Awakened (Book #5 of the Vampire Legends). Emma Knight

went upstairs to start putting her room back together. She was puzzled by the fact that everything was in boxes but didn’t want to keep questioning it. She started taking her things out of their boxes one by one. She pulled out old trophies, posters, and her clothing. Her favorite MTV t-shirt was there, in the box with her Dr. Martin shoes that she loved so much. Then, she pulled out some old photographs of Dana and all her friends. She hung them back on the wall in their proper places and continued unpacking. She was happy to see her room take shape again, just as she’d remembered it.

      As she reached down to the bottom of one box she found a dusty picture album, blew off the dust and opened it up. She was confused by the photos she saw and didn’t know who these people were. It was pictures of her with a group of girls she didn’t know. Then she saw pictures of a homecoming football game and her sister Sarah as a cheerleader. It didn’t look like the high school she remembered and all the kids were strangers to her. She didn’t recognize one of them. This was all very confusing to her. Maybe what everyone was saying held some truth, she thought to herself. Still, she didn’t want to believe it.

      Then, she pulled out her cell phone to text Dana. She missed her; it felt like forever since they’d hung out for some strange reason. She wanted to see what she was up to and if she wanted to hang out.

       Rachel: Hey Dana! What’s up? Wanna come over?

       Dana: Rachel?

       Rachel: Who else would it be!

       Dana: Is it really you?

       Rachel: Um, yeah! Stop acting weird. What’s up?

       Dana: Where are you?

       Rachel: Home. You?

       Dana: In PA. Where else!

       Rachel: Me, too!

       Dana: You’re back? When did you come back? Are you just visiting family?

       Rachel: What do you mean?

       Dana: It’s been a while. I’m surprised to hear from you.

       Rachel: What happened last night? Do you know why I woke up in a field?

       Dana: What? What are you talking about?

       Rachel: What did we do last night?

       Dana: IDK. I wasn’t with you.

       Rachel: What do you mean? We ALWAYS go out together! Seriously, what happened?

       Dana: Rachel? Are you sure this is really you?

       Rachel: Yes. It’s me.

       Dana: Prove it then. This is too weird.

       Rachel: I’ll come over. No actually you come here. I don’t want my dad to get mad at me. He’s already a little pissed I didn’t come home last night.

       Dana: It’s late, I can’t tonight. Will I see you tomorrow?

       Rachel: Yeah, I’ll see you in school tomorrow. Pumped for our math class together. Ugh, Mr. Malloy is such a loser and that tupe is redic.

       Dana: Gotta go my mom’s here to see me. See ya tmw.

       Rachel: Bye xoxo

      Rachel thought about her text conversation with Dana and thought it was a little strange, but assumed she was in on this whole joke. It was like everyone was ganging up against her to convince her that she’s been gone or missing for a long time. What a strange and odd joke to play on someone, she thought.

      She continued to empty her boxes and then found her diary wrapped up inside a towel in the bottom of a box. She opened it up and realized that the lock on the side had been broken and pages were missing. There was an old entry from a few years ago about the Dutch Fair and then a big gap in pages where someone must have torn them out or something. Then, a random half page with the name Benji written on it. She didn’t know why pages were ripped out of her diary or who Benji was, but it was the second time today she’d heard his name. She thought back to the morning, waking up with a Benji, but she didn’t think it would be the same person. She didn’t know that guy. It must have been a different Benji.

      It was late and this day was completely exhausting to Rachel. She couldn’t run this mystery over and over in her head one more time. She lay her head down on her soft down pillow, crawled under the covers and quickly fell asleep. She was excited to see Dana tomorrow and finally catch up about what happened to her over the weekend. She had to get to the bottom of her Saturday night antics.

       CHAPTER 5

      Violet sat in her chamber as all the Greslins lined up at the foot of her throne waiting for her to speak. It was a big night for her, as she finally got possession of the Varithian Bracelet. She held it up and examined it. It was dripping with sapphires and diamonds, the sapphires glowing, more blue than any gem she had ever laid her eyes upon in all the centuries. Their coven had combed the world for this bracelet for as long as she could remember, and thanks to her, they had found it.

      This bracelet had allowed them entrance into the castle, a place they had been trying to enter since their origin. Now, with this bracelet and in this castle, there was nothing that could stop them. In just days, at the next new moon, the stars would be perfectly aligned for the Varithian Ritual. When it was done, the ancient vampire energy would be summoned, and her coven would be more powerful than any coven on earth. There would be nothing that could stop them from taking over the world, and she would begin by destroying Benji and the Vladdicus Coven, and everything that was theirs. Then she would turn every human left on the planet, dominate them all, and make all of mankind slaves to her. She could already taste the fresh blood, and could not wait to inflict as much pain and damage as possible.

      As she looked at the bracelet, looking at her reflection in a particularly large diamond, she marveled that if only Hunter had loved her enough, maybe none of this would be. Maybe they would be living together. Maybe she would be kinder, gentler. If only Hunter had been kinder to her, had not spurned her for that little witch Penelope, maybe Violet would have joined the other coven.

      But now it was all too late. Hunter had had his chance, but he had lost it. And now, she would do everything in her power to make him pay, to make all of the Vladdicus pay for his mistake. And that awful little girl Rachel most of all. She smiled wide as she imagined herself tearing her to pieces. She looked up at the huge hole in the ceiling, at the passing clouds in the moonlit sky, and could not wait for the new moon.

       CHAPTER 6

      Benji couldn’t believe the news when he heard it. It was impossible. He thought his ears were playing tricks on him when he heard that Violet and her coven had gained possession of the Varithian Bracelet. He sat there in the library of his castle with Matilda, Hunter and Penelope in awe. They were all stunned.

      Benji stood up and quickly looked out of the stained glass window towards the moon. He saw a tiny sliver of the moon lighting up the night sky. He sighed in relief knowing that he still had a little bit of time to save his coven before Violet would be able to attack and destruct all the vampire covens in the world, but he knew it would be cutting it close.

      The ancient Coven Book said that the only way to stop someone who has possession of the Varithian Bracelet is to find the Waverly Mirror, which will reflect the sparkle of the bracelet back towards the coven using it, and all their harmful plans will then turn upon them.

      “What are we going to do?” Matilda asked. “This is going to be the end of us. The end of EVERYONE!”

      “This is awful,” Hunter said. “We haven’t heard news like this since,