Evangelina Green (26 page)

"I’m not sure but I think it has something
to do with the dreams I’ve been having.”

Ooops, Lina had been
keeping that secret and had even scolded Netta for keeping
her
dreams from the rest
of them. Netta didn’t take the bait, although you could see the
temptation on her face.

"Explain your dreams, Lina." Netta turned to
look Lina in the eye and started tapping her foot.

"They all involved flying above the mansion
and seeing a green glow coming from the attic—this attic. I think I
need to find something in here and I’m assuming it’s green.”

They let go of each other—and the illusion
disappeared. Netta started pulling boxes from the top of each
stack.

"Let’s get looking.”

They spent the rest of the day going thru
box after box of papers, books, and notes. There was a mountain of
information on the mansion and some of the previous owners. There
was information about Tomas and his family, but it wasn’t much and
only confirmed a little of what he had already told them.

Lina felt drawn again to the items in the
children’s area. She stood to stretch after hours of being hunched
over papers and wandered over to see if she could sense anything
there...or get a “pull” from an object. She held out her hands,
palms down and just hovered over areas with stacks of toys,
clothing and the like. The room became downright freezing in an
instant and the same voice from the séance boomed.

"
No!
Again, you meddle where you are
not wanted. This is none of your concern. Your father had his
chance, now is my time and now is my rule. You will cease this
hunt, retreat from this place and leave the realm to those who
deserve it, you pitiful half-breeds!"

Yeah, right.
Lina thought, unafraid of the disembodied voice.
She was curious however, about the mention of her father, and she
figured,
what the heck have I to
lose?

"Why do you talk of my father as if you knew
him? You are nothing but a loud voice in a tiny room. You know
nothing.”

That should work. She’d have him defending
himself and give information just to prove what big bad monster he
was.

“
You are pitiful. Not even
fully human and you disgust me. Your father, that bloodsucking,
self-righteous, human-loving, do-gooder, should not have made any
of you. And he wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for a meddling white
witch. But the vampire was taken care of eventually, along with the
meddler. Now, we learn of you...you...half-breeds...his simpering
spawn. We have taken steps to end this trial. You are nothing but
mistakes. You are of no consequence. You will fail. You cannot
defeat us!”

Their “father”, as in they
were really and truly sisters! Half-sisters but
wow
! And oh yeah, by the way,
Dad’s a vampire
.

"Can my family get any more fucked up?" Lina
whined.

"
Hey
! I’m standing right here!"
Feigning insult, Netta joked. But this was serious.

They had a disembodied
voice challenging them to win and he sounded pissed.
Win what? But hey! They had vampire blood in
their veins! How cool was that? How scary was that? Very cool and
very scary.
Netta and Lina both moved
their hands up to feel their incisors to see if they had fangs, of
course they didn’t, but who wouldn’t think they did after finding
out they had this kind of heritage. Seeing each other probing their
upper teeth caused a ripple of laughter.

"We need to continue the search. Our new
friend didn’t seem to like me looking over here.”

She walked around the bedroom furniture, the
bassinet, the cribs, of which there were four, which made her
remember Tomas and his siblings.

"I wonder if these
belonged to Tomas and his family.”
More to
herself than anyone else, she walked further into the corner. There
were all manner of stuffed animals but the one that caught her eye
was a woeful teddy bear on the bottom of all the others. He was
tattered but to Lina that meant he’d been hugged, played with and
loved. She picked it up and hugged it to her. Then she heard the
whisper:

"Welcome home, Green.”

Just as she’d thought she
heard in the garden. She twisted around trying to find the source
but only Netta remained in the room and she was busy with her
own
attic-safari.
She wasn’t interested in what Lina was up to.

"Netta? Could you come over here, please? I
don’t think I can move right now."

Netta was there in an
instant. "I wonder if that little burst of speed was vampiric?" She
mused.
This was just all so...
cool!
"What’s wrong? You look pale and
you’re scaring me!”

