Into The Void (Vampire Hunter Book 4) (3 page)

Lucas’ voice rang in my ears.
What
you hear is going to be more useful than what you see tonight.

It was almost impossible not to look around; it was such an involuntary
action.

Nicholas and I were several rows back from the ‘stage,’ but we were
positioned almost in the middle of the arena. Tobias was practically right in
front of me. I took the opportunity to study him.

He was short, at least a half foot shorter than me. He looked around my
age, which was odd considering he was probably a gazillion years old. He had a
large, distinguished nose and gray, beady eyes. But what most struck me was his
expression. It was so…
harsh,
so
calculating.

I mean, Lucas and Nicholas, and even Thomas and Bartholomew were all old
and jaded. But they didn’t have
that look
.
This was a look of pure hatred…pure evil.

Tobias grabbed a microphone and tapped it.
Screeeeech
.
Again, I resisted the urge to cover my ears.

“Ladies and gentle-beasts.” Tobias paused, then let out a cringe-worthy
cackle. No one reacted to his joke, of course, because they – we – were all
under his mind control.

I flicked my eyes slightly to the right, knowing I was going against
orders. But I had to catch a glimpse of Henry’s father. His head was down,
staring at a book that was laid out on a small table in front of him. His lips
were moving, but I couldn’t hear the words. Probably speaking – chanting – in
tongues. I quickly returned my gaze to the center of the auditorium, towards
Tobias.

“I am your one true ruler, your one true
God,
” Tobias announced. He raised his arms up triumphantly.
“Together, under my leadership, we will expel the ghastly humans from
our
earth, and rightly overtake it, as
is our destiny.”

Again, no one reacted.

Why is Tobias hamming it up for a
crowd that’s basically in a coma?

Mr. Matthews walked over to Tobias, placed his hand over the microphone,
and said something to him. I tried to read his lips, but sadly, that apparently
was not one of my dead girl powers.

“It is
time
!” Tobias bellowed.
David Matthews walked back to his podium and continued reading from the huge
book.

“Let’s see if the prophecy of the living dead girl is fact or fiction,”
Tobias continued.

I hadn’t realized there was anyone in the room besides those of us
summoned here, plus Tobias and Mr. Matthews. But as soon as the words were out
of Tobias’ mouth, my elbows were grabbed from both sides and I was pulled in
the direction of the stage, towards Tobias.

“Does Aurora Stone live up to her reputation?” Tobias asked, sneering.

I stumbled forward. I couldn’t think, didn’t know how I was supposed to
react. I knew the farther they pulled me away from Nicholas, the greater the
chance I was going to succumb to their mind control.

I planted my toes in the dirt, trying to slow the pull away from
Nicholas. But my resistance was futile. One of the minions effortlessly scooped
me up and threw me over his shoulder. I briefly locked eyes with Nicholas. His
face registered pure panic. This was the first time I had seen him break
‘character.’

We were fucked.

Just like what had happened in the warehouse, my mind started to crumble.
It took immense concentration to remember where I was, to understand I was
being carried onto a platform, right in front of Tobias

I was dropped to the ground with a thud. Hands groped under my arms,
pulling me to my feet. My mind was spinning. I struggled to stay upright.

“Go!” Tobias screamed.

Is he talking to me?
The
darkness was washing over me. I couldn’t fight it.

“Why isn’t it working?” someone yelled.
 
Maybe Tobias?

I felt myself teetering.
Don’t
fall!
Was that voice in my head or had someone yelled the words aloud?

And then the fog was starting to clear. I blinked. Right in front of the
platform I was standing on, was Nicholas.

The creeps who had carried me onto this pedestal had faced me outwards,
towards the crowd, with my back to Tobias and Mr. Matthews. It was what I
needed to be reassured, to not blow my cover. I could trust Nicholas

He must have risked everything to get
closer to me!
Nicholas and I had been at least ten feet away from the
stage. He was protecting me by coming closer. No, protecting his
brother
. He would do whatever Lucas
asked of him.

I regained my balance. Tobias was speaking again. “You told me this time
it would work,” he shouted.

“You have to be patient.” I recognized Henry’s father’s voice, although I
couldn’t see him. “It may take one more session. Her powers are still forming.”

