Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (11 page)

Benji hadn’t called her
since that night because he wanted to give her some time to cool off. He
figured she needed time to think about things and let everything settle down.
He was worried about how she would react to him now. His biggest fear was that
she’d want nothing to do with him anymore. The thought of that ate him up
inside.

As he came to a stoplight on
the outskirts of town, he pulled out his cell phone and wrote her a text. He
hadn’t texted her in days and hoped she hadn’t blocked his number.

Hey, Rachel. I need to
see you. Where are you?

He waited for her response,
but nothing came.

A few minutes went by and he
felt a buzzing noise. He slowed down his bike and opened his phone.

Rachel: Hi! I’m
at the movies with friends. Where are you?

Benji: I’m on
my way. I’ll text you when I get there.

Benji shut his phone and
headed towards the movies. He knew he had nothing to lose by reaching out to
see the love of his life one more time before he left.

As he was turning left in
the intersection, he heard a loud horn blaring in his ears and saw a pickup
truck swerving into his lane. He quickly turned his bike and floored it. He
missed a major collision by millimeters.

As he made his final turn
into the movie theater, he pulled out his phone and texted Rachel. He couldn’t
wait for her to come out and see him. He could feel his body getting colder and
colder with each minute that passed. His nerves were growing as he watched and
waited for Rachel to come through the double doors of the theater. He had
visions of their reunion being like something out of a movie where Rachel would
run to him fast and then jump into his arms and they would live happily ever
after.

A moment later, he did see
Rachel, but she was not running. She was walking slowly, with a pensive look on
her face. Benji didn’t know what to make of it. He waited for her to get
closer, so as not to draw attention to himself by screaming her name. He
noticed that she looked especially beautiful tonight, which made him wonder who
she was at the movies with. He hoped it wasn’t a date. He didn’t even want to
let his mind go there.

“Hi,” Benji said as she came
closer.

He waited for her to
respond, but she didn’t. She just looked at him as if she wanted him to explain
himself.

“How have you been? I missed
you?” Benji said, going out on a limb.

He saw Rachel let out a
smile and then say, “I’m OK, it’s been a pretty crazy couple of days here since
the fight.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I should warn you the
police are after you. They’ve been questioning everyone at school about you. I
think they’re on to you. You better be careful.”

“I guess they would be,”
Benji replied calmly. “Things like this have happened before and I always
manage to out\smart them.” He let out a laugh and then checked his phone. “I
only have a few minutes until I have to leave.”

“What do you mean leave?
Where are you going?” Rachel asked.

“I’m going back to my
castle. I need to get back to my ancestral home to reflect and recharge. It’s
been a while since I’ve been back, and given the way things are going here, I
could use some time at home.”

“Wait a minute. Castle? What
on earth are you talking about?”

“Did you not hear me the
other night when I told you I lived in a castle?”

Benji stopped speaking and
waited for Rachel to say something. She looked him up and down and then said, “I
did, but I didn’t believe you.”

“Take my hand,” Benji said
as he held his hand out for Rachel to grab. “Please.”

She hesitated, then reached
out and touched him. A surge of energy ran through his body, which he could not
deny. His big eyes stared deeply into her soul and all he could think about was
what she would taste like. He wanted to taste her blood, but he controlled his
urge. He’d never hurt Rachel. Never.

He couldn’t believe he had
gotten himself into this situation in the first place. He knew never to trust a
human, let alone fall in love with one. He knew he was making the right choice
by going back home for a while. He would miss Rachel, but he couldn’t bear to
put her in any danger. He squeezed her hand and said, “Do you feel me? I’m not
like you.”

Rachel shook her head and then quickly
let go of his hand. He wished so desperately he could read her mind. Normally,
he could read people’s minds. But in her case, he couldn’t. He just couldn’t
tell what she was thinking. Why did she have to be so difficult to read?

“You’re freezing,” Rachel
said with a quiver. “Why are you so cold?”

Benji looked at her and
shrugged his shoulders. “I already told you.”

“Benji, I really do like
you, but I can’t be with someone who doesn’t tell me the truth. You didn’t tell
me the whole story.”

“I tried to tell you,
Rachel, I did. But you didn’t believe me.”

Rachel waited and then
looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry, please tell me again.”

Benji took both of her hands
and held them close to his body. He could feel her pulse begin to go faster and
faster. He looked deep into her eyes and said, “I’m a vampire. Don’t worry, I
won’t hurt you,” he said as he felt her hands pulling away from his.

He continued to hold onto
her hands and said, “You have to trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

The look on Rachel’s face
grew softer and she tilted her head in confusion. He could tell she was
thinking something.

“I don’t believe in
vampires, Benji.”

 “You’re the only person I’ve
ever told this to and you swore that you wouldn’t tell. Did you keep your
promise?”

He waited anxiously for her
to respond. He hoped that during all the questioning by the police she didn’t
let it slip. Although he knew she was skeptical of him anyway, so she probably
wouldn’t have said anything.

“I swore to you that I
wouldn’t tell and I kept my promise to you. I will never tell a soul.”

“Do you believe me now?”
Benji said as he gazed piercingly into her eyes.

“I think you’re crazy!”
Rachel said with a laugh. “I’m not sure if I believe you. Prove it. Prove you’re
a vampire.”

