The Rules of the Red - 2nd Edition |✓|

Chapter Ten, Part Two - The Vampire's Gift

Several minutes later we arrived at the museum. As Tidus paid and tipped the driver I climbed out of the cab to stand in the wet grass. I shivered. The place was eerie at night. It lost most of the cheerfulness it held in the daytime.

Tidus waited for the taxi driver to round a corner up the street before leading us to the building's front door. He pulled on the handle and I felt some reassurance when it budged beneath his weight. Our mission had only just begun and already it was nearing completion.

We took the elevators up to the fourth floor and re-entered the same room with the violent tribal paintings and odd symbols. There, standing before the ring display, were Mr. Foster and his assistant. At once I registered the strangeness of the situation. Something wasn't right...

"Mr. Foster, you should've told me you were bringing company." Tidus closed the gap between us and them. His voice was smooth and his face was passive but his shoulders were rigid. I could tell he was irritated.

"Oh I'm hardly ever alone." Mr. Foster looked far too confident for my comfort. "Ms. Castra has proven to be very resourceful in handling certain situations such as this..."

They exchanged knowing smiles as my heart sank like a stone in my belly.

"I'm not in the mood to mince words, Mr. Foster." Tidus sighed with growing impatience. "Please, just give us the ring."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Mr. Foster replied smugly. "You see, Tidus, your Glamour didn't work on me."

Glamour? I thought. What the hell is he talking about?

"Tidus..." I turned to him for an explanation.

"Naomi-" he replied.

"Hypnotism." Mr. Foster cut in. "Isn't that what your kind specializes in, Tidus? The amazing ability to control and manipulate the will of unsuspecting Humans?"

The light bulb was there, but I refused to turn it on.

"You can't seriously be suggesting that Tidus attempted to use mind control on you, Mr. Foster." My words sounded confident but they came from a mouth that had gone very dry. I looked to Tidus for reassurance but his gaze was turned fixedly from mine.

"I am suggesting it, Naomi, because I know it to be true. I may be the only Human in this room-and therefore insignificant in your eyes-but my companion, Ms Castra, is anything but. She has... abilities. And one of those gifts includes the Seeing Eye. She can recognize people-or things..." He cast Tidus a sharp, pointed look. "For what they really are."

Mr. Foster's assistant remained silent. She narrowed her cat-shaped eyes and I could almost imagine a tail twitching behind her. Vaguely I wondered how neither Tidus nor I had managed to spot her for a fellow Supernatural. She'd gone completely undetected beneath my Wolf's senses. That never happened.

"Shira, dear, would you show our guests what you really are?"