Dangerous Creatures (Book 3, Pure Series) (17 page)

              Anton paused. "Do you still have that lighter?"

              I checked my pocket. "Yes." The little object had escaped the crush unscathed.

              "Then you might want to see this," Anton said. "It's actually pretty amusing."

              I flicked the lighter on. Anton was holding an old-fashioned alarm clock with bells on the top. It was blackened, and the face was badly cracked.

              "That was the timer," Anton said. "As you have no doubt gathered by now, the whole place was rigged to blow up. Too bad I didn't notice that before I set the fires. So much for my sharp eyes."

              He threw the alarm clock back onto the rocks, and then the two of us stepped through the fake wall. I put the lighter away, and we hurried on through the darkness.

              I didn't truly breathe easily again until we finally stepped out into the night air, and I could see the trees of the Old Grove.

              "Thanks for getting me out of there," I said.

              "Well, technically I did get you in there in the first place," Anton said. "So it was really only right for me to get you out. I did kind of owe it to you."

              "Who do you think set all that up?" I asked. "Why was that whole placed rigged to explode?"

              "No idea," Anton said. "But we'd probably better get out of here. This may have attracted some attention, and we've still got work to do tonight."

              He held out his hand. "Come on."

              "Where are we going now?" I asked.

              "To school. That's the other place where funny things are happening."

              Soon we were flying through the night, and when we came to a stop, I looked around, puzzled. The building before us was undeniably a school, but it had clearly been abandoned. A lone light lit up the old high school that had closed years ago.

              "That's not my school," I said.

              "I never said we were going to your school," Anton said. "From what I understand this is known locally as the 'old school,' and there have been reports of unexplained lights at night and strange sounds. And right now, there's a faint melody in the air that's emerging from that building. Can you hear it?"

              "No," I said. "But I did hear that the old school was haunted. You think GM is in there?"

              "Now that we've ruled out the cave," Anton said, "I'm sure of it. We should proceed with caution, however. With any luck, this place won't explode, too."

              We walked up to the abandoned building, and Anton tried the big double doors in the front.

              "Locked," he said.

              We walked around the building and found several more locked doors. Finally, we found a door at the back of the school that gave when Anton tried it.

              He smiled. "I knew there had to be an open door somewhere—easy access for the victims."

              He paused then and gave me a serious look. "Now, I want to make this very clear. Don't go rushing into anything, even if you see your grandmother. You need to hang back at first. There's no point in your getting caught in the trap, too."

              "You think this is a trap?" I asked.

              "I know it is," Anton said. "Just watch yourself."

              He opened the door, and we stepped inside.

              I flicked on the lighter briefly. We were standing in a dark, nondescript hallway that stretched off into shadow on either side of us. In front of us was another dark hallway.

              "This way," Anton said, moving forward.

              "How do you know?" I asked.

              "I'm just following the music."

              I stopped for a moment and listened, but I couldn't hear a thing. I shut the lighter off.

              Anton led me on through the dark, and though I knew I was no longer in the cave, the darkness that surrounded me now was just as oppressive. At one point, I heard Anton open a door, and he led me down a flight of stairs.

              "We're getting closer now," he whispered. "Remember what I said. Don't go rushing into anything."

              We walked down a sloping hall, and up ahead of us through the dark, I could just see two doors set far apart—light was coming out from underneath them.

              Anton led me over to the closest door and cracked it open silently. Peering around his shoulder, I could just see a sliver of a large, well-lit room filled with rows of seats. I shifted a little, and I could see that at the far end of the room there was a stage with a curtain across it. We were looking at an auditorium.

              As I continued to peer into the room, I was startled to see a slight motion from one of the seats. Then I saw another.

              "There are people in that room," I whispered.

              Anton nodded and motioned me back. Then he eased the door closed.

              "What's going on in there?" I asked.

              "Those people are prisoners," Anton said.

              "Prisoners?" I said. "Is my grandmother one of them?"

              "Yes, I believe she is. This is actually quite a good place to keep people. There's a cafeteria and restrooms—and there's even temperature control if you can get it working. Ideal, I'd say."

              "Are they chained up or something?" I asked.

              "No."

              "Then why don't they just walk out of there?"

              "I don't think they can," Anton said. "They've lost the will to leave."

              "Then how do we get them out?"

              "That's going to be tricky. We need to find out who's in charge here and take him out first. But all I can sense is humans."

              "So a human is in charge here?" I asked.

              "Perhaps. But I think it's more likely to be a vampire in disguise after what I saw in the cave."

              "In disguise?" I said. "Is that possible?"

              "Yes. Now that's enough with the questions. I need to think."

              Anton turned to me suddenly. "You know what? On second thought, no thinking. You stay right here by this door, and I'll have a quick look around. Be right back."

              Before I could answer, Anton disappeared.

