The candle flames cast dancing shadows across the wall as gale force winds and icy rain continued to lash the beach hut. He could hear the waves of high tide crashing onto the beach close to the boundary wall. A glass of blood infused wine beside him, Jem sat reading the local newspaper that he’d picked up when he’d procured the wine from a local shop after hours. It was the headline on the front page that had caught his attention “Fourth Child Found Dead.”
His blood ran cold as he read the story for the third time. A young child had gone missing on the short walk home after getting off the school bus. The boy’s body had been found with throat injuries on waste ground behind the local grocery store, the same store Jem had visited earlier in the evening. Precious little blood had been left in the child’s corpse when the body had been examined, sparking rumours of vampire activity in the vicinity. The killing was being compared to three others that had occurred since the summer.
“Anna,” he growled angrily under his breath.
Candle flames were casting dancing shadows on the cold stone walls of the dark angel’s mausoleum. Still feeling satiated after her recent meal, Anna sat wrapped in her dark cloak, deep in thought. No matter how hard she concentrated, all she could smell was that damned sea moss that Meryn had used to heal her wounds. Over the summer, she had gradually regained most of her physical strength, although a weakness remained in her wing, making flying in blustery conditions impossible. Accepting her limitations, she had focussed her attention on her study of magic, seeking out incantations that allowed her to move from place to place without the need to fly. Her movements were still confined largely to a five-mile radius of the mausoleum, and, as she contemplated recent developments, Anna realised she had been careless. When she’d snatched that last child, she had sensed that someone was watching her.
“Why the frown?” asked Trine as she came to sit beside him.
“This,” muttered the runner, passing her the newspaper.
The ice maiden paled as she read the story.
“Four babies gone over the past few months,” she said sadly. “Those poor parents. You think Anna’s behind this?”
He nodded.
Taking a deep breath, Trine asked quietly, “Do you know where she is?”
“And how would I know that?” he snapped sharply.
“I don’t know,” she began hesitantly. “I thought perhaps you still felt a connection. The bond with your maker isn’t so different to that of parent and child.”
Running his hands through his hair, Jem looked her straight in the eye, “I don’t feel a connection to her, but I do need to try to find her. She’s out of control and this senseless killing has to stop.” He paused. “We… I took my eye off the ball for too long. Children have died through our…my carelessness.”
“You weren’t to know.”
“I should have been more vigilant,” he confessed. “I should have suspected Anna was behind this after the first kid died…or at least after the second. Kids don’t just die around here.”
“Perhaps,” conceded Trine, reaching out to put a hand on his thigh. “We could both have been more vigilant.”
“Perhaps.”
He sat staring into the flames of the wood burning stove, lost in thought.
Two days later, on the night before the full moon, the storm had long since blown through. From her favourite vantage point on the local church roof, the dark angel watched the line of children meander up the steep hill, chaperoned by several parents. She could smell the tantalising, delicate aroma of fresh untainted juvenile blood in the air; she could smell the fear of the adults as they passed. A large raven was perched in the tall tree beside the church. It appeared to all intents and purposes to be studying her. Just as she was about to throw a spell in its direction, the bird took flight, heading eastwards towards the surrounding woodland. The dark angel’s sixth sense was tingling.
As dusk fell, Jem decided the time had come to pay Anna a long overdue visit. While Trine had still been asleep earlier in the day, he’d risked powering up his mobile phone to check if the tracker was still working. It was. There had been a steady signal from the vicinity of the dark angel’s mausoleum home. He had only just managed to stow the phone away before the ice maiden entered the living room. Part of him hated himself for lying to her; part of him feared that she wouldn’t understand even if he could explain. Complicated didn’t begin to cover his thoughts on this mess.
A large raven was perched on the courtyard wall when he stepped out into the chilly December evening air. Something about the bird felt vaguely familiar.
Having checked that there was no one about, Jem spread his wings and soared into the darkening skies. It only took him a few short minutes to reach the area of woodland near the graveyard where Anna’s mausoleum lay hidden. Soundlessly, he landed in the small clearing that he had visited with her all those years before then followed the narrow trail through the trees back to where the tomb stood.
