Charlotte weighed the decision to jump, freezing for a moment as she clung to the walls. Looking down, she tried to gauge through the darkness how much farther she had to go. There wasn’t much choice. If she didn’t move, they’d catch her for sure. Her heart slammed hard in her ears as she made the snap decision to push herself from the wall with her arms and legs stretched out, scraping through the dirt. Clods of earth and tree roots collapsed from the sides of the tunnel down around her, only slightly slowing her fall as she plummeted.
Something crashed hard into her from the bottom, causing her to collapse and tumble down through a different, much less steep, tunnel. Charlotte saw nothing as she rolled, various parts of her body bumping against stones packed in the floor, until she found herself suddenly stopped and sitting completely upright with her legs straight out in front of her, battered and sweaty.
It took a moment for her head to stop spinning. She shut her eyes tight, burying her face in her knees to recover from her disoriented state more quickly. Finally, the sick, swimming motion stopped and Charlotte stood, gazing forward down the abyss.
“Hello?” The only sound that answered her was the sound of water dripping over stones. Here, the hole was less soft dirt and more cavernous rock.
This tunnel was dismal. Dreary. It seemed entirely black and gray in the dense shadows as her eyes began to adjust. Enormous patches of glimmering silken spider webs clung to the corners of the tunnel, and at least it was wide enough for her to stand up.
Charlotte began forward again, the stuff not failing to cling to her, especially to the material of her dress. She tried to pull it off, though it stretched relentlessly as it stuck to the palm of her hand. Desperately, she wiped it off anywhere she could, which only made matters worse. And what was more, in the dim light of the long cave, Charlotte could make out a few dozen tiny long-legged spiders crawling up out of the web material. She let out a stifled shriek and tried to shake the creatures off. Quickly giving up, she proceeded, remembering the need to escape quickly.
Leaning forward, she strained her eyes to see farther down the long passage. She continued on, though absolutely nothing about it seemed familiar. Where was this taking her? Glancing behind herself, Charlotte found that the curve up the tunnel to her forest above had disappeared and she was now gazing down an infinite opposite direction. This was impossible! It was as if this tunnel were an enchanted maze, changing each time she turned her back.
She had no other choice but to press forward, so she did.
Dirt crumbled from the ceiling of the passage down over her, and she decided it was only a matter of time before the entire thing caved in. Perhaps she should pinch herself in the event she was experiencing another nightmare. She might wake up in the bed with Lusian looming over her again.
“Třínožka!” she called out as she continued to put one foot in front of the other. “Mr. Třínožka! Where are you?” Another massive clump of dirt collapsed over her head and she coughed out the bit that had gotten in her mouth. She rubbed the stuff out of her eyes and glanced over her shoulder again. “Edwin!” Jorge had been wrong. There was no way she could do this alone.
A new thought appeared in her mind, the little whistle glimmering under her grasp in the lack of light. She pulled the thing up on its chain, looking wondrously in front of her and wondered exactly what would happen. She pressed the tip of it to her lips and blew, the familiar, musical sound emanating all around her. It seemed to travel limitlessly down the long dark space. It twinkled its enchanted note until it eventually faded. And Charlotte waited.
“Charlotte?” A familiar, velvety voice called out to her. “Where are you, girl?”
Charlotte gasped and glanced behind herself instantly upon hearing that voice. Lusian was coming after her. Her heart jump-started in her chest. If she wanted to escape, it was time to run. However, now that he was hot on her trail, running would be an attempt in futility.
But she reared herself anyway, stumbling forward before breaking into a desperate sprint, ducking under more thick clouds of webbing. Her breath caught in her throat as she pushed herself though the darkness, not glancing even once behind herself. She didn’t want to look. She couldn’t, in fear that she would find him just behind her, reaching to drag her back to that hell again. She would fight it to her death.
