BITTEN (Book #3 of the Vampire Legends) (11 page)

Violet stood there, glaring back at them as they stared the seven of them up and down. They wore all black outfits with the Greslin crest on the breast pockets of their silk button down shirts. Rachel’s parents stood there in their boring Dockers and plaid shirts. They couldn’t have looked more pathetic, Violet thought to herself. She knew this would be easy.

“Can we help you?” Rachel’s dad asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“You most certainly can!” Violet said, as she pushed past John and Betsy and forced her way into their house. “C’mon!” she demanded her subjects.

“Excuse me?” Rachel’s mom, Betsy said. “Who are you?”

“Does that really matter?” Violet said with a cackle.

Violet walked around the downstairs, taking everything in, the smells, the family pictures, and the furniture, all of it. She ran her finger over the dusty coffee table and then put her finger up to her mouth and blew the dust off in Betsy’s face as she stood there in awe watching.

“Now, young lady, what do you think you’re doing? This is our house!” John said, trying to figure out what was going on.

“I’m just getting the lay of the land Pops!” Violet answered.

“Lay of the land?” John questioned.

“Yup! That’s what I said, you going deaf?” Violet snarked.

She watched as John turned bright red in the face and she could tell he was starting to get angry. She loved every minute of it and wanted to keep it going for as long as she could. She knew she had these two, and could torment the crap out of them.

“Would you look at this, the fam!” Violet said as she looked at a painted portrait of Rachel’s family on the beach. “What a lovely painting this is! Although, Pops, with all due respect, you’re not smiling here,” Violet said pointing to his face. “Let me see what I can do!” Violet said as she reached into her black messenger bag and pulled out a black marker. She pulled open the cap and then began to draw a smile on the painting. When she finished she looked at her work, which she knew was downright ugly and said, “There, much better!”

“No, our painting!” cried Betsy. “You’re a monster!”

“I’m going to have to ask you and your, um, friends to leave now,” John said in a stern voice.

Violet stared at him, smelling the fear that oozed off his body. “I’m going to have to ask you and your, um, friends to leave now!” she mocked him. “I don’t think so. Not so fast, we’ve only just arrived here. We couldn’t leave yet,” Violet said as she stared back at the family photo.

“What a lovely fam you’ve got here! Two good-looking parents, and three beautiful children. It must be nice to have such an attractive looking family!” Violet said rhetorically.

“Can we help you with something?” John asked.

“Well, now that you mention it, you can. Why don’t you sit down a moment so we can chat,” Violet asked.

“No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” John said, looking at Betsy as they both shook their heads in agreement.

“SIT DOWN!” Violet repeated herself, this time much louder.

“Don’t tell us what to do in our own home!” John retorted angrily.

“You will sit down this minute!” Violet laughed and summoned two of her subjects to transport them across the room and sit them on the couch opposite Violet. As she watched this pathetic pair float through the air, towards the chairs, she let out a big laugh.

“Help!” Betsy said, as her body lifted off the ground uncontrollably.

“Betsy, I don’t like this!” John said simultaneously.

“Oh stop worrying,” Violet said, “We’re not going to hurt you. We just have a few things we need to talk to you about.”

Violet sat there, looking at the pair, who looked as if they had just been sentenced to the electric chair. Their mouths hung open, their eyes wide with panic and fear. She reveled in this as she sat back in the soft brown leather chair and put her feet up on the white painted coffee table. She then dug her pointy heels into the fresh white paint and watched as it chipped off the table in big white flakes. She could tell Betsy wanted to scream, but didn’t say a word. She knew from this moment on, she had them wrapped around her bony little finger.

“So, I bet you’re wondering why we’ve asked you here today?” Violet asked, as she glared at the two and waited for them to respond.

She waited a minute and then raised one eyebrow in anticipation.

“Cat’s got your tongues, I see!” Violet sneered.

“Well, then, I will just speak and you can listen. Feel free to chime in if the mood strikes you,” Violet said.

“We’re here because of your lovely daughter Rachel,” she began. “We know she’s back and we must find her. Can you tell us where she is?”

Betsy and John looked at each other. “Um, she’s not, um, home right now,” Betsy, stammered.

“And where might that little gem be?” Violet asked.