He’d been walking for a couple of minutes when he sensed something felt wrong. At first, he struggled to determine why he felt so ill-at-ease then it struck him. He was detecting magic in the air…powerful dark magic. Scanning the area in the rapidly fading light, Jem realised that the trees looked “wrong”. Someone had altered the landscape. The mausoleum was missing. It simply wasn’t there…or was it?
Taking a few tentative steps forward, Jem used some of the skills his mother had taught him to “feel” the world about him. Inexperienced as he was, he couldn’t pinpoint the source of the illusion but he deduced that a cloaking spell had been cast over the entire area surrounding Anna’s mausoleum home.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself as he gazed round looking for inspiration.
To reach the dark angel, he’d need to break the spell.
To break the spell, he’d need help…his mother’s help.
Jem was about to leave when he had a thought. One of the spells Meryn had taught him was a defensive spell. It was essentially an impenetrable bubble that was placed round a person to keep them out of harm’s way. Could he surround the dark angel’s illusion with his own defensive spell and trap her?
Gathering his thoughts, the runner used the basic scrying skills he had been taught to try to establish the boundaries of the dark angel’s illusion. It took him a few attempts but finally he had it mapped out in his mind. With the boundaries identified, Jem tried to weave a defensive spell to seal the illusion in.
Beads of sweat quickly formed on his pale forehead as he fought to extend his magic far enough to encompass the illusion. After several attempts, he dropped to his knees, weakened by the efforts. His theory was sound; his technique was not.
Cursing under his breath, Jem hauled himself to his feet and headed back to the beach hut.
The raven watched him leave.
Barely able to stand, exhausted by his efforts, Jem stumbled into the warmth of the hut, startling Trine, who was quietly reading a book by the fire.
“What happened?” she asked, tossing the book aside. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” he stated bluntly, reaching for the bottle of blood infused wine.
Without bothering with a glass, he drank deeply. Wiping his lips with the back of his hand, Jem revealed, “I’ve found our friend, but I need my mother’s help.”
“But Meryn’s still at the castle,” began Trine, looking a little confused.
“I need her here by tomorrow night,” he declared sharply. “Can you reach her?”
“I can try,” replied the ice maiden, getting to her feet. “Let me fetch the crystal ball my father gave me.”
“Do what you have to,” said Jem, before taking another long pull on the bottle. “I need to hunt. I’ll be back by first light.”
A pecking at the window of her tower study disrupted Meryn’s concentration. Looking up, she saw a large black raven tapping at the glass.
Setting aside the scroll she had been translating, she walked across to open the window. The large bird hopped inside then in a cloud of feathers, transformed into her wizened old friend.
“What brings you here at this hour?” she asked sharply, still somewhat annoyed at having her concentration disturbed.
“Excuse the interruption, Frau Meryn,” he apologised with a deep bow. “The boy needs your help.”
“Is Jeremiah ok?”
“Your son is fine, but he needs your assistance as a matter of some urgency.”
“Does this have something to do with Anna?”
“Yes, Frau Meryn” nodded the man frantically. “We need to leave now. Right away.”
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“No, Frau Meryn. This help needs the strength to be drawn from tomorrow’s full moon. You must depart now.”
“If you insist,” muttered the vampiress, her concern over the urgency of this matter growing stronger by the second.
“Allow me to assist with the travel,” implored the wizened old man. “Save your energy. I fear you may need every last ounce of your strength.”
“Most chivalrous. Thank you.”
Holding the crystal ball in her hand, Trine stared helplessly into its depths. There was no sign of light, no sign of her father’s study. The ball was black almost as if it had been placed in a drawer or perhaps a coat pocket.
“I’m sorry,” she apologised, sounding utterly defeated. “It’s not working. It’s dark. My father’s not there.”
“Fuck,” growled Jem, running his hand through his hair. “For once in my life I actually need my mother and I can’t get to her.”
“I can leave now and go and fetch her,” offered Trine, feeling guilty at being unable to help.
“There isn’t enough time.”
“Why?”
