Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (13 page)

He left the kitchen and
walked over to her table and sat down in the chair next to her.

“Hi Michelle,” Hunter said,
smiling.

“Oh, hey Hunt. What’s going
on?” Michelle said, smiling back.

Hunter didn’t want to waste
any time. He wanted to cut right to the chase and not deal with any small talk
or beating around the bush.

“Want to um, go to the
social with me tonight?” Hunter said, suddenly feeling nervous for being so
bold and coming straight out with his question.

Hunter waited as Michelle
looked at him and then peered off behind him.

“I… um…” Michelle said, then
stopped speaking and stared above Hunter.

Hunter turned around. 
Hovering over him was Violet, standing there with her hands on her hips and a
scowl on her face.

“Excuse me, Michelle,” she
said, as she pulled Hunter away from the table.

“What do you think you’re
doing?” Hunter said, as he turned back around.

“What do you think
you’re
doing?” Violet asked back in a snarky tone.

Hunter stood there, looking
back and forth between Violet and Michelle.

“Do you want me to tell
everyone about your idiotic brother?” Violet said as she whispered into Hunter’s
ear.

Hunter pulled away and shot
her a dirty look. “You’re crazy,” he said.

“You haven’t seen anything
yet,” Violet said, as she began to open her mouth wide.

“No! Don’t say anything.
Stop,” Hunter said, as he put her hand to her mouth.

Violet stepped back and then
motioned for him to leave the dining hall. As he was exiting, he turned back
around to Michelle who was standing there, in shock at whole situation. He
mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to her and then pushed open the door and went outside
into the cold mountain air.

“Violet, what are you doing?”
Hunter said. “You have no business coming over and pulling me away from
Michelle.”

Violet pulled out her
notepad and began reading. “His name is Benji, he is going back to Lyndvia to
think about things, he told our secret to Rachel. Rachel lives in Bedford, New
York.”

Hunter grabbed her notebook
and she grabbed it right back.

“What are you doing?” Hunter
asked.

“I took notes on what I
heard the other day,” Violet answered.

“Notes? What’s wrong with
you?” Hunter said, suddenly getting angry. “You could get him killed.”

“Exactly,” Violet said, with
a creepy smile across her face.

“Listen, Hunter. I thought
the other night was special. I thought you really wanted to be with me,” Violet
said softly.

Hunter thought for a moment
about their kiss. He knew he didn’t really like her, and by no means was
falling for her, but it was the only way to keep Violet quiet.

“It was nice, it was,”
Hunter said. “I think you’re a nice girl and all, but I’m really not looking
for a girlfriend.”

“I want to be with you
forever,” Violet said, clutching onto the notebook.

“I can’t do that,” Hunter
said. “I don’t have the same feelings as you do.”

Violet picked up her
notebook and waved it in the air. “You’re going to regret this,” she said.

“Violet, please. Don’t tell
anyone. Please,” Hunter pleaded.

“You betrayed me, Hunter.
Now you will pay. Or, at least your brother will,” Violet said, as she walked
away from him.

Chapter Sixteen

Violet walked into her
secret meeting room, which was in the attic of her dormitory. Everyone in her
coven was waiting for her to arrive after she’d sounded the secret bells that
only her coven could hear. The bells were only to be rung in dire emergencies,
or when their coven was in danger. Violet rang the bells right after she’d left
her upsetting conversation with Hunter.

In a rage, she entered the
meeting and sat down at the head of the long rectangular table. The room was
dimly lit by flickering candles and everyone was dressed in their coven
uniform. They wore dark black robes, with an insignia on the breast pocket of a
shield with a reindeer inside. On the reindeer’s neck were two fang marks, with
blood dripping down the side of its neck. On the outside of this crest was the
letter G, which stood for Greslin, the name of their coven.

“Meeting commencing,” Violet
said as she took her wooden mallet and beat it against the table.

The room got silent and all
the whispers and talking ceased.

“I called this meeting for
the coven of the Greslin because of a recent finding that I overheard.”

The coven looked at Violet
in suspense and waited for her to continue.

“It was spoken by someone of
the Vladiccus Coven,” Violet said as she heard people oohing and aahing at her
words.

“Our secret has been told,”
Violet paused. “To a human.”

Loud bursts came from the
Greslin Coven and the tone of the room grew louder and louder.

“Silence!” Violet yelled as
she banged her mallet for order.

She waited until the room
was still and quiet and then she spoke again, “We need to stop them before the
word spreads further!”

“Yes!” screamed the crowed
in unison.

“We need to find the
Vladiccus vampire who did this and terminate his life.”

“Yes! Yes!” the crowd
answered.

“We need to find the human
and terminate her as well.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” the crowd
grew louder.

“Silence!” Violet yelled,
and then paused.

“We must be quick with the
actions we decide upon tonight. The more time that passes, the more likely it
is that our secret will be spread. We must begin tonight.”

The coven nodded, agreed,
and listened as Violet explained how they would go about their attack. She made
it very clear who was to do what in this mission, and left no room for error.

Violet noticed that one of
the vampires looked confused, “What is it?” she said.

“Where are they again?” the
Greslin vampire asked.

“Lyndvia Castle,” Violet
responded. “I can hear them now. They are together, he is showing her around
and divulging all of our secrets to this human.”