“Charlotte,” the menacing voice called out for her again. “I can smell you, Charlotte. There is no point in running!” A glass-breaking laughter shattered her eardrums from down the hollow tunnel. The feeling of fear scraping itself up the length of her spinal cord felt like the very tips of his icy talons. It sucked the air right out of her chest and she found herself drowning in the chase.
“Leave me alone!” Reaching up to the earth-packed walls, she tore down clods of dirt with her fingernails to try and create more obstacles for him. Another useless attempt, she knew. Living with this mortal limitation was growing more difficult by the moment. However, she could at least tell she was headed in the right direction. Various trinkets began to scatter the ground and she found herself tripping over teapots and clock gears.
“Help! Mr. Třínožka!” He couldn’t be very far ahead.
“You’ve been a very very naughty young lady, Lottie.” The beastly voice was almost a growl in her ear now.
She gasped, the air burning in her lungs. Thinking quickly, Charlotte grabbed onto the nearest thing by her feet. It was a large metal car wheel from decades ago. Immediately, she pivoted to find herself nose to nose with Lusian, his grin wide and dragon-like.
“I’ve got you now.” His black eyes shimmered with some faint undercurrent of a red glow.
Shrieking, Charlotte slammed the metal wheel over Lusian’s head, the thing catching around his neck, seeing in the darkness that she had disfigured his face with the jagged spokes. Dark blood rippled down from the deep slices in his skin, and even though the details of his face were difficult to make out, it looked to her like the winding metal had permanently blinded him. A gasp caught in her throat as she released the wheel, stumbling backward. Tears welled in her eyes as the demon before her wailed in pain, grappling to pull the wheel up from around his neck. She was a dead woman.
“Charlotte!” A new voice rang out, this time before her. “Run, girly! Hurry!”
“Mr. Třínožka!” she cried.
“Here!” His calls sounded weathered and exhausted, though he somehow still sounded as cheery as he always did. The spider always knew when to appear, right in the nick of time. “Run toward my voice, Charlotte! Faster! He’s just behind you!”
She yelped, for she could see nothing—feel nothing—in the darkness. But she didn’t dare stop.
“D-d-d-danger,” she heard Edwin’s voice sputter.
“I know, Edwin! Can it!”
Finally, she slammed hard into something massive, but didn’t even have time to fall backward from the impact as an enormous hand plucked her from the ground. They were already running again before she could think, starting to bullet further down the tunnel. The giant hand placed her somewhere she guessed was atop his back. She clung as tightly as she could to the material of his scarf.
“Not to worry, darlin’. I’ll have ya outta here in a jiffy.”
“What happened to you? Where do we go from here?” she called up to him over the rush.
“We w-w-were trapped down here –forced to d-dig our way out!” Edwin’s call answered hers.
“Right! After that idiot hog-tied us and sealed my confounded door shut!” Mr. Třínožka concluded.
“He’s h-hot on our t-trail!” Edwin warned.
Charlotte could still see nothing.
“Don’t worry yer heads! I’ve got an idea!” the Shifter declared proudly.
“Those last four words always mean something d-dangerous.” Edwin grumbled.
“Hold on tight, kids!”
Charlotte shut her eyes as he leapt upward, thick chunks of packed dirt plummeting down around them. She kept her face pressed tightly t
o his back so no more of it could get in her mouth, however, he hair was absolutely caked with soil and bedrock.
At once, there was light, and as she opened her eyes, she found they were running through the dense Bohemian woods just as dawn was bursting through the gray clouds. Charlotte straightened. It had been so long since she had been outdoors, let alone seen the sun. So accustomed to the stifling smell of her own, drying blood in Valek’s stuffy bedroom and unable to control her excitement, she leaned forward and sucked in a huge breath of the fresh, wintry air.
“We’ve l-lost him!”
He’d be back. Charlotte had the feeling.
“Huzzah!” Mr. Třínožka bellowed. The giant spider slowed to a halt and pulled Charlotte from his back. As soon as her feet gently touched the ground, she ran to him anyway, wrapping her arms around one of his front legs.
“Thank you! It’s so wonderful to see you alive.”
