Laying low also means no late night spells, not that they would have had much success lately. The cold, cloudy days and nights continue. It's dark even before the sun has fully set. If it weren't for the crowd that appears every morning to heckle them, it would have been a wonderful time to see more of the world during the day.
"I'm bored," Viken groans as he hangs over the edge of the sofa. "I want to go out. Please take me with you on the next shopping trip."
"Do you think we should put some sort of barrier around the house?" Avys asks as he digs through their closet, searching for any game they may have yet to play.
"Might be a good idea, but I don't want them to think we're doing anything weird. I really thought they'd give it up by now," Eugene answers. "No one has actually tried to set the house on fire, not yet anyway."
Heli peers into the refrigerator, checking out tonight's eating options when he hears a knock on the door.
"Seriously?" Eugene exclaims from the living room. "They're still here?"
"The old ladies are gone by noon but those younger blokes come then to throw rocks," Taho replies. "I'm getting tired of this too, there's not even anything interesting to watch."
Soule steps forward and opens the door.
"Can I help you?" Soule asks, his voice hesitant.
Standing on the step is a dark figure, the silhouette of a man clad in a ragged and flowing black robe. He seems to be looking straight past Soule to where Heli is standing. A single arm rises, reaching over to his left side.
"Ah!" Heli moves into the front hall, but just as quickly he's slammed to the floor.
"Whatever you do, don't let them in," Jakah says above him. He pins Heli's arms to the floor, his knee pressing hard into Heli's back. "Just close the door."
"Get off of me," Heli growls. He tries to yank his wrist from Jakah's grip, but Jakah's grasp tightens.
"Who are they?" Soule looks down at them as he slams the door shut.
"Let me go!" Heli yells. "They're here for me, I have to go, they'll take me to her."
"They'll kill you the moment you step outside, you know that," Jakah's voice is calm, but he increases the force with which he holds Heli down. Heli struggles under Jakah's weight, but one fact is frustratingly clear. He's at the same disadvantage he'd had against the Shadows the first time. Jakah has sixty-five more years worth of experience and spent that time drinking human blood.
"You don't know anything," Heli says. "They can take me to her. I have to see her, please just let me go."
"Saying they're protecting the carnival now isn't going to convince anyone. They followed us here. They're hunting us down."
Heli tries to turn over as there's another knock on the door.
"GET OFF OF ME."
He can feel eyes on him even if Jakah won't let him turn his head to look up.
"Eugene…there's something at the window…" Viken's voice is shaking.
The doorknob rattles. The Shadows's footsteps don't make a sound but they knock on the walls as they encircle the house.
"Close the curtains, and don't look out," Soule instructs. "What are they trying to do?"
"Annoy us so much we'll go out to fight them or try to escape maybe," Jakah says.
"It sounds like they're surrounding us," says Avys. "There must be a tonne."
"Or just a couple moving very quickly," Jakah says. "Not anything I want to go out and face either way."
"Who is she? What is he talking about?" Eugene's not letting go of Heli's words.
"Lamia," Jakah explains. "The vampire who turned us."
"SHUT UP JUNGWON."
He sends Jakah every horrid thought he can muster, any threat that might make him stop talking.
But Jakah continues over his screams.
"The Shadows are her minions. Like her hand-picked soldiers, in a way. She closely surrounds herself with the most powerful vampires she can find. They're brainwashed and stripped of their personality until they're completely and unwaveringly loyal to no one but her."
"This Lamia…" Eugene says. "She wasn't the carnival fortune teller was she? Does she have long black hair and wear white dresses?"
"That sounds like her," Jakah answers.
"So he lied to us. Heli told me he didn't know her."
"He can't help it," Jakah says. "He's bound by an oath. It's not his fault."
"Jakah, please, please stop…" Heli twists his arm, nearly pulling it away from Jakah. If he can free just one arm, he can push himself over and get Jakah off his back.
"Is there some way we can incapacitate him? Otherwise he's just going to keep trying to go outside," says Jakah, slamming Heli's hand down as he regains his grip.
"With or without hurting him? You could shove his mouth full of garlic," Eugene says.
"DON'T YOU DARE TRY IT."
"What if we just locked him upstairs?" Viken asks.
"No good if he tries to punch through the wall," replies Jakah.
No one speaks for a few moments.
"We could try a warding circle," Taho finally says.
"Perfect," Eugene adds. "Viken, could you get the salt? Avys, Soule, help me make some room. We're also going to need chalk."