He paused before replying, not wanting to let slip that Meryn had been teaching him magic, “I remember my mother saying the full moon strengthened her power. If we miss this one, there’s no guarantee Anna will still be there by the next one.”
“I’ll keep trying to reach my father,” Trine promised, knowing in her heart that it was futile.
“Leave it,” he said resignedly. “We both need sleep. We can try again later in the day.”
Still rubbing sleep from his eyes, the runner stumbled from the bedroom into the living room, leaving the ice maiden sleeping soundly. The air was cool but not as cool as it should feel in December. Focusing on the scene in front of him, Jem realised that the stove was lit and that his mother was sitting in front of it drinking a cup of tea.
“Mother?”
“Put some clothes on, Jeremiah,” she scolded calmly, disapproving of his boxer shorts-only look.
“How? Why? Did Trine reach you while I was asleep?”
“Clothes!” stated his mother. “Then I’ll explain.”
Having pulled on some jeans and a shirt, Jem returned to the living room.
“Is Trine asleep?” asked Meryn softly.
He nodded.
“The Raven brought me.”
“Raven?” he echoed, looking puzzled for a moment before the penny dropped. “Where does he fit into this?”
“I asked him to check in on you and Trine now and again,” Meryn confessed calmly. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter for now. He brought me here. Said you needed help.”
“I do,” admitted Jem, deciding the conversation around why his mother felt the need to spy on them could wait for now. “I’ve found her…kind of. I need your magic to trap her.”
“Explain.”
“Ok, short version,” he began hurriedly. “Four kids have died near here. At first, I didn’t think much of it but something about the last one made me suspicious. I went to visit her mausoleum only to discover it’s not there.”
“Not there?” echoed Meryn incredulously. “You can’t just move a tomb that size!”
“Exactly. She’s cloaked it in magic. The whole area just looks at first glance like the surrounding woodland only its just a little bit off. I thought I could add a layer over it like one of those defensive bubbles to trap her inside. I tried but I failed miserably.”
“Show me,” said Meryn, getting to her feet and pointing towards the door.
A few minutes later, mother and son landed lightly in the same clearing Jem had visited twenty-four hours earlier.
“Is she definitely in there?” asked Meryn quietly.
Before they had left the beach hut, Jem had had the foresight to grab the mobile phone from its hiding place in the secret drawer. It took a moment or two to power on but with a few taps of the screen he soon had the tracking app up. The dot was there for both of them to see.
“We’ve no time to lose,” said Meryn. “I need you to do exactly as I tell you, when I tell you. No argument. No debate. We need to work quickly.”
“Can you do it?”
“Alone? No. With your help, I’m hopeful but it won’t be quick or easy.”
Patiently, Jem watched as his mother began to weave the same defensive spell he’d attempted. He could almost smell the magic in the air as the incantation rooted itself to the illusion and began to spread out. The effort was etched into his mother’s face as she rhythmically repeated the complex incantation over and over again. Gradually, he sensed the bubble growing over the dark angel’s illusion.
“Help,” requested Meryn after a couple of hours. “Together.”
She reached for his hand, almost as if she needed to ground herself through him, and together they worked to cast the spell. Above them, the skies had cleared allowing the full Long Night Moon to feed their efforts. Hour after hour, mother and son focused on their mammoth task, drawing strength from the icy cold pale moonlight. In his mind’s eye, Jem could see a pale blue tinged sheen appear in the air, the shape’s sides slowly curving in until they only had a small circle at the top to seal.
Eventually, long past midnight, their work was done. As she completed the final incantation, Meryn’s remaining strength gave out. She crumpled to the ground in a heap at Jem’s feet.
Inside the mausoleum, the dark angel dropped the tome she had been studying. Something felt wrong. The balance of her world felt off. Probing with her mind, she reached out to check that her cloaking spell remained intact. It was but it felt different. Something had changed. Tentatively, she probed slightly beyond the invisible boundaries she had created and hit what felt like solid steel.
The realisation struck her almost instantly.
She had been sealed in!
Alone in the tomb, Anna let out a blood curdling howl of anguish.
Coral McCallum 