“What’s wrong?” asked Ari.
“Fatigue,” said Lea, steering Chris over to his bed and plumping him down. “It can happen when the magic within is stretched. You accomplished a lot today, moving all of us so far; you need to rest.”
“He’ll be alright though?” asked Ari, looking at Chris.
“I lent him power,” said Lea, “but that spell will be diminishing now, so he might be feeling the weight of the ferrying. He’ll be fine; he just needs to rest.”
Chris looked as if he was going to argue, but then Ari moved over to Lea and said, “Ok, well Chris can stay here and rest while we go to the library, and,” said Ari, seeing the look on Lea’s face, “please don’t fight me on this. I have made up my mind. I don’t care what my destiny is… nothing is going to stop me from helping Sandra. Your gran said that it was my decision, choosing between good and evil. I know that helping Sandra is the right thing to do.”
Lea was still looking worried when she and Ari raced from Chris’s room and towards the Pasteur art library. Ari had never been in it before, having only ever used the biological science library to study in. The library was on the opposite side of the campus, close to the administration services building and near where the school’s vet clinic was. It was an enormous triple level building, old and worn looking, yet with the same magnificent columns that supported the vampire library. When they reached the library, Ari frowned.
“It’s shut,” said Ari, glaring at the hours of operation; the library closed at midnight, two hours ago.
Lea too looked irritated at their timing and began to inch around the building, finally shaking her head as she said, “Not even a window left open.”
“So, what now? We can’t wait until it reopens tomorrow. That will be too late.”
“Now we have a serious problem,” said Lea. “We can’t ferry inside; Chris is far too weak, and we can’t break the door down because that will alert security. What we need is to do a pulling spell.”
“So do the damn spell.”
“It’s not that simple. Pulling is like a special skill; not every witch can do it. You have to be born able to do it… it’s kind of like being double jointed.”
“So what do we do?” asked Ari.
“Fortunately I know someone who can pull. Unfortunately it’s Emily’s best friend, Belinda. You remember Emily… as in Emily that you attacked and who thinks I am shacked up with vamps and so isn’t talking to me anymore,” said Lea.
“Crap. Couldn’t you just call her and get her to come here; then we could explain that-”
“-that, what? We need her help to pull an ancient witch hunting text so that we can reverse the blood hunter curse and save a vampire that has been kidnapped? Don’t you get it; witches don’t help vampires. And even if she didn’t know that we needed her help for that, I already told you. No one in the circle is talking to me.”
“You have to try,” said Ari, reaching for Lea.
Lea shook her head but reached for her phone, sighing loudly as she scrolled through her contacts list and finally sent a message.
It was fifteen minutes before there was any form of a response from Belinda. Finally from the shadows a girl emerged. She was short and plump, with a round face and high cheek bones, and an almost non-existent chin.
“What’s the big emergency? Do you have any idea how busy the circle is right now? Two more humans went missing this week from campus. We’ve tried scribing… hell, everything, but we can’t find them anywhere. If anyone in the circle knew I was…” the girl started to say, though she stopped talking abruptly when she realised that Ari was there. “Who’s that?”
“Ari is a friend,” said Lea. “Look… I need your help Belinda. There’s a book inside, ‘Malleus Maleficarum’; have you heard of it?”
Belinda nodded dumbly saying, “Of course I have heard of it. Half my ancestors were killed because of that book.”
“It’s kept on the third level, in the reference section in a locked glass cabinet,” explained Lea.
Belinda looked at Ari, fanning silliness as she said, “So, what do you want me to do about it?”
“I need you to pull it,” said Lea, just as Belinda hissed and glared at Ari. “It’s ok,” Lea added, “Ari knows about us; she is one of us.”
At this Ari’s jaw dropped and she moved hesitantly on the spot; how could Lea tell Belinda that? This thought barely left Ari, when she realised that Belinda must be feeling exactly the same. It seemed that now was not the time to keep secrets.
Apparently Belinda hadn’t come to this conclusion yet; she was still looking sceptically at Ari. Clearly Belinda didn’t trust her at all and wasn’t going to help them, not without proof. Ari needed to demonstrate to the girl that she wasn’t just anybody… that she had powers too. Without bothering to consider the consequences, Ari threw her hands up and stopped time. She then moved behind Belinda and, waiting until her freeze wore off, tapped the girl on the shoulder.
“Believe me now?” Lea asked, smiling at the shocked look on Belinda’s face.
“Ok,” said Belinda, “but why do you need it? I am not supposed to help you. Emily says that you are under vampire control.”
“Belinda,” Lea said sternly, “when you told me that you needed to find that certain person, did I ask why?”
Ari looked confused, but Belinda seemed to know what Lea was talking about and sighed audibly, finally shaking her head.
“Look,” said Lea, beginning to unbutton her jacket, “do you want me to remove all of my clothing so that you can strip search me for bite marks? I am not under vampire control. Emily doesn’t understand what she walked in on the other night. The vamps were helping me to save a girl. If it weren’t for them that girl would be dead right now. One of the vampires there gave up his own blood for a leeching spell. It almost killed him, but he did it.”
