Chapter Six

You said you were going to fly straight home, Rudolph's brother snapped as soon as he had an opportunity to invade his thoughts.

Leave me alone, Gregory, Rudolph replied, closing his eyes and turning his head to the chest wall farthest from Tony. I'm not in the mood.

But clearly you're in the mood to worry us all sick.

I had stuff to do, he mentally shouted. It's not like I could leave someone to die after they've saved my life.

Rudolph, what the bloody hell have you been up to?

Running from Rookery. That's what I've been up to. Rudolph could practically feel Gregory's sigh, and for a moment, he wanted more than anything to be back in his brother's company. I'll come home first thing tomorrow night, he said. I swear it.

Thank you, Rudolph.

TLV

Dottie threw open the curtains of Tony's room with a cheery "Good morning," and then walked over to his bed. "Now, why are you sleeping this way?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. She moved to sit next to him. "Did you have another nightmare last night?"

"Yeah," Tony replied automatically.

"Aww, poor baby." Dottie kissed his forehead.

"No," Tony said emphatically in an effort to rectify the situation. "I dreamt I was...flying."

"You did? That's wonderful. That's a good kind of dream to have. Now come on," she added, pulling the covers back and rising to her feet. "Get up. Rise and shine. Time to go to school."

"I don't have school today, remember?" Tony said, sitting up.

Dottie stopped in the doorway and turned to face him. "That's right. Today's the day you get to go golfing with Dad."

"Yeah."

"Anyway, get dressed. Big day ahead." Dottie turned and walked out of the room, and Tony climbed out of bed and walked over to the chest, opening it gently.

Rudolph hissed from within and cried out, "The sun!"

"Sorry, dude," Tony replied, closing the chest again.

"You hungry?" Dottie called from the kitchen.

"I could eat a cow!"

TLV

"Nice, easy stroke," Bob said as he helped Tony set up. Tony's little incident at school had one silver lining: it gave Bob the chance to spend much-needed quality time with his son. He straightened and walked over to the hole. "Okay, give it a shot." Tony tapped the ball gently, and it missed the hole by just a few inches. Bob lifted his foot to allow the ball to finish its course. "Alright, pretty good."

"When does the sun go down?" Tony asked, walking over to Bob.

"Er, not for a while."

"But I need to be home before it sets." Bob tapped his ball, and it stopped just short of the hole. He walked over to give it another tap.

"What's the big hurry? Bored already?"

"No. I know what you've been thinking about me."

Bob plucked the golf ball from the hole and walked over to Tony. "Oh, Tony. I'm sorry I've been so rough on you lately. I got this job on one hand and this thing at school-"

"I know."

"Yeah."

"Dad, do you think I'm crazy?"

"Oh, no," Bob said emphatically, squatting so that he was eye level with his son. "I just think that vampires belong in a movie somewhere and not in your room."

"How'd you know he was in my room?" Tony asked. He seemed genuinely surprised by this, which surprised Bob in turn, and he could do nothing but give the boy a quizzical look. "Kidding," Tony said. "Not very funny, right?"

Bob considered this a minute and then smiled and nodded. "Kind of funny."

"Let's play golf."

"Okay, that's the spirit. Let's set up again." Bob straightened, and they took their positions around the golf ball.

TLV

Just as he had the night before, Rudolph stirred just a little bit before sunset, but this time, he didn't try to catch an extra little bit of sleep. He had an oath to keep. He eased open the chest and looked around the room, and finding it empty, he slipped out and walked over to the desk. It was covered in marker drawings featuring such various but thematically unified subjects as bats, vampires, and blood, but his eyes landed on one drawing in particular, and he gasped, a thrill of hope rushing through him the likes of which he hadn't felt in hundreds of years. That's it, he thought, picking up a drawing of a roughly oblong amulet with a red center stone. That's it. It has to be.

He set the drawing down again and transformed into a bat, flying out the window just as the last rays of sun faded from the sky.

TLV

Gregory leaned back against a giant columnar headstone which was missing a large chunk of its top half, and he stared up as a small bat flew toward him. In a flash, his brother floated down from the sky, landing gently on the earth so as not to draw the attention of the caretaker. "I can't stay long," he said at once. "There's something I have to check out. It's about the stone."

"What is it?" Gregory asked.

"I think I've found someone who knows where it is."

"Are you sure?"

"No. That's why I have to go back."

Gregory lowered his arms and taking a step toward his brother. "If you find us that stone, then at least one of Father's sons is good for something."

"Don't say things like that."

"Go." Rudolph nodded, turned back into a bat, and went back the way he had come. Almost forcefully, Gregory tore his eyes from his brother, shifted form, and started flying back to the rest of his family, already rehearsing the story he would tell his parents about where he'd been for the past fifteen minutes.

TLV

Tony ran through the front door and over to the stairwell at the first available opportunity, ignoring questions from both of his parents in his desperate bid to get up to his room before Rudolph could go anywhere. He burst through his door and almost slid over to his trunk, popping the locks and then pushing the lid open.

The only thing in the trunk was a pillow.

Tony closed the lid and then sat on top of it with a heavy sigh. Feeling truly empty for the first time in his life, all he could do was turn his gaze to the open window and stare at the curtains moving softly in the gentle breeze. He should've known it was too good to be true, and now Rudolph was gone.