Chapter 38

-Noah's POV-

I had only been joking when I said Geppetto's house would be a Dracula-themed castle. Turns out, I wasn't far off. It was in the middle of nowhere Italy, a place I didn't know existed. I know, I know, I'm a terrible person because I know nothing of other countries and cultures, but I've got many good reasons for that. I was always too preoccupied with work and school, along with the fact that I never thought I would be able to venture out of the United Kingdom in my life.

That wasn't the only similarity between Geppetto and the traditional Dracula though. There were many workers in the castle, rushing around and cleaning the gothic interior. I could tell by Crow's expression that he was debating whether or not to kill the vampire, just so he could take over the castle. This was probably like a dream to him, whilst to most it would be like a nightmare.

"Take a seat. Please." Geppetto couldn't look creepier if he tried as he gestured towards the seating area in one of the living rooms.

Aldrich begrudgingly sat in a chair by the fire, and by begrudgingly sat I mean he lounged dramatically across the chair like he was an extra in a Hollywood film who had just discovered a dead body. "Thank you for your assistance," he said sarcastically. "We don't mean to stay for long."

I followed Sawyer to a blood-red leather settee. I felt like all of my clothes were suddenly dirty, which they kind of were after sitting in a field for a while trying to gather my bearings. Geppetto didn't say anything if he had any kind of issue with it, but it still made me feel quite rude for sitting on such a pristine chair.

Geppetto stayed standing, which made me slightly uncomfortable. I had learned from television shows and my school career that when an adult doesn't sit, they were talking about something serious, or they had something else planned. I hoped it was the first one, my life being in danger and all, but I didn't trust the man.

I could tell that Crow didn't trust him either, and Sawyer was about as nervous as he usually was. If anything, he seemed a lot more fidgety. He wouldn't look straight at Geppetto, which I thought was a bit strange, but I tried not to worry myself even more. Geppetto's piercing gaze told me that he could tell exactly how I was feeling, probably due to his vampiric senses.

"Those statements seem to contradict themselves, Aldrich." Geppetto's voice had lowered quite a bit, and his playful nature, if that's what you would call jumping up to a hovering aeroplane, had completely disappeared. "Noah and Sawyer are in danger, and you want me to figure out what to do about it, correct?"

I felt the need to nod, so I did. I didn't want to talk, but I didn't want to be rude. Geppetto demanded attention and respect. His neatly trimmed black hair and beard gave me the impression of a man who could get exactly what he wanted.

"Yes," Aldrich confirmed. "Also, there are humans with supernatural strength, and there's someone going on a murdering spree on our street."

Sawyer cleared his throat. "There was a murdering spree," he corrected. "There were about four people killed the same day I was turned." His gaze didn't move from the patterned carpet.

"Which was all yesterday," Crow added on with a sigh. He hadn't stopped checking his phone since he got on the ground, and his bag was thrown down after us. I could've sworn that even as a vampire, a heart attack would've been his cause of death as it hurdled towards us from the sky. I couldn't blame him; we were still waiting for news about Haven.

Aldrich looked like he wanted to say something, but he decided to change his mind and say, "we know you have connections. You could convince everyone that it's wrong. You could tell everyone to shut up and stop thinking about attacking the children of vampires and humans."

"Aren't you on the council or something?" Geppetto asked dryly. He was clearly used to conversations like this. "Don't you have enough power in England? Losing your touch?" His lips quirked into a smirk.

Aldrich's expression turned grim and nearly furious. If I hadn't known him better, I would say that he was outraged, and he was going to explode. "I don't think that the council will care much, and I also don't think they could do much against vampires who are international."

I didn't believe that any vampire would come all the way to England just to kidnap or torture me, maybe even do some experimentation on my blood. The fact Aldrich had considered this, worried me even more. I had been trying to be blissfully ignorant of how much danger I was in, and I had learned over the past few months that my regular coping mechanisms weren't healthy.

Geppetto's lips fell into a large smirk. "So, your little tagrag group of vampires are basically nothing and completely uninfluential?" I wasn't sure if he got the term mixed up on purpose, or if it just wasn't something he was used to. His Italian accent was thick, and I just noticed that it took him a little while longer to start speaking. I wondered when he last spoke English, and if keeping up with modern English was an easy feat for someone so old.

"Are you going to help us?" Sawyer asked, surprising me from how loud he was. "Because if you're not going to help, then we could just as easily go back to our ragtag group of vampire elders."

Geppetto's jaw clenched, and he inhaled sharply. "I'll help you." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "At least one of you knows how to get to the point, surprising that you're from the same bloodline. Was that a bit too soon?" He chuckled. "I know how to help."

"You do?" Crow asked sceptically. He hugged himself with his free arm and leant closer to me. I found his closeness comforting, along with his touch. If this went completely off our plan, then at least I would have Crow to rely on for certain.

"I do. I know of a way that vampires will never bother you again. It'll be like you vanished from the face of the Earth without a single trace." Geppetto grinned, and that was the moment I realised that we had messed up. I didn't like his wording, and I especially didn't like the red gleam in his eyes.

