A Shade of Vampire 8: A Shade of Novak (9 page)

I
screamed
as the shadow of the submarine disappeared completely beneath the water.

Caleb tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me up toward the hatch, but I continued to struggle.

“Let me go!” I cried.

He gripped both of my wrists with one hand and lowered me into the hatch with the other. Hands beneath me grabbed my legs and pulled me down. When my feet touched the ground and Caleb slammed the hatch shut, my knees gave way and I crumpled to the floor, sobbing.

“Ben! Ben! No!”

I shut my eyes tight, and prayed that when I opened them, I’d wake up back in Kristal’s condo. This would all be a dreadful nightmare. I’d get up and rush into Ben’s bedroom to find him snoring and splayed out on the mattress in his blue pajamas.

“Ben, Ben, Ben,” I breathed, as if saying his name would bring him back to me.

Caleb crouched down beside me. I looked up into his brown eyes, my own eyes blurred with tears.

“I’ll get your brother back,” he said, his voice deep, his face ashen, dark hair soaking wet from the rain.

He stood up and began walking away.

“Wait,” I stammered, scrambling to my feet and following after him. “How? How will you get Ben back?”

Caleb didn’t look back at me as he continued walking along the narrow corridor of the submarine, injured vampires zigging and zagging in and out of rooms and crossing over our path as we walked.

He didn’t answer me until he reached a door at the bow of the vessel, pushed it open and took a seat in the control room, behind hundreds of buttons and dials, next to a vampire whom I assumed was the captain of the submarine.

Once seated, Caleb swiveled in his seat and faced me again.

“I’m going to speak to his superior. He had no authorization to do what he has done.”

I sat down in one of the spare seats behind them as the vampire on the right moved the vessel forward.

“But where are we going? Why don’t we chase after their submarine and get Ben back right this instant? Just like you rescued me.”

Caleb shook his head and set his eyes forward through the window screen.

“It’s too late for that now.”

“But what if they do something to him in the meantime?”

“They won’t harm him.”

“How do you know?”

“I know.”

Racing forward in the opposite direction from my kidnapped brother was the most painful experience I remembered having. “Where are we going now?” I breathed, tears spilling from my eyes again.

“Back to base.”

“Base?”

“You’ll see,” Caleb said, impatience beginning to show in his voice. “Enough questions.”

I gripped the back of his seat and, wiping away my tears with the back of my sleeve, looked forward through the screen to try to make sense of where we were headed. All I could see was an endless expanse of black ocean.

I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes.

Please, Ben. Be safe. Please.

Then I thought about the mobile phone they had confiscated. Our parents were used to us calling thrice a week. Usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If we didn’t call them, they’d get suspicious.

But how on earth will they find us? They’ll contact the adventure company’s office only to find that we checked out long ago.

Goddamn it. We should have called to tell them about those vampires.

Tears threatened to consume me again, even though there was no point to them. Tears weren’t going to help bring Ben back. Or help our parents find us. I looked up at Caleb.

He’s our only hope.

I still didn’t understand his motivation for helping us, and I couldn’t trust him. But he was the only glimmer of light we had in this darkness.

I sneezed. My clothes were soaking from the rain.

Caleb turned around in his chair to look at me and immediately got up. “Come with me.”

I followed him out of the control room, along the passageway. We stopped outside a door. He knocked three times.

“Frieda,” he called.

The door opened and a tall ebony-skinned vampire nursing a painful-looking gash in her arm appeared in the doorway.

“Do you have anything this girl could change into?”

Her chestnut-brown eyes settled on me and she nodded.

“Yes, I’m sure I can fix her up with something. Come in.”

Celeb placed his hand on the small of my back and nudged me inside. Frieda closed the door behind me.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here,” she said.

The cabin was tiny—barely large enough for a single bed and a cabinet. She crouched down and pulled open a drawer in the chest in the corner.

The first thing she pulled out was a towel. Then a long cotton nightdress.

“It’s not much, but it’s better than staying in those wet clothes.”

She placed both on her bed and left the room for me to change.

I wasn’t sure what to do with my sopping wet pajamas so I just put them in a corner of the room. I dried myself as much as I could with the towel, then pulled the nightdress over my head. I wrapped up my wet hair in the towel to form a turban.

I opened the door to find Frieda waiting outside.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

She nodded and was about to shut herself back in the room when I asked, “Could I ask you a few questions?”

“I think it’s best you ask Caleb any questions you have. I don’t know how much you’re allowed to know.”

She shut the door and I made my way back to the control room. When I pushed open the door, Caleb turned around and looked me over briefly, then turned back to face the glass screen.

I sat down in my seat.

“How much longer until we arrive at your ‘base’?” I asked.

“About three hours.”

T
he submarine slowed
to a halt and rose to the surface.

“We’re here,” Caleb said.

He stood up and I followed him out of the control room, along the narrow passageway, until we reached the ladder leading to the hatch.

He climbed up first, and I followed next, the rest of the vampires lining up behind me.

