The Last Vampire Hunter

Chapter 46

Philip left. He had spent the morning trying to strengthen our bond. Unfortunately for him, I'm no Vampire, no matter what the blood tests say. Free will. I had it in spades. That means I get to decide who I spend the rest of my life with, and I have decided it won't be Philip.

Before leaving he set down rules. I'm not to leave the apartment unless I am accompanied by him or Alex. I'm to refrain from trying to remove the collar. After some major pleading he acquiesced to my request to let Sawyer take me to the gardens but only with prior notice and his consent.

I wasn't sure what the plan was yet, but I tried to get as much liberty as possible knowing that escape while locked in this apartment was not likely. Getting out to the gardens might give me more access to Power and at the very least will give me space to keep trying to break this collar. After all, my Power came from the earth and I felt stronger around the flowers and fauna in the greenhouses, so that might prove helpful. The gallery was close to the dungeons and a possible way out.

Meanwhile, I could still continue to train. Perhaps Alex or Philip will take me to the Fitness Center. Maybe Orlaigh and I could go together. It would make it less suspicious. I could focus on building up my stamina and strength.

I hadn't wanted to escape because of concern for my parents and their well-being, but now they were in danger anyway. There was nothing stopping the Vampire Council from taking my parents in for leverage against my escape.

I had to get out quickly. The sooner I could warn them the more time they'd have to get safe. I also had no money and nothing of value. I could take the violin with me to sell, but no matter how expensive a true Stradivarius violin is, to anyone but a violinist, it really didn't hold much value and I would risk it getting traced back to me or Philip. Those violins were unique and hard to find. They'd stopped making them centuries ago.

So. Right now I had more questions than answers. Still. Knowing for certain now that I was going to escape, made me feel like I had some control over what had felt like a hopeless situation just yesterday.

I stepped out of my room and practically ran into Sawyer. "Hey." He gave me a smirk. "Sounded like you and the Master made up last night, yeah?" I turned the color of a cherry as I felt heat rise up my throat and travel to my ears." He laughed. "Yeah. Thin walls." I nodded. "We, uh, didn't make up. I'm still planning on getting out of here. I just need to figure out what to do with this." I fingered the collar around my neck.

He gave me a cryptic look. "Yeah, about that. Follow me." We walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He turned around and spoke quietly. "I was at the markets early this morning picking up groceries for the apartments. I was approached by a young man who bumped into me. You know I grew up in a rough part of our village. I checked my pockets immediately. I found this."

He handed me a folded up piece of parchment. The outside had my name on it. I opened it. Inside was a complex looking drawing with notes scribbled in almost every available space that didn't include the drawing. On the top in bold letters were the words. "Memorize and Destroy."

I looked at the drawing. I couldn't believe my eyes. I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "What?" Sawyer looked at me. "What is it?" A huge smile formed on my lips and I almost kissed him. "It's blueprints." He looked at me confused. "Blueprints?" I nodded. "For this." I pointed to my collar. He looked at the paper again. "How can you tell?" The drawing looked nothing like a collar. But there it was. In full detail. Information on what this thing is made of, how it works and how it was developed and created. And how to break it.

I looked at it carefully, reading all the notes and looking at the design again. I wish I could have stored it in the Inbetween instead of destroying it but I couldn't risk it being found. Finally, I let it go into the fire that Sawyer had started. I watched it burn and then helped Sawyer clean the ashes.