Chosen (Book #4 of the Vampire Legends) (5 page)

“Well?” the first
guy repeated. “What are you doing up here?”

“I, um, um, um”
Rachel began to stutter.

“You um what?”
the second guy asked again. “You shouldn’t be up here. Who let you upstairs?”

Rachel didn’t
know how to answer this.

“I, um, just let
myself up. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Of course you
knew,” the first guy said. “If you didn’t know then how would you have found
the book?”

Rachel was
stunned. She was caught with no alibi.

“I was just
looking for something,” she said back.

“We know exactly
what you were doing. You’re looking for the Red Amulet. Well, guess what,
you’ll never find it,” the second guy said knowingly. “It’s not in your coven
anymore—it’s in ours.”

Rachel could see
that they were angry and didn’t know what was going to happen next. The two
guys started to walk towards her as if they were part of a marching band in a
rhythmic pattern. She felt scared by this.

As they were
closing in on her she realized there was nowhere for her to go. Then, one guy
leapt towards her and grabbed her by the neck, forcing her to the ground.

“Do you know what
happens to people who see our coven book?” the guy said as his face turned
bright red with rage.

Before she could
answer he began to speak again. “We don’t let you go.”

Rachel felt
panicked. She knew that she was going to die right then and there in that room.
She said a quick prayer and then opened her eyes to see that both guys were
hovering over her, their fangs out as if they were going to bite her. She
didn’t understand what was happening. Were they going to turn her into one of
their members? She couldn’t figure it out but knew she had to do something
fast.

She closed her
eyes and her eyelids began to flutter and her body began to shake. The two guys
backed off of her as her body convulsed uncontrollably in front of the
fireplace. It was working, she was scaring them off using her Mind Control.

Next, she rose
her body straight up and hovered in midair in front of the two guys as she lay
sideways thinking about her next move. Then, quickly, she dropped to her feet,
ran over to the coven book, ripped out the page and then leapt out the open
window and into the air. Before she left though, she sprayed the two guys with
her Narly Potion that came out of her neck and it went right into their eyes.
This potion made them temporarily blind and caused temporary amnesia. She hoped
it would and that she would have gotten away with the Red Amulet page without
being caught or remembered.

Now, the only
thing she had to do was let Hunter and Penelope know somehow that she had
escaped great danger and to leave the house immediately.

Chapter
9

Rachel stood
there, on the ground outside of the house in a deep panic. She didn’t know what
was going to happen to her next. All she knew was that she had just escaped
what could have been the end of her. A tear streamed down her cheek as she
thought about what had just happened. She was devastated at the thought of risking
Benji’s life for her carelessness in this mission to find the Red Amulet. She
replayed the events of finding the coven book over and over in her head and
thought of a dozen things she should have done differently. She was beating
herself up over it.

As she stood
there with the torn out page in her hand, she felt a few raindrops from above.
She looked down at the page and saw that it was getting wet, so she quickly
folded it up and put it into her pants pocket for safety. She didn’t want to
risk having the ink or the pictures smudge. She didn’t know what to do next, and
looked down at her watch: it was half past twelve and she suddenly remembered
that Hunter told her to meet them in the cemetery if they got split up.

She was late.

She knew she had
to get to the cemetery fast if she had any chance of catching them before they
left. She didn’t know how long they’d wait for her but hoped they would still
be there. If not, she’d be alone with the page from the coven book and nobody
to help her read it.

She flew in the
air and hovered over the town. She didn’t know where the cemetery was, so
figured the best way to find out would be a bird's eye view of the place. Then,
she spotted it on the outskirts of town. It was a large cemetery, almost bigger
than the center of town itself, she was surprised to see as she hovered over it
from above. It was as if there were more dead people than living in this town.
The thought of that was eerie to her.