“Uh, Uh, she’s at school still,” Betsy, said, checking the time on her watch.

“School, eh?” Violet questioned. “When does she get back?”

Betsy looked back down at her watch and said, “Well, I’m not too sure actually. I don’t know what she had planned after school today.”

“Some mother you are! You don’t even know where your own kid is,” Violet patronized.

“You watch it!” John said, sticking up for his wife.

Violet looked at one of her subjects and shook her head. The subject went over to John and touched his throat, completely disengaging his voice box from making any sounds. He tried to open his mouth to scream, but nothing came out. He grasped his throat and rubbed his neck, but nothing could fix it.

“That’s better!” Violet said. “You know, it upsets me when I get yelled at. I was never into authority figures,” she said, staring at John.

“Well then maybe you can answer me this. Why did she align herself with the Vladiccus Coven?”

“The Vlad what?” Betsy asked.

“The VLADICCUS COVEN,” Violet spoke slowly and clearly.

“What on earth is that?” Betsy asked back, cowardly.

“Ugh!” Violet grunted. “I don’t have time to walk you through this right now and I would appreciate it if you stopped pretending not to know what I am talking about.”

“But, I don’t, I promise you, I don’t know who that is,” Betsy said in a frightened tone.

“Listen, if you’re going to play dumb with us, we’re going to have to find some way to get it out of you,” Violet said.

“What’s the coven’s plan for war then? Why don’t you riddle me that?” Violet laughed.

“War?” Betsy cried. “I don’t know, please, I swear.”

John tried to open his mouth again to talk, but nothing came out.

“Sorry, Sir, can’t hear you, why don’t you speak up!” Violet asked as she commanded her subject to undo the spell she’d put on him.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about!” John said, his voice suddenly booming with volume.

“That’s better! We can hear you now. I hope that will teach you to watch your tone with me Pops,” Violet insisted.

Violet watched as Betsy took out her cell phone to make a call. She didn’t know whom she was dialing, but didn’t want to wait and find out. She looked at the phone, held out her bony hand and wiggled her fingers toward her as the phone flew out of Betsy’s hand and into hers. She looked at the number on the screen—911—and then broke the phone in half with one hand and laid it down on the coffee table.

“That’s rude!” Violet said. “We were in the middle of a conversation!”

“But, my phone!” Betsy said.

“Now, where were we?” Violet asked. “Oh right, back to your wonderful daughter Rachel.”

“We don’t have any information for you. She just got back last night. We have barely spoken to her about her disappearance. I’m sorry, we truly don’t have any answers for you,” John said, cowardly.

Violet lifted her feet off the white coffee table and stood up, quickly, knocking over the cup of coffee that was sitting on the table next to her feet.

“I think our work is done here then,” Violet said, as she flipped her dark black hair and turned to exit the house. “If I think of anything else, I’ll be back,” Violet said.

“Thanks for the chat,” she said as she patted both Betsy and John on their heads before she walked out of the house with her six subjects following in line behind her.

As she walked out of the driveway she ripped the hood ornament off the busted up station wagon and put it in her breast pocket. She thought it would be a great souvenir of her tormenting trip to Rachel’s house. Now, the next souvenir she was after was Rachel’s head. She knew she’d get it sooner or later.

Chapter Twelve

As Rachel got home that afternoon, she was relieved to have gotten through her first day back. In her mind, she had thought it would have been a much harder day with way more interrogation, but as it turned out, she was able to avoid many of the questions her friends and peers asked of her. She was also happily surprised that she was back in time for the big Halloween Ball and that Rob had been so nice to her. She couldn’t believe how things were shaping up for her since she’d been back, but she didn’t want to overthink it or jinx it. As she walked into her house, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Hi Mom, I’m home!” she yelled into the kitchen and waited for a response.

“Mom? You home?” she yelled again, looking around the house.

She then walked into the living room and saw both of her parents, sitting down on the couch with their jaws hung open as if they had just seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong guys? Are you ok?” Rachel asked.

“You have a lot of explaining to do young lady,” her dad said sternly.

“What did I do now?” Rachel asked, annoyed.

Rachel looked around at the room, which looked like it had been torn to shreds. She picked up the broken cell phone and looked at it in her hand.

“What happened in here?” Rachel asked. “It’s a mess!”

