The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series) (18 page)

Grandpa stood up from the chair he was sitting in and dusted the rear of his shorts off. “Well, needless to say I didn’t think you’d ever find this room here. I come here a few times a week for files or supplies or to drop other items off. I no longer use it as a workspace since I don’t live here any longer, but more of a storage unit.”

“So what is all this stuff?” I asked him, still miffed but cooling down.

“Older files with things we’ve tried that failed for destroying the book, correspondence between the order, some of it has nothing at all to do with anything related to this situation, I like to collect items, paintings, old maps.”

“All the files I found were in some language I couldn’t read, and it didn’t show up in any database on the Internet.” After Aiden had told me vampires had their own language I was curious if Grandpa’s order did too.

He nodded in response, “Yes, we have our own language and code we use, that only we know. There is no way to decipher it written down or archived anywhere, we all memorize it from the time we are taught about the order.” I figured as much.

“So, what is this order of yours called? Am I allowed to know that, or will I be tortured to death for knowing it?” I said joking sarcastically.

"Well in English we’d be called 'The Order of Divine Assassins' and our purpose is simple: destroy any evil works Bathory has written, kill any of her minions who stand in our way or that harm our families, and to kill her. The book is the worst of her creations, it has the power to raise the dead, conjure demons from other worlds, terrible things, but she also has writs and scrolls that she created with the help of those witches as well. We have found a good number of them and destroyed them. Now we just need to destroy the book and Bathory herself.”

I finished off the bottle of water I had brought down with me and let out a sigh. “So, what do we do about this vampire she sent here? Aiden told him that the book is not here, but you gave the impression that Bathory would murder our bloodline for revenge? Do I just wait it out and hope you guys can destroy that book before they wax me, or what should we do?” I began wringing my hands nervously.

The answer I got was far from expected. “Well, you’re going to kill him is what you’re going to do. And the next one she’ll send after him, once she realizes he’s dead,” he said matter-of-factly.

With that, Aiden moved to stand by my side and spoke, “Forgive me sir, I protect Skyy willingly, no questions asked, but I am not so sure purposely egging Bathory on and getting her temper flared is the best idea either.” I certainly agreed with him on that one.

Grandpa gave a sarcastic laugh, “It’s either that, or wait for him to kill Skyy first then. Because make no mistake, Bathory might not find the book here but she won’t hesitate to have him kill Skyy. So if you want to protect her, you’ll need to kill this vampire, and not let Skyy out of your sight until the book is destroyed, which may take some time. I told you we were close, but it could take months, maybe even a few years to iron out the kinks.”

His statement got me thinking about the rest of our family and their protection. If they found me they might find them as well. “What about Cate, Grandpa? And Mom, Dad, and Uncle Garen? If they found me here, do they know where they are as well?”

He shrugged his shoulders, “They found you because they were looking for me, and you were living in my house. I am fairly sure that the rest of the family will be safe, but after today, just to be sure I will have the order put someone on watch at their houses.
We
aren’t afraid to kill any vampires Bathory might send,” he said with a direct dig at Aiden. This was getting stupid already.

“Grandpa…please! Be nice to Aiden. You can’t blame him for not wanting to start a war,” I said pleadingly.

He laughed, “A war? Sweetheart, he’s already part of the war that’s been going on since the 1600s, willingly or not at this point. They have seen him with you, he’s declared himself your protector, therefore he’s Bathory's enemy now just as much as we are.”

Well, shit. Now I unknowingly got poor Aiden involved in this, and all he did was save me from a drunken idiot in a graveyard one night. Which also got me to thinking about Christian.

“The vampire she sent saw me out with Christian twice in the same day. Do you think he’s safe? Aiden didn’t think he’d bother him, I just want to make sure,” I asked.

“I wouldn’t take any chances. You have no idea the lengths Bathory will go to in order to get what she wants. Nobody and nothing will stand in her way,” was his reply. While I know he’d been dealing with this for a
lot
longer than I had, it kind of irked me the way he talked about it so bluntly and nonchalantly.