Lina opened her arms and looked into the
face of her teddy bear. Two very green eyes stared back. One
however, held her in a hypnotic, trance-like embrace. She could
almost see into the green eye. She saw people. Some she knew.
Others were strangers to her. They were from all walks of life and
all times of life. It was like a magic view of her past. She felt
comforted and safe. Lina felt Netta’s arms coming around her from
behind as she also stared at the bear over her shoulder.

"What the fuck?" Was all
she got out before the eye glowed and the entire attic had a green
hue. They both heard the eye
speak.
..

"Colors join to close the breach—

To each child their color calls.

That heir will aim as if to reach...

Good wins out—Evil falls.”

Evangelina Green Maddox took the green gem
from the bear’s eye socket, holding it in her palm, examining it as
it shined, shimmered, and continued to glow. Netta was afraid to
speak out loud so she whispered to Lina.

"What in the world is it? What are you
supposed to do with it? Do you think it’s dangerous? C’mon Lina,
let’s get outta here.”

Lina just shrugged,
staring at the gem in her hand, trying to feel anything, something.
One last blinding burst of green glow and the gem was gone!
Shit
.

"Lina? Are you okay? What happened? I’ve got
spots in my eyes." Netta was walking with arms outstretched toward
Lina.

"Netta...
stop
moving. I think I know what happened, but I don’t want you to
get hurt, so don’t touch me!"

Everything went still. The air wasn’t
circulating, the world seemed to stop spinning, it was that
quiet.

"Look!" Lina held out her hand, palm facing
the wall. A small thin line of green light shone from her hand onto
the wall.

"It’s inside my hand.” There was awe in her
voice. Lina felt like she’d been given a huge treasure. She still
didn’t understand but she had an inkling. Excitement shivered up
and down her spine. Nervous giggles burst forth, Netta rushed to
her and they hugged for quite a while in the green glowing
attic.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“
I hope you know what
you’re doing!” snapped Netta.

“
What
has you all fired up over these old newspapers?
Talk to me
!”

Lina was frantically scanning old clippings
and tossing one by one aside as she searched
for...for...something…just out of reach. Just out of sight. She’d
had that feeling once before but now she felt she was closer to
discovering what the “something” was.

She just needed the... "Ah ha! I found
it!"

It was the article about the traveler and
his strange tale of lights at the mansion. She pulled Netta back to
the table in the kitchen where they’d finally eaten a meal. They’d
been so excited in the attic, they hadn’t slept and hadn’t eaten
since coming downstairs, when Lina began her frantic search for
whatever it was she thought she needed... Netta was feeling
cranky.

"Okay, hear me out. Let me finish before you
ask any questions or I’ll lose my train of thought. If you think
you’ll forget to ask, write it down just like I would. Yeah, I
know, Ms. List Maker. Ready?” Netta nodded.

“
First, we are the
daughters of a vampire and human match. At least, as human as we
can tell, but I think maybe they had some magic in them. Maybe they
knew, maybe not.

"Secondly, our dad apparently had a few
liaisons, shall we say, and we are the result of that. Now… how
many women did he meet and do we have other sisters out there? My
mom had a moment just before she died when she said something odd
to me. Where did I put that? I wrote it down the next day, cuz
that’s the day she...she was hit by the bus, and she..."

Tears dropped from her eyes as she bent over
to reach for the paper she’d just found. She held up her hand to
stop Netta, when she made a move to come and soothe her.

"I’m fine...it’s just now, it all seems to
be making sense. Netta? How did your Mom die?”

Netta’s head snapped up, her eyes wide open.
"You think...that it wasn’t random? That someone killed her on
purpose?" She couldn’t think about it right now.

With everything lately being so frantic and
all the unbelievable creatures coming into her life, werewolves,
vampires and a friendly ghost... she giggled... "Casperrrrr... the
friendly ghost..." She sang the familiar refrain.

