Chapter 3.
As a part of Isaiah's plans, we were all locked up in a black van, the windows completely blocked out for Strigoi comfort and we couldn't see the driver either as a screen dividing the drivers and rear compartment had been placed up.
After confirming these details and more while in the tunnels, Isaiah, Elena, Max and I had crept out to where the vans were waiting. It turns out Isaiah had many Strigoi contacts, as well as human ones. I didn't understand why he would need humans in his workforce until he mentioned the need for drivers, as half of our drive would be through daylight hours and humans could also take the wards down, if this family had set up any.
We had been traveling for the last 4 hours, which meant we had at least 6 to go. Sitting in a van with 3 hungry Strigoi really unnerved me. Max had his eyes focused between Elena and Isaiah, surveying them both constantly. I want to sleep but resisted, not knowing what will happen if I let my guard down. I haven't eaten all day and nausea surrounds me as the van continues to move.
"So Vienna," Isaiah starts, I stare confused, then I remember I did give him my name.
"How did you come across your past?" His stare bores deep into me.
"Are you serious? Where on our way to murder people and all you can ask is how I came across my past?" I ask incredulously.
"Call it a pastime of mine" he says with a smirk. "So did you have help? Or did you get the visions?" he asks, his face completely straight.
"How do you know about the visions?"
"I was around members of your family long ago, I know a lot, I helped them."
"Were you turned by one of them? Like I did to Max?"
"No, I wasn't. I merely took interest in your family." He says with amusement dancing in his eyes. "So tell me, how did you come across your powers?" he folds his hands in his lap. Beside him Elena looks slightly interested, but she probably knows nothing.
"The visions. I didn't understand them at first but then I had help. A friend, a family member turned up and helped me through it. He taught me a lot." I recall Danahis square face, his slightly unruly black hair and bright blue eyes. He really was my family. I feel burning behind my eyes and try to push my tears back. I'm not going to cry here.
"Then he was killed. So I guess I'm on my own now." I tell him evenly.
"What of your parents, don't they know?"
Knowing how upset I felt over Danahi, there was no way I would be able to talk about my parents without crying outright, so I stay silent. Isaiah holds my gaze for a moment longer and then turns to make conversation with Elena. I don't pay attention to what they say.
It's about an hour later when I hear small whispers coming from beside me.
"What?" I turn and ask Max.
"I didn't say anything." He says to me, his eyebrows knitted together. Another whisper comes again, this time closer to me, like its sitting right on top of me. I look at Max again, he's still watching me and he shakes his head as if to reiterate it wasn't him. I glance around the van. Elena and Isaiah are quiet, both staring at the floor, no one else is talking, I can't hear the drivers talking either.
I sigh and try to sink back further in my seat. Another whisper comes again but it's different this time, like it's in my head instead of in the car. I don't know what it is. Is this a vision?
I haven't had one in weeks, not since I opened the book of shadows. More whispers come, but this time it doesn't fade out. Words I don't understand grate against my ears, harsh whispers come from all angles. I'm starting to get a headache. I cover my ears, hoping it will stop. Elena and Isaiah turn to stare at me in unison.
"What's going on?" Isaiah asks but I don't pay attention, there's something else here.
Just in front of me, there's a figure. Dressed in old clothes which are burnt, singed and bare threaded in some places. I can still see Isaiah and Elena but I can't take my eyes away from the woman. What's happening to me?
She starts forward and comes to a stand in front of me. "You have to do it," she whispers harshly. Her face sags in exhaustion, like she has been fighting for a long time. Her head is bald in some places with long black hair flowing in others. The ends are singed and frizzy. She gives me a solemn look.
Beside me I hear more whispers but it's from Isaiah.
"Vienna, what's happening?" he asks, I slight note of urgency. Why would he care?
