Hey everyone! Sorry for taking so long to upload! But the second part is here. I hope you like it! And as to the contest, unfortunately no one guessed the right answer. :( But you guys are still awesome!
Anyways, here is the next section! Please comment, message and especially vote if you liked it. I love getting comments. Please tell me if you like the way the story is going. :D Thanks!
Here is a little recap from last time:
Danny took my head in both hands and gently kissed me on the lips. "Never, ever do that to me again. I thought I lost you."
I laughed meekly "It's not like I did that to scare you. I wish I would have known what was happening too! Now I know how Alice must have felt, and let me tell you it sucks!"
This got us both laughing as he helped me to my feet and back into the car. I looked around and couldn't recognize any of the buildings. I guess we were somewhere deep within the V district.
Danny sensed my distress and kissed me lightly on the head. "Don't worry, nothing will happen to you. Not when I am around. Besides, I am sure you can defend yourself pretty well against anyone who tries to cross you."
Danny winked at me and opened my door. I slid in and took a deep breath in trying to regain some energy and collect my thoughts.
I heard Danny open his door and slid in. I expected to hear the sound of the engine when instead I heard "So what happened?"
I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. Where to begin? I thought.
Part 2:
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"Look Danny I don't even know what happened but from what I can tell the VLRA are stronger than you and Steven think"
I felt Danny take my hand that was lying limp in my lap.
"You know Ara, if you need a minute to calm down we can always just go back to my place."
"No, I'm fine. I was just freaked out because I have no idea what just happened. One minute I was here in the car with you and then I felt myself being transported and all of a sudden I was in another place and they couldn't see them."
"I don't believe it! This is amazing!" Danny was beaming at me from the driver's seat.
"Um, excuse me? I just became the equivalent of a living ghost for like ten minutes and your telling me that's amazing?!"
Personally, I didn't think that what happened to me was amazing. On the contrary, it was downright freaky.
"I have never heard of someone so young being able to do it before." Danny looked at me and I saw his sapphire eyes glowing bright with love and pride.
"Ara, what you just did is called astro-planeing. Only a handful of magi can ever achieve such a feat and usually that only happens after decades of experience. I don't think someone as young as you has ever been able to astro-plane."
Astro-plane? Is that what I did? Well that does explain how I was able to project myself across the world. And all thanks to my powers as a magi. Great, just great.
"Danny, I still don't understand why is it that I have never been able to do this before?"
"See Ara, a magi is born with certain gifts, like your ability for telekinesis. But as a magi grows their abilities expands. Most of the time magi achieve their new powers through study but some like the power to astro-plane are innate and only appear when the magi has reached a certain maturity. Never this early in life."
"So what you are telling me is that I'm just extra weird" I teasingly asked pushing him on the shoulder.
"No you are just exceptionally talented."
Wow, so my life gets weirder and weirder, or better and better if you want to be optimistic about it. At least I know that I am not the only one who can astro-plane. When all this is over, I really need to find someone to help teach me. I mean Danny has been helpful lately but what happens when I do something he doesn't know about.
But first things first, we have to get Steven's girlfriend back and more importantly stop the attack.
"Hey Ara, mind giving me any sign of life over there?"
Danny snapped me out of my reverie, yet again.
"Sorry, you know just deep in thought." I felt myself starting to blush as Danny caught me spacing out again.
"So what happened when you were astro-planeing."
I was waiting for Danny to bring that up again. It wasn't like him to forget something important.
"Well I was transported to an underground chamber and I was pretty sure it was in England because everyone had British accents. It must have been a council meeting because there were a lot of vampires and there was a boy called Roan who was there because he had a message from his master he had to give to Gustav."
I heard a hiss come from Danny and saw his face had turned gravely serious. I continued on, knowing it was best to give him the full story.
"Then a woman called Anya spoke saying that they had convinced all the clans except the McLaurin's, I think it was. They said something about a Moonlight Celebration and attacking on that day. I didn't understand that part."
Danny had retracted his hands by now and was gripping the steering wheel with both hands, something I didn't see too often.
"Those filthy half-lives"
That phrase didn't sound particularly bad to me but with the vehemence Danny was saying it, it must have been pretty derogatory in the vampire world.