“Thought I was a gonner, eh?” He chuckled.
Edwin slid easily out from the front of Mr. Třínožka’s vest and ran to Charlotte as well. “But not n-nearly as m-much as we thought you w-were a gonner, Ch-charlotte.” He pulled her out of his tight embrace but continued to keep his hands grasped firmly around her shoulders. “W-we overheard all of the ar-arguing before V-valek left. Among some other things.” His eyes narrowed at her. “What’s happened to y-you?”
“Oh,” A wave of heat enveloped the apples of her cheeks as her blood rushed to her face. She looked down at herself and was reminded of the feebleness. The weakness. The very things she swore to herself she would overcome. “I’ll be fine. I only just lost myself for a minute.” Her gaze locked with Edwin’s concerned one again. “I’ll be fine. I swear it.”
“We’re taking you to Valek,” Mr. Třínožka interrupted.
Charlotte’s gaze shot to his face as he said this, her mouth falling open. “Really?” She stopped again and thought about that. She crossed her arms over her chest. She couldn’t shake the bitterness. However, all she wanted was for Valek to appear in that clearing—to just be pointed in his direction and she would start running. She knew she should be angry, and for a slight moment upon hearing his name, she was.
Something moved in her periphery, then. Though she heard Edwin continue to try and explain how he and the spider struggled to fight off Lusian, the next thing her eyes met caused the entire rest of the world to disappear into the background. It was as if she had gone blind to the world around her. The rest of the forest seemed to blur into the background, because all she could see was his glorious silhouette waiting for her just up ahead, his long, graceful form leaned up against the trunk of a tall birch. But she didn’t understand. Had Mr. Třínožka known Valek would be waiting there for her? She didn’t care. Her legs began moving even before she told them to.
“Valek!” she cried and bolted desperately forward into a sprint again. She could see his tall, shadowed form just on the edge of a sun-soaked clearing. “Valek! I’m here!” All of the bitterness she harbored against him for leaving, all of the anger completely subsided when she saw him.
She ran to him, throwing herself against him, at long last feeling his arms around her. Finally, she thought, I am never letting you leave my sight again.
“Charlotte, n-n-n-no!” She heard Edwin call from somewhere behind her.
“Who is Valek?” an unfamiliar voice asked down at her.
Abruptly, Charlotte backed away, though the strange boy continued to hold her by the wrist. Her heart sank. Looking up into his face, she found he was not at all the person she thought he was. Now that she was close enough, she could see he was definitely not her beloved guardian, though his facial features and the length of his body were eerily similar. And what was more, he wasn’t even like Valek…or so it seemed. In fact, she didn’t think he was magical at all. Charlotte was staring face to face with another human, with Edwin and Mr. Třínožka, two monsters from the Occult, not too far behind.
Uh oh….
A screech sounded suddenly somewhere above them, and before she could look to see what creature had created it, a falcon swooped down from one of the trees and landed obediently on the boy’s shoulder. She continued to stare are him, mouth gaping.
With questions in his eyes, the boy stared back at her. Those eyes were the same crystalline color as the rest of her strange Vampire family, though they were not as ungodly illuminated. She frowned, noticing they were just a mere beautiful normal blue. His jaw clenched into an intense sort of grimace, as if he were fighting himself over some impulse, a strange and angry line forming between his eyebrows. It made Charlotte take another step back.
Her heart slid up into her throat when she realized his grasp was still around her wrist, the touch of his skin warm on hers. He wouldn’t release her. The hair on the back of her neck lifted, her lips parting. She could feel her scar begin to throb at the side of her neck again. Oh God, she thought, it was starting to happen again. She winced. But why was it happening in the presence of a human? Was he a Vampire? She was so confused.
Finally, he released her.
“Hello….”
“I apologize.” Shyly, she dropped her gaze. Again, all of the sounds of the forest disappeared and the only things she could hear were the sounds of her own frantic pulse and her static breathing. “I thought –I thought you were someone else.” Nervously, Charlotte took another step backward, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.
