26. Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aiden
T his place is scary as shit, and for some reason I can’t help myself from babbling. I’m blaming it on my nerves, but whatever. I follow Calder up the stone steps at a slow pace.
“I don’t like this place,” I whisper, “I feel like something is lurking in the dark.”
“Aiden, nothing is lurking.”
“How do you know that?”
He stops to turn around and face me, “I promise, little bat, nothing is in this castle. I would have heard it.” He points to his ears, and I grumble under my breath.
“Now, behave, will you,” he murmurs taking ahold of my hand and leading me further up the stairs.
“This is so beyond me playing with a Ouija board,” I mumble under my breath.
“Is that what you were doing on Halloween night,” he asks absentmindedly.
“Umm,” I cough clearing my throat, “maybe…” He slowly turns around to look at me before shaking his and mumble, “I guess I should have known.”
“What’s that supposed to mean,” I grumble with irritation and fear warring inside of me.
“You’re just a little troublemaker, Aiden, that’s all I mean,” he explains when we finally make it to the second floor of the castle. It still blows my mind that we’re currently wandering around in an old crumbling castle.
“Do you think this place is haunted,” I whisper as my nerves rise once more.
“I doubt it, but you never know,” he shrugs and tugs me into the first room down a quiet hallway. This place is unnerving with the darkness and the quiet. Calder’s flashlight makes a sweeping motion of the room, and I try to take in as much as I can.
It looks just like the rest of the castle. Just broken and forgotten pieces of furniture lying around. A wooden chair tipped over. A broken brass picture frame missing the picture. A table leaning against the stone wall.
Calder leads me back out of the room and into the next one. It all starts to blur together. Room and room. Nothing truly interesting, and with each room I can feel Calder’s irritation. He stops and looks over at me, “okay, so maybe you were right.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at him before giving him a look, “I mean, what did you think was going to be up here, Calder? It’s not like Dracula was just going to be chilling in the dark for teatime. We probably should have stayed on the bottom level of the castle. I’m telling you I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a cave out back.”
That pulls a laugh out of him.
“Really, you think so, little bat,” he asks with his voice full of amusement.
“Like I said, I really wouldn’t be surprised,” I shrug with a small smile.
“Okay, well let’s head back downstairs then,” he murmurs just before a loud creak sounds behind us back towards the doorway.
Calder
A loud creak sounds from behind us causing us both to whip around. I let out a shriek that I will find time to be embarrassed about later when we’re no longer in immediate danger. Clearly, that’s the right thing to do.
“Calder don’t do it,” Mathew shouts from the doorway like some B rated thrill slash horror movie and my eyes widen with pure shock.
“Matty, what the fuck are you doing here?” I swipe my hand down my face trying to rid myself from the sudden draining of adrenaline. He looks embarrassed to be caught as he rubs the back of his neck, and he can’t seem to meet my gaze.
“I followed you,” he mumbles shifting awkwardly like he wants to escape.
“What the fuck do you mean you followed me,” I growl as Aiden’s hand finds mine in the dark. I can feel his anxiousness as if it were a living thing right now.
“I saw how umm,” Matty gestures to Aiden.
“Aiden…”
“Yes, Aiden. I saw how he looked sickly and… drained, and I was worried you feel off the bandwagon,” he mutters, swallowing hard as his gaze darts between us.
“That was a long time ago Matty,” I grit out, “I’ve changed. I haven’t had a problem for over a decade now.”
“What’s he talking about Calder,” Aiden whispers looking between us as he worries his bottom lip. I let out a sigh before turning my full focus on Aiden.
“Remember how you asked if I liked my blood fresh?” He gives me a slow hesitant nod in response.
“Well, I’m horrible when it comes to self-control. I guess that’s the best way to put it,” I mutter.
“More like you nearly behead your victims,” Mathew mutters and I shoot a glare over at him. He lets out a defeated sigh and his shoulders droop.
“Look, I didn’t mean to cause any problems… I didn’t know,” Matty mutters interrupting me as shifting awkwardly, “I just didn’t want to see one of my friends fall back into old habits.”
I shake my head, and I understand where his concerning is coming from. However, at the moment I’m having a hard time keeping my shit together with everything that’s been happening. I can only deal with one problem at a time. I’m only one fucking person.
“The damage is already done Matty, and I would have told him soon enough,” I say, frustration clear in my voice, “preferably without the threat of his life hanging in the balance, but I guess that’s how life works.” I let out a slow harsh breath before refocusing on Aiden once more. I run my hand through my hair as I try to process how to explain this without scaring him.