She hovered over
the cemetery looking for signs of life. She was hoping that she’d see Hunter
and Penelope somewhere in the cemetery, even though she was over a half hour
late. She hovered and hovered, but nothing. She didn’t see them anywhere. All
she could see were tombstones and mausoleums erected out of the ground. The air
was cold and dry and the howling of the wind brushed past her as she hovered
there, waiting, watching.

Then as if by
miracle, she saw four red lights coming out of one of the mausoleum. She didn’t
know what it was and flew a bit closer to find out. Then, she spotted them. It
was Hunter and Penelope’s eyes, lighting up the night with their red eyes.

She swooped down
out of the sky and landed right in front of them, giving them a jolt. They
jumped up in the air and screamed. They weren’t expecting her to land in front
of them like that.

Rachel laughed.

“It’s just me,
don’t worry!” Rachel said.

“Where have you
been? We’ve been looking all over for you,” Hunter said.

“You’ve had us
worried sick,” Penelope added. “We thought they captured you.”

“What happened to
you?” Hunter asked.

“It was awful.
They almost got me. I was almost turned into one of them. I was seconds away
from it. I swear,” Rachel answered. “It was terrifying.”

“Are you ok now?”
Hunter asked, looking her over.

“I think so. I
sprayed them with Narly Potion and I think they forgot everything. I think I
got away with it.” Rachel said.

“What did you
find? Did you even find the book?” Penelope asked.

“It took me a
while, but I did. I found it in one of the rooms, which by the way all have
plaid wall paper,” Rachel replied.

Penelope and
Hunter both let out a laugh and Penelope said, “Oops, sorry!”

“But anyway, I
finally found the book. It was magical. The page opened right up to the Red
Amulet. I didn’t have to do anything, it just knew what information I was
after,” Rachel said in amazement. “Did you know that?”

“Yes, I forgot to
mention it,” Hunter said.

“That’s a big
detail to forget, Hunter,” Rachel said.

“I know, totally
slipped my mind though,” Hunter said.

As the stood
there talking, the sky opened up and it began to pour. The three quickly ran
inside the nearest mausoleum to take cover. As they entered the dark, cold
structure Rachel took one whiff of the stale air, and couldn’t help but think
that she was inhaling the scent of dead bodies. The rain was coming down in
sheets and it started to leak inside the mausoleum and drip onto the floor into
a large puddle.

Hunter reached
into his pocket and took out a lighter and lit it so they could see each other.
They stood there, all staring at each other, not knowing what their next move
should be.

“So, what did the
book say?” Penelope started.

“Yeah, tell us
what you found?” Hunter added. “You are our only hope now of saving Benji.”

“I didn’t get a
chance to read it,” Rachel said.

“You what?”
Hunter said. “You didn’t read it?”

“What were you
doing that whole time?” Penelope said.

“Calm down guys,
don’t worry,” Rachel said.

“Don’t worry?
What do you mean don’t worry? You missed your only opportunity to find the Red
Amulet,” Hunter said. “This is my brother’s life you’re playing with.”

“Hunter. Listen
to me. I have it,” Rachel said.

“Have what?”
Hunter asked.

“Before I left I
tore the page out of the coven book. I took it with me.”

“You what?”
Penelope asked.

“I took the page.
I have it with me,” Rachel said, feeling good about herself.

“I can’t believe
you did that!” Hunter said, smiling. “Genius!”

“What do you mean
genius?” Penelope snapped back. “Not genius.”

“Not genius? What
are you talking about Penelope?” Hunter argued.

“Don’t you know
that you can be tracked down if you are in possession of any part of that
book?” Penelope said in fear.

“What do you
mean?” Rachel asked.

“Well, if you
have a page of that book, the coven members can track you down and turn you.
They will find you easily so long as you are carrying that page with you,”
Penelope answered.

 “But, I…I didn’t
know that,” Rachel said, feeling scared.

“Hurry, what
should we do?” Hunter said quickly.

“We have to read
it,” Rachel said. “We have to figure out what it means.”

