The Dead Game (17 page)

Todd was approaching her with his long, determined strides. “I tried chasing Wolf and Hayden, but they suddenly vanished from sight. Did they hurt you?”

“No, of course they didn’t. They just threatened you, claiming that you’ll never be accepted by humans or vampires.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll vanquish them back to whatever evil place they’ve come from. They’re stronger than we are, but once we band together and attack them one-by-one, we should be able to weaken their combined powers,” whispered Todd as he pulled her into his arms, kissing her on the head and then nuzzling her neck. “I intend to visit Hayden tomorrow. I suspect he’s less powerful alone, away from his fearless master. Maybe he’ll reveal useful information to us that we can later use to better fight Wolf.”

Meanwhile, Linda decided not to inform Todd about Wolf’s promise to take her with him. She didn’t want him to get too riled up and do something out of jealousy or anger that would put him in additional danger.

After witnessing the fight between Todd and Wolf, she couldn’t get over the fact that Todd actually had powers—almost as strong as a vampire’s powers. He had used these powers to open the door at End House, but he had insisted all along that he was still human. She had gotten all her information from Todd and the elders, but maybe they had been lying to her and her friends.

She and Shana would have to further investigate the strange phenomena of vampire and human vampire. She could always ask Father John or the villagers to help them. Todd would have to offer her a better explanation for his powers that he had so adamantly denied having.

As Todd held Linda, he realized that she was holding herself much stiffer than usual. He wondered what had really transpired between her and Wolf. He had seen them embracing and kissing very passionately. He hoped that she hadn’t been fooled by Wolf’s charms, which he had always been able to skillfully employ to his own advantage. He’d have to keep a closer watch over her in the future and make sure she stayed far away from Wolf.

Chapter 24

E
arly Saturday morning Todd drove into town, leaving Linda sound asleep in her apartment. He wanted to meet with Sam alone.

The sheriff’s office was quiet: the desks stood empty, the phones were silent, and no one was handcuffed or waiting to see the sheriff. He opened the door to Sam’s private office and found him bent over his desk, busy doing paperwork. He looked up as Todd strolled in. Too bad Sam had grown accustomed to having him plan all their maneuvers. However, this time he wasn’t so sure that he could successfully annihilate a powerful enemy whose members still remained a mystery.

He wanted to hear Sam’s opinion on the idea that he’d briefly mentioned to Linda last evening. “We could interrogate Hayden. Since he was first loyal to us, he might be persuaded to switch sides and come back to us.”

“That’s a pretty far-fetched idea, but I’m willing to go along with anything right now. Shana is terrified of me. She doesn’t know what to believe anymore. She thinks that I’m some strange creature,” Sam admitted forlornly.

“No, of course she doesn’t. I saw her gazing at you with affection. She looked very comfortable in your arms.” Todd winked. “Once we fully explain to them about human vampires, Linda and Shana will feel safer and let us protect them. We can’t worry about that now. Come! We have a job to do!”

Hoping that Hayden was still around and hadn’t snuck off into the night, Todd drove past the thick bushes and massive trees that outlined Hayden’s remote plot of land. He wasn’t too eager to face Hayden on his home turf. He glanced across at Sam, who seemed to be having his own doubts—judging by the amount of squirming he was doing in his seat.

They drove up to the house that stood silently waiting for them.

A warm wind was rustling through the leaves of the tall trees that shrouded the bleak house. Low-hanging limbs swiped at their legs with their long, skinny fingers as they walked up the gravel path. The wind blew leaves in concentric circles around their feet, trying to slow their ascent up the steep stairs.

They cautiously crunched through the fallen leaves to reach the front door. Todd couldn’t locate a bell, so he rapped loudly with his knuckles. There was no answer.

The door began to drift open on its own. A long, dark hallway gradually came into view. Rare masterpieces lined both walls, starkly illuminated against the muted walls by bright spotlights suspended from high above.

Entering the house, the deafening silence felt alive and heavy—as if someone was there with them waiting, but not yet willing to reveal himself.

A cold draft hit them. In the translucent stream of air, Todd could see shadowy forms fighting against each other, struggling to break free. “Are those vampires caught in the wind?” asked Todd, beginning to regret his decision to enter the house without sufficient back-up.

“Did you notice those strange forms floating in the air?” He continued, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Not hearing a response from Sam, he cautiously downplayed his concern a little. “It could have been just an elaborate illusion.”

When Sam still didn’t respond, Todd turned around and found him standing as still as a statue, eyeing the flow of air with trepidation. “Sam? Are you still with me?”

Sam didn’t answer or move a muscle.

Todd knew that he had to continue on with the search—with or without Sam.

He called out Hayden’s name, his voice echoing down the empty corridor. Still no one answered.

He followed the faintly lit hallway until its end, where it opened onto a huge oval-shaped ballroom. He stood in the center of the room in the bright light cast by the enormous crystal chandelier. The light reflecting from the hanging crystals shot colorful prisms of light across the multitude of artwork all around him. Hundreds of statues by eminent artists were haphazardly scattered about the shiny marble floor; the walls were decorated with priceless paintings in massive, ornately designed frames. As he slowly wandered through the ballroom, he recognized Rembrandts, Picassos, and even Renoirs, filling every available space on the gilded walls.