“But I want to do this
now
!”
Tobias was infuriated. “Why did I call off the order to kill her? I didn’t even
give the order to begin with! I don’t care if she lives or dies! There was no
reason for our meddling, if she’s going to stand there like a paralyzed monkey!
You told me she could be of
use
to
us!”

“She can,” David Matthews boomed. He didn’t sound intimidated by Tobias.
“Her power will be ready for the next meeting. I
also
told you to give it time! She will be the one to defeat
Senara
. Stop doubting the prophet’s prediction!”

Tobias didn’t speak. I felt a slimy hand run down my back. “May-be…” he
said slowly, “I will make her my bride. She’s a pretty one, I must admit.” He
laughed. “A bit tall though. And her neck is too long; like a giraffe.” Tobias
laughed again.

 
Pfft
. I guess any
girl is too tall if you barely reach five feet.
But I wasn’t offended. The
last thing in the world I needed was for Tobias to think I was a good candidate
for his bride.
Eww
.

But what was this about my power? Superhuman running skills weren’t going
to win a war. What the hell were they talking about? And who was
Senara
?

“What a waste of time,” Tobias snapped.

“Calm down,” David commanded. “We needed to have this meeting so that I
could
condition
your army. Ideally
the girl would have been ready to give us a demo tonight. But the prophet’s never
been wrong before. Everything we’re doing gets us one step closer to the end
goal.”

“To annihilate all humans.” Tobias cackled. “And what about that son of
yours? When is he going to start practicing magic? I thought he was going to
help us.”

Henry!

“Leave my family out of this!” David bellowed. “You promised that they
would be safe. Don’t make me doubt my loyalty to you, Tobias; I could always
offer my services elsewhere.”

“Fine,” Tobias muttered. “Your son and wife will be protected, as per our
agreement. But the sooner you can start training him, the better.”

“
I’ll
be the one to decide
that.” I could hear Mr. Matthews turn and start walking. Then he began reading
from that book again. I couldn’t understand the words, but this time I could at
least hear them. He definitely wasn’t speaking in English, but it didn’t really
sound like Latin either.

I wonder if Nicholas can hear him
from where he’s standing?
He’d been around forever. Maybe he’d understand
what Mr. Matthews was reading.

The reading and chanting went on for what seemed like ages. It was so
difficult to stand there and force my eyes to stare lifelessly forward. I
wanted to look around, check out the other undead things in the room. But I
didn’t dare. I wasn’t sure where the guys who’d dragged me onto the stage were
standing, and we’d come too far, had too many close calls, to slip up now.

Just when I was thinking this might go on all night, the meeting abruptly
ended. I almost jumped out of my skin when Mr. Matthews suddenly slammed the
book shut.

“That’s all for tonight,” he said.

“How long until the spell wears off?” Tobias asked.

“Plenty of time for them to all be returned. And they won’t have any
memory of this,” David assured Tobias.

Several men stepped forward from the crowd and started scanning
everyone’s necks. They were pushing the creatures towards one of the four
corners of the auditorium. It was then that I realized there were multiple
machines like the one Nicholas and I had been in at the warehouse.
 
They’re
scanning us in to make sure they put us in the right machine, to go home.

I stepped off the pedestal and hurried (as much as possible while
pretending to be a zombie) over to Nicholas. One of the men scanned our necks
and led us to the line for our machine. This time, when we got inside, at least
I’d know what to expect.

Going back to the warehouse was the same as the ride over. Even though
there was a camera, I figured they probably weren’t watching us. I braced
myself against the wall just as the room became illuminated with that blinding
white light. The violent shaking was worse than it had been on the first ride
in this contraption, but since I had prepared myself I managed to stay upright
this time.

The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than a minute. We were back at
the warehouse.
And no sign of the two gatekeepers.
Was
there no one guarding us?

Apparently Nicholas was thinking the same thing as me. “I don’t think
we’re being watched. But either way, let’s go before they teleport these
bastards out of here,” he hissed, shooting me a sideways glance.

Everyone else in the room was just standing around lifelessly. At first
Nicholas walked in that slow, dazed, stagger, but as we got closer to the door
at the other end of the warehouse, he picked up the pace.

With a quick look behind us, Nicholas grabbed the door handle. We were
almost to freedom!

“Shit,” he muttered. He turned to me. “The fucking door is locked.”

“So use that key to open it,” I said shrilly. “The one that works on
every lock!”

“Do
you
see a keyhole? Because
I sure don’t.”