“Oh, you think so, do you?” her mom asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Rachel said.

“We just had visit from a friend of yours,” her dad said.

“A friend of mine?” Rachel asked, trying to think of who it could’ve been. “Who?”

“Funny you should ask. It was a charming girl, she wore all black and had six others with her, also in all black with a bloody deer embroidered on their shirts. Is this ringing a bell?”

Rachel’s eyes opened wide as she sat down in the chair across from them, stepping on the paint chips that were crunching underneath her shoes as she sat.

“You’re joking?” Rachel asked. “What was her name?”

“I don’t think we got her name, but she had pail skin and dark black hair, she was pretty evil looking,” her dad said.

“Violet?” Rachel asked. “Please tell me it wasn’t Violet?”

“It might have been,” her mom said angrily. “These drugged out friends of yours totally ripped up our house.”

“Drugged out friends of MINE?” Rachel yelled. “They are NOT my friends!”

“Listen Rachel, this is totally unacceptable. We can’t have these misfits barging into our house using spells on us and destroying the place. This is completely dangerous and we can’t let them risk our lives like this,” her dad said.

“What do you mean?” Rachel asked.

“You have to leave!” her mom said.

“Yes! You need to leave now. You’re a liability for the family and putting us all in harm’s way,” her dad agreed.

“What do you mean leave?” Rachel asked firmly.

“We mean, leave, as in get out!” her dad yelled.

“Get out? But this is my house!” Rachel yelled back.

“This WAS your house,” her mom retorted. “It’s not safe for us if you stay here anymore. We don’t trust you or the people you’ve been associating yourself with. You’ll be a bad influence on your siblings if you stay.”

“But, where do you want me to go? I’ll be homeless.”

“She mentioned something about a Vladiccus friend of yours. Why don’t you go stay with them?”

“Vladiccus? How do you know about that?” Rachel asked confused.

“We find out everything, eventually,” her mom said.

“I can’t go back there, I wont!” Rachel said. “I want to stay here, with you and Sarah and Mark. Please, I promise, I won’t do anything wrong, I swear!” she begged.

“This is not open for discussion,” her dad said. “We have made up our minds.”

“No!” Rachel yelled.

“Yes! Go upstairs and pack your things. You must leave now,” her dad yelled.

“We don’t want any more of these friends of yours stopping by the house, you hear?” her mom said angrily. “These are not the types of people we want around us or our other children. You have paved your way, and there’s nothing we can do about it now. You have to go out on your own now. We can no longer be your parents, it’s just too hard on us,” her dad said.

“But, but, what do you mean you can no longer be my parents? You can’t just say that. You’re crazy!” Rachel said, almost in tears. “Are you giving me up for adoption? Putting me in a foster home? I don’t get it! I’m not even 18 yet! This is illegal.”

“We won’t discuss this one more minute. Go get your things and be gone. We can’t bear to look at you for one more second,” her dad said as he pointed towards the direction of the stairs. “Go!”

Rachel stormed out of the living room and ran upstairs crying and slammed the door shut behind her. She had no idea what was going on, but knew she couldn’t make sense of it now. Something bad must have happened and now she knew she was in major trouble. Not only did she have to leave home, but also she knew they were after her and it would only be a matter of time before they found her.

She quickly packed a duffle bag of all her favorite and most important things, left a short note for her sister to call her and then stormed out of the house, not knowing where she’d end up that night.

Chapter Thirteen

As Violet and her evil subjects flew overhead, she peered down at all the buildings, trying to figure out which one was Rachel’s school. She’d never been to this town, yet it eerily reminder her of the town she’d grown up in many years ago. She hated her town, and couldn’t think of anything worse than returning to her town after all these years—yet she found herself in a shockingly identical suburban town. She couldn’t believe how anyone would ever want to live in the suburbs and she absolutely couldn’t understand why any kid would want to grow up in one. She couldn’t help but snap back to her days in high school: the teachers were controlling, the principal was the biggest authoritative jerk she’d ever met, the hall monitors were on some crazy power trip that she couldn’t understand, although chalked it up to the fact that they were probably losers in high school and they were getting back at people now. She also remembered the kids and how she hated every single one of them, especially the jocks. She hated jock types and prissy little girls and had a sinking feeling this suburb was going to be no different.