At the back of the room, he noticed a circular staircase with elaborately carved gold railings, leading up through the ceiling to the floor above.

“There are no other rooms on the main floor, so we might as well check upstairs,” suggested Sam. Surprised to hear Sam’s voice, Todd spun around to find him standing right behind him.

Todd slowly nodded his head in agreement, even though he suspected that this was what Hayden expected them to do next. It was almost if Hayden had put out a sign that read: “Stupid human vampires! Come up my staircase at your own risk!”

As soon as they began to climb the stairs, the air turned colder and more frigid.

Now
, Todd thought, 
let the games begin
.

They entered a large, empty room with a high vaulted ceiling. Todd recognized the engraving on the large dome to be the work of Michelangelo. Hayden must have been alive during the life time of this great artist, he thoughtfully surmised, and that was how he could have acquired all his illustrious artwork.

He whispered to Sam, “If Hayden had lived during the life times of these renowned artists, then we are dealing with a very old vampire—who must be much stronger than we’d suspected.”

“Why bother to whisper when vampires can hear everything?” asked Hayden as he dramatically materialized behind them.

Hayden’s stature appeared much larger than usual. He must have been stooping over whenever he’d stood alongside Wolf’s massive frame—just to appear smaller. 
All these vampires are too much into illusions,
thought Todd derisively.

“Funny, I also heard that. I’m a great deal more powerful than Wolf. I’m a much older and wiser vampire.”

“Then why have you joined with the devil? Your life has been comfortable until now. Why jeopardize your excellent cover?” asked Todd curiously. He could never figure out the reasoning behind vampires’ decisions, since many of their choices were based purely on ego or on their undying love for power.

“I dislike being on the losing side—that is how I’ve survived these many years,” admitted Hayden as he inched toward them.

Distracted by Hayden’s new overpowering figure, Todd didn’t notice his gradual movements until he was standing in front of them.

“Stop! Come no closer!” cried out Sam in panic.

Todd spun around to see what had startled Sam. All he was able to read on his friend’s face was total abject fear as he stared in horror at the walls. Then he noticed that the four walls were slowly closing in on them. Somehow, Hayden’s movements were causing the room to shrink in size. Todd feared that if the walls didn’t stop moving, they would soon be crushed between the huge slabs of concrete.

In response to Sam’s heartfelt cry, Hayden abruptly halted and the room returned to its normal size.

Impatient with this vampire’s game, Todd turned to Hayden and hastily questioned him, “If we win this battle, would you be willing to switch sides again? We’ve been victorious in all our past battles and we will also be victorious in this one. And you can also trust us more than you can ever trust Wolf and his followers.”

Hayden nodded his head. “I’ve always disliked Wolf and I’ve never trusted him. So far, I’ve stood back while he’s killed and terrorized helpless humans. I’ve never joined his cause, since I’ve never condoned the useless murders. I’ve been secretly watching him and his followers. I’d originally assumed that he could bring power back to the dwindling vampire population, but now I don’t believe that he could successfully lead his fellow vampires to a victory that will ensure the survival of our species. We could find a better way to save our species without destroying the human race.”

He added, “We’ve lived among humans for a very long time and I’m more than willing to continue to do so. Go fight your fight. When you’re triumphant, come back and we can then work to put our world back together again. I won’t interfere with your battle. Good luck!”

Then he disappeared quickly from sight.

“We really have no choice but to do what he’s suggested. He is much stronger than we are, and we cannot fight both him and Wolf at the same time,” concluded Sam.

Todd nodded his head in agreement. He had a strong feeling that he’d be back to this house sometime in the future, but he didn’t know if it would be as friends or as enemies.

Chapter 25

A
fter dropping Sam off at his office, Todd departed for the Oasis Hotel to confront Judy, Gregg, and Ryan. He was determined to find out why the human vampires hadn’t bothered to attend Diane’s party this year and why they’d conveniently disappeared every time there was trouble in town.

The hotel seemed to be deserted. People must have heard about the strange events in town and decided to keep away. If things didn’t return to normal soon, then the hotel wouldn’t be the only business closing its doors. He was afraid that he’d be living in a ghost town before everything could be satisfactorily resolved.

He finally located the three human vampires, sitting huddled together as one at the bar, whispering animatedly to each other. This did not look at all promising. He interrupted their little meeting. “I was afraid that something might have happened to keep you. None of you have ever missed a meeting before. A lot of important things have gone down that you needed to hear,” claimed Todd as he approached them.

“We’re sorry. Since the number of tragic incidents in town has increased over the past week, we’ve become more afraid and much more careful,” explained Gregg.

Gregg had never before admitted to being sorry for anything he’d ever done in the past. This sudden change in behavior had Todd concerned. He answered carefully, not wanting to antagonize them any further. “If you were worried about your safety, you could have easily approached me about your fears, as you’ve done in the past.”

