Chapter 21

Tegan was cold as the vampires glided with her through the air. She desperately wanted to be back at St. ‘Rik’s, where Avril, Charlie and Jake were, so that they could protect her like they always did. Without them, she was frightened. Although the vampires were injured quite severely, they could still glide as fast as demons, when they had turned into smoke clouds.

Once they had reached the meeting place, they turned back into their human form and some returned to their rooms down a narrow hallway. The vampire’s lair was dark. It looked like a cave with candlelit chandeliers and cobblestone floors. There were many gargoyles that served as chandeliers around the room, but they did not provide much light. What provided the most light was the skylight in the living room that was only ever open at night time. Vampires didn’t need much light. There were many rooms in the cave and they stood in the living room.

"Rayne," Christian announced, "We have your sister and a captive," Rayne was tall with olive skin and jet-black hair, shifted a black velvet curtain and came out of her room. Smiling, she hugged Emilee and whispered,

"Welcome home, Millie," she had missed having her little sister around, even though she had been bitten by a werewolf and was destined to become a werewolf at anytime. Christian led Millie back to her old room that they had been keeping vacant, just in case she was to return.

Rayne turned to Tegan and traced her cheekbones with her slim fingertips. Tegan felt her whole body trembling with fear, what are they going to do with me? She thought to herself. Everything about this cave frightened her. She did not belong here. She belonged with her family and just hoped they were okay even if she wasn’t. "She will do quite nicely," she murmured, "Come, girl, follow me." Tegan did not want to follow Rayne but had no other choice. Rayne led her to the dungeon; a dark cave that was just below the living room. "We must keep you alive because are going to use you as bait for the Mavra wolf," Avril! Tegan thought, please don’t come after me! Rayne bolted the heavy door, leaving the nine and a half year old in the cold dungeon that looked like a prison cell. It was confined with cold, hard granite floors and obsidian brick walls that were tightly bound together. There was a bed in the corner that had a white pillow and a blood-stained sheet on it and there was also a toilet, covered with spiders and webs. One more thing was in this room and it was a sink to wash her hands in once she had finished going to the toilet. It was rotten with soap scum and cracked beyond repair; it looked like it would collapse at any second. It was going to be a long night for little Tegan Braithwaite. She wished she at least had her teddy bear to cling to for the night.

She sobbed while she sat on her bed and she wished that Avril, Jake or even Charlie was here. They would help her. She wasn’t a werewolf yet; she wasn’t strong enough to save herself yet. What a great way to celebrate my tenth birthday, she thought, in a prison cell, all by myself, with no-one to talk to. The nuns at Little Sisters had told her first potential parents that her birthday was on April the seventh. They were going to take her away from the orphanage until they saw that she was friends with Avril; a ragged, dirty eight-year-old that they didn’t want their prospective child to be seen with, let alone be friends with. As she sat there on her new bed, she looked at the bloodstains on the sheets and then shuddered, scared that she would be next. She looked around for a way out and maybe she could get out that way and find her way back to school. Instead of looking in the obvious places, like the floor or the walls, she looked up at the roof. It was only wood and it looked like it would carry on into more rooms in the cave. It wasn’t much to go on, but she was desperate. She was strong enough to move wood. Bingo! She just wondered how she would get up there. There was no way that she could jump on her bed because it was but wood itself.

After Tegan had tried many times, she gave up and sat on her bed again, hoping for the sun to come out to shine into her room or at least give her some light. Closing her eyes, she prayed for light or something that could get her out of this big mess. Just then, a small beam of light entered her room, from a crack in the roof. It looked to be moonlight. In any case, it was light and she went and stood under it, so that she did not have to feel afraid of the dark or the cold room that surrounded her. She felt her whole body start to warm up and then, it warmed up too much and she had a temperature of over one hundred and four degrees! She felt an excruciating pain in her back as it arched like a dog’s would and it brought her on all-fours. Suddenly, her dress had ripped off her and she had grown black fur instead. She looked down at her hands and they had turned into paws. She couldn’t help but scream and then it finally struck her.... I’m a werewolf now! She realised and she was actually thinking and she was a werewolf! Usually, when werewolves transform, they have no control, but Tegan did. She would be the only one. She could escape from the cage now too! Climbing up the wall was no trouble for her now that she was a lycan and that was exactly what she did. She moved a piece of wood from the roof and then slowly crept along the wood to find a way out. She had trouble walking on all-fours, she was not used to it and she was unbearably hot underneath her coat of black fur. At first, it looked to just be a tunnel that led to nowhere but after looking around further, she realised it was actually a ventilation system that the vampires had to keep themselves cool. It was a pointless notion, really. She looked around and remembered the way she came in and began to find her way around the tunnel. She came to one end of the tunnel and it was in a room.

