June 29th.
Tony went to work with uncle Bob in the morning to see if the stone was anywhere to be found in the McAshton mansion. While he was there, Victoria and I went to the cemetery, where Rudolph and his family slept. When we entered their home, under the ground, we saw the four of them hanging upside down, which is the way vampires slept. I crept towards Rudolph and, with one finger, taped his shoulder. In a split second, faster then a lightening bolt, his eyes shot open and he went from hanging upside down to his feet flat on the ground and his hand clutching my left wrist very tightly.
"Rudolph stop, it is me... Marianne!" He snapped out of it and let go of my wrist, his fangs drawing back in.
"I am sorry Marianne, you just startled me. I thought you were Rookery."
"It is alright."
"Why are you here?" He asked, in a whisper.
"Well, Tony is at the McAshton house, and my aunt is in town for the day, so Victoria and I had nothing to do."
"There is not much that I can do with you because it is day light." He replied, sitting down on a rock. Victoria and I sat next to him. I sighed.
"Yeah I know. It must be boring being a vampire." He chuckled.
"That is funny of you to say, because when it was you and I that went flying alone you made the statement that it must be exciting to be a vampire." I nudged his arm and he grinned. Victoria laughed.
"Well then I take that back... I now think it must be boring to be one."
"It is boring, as well as lonely... and at times it can be fun." He said, as he winked at me.
Rudolph, Victoria, and I just sat around talking, while his family slept, although not long after Victoria and I started talking with Rudolph, his brother Gregory woke up and just sat near us, watching, which was kind of creepy.
One hour later, Rudolph was explaining to us a little more about the magician who made the piece of the comet Atimore, into the amulet that we were searching for, when suddenly Anna woke up and said to us,
"Tony is calling." I stood up from the rock I was sitting on, and asked,
"Can you hear his whistle?" I asked her, but she did not answer. I looked at Rudolph, who was also listening.
"We can hear it, which means he needs us... he may be in danger." Rudolph said.
"But we cannot go out, the sunlight..." Anna said.
Gregory suggested that we open one of the tombs and see if any of the bodies were wearing capes or something long that could cover Rudolph and Anna. Good thing, two of the tombs had bodies that wore long hooded cloaks. Rudolph and Anna each put one on and covered themselves as much as possible.
"This should work." Rudolph said. We slowly made our way up the stairs, out into the sunlight. It did not bother Anna and Rudolph, so the cloaks must be covering them well.
"Are you two alright?" Victoria asked.
"Yes, we are fine. Now, let us hurry to the McAshton house... it is not far from here." Rudolph replied. We hurried, as quick as we could, a cross the farmers field, and through a small bit of woods and then a cross another field, until a large mansion came into view.
"That is it, the McAshton mansion." I said, recognizing the blimp above the golf course, near the fields. The four of us hurried towards the back of the house and then crouched down beside a tree.
"I hear his whistle again... it is coming from..." Anna looked around, trying to figure out where the sound of Tony's whistle was travelling from.
"Over there!" She said. We hurried over to the mausoleum.
"It is the McAshton family mausoleum." I said. Victoria and I both tugged at the heavy door and finally slid it open enough for the four of us to squeeze in. We hurried down the stairs and saw the coffin where the lid had been moved. Rudolph and I pushed it open and Tony sat up in it.
"Tony, thank goodness you are alright. Who did this to you?" I asked.
"Rookery did. He was down here with Lord McAshton."
"He must be helping Rookery look for the stone, since his ancestor, Elizabeth, was the last holder of it." Victoria said.
"But the stone is not here, as it should be... neither is Elizabeth." The five of us looked at each other, and Rudolph shook his head and sighed. I put my hand on his shoulder and said,
"Do not worry Rudolph, we will find it. We still have twelve hours until you all must be at the cliff for the ceremony." I said.
"I know, but I cannot help but feel frustrated. Father is counting on me to find the stone and bring it to him. He is the one who must perform the ceremony." He replied, looking at me.
We needed to work harder, I felt as though we were becoming lazy at searching for this stone.
"Alright, Tony and Victoria, listen up, please..." They both looked at me.
"We have to work harder at finding the stone. Our friends are depending on us to do so...
we cannot and will not let them down. Now, we already know that Elizabeth McAshton was the last holder of the stone, so we have to figure out where she would be. This is her marked grave, and she should be here, but obviously, we can all see that she is not. The only other place she can be is in the cemetery, in an unmarked grave." I told them. They nodded and Victoria said,
"Then back to the cemetery we must go."
