Night Creatures

3 - Fluffy Wizard Boy

Mal slipped into the booth next to Mistie and sandwiched her between Mavis and himself, peeking over at the book Mavis held in her hands but only for her to close it and tuck it into Mistie's satchel.
"Whatcha reading?" He inquired as Mistie buckled her bag to ensure nothing could fall out.
"Nothing you can know about," Mavis taps her foot, slightly irritated at the intrusion of privacy.
"Mavi, c'mon. We could at least tell him - you know Mal's got a little gift," as if on cue, Mal snaps his fingers after Mistie said gift and one of Mavis's hair bows became loose. She squeaked and frantically fixed it as she scowled at Mal, before pouting and crossing her arms before Mistie continued, "Mal, I can't let you read it and this is going to sound absolutely insane but I can prove it," she smirks enough to show off her fangs, Mavis doing the same. Mal looked between the two ladies, rather confused.
"Uhm, you... Ladies have been brushing your teeth?" He stared at them as crickets chirped.
"No, you dummy! We're vampires now!" Mavis squeaked with annoyance, a slight red aura surrounding her for a moment. Mistie emitted a deep violet aura as she giggled at the two, Mal's face showing slight surprise. The girls stopped and looked around for a moment to see if anyone else had seen them but the cafe was unsurprisingly empty this morning. Sunday mornings were always so slow. Mistie turned to Mal and gave him a quick rundown of the situation, asking him if he remembers an old mansion in the forest on the outskirts of town. He thought for a moment then nodded.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. The creepy, big one covered in vines and hidden quite well roughly an hour from town?" Mistie excitedly nodded, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, "I hope you aren't," Mal frowned, worried for her safety.
"Well no duh we're going," Mavis chimed in, smirking, "We aren't scared." Mal furrowed his brow, sitting up tall.
"Then I'm going with you, to ensure the lovely ladies are going to be safe," he winked, the girls giggling at his confidence.
"If you say so but don't be cowering behind us if it gets to be too scary for you," Mistie teased before looking out the windows of the building, "I gotta get home, Mavi, you should hurry home too,"
"Right, no sun-fun." Mavis sighed and stood, adjusting her hat, "What time?"
"Midnight, meet me by the last lamp post by the little brick bridge that leads to the exit just south of town," Mistie stood as well, putting up her hoodie and turning to Mal, who was pouting as Mavis disappeared home, "I can count on seeing you there too?" She tilted her head at him as he gave a little nod, "Good. I'm sorry to leave so soon after you just arrived," she leaned over and hugged him before disappearing into the shadows as Mal put his elbow against the surface of the table and pouted even more.
"Excuse me, waiter, may I get a cup of joe?"
• • •
The gang met up at the designated spot, Mavis and Mistie sitting on the grass next to the lamp post as Mal was hunched over to catch his breath.
"You... Girls... Coulda slowed down..." He puffed, as the two ladies giggled at him. Mistie stood and adjusted her satchel, ensuring she still had the book of Vampires inside.
"Okay guys, nobody is to stray away from the pack and if either of you see anything strange or important, inform the rest of the group," Mistie put up the hood of her black cloak as she started to head in, Mavis doing the same with her own deep burgundy cloak while Mal kept close to the two girls. The full moon shone brightly in the night sky as they traversed the mass of trees, following an old forgotten path. Mistie had always wondered about the old mansion she'd discovered years ago but with no real reason to investigate, the risk to reward ratio was not worth the possibility of the entire building crashing down on her. Now that she was immortal and had the ability to shadow-walk her way out of anywhere, she'd grown significantly braver.
The wind howled through the branches of the trees, leaves rustling against one another and as the gang grew closer to what may be the Great Hall of Count Blo'dvic, the air seemed to thicken with anticipation. The trek through the woods was long and seemed never ending, but the trio eventually came to the entrance of the large mansion, the outside mostly covered in long, leafy vines. With a big sigh, Mistie noticed the big front doors had also become overgrown with foliage and when they all approached the door, getting inside seemed to be the first issue of the night.
"Okay guys, I'll need you both to push on these doors as hard as you can and I'll pull from the inside," Mistie didn't wait for any objection as she did her little shadow trick to sneak in. When Mistie looked around, she gasped in awe at the ancient architecture. It was a beautiful dark oak, carved victorian styled and it took Mistie's breath away. The staircase in the middle of the entrance hall was carpeted with a dark red and there were two medium-sized statues, an owl and a bat, that greeted guests just before going up the large stairs. Shaking her head, Mistie turned to grab the door. "NOW!" She exclaimed as she began to pull, Mavis and Mal pushing in and with the combined effort of the three, the doors flung open and everyone fell into a pile.
