Chapter 12 Let The Game Begin #2
You will not be looking into their minds until I test them for structures, Grayson interrupted. After I’m done with this, I’ll test them.
Grayson, I can almost hear Daemon ordering you to bed, Balthazar said, but gently. This is going to be–
Fine. It’s hardly an issue. Just don’t look into their minds until I make sure it’s safe, Balthazar. Even if we have to wait until after I’ve rested. Okay? Grayson insisted.
All right, Balthazar sighed.
You just think you’re a big shot now with having both Kaly and Eyros powers, Grayson teased him.
Of course! I am practically unique! Balthazar preened.
Until I get turned and, hopefully, the same thing happens, Grayson said.
Ah, yes, who will turn you? It’s the question on everyone’s lips. And the answer on everyone’s lips is Weryn! Balthazar laughed.
Grayson had come out from behind the door and entered the hallway once he saw that the coast was completely clear.
I do want Ryder that way, Grayson admitted as he went down the hallway on the balls of his feet.
But?
You can read my mind. You know all my concerns, Grayson pointed out.
He was at the door to the room with the plans. Again, he pressed his ear to the door. He assumed they wouldn’t have someone inside. That would not give anyone a chance of making it in. He turned the handle and it clicked.
It’s locked! Grayson sounded appalled.
Yes, Grayson, doors beyond which treasure maps are kept are normally locked, Balthazar said dryly.
But how can I get in? Or anyone get in without a key? Grayson asked and then realized the answer. The key must be up here.
Grayson spun around. He thought he’d heard footsteps, but no.
There was no one. He was the first who had gotten inside.
He was pretty sure anyway. He went to the door across the hall.
It opened into a bedroom. There were no lights on.
He saw a dresser, a nightstand, and a desk, but nothing that screamed: I HOLD A SECRET KEY!
He went to the next room, which was another bedroom, but this one had a red lit candle on the bedside table. Grayson smiled.
Ah, more cinnamon!
He went over to the nightstand and opened the small drawer.
Sure enough, there was a bronze key sitting right there without anything else inside.
He plucked the key up when he heard a rustling at the open window.
He started backtracking as he saw a hand reach up from below curled around the window frame.
Someone had crazily decided to climb to this floor.
Grayson was about to turn and leave when he heard a faint cry from the person trying to get in.
“Fuck-fuck!” a woman hissed.
Grayson gritted his teeth. Surely, a Vampire would help her.
But then he saw her hand start to slip. He lunged towards her and grabbed her wrist just as her hand was sliding over the edge.
He leaned over the edge and saw a young, Asian woman with a shock of black hair that was shaved to the skull on the left side.
“Take my other hand!” Grayson hissed.
She did, even as she got her feet under her, and with a big heave-ho, Grayson pulled her up and into the room. Both of them breathed heavily, hands resting on thighs, as they both recovered.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
“That was insane,” Grayson said to the unknown student. “You could have been killed.”
She shook her head. “A Vampire would have saved me.”
“You can’t know that–”
“Well, maybe not, but I think I had a better than 50/50 shot of that being true,” she answered. “But nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
She turned her head into the light that spilled through the was older than he thought.
Maybe nearer 30 than twenty. She stood only a little over five feet with a slight form that was covered in black pants and shirt.
She tossed her head back, brushing hair out of her eyes, and met his gaze steadily.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Hue Pham.” She dusted off the front of her pants. “And you?”
“Grayson,” he answered.
Was there a momentary pause before she
Who is she, Balthazar?
Someone that absolutely shouldn’t be climbing like that, Balthazar answered, sounding a little exasperated. She was a mountaineer. Got to the peak of Everest twice without oxygen.
Then climbing a three storey building should be nothing for her, Grayson said.
True, but that was before she was sick, Balthazar muttered.
She’s sick?
Cancer, Balthazar was almost curt as he said that word.
Deadly?
Very. She’s stable at the moment, but…
But it won’t last? Then that explains why she’s here like this, Grayson said. She wants to impress while she can. Climbing buildings and being bold? That’ll attract attention.
And falling on her head and breaking her pretty little neck will too, Balthazar replied.
Did you pick her because she’s dying?
Not just because of that, no! There are so many people in that category. You should have seen the applications for dying children! Balthazar sounded sad, but also horrified.
They want you to turn their kids into Vampires?
Anything that will save them, Balthazar admitted. There is some benefit to Vampire blood on keeping cancer at bay. But it’s highly addictive and what it would do to a growing child…
He left that unanswered though Grayson was sure that someone, somewhere, sometime had likely tried.
But that’s not why I chose her. She’s a brilliant artist and poet. Her oils are astonishing, Balthazar said.
She’s a known artist? Not that I would know–
She’s not. Totally unknown, but I can see how amazing she is. And we should preserve that.
Okay, she must be good.
Realizing he'd been silent too long, Grayson said, “That was pretty bold, Hue. Are you on your own?”
She hesitated again, but then nodded. “You?”
“No. My roommates and I are working together,” he answered.
