AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I rolled my eyes and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go. We both know you wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much knowing there was something out there to explore.”
“I could try,” he insisted as I led him over to the door.
I opened the entrance and peeked out. All was quiet and calm save for the ticking of a half dozen ancient clocks from various rooms. Ben peeked out above my head and inspected the area, as well.
“Aunt Dreda often reads in her study until well past midnight,” he informed me as he stepped out. “We need to be as quiet as possible-” He took another step and his foot pressed against a creaky board. The noise was amplified by the silence and made him wince.
I covered my mouth to stifle my laugh before I cleared my throat. “You were saying?”
I pointed at his traitorous foot. “I was saying ‘don’t step there.’”
I smiled and shook my head as I followed him down the hall. My amusement turned to dread when we arrived at the treacherous stairs. What few candles that had been lit on our arrival were now extinguished and the steps were now a lump of shadows that blended together in a promise of painful falls and broken necks.
Ben grabbed the banister and swung one leg over so he straddled it backward. His red eyes glowed softly in the dim light. “Watch me,” he whispered.
He pushed himself backward and flew down the banister. In a few moments, he reached the bottom and landed with a graceful stop on the hall floor. He beckoned to me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and grasped the banister in both hands. My shorter legs meant I couldn’t as easily swing one of them over the side, but I eventually managed the feat. It also meant my legs didn’t reach the floor and I couldn’t keep myself still. I gasped as I slid backward down the straight wooden rod to a certain doom.
My salvation from a hard stop was Ben’s hands. He caught me and drew my back against his chest. I tilted my head back and found his eyes twinkling in the darkness.
“You’re enjoying this too much,” I whispered to him.
“Am I?” he mused as he reluctantly released me.
Together we tiptoed across the hall and out into the chilly night air. A heavy fog lingered at the edges of the property and completely hid anything beyond the gates from view. An oppressive silence hung in the air that made me wrap my arms around myself.
“Could somebody turn off the fog machine. . .” I murmured.
“There’s fog in the Werewald almost every night,” Ben warned me as he nodded at a path of stones that led around the right-hand wing of the manor. “We should be able to get to the rear through there.”
“Let me guess, it’s from some ancient curse cast by a wicked sorcerer,” I mused as Ben led us down the path.
Ben turned his head and smiled at me. “There are a lot of bogs in the area and the fluctuation in temperatures causes the water to lift from the waters and linger about the area.”
“What spooky thing doesn’t these woods have?” I darkly muttered as I cast a wary glance at the thick mess of trees to our right.
“Vampires.”
My face drooped. “Please don’t tell me they exist in this world.”
He stopped and half-turned to me. “Do you know of them?”
I shrugged. “That depends. Are they pasty-looking people with extra sharp teeth and an unhealthy fixation on peoples’ necks?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“Then I know them, and you still haven’t answered my question about them existing.”
“They do exist,” Ben confirmed as he continued our creeping along the short length of the house.
A little bit of color drained out of my face, but fortunately not out of my neck. “So they’re not in these woods, right? That’s what you said?”
“As far as I’m aware.”
His evasive answer did nothing to stifle my wild imagination. Vines tickled the left side of my face while I had to duck down to dodge the low branches of the trees on my right. Weeds choked the gaps between the stones and I nearly tripped at each step. Every shadow now looked like someone in a black cape lurking in the darkness for just the right moment to strike.
I edged closer to Ben and grasped the back of his sleeve. “You don’t happen to have a channel orb on you, do you?”
