Vampire Secrets: Book 2 (Blood and Snow Season Two) (12 page)

“First things first. How do we stop the darkness?
How is she creating the gloom? And why?” Troy asked.

“
She believes that if she turns the world dark and then becomes the only light, everyone will accept her rule more easily,” I said.

“If she succeeds, that’s exactly what’ll happen. Those in the land of Sharra are fidgety. They’
re scared and angry.” She clutched Peter’s hand. “They had no idea the other realms existed. No idea they could go home, so to speak. That is until the darkness started to fall. It was the pixilettes who noticed first. Before the reporter shared that the darkness was falling over the entire world, I was inclined to think the darkness in Sharra was nothing to worry about.”

“I understand what you mean,” Ariel said.

Zoe smiled. “I held a council meeting last night and shared what I’d learned. About the darkness and about the realms. Sharra has kept us in the dark so to speak about a lot of things for a long time.” She shook her head sadly. “There are those on the council who don’t believe I didn’t know. They think I’ve been keeping secrets too.”

“Then they don’t know you at all,” I said savagely. Knowing my mom would never keep
such an important secret.

“No
w that they know their own realms exist,” Zoe continued, “they want to leave Sharra and be with their own kind. As the queen I’m inclined to let them go, but I’m worried for them too. Worried about what that evil vampire will do to them.” Zoe shrugged. “To all of us, really.”

“I guess we go Akuma hunting and hope one of them will talk,” Troy said, frustrated.

Laeddin appeared in the middle of the room.

“Laeddin
,” I said, relieved.

Zoe let out a squeal.

Ariel jumped up, ready to fight.

Peter and Troy barely moved.
They were used to the way Laeddin popped in and out on a regular basis.

“
I think I’ve figured out how to stop her,” Laeddin blurted, just as surprised as the rest of us.

“Really
,” Ariel said, sitting again.

“Who’s this?” Laeddin
asked, giving her a peculiar look.

“She’s my mom,” Zoe said.

He raised an eyebrow. “Hello. I’m Laeddin. A genie and Jasmine’s servant.”

Ariel
gave me a secret smile. It made me blush. “Well Laeddin, it’s lovely to meet you,” she said.

Laeddin turned to me, his aqua eyes sparkling with an emotion I hadn’t seen in him in weeks. Hope. “And I think I found a way to get Jasmine her wings back.”

“How?” Troy asked. I wasn’t sure if he was upset it was Laeddin who found a way to help or that the genie was back.

“It isn’t going to be easy, but if we all work together
, we can do it.” He gave Ariel a pointed look. “Including you.”

“Whatever you need,” Ariel said.

“Then I think we might have a chance at beating her.”

For the next several hours we discussed a plan to defeat Maleficent.

Chapter 9

The fi
rst step was to capture an Akuma.

That meant hunting without killing
, which I doubted was possible.

We were back at the Harmony Grove Cemetery. Since there had been so many
Akuma there the previous night, we decided to try again. This time we got there early, before the sun fully set. We wanted to find out where or how the Akuma were getting into the cemetery so we could try to catch them by surprise. Ariel took the northwest corner. Peter had the northeast. Zoe kept eyes on the southeast. Troy had the southwest. And Laeddin and I had the center.

“What’s going on with you and Troy?” Laeddin asked. We were standing near a fancy monument complete with concrete stairs
leading up to it. To the right was a gothic style church built in nineteen hundred and five.

The church had a tall pointed spire that rose from the center
, along with four smaller spires, one at each corner. The carvings were intricate. Some might call it gaudy but I thought it was amazing.

I turned away
from Laeddin, not sure how to talk to him about Troy. “What do you mean?” I finally asked.

“Something’s different.” He ran a hand through his dark hair and I caught a flash of his tribal tattoo. That was part of the plan to
o. I would use my second wish, but at the right time. A time Laeddin specified. It once again had to do with consequences.

“He asked me to
go with him to a dance at school.” I kicked at a tall chunk of grass.

“That’s nice,” Laeddin said quietly.

I glanced over. His face was impassive. I couldn’t read what was going on in his mind. “It should be fun. I’ve never been to a school dance.”

“Yeah, it definitely fits into your plan for a normal teenaged life, right?” His words were light, but tinged with sarcasm.

I lifted my chin defiantly. Wasn’t it okay to try to enjoy whatever I could? “Exactly,” I snapped. He was the one who said we couldn’t be any more than friends while I still had wishes. It made sense, I guess. But he knew I wanted more, yet we barely talked, except when he had to over the past six weeks.

Laeddin sighed. “Jasmine, I’m sorry.”

I gritted my teeth. Sorry meant nothing if he didn’t have the actions to back it up.

“Look at me.” He tilted my chin so I had no choice. “I—” He stopped. “You have your vampire abilities back?”

“How can you tell?” Was he mad? He seemed… I wasn’t sure.

“I can see it.
On your skin. In your eyes. I can even smell the difference. You aren’t the same as before though. Something’s different.” He dropped his hand and stepped back. “You drank blood. Whose was it?”

I closed my eyes. “It isn’t a bad thing, is it?” I crossed my arms, sad and feeling sorry for myself. I couldn’t seem to do anything right.

“It depends. Your mom had you drink from the different magics to fortify the magic within that blood. Elf blood enhances your eternal sight. Troll blood improves your strength and so on. That’s why human blood, while satisfying, doesn’t enhance your magics.” Laeddin stopped talking and I opened my eyes. He was afraid. “Whose blood did you drink, Jasmine?”