More whispers from the woman invade my head. "I burnt for this. You have to do it. You have to get it back." She says again and again. And I can't say anything I'm frozen, my body temporarily paralysed by the uninvited form. With another solemn look she stares intently at me, at my soul, and then fades and I'm back in the van.
Max is sagging over beside me and across from me Isaiah looks vaguely confused but at the same time aware of what just happened. I can't say anything but my breathing is laboured and I suddenly feel very, very tired.
"You were hallucinating" Max says to me. How does he know?
"How do you know?" I ask him, but before he can reply Isaiah interrupts.
"I've seen this before. When I was around a woman named Louella a few centuries ago. Before she died she started hallucinating, saying weird things and having nightmares. The magic she was using was taking a toll on her" he says without a hint of amusement.
"Louella? As in the last Louella who burned or was staked or whatever by the royal guard?" I ask. Out of all the people, I wouldn't expect Isaiah to be the one to know all this. Or to be the most useful. I'm surprised he isn't more snarky considering he's Strigoi.
"The one and only," he nods. "She was staked along with her husband and then left to burn in her house." Isaiah says, recalling past memories. That's probably why her clothes and hair were burnt.
"She told me to get it back, that I have to do it, did she ever say what she hallucinated?"
I'm still reeling from the fact that I'm hallucinating a dead ancestor who passed down a witch bloodline with some crazy magic…
"No, she never told me what her hallucinations were of, but they got worse over time, about a year before she was killed I lost all contact with her."
"So how do you know she was staked and burned?" I asked with impatience.
"Because I was there. My contacts had heard someone was making a move against the Nesahlas so I went to her house and found her house already alight and the guardians walking out with bloody stakes. Being Strigoi I had no choice but to let her burn in that house. Believe me, if I could have saved her I would, she saved my life numerous times and I owe her for that. As payment for that, I'm helping you." He answers evenly. Well now it makes sense. Why he was so on board quickly and why he hasn't tried to eat me.
Max still hasn't said a word but now looks as tired as I feel. What's up with him? I thought Strigoi didn't get tired. The van goes quiet again and I drown in my own delirious thoughts. Am I going insane? Will someone find me and kill me? Will my message get out? Millions of questions fly through my head at insane speeds and it's hard to actually think.
Before I know it, there's a knock on the panel that separates us and the drivers. The panel is pulled down slightly, revealing the front window and complete darkness beyond it.
"We've arrived sir." One of the humans inform us.
Isaiah nods to us, the back door opens and we spill out. My feet crunch against the snow and though it's not much, my feet almost instantly go numb. I look beyond the cars, revealing a medium sized house, snow covers most of the area but pathways and driveways. We've parked away from the house, so as not to reveal our presence, but still close enough that I can see the residence. Pathways snake from the driveway and around the building.
"Wait, stop!" I suddenly yell. Everyone pauses and I take a moment before I reply, confirming what I'm feeling. "There are wards here." I say. Isaiah doesn't question me, trusting my instincts. He nods to one of humans and the guy pulls out a stake. Surprise momentarily blinds me and then I get my bearings. I suppose Isaiah would let someone bring a stake in case we needed to brake the wards.
"Can you sense where the wards are?" the human asks me. I nod and he beckons me forward. "I need you to tell me where they start so I can break them.
We'll go around the back of the house, a stake in the ground is easier to hide than out the front." I almost stop in surprise again. He sounds like a guardian.
"Do it properly Mance, or you will be lunch." Isaiah warns, and the human with the stake freezes for a moment and then nods. We all head around to the back of the home. Lights flare up in some windows, indicating people are home. We try to make our way to the back as quietly as we can, but we still step on twigs and snow crunches under our feet. I wince every time we make a sound, we'll have more of an advantage if these people don't know we are here.
As I walk, I feel a strong surge of Moroi magic, I don't know how or why I sense it I just do.
"Stop" I whisper. Everyone comes to a halt. "The magic, it starts here, the wards start here so this is where it is strongest." I look to Mance who then nods and moves about a metre forward and then looks to me for confirmation. Isaiah turns to all of us. He points to a group of 6 Strigoi who arrived in similar vans.
