Chosen (Book #4 of the Vampire Legends) (4 page)

Chapter
8

As they walked up
to the door of Alpha Chi Delta there were two guys standing at the door wearing
their navy blue and forest green fraternity uniform. They stood there with a
grimace on their faces as they surveyed the kids one by one as they entered
their house for the party. Rachel watched as they turned some kids away at the
door while others were let in with a smile or a high five. 

Rachel could
sense it. She knew they were vampires, she could tell by the look in their
eyes, the fairness of their skin and the fragrance of their bodies. She knew
she had to be careful because they probably sensed her as well. She didn’t want
to risk it and quickly took out her perfume and doused her body. She thought it
couldn’t hurt to try to cover up her vampire scent. She had nothing to lose.

As they got
closer to the two guys at the door, she felt her body tensing up. She turned to
Penelope and Hunter and said, “See you inside.” She walked at a quicker pace
and then approached the two guys alone. She figured she’d have a better shot at
getting in solo rather than in a pack. The two guys surveyed her up and down,
one of them squinting as he rubbed his nose.

Oh no! They
caught me. They won’t let me in
, Rachel thought to herself.

Then, as if by
chance, the house was bumrushed by thirty kids, all wearing their sports
jerseys. Rachel was basically thrust through the front door and into the house.
She wasn’t stopped by the rush of football players nor was she denied entry to
the party. It was her lucky day—now she only hoped that Penelope and Hunter got
through the door as well. She didn’t know what she’d do if they got held up or
turned away. She had to find the old coven book, but didn’t have the slightest
clue where to begin searching for it.

She walked
through the large foyer of the fraternity and through a large arched doorway
with a deer head mounted to the wall. She never understood why people would
want to adorn their walls with dead animals but it seemed to be a real trend in
this fraternity. As she walked through the next room she saw rabbit, ox, elk
and bear heads on the wall. She couldn’t understand this form of art, but
didn’t really stop to think about it. All she could do was pray that Hunter and
Penelope would come in.

Each room was jam
packed with kids, shoulder to shoulder, holding red plastic cups and drinking
beer from kegs that sat on the floor. The room smelled like an old dirty
basement and the noise level was through the roof. Music was playing loudly and
everyone was screaming and cheering. When she turned her head towards the cheering
she saw a big ping pong table with cups lined up at each end. It was a game of
Beirut; a drinking game she’d never played but heard about.

Rachel looked
around at all the different people that came together at this party. She knew
some of them were vampires and some were humans. She couldn’t understand this
dynamic and found it to be quite odd that all these humans would be socializing
with vampires. Granted, they probably didn’t know they were vampires, she felt
it was odd that the vampires would allow the humans into their house. She felt
stares from the other vampires in the house. She could tell that they sensed
she was there, but knew they hadn’t pinpointed what coven she was from or if
she was truly a vampire. But she knew they were on to her.

Then, she felt a
tap on her back—it was Hunter and Penelope, standing there together motioning
her to come into another room.

“Hurry, don’t you
feel it?” Hunter said.

“Feel what?”
Rachel replied. “I don’t feel anything.”

“The stares?”
Hunter said quietly.

“Oh, yes. I did,”
Rachel said.

“They’re onto
us,” Hunter said.

“What do you
mean?” Rachel asked feeling a bit scared.

“They know we’re
here. Can’t you tell?” Hunter asked.

“I don’t know. What
should we do now?” Rachel said.

“We have to move
quick guys,” Penelope chimed in.

“Hurry, we have
to get out of this room, they’re going to find us here,” Hunter said as he
motioned them to another room.

The three walked
into another room, and into a small mud room where they were alone. The room
echoed from the loud music and cheering going on at the other end of the house.

“Where do we go
now?” Rachel asked, looking at Hunter. “What do we do now?”

“You have to go
find the book,” Penelope said as Hunter nodded.

“Yes, you must
find the book,” Hunter repeated.