“Oh,” I breathed as soon as I looked around outside.

The sudden cold was the first thing that hit me—it felt like we were in the Arctic. Everything seemed to be covered in snow. We had stopped outside a small port. Behind us in the far distance the rays of the sun beat down against the water, but here they were blocked out due to the same protective charm that The Shade had.

I turned to look in front of me. Caleb had climbed down onto the icy wooden jetty and was looking up at me, hands crossed over his chest.

Shivering, I climbed down after him, almost slipping on Frieda’s long night gown in the process.

When I cast a cursory look around the island, leaving aside that it was covered with snow, it did appear similar to The Shade. There were thick woods—although the trees weren’t nearly as tall here—and I spotted a mountain range in the distance.

“Where do you vampires come from?”

Caleb remained silent, his eyes set forward.

When I repeated my question, he stared at me and said, “The less you know, the safer you’ll be. My priority is to get you and your brother back to your parents. I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Anything else you may ask is irrelevant and I suggest you keep it to yourself.”

I wanted to argue back, but the seriousness in his expression chilled me more than the weather.

Once we had crossed the beach, I looked back to get a better look at the vampires who were a part of this coven. I spotted among them some of the men I’d seen that first night I’d met Caleb at the beach party. There were perhaps fifty vampires in total—a mixture of men and women. All of them appeared to be young vampires, around the age of twenty.

Leaving the beach, we veered left toward the foothills of the mountains. And then I saw it looming in the distance. A giant grey stone-walled castle, with half a dozen sharp black-roofed turrets, built up among some of the highest peaks. Just looking at how high up it was made my head dizzy and my knees weak.

Caleb looked down at me.

“It’s a long way up. I’ll have to carry you.”

He didn’t wait for my permission. Placing one arm behind my knees and wrapping the other around my waist, he picked me up. Then he began racing up the narrow winding steps leading toward the castle. His speed left me breathless, the cruel wind whipping past my ears. I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked over his shoulder at the other vampires running behind us.

By the time we arrived at the top, about ten minutes later, my whole body was shivering uncontrollably. Caleb looked like he’d just taken a casual stroll in the park, not sprinted up a colossal ice-covered mountain.

He set me down on the ground once we reached the heavy oak doors leading into the castle. He pushed them both open. They swung backward, creaking.

Cautiously, I stepped in after him. We stepped into a giant hall, lit only by burning candles in the corners of the room, their flames licking the shadowy walls. Walking across the black marble floors, we made our way toward a grand staircase.

The place was so spooky I instinctively reached out and gripped Caleb’s hand. He didn’t look down at me, but his arm tensed. Then his hand closed ever so slightly around mine.

We climbed up to the first level—leaving all the vampires behind us to go their separate ways—and continued up winding staircase after winding staircase until we reached what appeared to be the top of one of the turrets.

We stopped outside a black door, engraved with some weird-looking language. Caleb let go of my hand and knocked.

“Annora!” he called. “Open up. It’s Caleb.”

The door swung open to reveal a tall, pale black-haired woman with cool grey eyes.

“And what have we here?” she said, looking down at me coldly.

Caleb gripped my arm and pulled me inside.

The room was rectangular, with an oblong table at one end and several silk-covered chaise longues at the other. The velvet curtains had been drawn.

“This,” Caleb began as he shut the door behind us, “is the Novak girl. Stellan kidnapped her and her brother.”

Stellan. That must be the ginger-haired bastard’s name.

“So what are you doing with this girl?” Annora said. “I instructed Stellan to bring both twins to his island. I never wanted them here.”

“You what?” Caleb’s jaw dropped as he stared at the young woman.

She smiled coldly and walked up to him, running a finger across his cheek. He flinched at her touch, but he didn’t back away.

“Yes, Caleb. I told Stellan to kidnap them.”

“Are you insane? Why would you do that?” Caleb fumed. “Our task is difficult enough as it is without—”

“When you told me you’d almost taken this Novak girl that night you went to the beach, it got me thinking…” She looked down at me, wrinkling her nose. “But now’s not the time.”

“Christ.” Caleb exhaled, lifting a hand to his forehead.

Annora looked him over sternly. “Did you try to ambush Stellan?”

Caleb nodded. “I didn’t think you’d give such an order.”

She chuckled and wrapped an arm around Caleb’s waist, while the other hand lifted his chin up to face her. Again, he flinched at her advances, but didn’t step away.

“Do you still have no faith in me, after all this time?”

He scowled. “Whatever your plan is,” he said through gritted teeth, “keeping these twins as prisoners is going to cause more mess than it’s worth. We need to return them both immediately.”

“No,” she said, the smile on her lips fading. “The Novak boy will remain with Stellan. And since you’ve brought the girl here, she may as well remain here under your rule. Come to think of it, it’s probably better that the two aren’t kept together.”

Caleb’s jaw twitched. “And what am I to do with her?”

“For now, you can treat her as a guest. Give her her own room. Of course, you’ll need to inform her of what will happen should she try to escape.”