"Three of you go to the front, enter through the main door. Three of you will go through a window on the side, and the rest of us will enter from the backdoor, the more entry points and surprise we have, the better." The 6 Strigoi nod and head to their positions, leaving Max and I, Isaiah and Elena and the humans just by the back door. "Once that ward is down, we need to get this done as fast as we can." He nods to all of us and the human bends down, the stake lifted high in his hands. He brings his arms down. Slamming the stake into the ground, if I couldn't feel the magic vanish, I wouldn't have known the wards are down, I nod to Isaiah who nods the three Strigoi on the side of the house and I assume they nod to those waiting at the front door.
All at once, we are surging towards the house. Isaiah's form slams into the glass door, leaving a place big enough for us to fit through, and then I hear more crashing sounds.
One after the other, the front doors first then the window to the side of the house.
I also hear screams.
We make our way through the house and see two guardians engaged in the fight with Strigoi. What they didn't expect was how fast the Strigoi tore down the Moroi numbers.
Children and adults were slaughtered in different rooms. Blood staining everywhere a body lay. Isaiah engages a guardian.
"Well hello there Guardian Schoenberg, it's nice to finally meet you," Isaiah hisses. Arthur Schoenberg stands before Isaiah in a defensive manner, ready to take on Isaiah.
"Too bad our meeting will have to be cut short." Isaiah hisses again and they both engage in what seems like a long fight but it happens in just a matter of seconds. Arthur leaps toward Isaiah, stake poised, his attack is intercepted when Isaiah spins and hits his side.
Quick to recover, the guardian lunges again, feinting toward one side and about ready to go for the other, but at the same time two Strigoi appear before Isaiah and attack the guardian. Both go for his legs and knocking him to the ground. Isaiah is quick to join the fray again, getting in some hard punches that I'm sure done more damage than it seems.
Arthur's eyes roll back and forward, both in and out of consciousness. Before anything else is said, Isaiah straddles over him and bites into the guardian's neck.
After a millisecond of complete surprise, Arthur's eyes go slack, basking in the glorious high of a Strigoi bite. He was blissfully unaware that the life was being drained out of him.
Isaiah stops feeding and stands up, blood soaking his chin and nose.
"Sorry about that, I was abit peckish today." He says to the dead form and wipes his face with his handkerchief.
With all the commotion now over I look around the room. Two guardians in total, including Arthur Schoenberg, and almost a dozen Moroi lay strewn across the house, blood spilling everywhere. Isaiah disappears for a moment and returns with a bowl.
"What the hell do you need that for? A snack for later?" I scowl at him Isaiah just smirks at my comment.
"A message, my dear Vienna. Why not write it in blood. More of an impact." With that statement he winks at me and then disappears into a room that resembles a bathroom.
I turn to Max, he has a slightly feverish look crosses his face, but it vanishes when he looks at me.
"You're hungry, aren't you?" Max nods slowly. I suppose I can't deprive him of what will keep him alive. Though he won't be feeding on the any of the now dead Moroi.
"So am I, we'll find a feeder." I tell him as we head out the front door, closing it in haste as we make our way to the car.
Isaiah joins us a few minutes later, as does the other Strigoi. The humans waited patiently in the car.
"We need to find a feeder. Max and I need some food." I say evenly. Isaiah smirks.
"I'm sure one of my human companions can offer up a vein," he says to me and then turns to Max, "Unless you want to actually drain someone?" Isaiah asks with amusement. Max shakes his head. He's learned that he doesn't need to kill to feed.
Isaiah finds a willing human, her name is Lana and she rides in the car with us. On the way home I feed from her first, and then Max does. Max's eyes brighten a little after feeding and even I can say that I'm feel better too.
Now that this is all over I just have to hope someone finds them and gets the message.