“Well, I should let you get back to your people. I need to look around,” she said.
The key to the room was burning in Grayson’s pocket when she said that.
There’s bound to be more than one key. Just let her get to it. The others are waiting for you, Grayson reminded himself.
Hue was already over by the nightstand, pulling out the drawer, but, unlike him, finding nothing inside, because he had the key. Perhaps the one and only key.
Am I really going to lock the door when I leave? Will I take the key with me? She climbed up here on her own power. I used my power.
“Hue, I’ve already got the key to a room down the hall… that likely has the maps.” He dug it out of the pocket and showed it to her like an exhibit.
“Why are you showing me this?” Her forehead furrowed.
“Because I saved your life. Doesn’t that mean I’m responsible for you?” he asked. She lifted an eyebrow. “The more people up here the more likely we all get caught.”
That was a lie, too. But the truth was something he couldn’t say. He guessed she was not someone who liked pity in any form, hence the climbing up the third floor on her own. Yet anyone with that kind of drive should be rewarded in his book.
She was still staring at him cautiously, but then she shrugged and gestured for him to lead the way. Grayson crept back over to the door and glanced up and down the hallway.
“Coast is clear,” he whispered to Hue.
She nodded.
The two of them then crab walked down the hall to the locked door. He put the key in the lock and cringed when he turned it there was a thunk. Hue tensed, but when no one came, he turned the handle and pushed the door open.
It was an office. There was a large desk with bookshelves covering the wall behind it. A banker’s lamp and a red candle glowed on the desk. Both of them crept in. Hue closed the door and locked it.
“In case the guards check,” she explained.
He nodded and went over to the desk. He stared at the top of it. There was a green blotter on top and several piles of papers. He took one while Hue took another. They rifled through as quickly as they could.
“Nothing here,” he said.
She shook her head and set down her pile. “None in mine either. Maybe it’s inside the desk?”
They both started pulling out drawers. Each one they went through though contained nothing of any interest. Soon, they were standing up and facing one another.
“Maybe it’s hidden beneath a drawer or under the desk top,” Grayson suggested.
Hue nodded and they each proceeded to search. “I assumed they would make this easier as this is just the first part of the challenge. We’re supposed to finish tonight.”
“Me, too. I wasn’t even expecting a locked door,” he confessed.
“There’s nothing here. Are you certain that this is where the maps are kept?” she asked.
“Must be. The key was hidden in another room but indicated by one of these candles.”
He pointed to the red candle whose flame flickered as the breeze came in through the open window.
He wondered if Hue intended to climb out that way.
He leaned a hip against the desk while Hue prowled the room.
He was hugely conscious of time slipping away.
His gaze unconsciously slipped to the bookshelf behind the desk.
He still loved reading. He wondered what these Helm Vampires had brought with them. But then he frowned.
The books were not in English or any other human language that the Vampires would know.
Instead, they all had those glyphs that he had seen on the crates down below.
He blinked and tried to refocus his eyes as the letters began to slide across the spines and smear like neon lights through a rainy window.
The books must be original to the space.
But that was when he saw the silver bird statue sitting on the very solid base that was holding up a row of books. It looked… very shiny.
Very new… no, polished. To stick out. Bookcase… secret compartment..
He grasped the head of the bird and tipped it forward. There was a click, thunk and suddenly the bookcase was retreating into the wall.
“Hue!” he whispered and gestured for her to see.
She spun around. Her lips parted in surprise and then she grinned.
She was just stepping over to him when the door rattled.
They both froze and waited. There was another rattle and then silence.
Grayson realized he was holding his breath and forced himself to breathe out slowly and draw in another lungful of air.
Finally, they heard soft footsteps retreating.
“Good call on locking the door,” he told her.
She nodded.
The two of them clustered at the entrance to what was a small alcove.
Sure enough, there was a stack of packets with a map of locations and information on each building or structure the treasure was in.
There were more than enough copies for anyone who wanted one.
Grayson handed a copy to Hue and grabbed one for himself.
He then closed the secret door. Seeing how many pages there were–and just attached by a paperclip–Grayson was not going to toss these down to Amana.
They would go everywhere. He rolled them up and stuck them into his inner jacket pocket before zipping it up securely. Hue had done much the same.
They headed for the door when the handle was violently jiggled. Both of them jerked back. It was likely just another student or team of students trying to get in. But the hair on the back of Grayson’s neck was standing on end.
Grayson, don’t open the door, Balthazar’s voice was filled with alarm.
What? Why? Sect? But Grayson knew it wasn’t the Sect.
Whatever was down in the basement has come upstairs to find you, Balthazar answered.
There was a crack and the door’s lock splintered. Hue grabbed his arm.
“Grayson, out the window!” she cried.
The door shattered and something was standing there. Grayson only saw the blue-white eyes before he was spinning around and heading towards the window.
Found you, a voice whispered that had ice filling Grayson’s veins.
He grabbed Hue’s hand and the two of them jumped out of the window with something very close behind.