Castle Vitale

Part 26: Home Sweet Home

Darius POV

Home.

I never really thought of it that way until now. 

After less than twenty-four hours in a huge desert mansion with all sorts of amenities and entertainment, none of it appealed more than this place. I thought of all the years I spent here with my father and simply didn't know it.

"You alright?" 

I looked over at my father. "Yeah, Dad--"

He chuckled. "You don't have to call me that if you don't want to."

"No, it feels right," I smiled over at him. "feels fine." We shared a look. "We weren't gone twenty-four hours and I missed this place like we were gone a week."

"I know how you feel," Dad nodded. "Well, let's see if anything happened."

"We left in the morning, not a good time for you," I said. I knew something was up.

"Did you talk to Charlotte?"

"Yes," I nodded. "She woke up right before you came, and said we had to go. She was scared."

"I think we don't have to worry about the Elite, but we do have to worry about Triste," he said. "This doesn't feel over to me, not by a longshot."

We walked the drawbridge.

"DRAKE!"

"That's Kat!" Dad started running. "Kat?! Where are you?"

"Drake!" 

Dad and I jumped the side of the bridge and headed straight for the waterfall. "Kat!" Kat came running out from the cave behind the waterfall crying. Dad caught her, and held her. "You're safe now. It's alright."

"They got in!"

"Who?" 

"There were two men!" she was still trying to catch her breath. "I hit the alarm, and ran downstairs!"

"You went into my room?" He asked.

"Yes, and I took the tablet and laptop," she was starting to cry. "And I went out and hid all night in the cave!"

He picked her up and jumped up with her onto the drawbridge. I went first into the house. Nothing looked disturbed. The desktop in the study was gone, but it only held Kat's online homework and games. 

Drake set Kat in a chair. Charlotte was already making tea. Shanti followed me as I went through the house. 

I opened the door to her room and looked around as well as under the bed. "Check it."

I moved to Charlotte's room, and looked around and under the bed. Since Charlotte was helping with Kat, I started looking around. Nothing really looked disturbed. Vampires have psychic powers but none I knew of could touch belongings and see things through them as Drake did. I'd never been more thankful for that. 

"Thank God," Shanti exhaled in relief.

"What?"

"Drake is calming down," Shanti said softly. "that means that no one touched Kat."

I let out a low whistle. "If someone tried to touch that girl, he'd kill them."

"For sure," she nodded, then stamped her foot. "How dare they come here? And where's Pedro?"

Suddenly we heard Pedro come in downstairs. Deciding to be flies on a different floor instead of the wall, we stood by the staircase and listened.

"Wh-what's going on?" Pedro asked.