She reached into
her pocked and took out the folded piece of paper. It crinkled in her hands as
she unfolded it. Pieces of the gold etched drawing started to chip off and fall
to the ground into the wet puddle beneath their feet.

“What does it
say?” Hunter said.

Rachel looked
down at the words and tried to decipher them, but couldn’t.

“It’s in another
language,” Rachel said.

“What language?”
Penelope asked.

“I’m not sure,”
Rachel said. “It looks like ancient Latin to me, but it also is etched with hieroglyphics,
too.”

“What?” Hunter
said. “Let me see.”

Rachel took
another glance at the piece of paper to confirm what she said was accurate and
then handed it over to Hunter for him to look at.

“Wow! Look at
this!” Hunter exclaimed. “I haven’t seen this language in thousands of years.
It’s written in the old Coven Code.”

“Coven Code?”
Rachel asked.

“Yes, it’s
similar to Latin, yet very different at the same time. It is often confused for
Latin, so I see why you thought that,” Hunter said.

“And the
pictures?” Rachel asked. “Are they hieroglyphics?”

“No! That’s part
of the Coven Code as well,” Hunter replied.

“Well what does
it say? I can’t read it?” Rachel asked.

Penelope took one
look at it and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said.

“Hunter, do you
know what it says?” Rachel asked hopefully.

Hunter looked
down and then shook his head, too. “No! I don’t know. It’s so ancient it’s
before my days on this earth. Even though I’ve been around for a long time, it
is still foreign to me,” Hunter said.

“Well, what do we
do now?” Rachel asked.

“What do we do?”
Penelope chimed in.

“Well, let me
see…” Hunter said, scratching his head.

“We have to find
someone who knows how to decipher this code. But who?” Penelope asked.

Rachel waited, in
silence as they all stood around thinking of who might know this ancient Coven
Code.

“Oh! I know!”
said Hunter. “It’s a long shot but I think I know just the people who can read
this for us.”

“Who?” Rachel
asked.

“Who? Who?”
Penelope asked.

“My parents,”
Hunter replied.

“Your parents?”
Rachel asked. “But…”

“I know, that’s
the problem,” Hunter said, cutting her off. “I haven’t spoken to them in many
years.”

“What are we
going to do then?” Penelope asked.

“We have to find
them,” Rachel said. “We have to! For Benji’s sake.”

“I can’t go see
them,” Hunter said, putting his head down.

“What do you mean
you can’t go? You have to go!” Rachel said.

“I can’t,” Hunter
repeated. “I can’t bear it.”

“What happened?”
Rachel asked, with a worried look on her face.

Hunter was silent
and Rachel didn’t want to pry anymore. She knew this could be painful for him,
and didn’t want to push her luck. She didn’t want him to tell her things he
wasn’t comfortable with.

Nobody spoke.

Then after a few
minutes of silence Hunter said, “It’s a long story really, I don’t want to talk
about it.”

“That’s ok, I
respect that,” Rachel said. “But what should we do about the page, is there
anybody else who can read Coven Code?”

“Nobody that I
know of,” Hunter said. “I can’t think of anyone.”

“Me either,”
Penelope added. “I don’t know anyone that old.”

“Well, can I go
ask them?” Rachel asked. “I’ll go alone. They never have to know I was with
you?”

“No, you can’t go
alone. They wouldn’t like that. I will have to go with you. For Benji,” Hunter
said.

“You will?”
Rachel said, with a glimmer of hope. “Really?”

“Yes, I will go,”
Hunter said.

“Can I come,
too?” Penelope asked.

“Yes, of course.
I wouldn’t go without you,” Hunter said, taking her hand.

Rachel folded up
the piece of paper, put it back into her pocket and set off into the night by
air, with Hunter and Penelope by her side. They were off to find his parents to
hopefully find the next clue in locating the Red Amulet.

Chapter
10

Rachel took to
the air like she’d been flying long distance her whole life. She knew this
would be a long trek for her but didn’t let her mind go there; she didn’t want
to discourage herself or doubt her abilities as a vampire. She knew she could
make the trip, she knew she could fly eight hours and didn’t want to jinx
herself.