Rudolph and Anna smiled at each other. We made our way out of the mausoleum and hurried back the way we had come.
When we got back to the cemetery, and back under ground, Rudolph turned to me and smiled, as the others walked on a head, to where Freda, Frederick, and Gregory were.
"Thank you for what you said when we were at the McAshton mausoleum. I appreciate everything you, Tony, and Victoria, are doing for my family and I. The words you spoke and the way you spoke them sounded like that of a born leader... which I admire about you. I also like that you also have spirit and a kind heart." Rudolph said to me, with a smile.
I did not know what to say... for once in my life, I was speechless.
"You admire me?" Is all that could come out of my mouth, which made him chuckle.
"I do. I always have since the first night we met."
I blushed and without hesitation, I embraced him, and smiled.
"Come now, we should get to others. We have a stone to find, and we only have eleven hours to do so." I said. He nodded, as we walked towards where the others were. Frederick stood up and approached Rudolph and I.
"Anna tells me that you think the stone is with Elizabeth McAshton in an unmarked grave?"
Frederick asked me. I nodded and replied,
"Yes sir, I believe it is. But I am not quite sure where that unmarked grave is."
Before he could say anything else, Tony pointed to a crack in the wall and said,
"Look at that rat, it just went through this crack here. Maybe this is a door..." Rudolph and I went over to it, and he examined it.
"Tony is right, I think it is a door. Gregory, help me open it." Rudolph said. We all watched as Gregory and Rudolph pushed the door open, to reveal a path way behind it.
"Father, are you coming?" Anna asked Frederick. He shook his head,
"No Anna, I will wait here with you mother and Gregory... you go with your friends. If you need help, we will be right here." He replied.
And so, Tony, Victoria, Rudolph, Anna, and I, made our way through the door and followed the path, which was going a bit down hill. It was dark, so it was a good thing that Tony had a small flash light in the pocket of his jeans.
We came to some stone steps which seemed to lead down more. Tony, Victoria, and I began to walk down them, but Rudolph and Anna stopped. Victoria turned and asked,
"What is wrong?"
"We cannot go any further..." Rudolph replied.
"There is something down there... some sort of a curse." Anna added. Victoria looked at me, and I nodded.
"It is fine, stay there and we will go a head and see what is down here." I said to them. They both nodded.
We went down a few more steps, then we entered a room, where there was a large stone coffin with heavy chains wrapped around them. On the chains, on the lid of the coffin, it said something.
"There is something written on the coffin, I do not know what it means!" I shouted to Rudolph and Anna.
"What does it say?" Rudolph asked. I looked at the words and read it out loud, as best as I could.
"Să păziţi-vă vampir."
"Let the vampire beware." I heard Rudolph say.
"What language is that?" Tony asked.
"It is Romanian. And it is most definitely a curse. Anna and I cannot go down there until it is broken. Can you find a way to break the chains?" Rudolph shouted back to me.
"I really have no idea how you expect us to break chains..." Victoria said with a laugh.
"We need a miracle." Tony said with a sigh. Suddenly a bit of dirt started falling from above. Tony, Victoria, and I backed away as a large machine came down and started tangling with the chains. The chains did break and the curse was broken, so Rudolph and Anna came down and helped us open the lid.
Inside was Elizabeth McAshton and a man.
"It's Elizabeth." Tony said.
"And uncle Von. But why are they buried together?"Rudolph questioned.
"Do you not see their hands..." I said to him. We all looked at there right hands, which were together... they were holding hands. Victoria and Anna smiled,
"Oh how sweet, they were in love." Victoria said. Tony rolled his eyes, and Rudolph laughed when he did.
"Does anyone else see, besides them holding hands, that the stone is not in here." I stated.
Tony took the chain around Elizabeth's neck and looked, but there was no stone on it. Suddenly, he gripped it a bit tighter and looked at the wall, in front of him. His expression was the same as it was when he had that vision about Elizabeth and Von in the cave. He then, let go of the chain and took a deep breath,
"Tony dearest, what did you see?" Anna asked.
"The stone is in my room!" He said.
"Is that what you saw?" I asked.
"Yes. I saw Elizabeth and Von being chased by people with fire torches and wooden stakes.
They got Von and staked him, but Elizabeth ran into my house, trying to escape. She shut the door and lifted a floor board, then she took the stone off her chain and put it in the straw underneath. Then, the people came into the room and staked her." He explained.