Danny then looked at me and I guess he saw the mix of fear and confusion on my face because he quickly took my hand again.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to freak you out but I think you deserve to know the truth. From what you just told me, things are bad, the situation is worse than what I expected. Look this guy Gustav that you saw, he wasn't lying when he said that he and his followers are the most powerful clan in the VLRA. Gustav has been under close surveillance by the English Vampiric government for the past four centuries. He has been steadily rising and getting followers all this time but about fifty years ago he just stopped and "fell off the radar" you can say. We all thought that some young hot shot had deposed him. Now I see that he just took his efforts underground making him more potent and dangerous than before."
"I can see why you guys were afraid of him, he is one creepy guy. But what is this whole deal with the Moonlight Celebration. Gustav said it was ironic that they would attack that day."
"The Moonlight Celebration is an event hosted every fifty years. It marks the passage of the law that forbade the hunting of humans. At first both vampires attended the event but as time passed and tensions mounted, the other kind stopped coming. Now the event is merely ceremonial, a way for all the governments of the true bloods and their families to unite together and strengthen their alliances."
It finally clicked the reason why Gustav was so happy, the reason why it was so ironic.
"Oh my God" I breathed "They are planning on getting rid of everyone, all the Vampiric governments."
"Exactly" By this time Danny had parked in front of a large brown stone building, which I assumed to be the library.
"Ara, this is the perfect opportunity for Gustav to get what he wants. By attacking all the governments there will be utter chaos throughout the vampiric world and Gustav will use the VLRA to make sure that the half bloods become the dominant vampire."
"And the peace treaty with us, the humans"
"Will be no more" Danny finished for me.
"Oh crap, that's not good, that's not good at all." I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. Gustav was an ambitious and bloodthirsty monster, literally. With him in charge it would mean that humans would be fair game. I closed my eyes against the carnage unraveling before me, thousands if not millions dying at the hands of repressed vampires, hungry half- bloods.
My eyes were still closed as I felt two cool hands pull my face to the left. I felt Danny's gaze before I opened my eyes and saw his blue eyes looking compassionately at me. I kissed the top of my forehead.
"I promise you Ara, it won't come to that. Now that we know what is going on we can stop Gustav before anything even happens."
I shook my head yes not trusting myself to speak.
"Now that we know they are in England at least we know where to start looking." And with that he opened his door. I wasn't raised to be pampered so I managed to open the door before he did and stepped out. He smiled and his eyes glistened again as he took my hand.
I stopped walking, causing him to jerk back.
"Just so you know, I'm in this too. I am not going to sit idly by while this mad man tries to destroy my world and make the whole globe his hunting ground. Wherever you go, I go. Besides, you might need me."
Danny started laughing and kissed the hand he was holding. "Ara, I wouldn't dream of having you anywhere but beside me. I would rather have you next to me knowing you are safe than be worrying about you across the ocean."
"So, does that mean we are going to England?"
"If we are going to have any chance to stop Gustav we are going to need to go to England."
Even though I had just been worried out of my mind a moment ago, with Danny by my side I knew that I would be safe. Besides, I was going to England a place I had always dreamed of going to. That's why I was giddy with delight and a newfound sense of destiny when I yelled out "Eurotrip!" in the middle of the parking lot.
And instead of telling me to hush or stop jumping like any normal person would Danny did what Danny does best: he busted out laughing in the middle of the parking lot. His eyes was sparkling as he bent over, holding his stomach from the intensity of his laughter.
"Gosh Ara, you are such a teenager."
As we walked into the library the few vampires that were there glanced our way and stared at me as if I was from another planet. Which made sense, it was rare for a human to be found anywhere in the V district, much less the library.
I wonder if this would help get their gazes off me. I concentrated and summoned my powers like a cloak shielding me from the gazes of the curious vampires, much like I did the first time I accidentally walked into the V district.
It worked like I thought it would, their scornful faces quickly turned to a mixture of respect and fear. It was like a ripple effect as one head after another turned away from us. Danny looked confused as he saw the response we were getting and turned towards me. I guess he wasn't expecting to see me in summoning my powers because he stopped for a moment before continuing on.
He raised an eyebrow at me, and I could almost hear him asking me in his mind "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
I raised my head and in my defense I responded back to his silent question "What? I hate attracting attention."
Danny just laughed and turned away trying to use his free hand to cover his mouth and muffle the chuckle escaping his lips.