“So, do you really bite the heads off your victims,” Aiden blurts out.
“No, I don’t bite the heads of my victims,” I say with a roll of my eyes, “Matty is gravely overexaggerating on that little bit of information.” I cut a glare over at him, before my gaze finds its way back to Aiden.
“I just don’t know when to quit when I feed from a human. That’s why I haven’t fed from a human in nearly twenty years,” I mumble out the last part quietly feeling shame begin to overwhelm me. I blink my eyes rapidly as thoughts of my victims’ blood is suddenly all I can see. Fuck, not now.
“Wow, that’s impressive,” Aiden exclaims as he tugs on my sleep pulling me out of my momentary break down, “you should be proud of yourself. Twenty years is a long time. I can barely go a day without caffeine.” Leave it to my little bat to compare blood to caffeine. I shake my head at him and pull him close, needing the feel of him.
“Thank you,” I murmur against his ear.
“So, umm… I guess let’s all head back down to the ground floor,” Aiden mutters looking between Mathew and me. Mathew turns on his heel as he says over his shoulder, “yeah, let’s get the hell out of here. It’s creepy as fuck in here.” Aiden lets out a little hum of agreement as we follow him down the hallway.
Once again, we find ourselves stumbling around in the dark gloomy castle. It’s slow going as we make our way from one room to the next without making much progress.
“Can’t he have just had a neon sign pointing at where the fuck he is,” Aiden grumbles out.
“Who,” Mathew asks.
“We’re looking for Dracula,” I say over my shoulder.
“Fucking why,” he nearly shouts stopping in his tracks and looking between Aiden and me.
“He’s supposedly the only vampire that will be able to help me with all of this,” Aiden says gesturing to himself.
“You know he’s lost his mind though,” he mutters, “at least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“What are you talking about,” I ask looking over at him with a cock of an eyebrow. He crosses his arms over his chest as he looks almost frantic.
“The last thing I heard was that he massacred a whole time,” he rushes out, “and then there was this whole cover-up story. Something about a gas leak. Then just… nothing.”
Aiden shudders against me, and I shake my head to clear away the horrible feeling trying to take over.
“It may just be a bunch of bullshit, Matty,” I mumble, “plus, you know how vampires get. They’re all about gossip nowadays.”
“I’m just saying, I don’t want to find out the hard way,” he mutters while tugging on his hair.
“It doesn’t look like he’s actually in the castle anyways,” Aiden speaks up, “maybe we should check the surrounding area?” I nod in agreement.
“Thank fuck,” Matty mutters, “I much rather be out in the open. I don’t like being in here at all.”
Picking our way around the back of the castle has been a nightmare. Even though there’s more light outside, it’s just not enough especially with Aiden stumbling over something every couple of steps.
“Maybe we should try this trail,” Matty asks pointing to the little dirt trail.
“Do you really think it would be that easy,” I mumble looking between him and the trail.
“I mean, it would be great if it works out, but it would be a lot easier than stumbling around like a bunch of idiots,” he explains, and I can understand his reasoning. It’s been exhausting and I can tell Aiden’s energy is waning. I give Matty a nod as Aiden sways beside me. Watching Matty head toward the trail I lean down and murmur against Aiden’s ear, “would you like me to carry you, little bat?”
“I feel like that would be weird,” he all but slurs.
“No, I think you need a break, and Matty’s not going to say anything,” I explain.
“Okay,” he mumbles hesitantly, and I pick him up before he can try to get out of it. His head droops against my shoulder and I can’t help but smile.
With Aiden in my arms, I head down the trail after Matty. It doesn’t take me long to catch up to him, and when I do my mouth parts in surprise.
“Aiden, I guess you were right,” I mumble, and he starts wiggling trying to see what I’m talking about. I set him down on his feet and he turns around to look at what Matty and I are staring at.
“I knew it,” Aiden mutters stepping towards the opening of the cave. I grab his wrist before he can get any further away from me.
“ Speak friend and enter kind of shit,” Matty huffs out in amusement as he tilts his head towards the top of the cave indicating to some writing engraved into the stone.
“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” I mutter, not really looking forward to going in there.
I can tell Aiden and Matty are feeling the same way.
“Fuck, I think I’m starting to agree with you and that neon sign Aiden,” I grumble stepping toward the cave.