I leaned down to study the doorknob and frame. “Oh no,” I moaned. “It
only locks from the outside! What now?”

Nicholas’ expression was hard, unwavering. “We’re getting out of this
hell hole. That’s what.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked despondently. Nicholas was walking
again, back towards the center of the warehouse. I looked around nervously. By
now, if anyone were watching us, they would surely notice we weren’t under the
mind control.

Nicholas stopped in front of a massive tree trunk of a man, grabbed his
arm, and started pulling him towards the door. I followed along next to them,
too scared to ask him what he was doing again. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to
know the plan, to be honest.

When we got back to the door, Nicholas turned to the creature. “He’s an
ogre,” he explained to me. “Physically, much more powerful than a vampire. I
guarantee you he has more brute strength than all of the creatures here,
combined.”

The ogre teetered, a blank expression on his face. “Look at me,” Nicholas
commanded, but the ogre didn’t respond. Nicholas sighed in frustration.

“Let me try another way,” he muttered. Nicholas balled his hand into a
fist, raised it above his head, and pantomimed smashing it into the doorknob.

The ogre’s eyes flickered but he didn’t move. I looked around behind us.
Still no sign of any gatekeepers, or any other ‘normal’ people.
We’d been damned lucky so far. What would they do if they figured out we had
infiltrated their top-secret meeting? Nicholas would be killed, and I’d be
locked up until someone figured out how to torture me to death.

Nicholas grabbed the ogre’s hand and twisted his massive fingers into a
fist. He began pulling the ogre’s arm, trying to force him to smash the
doorknob.

“Do you have a plan B?” I hissed. “I don’t think this is working!”

“Just come on you stupid ogre!” Nicholas said. I could hear the panic in
his voice.
This isn’t good. If Nicholas
is losing his cool, then we really are screwed.

On the third time he tried to force the ogre to break down the door, the
creature snapped his head to the side. An angry look flashed across his face. With
a bellow, he brought his fist high up in the air – but he wasn’t going to bust
open the door for us. No, he was trying to bring his fist straight down onto
Nicholas’ head.

Nicholas swiftly moved out of the way and the ogre’s hand connected with
the concrete floor, making a terrifying thud. I could see blood dripping off
his fist as he stood up and turned to look for Nicholas, ready to go for blow
number two.

“Come on!” We both swung around to see who had spoken. Lucas was standing
in the doorway!

The ogre was gearing up to hit Nicholas again. “Go, Aurora,” Nicholas
called. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I sprinted out of the warehouse just as the ogre took another shot. There
was a terrible cracking sound, deafening even from outside. But right after the
horrific noise, Nicholas emerged, looking like he was still in one piece. Lucas
slammed the door shut behind him,
then
double checked
that it was locked.

We all started running. No one spoke until we arrived at the car. Lucas
hopped in the driver’s seat and Nicholas got in beside him. I slid into the
backseat, next to Emmett.

“Are you okay?” I asked Nicholas. “That ogre – he didn’t hit you, did he?
What was that god-awful cracking sound?”

“I think he broke his hand. He’s going to wonder what the hell happened
when he wakes up.” Nicholas laughed. “Serves that meathead right. He was ready
to smash me into the ground.”

“I’m glad you two are alright,” Lucas said. I could see him looking at me
in the rearview mirror when he spoke.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how much longer I could have lasted against the ogre.
I knew I might piss him off, but I couldn’t see another way out of that
warehouse,” Nicholas said.

He turned around to Emmett. “Let me guess, you had something to do with
detecting we were in trouble?”

Emmett nodded. “I had a bad feeling; thought it would be a bigger risk
for Lucas
not
to go unlock the door.
I’m glad I was right.”

“Thanks, Emmett,” I said. “You and Lucas saved us.”

Emmett smiled. He looked a lot more relaxed now that this was over and we
were all still alive. “Tell us what you heard at this meeting!”

“Oh my God, where to start!” I said excitedly, looking at Nicholas.

“Yeah, it was a real doozy,” Nicholas said. “First they shoved us all
into this contraption that transported us to the actual meeting. Aurora and I
almost got separated, but we managed to stick together and not let on that we
weren’t under the spell.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you there,” I told Nicholas. “I would
never have been able to pull it off on my own. In fact, I kept catching myself
trying to look around, to study everything.”