“Wait, no. Please.” I stepped forward and got down on my knees in front of her. “Please, let us go.”

Caleb gripped my arm and pulled me away from her.

“Please!” I shouted, as he dragged me out of the room. “I need to see my brother! At least bring him here, or allow me to go there!”

Caleb slammed the door shut behind us. Once we were outside, he swore and smashed his fists against the stone wall.

I held my breath as I stared at him, tears welling in my eyes again.

“What’s going to happen to my brother?”

“Never try to plead with that witch,” he said, inhaling deeply as though trying to reel in his temper. “It will only make her more bent on her course of action.”

“She’s a witch?”

He nodded, grimacing.

“But you’re the ruler of this place? Just take us back home! Why do you have to listen to that bitch?”

He caught my hand and pulled me down the stairs with him. “For your sake, I hope she didn’t hear you call her that.”

“Answer my question,” I said, tugging on his hand as I struggled to keep up with his speed.

He ignored me and continued to drag me down the steps.

I stopped in my tracks, refusing to take another step. Letting go of my hand, he gripped my midriff and flung me over his shoulder.

“Put me down!” I gasped, winded.

When he finally put me down, we were standing outside an open door. He led me through to a bedroom. It was cold, just like the rest of the castle, although the room was comfortable—luxurious even—with its velvet curtains and thick duvets.

The vampire turned to leave.

“No! You can’t just walk out on me like this,” I yelled, running after him. “I need answers!”

He slammed the door shut, and the key twisted in the lock.

A
fter about an hour
of screaming and bashing the front door, it was clear that nobody was going to let me out. My fists raw from pounding against the rough wood, I walked back into the bedroom and drew open the balcony doors. I stepped outside onto the balcony and looked around.

That witch never said anything about locking me in here. I’m supposed to be a guest.

First I looked out toward the sea—it appeared to be night now, since the sun no longer glistened against the waves outside of the boundary.

I shuddered. Below me was a steep drop of hundreds of feet, down onto jagged mountain cliffs. I was on one of the highest floors of the building. It would be suicide to escape this way. There was nothing to hold on to. Just rock.

There were rows of balconies, both on my level and also the level above. But the balconies were too far apart for me to jump safely from one to the other.

I left the balcony and looked around the bedroom. I headed straight for the closet and was relieved to see a warm, thick robe. I wrapped it around myself and felt a little warmer, though still frozen to the bone.

There didn’t appear to be central heating in this castle. Although there was an old-fashioned fireplace in the corner of my room. It was filled with dry logs and some coal. Grabbing a set of matches on the mantelpiece, I lit the fire until it was stoked enough to warm the room. I lay in bed and huddled beneath the blankets, finally feeling my body return to a healthy temperature.

That was when the door unlatched. I rushed out of the bedroom in time to see the door slam shut and the key turn again. On the floor was a tray. There was a jug of water, an empty metal cup, and a metal bowl. I bent down closer to sniff the bowl. Oatmeal.

Oatmeal, huh. If this is what you feed your guests, I hate to think what you feed your prisoners.

I drank the water, but I didn’t have any appetite for food. Especially not oatmeal.

I shuddered as I wondered if Ben was being treated any better. Somehow, under Stellan’s rule, I doubted it.

Once I’d finished drinking the water, I curled back in bed beneath the covers and tried to fall asleep. But I couldn’t. I lay for hours, staring at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. I couldn’t get the harrowing images of Ben being sucked back into that black submarine out my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about how worried our parents would be once they found out we weren’t in Scotland.

It must have been well past midnight when a thump reverberated across my ceiling. Then another thump. It sounded like it was coming from the room directly above mine. The thumps got louder and more violent until the chandelier was swinging in its place.

What in the world?

“Stop,” a man shouted, making my heart leap into my throat.

Glass smashed. Then more shouts.

I got out of bed and walked out onto the balcony, shivering as I drew the robe closer around me.

“Don’t make me do this.”

The voice was clearer this time.
The balcony door upstairs must be open.

Then a female, shrill and breathless: “Why do you make this so difficult?”

More crashing and thumping on the floor.

“Caleb!”

Caleb?

Wood snapped.

“You bitch.”

Another thud against my floor and then a groan of pain.

“I think we’re done for this evening,” the female voice said.

Her voice was clearer that time, as though she was standing right by the balcony. Clear enough to realize who was up there with him: the witch.

I crouched down and listened with bated breath as footsteps disappeared. A door slammed shut in the distance. Then footsteps sounded again on the balcony above. I ducked down closer into the shadows as two hands gripped the banister above. I heard heavy breathing.

I stayed in my spot, even though my bare feet were beginning to freeze, until he left the balcony and the doors closed behind him. I did the same with my doors and climbed back into bed.

I tried to close my eyes and finally fall asleep now that the noises had stopped, but now I felt more awake than ever. I couldn’t get the sounds of the violence going on up there out of my head. Even though they had stopped, they continued to echo around in my mind—most of all, the way Caleb had groaned out in pain.

What was that witch doing to him?