“That’s my girl.” Vincent bestowed his minion with an indulgent look which she lapped up like a kitten.
“Where is our prisoner?” He inquired.
She grabbed a goblet of warm blood and sipped deeply. “In the cells. We’ll have to move her soon though before they come looking for her.”
“All in good time, my dear, all in good time.”
“Where shall we take her?”
“She’s coming with us when we leave this place, which if everything goes to plan, will be in the next couple of days.” Vincent stood and slowly paced the room. “But we’re not going anywhere till I get the real prize.”
“Which is?”
“Alessandra, of course.”
Natalia’s low growl filled the small room. “What connection does she have to the girl?”
Vincent smirked. “None whatsoever. The prisoner is connected to the one orchestrating my master plan.”
“The grand enchantress?”
“Exactly,” he said with a sharp nod and a cold calculating grin.
“I still don’t see what this plan of yours is,” she stated as she swished the blood around in her glass.
“You will soon enough…everyone will see soon enough,” he gloated with wicked glee. “Now make sure there is no escape possible. Without her none of this will be possible.”
Natalia nodded her understanding.
“Before you go, there’s something I want you to do for me.”
“Anything.” She leaned forward and her smile widened in anticipation.
“I need you to go and check out a house for me. If it’s still there then it will be the perfect place for our little adventure to play out.”
“This sound interesting.”
He wrote down the address and handed it to her. “Go there tonight and find out who lives there and gather any other information you might think is relevant to us.”
She nodded then stood and left the room.
“Soon Alessandra, soon,” he said quietly to himself.
A knock on the door stole into his evil thoughts. “Come,” he commanded.
One of the lesser vampires entered the room cautiously. “The enchantress has sent word that she’ll do as you ask if you’ll release the prisoner.”
“I knew she’d come around to my way of thinking with the right motivation. Tell her we’ll meet in an hour to discuss it.” He swished his hand waving the nervous vampire out of the room.
******
An hour later, Vincent and Natalia arrived at the designated meeting place deep within the dark woods, with a small band of guards trailing behind them. “Where is she?” he hissed impatiently.
“I’m here,” a livid voice answered.
They all turned around and behind them stood the enchantress. Her emerald green gown flowed in the soft night breeze and her bright blue eyes shimmered with rage.
“How dare you,” she spat at the vampires. “I will hunt you down till the ends of the earth once I have her back.”
“Oh come now. Do we really need such dramatics, hmm? The girl is being well cared for and won’t come to any harm for now. Besides, I just thought I’d make the situation easier for you by offering the right kind enticement.” Vincent glowered at the powerful woman in front of him.
The middle aged woman vibrated with pent up rage, and vivid blue sparks jumped off her long blonde hair. Natalia took an involuntary step back from the woman.
“Are you sure about this?” She whispered to their leader.
His answer was a glare that could turn a person to stone. She steeled herself and took her spot beside him again with renewed vigour and scowled at the woman.
“Dramatics! If you want dramatics, how about this?” The enchantress declared with menace. She raised her hands and without a word spoken she called lightning down from the sky. The bright white forks hit her hands and radiated the force throughout her body. Her hands came down and they took aim at Vincent. “I could kill every single one of you with a flick of my wrist.”
“Ah, but you won’t, will you Arabella.” He smirked and took a step closer. “If you kill me then you’ll never know where I’ve hidden the girl.”
The sparks around her body doubled in number.
Vincent held eye contact for a moment, then began to pace back and forth, slowly and deliberately flaunting his position in her face. “I’m well aware of your power as a grand enchantress and that is exactly the reason I need you. The spell needed for this particular girl has to be strong, unbreakable even, and only a grand enchantress has that kind of spell binding capabilities.”
She glowered and slowly lowered her hands. Natalia watched as the power evaporated from sight. “I’m not the only grand enchantress walking the face of the earth. Why choose me?”
“Yes, but there aren’t that many are there? In truth, it was convenience. You just happened to be the closest one I could find.”
“How flattering,” she retorted with venom.
“So do we have a deal or not?” Vincent asked, cutting to the chase.
Arabella stood silent for a minute. “If I do this, you’ll release her unharmed as soon as the spell has been cast?”
“Of course, my dear,” he reassured her with false kindness. “All I want is this one little thing and she’s free to go.”
“There’s nothing about this that is little and you know it. But you haven’t given me much choice in the matter, have you!”
“Choices, choices.” Vincent cocked his head to the side. “We always have a choice, but you may not like the consequences of this one.”
Arabella ignored his cryptic words. “This won’t be an easy spell to do if she is as powerful as you say. I need time to prepare. You’re asking me to use the white goddess’ power for darkness for God sake. I’m not a dark witch and this is not something I do on a daily basis.”
“I have every faith in you, Arabella. I have no doubt that you’ll come through with the goods,” he said as he took a step back. “But I don’t have as much time to waste as you do, so you have twenty-four hours to do this correctly or the girl becomes one of us.”
Arabella gasped in absolute horror and stepped back, repulsed by the evil creature before her. “You wouldn’t.”
“Do you really want to find out what I would or wouldn’t do?” he taunted with a grin.
The air around them crackled from the power flowing in and around the enchantress. She took a deep breath and sent a silent prayer for forgiveness to the goddess. “Tomorrow night it will be done.”
Vincent smiled. “That’s more like it. See how easy it is when you co-operate.”
Arabella shook her head in disgust. “You are morally bankrupt and pure evil.”
“Thank you,” Vincent said and turned in the direction of home.
Arabella watched him leave and fought the urge to send a lightning strike down onto him as he left. “You’ll pay for this, Vincent,” she whispered after him.