Belinda frowned but finally shook her head and said, “Well, after this we’re even.”
Belinda moved to the pebble walk way and sat down, cross legged. She then retrieved a small purple purse from her pocket and spilled the contents on the ground in front of her. At first Ari had thought that the purse contained non-descript items, typical of what a young woman would carry; lip gloss, a packet of chewing gum, nail file and the likes. It wasn’t until she noticed the haze surrounding the objects, that she understood they were something entirely different. Blinking so as to bring the curious items into focus, Ari saw that they had changed. Now there was a small pointed purple crystal, a compass, mirror and silver dagger.
“What the?” said Ari, but Belinda didn’t stop to explain; she was whispering furiously under her breath, mumbling something that Ari couldn’t understand.
Belinda then took the dagger and sliced the inside of her palm, then, taking the purple purse, which had now morphed into a pouch, used it to wipe the blood away.
“Malleus Maleficarum,” Belinda said clearly, before placing the purple crystal inside the pouch and then the compass on top of it. “Point me,” she added, spinning the needle on the compass.
For an entire minute the compass continued to spin, changing direction, this way and that. When it finally began to slow, Belinda looked down into the small mirror. There was a book in the reflection. Smiling grimly, Belinda took the mirror and smashed it, causing Ari to jump in fright. At the same time the small purple pouch was expanding, until it was large enough for Belinda to fit her hand into it, which she did. For a moment she seemed to struggle with the contents, as if she were trying to pull something heavy out of the pouch. Sweat beads were forming on her brow and she bit her bottom lip, clearly struggling to retrieve the contents. Finally she breathed a sigh of relief, and pulled from the pouch a small rectangular book.
“Thanks,” said Lea, squatting down next to Belinda.
“This means we’re even,” said Belinda, catching Lea’s hand as she reached for the book.
“Even,” said Lea, “and thanks. Maybe I even owe you one.”
&n
bsp; Belinda smiled, reached down for the remaining items, which had now morphed back into the harmless objects they had first appeared as, and stood.
“See you around,” she said, placing the purse back into her pocket and then striding away; halfway along the path she spun around. “You know, the circle would forgive you if you just explained what happened. We need your help.”
Lea looked as if she wanted to reply but simply waved goodbye, watching as Belinda disappeared into the darkness. At the same time, Ari couldn’t help but wonder what Belinda was talking about; humans disappearing? Lea’s gran had mentioned it as well. Ari shook her head determinedly; she didn’t have time to worry about that now.
Ari moved eagerly over to Lea and stared down at the book Belinda had pulled. It had black loopy writing on the front cover, as well as a strange four sided symbol surrounding a star.
“Malleus Maleficarum- The hammer of the witches. Seventh Cologne edition 1520,” read Lea, holding the book out for Ari to inspect.
“This is great,” said Ari, beaming up at Lea. “Ok, you go back and check on Chris, then try to work out how to reverse the curse. I’m going to tell Ragon that we can reverse the curse-”
“-you can’t tell him any of this,” Lea said sharply, and Ari looked down sheepishly at her feet; she knew the binding spell Lea had performed would prevent her from giving Ragon all the details, but she hoped she might at least be able to give him a little hope.
“I promise I won’t tell him,” she said, racing away to Cruor halls, then turning back around she yelled, “it’s not like I can anyway.”
When Ari reached Ragon’s room, she knocked and waited. There was no answer so she gently prised the door open and to her surprise found Thomas. He was sitting at Ragon’s desk, his head in his hands.
“Where’s Ragon?” she asked, looking around hopefully.
“With Clyde; they are trying to convince the waeres to help but I don’t like our chances,” he said, a miserable expression on his face. “And the rest of the coven is trying to gather intel on who the blood hunter could be.”
“Are you ok?” she asked, then immediately felt stupid.
No; of course Thomas wasn’t alright; the person he loved more than anyone else was being held prisoner by a near invincible foe.
“Trust me,” said Ari, reaching out a hand to touch Thomas lightly on the shoulder. “We are going to get her back. I think I have found something that will-”
But Ari was cut off when Thomas stood, moving over to the window and looking out mournfully at the night sky.
“It’s funny… time. It passes us by so differently; though you might know that better than us immortals,” he added, looking at Ari.
“Um…”
“You know, when I first met Sandra, I had been a vampire for almost seven hundred years,” he said, reaching for the familiar cross pendant underneath his shirt.
“I didn’t know that.”
“This cross was given to me by someone I respected; a man who changed the world. I wear it because it acts as a constant reminded that with great sacrifice comes great hope,” he said, showing Ari the cross. “It’s odd, the man who worked the metal to make this pendant, was crucified on one also.”
Ari’s mouth fell open. The words crucified and cross… but did that mean?
