out Linda’s features. Blood was trickling from her hair. I held my breath for what seemed like an age, patting her cheek, lightly at first, and then harder. “Linda, are you okay?” I said over and over again.
She groaned, and her eyelids flickered.
“Thank goodness!” I said aloud.
“Pepper? What happened?” She tried to sit up.
I restrained her. “Linda, lie down. Your head’s bleeding. Stay still, you might have concussion.”
“What happened?” she said again.
“Someone hit me on the head, too. I have a huge lump.” I touched it once more, and then drew my fingers away, looking for blood. There wasn’t any, but it still hurt horribly. “We’re locked in some sort of cellar. I didn’t see him, but I’m pretty sure it was Owen.”
“Owen.” Her voice was weak.
I nodded, but then realised she couldn’t see me.
“Owen was the last person I saw before I was hit,” she said.
I was right, after all. Owen was a Shifter, and my aunts had capt
ured his accomplice brother.
I looked round for something that could act as a pillow, but came up blank. I figured it would probably be covered with red back spiders, anyway. Linda once more struggled to sit up. “Are you sure you shouldn’t lie down?”
“No,” she said, her voice stronger.
I helped her sit against a wall. “Do you remember what happened to you?”
She groaned, but then answered readily enough. “I called the winery to ask if I could visit, but they said they were shut to the public for a while. I told them I was an old friend of Henry’s, so they said I could visit.”
Her voice degenerated into a coughing fit. “I’m afraid I don’t have a bottle of water or anything,” I said. “Don’t try to talk.”
“It’s okay. I was supposed to go tomorrow because they were understaffed today, but I got impatient and drove out there. I caught the sergeant lighting the fire, but he saw me, too.”
“What happened then?”
“I don’t remember. I just remember waking up here, and I was relieved he hadn’t killed me.”
Not yet, I thought. Aloud I said, “Maybe he wants information from us?”
Linda faded out of consciousness.
The door rattled. I knew I was about to come face-to-face with my attacker.
Chapter 21
I pushed myself back against the wall, afraid. If only I could remember how I had moved swiftly when the snake struck, because that was a good defensive move. The only thing was, I hadn’t done it deliberately.
I saw to my dismay that the door was heavy and barred. Worse still, my captor was standing on the other side.
“Owen! Why did you lock me in here?”
“Where’s my brother?” he snapped. He seemed an entirely different person, menacing, brooding. His expression was ominous.
“Your brother?” I said, doing my best to sound puzzled.
“Don’t play dumb with me. I know you vampires have my brother captive.”