“Where? Where is
it?” Rachel asked in a panicked voice.

“The last time I
saw it, it was upstairs in a secret bookcase in one of the bedrooms,” Hunter
said.

“That’s vague,”
Rachel replied. “How will I ever find it?”

“You have to
trust him,” Penelope said. “You must search for it.”

“I think the room
had plaid wall paper, but I’m not sure. I can’t really remember because I was
rushed out so quickly—I only took a quick glance at the book and then had to
run,” Penelope added.

“I don’t remember
that,” Hunter said, “But I’m a guy, I wouldn’t notice that sort of thing
anyway.”

“Ok, so upstairs,
bedroom, secret book case, and plaid wall paper. Got it!” Rachel said.

“You have to
hurry though before they catch us. We don’t have much time,” Hunter said.

“We’ll distract
them down here, and you go upstairs. Hurry!” Hunter added.

Rachel quickly
turned around and then made a full circle and faced Hunter again.

“Wait, where’s
the stairs?” Rachel asked. “That would be an important first step!”

“They’re just
through that room on your left,” Hunter replied.

“Now go!
Quickly!” Penelope said.

“But wait, what
happens if we get split up? What happens if I’m caught?” Rachel asked in fear.

“Don’t forget to
use your powers and if we get split up let’s meet at the cemetery at midnight.
It’s the only place that we can’t be sensed. We will be safe there,” Hunter
said.

“Ok,” Rachel
said.

Rachel turned
back around and headed towards the stairs. She passed through the room with the
Beirut game and quickly dodged the stares and smells of the other vampires. She
couldn’t help but wonder if her perfume was helping her cause. She hoped it
was.

As she got to the
stairs, she looked around to make sure nobody was watching her and then quickly
crept up the stairs. On her way up, a guy and a girl were on their way down,
laughing and holding hands. They were almost tripping down the steps which lead
her to believe they were drunk. She hoped they weren’t vampires, although had a
sinking feeling given their scent that they were. She hoped that their alcohol
intake would hinder their ability to smell her or sense she was there.

She was pretty
sure by the time she got to the top of the steps she was in the clear. Nobody
was fooling her and the two who went down didn’t stop to notice her.

At the top of the
steps was a long hallway with many closed doors. She looked to her right and
then to her left and didn’t know which way to go first. She felt scared and
pressured. Her heart was racing out of her chest and she knew she was tight on
time and had to move quickly.

She turned to her
left and started with the first door on her left. She knocked ever so slightly
on the door to make sure she wasn’t barging in on anyone and when silence came
from the other end, she opened the door slowly. She immediately looked at the
wallpaper and saw that it was plaid. She figured she must be in the right room
and was inwardly congratulating herself for finding it on the first try. She
looked around for the hidden book shelf but didn’t see any bookshelves. She
went over to the walls and started pushing them gently to see if they moved.

Nothing.

Then she pushed
on the furniture to see if that moved but it didn’t. It was just furniture—not
some secret bookcase.

She began to
doubt that this was the correct room and decided to leave it and try another
room. She continued down the left side of the hallway and into the second door
on her left. She looked first at the wall paper and was surprised to see that
it was the exact same plaid as the first room. She became confused and wondered
if all the rooms had the exact same plaid walls.

She went around
pushing on walls and tapping on surfaces to find this secret hidden bookcase
but it was nowhere to be found. She tried a third and a fourth room with the
same outcome. She felt like giving up but couldn’t.

Her heart was
leaping out of her chest at the thought of entering another room and risking
being caught by the other vampires. She didn’t know what would happen if they
were to find her. She knew it wouldn’t be good, though, and was scared at the
mere thought of it.