Aldrich didn't seem to notice any of this as he clapped his hands and said, "fantastic!" I wondered if he had lost his mind, but he'd had a long day. The fact that vampires didn't sleep felt even more like we had been cheated as my days went on, we never got a break from reality to process the horrors of, well, reality.

Geppetto hummed darkly before clapping his hands. The workers who had been dusting and cleaning mindlessly jolted back to life like robots who had just been connected to a socket. "Right, you heard the man. We've got to help them." He turned to the three of us sitting on the same settee. "And they've made it so easy to catch them, how considerate."

I didn't know if the workers were under some sort of control, or if they were doing it entirely of their own accord, but I didn't care at that moment as I jumped from the settee, hand still clasped with Crow's. I felt bad, because I was separating us from Sawyer, but dodging the man with the pointed feather duster had become my main concern.

It was one of my most embarrassing moments, being attacked by the cleaning staff of a vampiric castle, but it also gave me the reality check which I needed. I dodged the man with the feather duster, making him stumble into the wall. But then came a lady with a broom, which had been snapped in half. Maybe it was designed that way, I couldn't tell due to the speed she used, but the pointy wood didn't look as welcoming as the smile on her face had.

There must've been hundreds of workers in the castle, or it felt like it at least, as they all swarmed into the room like bees. It was a mass of colour and people and noise. I felt like I had fallen into a television when it was on fast forward. Hands grabbed my arms and legs, Crow's hand was ripped from mine, and sharp objects impaled my chest. Maybe there was only one sharp object, but it filled my entire chest with pain.

The floor abandoned my feet, and I was carried away, flailing and struggling to get free from the workers. We were taken through hallways, far too quickly for me to notice anything besides the fact it felt like I was crowd surfing and dropped into a dark room.

"Crow?" I asked immediately. I tried to get to the door, but there was something wrapped around my foot. I pulled at it, but there was no use. The pain in my chest was too much for me to concentrate on getting free. I was certain that I had some spelks in my chest, feeling like drawing pins embedded in my skin.

"Noah?" Crow's voice came back to me. He came from the right, probably coming through the wall. It was colder in this room than it had been in the living room by the fire. It was also slightly wet on the ground, which I had never quite understood whenever I watched shows with dungeons and castles in. I had never understood how it got to the point when the ground was wet. I couldn't see much, only dark brick walls and a dark wooden door. There was a single slit in the door, which offered a thin ray of light. It bounced off the chain on my foot, but that was all.

I shook myself from my thoughts again and asked, "are you okay?" Of course, he wasn't, but I needed to make sure he wasn't in any danger of dying thanks to blood loss or other injuries. I couldn't believe our luck, but I also couldn't believe the fact that Aldrich's secret friend turned out to be someone who would capture us and keep us in a freaky dungeon.

"I'm alright," Crow said through heavy breaths. "These things hurt." I figured he was talking about whatever was impaled in our bodies, the various broken brooms and feather dusters. "How come this didn't kill us?" His voice was strained with pain and exhaustion.

"I don't know. I don't think that it hit either of our hearts." I tried to pull at the chain on my ankle again, but it didn't budge. How strong was this metal? Was it even metal? It might've been magic for all I knew, I was pretty sure that Crow had mentioned witches at some point, and werewolves. It would be strange to think that vampires were the only supernatural creatures in the world.

"Makes sense," Crow replied. "Is Sawyer with you?" The single sentence made me feel immensely bad. I didn't think about what kind of situation he would be in, assuming that it would be the same as my own. Sawyer was the same as me, and it only made sense for us to be treated the same. But Geppetto knew Sawyer and Aldrich, there must be some personal feelings hurt somewhere along the lines. Maybe Geppetto was angry with them? Crow and I might be simple bystanders to the real conflict, but I somehow doubted that.

"No, I don't think he came in after us." I didn't remember him surfing the crowd with us, and I knew that we had separated when we jumped off the settee. He had moved over to his father, who I hadn't really been paying much attention to, since us three appeared to be the main targets. "Why did they keep us together?"

Crow snorted, which sounded extremely sarcastic and bitter for such a rare expression of amusement. "I'm not much of a scholar or reader-" that was a complete and utter lie from the mounds of books I've seen in his room- "but I do believe this is something we call leverage. I'll do whatever it takes to protect you, and I think that's what Geppetto is betting on." He then groaned. "Or one of us gets killed, causing the other to go into a blind rage. I think that would be entertaining for them."

"Oh good, we're going to be entertainment for Dracula number two." I rested my head against the wall to my right, wondering if I could melt straight through it if I were stressed enough. "Right, what are we going to do?" 

Hello lovelies!

Hope you're all doing very well!

The question of the chapter is: what's your favourite kind of cake?

I'd usually go for cheesecake here, but I somewhat feel like that's sometimes not seen as an actual cake, so I suppose batternberg cake would be my go-to!