My first full day with the vampires as my full self was a stressful one. It was probably one of the longest days of my life. Things didn’t improve with the later hour either. Around midnight Ian, the kitchen Renfield from earlier was staring out of the library window, where Norman had decided to hide out with me, and let out a panicked yelp.

“Master Norman,” he addressed without looking away from the glass, “could you please come here, sir?”

“What is it, Ian?” Norman responded walking over to the window. He had looked at peace most of the day. I couldn’t remember him looking so calm during our time together, but this dropped the moment he looked out and saw whatever the Renfield was seeing.

“What is it?” I asked worried about his reaction.

“Remember when I said Sarah’s magic would start to fade out?”

“Yeah,” I said standing to go see whatever was happening, and then, “Oh.”

It would be an understatement to say he was wrong, but he shouldn’t have been wrong. Sarah, herself, said the spell would come to an end. It wasn’t. Instead, the fire, which was already at least a mile high, was now encroaching closer to the house.

Without thinking I took off upstairs to our room. I needed Eden now, and I needed the astral projection spell from Sarah. Somewhere in the background I heard Norman say my name as I flew out of the library, but I couldn’t waste anymore time. I needed to know what was happening and try to figure out how to get out with all my parts in tact.

My unexpected fleeing must have taken Norman by surprise because I was able to get to the guestroom in enough time to shut and lock the door. It would only by me a few minutes, but thankfully I had everything open from earlier. It would only take a few moments to get the information. Thank god there was a response from Eden waiting in my email.

"Trembley, I’m not sure what you’ve gotten yourself into. You’ve been really sketchy lately, and I think we need to have a sit down and talk about some thing. That said, I was able to track down your vampire. This Harding guy actually has a decent reputation in the underground. Everyone I spoke to was kind of in awe of him, albeit a little scared too, but they all seemed to say he was someone you’d want in your corner. That address you sent me, though, that led to a scary individual. I’ll let you know if I can get access to the vampire’s personal details. I’ll be honest; I’m not sure this a door we want to knock on. By the way, any idea when you’ll be returning my car? Also, just let me know if you’re ok. You haven’t dropped by in a while, and it’s not like you to disappear for so long. - Eden"

Poor Eden. I didn’t want to leave him worrying, but it was probably best to minimize his involvement in Sarah’s bullshit. The doorknob rattling followed by a loud knocking on the door quickly reminded me that I didn’t have time to stress about my dear friend right now.

“Trembley,” Norman’s voice yelled through the door, “what’s going on? Are you ok?” It was touching to hear the worry in his voice. It was still a bit polarizing considering where we were just a couple weeks ago, but the part of me that was in deep with this vampire was hurting that I was hurting him.

The email from Sarah was also waiting for me. She’d laid out the steps for completing the projection spell on my own. I just needed to get myself in a deep enough trance. She recommended using water to drown out any outside noises. It was a good thing Harding’s guest suite’s come complete with a full bathroom. This one even had a large jacuzzi tub.

Without wasting another minute, I darted into the adjoining room and immediately turned the faucet on fully open. As the tub began filling, I listened to the ongoing knocking. I was surprised he hadn’t attempted to break the door down.

“Trembley,” he pleaded, “open the door. Whatever it is, we can talk about it. Just let me in.” “What’s going on,” came a second voice.

“I don’t know,” Norman responded. “We saw how the fire spread and she took flight up here and locked herself in.”

“Really,” that arrogant voice said, and I knew it was accompanied by the equally arrogant smile. Harding wasn’t surprised. As he made it painfully and frightfully clear this morning, he wasn’t being fooled by me. No matter how much I amused him. It didn’t blind him to my misgivings. “Wait here,” he said, “and please stop destroying the mahogany. I have a key to all of these rooms.”

Oh shit.

The tub was still filling but the current depth would have to do. I locked the bathroom door and shoved as many moveable objects as I could in front of it before jumping into the bath fully clothed. As instructed, I dunked by head beneath the water to try and get a clear enough head to focus on the spell.