Benji thought for a moment
about how he could prove himself to her. He knew he couldn’t go kill an animal
in the bushes— that would be too gruesome. He also knew it wouldn’t be wise to
show his superpower strength again, especially at the movie theater. So, he
reached into his pocket and took out a shiny, gold, kaleidoscope and handed it
to her.

“What’s this?” Rachel asked,
looking down at it, as he placed it in her palm.

“If you look inside it, you
will know I am real,” Benji said with a smile.

Rachel looked back at him,
and then put the kaleidoscope up to her eyes. She looked through it and turned
it with her fingers and then pulled it away from her face. “I don’t see
anything except some dull colors,” she said in a disbelieving tone.

But when she looked up, he
was gone.

Vanished.

Chapter Thirteen

When Rachel got home that
night it was late, and all the lights in the house were off. She snuck in
without getting caught, and then went up to her room to get ready for bed. She
began to undress and get into her pajamas when she heard a loud bang.

Rachel looked down and saw
the shiny golden kaleidoscope that Benji had given her, rolling around on her
wooden floor. She picked it up and looked through the hole, hoping to see
something, but saw nothing except some muted colors inside that moved around as
she turned it. As she sat there examining the kaleidoscope, she noticed some
small writing on the side, it was an inscription, and it read:
Paris 1731
.
On the other side of it, in small letters, it read: Lyndvia Castle.

She placed it carefully on
her bedside table.

Rachel felt so torn inside.
She so desperately wanted to be with Benji, but she didn’t know if she could
trust him.

Lyndvia Castle
. It sounded familiar, and Rachel couldn’t
help but wonder about it.

She decided to tiptoe down to the family
computer and Google it. Within seconds, thousands of images popped up on the
screen. She read article after article about the castle—they all mentioned that
it was an abandoned castle in Westchester, in the town of Tarrytown, on the
Hudson River. But none of them said anything about vampires living there.

Rachel snuck back to her
room, and as she lay in bed with her eyes shut, all she could do was think
about Benji. She wanted to kiss him desperately and tell him how she felt, too.
She wanted them to be together. As much as she tried to convince herself she
was over him, she couldn’t help but feel an inexplicable love for him.

After hours of tossing and
turning, Rachel drifted off into a very deep sleep.

Rachel walked through
cobblestone streets in the foreign city, wondering where she was. She knew she
had never been to this place before, and as she looked around, she realized
everything was different. Historic. The buildings, built low, looked hundreds
of years old, and along the streets there walked people dressed in the most
old-fashioned outfits. The sound of horses on cobblestone could be heard, and
as she turned her head, she noticed a horse and carriage walking down the
street. It was twilight, and all around her, the street was lit by gas-burning
lamps. As she looked up, snow began to fall, landing in large flakes on her
cheeks.

Rachel knew she was in
another time and place. In some other century, in some other country. It looked
like Europe to her, like pictures she had seen online of historic Paris. 
Rachel wondered how she had gotten here, and what she was doing here.

She turned to look into a
shop window, and as she did, she was suddenly startled by a presence beside
her. She turned and was shocked to see, standing just inches away, was Benji.
He was dressed in an old-fashioned, black suit and overcoat, with high collars
that went up to his ears. Rachel looked down, and noticed that she, herself,
was dressed in a long petticoat and girdle, and that she was holding a parasol
in her hand.

“I’ve been waiting for you,”
Benji said.

“Where am I?” Rachel asked.

Benji smiled back at her. “We
have been together for lifetimes,” he said. “Don’t you remember?”

Rachel slowly shook her
head, trying to understand what he was talking about.

Just then, he reached into
his coat pocket and pulled out a long, shiny object. She reached out her hand,
and he placed it in her palm. The metal was cold to the touch.

She held it up and examined
it. She was amazed to see that it was the kaleidoscope. The same kaleidoscope
he had given her the night before at the movies.

Benji reached out and placed
a hand on hers. He stared down at her with intensity. “Look in it, Rachel,” he
said. “That’s all you have to do. Look in it. And believe.”

Rachel woke up, sweating and
out of breath. She patted her clothes to see what she was wearing, and was
surprised to feel it was just her pajamas.  She was no longer wearing the
petticoat and girdle.

She darted out of bed and
fumbled around to find her kaleidoscope, but she couldn’t find it. She knew she
had placed it on her bedside table, but it was nowhere to be found.

She picked up all the dirty
clothes on the floor, and emptied out her purse from last night, going through
the heaping mess on the floor. She sat there looking around her room, when all
of a sudden she looked back at her nightstand and sitting there, untouched, was
the kaleidoscope, right where she had left it.

She walked over and touched
it with one finger. It didn’t move. She grabbed it with her whole hand and held
it up to her eye. All she could see was blackness.         

She turned on her lamp and
then looked inside again. To her surprise, the blackness turned to bright,
vibrant colors swirling around and around. Then, as if by magic, the
kaleidoscope began to change.

The image inside parted and
as she sat there looking into it, she saw an image of two people. She couldn’t
make out who they were at first, and then she shook the kaleidoscope and looked
again.

In it, she could see herself
and Benji, wearing their old fashioned clothing, on the cobblestone streets of
historic Paris. As she turned the kaleidoscope, she could see them walking,
hand-in-hand together down the street. She kept turning it and she could see
them smiling at each other, and then, all of a sudden, the kaleidoscope went
black. The image was gone.

Rachel put down the
kaleidoscope and sat on her bed in complete shock.
He was telling me the
truth
, she thought to herself. She had to go find him.