The 19th Century Vampire (Wattys 2020 Winner - Paranormal)

Chapter 32

"At ginamit mo 'to sa akin? How cruel is that, huh?!"

"We did that to save you, Stella and we think there's nothing wrong with that. Now that you're the only one who can break the barrier spell, you can use that to this drawer."

"At anong laman ng drawer?"

Edmond shook his head. "I don't have any idea what's inside of it yet, but seeing those small bottles—I'm sure that those contains such spells that Esmeralda made and if we could get a hand on it and checked what it was for, we could use it for whatever's gonna happen. This won't hurt you Stella, just concentrate and let the power run through your system and let it go of it on your hand. You won't even notice it, I promise you."

Stella swallowed. "Are you really sure?"

Edmond nodded with assurance. "I'm sure of that."

When she already decided to take a try of her ability, she positioned herself and placed her both hands on the surface of the glass. Elius and Edmond stepped away from her and was hoping that she could do it even though the risks are high. 

When she closed her eyes and think of only one thing, her powers. At first, she thought that nothing has been happening because she's on it for about five minutes and before she could give it up, her hands warmed a little and that's the momet she abruptly thought of breaking the barrier spell that covers the glass drawer. 

Not that long when Stella managed to break the spell and a speck of sparkly dust flew all over and when she opened up her eyes, she was amazed at how things went right. Halos hindi siya makapaniwala na nagawa niya iyon and even the two guys couldn't believe that she made it in just one try. 

Edmond immediately checked all the bottles and Elius hold it for him. When they tried reading all the labels on it, they were having a hard time because the penmanship was too hard to read, and wouldn't be able to guess it. When they showed it to Stella if she could understand it, she shook her head because seeing those handwritings was hard for her to figure out.

Stella couldn't hide her joy so she went back by the bookshelves to check if she could find a book for witchcraft. While the two were busy checking the small bottles, Stella stop and stare for a minute into the book on the higher division of the bookshelf. Her eyes widened when she had read Escott's on the spine. She was jumping back and forth to get it, but she made a wrong jump and stumble upon it, Edmond instantly grabbed Stella before she could fall on the ground. Their eyes met but she immediately pulled him away from her. She doesn't need a vampire lover.

"What are you doing Stella?" Elius asked.

Stella pointed the book on the top rack and when all of their eyes flew in that direction, they didn't waste a single second and Edmond immediately picked it up. Inabot naman niya ito kay Stella at nang mabasa niya ang kanyang apelyido sa front cover nito. She couldn't believe that there was a book that contains Escott's witchcraft.

The Escott was embossed into the cover and she felt the matte-rugged paper. She flipped the pages and she couldn't be more shocked that it was really a witchcraft book for the Escott witches and warlock. She didn't expect to see it, to hold it, and then to do those things she didn't even thought of doing. 

Before she could read every chapter, spell, and chant on it, she flipped through pages to search for the location spell. She was like a kid pointing out a page where she found the spell for it. She told it to them as they were excited to get back the book. When they've read the process, they must look for something that resembled anything to the object that they want to find.

Napaisip naman sila kaagad kung paano nila gagawin iyon. They don't know how to track the lost object if there won't be a thing that would lead them right to it. But these smart people didn't give up yet. Edmond took the book from Stella's hand and read the instructions of the spell all over and over just to understand how it really works.

"Here it is!" Edmond announced. He was like a kid who told his friends that he has a new toy. Edmond was so sure that there would a way to do it. He doesn't lose his hopes and then just give up. "If there's no item that resembled the lost object or a person, you can use a mirror in which it can give you the location, but wouldn't be able to track you straight to the object or the person. With our ability, there's no limitation but killing, and this location spell will work between your mind and the purpose of finding it. This could work right?"

"There's no harm in trying," Stella said. She positioned again in front of the mirror and placed her hand on it. She closed her eyes and think deeply and focused on the item that they were looking for. She's creating an image of it on her head and spoke the spell. "Quaerere quod perierat. Ostende mihi viam." 

She immediately opened her eyes after saying the spell and pulled her hands out of the mirror and not that long when blurry images were starting to appear. This time, again, Stella couldn't hide how she managed to do that. 

That was amazing! She thought in her head. 

A moment later when the three of them started to distinguish an establishment of the blurry images shown on the mirror and as it became clearer and clearer. They were shocked to see that the location they were seeing was the Chieftain Hall.

They looked at each other, shocked and confused, and couldn't guess why it was showing the Chieftain Hall.

"Have you been there, Stella?" Elius asked.

She shook her head. "As far as I remember, I haven't been into the Chieftain Hall since the lunch meeting a few days ago. I have no idea that you guys have a copy of the book. I just knew that when I was in that cage. I vaguely remember it that's why. I just get ahold of it back then."

Napahugot ng malalim na hininga si Edmond at malaking pagtataka sa kanya kung bakit doon sila tinuro ng location spell. He knew that Escott's spell doesn't fail because he have it seen and experienced it before. Even though they had doubts to find the book there, they still wouldn't lose the chance to know if the location spell was really right. 

When they packed things up and ready to go, Edmond got ahold of their arms and not that long, just like a flash, they reached the Chieftain Hall. Mabilis naman silang nagtago sa ilalim ng puno dahil alam nilang high-secured ang paligid kaya kailangan nilang mag-ingat. Though Stella could manage her powers little by little, she's still uncontrollable in some ways kaya kailangan niyang maging maingat. One wrong move would fail her. She lay low while letting Edmond and Elius do what they have to do.

Not that long when they decided to get inside the Chieftain Hall and then a howl was heard. Natigilan ang tatlo, Elius and Edmond knew what was that. Stella looked straight into the bright, full moon and she was amazed by it. She shifted her head when Edmond grabbed her arms and move quickly inside the Chieftain Hall without alarming the security. 

Ang lakas ng kabog ng dibdib ni Stella and when they were trying to find their time to act, Stella run away that driven her something to do. Edmond immediately followed her and Elius was left in his hiding position.

"Stella, where are you going?!" Edmond asked.

Stella went back to her senses. She blinked her eyes a few times and noticed that she was in the hallway. "I don't know... I just know I need to be on a black wooden door. It just flashed in my mind and I don't know what that means."

"Maybe that's still the location spell bringing you where the book was."

"Talaga?" she couldn't believe it.

Edmond nodded. "C'mon, we need to get Elius first before we go heading back to it."

And for Stella, this would be a long rough night.