Sarah had said to focus on her. Clear my head of everything but her face. See it clearly in my mind. Since I had just seen her the night before, I could easily remember what she currently looked like. Long dark hair framed a flawless white face. I had always been envious of her gorgeous complexion and natural rouge lips. I sometimes wondered if she was the originator of the goth appearance. Did some other jealous girl see her many moons ago and just had to replicate her look?

And like that I went from thinking about Sarah to staring right at her. She was currently sitting in a wicker swinging chair with a far off look in her eyes. I walked, was I walking in this form, right up to her without her noticing until our faces were almost touching.

“Goddess!” she exclaimed jumping out of the chair. “I did not give you that spell to scare me out of my wits, Trembley. What is it? Why are you here?”

“What have you done?” I asked her. “The fire has moved closer, and when I last saw it, was till moving toward the house. You said it was going to die out. That’s not dying.”

“Yes, things have changed. It seems Harding invited his unique brood of witches to come to his rescue. It’s using more of my energy than I would like, but we can’t let them escape just yet.”

“Ok, well how are you going to extract me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sarah, I can’t stay here anymore. Harding’s not going to let me know anything. He doesn’t trust me. He thinks I’m lying, and guess what, I am! All he has to do is prove the slightest lie I’ve told and Norman will turn on me. Right now, he’s the only thing protecting me here.”

“How are you coming to me right now,” she ignored everything I said. “What did you do?”

“I locked myself in the guest room bathroom, and I’m currently underwater in the bathtub.”

“You stupid girl. Why am I surrounded by stupid girls?”

“We can discuss your professional choices later. Can we talk about how I’m getting out of here? I don’t know how much time I have.”

“I’m sorry, Trembley. There’s no getting you out. You shouldn’t have done this.”

“Wait, what do you mean? You said you would get me out before this escalated.”

“If you had followed the plan, I would have interceded, but Trembley—”

I slammed back into my body gasping for air and coughing. I couldn’t fully make out my surroundings, yet, but I could feel the hands pulling me out of the bathtub. Everything was disoriented. My previous returns to my body hadn’t felt so violet. It was probably because I had been asleep for all of those experiences, and now I was roughly being yanked to my feet by both Norman and Harding. They threw my wet self down to the bathroom floor and made sure to slam shut the door. There was no way out of this.

“Tell us who you were speaking to, witch,” Harding demanded in what should have been the most frightening tone he’d ever used with me. Unfortunately, I was all out of fucks to give. This came out as a wet cough slash laugh. I was fucked, and I could not be bothered any longer to care about this stupid war I had be unwillingly forced into. In the middle of my laugh, I caught Norman’s hurt face, and that’s when I knew I was wrong. I did care. I cared about people on both sides. It was still a dumb, pointless war, but even in my defeated, caught state, it was clear I cared. If I didn’t his face wouldn’t be breaking my heart.

“Norman, please let me explain,” I addressed only him. He wouldn’t look me in the eyes.

“You have nothing left to say to my friend,” Harding angrily interjected. “Who were you talking to? No more lies.”

“I wasn’t lying, Norman. I really wasn’t. Not until today.”

“Enough,” Harding yelled. “I think it’s time to move you to more appropriate accommodations until you decide to cooperate. If you don’t, we’ll soon get out answers anyway.”

“Norman, please look at me. I’m telling you the truth.” Harding took that moment to jerk me out of the floor and drag me out of the room while I was still pleading for Norman to listen.

~

If I thought my original room at Norman’s was awful, it was a palace compared to my new fate. Harding locked me in a sterile cell with a metal floor and covered by thick plexiglass on all sides. I could see other captors in a few of the other cubes. There was no bed or sink and the bright lights never turned off. It simultaneously was grating and immensely dull. There was also no telling how much time was passing. It was also impossible to escape. Anytime I attempted to touch one of the thick glass walls, the floor sent an excruciating jolt of electricity up my bare feet.

What felt like a few hours passed before Harding returned. He sat a chair outside my glass prison and then just stared at me for a few minutes. I was ashamed to admit I broke my silence first.

“Is your plan to stare at me to death?” I caved but that didn’t mean it didn’t come with my trademark snark. To my disappointment, Harding didn’t return with his own wit. He just continued to stare for a little bit longer before leaving the same way he came in.