“We didn’t know who to trust any longer, so we decided to lay low,” offered Judy diplomatically. Todd knew that Judy had just admitted that they’d even begun to doubt his own loyalty. This made him angry—considering the number of times that he’d saved their measly lives. Sam wouldn’t be too happy about this turn of events either.

“What have we missed at the party?” Ryan timidly asked.

“Wolf joined the meeting of the elders as usual, but this time I confronted him about his personal involvement with End House. We discovered that he sat on the Board of Directors of the company that owned the house. He proudly admitted that he’d been the one who’d created The Dead. There were other clues that led us to believe that Wolf was the one responsible for all the disappearances and deaths in town.”

“What clues?” asked Judy.

“In the past, the gruesome events at End House usually involved shape-shifting and illusions, which had led us early on to suspect demons as the culprits, and not humans. However, after the party, we searched the house and found computer controls and monitors in the attic, leading us to believe that humans might be involved. This just added to our confusion. Now we believe that the computers were most probably designed to throw us off the scent of the real perpetrators. They wanted us to believe that the whole game was being orchestrated by humans, while in reality it was actually vampire-driven. Only vampires—utilizing their own special powers—could have laid out such elaborate traps in the basement. Humans can’t make water appear and disappear on a whim, or have dangerous cages and saws materialize and vanish in an empty basement.

“There were clues in the house pointing to Wolf as their leader. Wolves were portrayed all through End House: in all the paintings on the walls and in the elaborate, engraved design on the ceiling of the library. Wolf, being such a vain creature, hadn’t been able to stop himself from leaving a stamp of his own on the house. We still don’t know how long he’d been terrorizing and killing humans, since End House has a very long and sordid history.” Todd didn’t bother to inform them about Hayden and his indecision over which side to be on.

“You’ve always been our true leader, boss.” Todd suspected that Gregg’s statement was most probably made from fear. Now that Wolf’s role had been uncovered, anyone who’d sided with him in the past would also be under suspicion. Todd still couldn’t figure out whose side they were really on, so he accepted Gregg’s declaration of support with just as much honesty as it had been given.

Todd left the three sitting forlornly at the hotel’s bar while he returned to town. He didn’t want to leave Linda alone for too long: she and her friends had a habit of getting into too much trouble on their own.

At that moment, Shana, Linda, Mike, and David were sitting in the dark, secretly planning their own line of attack against Wolf. They sat around Shana’s table in the back room with the lights off and the front door securely locked.

A small candle on the table provided the only light in the room. Shadows on the walls swayed back and forth with the motion of the candle’s flame. Each time the shadows moved, Shana jumped a little inside, recalling the shadows that had stalked her in town.

As she desolately stared at the flickering shadows, she hoped and prayed that they would finally be able to rid their town of the menacing beings. Despite the fear racing through her icy veins, she spoke up forcefully, “We must confront Wolf on our own! We must learn to protect ourselves without relying on others to deliver us from this evil!”

“Wolf is much too powerful for us to fight against by ourselves!” replied an agitated David.

But Shana had formulated her own plan and was excited to offer it to her group. “We’ll go up against Wolf in his own house!”

“Have you gone totally crazy?” cried out Mike.

“No! Listen to me! We’ll make sure that Todd and Sam find out about this meeting before it actually happens: this way they can come to our aid.”

“Oh! How romantic!” exclaimed Linda, “Knights in shining armor, valiantly coming to our rescue.”

“Why don’t we just ask them to help us?” asked a puzzled Mike. “This idea is totally idiotic!” He was annoyed with the silly ideas that the girls were always dreaming up. He didn’t believe that they always had to be the ones to find the bad guys. The other residents had more money and were much more powerful—except for the small fact that they didn’t know which ones were good and which were bad.

“They won’t listen to my ideas; but if they’re informed—before the fact—that we’re in trouble, they’ll have to come quickly to save us,” responded Shana. “After Sunday services, we’ll ask Father John to notify Todd and Sam where we’ll be going. The Father knows what’s happening in town and is very reliable. We can trust him to alert them in time.”

“How do we know who to trust? Wolf and Hayden are evil—but what about all the other vampires and human vampires in town? How do we even know that Father John can be trusted?” Mike fearfully asked of everyone sitting around the table in the dark, with the lone candle providing a small quivering light. Each of their faces suddenly appeared ghostly in the flickering candlelight—and not even human. He shook his head to clear his vision and repeated the mantra over and over in his mind: 
These are my friends and can therefore be relied upon.

“We just have to be extra careful from now on and trust only the people we’re certain are loyal,” Shana explained. “Father John had alerted us to the secret meetings on the hill and the battle between good and evil taking place on the mountainside—right outside our apartments. If he’d actually been one of The Dead, why would he have supplied us with this information if it was supposed to have been a secret society?”

“Okay, we’ll assist you with this investigation.” Mike reluctantly agreed, knowing that Shana had already decided to follow through with her idea—even before she’d presented it. He would be just wasting his breath if he chose to veto her plan…so he remained quiet for the rest of their planning session.