Lina was afraid Netta was going into shock
and decided they could discuss this later—like tomorrow or
never—but Lina had to know eventually. "I’m fine, Lina... I just
needed a minute of losin' it...to shake it off, ya know?" She took
a deep breath.

"Mom died when I was 16. She was the victim
of a mugging. She’d never really been there with us anyway. She
sort of lived in a dream world, but knowing she died that way, made
me feel bad about hating her for not being my mom, ya know? My aunt
Betty, her sister, was really the mom I needed. She is still alive,
living in Baltimore last I heard anyway, we don’t keep in touch.
She changed.” Netta shrugged.

“
Okay...we know both our mothers died before our twenty-first
birthdays. Tashi’s mom died about the same time in Tashi's life and
before
her
twenty-first birthday. So, something or someone is causing
that, don’t you agree? I wonder if we have other sisters." At
Netta’s surprise, she continued.

“
Mom was always distant,
sometimes more than others. She was lost, in a way and toward the
end she was even more distracted by memories of
him
. I now know that had to be our
dear-old-dad. Don’t know if he bewitched them or if he loved them.
I’d like to think he cared… a little anyway. But we are the result
and there is a reason we’re here. I think the traveling man from
years and years ago, saw our father. He was doing something with
the colored gems, which means there are more to find. I can only
assume—no… I can say with certainty that the other gems match our
middle names.”

Netta almost interrupted until Lina reminded
her.

“
Write it down. Now...the
infamous mirror? I haven’t seen anything remotely similar in all
the moving and tearing down of this place. If you have...you may
speak now...” she grinned.

Netta never looked up, just shook her head
while continuing to write items or questions on her tablet.

"Let’s see...oh yeah...the tablet that has
what I wrote down. My mom’s words. You want to copy it down or
shall I just read it?”

Netta grabbed for the paper and began
copying.

"You have to find them, Evangelina Green.
Listen! Listen!

They’re out there—together is best.

You have two, you need the rest.

Fill the spaces, defend our races.

Hearts will tell— Keep evil in hell."

"I think she was trying to say find you and
Tashi. That’s two, and then she said “the rest”. So that's where my
assumption comes in. That there are more of us but I have no idea
how to find them. If you can think of anything, please, write it
down."

She took a deep breath.

"Lastly, we need to help you find your gem
which just has to be red and see if between the two of those, we
can find the mirror. I think it’s important. Will you speak with
Tomas also and see if he remembers the mirror being here?"

She paused, waited for Netta to finish
writing. Netta put her pencil down and heaved a big sigh. She
seemed to be re-organizing her thoughts, notes, and all the info
Lina had just spouted.

"Here goes. Your mom was spooky! Even when
she wasn’t spouting riddles. She was just weird. Anyway, I think
the mirror is here, but hidden very well, since it seems to be
important and everybody seems to know about it or they want
it...or...something. I also think the bad guy has to be the voice
we’ve now heard two times, but who or what is he? What does he want
and how do we stop him? The witch Martiss is a clue but if we can’t
find Tashi and Victor...we won’t find her. I think you’re right
about finding my gem, but I’ve had no dreams about it nor have I
seen anything with a red glow, like you did with your gem. Now that
we know—or assume we know—that’s our mission for now.

"I can be more aware of my surroundings now
and search for anything red and any glow I might have just ignored
before. I think Keaton, Tomas, and Victor are going to be some of
our biggest help. Victor because, this is only an assumption, well
wouldn't an old vampire know all or some of the others? He might
also have a longer memory of the mansion. Keaton because of his
contacts, his strengths and his love for you. Tomas for his
connection to the mansion and his, uhhh...concern for me and of
course, my family. I’m not sure we should but we could ask around
about any witches that might help us either find Tashi or help with
our gems or what the legend of the mansion is. I think that’s it
for now, although I reserve the right to re-address."