Aleesa’s eyes light up with happiness as she skips toward us and follows us into the cemetery. Aislin tells me we have to find a fresh grave, so we wander around the yard, looking for one and finally find one in the corner of the cemetery beneath a massive oak tree.
Aislin takes some black and red candles out of her bag and places them on the grass in a circle around the grave. “Alright, now we just need to sit in a circle around the candles,” she says, lighting each candle with a lighter.
I take a seat in the cool grass and so do Aislin and Aleesa. Then Aislin sprinkles silver dust over the candles, making the color of the flames turn blood red.
She retrieves her spell book and opens it up. “Okay,” she mutters, placing a red and green leaf in the center of our circle. “Are you guys ready for this?” she asks and must take our silence as a yes, because she takes a deep breath and chats. “EGO dico ut maleena ut orior oriri ortus iterum. EGO dico ut maleena ut orior oriri ortus iterum!” Aislin screams, throwing her head back and elevating her hands above her head.
The candle’s flames shift to yellow with a black center, casting an eerie glow around us, making every shadow seem like it’s closing in on us. Then the flames grow bigger, more powerful, begin to ravel together until there’s one giant flame stretching toward the sky. It takes the form of a woman, who rises above us and opens her hollow eyes.
“EGO dico ut maleena ut orior oriri ortus iterum!” Aislin yells again and the flame woman opens her mouth.
“Die!” she screeches with her mouth aimed at the sky and thunder booms even though there are no clouds in sight.
Aleesa screams as she jumps to her feet in a panic. Aislin’s eyes snap wide as Aleesa sprints off through the cemetery toward the iron gate.
I look from the flaming woman to Aislin, hesitating. “Should I go get her?”
“Yes! Go!” Aislin cries, her hands out to the side, her eyes locked on the flame woman. “I’ll be fine!”
Moments later, I’m on my feet and weaving around the graves as I chase down Aleesa. I lose track of her at one point but then spot her climbing over the fence and I speed up. As I reach the fence myself, I don’t slow down, accelerating and springing up on my toes. With one quick leap, I’m up and over the fence, landing gracefully onto the gravel on the other side. Then I glance from left to right, searching for Aleesa, but she’s nowhere. On a whim, I take off to my right, since it’s the way to the house and I’m hoping she’s headed back there. But as I’m barreling around the corner at full speed, I slam into a rock-hard surface. It almost knocks me to the ground, but I keep my balance and quickly regain my footing. But when I look up and see what I ran into, my heart stops.
A guy, tall, with skin like snow, and eyes as black as the night sky. He’s dressed in black, hair as pale as the moonlight, and he smells like rust and salt. He sizes me up with his dark eyes and then smiles, flashing me his sharp, shiny fangs.
Chapter 21
“Well, what do we have here?” He grins as he stalks toward me. “I think I’ve ran into a bit of luck, haven’t I?”
I start to back away, but he matches my movement, taking a step toward me every time I inch back, as if we’re dancing. He pushes up the sleeves of his shirt and things get a little more frightening as I spot the Mark of Malefiscus branded on the back of his hand.
“Don’t you know that wandering around at night is a dangerous thing? Especially at a place like this.”
I need to do something quick to get myself out of this situation. Foresee my way back to the house? But what kind of person would I be to bail on Aislin like that?
Before I can come up with an answer, the vampire lunges for me. I instinctively lift my leg and kick him right between the legs. The vampire crumples to the ground, and taking advantage of his momentary weakness, I jump for the fence, but his fingers wrap around my ankle and he drags me back to the ground. I stumble forward and smack my head against the iron fence. I see stars all around me.
Focus, Gemma. Foresee your way to Aislin.
I shut my eyes and concentrate on the graveyard, but the vampire sinks his fangs into my leg and it feels like my skin is on fire. But I focus past the pain, grab a nearby stick off the ground, and flip over onto my back, plunging the stick into the vampire’s back. He screams as I scream, my whole body feeling as though it’s melting, my skin hot wax, my veins ash.
Blood. More stars. Alex. Then I’m sucked away into the darkness.
Chapter 22
When I open my eyes the sun is rising over the mountains and across the valley, painting the land with hues of pink and orange. Birds are chirping and a light breeze caresses my skin. I blink against the morning light, roll over to my stomach, and push myself to my feet. There’s no sign of the vampire anywhere, but there’s ash is scattered in the gravel just in front of my feet so I’m guessing when I stabbed him, it went through his heart.
I stretch my arms above my head and start walking, rounding the corner and crossing the cemetery, looking for Aislin, trying not to think about how I saw the mark on the vampire, which means Stephan’s been getting more followers.
Aislin is in the spot where I left her, gathering her candles, looking pleased with herself. When she sees me, however, she frowns. “You didn’t find her.”
I give her a funny look. “Who…Oh! Aleesa. Shit.” I glance back at the gate. “I completely forgot about her… I ended up running into some trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Aislin asks as we hurry toward the entrance. “And why is your leg bleeding?”
I look down at my leg where blood is soaking through my jeans. Then I sigh and tell her what happened as we leave the cemetery and head back toward the house, searching yards and places nearby, looking for Aleesa.
“So he’s marking vampires now?” Aislin shakes her head, frustrated. “God, this is getting out of control.”
“I know,” I say as we reach the corner of the street. “I need to get into that mapping ball and hopefully fix it.”
We hop over the curb and start across the lawn toward a park, searching for Aleesa.
“I don’t even want to think about where she’d go,” Aislin says as she looks around the slide and swing area of the park
She’s right. Aleesa is so new to the world and the idea that she’s wandering around alone out here is frightening, especially if there are marked vampires and probably other things as well.
“What is that?” Aislin asks, squinting at the road.
I track her gaze to a Mazda parked beside the curb. “Shit.”
The car door opens and Alex gets out, looking pissed. At first I think it’s because we snuck out of the house without telling anyone, but then I see Aleesa sitting in the passenger side of the car.
“Did you two lose something?” he asks as he strides across the lawn toward us.
Aislin lets out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, where did you find her?”
Alex crosses his arms as he halts in front of us. “She came running into the house, screaming at the top of her lungs,” he says. “When I got her to calm down, she told me you two were at the cemetery and that there was a crying fire woman there.”
“Hmmm… that’s weird,” I say, trying to get us out of an Alex lecture. “Maybe she imagined it.”
“It’s okay, Gemma,” Aislin says then looks confidently at her brother. “We were at the cemetery doing a spell which is going to hopefully remove the Mark of Malefiscus… I just need to try it out and see…” Aislin glances at me. “I’d like to try it out on your mom, but I understand if you want me to find another person to test it on first, just in case something happens. We could maybe track down that vampire.”