“Are you talking about Jesus?” asked Ari, looking up at Thomas in surprise.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own two eyes; the man you call Christ was friend to a monster. He even allowed me to write in his great book. He was the one who taught me value in life, and he was the one who despite my infliction, granted me penance for acting as a disciple. It took me a long time to learn that; no wonder he called me doubting Thomas.”
“Are you saying that of the twelve apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke… you’re that Thomas?” asked Ari, recalling her Sunday school lessons at the Grace Valley orphanage. “Um, so you believe in God?”
“He sure as hell believed in me; he was a man when I knew him, but I have seen more than most; nothing is impossible! You know Sandra told me once, that when she first met me she knew that I could never hurt her. She said that she could sense it. From that day on, whether it was true or not, I always thought that she was right… until now.”
“Thomas,” said Ari, sighing deeply, “this isn’t your fault.”
“Unfortunately it is and now I must bear my cross. I knew when I turned Victoria that I was creating a blood line.”
“But… why did you turn her then?” Ari asked curiously, and not for the first time she wondered just what Victoria meant to him.
“It was a long time ago. When I was made into a vampire, I left a family behind; I had a wife and a daughter called Rena. I watched them for their lifetime; watched as my daughter grew into a woman and bore children of her own. I was determined not to bring them into my darkness. I was afraid for them and so contented my existence with ensuring that my line lived on, though I alone would feel the sting of their mortality,” he said. “I was able to keep them safe in a world very different to the one we live in now; that is until my great, great, grandson had a daughter. The moment she was born I was reminded of Rena; they had the same heart shaped face and strawberry blonde hair, with tiny freckles lining their nose and cheeks. Her name was Victoria. When she was in her thirty-third year of life she became sick. We were in Europe and it was 1338 when the ‘black death’ swept through the lands. The plague took many lives, but I was only concerned with one- Victoria’s.”
Ari held her breath; she thought she knew what was coming next.
“At the time I was the patron and priest of a small church just outside of Venice. Back then the only hope for the inflicted was prayer, and so Victoria’s father took her to me. He did not know of my relationship to his family; he saw me only as a priest. The illness came quickly for Victoria and by the fourth day she was almost dead. Never had I seen a man more grievous than her father. He begged me to help her, pleaded with God to spare her, but she continued to worsen. When I knew the end was near, I took her into confession; she could barely breathe let alone talk, but I wanted to make sure she did not suffer. And so when I went to end her pain, she looked at me… and… I saw Rena. I couldn’t do it. It was then that I turned her and she became a vampire and my fledgling. For the longest time I hated myself for inflicting my line with vampirism. I had sworn never to turn a mortal, and I had just done so to the one person I loved most in the world. I believe in fate, which is why I know that this, Sandra being taken by a Blood Hunter, is happening because of me.”
“But there is a chance that any fledgling can become a blood hunter,” said Ari, hoping to shift some of Thomas’s guilt.
“Exactly, which is why after Victoria I promised myself that I would never make another vampire again,” Thomas said. “But when I found Sandra,” he added, smiling weakly for the first time, “it was as if history was repeating itself all over; I couldn’t let her die. She never knew it, but I was the priest who presided over her and her husband’s wedding. Before God I wed her to a monster. I knew it. So when the Naztechs came to burn John’s estate, I knew I had to save her. My weakness is the reason why she is suffering now.”
“That’s not true,” said Ari, before glancing down at her phone and realising that it was almost 3am; she needed to get back to Lea and Chris, and help them to break the blood hunter curse. “Look, Thomas, I have to go,” she added, suddenly moving over to the door. “But none of this is your fault. You gave Victoria many, many more years than God would have… and you will give Sandra many more to come.”
As Ari rushed back to Omega halls, her mind was reeling from the story Thomas had told her. She still couldn’t quite believe that he was biblical, literally, although now that she thought about it, it did make sense. She remembered the first time that she had seen Thomas kill a man, when they were in Australia. He had been saddened by the loss of life and spoke of how precious it was, even going to the extremes of t
attooing the man’s name on his flesh in penance. There had been other names there too, names that Ari recognised- Victoria Hardings and Sandra Wood. Now Ari understood why Thomas was so troubled when Victoria went missing. She wasn’t just a fledgling to him; she was his kin, almost like his daughter.
When Ari finally reached Chris’s room, she saw Lea sitting on the floor cross legged, flipping frantically through the ancient witch hunting book. Chris was slumped in his bed, still looking miserable.
“Have you found anything yet?” asked Ari, moving to sit next to Lea.
Lea, whose nose was turned up at an image of a woman being tortured on a rack, looked up at Ari and shook her head.
“We might have, if control freak over there would let me help,” said Chris.
“You’re not well,” said Lea, turning to stare at Chris incredulously. “The magic you did tonight, it doesn’t come without consequences. I may have helped you but you took most of the load on yourself. You can’t just ferry three people half way across the world and not expect there to be consequences. You need to rest.”
Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) Page 43
