Chapter 55

STEFANO.

My mouth goes dry when Priestess Lilith’s words finally start to make sense in my head. Suddenly, I feel like I’m going to hyperventilate.

“Why is he being kept there?” I manage to ask at last, gripping the phone hard in my hand. “What did he do? Is he dangerous? And how did you know?”

“Easy with the questions,” she says calmly, but I can say that my concern is getting to her. “I don’t know what he did, but it can’t be that good considering he’s from a very well known rich family in the Society. The Rosenthals have much power here, and they could erase any bad record if they wanted to. I knew it because I saw it the night he was getting carted off. They didn’t take him to any of the centers here, not that there are a lot… he just vanished.”

My chest feels hollow now. “And where is the institution?”

“Arkham Mental Institute,” she says. “It’s not far from here. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to find him.”

“Thank you” is the only thing I manage to say before turning the call off.

I take my jacket and head outside immediately, assessing the look of the sky and the state of the surroundings. It seems that people are far too busy with their own stuff to notice me if I ever vanish, and not that there’s anyone looking for me in particular anyway.

Celeste will not be here. She would not be in the mission anymore, and the only thing she should be worrying about anyway is her own well-being. I am planning to make a visit for her, but I know that she will just beat me over the head if I ever choose seeing her over the plan we made.

So I have to make do and find a way. Particularly, I have to find Jake Rosenthal and see what happened.

With that, I head to the back gardens of the School and see the arc of bushes that I always use to go in and out of the Society borders when I need to. I summon a ball of fire in my fist to get ready for the swarm of vampires that are lurking outside.

However, once I get through the bushes and find myself outside, I see that there are no vampires either. The forest is miraculously clear. For the very first time.

It’s ominous. It feels like a sign of many more bad things to come, but I decide to just be grateful about it, running as fast as I can out of the forest to arrive at the edge of the human world. The air has shifted, losing all its magic. I also feel my energy dropping because of this. Still, I go to the nearest town I can find, flagging down a passing taxi.

“Arkham Mental Institute,” I say, and the driver speeds away into the afternoon.

Priestess Lilith was right. The institute was indeed not far from the Society at all. Within a couple of minutes, the taxi is already dropping me off in front of a very modern looking building with blue shiny windows and white walls.

I head inside, my heart beating in my throat. I stop in front of a desk where a woman is sitting, comfortable behind a wall of very thick glass. She looks up at me, and I smile at her.

“Hi,” I greet her. “I’m here for Jake Rosenthal. We go to the same school and I wanted to see him.”

The woman’s expression changes. She looks around as though trying to see if anyone else is there. Then, she leans over and whispers, “Do you have an ID?”

I nod, taking out my ID and handing it to her. I wait for her to look at it, my pulse racing, then finally she hands it back to me. She presses a button and two buff men appear from behind her.

I thought she’s going to have me snatched away or something, but the men just beckon me to follow them. We head down the hallway, past all the locked rooms, then we arrive at a secluded room at the end of a narrower hallway. They open the door for me, and I go in.

And there is Jake, sitting on the end of a bed that’s been screwed to the floor, facing the window. He looks at me when I enter, and he smiles. His hair is longer and his face looks much fuller. What’s also weird is the fact that he seems to recognize me. Unlike before.

To prove this, he says as soon as the door closes, “Stefano. How great to see you.”

“Jake,” I whisper, then I crack a smile. I go in to hug him but then I see that his hands are bound to the floor. There’s a spare chair in the corner so I sit there, facing him. “How have you been, bud?”

“I’ve been better.” He raises the handcuffs around his wrists. “And you? How is everyone? How are things at School?”

“We’ve all been better,” I say. Something doesn’t sit right with me. If Eden does visit him once in a while, why is he asking these so eagerly like he hasn’t heard anything since he moved? “A lot of bad things have happened. All without you. Everyone misses you.”

A soft smile appears on his face. It’s heartbreaking. But as though to confirm my initial thoughts, he says, “I wish people from School would visit me more often.”

“It’s a little hard to find you, bud,” I say with a shake of my head. “I was thinking maybe we can—”

“It’s them,” he says, his tone changing completely. “They made sure no one would ever see me. She made sure no one would see me.”

I freeze. I stare at him, but he’s no longer looking at me. He’s just staring blankly into the window without really seeing, his eyes glazed over.

I’m getting nervous, but I still force myself to ask, “Who are they? Who is she?”

He doesn’t answer. “I loved her. We’ve been friends for a long time and I wanted her. She has always been nice to me, and I could tell that something was different with her. She had an energy that I never found in anyone else and that drew me to her. So when I found out about the campfire, I asked her out at last.”

My body freezes when I realize he’s talking about Eden.

“And what happened?” I ask, leaning forward.

“It was alright,” he says, his eyes growing more and more unfocused as he thinks of all the memories. “It was good. She took me to this hidden place and she started to kiss me.”

“Where is this place?”

Jake stops before saying, “The trophy room.”

I force myself to nod. “And what happened there, bud?”

“She asked me to climb up into one of the portraits,” he tells me, his face contorting into a fearful frown. “I tried to go in but it was just dark, and there were voices all around. Human voices. But I can’t hear what they were trying to say. And that’s when I saw something flashing on the walls. Egredere, puer lunae rubrae. Exercitus tuus exspectat.”

The things that Valeria said were written in the walls of the tunnel. Jake has been there, and he’s seen it.

Goosebumps are now peppered on my skin. I want to ask him to continue, but my voice has left me.

“I told her that that is what I saw,” he continues, tears lining his eyes. His fists are now clenching on his lap. “She didn’t say anything. She just said we need to go in further. I heard something, a growl. I ran with her, and we ended up in the forest where the vampires are. And… she told them to attack me.”

I shoot to my feet. Shock is gripping me in waves and my heart is practically in my throat. I hurry to the door, not really knowing what to do, but when I open it, it’s no longer the guards who greet me there.

It’s Eden herself, smiling at me. “Fancy seeing you here.”