"Oh right Ara, of course. Let me just disregard the yellow orb surrounding you."
"Shut up!" I whispered as I playfully punched him in the arm and dropped my shield.
We had just reached what seemed to be the most abandon section of the library. There was no one around save for the one librarian who was supposed to be guarding the books. Well I said supposed to, obviously vampires get bored too because the brunette boy in front of us had his headphones in his ears and his eyes glued to the laptop.
Danny and I walked passed him and he didn't even stir. So much for security, I thought.
"What are we doing here?" I asked as Danny led me passed another row of dusty shelves.
"Researching" Danny replied distractedly as he was looking up at the different section titles.
"And we are going to find information about the VLRA in the..." I looked up to see where we were in the library maze, "Agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula 1150-1200 Section?"
"No" Danny tugged me and hurried me along "We are going to find information in the VLRA section"
"The VLRA what?"
I glanced to see a newer looking section with four bookcases crammed with very thick looking books.
I turned to Danny as said "This doesn't look as old as the other aisles we just went through"
Danny smiled and started rifling through the different books on the bookcase. "That's because this section got refurbished not too long ago. See with the VLRA's power gaining influence in Europe, they decided that it would be safer to move all the information we had on them overseas to the United States. And since no one comes to this section of the library, it was the perfect place to store classified information."
"Just in case curious eyes wanted to find the information." I finished.
"Exactly"
"But Danny, how did you know that this section even existed."
All of a sudden Danny tensed up and I knew that he felt uncomfortable answering the question. When he looked up at me he had a guilty expression "Let's just say that I am well connected."
I wasn't about to press for anymore information because I knew more than anyone what it felt like to have to keep a secret against your will. I mean I wasn't even going to tell Danny about my abilities until I found out his secret. I just have to trust that he will tell me in time. Luckily, I have a lot of patience.
I had turned to the bookcase opposite Danny and pretended to look at the books in front of me.
So do any of these locations look familiar to you?
I looked at saw that Danny had a thick book in his hand and it was filled tiny font and many pictures.
This is going to be one long day, I thought, sitting on the floor. Danny sat down next to me and handed me the book.
Sensing my distress Danny kissed the top of my head and then turned my chin so that I was facing him.
"I know it's a lot to figure out." He kissed me lightly on the lip, "But if you don't see the room where you astro-planed too, there are always more books."
"Oh yippee!" I groaned sarcastically and rolled my eyes.
I flipped through all the rooms in the first book and didn't find a single one that resembled the room I had been in.
After looking through two more ridiculously large books I was about to give up.
"Danny none of these are the right room! They are all too new, the room that I was older much older."
Danny was leafing through yet another book. This one seemed to have an even thicker coat of dust than the previous three.
"Now" said Danny as he walked towards me "I doubt that you will find the room here but try this book. All these sites have been out of use for centuries, but if you find a similar room then we can assume it is near the same area."
He reached the book out to me and I reluctantly reached for it.
I started flipping through the pages going through the mental checklist in my head: no too narrow, no too new looking....
I was about to flip the page when something about the bottom picture caught my eye, it was the way the room was arranged. A large circle with intricate chairs, just like how I had seen the chairs arranged in the room. I inspected the picture some more and audibly gasped at what I saw. It was the same chairs, the same ones I had seen only in better condition.
Danny ran to me and grabbed me by the shoulders "What is it Ara? What's wrong?"
All I could manage to breathe was "Oh my God!" and I pointed to the picture.
"That's it Danny, that's the room I was in."
Danny's eyed widened as he took the book from me. He was reading something on the page when he looked at me with a grave expression.
"Ara, are you sure this is the room you were in earlier today?"
"I'm positive Danny; the furniture is even arranged in the same way. Why?"
"Because according to this book, you were in what was once known as the Ludin Dungeon. It used to be the VLRA's stronghold but the United Vampiric forces captured it about three centuries ago. I remember as a kid going there with my dad and seeing guards posted everywhere. After a while it just turned into a storage depot for the government."
I didn't like the sound of that. If it was in the hands of the vampiric government then how could the VLRA be holding meetings there?
"Danny what does that mean?"
"That means that someone within the vampiric government has been helping the VLRA, and it seems like this help has been going on for quite a while."
Once again, when it seems like nothing else can go wrong, fate has a way of saying "
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Hoped you liked it! :D