Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (14 page)

“No, they want us to sit
tight here. They told us not to leave the house and they would call us with any
updates as soon as they know more.”

“Do you want me to go out
and search for her?” Sarah asked.

“No! You stay here. We don’t
want you to go missing as well,” her dad barked back.

“I can’t believe you knew
about this the whole day,” her mom interjected. “That’s irresponsible of you,
Sarah.”

Sarah looked at her parents
with remorse and said, “I’m sorry. You’re right. I really didn’t think it was
that big of a deal though.”

“Go to your room,” her dad
said.

Sarah walked through their
bathroom, and into her bedroom. She quickly took out her cell phone to call
Rachel to warn her that the police were coming and that their parents were on
to her.

She dialed her number and
waited. After a long silence, of what felt like hours, the call went straight
to voicemail.

She dialed again, thinking
something must have been wrong with her phone. Again, the call went to
voicemail. Sarah hung up and sent her a text asking her to call her back ASAP.

She waited and waited, but
Rachel did not call or text back. At that moment, Sarah knew something was
wrong. She feared she may never see her sister, ever again.

Chapter Eighteen

Rachel stared back into
Benji’s eyes, excited to learn all about him.

“Yes! I’m ready,” she said
holding his hand.

“Ok, but you have to keep it
a secret. I know I can trust you.”

“I haven’t told a soul,” she
said shaking her head.

He opened the door and
motioned for her to come in. As she walked inside she entered an enormous,
three-story, marble foyer with beautifully adorned walls with gold picture
frames. The lighting was dim, and the glow from the candles filled the room.
Rachel looked around and saw endless, sprawling, elaborate and beautifully
decorated rooms.

The wooden soles of her
ballet flats echoed as she walked across the marble floors, following Benji
from room to room.

“This is the kitchen,” Benji
said, pointing to an open room with only one long table. The table looked like
it should belong to a king, or a royal family. The chairs were plush red velvet
with elaborate gold encrusted detail on them. She tried to envision the family
sitting there for meals, but couldn’t.

“Where are the stove and the
sink?” she asked, as she looked around the bare, empty kitchen.

She looked at Benji, and
waited for a response.

“We don’t use those things,”
he said.

“What do you mean? How do you
cook your food?”

“Rachel,” he said. “We don’t
cook our food.”

“What’s that supposed to
mean?” she asked.

She tried to imagine what a
vampire might eat, and then got scared. She looked back at Benji and then
around the house, as if something were going to pop out and kill her.

“Don’t worry,” Benji said. “I
don’t feed on humans.”

Rachel let out a sigh of
relief and then waited for him to elaborate.

“Unlike what you may have
read about or seen in movies, some vampires actually feed on animals.”

“Animals?”

“Yes, deer, rabbit, fox...”

Rachel made a face of
disgust. She couldn’t imagine eating animals and sucking their blood.

“It’s not so bad, Rach!” he
replied. “It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Benji motioned for Rachel to
follow him through the kitchen and into another large foyer. Rachel stopped to
take it all in: the sound of Bach’s Cello Suite’s played on the player piano in
the far corner of the room. She felt like she was in another place, in another
time, as the sound of the keys echoed throughout the grand space.

Rachel felt the room getting
warmer and warmer, and her body temperature rise. She looked to her right, and
saw a large fireplace with a roaring fire in it. In front of the fireplace,
lying on the ground, was a black bear rug with the face still on. The eyes of
the bear stared at her, piercing her soul, and its wide-open jaws and large
white, pointed teeth looked as if they would bite her head off.

She slowly backed away from
the bear, just in case for some reason it suddenly arose from the dead and
charged after her. She didn’t know what to expect in this place, and wouldn’t
put it past Benji to resurrect things from the dead.

As they walked into the next
room, she looked up at the high, soaring ceilings and then over at the large
stained-glass windows that glistened throughout the room. Benji pointed to a
stack of dusty, old-looking books, and said, “This is our family’s bible.”

“What do you mean, bible?”
Rachel asked.

“I mean, these are all the
laws and rules of our coven. It dates back thousands of years, with handwritten
excerpts from our ancient ancestors long ago.”

“Can I look at it?” Rachel
asked, hopefully.

She waited for him to
respond, as he picked up one of the books and thumbed through the pages. Over
his shoulder, she could see pictures and diagrams of animals, with arrow marks
and numbers. She wondered if this was the part of his bible that told him how
to feed on animals. Benji quickly looked back at her and noticed she was
looking over his shoulder. He slammed the book closed and put it back on the
dusty shelf.

“Maybe another time, Rach. I
don’t think you’re ready to read this yet.”

She looked at him, and then
began to question this whole thing. She wanted him to show her more evidence,
to prove he was a vampire.

“Benji, how do I know you’re
real?” Rachel asked.

Benji took her hand and
walked with her into another opulent room, with a large floor to ceiling mirror
encased in a gold frame.

“Look!” Benji said.

Rachel looked into the
mirror and was aghast: she saw her reflection but as she gazed back at her
reflection in the mirror, all she could see was herself. Benji’s reflection did
not appear.

“How is this happening?” she
asked, horrified.

“I am transparent. I’ve
never been able to see myself in the mirror.”

“But,” Rachel paused. “How
do you know what you look like?”

She waited for him to
respond and watched him touch his face and body with his pale, bony fingers.

“It’s complicated,” He said.
“There’s only one way for me to see my reflection.”

“What’s that?”