“Hey wait, don’t you have questions for me?” I don’t know why I thought that would get him to come back. This was obviously a form of torture, a uniquely designed Trembley special. I was such a lucky girl.

I tried the projection spell again. I thought it was boring enough in the cell to succeed again, but I was wrong. When I closed my eyes, the sound of the lights grew tremendously. It was also incredibly hot all of a sudden. The next minute I was freezing, and my skin was crawling from the damp clothes. It was safe to say I was not in control of my senses. That was probably when I started to lose the grip on my sanity.

The next time Harding showed up. I had been curled up on the metal floor in an attempt to find any comfortable spot far away from the walls. I don’t even know how long he’d been sitting there by the time I opened my eyes. But again, all he did was look at me before walking out once more.

I knew it had been at least a full day in the prison when my stomach demanded sustenance. Were they planning on starving me to death? Seemed like a poor way to get information, but who was I to judge the ingenious mastermind behind this torture pit.

When my mouth began to resemble sandpaper, I looked up to see Norman sitting in front of me.

“You don’t look so good,” he said before entering something into a tablet he was holding. Then, a bottle of water was ejected from the ceiling. It bounced and rolled over to my seated position, where I’d been trying to mediate myself into a clear mindful state. Safe to say I sucked at meditation.

“Don’t drink it all at once. I don’t know when you’ll be allowed another.” The pain was still in his face, and it was clear he didn’t want to be speaking to me. Harding must have decided Norman was a better interrogator for this particular prisoner.

“This isn’t necessary,” I said after taking a sip of the water, which my god was like teardrops from a freaking angel. “It really isn’t. I would have answered your questions.”

He gave a slight chuckle. “Yeah, because you’ve been so forthright so far.”

“It’s hard to explain, but everything I told you was true. At least it was before the day you found me in the bathtub. Sorry, I’m not sure how long I’ve been in here. Based on basic human needs. I’m guessing going over 24 hours, but we may be nearing 48. I can’t express how badly I smell.”

“Sorry for that, but after your last house arrest, we had to take extra precautions. You’re too strong and too smart to be given any leeway. I will offer you one opportunity for a trip to cleanup before returning to this cell. Answer my questions and I’ll do that for you.” He looked so sincere in this moment. It was obvious he would rather be anywhere else, but he still didn’t want to bring any harm to me.

“I will if I can,” I replied truthfully. It was enough of this. “Shoot.”

“Who were you reaching out to when we pulled you out of the bath?”

“You already know that.”

“Probably, but we need to be sure.”

“Sarah.”

He made a long sigh before asking his second question. Clearly, he knew the answer, but it really was the last thing he wanted to hear.

“What did you tell her?”

Here is where it got tricky. If I told him everything, would he believe me when I said I didn’t want either side to be hurt. That I wanted to find an end to this war in some sort of peaceful way. No more bloodshed.

“I was asking her to get me out of here. I didn’t even think the projection spell would work. I’m not a true witch. My mother was.” That last sentence seemed to intrigue him. Before I opened up about my mother, he was just absorbing the information still starting stoicly into the cell avoiding displaying any emotion. Hearing my mother was a witch made him soften somehow. Nothing too noticeable, but I’ve been with Harding night and day for weeks and his facial tells were already second nature to me. The little twitch of his eyebrow and the slight way his mouth moved from a flat line to slightly raised on the left side.

“Is that your connection to Sarah, your mother?”

“It is. I’ve known Sarah my whole life.”

“I never stood a chance, huh? You really were the perfect honeytrap. Were you bred to be a trap for me? For Harding?”

“I didn’t know you existed until you knocked my lights out outside that diner.”

“Is that true?” This entire thing was killing him. I could have staked him and done less damage than what this was doing. “Could I even believe you if you are telling the truth?”

“I can’t answer the second question, but I am telling you the truth. I know it means nothing, but I will never lie to you again if I can help it.”

His eyes met mine, and for a few seconds we just sat staring at each other. There was little hope. I think we both knew that. Not just for a peaceful end to this war, but for a happy ever after we maybe both for half a second thought we might have. Sarah sent me here to be her hard-to-kill spy, but it wasn’t just half of me that fell in love. With all of my memories in tact, I knew it was all of me that loved this beautiful creature sitting across from me.

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