Marc woke up just as I had finished making the eggs. He walked into the kitchen with a surprised expression on his face.
"You can cook?"
"A little." I shrugged.
I dished it up and it was gone within five minutes. The herbs surprisingly went well with the eggs.
"That was good." Marc told me.
"Thanks." I responded.
After I did dishes we set off into the woods. Now is my chance to lose him. I waited until the perfect moment. Marc had gotten a couple yards ahead of me and there was a steep hill just to my right. At the end of the hill were a lot of trees, I'll lose him in there.
I looked to Marc once last time before I started running, gaining speed quickly, jumping over shrubs and stumps. I quickly moved barely missing the trees. I crisscrossed hoping to lose him. Finally I came to a sharp turn leading to a huge bush that I quickly jumped into, at last being able to catch my breath.
"MARIE?!" I heard Marc scream making my heart skip a beat.
He continued screaming for hours (at least it felt that long). At last he left and I could leave this bush. I ran as hard as i could for what felt like an hour, till I finally came to a road. I wondered if I should walk on the road or not, and came to the conclusion to walk just a layer in the woods in case Marc got on the road.
I came to a gas station hours later and ran inside. "May I use your phone?"
"Sure it's just down the hall and to the left." The old gentleman directed me.
I quickly dialed Nicholas' number and patiently waited for him to pick up. "Hello?"
"Nicholas?"
"Marie? Where are you? Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, I'm fine and..." I quickly looked through the phone book and found the address of the gas station. "I'm in some small town just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."
"Okay, give me the address." He told me.
After giving Nicholas the address I quickly got outside and hid in the woods. It would take Nicholas hours to get here and Marc will probably still be looking for me. While I waited I looked to see if I could find anything I needed for the spell I am planning for Dante. I got the spell from the book I saw in Marc's log cabin. I might have 'accidentally' ripped it out and took it with me.
"Marie?" A familiar voice called out. "Marie?" They said again.
After listening to them a few more times, I realized it was Nicholas calling and I came out of the woods.
"Nicholas!" I yelled once he was in view.
His face lit up in relief when he saw me. "Marie!"
I was relieved to see that Trollhella was in the passenger seat. Now I don't have to track her down to do the spell.
I waited till an hour into our drive before I decided to bring it up. "So, I think I found a solution to the current predicament we're in."
"You mean with Dante?" Nicholas asked.
"Yes, clearly killing him didn't work, so I have a better plan. Dante is hoping to get back in his body, so then Seth will be back. As for Dante, I found a spell that will give Dante his humanity back."
"What does the spell call for?" Trollhella asked.
"Well some herbs that I have already collected, a dragon flower, that doesn't grow in this area, and an object that belonged to Dante before he was a vampire." I responded.
I looked back and forth between Trollhella and Nicholas who both looked like they were lost in deep thought. Then unexpectedly Nicholas pulled over.
"I think I have one thing you need." He said as he stepped out of the car and opened the trunk, Trollhella and I not very far behind.
"You have something belonging to Dante?" Trollhella asked.
"Well, it used to be his most prized possession when we were human, our parents gave it to him for his sixteenth birthday. He threw it away when he was turned. He didn't want to remember when he was vulnerable and weak." Nicholas said as he grabbed a necklace with some sort of weird language carved on it.
"What's it say?" I asked.
"It says 'Dante Heart'." Nicholas replied.
"Wow, I never would have guessed your last name would be Heart." I said.
"Yeah, it used to suit Dante well, actually. Then he turned and someone else took over his body, with his memories in tact, but not his humanity."
Nicholas handed me the Necklace and we all pilled back in the the car and continued to drive.
A few hours into the drive...
*Ring Ring
...Nicholas' phone went off.
"Hello?" He answered.
Then Nicholas looked at me with a serious expression through the rear view mirror before handing me the phone saying "It's for you."
I hesitantly grabbed the phone out of Nicholas' hand and put it up to my ear. "Hello?"
"You jerk! How dare you use herbs to weaken me enough to escape!"
"Marc." I realized.
"Yup, it's me, and you are so going to regret doing that, but I'll give you a chance to be redeemed."
"And why would I do that?" I questioned.
"Because otherwise your lover boy will die again once he returns."
Seth! How dare he threaten Seth! I was about to blow when I realized this was my chance to make sure Seth won't die when this all goes down.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
"Meet me somewhere without your friends, you will be turning yourself in."
I was quiet for a long time, before I spoke." Fine, but I have one condition."
"You have a condition? Fine, make it good." He laughed before becoming serious again.
"You have to take me to Dante."
"Why?"
"So that I can ensure Seth's safety after Dante returns in his body."
"Fine, stay by the phone, I'll text you the location soon."
He hung up and I returned the phone to Nicholas, who (along with Trollhella) gave me a confused, concerned look.
"What was that about?" Trollhella asked.
"The first part of the plan is set in motion. Nicholas can we stop at the next hotel please?"
We all got out of the car and checked ourselves into a hotel. It was a generic hotel nothing fancy. Green carpet floors and brown patterned bed comforters. Nicholas doesn't need sleep, so we just got a room with two beds.
"So...you told Marc you would turn yourself in? Why?" Nicholas asked slightly angry.
"Because now not only will I insure Seth's safety, but I'll know exactly where Dante is, too." I explained.
"That still won't help because I'll need to know where Dante is in order to do the spell."
Trollhella had a point though, if I was there it didn't help anything. Trollhella's the one that needs to know where Dante is not me, but how will she know if I can't bring her with me?
"I got it!" I announced. "Let's just get a tracking device."
"That's a excellent idea however, you can't buy those just anywhere at least not the quality we would need." Nicholas explained.
"I could do a tracking spell?" Trollhella offered.
"No, Marc would be expecting it." I explained.
We all thought for a few minutes, but nothing seemed to be a good solution. All the things we came up with had unsolvable problems that go along with it. Eventually we just agreed that the tracking device would be the best solution.
We set out looking at every single hardware store in the area. We were about to give up when we came across a small pawn shop.
"Hello, can I help you find something?" The shady mid aged man asked.
"Yes, do you happen to have any tracking devices?" Nicholas asked walking up to the clear counter separating us from the salesman.
"You're in luck, we just got one it." He said disappearing into a back room and coming back with a small box.
"How much?" Nicholas asked.
"50."
We quickly payed the man and left the pawn shop. As we all were getting in the car we started to hear something.
*Ring Ring
It was Nicholas' phone. He grabbed it out of his back pocket and handed it to me after checking the caller ID.
"Hello." I said into the phone.
"How fast can you make it to New York City?" The voice asked.
"Marc? Um... probably in about five hours." I answered.
"Good Meet me there. I will find you, just enter the city alone. I'll meet up with you tomorrow night." He said before cutting the call.
After I recapped the already short conversation, Nicholas, Trollhella, and I piled in the car and were off to the Big Apple.
We were just outside of New York City around one in the morning and stopped for the night.
"Okay, Marie, here is your tracker." Nicholas said the next morning, handing me the small chip. I then slid the chip into my front pocket.
"Make sure you keep that with you, or make sure Dante has it." Trollhella instructed
We called a cab and we all headed downstairs to the lobby of the hotel.
"Be safe." NIcholas ordered.
"You, too." I said before closing the cab door and heading off toward the city.