As she flew up to
the coast of Maine, she was blown away by the sights around her. She never
realized America was so beautiful and lush before. Her wings spread out wide as
she soared over the east coast like a bird in flight. In fact, she noticed many
birds surrounding them as they flew. The air was brisk and cool as they moved
through the air and her body felt cold. She didn’t let it bother her though—she
kept her eye on what really mattered and that was Benji. She didn’t let her own
minor issues get in the way of reaching his parent’s ancestral home.

She couldn’t get
over the natural beauty she was flying over. The tall trees with beautifully
colored fall foliage, the vast grassy fields with cattle and silos, the coast
line with the crashing waves and rocky boarder. She felt inspired by all this
beauty she was seeing and it reminded her of the moment before she jumped off
the cliff with Benji. The jagged rocky coast, the waves crashing up again them
and then, their jump.

“Rachel, are you
ok?” Hunter asked, looking back at her.

Rachel snapped
out of her thoughts and into the present, “Oh me? Yes, I’m fine.”

“Why so slow?”
Hunter asked.

“Oh sorry, never
flown this far before. I feel like I’m flying a marathon!” Rachel answered.

“Don’t worry,
it’s not that much farther,” Hunter said.

Phew! Rachel
thought to herself. Despite the beauty of her surroundings, she was beginning
to feel a bit tired from all the flying. She hoped her wings would continue
keeping up their stamina until they arrived. She didn’t want to just drop out
of the sky like a dead bird. She knew she had to continue.

“So what was your
childhood like in the castle with your parents?” Rachel asked, curiously.

“Well,” Hunter
said. “It was a normal childhood, really. I mean normal to any vampire. I don’t
really know how to explain it.”

“Did you and
Benji get along with your parents?” Rachel asked.

“In the beginning
we did, well I did. I won’t speak for Benji. But we got along for a while,
until we didn’t. Then it got bad,” Hunter replied.

“What do you mean
it got bad?” Rachel asked. “Is that why you didn’t want to come with me?”

“Exactly the
reason. It still hard to talk about, but let’s just say we got into an
argument, and since then haven’t seen eye to eye on anything,” Hunter answered.

“An argument?”
Rachel asked. “Over what?”

Rachel waited for
Hunter to answer, but he remained silent for a few minutes. She could tell by
the look on his face that this conversation was upsetting him and making him
feel uncomfortable.

“It’s a long
story,” Hunter answered.

Rachel decided to
drop that topic and change the subject. “So was it just the five of you in the
house growing up?”

“Well, it was
really just four of us most of the time. My dad was away most days so it was
just my mom, Benji and Matilda,” Hunter answered.

“Did you guys get
along?” Rachel asked. “I mean you and your siblings?”

“Here and there
we’d get into fights, but I think that’s normal for any sibling relationship,”
Hunter said. “You have siblings, did you get along with them 24/7?”

“Me? HA! No way!”
Rachel reMarced. “It’s only been recently that my sister and I get along at
all. She’s always been too cool to talk to me but for some reason after we
moved from Pennsylvania to New York, she started being nicer to me. I don’t
know why, but I’m not complaining. She’s actually a pretty cool person!”

“And how about
your brother?” Hunter asked. “You do have a brother, too right?”

“Yes, Marc. We
kinda get along. He’s younger so we don’t really have much in common. And he’s
a boy, so that draws up apart even further. But he’s OK I guess,” Rachel said.

“See, you
probably feel the same way I felt about my siblings growing up,” Hunter said.
“It’s no different when you’re a vampire.”

“How about your
parents? Did they get along?” Rachel asked.

“What do you
mean?” Hunter asked.

“I mean, did they
argue a lot?” Rachel asked.

