Sure enough, Parker pressed his lips into a firm line and took a deep, doleful breath.“Not a peep out of them. I’m not sure what we’re going to do. Connie wants to stake them all, but what if they didn’t know what Vanessa had planned? What if they’re innocent in all of this?”
“Can I talk to them?”
He shook his head.“It won’t do any good. They’re pretty firm in their decision not to talk to us.”
I placed a gentle hand on his arm.“It will do me good. Even if they don’t say anything, I’ll feel better knowing I’ve tried.”
Parker leaned in and placed a kiss on my cheek.“I love your determination. You’ve really taken all this magic stuff in stride.”
I laughed at that. Seriously, he had no idea.
25
Parker held my hand as he guided me toward the warehouse-like room where Fluffikins kept his stash of magical artifacts hidden in a special ceiling hold.
We walked right up to the opening in the ceiling, but instead of looking up, Parker looked down. He tapped his foot four times, then moved a couple paces to the side and tapped it twice more. He moved and tapped again, then one last time with a single stomp.
And a section of the hard floors disappeared, revealing a long, dark staircase.
“Has this been here the whole time?” I asked in disbelief.
He flashed me a grin and then motioned for me to go down ahead of him. The steps lit up beneath me with a magical glow to guide our descent.
We walked for a long time, at least forty steps deep, until finally we came upon a hidden room that appeared to be carved from one giant slab of stone. A magical sheen separated the far corner, cutting diagonally to create a small, triangular cell where four prisoners sat.
“Are you sure about this?” Parker asked one more time. “You’ll be safer if I go in with you.”
“Hey now,” I said, giving him a playful jab. “You said you were done with the misguided chivalry.”
He at least had the good grace to look abashed.“Sorry. Old habits and all that. I’ll leave you to it.” He squeezed my hand before rising back up the stairs and locking the trapdoor behind him. I waited until I heard the clunk of the floor phasing back together above, then passed through the shimmering barrier and into the prison cell.
The four vampire chefs sat side by side on a long bench, each with their hands folded in their laps and wrists bound by magical cuffs that glowed neon.
“Look, as we’ve already told your colleagues, we don’t know anything,” the vampire on the far left muttered, fixing his cold eyes on me.
I’d never interrogated anyone before, but now that I was the most powerful being in existence, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to gain information from this quartet. “Where did you come from? Before you arrived in Beech Grove?”
“Why should we tell you?” It seemed that this vampire had been elected as their collective voice.
I paced the small prison hold until I was standing directly in front of him. Then I closed my eyes and focused on what I wanted to happen. I imagined the vampire readily and truthfully answering my questions, then held that image in my brain as I asked again.“Where did you come from?”
“Blueberry Bay. In Maine,” he offered at once.
Whoa, that was almost too easy.
“I’ve been there,” I said. This time I focused on the undulating magic inside me, how it comforted and calmed, then pushed that feeling out toward the vampire seated before me.
He visibly relaxed, loosening his posture and slowing his breaths.“We know. That’s how we first learned of you. That’s why we came.”
“The four of you and Vanessa?”
“No, our boss.”
“Who’s your boss?”
“We don’t know.”
“Did Vanessa know?”
“No. We only know the people at our level and directly above. Leadership remains a secret to protect the cause.”
“What is the cause?”
He hesitated, turning his face away from mine.
“What is the cause?” I repeated, imagining him giving me the answer and then immediately following up with my calming magical touch.
The captive vampire’s face contorted in a quickly flashing array of emotions—rage, temptation, sorrow, remorse. Still he didn’t speak.
But the vampire beside him did.“To unite the world under one magic. One power.”
“A global dictatorship?”
“To his power,” all four vampires chimed as one.
“Whose?”
“We don’t know,” the first answered again.
I sighed.“Ah, yes, the layers of leadership.” Whoever was in charge had clearly prepared for this scenario. Our prisoners couldn’t talk if they didn’t even know anything.
“Why do you want to unite the world? What’s in it for you if you won’t even be the one in charge?”
“We will—” the second began.
“Silence!” the first vampire cut him off with a growled warning.
“We’ve already said too much.”
“I can’t resist,” the other moaned. He began to shake violently as if having a seizure.
“Then you know what we must do. What we all must do.”
I watched in horror as all the vampire captives began to scream and shake until one by one they slumped over.
“What’s happening in here?” Connie cried as she, Parker, and Fluffikins wrenched the trapdoor open and charged down the long flight of stairs.
“I… I don’t know.”
Fluffikins jumped up onto the first vampire’s lap and pawed at his chest. “My word. I’ve heard of this, but I’ve never seen it.”
“What happened?” Parker asked, moving to my side.
“I was asking them questions, and then all of a sudden, they screamed and shook and passed out.”
“They’re dead.” Fluffikins confirmed what I’d already guessed.
“But how? I thought a stake was the only way to…”
“The heart,” the cat mumbled. “Destroy the heart, destroy the magic.”
“They used their superior strength to crush their own hearts. You must have been very close to getting answers,” Connie said, regarding me warily.
“Barnes, come with me,” Fluffikins shouted, jumping off the dead vampire’s lap and scurrying toward the stairs. I sent him a silent note of thanks. If Parker had asked me too many questions about what happened here, I doubted I’d be able to answer them while maintaining my Terran secret.
Parker dutifully followed the cat boss, leaving me and Connie alone in the basement prison.
“Has the cat told you what you are?” she asked, looking me up and down.
I summoned the pink, sparkly world magic to my fingertips, and it unfurled, taking the shape of a balloon.
“Ah, there it is,” she said dryly. “What were you able to find out before they took their own lives?”
“They came here for me,” I whispered, wishing the answer had been different.
Connie frowned.“Yes, that much is obvious.”
“You were all in danger, because of me. I can’t—” I shook my head when my voice cracked. Was I really something so terrible that these vampire henchmen would rather die than have a discussion?
Connie grabbed me by the shoulders and shook. Hard.“Whatever stupid thing you’re thinking right now, remember this. We’ll be in much more danger if the bad guys get ahold of you. Right now the best thing we can do is keep you safe and out of their reach. Well, actually, I suggested we kill you and save ourselves a world of problems, but Fluffikins won’t allow it.”
Then I owed the little black cat my life, it seemed. That is, if I could even die. That would definitely be an important question to ask the next time he and I had a heart-to-heart.
26
“Did you really want to kill me?” I asked, not sure if I was surprised.
Connie’s face lit with a cruel smile. “Yup, and I’d have done it myself, too. I still might if you become too much of a handful.”