Jamie
We could barely keep up with Allen. He was moving with unstoppable speed, leading us to God knows where. We had left behind Donovan, because he was unconscious, and the girl Allen had with him, because she had no magic and there was no way she could keep up.
Don and Marissa and I, we had tracked our speed before. We could run up to three times the normal human speed, about 84 miles per hour. I was guessing Allen was doing way more than that because I was actually getting tired trying to catch up to him.
I thought about putting on a spurt of energy, just enough to catch up and tackle him, when he finally slowed down. "We're almost there," he panted, and I was happy to hear he was too.
I still wanted to know why he was so different and so strong.
Actually, I suppose he isn't as different as we thought he was, since Donovan bridged the gap and discovered the wolf man form himself.
Maybe we just had to train harder. Allen certainly pushed Donovan to his limit, and he was really only playing with him, because he had magic. He could've taken him out in the first ten seconds if he wanted to.
If Donovan can do it, I can do it. I was always naturally stronger than him anyways, even though now he's clearly past that. If all of us could use that wolf man form, it would give us a huge edge over vampires. But first , we had to get Allen to help us.
When he stopped to catch his breath, I realized that he had taken us to Danielle's house, and it looked exactly as it did when we first came.
I didn't think he would listen to me if I told him we already came, and it would be even worse if I told him what happened to her family.
After we all had rested for a second, he walked up to the door and knocked. Marissa and I gave each other odd looks. It was clear she didn't want to tell him either.
It only took a minute for someone to answers, and it was a little boy, barely taller than the doorknob. "Hi." He said smiling, not scared of us, or wary of strangers at all. I figured and adult would show up in a second, so I tried to see what I could find out quickly.
"Hey, little man!" I crouched down and gave him a high five, which he stared at for a second before he did it back.
"What's your name?" I asked him.
"Dominic." He replied happily.
"I know you might not remember, or believe me, but do you have a sister?"
I was legitimately surprised when he nodded his head. "Yea. She's in her room sleep. She gets mad when I play with her stuff without her."
"Can you take us to her, DumDum?" asked Allen.
Dominic giggled with delight. "That's what my sister calls me!" Allen gave Dominic a smile, but it wasn't the type of smile that I would trust.
He grabbed Allen's hand and led him inside. We followed closely behind them and I shut the door.
The house was a little cleaner than I expected, and there was a sweet smell in the air. Dominic started to take us further into the house, towards the back, and I hesitated. It didn't matter that they were hexed, this was still trespassing.
"Guys, wait a second. What if the parents catch us?" I was at the back of the group, and they gave me a confused look.
"You waited till after we were already inside to think of that?" said Allen. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. They've known me since middle school."
He walked right into a bedroom with Dominic, and we all followed.
Inside was a pink and white room, with toys scattered all over the floor. There was a princess bed to the side, and it had pink curtains falling down over all sides of the bed.
A child, probably no older than three, was playing around and tripping over her toys.
"Here she is! Say hi Delmy!" Delmy looked at us, giggling louder and ran over to meet us. She didn't say hello, but she took something out of her mouth and put something in Allen's hand.
"Ew." said Marissa. "What is it?"
He looked back at us, and then to Dominic. Be looked angry, and I thought he realized what happened.
He didn't.
"How did she get this? What's wrong with you?" He demanded Dominic. The little boy's face fell, unsure why he was getting in trouble. "She saw me eating it, and she wanted some..."
"Never give this to her. Ever. She's still a baby. She could choke on things like this."
Dominic nodded, staying silent.
Marissa felt bad for him, I could see it on her face. "What did he give her?" She asked.
"A jolly rancher." He replied.
I picked up Dominic, and tossed him into the air a couple of times. He immediately started laughing and shrieked "Again! Again!"
Marissa smiled and Allen picked up Delmy.
"Danielle must be busy somewhere."
"Huh?" said Dominic. I stopped bouncing him and he looked at Allen. "What?"
"I said, Danielle must be busy somewhere."
"Who is that?"
"Your sister."
"Nuh uh. Delmy is right there." said Dominic, pointing to Delmy in Allen's arms.
"I'm talking about your older sister. Danielle."
"I don't have an older sister."
Marissa put her hand on Allen's back, and I set Dominic down. "We told you," she whispered, "She was taken by the vampires."
Allen didn't respond. He looked at Delmy for a minute, then gently put her back on the floor, handing her the toys she was playing with earlier.
"Markus, who are these people in our house!?"
We turned around, startled to see Danielle's mother behind us. I knew this was going to happen.
Allen took a step forward. "Ms. Valdivia it's me. I was just wondering if you knew what happened to Danielle-"
"Get away from me!" She pushed past him and picked up Delmy. She yanked Dominic towards her by grabbing his wrist, hard, and retreated to a corner in the room.
