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Message from the author: Thank you all so much for the great reviews so far! I'm thrilled to hear that chapter 1 was so well recieved by you readers. I hope you'll enjoy this one just as much. Feel free to write a comment below to let me know what you think. Thank you once again!
Chapter 2
Episode: Stranger within, part 2
Point of view: Xander
"What if we find Necrolai before Vida, how do we destroy her?"
Madison finally asks the question we've all been dreading to say out loud. For hours we've been stuck at Rootcore, discussing how we will find Vida after we so foolishly - after I so foolishly - fell for her easy trick. I still can't believe I let her fool me like that. Transforming herself into Clare and letting us think that Clare had been the gullible one... We should've known better. No, correction, I should have known better.
The only comfort I have is that Madison and Chip fell for it too, and they have known Vida longer. Nick is still new in this town so I don't blame him. But Madison, Chip and I should've known better. We have known Vida for ages, for God's sake! She has pulled this trick on us before!
I hear a troubled sigh in the room, but realize it doesn't come from me but from my right. Nick comes to a halt from pacing restlessly back and forth underneath the dais. Tonight he really looks the part as Red Ranger, deeply troubled over one of his rangers missing in action.
"Flytrap was one thing..." Madison continues on my left, but trails off.
Her face is pale and worried. I know she is more worried than any of us. Vida is her sister after all. Family. Chip and I are only close friend, though Chip might be considered as more like a brother than a friend to the girls.
My head snaps up. That's it!
"Chip's book!" I exclaim, drawing the others' attention to me. "It's gotta have a chapter on destroying vampires."
To my relief, Chip nods. A stern look on his usually so cheerful face.
"Chapter thirteen," he says. "Basically it' the old stake-in-heart scenario..." He hesitates and I can feel my heart sink. "Unless we're dealing with the queen of the vampires."
"And what does it say about destroying them?" Nick inquires. He doesn't know Chip as well as Madison and I do, so he can't tell the obvious answer from the serious expression on Chip's face.
"It says you can't."
You never truly get the depth of the the harsh reality until you actually hear someone say it out loud.
"That's encouraging," I mutter bitterly. Then it hits me, it's something Udonna said to us on our first day as rangers. "Wait! The Xenotome!"
The others look at me questioningly.
"It tells us what we need to know, when we need to know," I explain. "And we need to know it now."
We rush up the stair to the dais. Chip is the first to reach the Xenotome.
"Xenotome, how do we destroy the queen of the vampires?"
The old book starts to glow. The air in the room suddenly vibrates from the magic radiating from it. I can feel goose bumps rise on my arms. The magic in Xenotome is something else than the magic Chip, Madison, Nick, Vida and I are using. It's even different from Udonna's magic. This magic is as old as time. And powerful. Very powerful.
Black ink seeps up from within the old parchment of the fragile pages. Words, written in the old magical language, reveal themselves to us. I can't read them though. I didn't pay that much attention to Udonna's teaching that day, I had a hot date the night before. Can't recall her name though, or her looks, or anything about her really more than the fact that she was hot...
I force the thought out of my head and look at the page again. I can tell it's a recipe of some sort. Hopefully one of the others can read it.
"Dawn crystal," Chip reads. "It must be the only way to defeat Necrolai. It says how make one, but it takes time and ingredients I don't know if I can get."
Before any of us has a chance to answer, a white shadow emerges from one of the adjacent rooms.
"You can't," Udonna says as she hurries up the stair towards us with a basket hanging on her arm, "but I did. We must hurry. There is not much time. We must make the crystal before..."
She quiets, but too late. We've all heard the seriousness in her voice and know what comes next.
"Before what?" Madison's voice almost cracks at the end. "Before it's too late, is that what you were going to say?"
Udonna turns and face us. Her face could've been carved in stone. The green eyes gaze at us one at the time.
"Make no mistake, Rangers. We are in danger of losing one of our own."
The words hit us hard, but Madison the hardest. She winces of fear. Her bottom lip starts to tremble, she's not far from tears. I want to reach out to her, but Nick gets there first.
"It's not gonna happen."
The determination in his voice surprises me and for once I am glad I'm not the Red Ranger. I couldn't have boast such confidence at this moment. Nick's conviction gives me hope, even though I suspect it's all to keep Madison from breaking apart. Her eyes are so watery the tears are threatening to spill at any second when she meets Nick's gaze. There is a silent promise exchanged between them before Nick turns to Udonna. As he does so, the tears spills on Madison's cheeks.