“Well, since my
dad was never home my mom would get mad at him often. She hated that he always
left her. I remember that from when I was little. She would always cry to him
that he never did anything and she was the only one who took care of the kids
and the house. She was always in a bad mood of some kind. It was pretty hard
actually. I remember being upset about it,” Hunter said.

“Oh no! I’m sorry
to hear that,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, It’s
pretty sad,” said Penelope. “I feel so bad for Hunter. Poor thing.”

“Don’t worry, it
was long ago. You just asked so I told you,” Hunter said, as if it didn’t
bother him anymore.

“Enough about the
past. We need to talk about what you can expect when we get there,” Hunter
said.

“What to expect?”
Rachel asked confused.

“Yes, I haven’t
been here in many years. I don’t remember the last time I was here actually,
and as I told you I haven’t spoken to my parents in a long time either. I don’t
even know if they will be here anymore. I don’t even know if they live here
still. I haven’t kept up with them,” Hunter said. “It is possible that they
fled during the last war.”

Rachel grew weak
at the thought of what Hunter was saying. She would be beside herself if they
weren’t there. They were the key to Benji’s health and survival and if they’d
moved on, than he was sure to die. She couldn’t bear the thought.

She thought for a
moment, then said, “Do you think they moved? I pray not.”

“Like I said, I
don’t know. I really don’t know the answer to that. I wish I did. To save us
all time, but I don’t,” Hunter said.

“Well what are we
going to do if they’re not there?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah, how will
we find them?” Penelope asked.

“Let’s just wait
and see what happens when we get there. We can’t get discouraged yet,” Hunter
said.

“Fine, let’s just
get there and see,” Rachel repeated. “When will we be there anyway?”

She was feeling
even more exhausted as the flight continued and the thought that it might all
be for nothing. She hated that Hunter just told them his parents might not live
there anymore. She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t.

“We’re almost
there,” Hunter said. “Look! I can see it in the distance!”

Rachel looked in
the direction Hunter was pointing. It was astonishing. A large stone castle in
the distance with large turrets erected high in the air. It was unlike any
castle she’d ever seen before and certainly the biggest.

As they neared
the castle, Rachel saw that it was off the coastline of Maine on its own large
island. She didn’t even know there were islands off the coast of Maine.

The castle took
up most of island’s surface and stood tall and proud. Around the island was
dark ocean water that crashed up onto the walls of the castle with each wave.
It looked a bit scary to Rachel as she lowered down out of the sky closer to
the castle. It was uninviting, cold and dreary looking. There was also no sign
of life to be seen from her vantage point. Nobody outside, no outside space
actually, unless they were in the water. No green fields or woods or anything.
She wondered how they fed, where did they go? Maybe they didn’t feed on the
same things? Many questions started swirling around in her head.

“How do you get
inside?” Rachel asked as they hovered over the large castle.

“I’m trying to figure
that out. It looks like the front door has been sealed up. I don’t know what to
do now,” Hunter said.

“Can we get in
through another door?” Penelope asked.

“No! We can’t
enter through any other door. It’s dangerous. It’s highly armed and we can’t
risk being shot at,” Hunter said.

“Shot at?” Rachel
asked in fear. “What do you mean?”

“Yes, shot at! My
parents had this place totally rigged after the last war. Every entrance was
highly armed and guarded,” Hunter said.

“Well, wouldn’t
the guards recognize you?” Penelope asked.

“Yeah, you lived
there, don’t they know who you are?” Rachel said.

“That’s a good
point, and would totally make sense, but the thing is my parents probably put
my name on this list of intruders. They don’t want to see me, trust me on this
one,” Hunter said. “I’m not welcome here anymore.”

“Oh crap!” Rachel
said. “What are we going to do now? We can’t just hover up here forever!”

“Wait, it just
came to me. As a kid we would have our friends sneak into our castle through a
small window off one of the balconies. We can try that. It’s the only window
that my parents felt was too small to guard. They assumed nobody could fit
through, but as it turns out most can. The window has to be unlocked though,
which could be our only set back,” Hunter said.