“I—”

The sun had gone down and we were in total darkness. I hadn’t noticed because of my vampire abilities. A person walked out of the old church. “Laeddin. Behind you.”

Warily
, he turned around.

“Is it one of them?
” I asked.

“Yep.” Laeddin move closer.

I took my phone from my back pocket and sent a group text. It was one word:
Akuma.

Then
I pocketed my phone and lowered my center. Facing the Akuma tonight would be different. This time I had my fangs.

Laeddin took some rope from his pocket. I had some too and
pulled it from my hoodie. Peter, Zoe, and Troy had the same kind of rope as well.

Before heading to the cemetery,
Zoe had placed a binding spell on each of the ropes. It was supposed to allow the rope to seize and hold any lower magical creature. Since we weren’t sure what magic had been used to create the Akuma we didn’t know if the vampire queen’s magic would work. But it was the place to start.

“I’ll go left. You take the
right side,” Laeddin said.

“Got it.” I
moved, keeping my focus on demon creature. He didn’t smell human. I realized that first thing. He smelled like a corpse covered in perfume or dried potpourri. That was it. He smelled like vanilla potpourri. It was so strong I wondered how I hadn’t smelled it on the elf even without my vampire senses. 

“Hey man
,” I said when I was close enough that I was sure he could hear.

“
Hello,” he sneered. “You’re just the vampire I was looking for. The Mistress would like to speak with you.”

I took the rope from my hoodie pocket. “Really? What does she want?”
The others were coming. I could hear them and knew they were getting closer. The idea was that we would all go after one Akuma at the same time. Six against one put the odds in our favor.

The Akuma
tilted his head as though listening, and I wondered if he could hear the others moving as well. He smiled. “You’re predictable,” he sneered. “She said you would do this.” He closed his eyes, lifted his arms and tilted back his head. Then just stood there. As though he knew what we intended and was waiting, accepting his fate.

I glanced at Laeddin. He seemed as confused as I felt.

Troy, Zoe, and Peter showed up.

“What’s going on?” Troy asked. He glanced from the Akuma to Laeddin and then my way.

“It seems the Akuma
wants to be captured.”

“Excellent,” Troy said, wrapping the rope around his neck. I took his waist. Zoe and Peter wrapped their ropes around each arm. Laeddin nodded.

“I should make my wish now?”

“Yes.”

That seemed to wake the Akuma up. He opened his eyes. I saw his body shimmer and knew immediately he was getting ready to do whatever new power he possessed to vanish—just the way the elf had.

“I wish—” I began, but a whirring sound cruised past my ears and then the Akuma’s head was unexpectedly gone. A small sword fell to the ground beside his body. The Akuma dissipated.

Zoe gasped.

“What the hell?” That was Troy.

I turned, trying to see who’d done such a thing. They’d spoiled our plans and that pissed me off.

“What happened?” Peter asked.

I pointed at the sword. “Someone severed its head.”

“Dammit,” Troy hollered.

“It’s okay,” Laeddin began. “I’m sure there will be another.”

But there wasn’t.

We spent several hours waiting for more, but none came.

Finally I went inside the church, looking for the spot where the Akuma cam
e from. My mom couldn’t sense any magic within either.

Finally, a
t two in the morning, we called it a night.

***

Over the next two weeks we went Akuma hunting every evening after school. But they were gone. As quickly as the Akuma appeared they’d vanished. We found empty graves, so we knew the Mistress was still creating Akuma, but we saw none of the demon creatures.

Sharra was planning something. Something big, but we didn’t know what.

My mom and dad were frustrated. Laeddin returned to his realm, certain he would find an answer if he kept searching his people’s histories. As much as I wanted him to stay I couldn’t force him. He was trying to help and if that meant he had to be away for a time, then so be it. Ariel left too. She went back to Mizu to give her people an update.

My mom and dad were still around. I saw them in school and each night when we hunted, but they spent a lot of time in Sharra as well.
A lot was happening there and they needed to keep tabs on their people. My mom explained she’d searched the Cave of Lost Souls and discovered dozens of vampires had been awakened.

And Troy? Well he was my
sanity. We spent nearly every moment after school together. He helped with my homework, watched
The Vampire Diaries
with me, and even slept on the couch downstairs so I wouldn’t be alone.

The
President of the United States had declared martial law until either the darkness took over or the problem was fixed. That meant Salem and every city in America had an influx of military keeping watch over the streets. A nationwide curfew of ten o’clock had gone into effect. Every store was guarded. Water and food were dispersed according to government specifications.

Despite all this
Christopher continued to show secretly up every couple of days so I could feed from him. It wasn’t anything sexual, though I had to admit I was developing feelings for him. Not in the same way I felt for Troy or even Laeddin, but I cared for him. I trusted him. Most importantly, I needed him. His blood.

No one knew I drank from Christopher
though now that it was a regular occurrence I began to notice slight changes. Like my hair growing again. It’d stopped when I turned twelve. And my fingernails and toenails were growing again too. There were other changes as well.

Like my cleavage.

At fourteen my body had fully developed and I’d come to terms with my A cup bra size. But in the last two weeks “my girls” had grown to where I was filling out a B. My waist had tapered and my face lost its babyish appearance. It was harder, sharper. My features seemed to be etched more deliberately into my face.

The biggest change though was my dreams. They weren’t the same as my visions—the ones where I saw Maleficent flying around with my wings.

These were different. Almost sexual in nature, if I were honest with myself.

They left me feeling unsettled.