"Take what you want, just please don't hurt us." she cried.
I grabbed Allen, forcibly trying to take him out the room. Markus is obviously her husband's name. We had to get out before they called the police, or attacked us.
Just then, a dark haired Hispanic looking man burst in, looking shocked and angry.
"Markus, hel-" Danielle's mother stopped mid sentence. I looked back at her, and she was petrified, frozen in place, eyes glowing purple, a small aura surrounding her. I turned back towards Markus, who had also frozen in the exact same way.
"What is this?" Marissa asked, moving closer to the mother while Allen moved towards Markus. I looked at the children, who were completely unaffected. "A mage must be close by." I told them. "They've caught us."
Dominic went to his mother and started tugging on her arm. "Momma, momma what's wrong?"
He tried to shake her shoulder, but she couldn't move. He started crying and saying something in spanish I couldn't understand. I saw the aura start to surround him as well, and I yanked him back away from her.
"Marissa! Get the baby!" I tried to stop the magic from reaching him, but he had already frozen. Marissa held Delmy in her arms, who still had not been affected. She didn't seem upset that her family was frozen, probably because she was too little to understand it.
"Don't fret." Spoke Danielle's mother, in two voices, a male's, and her own.
"I have stopped them to protect them. And you.
I am not the source of evil that put the first hex on them. I am here to help you discover the truth, and free your friend Danielle."
That last sentence angered Allen. "What do you know about Danielle?"
The light faded in the mother's eyes for a moment, and then she spoke again. "I don't know where she is, but I've talked to her. And I know exactly who you have to face to get her back."
The light faded again, and when she spoke next, she sounded sleepy. "Before we do anything else, we need to-"
The purple aura disappeared, and her face went slack. Markus, behind us, dropped to the floor. Dominic didn't collapse, but the aura surrounded him turned white.
He spoke with a voice that scared the crap out of me. "Of all the places you could've gone to hide... You picked the dumbest, most obvious place possible."
I'm not going to lie, I almost dropped Dominic. I set him down gently and looked at his eyes. They glowed white, but they looked lazy, like he was half asleep.
"This is a different person," I murmured. "Something must have happened to the other guy."
"I assume this is the first time they are hearing either of us, am I correct, Shaye?"
Allen, Marissa and I looked at each other.
Who the heck is Shaye?
I started to back out the room, and after staring at me a couple of seconds, Allen and Marissa followed suit.
"This is the vampires doing. We can't help them until we stop the vampires and free Danielle."
Little Dominic smiled, and a thin wisp of smokey white light was spewing from his mouth.
"Danielle doesn't need to be freed. I think she's handling herself just fine." Dominic stood up, and we all took a step back.
Their mother lit back up in the purple aura, and the man named Shaye spoke again.
"Leave these kids alone Gabriel. They could kill you with their eyes closed."
Gabriel, the man controlling Dominic, released his hold on Dominic the boy dropped to the floor, but luckily, his head landed on a fluffy pink pillow. We all waited for a few seconds, but heard nothing. "I can't believe he actually listened to him." said Marissa.
In response to that, Markus got up from being us and pushed into the room. He grabbed Danielle's mother but the shirt Anna pulled her close to him.
"You do realize these kids can't save you from me?" He sneered. "Just wait. Wait till I see you in person. I'm going to kill you and erase you from existence, and I promise you that."
"I'm not afraid to die," said Shaye, the purple in The mother's eyes glowing brighter.
"The vampires were out to kill me from the very beginning. It was just a matter of time. And time will affect all of us. What we have done to these kids will have a huge impact on everything we know."
"If I had permission to meet you in person you'd be dead already."
"If you had permission to meet me in person, we'd both be dead."
Gabriel growled in anger and dropped Danielle's mother. "I'm out of time, but the bats are coming. Good luck with that."
The white light disappeared from Markus, and he fell on top of his wife.
The purple glow faded as Shaye moved Markus off of his wife. He must be weak, because Gabriel had no problem moving.
"Shaye," said Allen. "Explain yourself. What are you, where are you, and what type of magic is this?"
Danielle's mother's body started convulsing, and she vomited. Well, she didn't actually vomit, just body just made the gesture, so I assume Shaye was vomiting somewhere nearby .
"Answer me." Allen demanded.
Marissa put Delmy on her bed and I put Dominic next to her.
"I... am outside. I'm injured and I'm running out of magic ." said Shaye.
Allen grabbed Markus and sort of slung him over his shoulder. He was going to lay the man in his bed, like we had done with Delmy and Dominic.
"Outside of this house?" I asked, as Marissa picked up Danielle's mom.
"Yes. Just... Meet me out there. I can't keep up this connection anymore.
As soon as he finished speaking, her body went slack and Marissa carried her to the master bedroom.