"Udonna, you make the Dawn Crystal. We'll find Vida."
"No," Chip exclaims, "I'm staying to make the Dawn Crystal. I owe Vida that much."
None of us argues with that. We all know the strong bond between Vida and Chip, and if there is someone who can defeat the queen of the vampires, it is Chip. He's been studying the creatures in the comic books since diaper age.
Nick, Madison and I morph before leaving Rootcore on our Aerotanks. The night is dark as we speed through the forest. We keep our gazes glued to ground, in search of a blood sucking Vida on the run. I keep thinking to myself that we cannot be too late. We can't loose her. Not now, not ever.
"Vida!" I yell at the top of my lungs, trying to drown my worries with my shouts.
Beside me Nick tries the same approach, but with more fire as he yells the nickname he has given her: "V!"
"Sis! Where is she?" Madison's cry is less fearsome. Her tears may have dried the second we jumped onto our Aerotanks, but she is still fragile and out of her wits of worry. Anything can cause her to crumble, so Nick and I stay close.
"Hey, V!"
Hours pass by as we speed from place to place searching for Vida. We go to all the places in the forest a fugitive vampire could hide, but Vida is nowhere to be seen. We head for the city instead, thinking a newly bitten vampire could be out in search of blood.
"She has to be somewhere," Madison says while we're circling around the central part of Briarwood. "I'm not giving up."
She says the last part as much to herself as to either of us.
"No one is, Maddy", Nick immediately replies and clenches a gloved fist. "No one!"
"Vida!"
I sit silent on my Aerotank for a moment. Throughout the night, I have come to notice something about my friends in red and blue. At first I thought Nick kept close to Madison for the same reason I did, as a concerned friend; but as the night progresses without us being any closer of finding Vida, I instead find Nick getting all the closer to Madison. They fly so close their knees almost brush against each other. Whenever Madison's hope wavers, Nick says something encouraging to brighten her spirit.
Of course, his attention to her could be the concern of a leader for one of his team members, but something whispers to me that there is more to it than that. I decide to keep them under close watch.
Dawn comes and goes without any sign of Vida. When the clock struck 10 am, we are forced to return to the human world. We cannot be late for our shift at Rock Porium. It's bad enough Vida is missing in action and Chip is held up at Rootore, making the Dawn Crystal. We arrive to the store just in time for our shift to start. We land our Aerotanks in the ally behind the store and enter through the back door so it would appear that we've just been outside throwing garbage or something.
I am not surprised to see Nick follow closely in Madison's tracks. Her distress over not finding Vida is evident.
"Maybe she left town, maybe she was taken," Madison is on the edge of bursting into tears. She leans heavily onto counter for support. "Maybe she..."
Her voice cracks and Nick is immediately at her side. I watch him slid an arm around her shoulders.
"We'll find her, Maddy!" His voice softens as he pull her closer. "I promise."
Their eyes meet and my jaw drops.
Holy crap!
There is something in his voice when he gives her the promise, and in his eyes when he looks at her afterwards, that spills the beans to me. He loves her!
I stare dumbfounded at the pair in front of me. How could I have missed this? How can anyone have missed this? Now that I've seen it, it is so obvious. Nick loves Madison. Fire and water, Yin and yang. How could I not have suspected this right from the start? I knew Madison fancied Nick from the moment she laid eyes on him.
Another question finds its way to my conscious; does Vida know?
Before I get to dismiss that question as not likely, the intimate moment between the Red and the Blue Ranger is interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Find who?"
Our head snaps up at once. It's Vida!
Madison releases herself from Nick's embrace and rush across the room to throw herself around her sister's neck.
"Vida!"
I curse silently to myself. Of all the stupid moments Vida could have shown up at during the night, she decided to show up at the worst one. The one that could have been really special to her sister. I glance at Nick. His face is blank, slightly confused and I'm sure it has nothing to do with Vida showing up. He thought, just like I did, that he would be kissing Madison by now.
"Sis, I'm fine. Calm down. I'm fine," I hear Vida say as she tries to release herself from Madison. "I had quite a night. I'm okay."
Quite a night, the beast inside me growls at her. Madison could've had quite a morning if you hadn't showed up!
Then I am reminded of why it's been quite-a-night for her and Vida is all forgiven.