"I guess she knew that they wanted the stone for the power it would give them, but she could not let that happen, so she hid it before they were able to kill her." Victoria said.
"Well, my friend, if it is at your room, then we must go there now." Rudolph said. We all made our way back up the stairs and told Rudolph's parents about the vision. They told us to go right away and get the stone, for the ceremony would be happening soon... it was already dark out.
When we got to the house, we saw that uncle Bob's car was not in the driveway, which meant that him and aunt Donna were not home yet, but I was sure that they would be home soon, so we had to hurry. Rudolph and Anna flew us up to the balcony of Tony's room, and we opened the door and went in.
"Tony, where did you see her hide the stone?" Victoria asked.
"Right there, in front of my bed." He pointed. Rudolph grabbed the metal fire place poker and handed it me. I began lifting floor boards, as Tony and Rudolph search amongst the straw underneath. It was not long before Tony pulled out, what looked like, a small purse. It was white silk and had a name, in gold embroidery, on it. The name was Elizabeth McAshton.
I motioned Tony to hand me the purse. When he did, I opened it and pulled out a piece of cloth, which when I unwrapped it, revealed a beautiful red stone. I gasped at it and held it out for everyone to see. Rudolph came to my side and I gave it to him.
"The stone of Atimore. We finally found it." He said. He looked at me and smiled, then we embraced each other.
"I cannot believe it, all our dreams will finally come true Anna. We will be human, and our lives will change completely!" Rudolph said to her, in a happy tone of voice. Anna embraced her brother.
"Let's go, we must tell father and mother." Rudolph said. Just as we were about to go back out onto the balcony and head back to the cemetery, there was a loud crash and into the room, stepped a man, holding that same machine that had almost killed me.
"It is Rookery!" Rudolph shouted, as he pushed us all in back of him, protecting us.
"Give me that stone, you filthy blood sucker!" He said, angrily.
"No! It belongs to my family!" Rudolph shouted, gripping the stone tightly, in his hand.
"It belongs to me!" He shouted back, as he held up his machine and prepared to fire a wooden stake at Rudolph. I did not jump in front of him this time, instead we all ducked and the wooden stake went flying out the window. We all laughed at that, which angered Rookery. He dropped the machine and came at Rudolph to get the stone.
Anna stood back, as Tony came up to Rookery and was about to kick him in the shin, but he grabbed Tony before he could and gripped him in his arms. Since he now had the stone from Rudolph's hand, he took Tony and ran out onto the balcony, throwing an inflatable landing cushion and jumped down onto it.
"Oh no, he is getting away. We have to go after him." We watched as Rookery got into his truck with Tony and drove off.
"What are we going to do... he took Tony with him because he knew we would go after him, so he could get another chance to kill us?"
"We must go now, and get Tony and the stone back from Rookery. We have to be at the cliff soon, and father must have to the stone." Anna said.
"I have an idea..." I said.
Anna held onto Victoria's hand and I held onto Rudolph's, as we flew and followed Rookery's truck. Tony let go of my hand, so now Anna was in the middle of Victoria and I, she was the only one keeping us in the air. Rudolph swooped down above the truck and silently landed on it.
As Rookery was blabbing on about how the stone would give him the greatest power and he would be able to kill all the vampires in Scotland, Tony was smart and quietly, switched the stone, inside the little purse, and put the dead mouse that Anna had given him for luck, inside it. When Rookery noticed he had the purse in his hand, he tried to grab it from him, and drive his truck at the same time.
I looked a head and saw that the road Rookery was driving on, was a dead end, it led right to the edge of a cliff.
"Rudolph you must get Tony out of that truck now, or he will go over the cliff with Rookery!"
I shouted to Rudolph. He looked up at me and nodded.
Rudolph put his hand down, through the roof hole and said,
"Tony, take my hand." Tony smiled as he successfully took Rudolph's hand and was lifted from the truck. Rookery shouted after him.
The two of them flew next to us, as we flew away from the truck and headed for the cemetery.
"But Rookery... he still has the stone, we have to get it back." Anna said. Tony shook his head, as he pulled the stone from his pocket.
"No we don't, I got it right here."
We all smiled at each other and shouted, in unison,
"WOO HOO!"
We were successful, and now the cliff, where Frederick, Freda, and Gregory would be waiting, so that the ceremony could be performed and they could become human.