“Me too,” Nicholas admitted.

“Really?” I asked in surprise. “You seemed so unfaltering.”

“So did you,” Nicholas assured me. “It was a team effort.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that this went as smoothly as possible,
but get to the good part.” Lucas smiled at me in the rearview mirror to let me
know he was teasing.

“It was just like you said, Emmett,” I told them, continuing the story.
“It was a huge dirt auditorium, for lack of a better description. Nicholas and
I ended up standing in the middle, dead center in front of a massive stage.”

“Until they pulled Aurora up
onto
a
pedestal by the stage,” Nicholas interjected.

“The blocker you were carrying worked once Aurora was moved?” Lucas asked
us. “I didn’t think it would be effective for more than seven feet, maybe ten
feet, max.”

“No,” I said, remembering how Nicholas had risked his own safety to get
close to me.

“I had to break the rules,” Nicholas admitted, “and get closer to that
stupid midget who ordered Aurora onto the pedestal.” He punched Lucas on the
arm. “You know how much I hate breaking rules,” he said in a mock serious tone.

Lucas laughed and shook his head. “I’m just glad you pulled it off,
Nic
,” he replied.

“Why were you brought on a stage?” Emmett asked.

“Uh, that’s the weird part,” I said, shooting a glance at Nicholas. “I
was having trouble understanding what was going on. The farther I got away from
Nicholas, the more it felt like darkness was washing over me. It was like a
slow-motion version of the blackouts I normally have – those are instantaneous,
but this was gradual.”

“You probably didn’t hear it all,” Nicholas said. “I was shuffling
forward the second those guys grabbed you, hoping like hell they wouldn’t
notice me moving. As soon as they stopped, Tobias was screaming. He was going
nuts for you to ‘
go!
’
as he said.”

“Go?” Emmett echoed. He looked confused.

“Apparently I was the star of the meeting,” I said morosely. “He and Mr.
Matthews were talking about some special power I was supposed to demo.”

“Emmett, do you know anything about this?” Lucas demanded.

“No,” Emmett replied. “I told you, most everything with Aurora’s case has
been impossible for me to see. I disclose everything I figure out.” Emmett
sounded annoyed.

“Sorry,” Lucas muttered. “Anyway,” he continued, “why don’t you two give
us more detail about the warehouse, the meeting arena, and anything else you
can think of? The more information we have for Emmett, the better his chances
are to uncover something about this absurd situation.”

Nicholas and I spent the rest of the car ride going over every minute of
the night, from the second we stepped into the warehouse to the moment that
Lucas opened the door and saved us.

When I mentioned the part about Mr. Matthews and Tobias saying that Henry
was going to help them, Emmett shook his head. “I was afraid of that,” he
muttered under his breath.

“Is Henry in danger?” I asked him. “He was acting so strangely the other
day, when he turned up at my house in the middle of the night.”

Emmett just stared out the window. “Everyone’s in danger,” he said
quietly.

“Come on,” I snapped. “If Henry’s going to follow in his dad’s footsteps,
don’t I deserve to know it?”

“I may be a psychic but I can’t always see the future.” Emmett scowled.
“Whatever is fated to happen will happen. You can’t stop it. I can’t stop it.
We’re all pawns in this game, just hoping that the outcome is the one we want.”

Which is?
I wanted to scream.
There seemed to be
no
good outcome
for me. I certainly wasn’t planning on helping Tobias rid the earth of humans,
but if I didn’t, would the other side rid the world of…
me
? And where did Henry fit in?

I decided to let it drop…
for now.
I
was starting to learn how far I could push Emmett, and he sounded like he was
at his limit.

We had just pulled up to the woods by the cabin when I snapped my
fingers. “Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe I’m forgetting something so
important! Tobias mentioned a name – someone I’m supposed to help defeat.” I
shook my head despondently. “I was trying so hard to take it all in. The name –
it started with an ‘S’ – but I’m afraid that’s all I can remember.”

“Oh, I remember,” Nicholas said. He placed his hand on Lucas’ shoulder.
“I was waiting until the last possible minute to deliver the good news. The one
that Aurora is supposed to kill is none other
that
Senara
Grai
.”

How does he know her last name?

“Sorry to break it to you, bro,” Nicholas was saying.

Lucas didn’t answer. Instead, he hopped out of the car and began walking
in the direction of the cabin.