 “If I put on Hex Lotion, I
can see myself in the mirror.”

“What’s Hex Lotion?” Rachel
asked, curiously.

“Hex Lotion is what I use
when I want to go out into the sunlight. It keeps me from burning and
disintegrating into the ground.”

“Really? You can’t go
outside?”

“No, I can go outside. I can
go out at night when the sun goes down, without the lotion. But, if I go out in
the sunlight, my skin will start to burn and smoke.”

“That’s scary. Has it ever
happened to you?”

“It’s only happened once,
and it was the most painful experience of my life. After that, I’ve never
forgotten to put the Hex Lotion on.”

Benji pulled up his sleeve
and pointed to a scar on his arm. “This is what happened. It’s been over a
hundred years since the accident, but the scar has never faded.”

“Over a hundred years?”
Rachel asked in confusion.

“Yes! Can you believe it? I
think it’s a sign from my ancestors, so that I don’t forget again.”

Rachel looked at him and
then reached out to touch his scar. She put her finger on the patch of raised,
bumpy skin and felt the heat, still escaping from the burn mark.

“It’s hot!” Rachel said.

“Yes, the heat is slowly
subsiding. It used to burn my hands ever time I touched it, but now, it’s just
warm.”

“I’m sorry,” Rachel said
with concern.

“Let’s go, I want to show
you more,” Benji said, changing the subject.

As they walked down the long
narrow hallway, lit up by flickering candles, Benji took her hand. A chill went
through her body, and she became excited. It was the first time he’d touched
her in a romantic way since the covered bridge. She could feel his fingers
caressing her hand as they walked down the long, endless corridor.

Then, all of a sudden, Benji
stopped and pushed open a large, heavy, arched, wooden door.

“Come in,” he said.

“What’s this room?”

Rachel stared at the
four-poster metal bed, with antique paisley linens and bedspread. The bed was
perfectly made, and looked as if it hadn’t been slept in for years. There were
no windows in the room, which could have led to the musty smell that infused
the bedroom.

She started to cough at the
smell, and then put her hands over her mouth.

“Are you ok?” Benji asked.

“Yes, I’m sorry, I just have
a tickle in my throat,” Rachel said.

Rachel walked to the other
side of the bedroom to get a tissue from the en suite bathroom, when she saw
something moving. She let out a shriek and then ran back into Benji’s arms.

“Don’t worry, it’s just
Beethoven,” Benji replied, laughing.

Rachel’s heart was pounding
and the hairs on her arm were standing straight up. She looked back at the moving
ball of fur and then realized it was a dog.

“Is this yours?” Rachel
asked.

“Yes, this is Beethoven, our
Siberian Husky.”

“What do you mean
our?”

“It’s my family’s dog. He’s
been with us for 145 years.”

“What? Dogs don’t live that
long, do they?” she asked.

After she asked that, she
realized it was a dumb question. It was clear that everything inside the walls
of this castle had the ability to live forever.

“Yes, he’ll never die,”
Benji said smiling at her.

“Whose room is this anyway?”
Rachel asked as she looked around at all of the old family photos in picture
frames.

Rachel saw Benji get tense
and weird. He began looking around the room as if he were trying to come up
with something to say.

“It’s my parents bedroom,”
Benji responded.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t want to talk about
it,” Benji snapped.

She’d never heard this tone
in Benji’s voice before. It was as if she asked the question to reveal all of
their coven’s secrets. She didn’t realize her question was inappropriate, but
apparently, it was.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to
pry.”

“It’s fine. I just can’t
answer,” Benji said as he blew out the candles in the bedroom and turned to
walk out of the room.

For the first time, she felt
scared to ask questions. She didn’t want to offend Benji or ask the wrong
thing. She walked quietly with him back out into the grand entrance foyer and
then watched as Benji applied Hex Lotion. She so desperately wanted to talk to
him, but remained silent and just observed.

“Let’s get some fresh air,”
Benji said as he opened the large stained glass double doors that led out to
the back of the house.

Rachel couldn’t believe her
eyes as the wide double doors opened. She was mesmerized by the panoramic views
of the Hudson River glistening in the sunset. She stepped out onto the
wraparound marble balcony and took in the sights and sounds. She could still
hear the crows soaring above her and the smell of the smoke coming from the
chimney scattered in the air.

Every time she smelled the
smell of smoke coming from a chimney, she immediately thought of Christmas. For
a minute, she felt like it was Christmas day and she was sitting in front of a
burning fireplace, smelling the same smokey smell, and feeling the warmth and
love of her family around her.

Benji grabbed her by the
hand, which forced her to snap out of her daydream.

“Hold on tight!” Benji said.

She put her arms around his
neck and said, “Are you ready?”

She didn’t know what was
going on, but was feeling up for anything. The day had been full of interesting
surprises, so she was ready for whatever Benji had to show her next. She held
on to him tightly as Benji stood on the railing of the balcony.

“1, 2, 3,” Benji counted,
and then he jumped.

Rachel felt her feet follow
his into mid air. She felt like she was skydiving, and suddenly feared for her
life, as the two of them neared the ground fifty feet below. As they came close
to crashing, she saw Benji sprout large white wings and begin to fly back into
the sky.

Rachel couldn’t believe it.
Was she really flying above Lyndvia Castle on Benji’s back?

The wind was blowing through
their hair as he flew them around the castle, pointing to different parts of
the grounds. She could hardly pay attention to what he was saying, as she was
still stuck on the fact that they were flying.