              I stood for a moment, staring around me in the dark. Then I glanced down at the thin line of light under the door.

              I decided to have a look for myself.

              I pushed the door open gingerly and peered inside. All the lights in the auditorium were on, and I could see people sitting in seats, scattered throughout the room. They were all sitting quietly, and no one seemed to be restless.

              It looked for all the world as if they were simply waiting patiently for a performance to begin.

              As I looked over the room, I spotted a familiar silver-haired head, and I caught my breath. I glanced over my shoulder. Anton was nowhere in sight.

              I crept into the room then, easing the door closed behind me.

              I hurried down the aisle silently and kneeled down next to the silver-haired woman who was sitting at the end of a row. I looked up into her face. It was indeed GM.

              "GM! GM, are you all right?" I whispered urgently.

              She was staring straight ahead with her hands folded in her lap, and she didn't seem to have heard me. She had a slight smile on her face.

              I reached out and shook her arm gently. "GM," I whispered.

              But she didn't move—she didn't even seem to feel the pressure of my hand on her arm.

              "GM," I whispered as loudly as I dared, and I shook her again.

              She didn't respond.

              I stood up and took a step back. As I did so, I collided with a solid body.

              I turned around quickly. It was Anton.

              "I thought I told you to stay by the door," he said.

              "I had to see what was going on," I said. "And I found my grandmother."

              Anton glanced around. "No harm done, I suppose. I can't find the ringleader in the building anywhere, and he doesn't appear to be in this auditorium, either. So, I guess he may be out somewhere. It's not like he has to keep an eye on this group."

              "What's wrong with my grandmother?" I asked. "What's wrong with all of them? Why don't they move?"

              "The answer is over here." Anton walked toward the stage, and I followed him. He leaned on the stage, and we both stared at a little jeweled object that looked like a top. It was spinning steadily, and a silver light shone out of its center.

              I glanced at the top and then at Anton. "That's what's holding everyone here?"

              "Yep."

              I turned and looked out over the auditorium. There were people of all descriptions—some of them younger, some of them older—some of them actually dressed in nightclothes. All of them were staring at the top as if it were the most fascinating sight in the world.

              As I looked out over the sea of faces, I spotted Mr. Fehr, my Social Studies teacher. I knew now why he'd been out.

              "It's like they're spellbound," I said.

              "They are," Anton replied. "As the top spins, it produces music. The music is what drew them here and what holds them here."

              "I don't hear anything," I said.

              Anton looked at me and smiled. "No? I suppose you wouldn't. The music is a call to the heart—to the broken heart, that is. To those who have lost the love of their life. The music promises them that if they only wait, the one they love will return."

              "And you can hear this?" I asked.

              "Oh, yes."

              "Why can't I hear it?" I said.

              "I suppose that's because you haven't lost the love of your life yet. The music won't work on you—you don't have the ability to hear it."

              I looked at Anton sharply. "Does that mean you've lost the one you love?"

              Anton smiled at me. "We all do. In the end."

              He jumped up on the stage then, and I found the stairs and followed him. We both stood for a moment looking out over the auditorium.

              "What's it all for?" I asked.

              Anton looked over at me. "You."

              "Me?"

              "Of course. It's a plan to catch you. And it's not a particularly good plan, either. It's the plan of someone who wants to stay out of trouble himself as much as possible."

              "I don't quite understand," I said. "The person who set this up planned to lure my grandmother here so that I would follow?"

              "No," Anton said. He walked over to the spinning top and stared down at it. "I'm pretty sure now that luring your grandmother here was actually an accident. Whoever set this up, set this spell going hoping to lure
you
here eventually. He was just going to keep running this and hope that you would be one of the people who wandered in here at some point."

              "He thought I would have a broken heart?" I asked.

              Anton crouched down by the top. "You know, I don't think he knew what this thing does exactly. I think he knew enough to recognize this as a love spell—which it is. But it's not a general love spell as he probably thought. As I said, it works more specifically on the broken-hearted."

              "So, someone was trying to catch me with a love spell," I said.

              Anton glanced back at me. "It's not such a bad idea. Young girls have been caught with love spells before."

              I walked over to join Anton. "This is truly a love spell? This is actually magic?"

              "Vampire magic," Anton said. "Most of it
is
hokum, as I may have mentioned. But a few of these artifacts are the genuine article. There are objects—mostly of ancient origin—that can cast a very real spell. Someone—not associated with the official operation back at the cave—ransacked the place and came up with a few things he could actually use. I have to hand it to him—his knowledge may not be complete, but he does know what's good stuff and what's junk."

              "How do we stop the spell?" I asked.

              Anton reached out and took the handle of the top between his thumb and forefinger. The top continued to spin despite the pressure from his fingers.

              He let go of the top and stood up. "Well, that didn't work. I propose that we smash it."