I glanced over at Aiden, wondering what we should do about Christian. I guess he got what the look meant because he spoke up, “Well, we can’t really protect him without him knowing what is going on---” I interrupted him.

“I kind of told him about the breakin at my house when I went to meet him for lunch yesterday. He knows I am in some kind of trouble, and started asking about the police reports and stuff I didn’t have answers for. And you erased his memory last night at dinner, he knew something was up when I started shaking in the restaurant when Bathory's vampire showed up. He won’t remember that but we need to come up with something to tell him.” Now I was really worried. Aiden could take care of himself, I had no doubt about that, but Christian was a human and without knowing what he was up against or how to protect himself he’d be blindsided by a vampire attack.

“He wanted me to come stay at his house until we made sure the guy who broke in was still in jail,” I used air quotation marks around the still in jail part. “He wasn’t happy when I mentioned that I was staying at your place, but seemed to agree that with your gate and alarms I was safe enough there until the weekend, jealous or not.”

Aiden was rubbing his chin while thinking. “Well, we could just move you over to his house and I could stand guard outside the entire time,” he offered.

I shook my head no, “That’s stupid Aiden, it’s still freezing cold outside and I am sure we can come up with a better idea than you hiding in his bushes 24/7.”

Grandpa walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled a folder out of it, placing it under his arm. “Well I hate to pop in and out so quickly children, but I have to be off. Skyy, I am going to show you how to reach me in the event of an emergency. I don’t use cell phones for obvious reasons, GPS tracking and all the other wonders of the modern world would make it too easy to find me. Come over here with me dear,” he said, gesturing to the other room off the main one. We walked over to something that looked like an old breadbox. He opened it up and when he did, the inside of it looked the same way that the portal he walked through earlier did, kind of like the air was distorted and shimmering.

“If you write a letter and place it inside this box here, it will be teleported directly to our headquarters, and I will get it immediately. I can be back here within minutes. It’s kind of like email without the Internet and without being traced,” he said and chuckled.

Weird, but useful I suppose. Grandpa leaned in to give me a hug before he left. Then he looked over to Aiden and held out his hand to shake. Aiden grasped his hand in his and returned the shake. “You do what you have to do to protect my granddaughter. You’re in it now son, and regardless of my feelings for vamps I have to trust you to watch out for her. You seem like a decent chap, so don’t let me down.” He let go of Aiden’s hand and within seconds the air where he was standing started to shimmer and he was gone, just like that.

Aiden let out a soft whistle. “Wow, no pressure there or anything. Your grandpa is a tough nut to crack.”

I laughed and agreed with him. “Yeah, this meeting was certainly different from the old Grandpa I used to know. He was always fun and loving and caring, never mean or grouchy. But I guess he couldn’t let on what was under the surface either, so it makes sense. He loves us and is just trying to keep my family safe.”

Aiden glanced around the room. “I think the best thing to do for now would be to seal this room back up, since we already know that the book isn’t here, there is no reason for us to keep coming down here, other than the mail system of course, which I hope we will never have to use. It’s not even dark yet, we can swing by a hardware store and get some wood to replace the flooring we lifted up.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Let me see if we can move the breadbox out of here or if it only works in here.” I ran to the desk and scribbled out a note:

Is it safe to move the breadbox mail system out of the house or will it only work here?

I folded it up and on the outside I wrote: To Killian Huntington. I wasn’t sure how many other people might have access to the mail coming in on the receiving end. I shoved it in the breadbox and closed the door. I waited a few moments before curiosity got the better of me and opened it again just to see if it was gone, and sure enough it was. I closed it again and paced around for about five minutes or so while Aiden was putting things back in the places we had originally found them. I went back to the box, opened it again, and inside was a letter. Short and sweet it read:

Yes, you can move the mailbox with you. - Grandpa

Ok, well that answered that. I’d be much safer at Aiden’s house and I could also be back with Cupcake as well. Now we just needed to figure out what to do about Christian.