Heli can hear the others shuffling around in the kitchen behind him, the scraping of a table being moved, and the shaking of what must be a carton full of salt. Jakah lifts his knee from Heli's back and drags him into the kitchen.
"You're going to have to get out before I close the circle," Eugene says. "Otherwise you'll be stuck in with him."
"Got it."
"STOP PUTTING SPELLS ON ME." Heli's still trying to pull his arms free as Eugene walks around them, pouring a steady stream of salt onto the floor.
Eugene is behind them now so Heli can't see him finish the circle. The second Jakah finally lets go, he stands and tries to follow.
He smacks straight into something like an invisible wall. He stumbles back, into yet another wall. He reaches his arms out but meets an unseen surface in every direction as he turns around the interior of the salt circle. Beneath his feet, a series of glyphs are drawn in chalk.
"You can't keep me in here forever," he spits at Eugene.
Eugene looks at him with an expression of pity. "We just have to wait these vampires out until the morning. Hopefully by then we'll figure out something better to do with you. None of your mental powers will be able to reach outside of the circle either, so don't bother."
He turns and walks back around the corner into the living room. Jakah and the others follow, each with the same sad look in their eyes.
"Jakah!" he shouts after them, willing him not to tell them any more. It's no use.
Through the drawn curtain, shadows pass by, rattling the windows and knocking on the walls and the door. He tries to reach over the barrier of salt, but he's completely enclosed in an invisible trap.
"Viken!"
"Can you do something so we can't hear him?"
They ignore his yells and he can do nothing but listen as Jakah tells them all the details he'd omitted about Lamia. He sinks to the floor. He scrapes desperately at the chalk but it's steadfast. He is defeated.
"That's why the mirror spell didn't work at first," Taho says. "The spell activated when you threw Heli into the circle. We didn't have her real name, but he did."
"So…was she trying to turn him into one of those things?" Viken asks.
"I think so," Jakah says. "She singled him out from the beginning. It seems obvious now."
"Shut up, Jakah." Heli calls.
"You didn't swear an oath to her though," Avys adds.
"No, none of the rest of us did," Jakah says.
"Who's lying now?"
Jakah comes back into the kitchen and sits down on the floor facing Heli.
"I'm not lying. I didn't swear an oath."
"I told you that you were the only one of us with a blood pact," Viken scoffs from the doorway. "Eugene didn't see any spells on Jakah. We all knew that."
"I thought you were saying that to annoy me," Heli mumbles.
"She was only ever interested in you, at least at first. The rest of us were just there to keep you happy," Jakah says.
"That's not true," Heli says. "There's nothing special about me."
Jakah lets out a dry laugh. "Are you serious? You're good at everything, when you want to be. Even when you were slow at maths, that was only because you were distracted. You have amazing abilities and you master them in no time. I was just a means to an end."
"You just don't get it," Heli continues. "Lamia-"
"No, you don't get it. Look at me Heli," Jakah leans forward, his hands on his knees. "None of the feelings you have for her are real. Everything she's done has been to pull you away from us, to make you become more and more like she wanted. Like one of the things out there. Back at the orphanage too, you were the final goal. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I let her in, I'm sorry that I helped her."
"You couldn't have known-"
"I did though. I had spent days with them, I knew what they were, and what I was turning into. And yes, we did feed from some of the other children, though it was always her that finished them off. But it was me that told the others to reopen the cut in your hand. And it was me who gave you blood to drink, while you thought you were asleep and dreaming. We were so excited at the prospect of leaving that life forever, we willingly overlooked everything."
He clenches the fists. He trembles, his voice catching as he continues.
"You didn't see things like the rest of us did. The times she tested you with more and more unreasonable requests, trying to see how far she could push you, making you comfortable doing whatever she asked, no matter how terrible it was," Jakah pauses and takes a deep, shaking breath. "I'm going to make up to you though. I'm going to free you from her, even if, especially if, it means she has to be destroyed."
"You…" Heli starts. He exhales slowly, his voice low. "You would betray us? You don't know anything ."
Jakah's mouth opens in surprise.
"I'll kill you," Heli glares. "I'll kill all of you." He's shaking.
He lunges for Jakah, only to smack hard into the barrier once more. Viken's face falls into a mixture of fear and disgust.
Jakah stands. "Come on, Viken," he mutters. "There's no reasoning with him like this."
They leave, switching the light off behind them. No one else comes into the kitchen no matter how much noise he makes. Despite Heli's screams, he's left alone. The only other sound is the scraping at the window, the taunted promise of reunion with someone he cannot reach.