"Holyshit, I'm sorry Mistie!" Mavis pushed Mal aside and stood up, pulling Mistie up with her before dusting her off, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Mavi," Mistie confirmed with a giggle as she looked over at Mal, who was sitting up and looking around with amazement, "It's a beautiful mansion, is it not?" She stepped away from the two and got a closer look at the owl statue specifically. Reaching up and running her fingers along the talons of this nocturnal predator, she realized they were carved from the wood the whole building seemed to contain. Mal and Mavis were at her side once they'd recovered from the astonishment of this ancient building and without needing to speak, the group began to walk up the grand staircase. Mistie lead the way, heading right as she investigated her surroundings. None of them really knew what they were looking for, but Mistie knew that whatever they may find would give her more answers and information about her immortality... Or so she hoped.
"Hey girls! I found a thing," Mal's voice echoed off the walls and when the girls turned to the source and noticed Mal had entered a room without saying anything, they both huffed and crossed their arms causing Mal to chuckle nervously before he waved to them and disappeared behind the doorway again.
As the girls rounded the corner, they were both shocked at the new discovery; another large book but this one was a deep brown colour and had been chained to a pedestal. Mistie shadow-walked over excitedly as she examined Mal's finding before looking over at Mavis and shrugging. Her girlfriend stepped up and looked around at the chains, not seeing any locks that she could pick using one of her bobby pins and with no word of warning, she took her sharp nails and brought them down on one of the links, the chains breaking and falling away from the new book. Mavis looked over and smiled at Mistie, her eyes fading to normal from a red aura.
"H-how did," Mistie stumbled over her words, Mavis's new power shocking her.
"Oh, just a little thing I guess I gained from my awesome vamp powers!" She did a little dance as Mistie walked up and gathered the big book. She blew on the cover, dust flying off it as she looked over the outside. She tilted her head and cautiously opened the book to the first page - which was completely blank.
"Wait what?" She mumbled and flipped through the pages, confused. Why have a blank book chained up? Mal stepped up and looked at the two girls who were hunkered over the book HE found.
"So uh, what's it about?" He questioned and Mistie just sighed heavily.
"It doesn't say anything - this book is just empty pages..."
"Well that can't be right, why would an empty book have so much security?" He picked up the chains and looked them over, "like these chains must have had a reason,"
"Well maybe they had it there so fools like us couldn't come in and steal it?" Mavis looked around the rest of the room, but it was entirely empty aside from the pedestal. Mal reached over and grabbed the book from Mistie and opened it up to see for himself.
"What do you guys mean? This book isn't empty..." He read through and turned the pages, beginning to sway slightly before handing the book back to Mistie and sitting down suddenly, his breath growing fast.
"Whoa, Mal? Are you alright??" Both of the girls watched as he suddenly fell to the floor and began to roll around, panting. He regained his posture only to retreat back to the hallway they'd come from, the girls looking at one another before following him out but losing sight of him. They caught a glimpse of him going back to the entrance and they followed him using their super speed. When they'd reached the entryway, Mal was nowhere to be seen.
"Malachite?!" Mistie called out, her voice bouncing off the walls. She still held the newly found book in her hands so she quickly threw it into her satchel and ran outside, calling out for Mal once again and this time the girls heard a long, low howl from nearby. Following the howl, the girls found a large white wolfman writhing on the ground. Mavis and Mistie gasped and stepped back as the wolf stood, it's eyes glowing a vibrant yellow. The large beast growled as it came up close to the ladies' faces, it's breath hot as it sniffed the two. The girls froze in terror but the fear didn't last long as the big wolfman sat down, it's tail wagging and it panted happily. Mistie looked a little closer at this big fluffy wolf sitting before them until she realized who this was.
"Mal?" She squeaked and the large werewolf barked and leaned down to nuzzle Mistie's cheek causing her to giggle as she reached up and scratched his ears, "So, I take it this book isn't blank, but it can't be read by a vampire," she looked over at Mavis, who was a few steps away from Mal and Mistie as she stared at this giant white wolf Mistie was petting so lovingly, with a bit of fear still in her eyes.
"How the hell did that happen so fast?" She inquired, and Mistie shrugged as she continued petting wolf boy Mal.
"You turned pretty quick too, you know." Mistie pointed out and she held her hand out. Mavis finally stepped closer as Mal showed no sign of being aggressive and placed her hand in Mistie's. With a warm smile, Mistie placed Mavis's hand on Mal's forehead as he held still. It didn't take long before she giggled a bit and petted the beast.
"I suppose they aren't all that bad," she murmured, stroking Mal's silky smooth fur.
"Let's head to my place to talk about our discovery, shall we?" Mistie suggested, Mavis nodding and Mal barked to agree. The trio retraced their steps through the forest back to the town and then needing to make it Mistie's house with a huge, white wolf following them...