Chapter 7

Evidently, Carmen and the guys had been so worried that they hadn't even bothered to pack up their equipment before coming to find me.

   Gee, I felt special.

   Nick drove the van up the long winding driveway, leading us back to the Kalamazoo Castle. The parking lot that had been filled to the brim with cars on Halloween, was now eerily empty.

   My heart sank. What if Vycandor was no longer here?

   Carmen slid the door open and jumped out of the van first, checking her watch. “Okay, so it's 3:15. Let's meet back here in two hours.”

   “Why the rush?” I asked.

   Carmen looked at me annoyed. “Duh! Like, we have school tomorrow. Do you wanna be late?”

   I climbed out next, frowning. “What about sleep? Oh yeah, that reminds me. I haven't had any.”

   She rolled her eyes. This time both pupils managed to land on me, facing in the same direction. Thank God for small miracles. “You can sleep when you get home afterwards.”

   I glanced at Sebastian, and whispered, “Serenity must've put something else in that poison. Carmen never gave a damn about school before.”

   He nodded in agreement. “Probably to make sure the undead stick to their old schedules until they're ready to be unleashed. Serenity wouldn't want them doing anything out of the ordinary that might arouse suspicion.”

   Skylar wrapped an arm loosely around my shoulder, not only guiding me towards the castle, but also away from Sebastian. “What's up with that guy? Ever since you introduced him, he's been looking at you like he owns you. I don't think he's even taken his eyes off you once. He's enjoying the view way too much, in my opinion.”

   “I'm not scenery.”

   Skylar made a sound in the back of his throat. “Why don't you try telling him that.”

   "C'mon guys, hurry up," Carmen called, as she climbed the steps leading up to the castle. "We don't have all night."

   She crossed the creaky wooden porch, then tossed open the heavy iron bound door as if she owned the place. The rest of us trailed after her like good little ducklings as she made her way to the grand staircase in near total darkness.

   Turning to me, she said, “I'll be upstairs packing the trunk, while the guys get their equipment around. I know you've been dying to take a tour of the place. Why don't you go show Sebastian around, and meet up with us later?” Without waiting for me to reply, she lit an oil lantern and disappeared along with the guys into the murky shadows.

   I had no idea where to begin my search for Vycandor. One thing's for sure, I didn't want to go back to the dungeon. The memory of almost destroying the one angel I was born to love, was just way too fresh in my mind. Hopefully, not all searches had to lead underground.

   Lighting another lantern, I held it up and decided to investigate the north wing of the castle.

   “So, what's up with you?” I finally asked while we walked, voice suspicious. “What were you doing at the hospital?”

   He shrugged. “Looking for you.”

   “No shit, genius. What I want to know is why?”

   “I don't know why.”

   “What's with the penguin suit?”

   He glanced down, then back up again. “You mean my clothes?”

   “Do you see any other penguin suits around here?” I groaned.

   He shrugged again. “I was giving a performance at the Kalamazoo Hilton”

   “What kind of performance?”

   “Oh, I'm a magician,” he replied with a broad smile.

   I hate when I'm right.

   “That still doesn't explain what you were doing at the hospital.”

   He shook his head. “One moment I'm performing a magic trick using fire, and the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

   I raised both brows. “Did you get burned?”

   “I don't think so.”

   “Then why were you brought to Borgess?”

   “The details are still a little bit fuzzy,” he replied with a grin, “but I think it had something to do with the kerosine I drank.”

   I grabbed his arm, pulling him to a halt. “What do you mean, you drank kerosine?”

   “It's part of the trick,” he insisted. “First, I select a member from the audience, and ask to borrow their coat. Second, I drink the kerosine. Third, using a candle lighter, I blow a massive fireball and set the coat on fire.

   “That's crazy.”

   “I know,” he grinned.

   “What happens to the coat?”

   “Usually, nothing. I manage to put out the flames before there's any damage, using water I drink right before the performance.”

   “All this from your mouth?”

   He nodded, bright lavender eyes sparkling at the memory.

   “Your insane. So what went wrong?”

   “That's the weird part. I was performing in front of a packed house when my head felt like it was about to explode. All of a sudden my brain became filled with these images, including stuff about you, stuff about me that I never knew, but especially details about Serenity, and her plans to bring mankind to their knees. When I woke up in the hospital, I only knew that I had to find you.”

   “You were activated,” I moaned, spinning around on one heel and walking away.

   He paused momentarily, before jogging to catch up. “What do you mean, I was activated?”

   I waved my arms in the air. “Blame it on the Universe.”

   Sebastian grabbed my arm, stopping me dead in my tracks. I glanced down. Slowly raising my head, I shot daggers at him.

   He let go. “Sorry about that.”

   “You're smarter than you look.”

   Smiling apologetically, he continued with questions as if cross examining me. “What were you saying about the Universe?”

   I frowned, not knowing how much I wanted to tell him. “An inherent thread connects us because of our powers. If we remain separate, our powers will only become increasingly more potent. The Universe delivered you to me so I wouldn't self destruct, and take the planet with me.”

   “Which is exactly what the Dark Ones want,” he added.

   I nodded. “Yeah, it would save them a lot of trouble, don't you think?”

   Sebastian folded his arms across his well-defined chest. “I guess it's just a good thing I found you before that happened then, huh?”

   I ignored him and walked away.

   Suddenly at my side again, he asked, “So how do we do this thing?”

   “Do what?”

   “Join forces to save the world.”

   I rolled my eyes. “I'll put it on my schedule...” He clasped both hands together without waiting for me to finish, raising them over his head in victory, as if he'd just won a boat race. “Right after...never in your wildest dreams,” I added, knocking the wind out of his sail.

   He continued to sulk when we entered one of many spacious living quarters, the furniture all covered up with white sheets like giant ghosts.

   I had a serious problem with that.

   Carmen had left the front door wide open. Every so often a blustering wintery wind made the sheets dance like someone, or something was hiding underneath them.

   Sebastian picked up on my nervousness and went around the room removing the dust covered sheets. “There, that makes it look better in here.”

   “My hero,” I groaned.

   Ignoring the comment, he wandered over to a bookcase and picked up an old picture frame. Blowing off the dust, he said, “Hey, it looks like a picture of the castle.”

   I moved beside him, raising the lantern. A family of four stood on the manicured lawn in front of the castle. I squinted my eyes to take a closer look at a young boy with an extremely serious look on his face, and gasped. “This is his house.”

   Sebastian glanced down at the picture, then back up at me in confusion. “Whose house is it?”

   “Vycandor's,” I breathed.

   As soon as the word escaped my lips, I heard it.

   The melancholy sound of piano music. The mournful notes filled my ears, touching my very soul like no other music ever had before.

   I handed the lantern to Sebastian, and mouthed, “Stay here.”

   Guided through the darkness as if in a trance, I came to a door and peeked inside. Vycandor sat behind a grand piano placed in one corner of the intimate parlor room. Steeped in dark rose colored hues, heavy velvet curtains adorned three floor-to-ceiling windows. A matching velvet fainting sofa and an ornate brass music stand were the only other furniture in the room. Candles adorning the top of the piano provided delicate, flickering light.

  Head bowed with his back to me, Vycandor's fingers fluttered like gentle wings as his hands caressed the ivory keys. Dressed in yet another one of his old-fashioned suits with frothy white lace spilling from the cuffs of a form fitting waist coat – his black as midnight hair cascading loosely down his back – he looked exactly how a vampiric monster was supposed to look.

   Tall, dark, and deadly.