She stands on the parapet, a thick cloak covering her shoulders. Snow sticks in her dark hair and flecks the cloak's fur trim. The winter wind is biting, but she stands with no sign of discomfort, one hand on the stonework as she looks out into the blinding winter storm.
"Heli," she says. "There's someone in our forest. Get rid of her."
Without a word he's off into the trees. Their ice covered limbs crackle. The forest is pitch black. The trees shield him from some of the snow and wind, but even on the road it would be impossible to navigate a way through in the dark. Whoever is still out in this weather this late at night must truly be lost.
He spots a light, flickering some distance to his right. It's moving. He follows the flash for a while, taking his time to approach the figure lumbering through the dark.
A hunched figure grips a lantern. The flame is low, sputtering with the last few drops of oil. A small dog whines at the figure's feet. It slumps down to the ground, dropping a bundle that had been slung over its shoulder.
"I'm sorry buddy, but this might be it," she says.
The dog whines and puts a paw on her knee. She wraps her arms around the animal, but the dog tilts his nose upwards, sniffing something on the wind and wriggles out of her grasp. He spots Heli behind them and lets out a sharp bark.
"What is it? Is there something back there?" the girl turns to see what her companion is now growling at. With a gloved hand she lifts the lantern. Most of her face is covered by a thick scarf. Several strands of blonde hair stick out from under her cap. Her eyes narrow as they fall on Heli and she leaps up, lifting a rifle.
She pulls down the scarf. "Who are you?" she shouts. "What do you want? Stay back, don't come any closer."
Though she's putting on a brave face her voice wavers.
"You're lost," Heli says. It's not a question. "You'll freeze to death if you're out here much longer."
"And what about you? I'm warning you, if you try anything funny, I won't hesitate."
They stare in a silent standoff, save for the dog who's still growling, baring his teeth. Heli's not afraid of being shot, the chances of her hitting him anywhere that would really damage him are small considering her shivering hands. He'd rather not that happen, as in that case he wouldn't be able to let her go.
Lamia had instructed Heli to remove the girl from their forest. She had not specified how.
"The village is southwest of here," he points vaguely in the direction.
The girl turns her head, though there's nothing to be seen in the darkness of the trees.
"You're not trying to trick me are you?" she says.
"I have no reason to do that," he replies.
She slowly lowers the rifle. "Is that where you're going?"
That wasn't necessarily the plan but it would certainly be the best way to guarantee she makes her way out of the forest. He nods.
"Alright then, if you know the way then lead on," she says. "Nothing funny."
She gathers the bundle she'd dropped and shushes the dog as they set off. It continues to growl as they start through the forest. After a few paces she's struggling, slipping on the icy ground and panting with exhaustion.
"Do you want me to carry something?" Heli offers.
She grips the rifle tightly. "You're trying to make off with my rabbits."
"I promise, I have no reason to do that either."
"There's no way you're just passing through."
"And why is that?" Heli asks.
The girl hesitates. "Everyone knows better than to travel through these woods at night."
"You're here."
"That's different. I meant to go home before the sun set, but then it started to snow and I lost the road."
"That could have happened once it became dark anyway."
"Yes but," she pauses again. "These forests are full of monsters."
The flames in the lantern sputter one last time and then extinguish completely. The girl mutters a curse.
"Now what?"
"Keep moving," Heli takes her coat sleeve and gently pulls her forward. They've reached the road and worrying about tripping over fallen trees becomes less of a concern but without the light she seems completely disoriented.
"I can't tell where we're going," she cries. "Please, I don't think I can make it."
She slides on ice and falls to the ground. Heli can hear her pounding heart and laboured breaths. The dog whines at her feet.
Heli's trying to block out the sound of her heartbeats but the scent of blood also lingers on her, he assumes from the rabbits hanging from her arm.
"You can't give up now," Heli pulls her up by the shoulders. "What about the monsters? Tell me more about them."
"You're not from around here, are you?" she says. "You don't sound like it, but I can't figure out your accent."
With a soft push she continues trudging on.
"Too many people disappear in the woods," she says. "Sometimes, no trace of them is found at all. Sometimes, they're found with their throats bitten out and drained of blood."
"Sounds terrifying."
He offers again to help her carry something and she hands him the bundle of rabbits. They're well and cold now but he's curious and takes a smear of blood on his fingers to give it a taste. The best way he can describe it is something like an aftertaste of grass or dirt. Disgusting.
When the lights of the village begin to appear between the trees, the girl quickens her pace. At the end of the road an older man is standing, yelling out into the forest.
"Eliza! Eliza!"