As she approached
the fifth door, she was hoping for a better outcome. She was petrified that
someone would be in the room when she knocked, but luckily, it was empty. As
she entered, she saw the same plaid wallpaper—but this room was a little
different than the rest. On the far wall was a roaring fireplace with a large
stone mantle above it. There was a  sitting area in front of the fireplace and
two walls of books on either side. Immediately, Rachel went over to the
bookshelf to see if this was the secret bookcase and started pushing and
tugging to find the secret door. After what felt like hours of prodding the
right side of the bookcase, she found nothing. She even glanced at all the
titles of the books and none of them was the old coven book.

Then, as if by
chance she looked over at the mirror and in its reflection saw a tiny glimmer
of light coming from the other side of the bookshelf. She slowly walked towards
the light and peeked in through the crack. It was so small that she couldn’t
see in the crack. Part of her was scared to touch it as the light poured out.
It was almost as if the glow of an angle was behind the wall. She knew this was
it, she knew this must be the secret bookshelf that Hunter was talking about.
She had to find a way to open it though.

She pressed and
prodded, but nothing. The bookshelf would not open.

Her mind kept
going back to all those movies she used to watch where the detective would
waltz into a room and swing open the secret bookshelf and find the missing
link, but that wasn’t happening to her. It was much harder than she expected.
She knew now that it would not be easy and it would take much more than a
simple push to open this so-called secret bookcase.

She looked around
the room, maybe it needed to be opened with some sort of key, she thought. She
opened drawers and checked under the carpets for hidden keys, but nothing.
There were no keys, nor did she see a key hole anywhere on the bookshelf so
even if she had found some key she wouldn’t even know where to put it.

Then she stood in
front of the bookcase, and if by sheer force willed it to open. She used Mind
Control for the first time on something other than an animal or a human—and it
worked. The book shelf began to part and the ray of light that was peeking out
of the small crack began to flood there room. For a second, Rachel thought she
was entering the gates of Heaven.

When the doors
finally opened all the way, there, in the glowing ray of light, lay the old
coven book. She knew this was it. It was the thickest book she’d ever seen and
must have been two feet tall, lying on its back looking up at her. It was bound
in beautiful brown leather with a golden embossed cover which read
CXB
and under it was a picture of a panther with fangs. She wasn’t sure what CXB
stood for, but figured it had to do with something from this coven.

She stood there
for a second in awe of this enormous and beautiful book. She knew this book
would hold the key to healing Benji, but she worried that it would take her
days to find the right page with the information about the Red Amulet. She
turned around to make sure that nobody had come in after her or sensed that she
was upstairs before she opened the book. Then, she turned and lifted the front
cover.

The feel of the
book reminded her of her father’s old Encyclopedia collection that was bound in
beautiful leather. She was hoping to find some sort of table of contents but
there were none. She knew this was going to be tricky and also that it would
take a while to find the correct page.

All of a sudden,
the pages of the old coven book began to turn themselves. Thousands of pages
went by and then as if by magic the pages stopped and there, in front of her
eyes was the exact page she was looking for.

The heading read:
The Red Amulet
. Under the title was a picture of this mysterious Red
Amulet in all its glory. The picture was beautiful, and very detailed. The Red
Amulet was smaller than she’d imagined, assuming that this picture was drawn to
scale, and contained a red ruby, encased in silver.

She began to read
about the amulet, when she heard the door open to the room. She quickly turned
around and tried to hide, but it was too late. The two guys who were standing
at the front door as she entered had found her upstairs, searching through
their coven book.

She knew this was
bad and stood there like a deer in headlights awaiting her fate as her heart
leapt out of her chest. She could feel the beads of sweat pouring down her
face, and the fact that the fireplace was roaring right behind her wasn’t
helping the cause.

“Excuse me?” one
of the guys said, staring at her.

Rachel couldn’t
help but feel like a burglar being caught red handed.

“Um, Hi!” Rachel
said, staring back at them.

“Don’t Hi us,”
the other guy said. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Rachel could tell
by the tone of his voice that he wasn’t happy. She knew she shouldn’t be up
there and wished this had never happened. She wished she was still in the cave
with Benji trying to save him in another way. She wished he’d never uttered the
words
Red Amulet
.