“We must terminate!” the
Greslins said loudly in unison.

The Greslin vampires stood
up, pulled their black silk hoods up over their heads, and headed out of the
dormitory attic to begin their mission. And Violet knew that they wouldn’t stop
until everyone was dead.

Chapter Seventeen

Sarah
sat at the dinner table, trying to distract her parents from asking about
Rachel.

“We haven’t seen her all
day, though,” her mom said.

“She’s still sleeping, I
think,” Sarah said. “I haven’t heard a peep from her room all day.”

“I don’t know, something
seems fishy about this whole thing,” her dad said, skeptically.

Sarah waited to see what her
parents were going to do. She was surprised that they waited all day to
question the situation.

“I’m going upstairs to check
on her,” her mother replied. “This is unlike Rachel not to come down all day.”

Sarah sat at the table in
suspense. She hoped miraculously that Rachel would be sleeping in her bed when
her mom got up to her room. She hoped that she had snuck back in the house
without her knowing.

“Sarah! Mark! Honey! Come
quick! Rachel’s not here.”

Sarah looked at her father
and brother, who looked startled by the news. She didn’t want to give away her
secret so she put on a surprised face and headed up the steps quickly with her
family.

“Rachel! Rachel!” her mom shouted.

As Sarah got to the top of
the steps and into Rachel’s room she saw her mom standing there, holding Rachel’s
journal in her hands.

She knew that Rachel kept
her journal tightly locked, and then noticed the broken lock sitting on her
desk.

She didn’t know what to do.
She knew Rachel’s journal was private and she would never want anyone to read
it, but it was too late. Her mom was shaking her head and letting out shrieks
as she flipped the page.

“Sarah, do you know anything
about this?” her mom asked in a shocked voice.

Sarah paused and tried to
conjure something up in her head. She wasn’t a quick thinker, especially in
high-stress situations.

“Um,” Sarah said.

“What happened,” her father
demanded. “Tell me now!”

 “Rachel’s in love with this
guy, Benji, the guy who rides the motorcycle, the guy who beat up the kids at
the dance. She went to see him,” Sarah answered.

“What do you mean, she went
to see him?” shrieked her father.

“It says here,” her mom
pointed to the writing in her journal.

“I have to find him. I
have to go to the castle,”
she read aloud.

“Kids,” her dad said firmly.
“What is this all about? Do either of you know what is going on here?”

Sarah looked at Mark, who
shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. She knew Mark wouldn’t have any idea
what this was about. He was always so busy with sports and friends that he
rarely even spoke to Rachel, let alone knew her private business.

“Sarah?” her dad asked,
looking sternly into her eye.

“Well, I know she really
likes this guy,” Sarah replied nervously.

“Where is she?” her dad
asked.

“She went to visit him at
the castle, I guess,” Sarah responded.

“This is whack guys,” Mark
said. “I’m going back downstairs.”

Sarah watched as Mark calmly
left Rachel’s room as if nothing was wrong. She wished he would be more
invested, but it was clear he was still immature and self-centered.

“VAMPIRE!” shouted her mom. “He’s
a vampire?”

Sarah stopped in her tracks
and looked back and forth between her dad and her mom. She didn’t know what
this was about, and was suddenly nervous. Her heart began to pound, as she
worried for her sister’s life.

Sarah grabbed the journal
out of her mom’s hands and began to read it. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The
story of the kaleidoscope, the castle, her dream and their history together.
She couldn’t determine if this was the start of a novel, or if

Rachel was writing the
truth. Erring on the side of caution, she took the words at face value and
began to panic.

“I don’t know anything about
that. I swear,” Sarah said, looking frightened. “All I know was that she left
early this morning to go see this guy. I didn’t know where exactly she was
going to meet him, I just knew she left in a hurry.”

“This is bad,” replied her
mom. “What can we do? How can we find her?”

Sarah began flipping faster
through her journal for any information that could lead them to her, but she
found nothing. All that was mentioned about Benji’s whereabouts was his castle,
and that didn’t really help them much.

“We have to call the police,”
her dad said. “Quick, hand me the phone.”

Sarah scurried around Rachel’s
room to find the cordless phone. Her room was a mess, with clothes, bags and
books scattered all over the floor. She located the phone under the pillow and
handed it to her dad. She watched him dial and hold the phone up to his ear,
tapping his foot impatiently.

“Yes, this is Patrick Wood
at 42 Pine Road. Our daughter has gone missing,” he said quickly. “She left
early this morning. She went to see this guy named Benji.”

Her dad stopped speaking and
listened, shaking his head.

“Yes, Benji, the guy from
the fight the other night. That’s the one.”

Sarah waited as he paused
again to listen. His eyes lit up as he shook his head.

“I think she went to some
castle?” he said, into the phone. “Do you guys know what that could mean?”

Her dad stood there smiling
and mouthing, “Thank God.”

Sarah was eager to find out
what the good news was. She suddenly felt guilty that this was all her fault.
If anything bad happened to her sister, she would never forgive herself.

“You’re onto him? Thank God.
Please call us with any information you have. We will be here waiting.”

Sarah watched as her dad
hung up the phone and then began to pace the room.

“What happened, Dad?”

“They’re sending out the
troops now to find him. They think they may know where the castle is.”

“Did they tell you anything
else, Honey?” her mom asked, looking nervous.