She takes back the bundle of rabbits before she and the dog stumble to the end of the road, into the safety of the village. She just about collapses into the man's arms. The dog barks happily, its tail wagging.
"I'm so sorry, I got lost, I was so scared, but this man knew where to go and we-"
She turns, apparently expecting Heli to be right behind her, but he slips between the trees into the darkness out of sight.
"Where did he go?"
"Come, you're nearly frozen," the man wraps an arm around her shoulders. Heli doesn't leave until they and the dog step inside a small wooden house.
He should hurry back, before the cold gets to him too. He turns and starts off down the road back to the castle.
He feels warmer but it's still dark. So dark that he's not quite certain his eyes are open but a few test blinks confirms that indeed they are. He's also folded up with his knees to his chest and covered with what feels like a pile of linens.
His hand presses into the hard surface of unfinished wood.
His heart skips a beat.
This is not happening again.
He raises an elbow to push on the fabric on top of him. It's not far before he's met with resistance. Whatever he's in is clearly locked. He might be able to push his way out, if he can make enough space to get the leverage. He knocks on the side of the box but he's stuffed in tight and can barely move.
"Oh, shit," someone outside says.
He knocks harder. Wooden splinters under his fist, but it's not enough to break through.
He's greeted with a series of knocks from the other side.
"Stop, be quiet for a minute."
"Viken, are you there? Please, let me out, please…"
"You're going to have to wait," Viken says back.
"I can't, please let me out, I am begging you, Viken."
"I will but for right now, shut it!" Viken hisses.
Heli stills. Over the rushing in his ears he hears the rumble of an engine. Whatever he's inside is also rocking. How long were they going to keep him in here? His mind races, trying to figure out what was going on. Was this a punishment? It must be, this is what he gets for his behaviour the night prior, saying he was going to kill them. He hadn't meant it, really. He should tell them that, and then maybe, just maybe they wouldn't leave him locked in a wooden box forever. Is this what Eugene meant when he said they'd find a better way to entrap him? And where were they going? The engine was definitely Eugene's van. Was Viken making good on his offer to dig Heli a grave after all?
Yellow light pours in following a faint click and the creak of an opening lid. Heli springs up, flinging the linens and clothing out of the trunk as he sits up. Viken has a handful of fabric already, his mouth open as Heli falls out of the trunk, panting.
They are indeed in the back of the van, behind the back seat which Jakah is leaning over. Viken tosses the cloth items back into the box and drops the lid. Heli pushes himself up. Besides the trunk there are a number of pieces of luggage, a bright torchlight sitting on top of a suitcase.
"Viken, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, please don't bury me."
"We weren't going to do that." Viken raises an eyebrow and puts a hand on Heli's arm. "You fell asleep and we had to move you out of the house. A sheet wrapped corpse certainly wasn't going to pass by our friendly neighbourhood mob and you know it's impossible to wake you."
"This isn't a punishment? Because I said I would-"
"No," Viken shakes his head, his expression confused. "You were totally out of your mind yesterday, and to be honest, I was scared. But we're not locking you in a coffin for another sixty-five years, so you have nothing to be afraid of."
Heli takes a deep breath, realising that he must be projecting the sheer panic that was swirling around his head.
Taho pops up next to Jakah. "Am I understanding correctly that we have a vampire who's afraid of being in a coffin?"
"What did she do to you?" Jakah wonders aloud.
Heli leans into Viken, feeling rather silly now but his heart rate is calming. Stopping stronger emotions from the telepathic leak is going to take more work, but he does his best to pull it back in.
"Also, we're not angry. If an ancient and powerful vampire is controlling your mind then I can't blame you for that."
Heli watches treetops and streetlamps pass by through the van window as the others mutter about Lamia and his oath.
"I know Eugene is driving, are Soule and Avys here?" Heli asks, attempting to change the subject.
Taho shakes his head. "They stayed behind to mind the house. If anyone can charm the townsfolk and convince them to go home, it's those two."
"Also they wanted to give us some time," Viken says. "If there's someone home maybe it will take the Shadows longer to realise you're not there."
Or Soule and Avys would just be in more danger. They could have really saved themselves if they just let Heli go. They could have just solved every problem by staking him in his sleep. Now that Jakah's joined in, no doubt Eugene's quest to hunt down Lamia is back on.
However Jakah had said he didn't know where she is any better than Heli does.
"We're just on the run then? Where are we going?"
Viken and Taho both look over at Jakah.
"To someone who can knock some sense into you," Jakah grins. "We're going to find Jaan."