“What are the
chances it will be unlocked?” Penelope asked.

“I’d say 50/50,”
Hunter said.

The three flew to
the opposite side of the castle. Rachel couldn’t wait to land on her feet. To
finally rest her wings and her body. She’d never taken such a long trip before
in flight and was glad it was just about over. She hoped anyway. She wasn’t
sure what would happen if the window were locked and they couldn’t get it. She
hoped they wouldn’t fly back to Hunter’s school.

It was getting
dark and the sun was setting over the castle. The sky had a pink and orange hue
and the clouds were full and fluffy looking. The clouds felt moist as she
soared through some on her way down to the balcony.

“Shh! We have to
be quiet,” Hunter said. “Nobody make a peep.”

Rachel followed
Hunter’s orders and didn’t say a word. She looked around at the stone balcony.
She was surprised there was no railing, than realized that they really didn’t
need one even though they were so high up. If they fell, they could just extend
their wings and fly to safety. She thought it was an odd design though. She’d
never seen a balcony that one could plunge to their death off of. It was odd to
her, but that was probably because she was new to this whole thing. After all
it hadn’t been long since her days as a human.

Hunter walked
over to the small square window, which was probably the side of a bed pillow
and looked in. The room on the other side was dark and there were no lights on.
All Rachel could see was her reflection as she looked at the window. She
noticed the paint was chipping around the window sill and wondered why they
hadn’t kept up the house. She thought it looked a little run down on the
outside, but it was hard to tell since stone doesn’t really weather much. It
almost looked to her as if there was nobody living in the castle. She hoped it
wasn’t true though. She would be devastated to find the place abandoned.

Hunter motioned
Rachel and Penelope forward as he started prying open the window with a stick.
Rachel watched as he fumbled with the hook on the window, jiggling it ever
which way. He pulled and pushed and tugged at the window, but nothing. Then, he
took out a small pocket knife and stuck it in the crack of the door, wiggled it
ever so slightly and the window popped open. He turned to Penelope and Rachel
and gave them both a thumbs up.

Rachel was
pleased at his accomplishment, smiled and gave him a thumbs up in return.

“Come inside,”
Hunter whispered. “It’s a tight squeeze, but you can fit.”

Rachel took one
look at the small opening, and thought to herself it would be almost impossible
for her to get her non model like body through. If only she hadn’t eaten that
pack of Oreo cookies yesterday, she thought to herself humorously. She thought
it would be best to go feet first and then slide her top half through after.
She put her right foot in the window trying to feel for a ledge or something to
rest her feet on but there was nothing. It was high off the floor so she knew
this was going to be tricky. She put her left foot in after and then slithered
like a snake through the opening. Her hips just barely fit through the window
and luckily that was her biggest asset of her body, and knew if they fit, the
rest of her would slip right through. She knew she wouldn’t have any trouble as
her chest went through because she wasn’t well endowed. Finally, her head, the
last thing to get through the window and then she hung there clutching the
window sill by her hands and looking down with her eyes at the floor below her.
It was quite a drop, and she’d wished Hunter had warned her that she would have
to plunge fifteen feet to reach the floor. As her feet touched the wooden floor
boards, they creaked beneath her feet. She stood there, in silence, trying to
keep the floors from making noise. She stood there on her tippy toes, creeping
across the room to make space for Penelope to land as she watched her body
slide through the small window.

After Hunter made
his way through the window, having almost gotten himself stuck twice, the three
of them stood there in this small room together. The room was the side of
Rachel’s bedroom in Bedford, except the ceilings of this room were soaring,
they must have been 25 feet high. The room smelled of cedar and as she looked
around, she saw storage bags and boxes of clothes. She realized they were in a
storage closet, which was surprisingly big for a closet now that she thought
about it. Never had she ever seen a closet this large before or a closet with a
window. Where was she? She thought to herself. And all the clothes and storage
boxes that filled the room were more than the contents of her entire house. She
couldn’t believe it.