Secrets

Chapter 12

I paced around Sandra's room while her siblings, Dustin, Valencia, and Xavier sat around her bed. Almost everyone sat out in the waiting room for any changes. Well everyone else was so focused on Sandra, I just couldn't focus on her. I was too focused on what Vivien was telling me and how it related to the past and present situation to really focus on Sandra. What did the Griffin scouts learn about the vampires and how did it portray to Vivien?

I sighed and left the room. Everyone looked up at me expectedly, but I shook my head. No changes yet and there was nothing I could do. Sandra was bitten by a vampire just like I was. Somehow a vampire found us and somehow Larenta and Jackson knew. What if everyone who knew Vivien and who she was knew how a vampire found us? I couldn't know for sure, not until I rooted out the secret.

Just as I was about to leave, Mark walked over to me with Luke and enveloped me in a hug. I hugged him quietly as Luke leaned over and hugged me as well. Between both of their scents, I was able to root out an unfamiliar scent that was a bit stale on Mark. I pushed away from the hug as I looked at him.

"Whose scent is on you? It's not anyone here and it's not anyone we buried. Who did you see recently?" I asked my half-brother. "What secrets are you keeping from everyone?"

"What? Oh! You mean my mother's scent. I saw my mother recently is all. I'm not keeping any secrets from anyone." Mark said with a wary look.

I let out a harsh growl and grabbed his ear. I pulled him outside and released his ear. He was grimacing the whole way, but I didn't care. Everyone had decided to stay inside to avoid me snapping at them as well. He was looking down at me while he rubbed his ear. He looked upset that I had dragged him out by his ear and gave him a harsh growl.

"Who's scent?" I growled.

"My mother's scent. I already told you, April." Mark grumbled as he looked away towards the oak tree and the tunnel to Vivien's engraved room.

"Who is your mother, Mark? You and Mary never talked about her, so I assumed she was killed by our father." I grumbled with a sigh.

"If I tell you, don't yell at me for accidentally messing with your search." Mark mumbled.

"W-Wait...A-Are you saying you are Vivien Heartstring's son?" I yelled in shock.

Mark winced and looked down at the ground as I looked around. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the tunnel to Vivien's engraved room. I waited for him to go down first before following him in. He was standing by what was remaining of the giant pearl. I sighed and walked over to the unfamiliar words engraved in the walls.

"Do you know what this says? I read all I could around the broken parts of the wall." I said as I looked at him. "It's Greek and it's Vivien's writing."

"Well of course it's Greek. Mother was born and raised in a Greek Witch Coven. If I'm correct, this might be a spell to create a Tallanser Elder, but issue is, no one can read the whole spell or even cast it. I don't have magic and Mary died before fully awakening her magic. Vivien and any other witch from Vivien's coven would be able to cast it. The difficulty will be finding someone who could perform the spell and knows it." He grumbled as he looked at me.

"Alright. Then where is Vivien?" I asked.

"She's in Father's fortress. The Griffins will know more about that since I only ever saw her in the experiment room." Mark said as he sighed. "Can I go now?"

"When did you see her recently?" I asked.

"When she used her magic to show herself to me last week." He sighed.

I sighed and waved him away. He went back up the tunnel to where everyone else was as I sat down. I sat there studying the wall and then looked over at the pedestal. My eyes widened in shock as I read the words on it. The second I did, I ran over to the roots of the tunnel and begun to pull on them until I found it; The book that was hiding in the roots. The pedestal said there was a book hiding in the roots of the tunnel. I tried to pull the book out, but the roots had wrapped themselves around the book and there was no way I would be able to cut through the roots like this.