Emilee Valeska was playing with Barbie dolls and ponies on the floor in her room. It was still part of the cave, but instead of having an abrasive, dirt wall, it was wallpapered pink and looked like a proper little girls’ room. Tegan noticed that it was Millie’s room and whispered to her,

"Millie!" It wasn’t her voice though; it was a bark. Luckily for Tegan, it was only quiet, but this could really hinder communication. Millie looked around and then saw Tegan’s brown eyes through the vent,

"Tegan?" She whispered incredulously, "you’re a werewolf now?" Tegan nodded and then Emilee found a way to open the vent. She found a Barbie dolls high-heel shoe and started to unscrew the bolts. Finally, it was unscrewed and Emilee checked the hallway to see if it was clear for Tegan to escape.

In the hallway, Christian was arguing with Rayne,

"You should be pulling your own weight around here!" Christian exclaimed, wondering why Rayne never went to the lycan academy for a raid every once and a while.

"I do," she replied coldly, "I do more work than you ever will." Christian rolled his eyes and then attacked Rayne, but she was too quick. She flung him into the wall and held him by the throat. "I smell...lycan." She said venomously as she released him and ran back to the living room, going to find Tegan. All of the other vampires followed her, except Emilee. Knowing that this would happen, Emilee showed Tegan a shortcut, hugged Tegan and then watched as Tegan tried to find her way out. The vampires had returned to the living room and then Christian spotted her in the hallway and then exclaimed,

"I found our lycan!" He smiled venomously and then Raphiella was first at the scene. Tegan looked around at the vampires that were now closing in on her and she was scared, but she couldn’t show it. They would know that she could control herself when she was a lycan. Raphiella did not hold back and she plunged at Tegan with great speed and Tegan quickly dodged it and treated them like any other vampires that she had encountered throughout her time with Charlie, Jake and Avril. As Tegan was surveying the room for exits, she did not notice the number of vampires around her increasing.

Rayne looked at her and then smiled,

"This isn’t just any lycan, though. This is little Tegan Braithwaite; April Mavra’s favourite companion. I think we should tranquilise her and keep her here at least until April comes to get her." Most of the vampires nodded in agreement, but they just stood there, nodding and agreeing. Rayne gave them an evil look, "well, get the tranquilisers before she escapes!" The other vampires nodded and then scurried awkwardly to find the gun and Tegan saw that as her opening. Rayne and Raphiella tried to restrain her but Tegan broke through and let off a high-pitched howl that seemed to irritate their enhanced hearing and the two had to cover their ears. Tegan smiled to herself; usually, it was Avril that thought of things like that. This must mean that she was becoming a better fighter! Continuing to howl, she had to be quick about finding a way out because it would not be to long until it wore off and she would have to think of a new strategy to stall the vampires so that she could find a way out. Tegan had run out of breath by the time the other vampires had got back and so she had to recuperate. The vampire with purple eyes and black hair, Ikedo, shot the tranquiliser gun, but Tegan was too quick and she dodged it. Instead of hitting Tegan directly in the rib, it hit Rayne and the vampires all gasped, except Ikedo, who was cussing under his breath, angry that he’d shot the leader of the clan. The tranquiliser would wear off soon, wouldn’t it? He hoped so. Tegan was using this mishap as an advantage and found the exit.

Once Tegan had escaped the cave, she had nowhere to go. She scanned the perimeter and she was on an island in the middle of the ocean. She would have to swim to escape, but she was hardly used to walking around on all-fours, so how was she expected to swim to safety? The moon was falling in the sky and it was almost the break of dawn. She thought for a little while, wishing Avril was here. She always came up with crazy escape plans. How can I get back home before the sun comes up? She jumped into the ice-cold ocean. It felt good because she was burning up in her fur coat. Trying to swim, she moved her legs as fast as she could and was able to get about one hundred miles away from the island of vampires, so much so it was no longer visible. No-one knows where I am and I can’t swim anymore, she thought to herself, I wonder if I’ll ever make it back to St. ‘Rik’s.

Then, she started to slowly sink into cold water.