“Grandpa said we can move the breadbox mail system with us, so let's get that and get out of here to the hardware store,” I said to Aiden. He nodded and went to lift the breadbox up. We walked back upstairs, shutting and locking the door down into the room. He placed the pieces of wood he had lifted as best he could back over the opening until we could get back later to fix it, then took some of the boxes we had packed and placed them over that.

After we locked up and hopped into Aiden’s SUV we started heading toward the hardware store. Barely a block away from my house Aiden slammed on the brakes, causing me to slide forward in my seat making my seatbelt lock up. Before I could even ask what was going on he cussed out loud, which I had never heard him do before, “Shit!” He almost rolled us over turning around and flooring it back towards my house.

“What the hell Aiden? What’s going on?” I questioned while rubbing my neck where the seatbelt cut into me.

“There is another vampire here. You wouldn’t have seen him pass with human eyes but he’s heading towards your house.”

“Another vampire as in not the same one who is already in town trying to kill me?” I asked. I really wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

He nodded, “Yes this is a different one.”

I sighed. I had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

Chapter 10

We zoomed back into my driveway and saw the other vampire leaning up against one of the posts of my front porch. It was still light out, so I was able to get a good look at him. He was, like the other vampire I met, dressed in full black from head to toe with a long trench coat on, though he had a black hood pulled up over his head and dark sunglasses on. He pulled the sunglasses off in a dramatic motion once we turned the ignition off and smiled a sadistic smile.

Aiden took his seat belt off. “He can move faster than you can even blink and could kill you even faster, so you must stay with me, I wouldn’t ask you to get out of the car normally but you need to face him and show him you’re not afraid. He won’t hurt you with me close to you.”

I nodded letting him know I understood as I undid my seat belt. Aiden was at my side of the car opening the door and offering me his hand faster than I could even comprehend. I took his hand and we walked up to my porch.

The vampire continued smiling the whole way. I was walking behind Aiden, grasping his hand for dear life. If he wasn’t a vampire I am sure he’d have been complaining that I was about to break it. We stood at the bottom of the three steps that led up to my porch and front door.

The vampire began speaking in that odd language Aiden and the other one had spoken the night before. His eyes were ice cold up close, a very pale ice blue color, which may have been striking on a normal person but on him it was both freaky and scary. I also noticed they were doing that reflective glow thing that Aiden’s did when he was amped up.

Aiden seemed to cut him off mid-sentence, “Speak in English so that my partner can understand you,” he said directly.

The vampire laughed at that, “Your partner? So you have claimed her blood? Do you protect her, or just fuck her?” he asked, looking at me while saying it. I could see that his canines were extended while he spoke it. I couldn’t see Aiden’s face directly but I guessed his eyes were glowing and his fangs were also out.

“Don’t you dare speak about her in that manner, you have no right. She is my partner in every sense of the matter, and she is under my protection. I won’t have you defile her honor,” he said, his voice sounded angry. Wow, I guess he really was my knight in shining armor.

The wind picked up a little and blew the black hood off the vampires head. I noticed his head was totally shaven bald, and he had some weird tattoos on his scalp. He shook his head as if something Aiden said was funny. “Ok, Romeo. Have it your way. Tell me where the book is, and I’ll think about letting her live for another night,” was his reply.

“As I told your colleague, we don’t have the book you’re looking for. She doesn’t know anything about it, she moved into this house her grandfather owned, unaware of it until a couple days ago. She is an innocent, leave her out of it.”

The vampire made a tsk-tsk sound and pushed himself upright off the post. “She
isn’t
an innocent because the boss lady says so. And what
she
says goes. We found her here, in this house, she’s got to go. And besides, the Bathory bloodline doesn’t follow anyone’s rules, we make our
own
rules. We kill who we please when we please, we don’t bow down to pathetic mortals. I’d kill her just to watch the look on your face. You’re a disgrace to the vampire race, any vampire who consorts with humans and acts as such should die along with them!”