Chapter 54

Enid searched everywhere but couldn’t find Garret. No one knew where he was, only that he said he had something to take care of and would be back later in the evening.

She was a little annoyed, but it wasn’t like she had to live on his butt twenty-four seven. She just felt that it was a bit odd, is all.

She also missed two of her kitchen girls, Molly and Cindy. They were underage and quite timid, so she was worried about them and couldn’t find them either.

She decided that she would have to walk the entire castle and the grounds. If she couldn’t find them, she would go to the guard and report them missing and see what they could do to find them.

Her search finally brought her to the last place she wanted to be; the old section everyone called The Dark Hall. It was where a lot of the ancient vampires resided. Most were harmless, just wanted to be left alone, but there were a few that made her skin crawl.

Several of the vampires would send bad servants there as a punishment, none of them came out the same afterward, and none of them spoke of what they experienced.

After a while, masters would stop sending their servants there. Only the cruelest of them still did.

Enid was about to open the side servant entrance when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

********************

Garret was over the moon. He had decided and was heading back to the west wing; in his pocket was an old family heirloom; it was a ring, pure gold, and it had a heart-shaped Ruby in its center.

It was always passed down from generation to generation in his family, but his family had long passed, and there was no one to give it to anymore.

Until now, he was going to ask Miss Enid to marry him. He was a bundle of nerves; what if she said no? Oh, god, he didn’t know what he would do. He knew he would have a long time trying to convince her to change her mind.

There was the fact that she was human, which could be changed if she wished. Good lord, I am a fucking ancient vampire. Get yourself together; you have seen all kinds of things in your life, from death and war to life and creation.

If you have done all that, you can kneel before the lady of your heart and ask her a simple question.

He entered the kitchen just in time as they cleaned up from dinner. He asked where Enid was, but no one knew.

He then asked some of Enid’s helpers, and they said that she had gone out looking for two of their girls that didn’t report back in after an errand.

Garret searched the whole west wing and the rest of the castle. She was nowhere to be found; he then opened his senses. He had taken her blood so he could see her heartbeat and use it as a beacon.

When he felt her heart beating, he was relieved, but something didn’t make sense. It was beating too slow it was as if she was in a deep sleep.

He walked out of the west wing and into the gardens with his eyes shut, homing in on Enid’s heartbeat. He was close. He could feel it getting more vital than before, and then it was gone.

Panicking, he tried to pick it up again, but nothing was there. First, he was freaking out, but then he remembered that it wasn’t as if she had stopped; it was as if it was being blocked from him from tracing it.

Only Old Magic could do that; when he looked around at his location, he became so pissed that he let out a scream of rage. He was standing in the old section of the castle, the Dark Hall.

The Dark Hall, most know the rumor of it being of those who live there now, but in truth, it had that name long before any new vampires came along.

It was named the Dark Hall because in the dawn of the new age of vampires when they stopped hunting like animals, they became more civilized, but still, some clung to the old ways and were put here in the Dark Hall.

That is why iron gates separate it from the gardens. They used to be chained up, and a binding spell kept everyone from leaving. They would be fed criminals from the surrounding towns once a day until those who would not change were destroyed.

The hall had been changed over the years, some trying to make it livable again, but it never worked. There was just too much death and darkness for anything to expel it completely.

He wished it would be destroyed, but the council wouldn’t even listen to any proposal to eliminate the Dark Hall; now, it hosts the old codgers that no one likes.

You have to be invited or have a unique key to get in. He had neither. He took off back in the direction of Michaels’s office. He needed help, and he needed it now. Whatever was going on, he wouldn’t allow it to harm his Enid.

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It took Michael a little bit to adjust to his new form. He hadn’t done anything like this in a very long time. He had to change his eyes because he was getting disorientated by all the images that a fly could see.

He wasn’t worried about someone noticing him or his changed eyes; if a fly isn’t bothering you, how often do you take its notice? Never.

Putting himself in the best position was easy enough; he was far up on the wall so he couldn’t be squashed; being squashed is not a pleasant experience, he knew because he got caught spying on some girls and wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings when another woman came along and nailed him with a newspaper.

People were beginning to show up when he felt the vibration of someone trying to find him. By the strength of it, it had to be Garret. He paused himself so he didn’t leave form and mind-linked Garret.

Garret was so angry that it was seeping into the link…

“What is it.”

“It’s Enid and two of the servant girls. They have gone missing; I think they are in the dark halls. I can’t get in to find out; I need you to come and get us in there.”

“There is no need, Garret; stay in my office till I call for you, and then meet me by the iron gates.”

He could feel Garret hesitate to obey his order.

“It is alright, Garret. I am already inside the dark halls; I will let you know when I find them.”

“Stay in my office till you hear from me.”

He readjusted his body again with a bit of flicker of his wings, and that was when he saw the two assholes he was here to catch in the act.

Others arrived that had surprised him and some that didn’t. He had hoped that it would only be a handful, but there were many more than he thought.

He buzzed the room but stayed out of reach, getting a perfect look at all the participants of this party. For years this kind of shit has been tolerated; that tolerance ends tonight.

Michael settled on a really large black feather in an old crones hat and watched as the lights started to flicker, a sign that everyone was about to gather. He was going to see just how many vampires he would imprison or kill tonight.