Page 128 of Eternal Surrender

She hit us with her flashlight. “You need to keep up with the others.”

I approached her. “Niki. You didn’t see us.” I projected a wave of energy that struck her right between her eyes.

Niki’s head jolted. “How do you know my. . . name?” Her eyelids fluttered.

Ingrid moved closer, fascinated, though probably questioning her moral obligation to stop me.

“Niki, go back to work,” I said. “You didn’t see us. You don’t remember seeing us.” I motioned for her to turn around.

In a lazy hypnotic state, she scratched her face, lost in a sea of thought and then headed back.

Ingrid folded her arms. “Have you ever used that on me?”

“Of course not,” I said. “Getting inside your noggin is far too dangerous.”

High on the brickwork was an antique brass torch sconce. I reached for it and twisted it sideways. The wall scraped open.

After checking it was safe, we entered, trekking down a stone stairwell and onward. At the very end, another door greeted us. Once inside the ten- by eight-foot room, we both took a wall, eager to find the next clue to advance our mystery tour.

The door slammed behind us.

Ingrid tried to open it. “It’s locked!”

“This is Fabian’s modus operandi.” And then I saw it. There, resting on the floor in the far corner, lay a rolled up piece of cream paper.

I unraveled it.

Ingrid peered from behind my shoulder. “Tell me you read⁠—”

“Latin, yes.”

“Well?” Ingrid reached for my shirtsleeve and tugged it.

I dropped the piece of paper and went straight for the door handle, desperately trying to turn it. When that failed, I shoved my right shoulder up against the frame.

Ingrid had picked up the note and was reading it. “We have to tell each other our deepest fear?”

I rested my forehead against the door.

Ingrid read on, “Only then will Fabian let us out?” She looked confused.

I knew why, and I hated him for it.

With concentration, I focused on the door, ready to send a jolt of force at it. Pain exploded in my skull, and I fell against the wall, stunned.

Fabian had just sent a warning right into my frontal lobe, commanding me not to try my trick in here; and evidenced by my pounding head, he was insisting. I turned round and slid down the wall.

The paper slipped from Ingrid’s hand and spiraled to the floor. “What’s going on?”

“He’s not letting us out,” I whispered.

“But I need to pee.”

“We have a bigger problem,” I said. “You’re trapped in here with a vampire.”

Ingrid sat and wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them into her. “Tell me this isn’t you manipulating me?”

“No.”