She guessed he was around twenty or so. Such familiar features, she thought. The same square jaw line. The same chiseled cheekbones. But his complexion was just a normal pale. His hair was cropped short, bangs feathered over to one side. And he wore rather beat-up looking plaid and a torn pair of jeans. He looked like any one of the victims she would have brought home for Valek, though she probably would have ended up developing a crush on this one.
“It doesn’t matter.” He shrugged, though he continued to stare at her quizzically, with those dark eyebrows mashed together at the center. He looked at her like Valek did when she had done something that confused him –like he was searching for something. There was also something sort of…sad about him.
“I’m Nikolai.” He offered his hand to her.
“Ch-charlotte!” Edwin and Mr. Třínožka slid up behind her simultaneously. The strange boy didn’t seem at all affected by them. What kind of magic was this? He could not have been any normal person. Any normal person would have run away screaming.
She glanced over her shoulder a moment to see them studying the boy as well. When Edwin didn’t seem to nervously combust as a result of any sort of impending danger, Charlotte turned back to Nikolai and finally shook his hand.
“I’m Charlotte.” She froze a bit when his skin met hers again. Her scar instantly reacted and she retracted her hand.
Again, the falcon at Nikolai’s shoulder cawed at her and cocked his head.
“This is…Ears.” Nikolai gestured to the winged beast as it continued to stare at Charlotte like it was about to fly at her and peck her eyes out. She hated birds.
“Ears?” Charlotte lifted her eyebrow at the same time Ears cocked his head at Nikolai as if also wondering why on earth that would be his name.
“What brings you about these here woods, Nikolai?” Charlotte could hear the skepticism in Mr. Třínožka’s voice from behind her.
Nikolai shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing down for a moment. Charlotte’s breath caught in her throat. Even his mannerisms were weirdly similar. She hadn’t been so far off in believing for a moment he was Valek.
“Actually, I’m not sure,” he began. “I just sort of found myself here after wandering around for days.” He sounded tired. Vexed. He looked boldly into her eyes. Charlotte frowned at him again, her heart thundering hard against her sternum. “I don’t remember much. My family was murdered in the night. The attack was the last thing I remember before waking up…somewhere else. And now I really don’t know what I am.” Scouring the trees, his gaze flashed to Charlott
e again.
“I’m not sure if…I know what you mean.”
“Well…I can do this….” Closing his eyes, a new bout of wind ruffled his hair before there was a zap of energy and he was gone, leaving the bird floundering around in the air without him, screeching in surprise. Charlotte gasped, searching until she felt something tap her shoulder and she whirled around to see him standing behind her, a dimpled grin on his face.
“Good show!” cheered Třínožka.
“So…you’re not human?” Charlotte breathed.
Nikolai shrugged, Ears perching on his shoulder again. “I don’t think your run-of-the-mill human can do that.”
She considered that. “No. I suppose you’re right.”
“You d-d-don’t remember h-how ya got here?”
Nikolai mashed his lips together. “I remember being attacked. I have these abilities, but I still get tired. Hungry.” He quickly reached into his shirt pocket. Charlotte backed away at the abruptness of his movement, but he froze with wide eyes on her, and proceeded to move more cautiously. He pulled out a hunk of bread. “See?” He offered. “I eat…normal things. Here,” he held it to her, “Looks like you can use this more than me.”
Charlotte took it from him and quickly tore into it, not having eaten anything solid in days. “Perhaps, you’re a warlock.”
Nikolai chuckled like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. She frowned. “I don’t know. To be truthful, I don’t really understand all the rules yet. When I finally opened my eyes after believing I was dead, I was in a place unlike anywhere I’ve ever seen. It was so strange.” He leaned his back against the trunk of the nearest tree as though he really was exhausted. “I didn’t know if I was in hell, or if somehow…I was on a different plain.” Absently, he stroked Ears’ wings, causing the intimidating bird to coo softly.
Of Blood and Magic Page 36
