Page 53 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

Chapter 38

The first test we had to do was go into the cemetery and remove all the wards. I didn’t know where many of them were, so I went around with Anita and helped her gather them. We got a red stone, a crystal wand, an ancient scroll, a dagger and a few other magical totems. Without Bianca on her platform in the Celtic corner, the cemetery was already greatly diminished in its ability to be protected.

After we had gone and physically removed the objects, we went into the altar room back at The Estate. This was where the main magic was going to happen, but it was going to have to happen twofold. The wraiths' screaming got louder. They rose up and down in agitation as they sensed the opportunity to get inside the cemetery. They were being conjured through the thin veil that stood between the cemetery and them. They were drawn to the remnants of nightmares, sadness, and misery that rose from all of the dead who lay in the cemetery graves.

The darkness sank over us. I glanced over at Jane. I could only imagine what she must be sensing from all the negativity that was dropping down from these soul sucking creatures. Every bit of goodness was taken out of the air around them. Every happy memory created by the corpses in the cemetery was gone. Instead, their misery was called forth, conjured up and floating in a filthy dirty massive black substance above the cemetery. It moved in a mass of undulating smoke and fear.

We had to reverse all of the spells and open the gates completely, but we had to make sure we could shut the gate the minute the wraiths descended into the cemetery. Once they were in the cemetery, they would try to animate the corpses, spreading the worst nightmares around the dead. At least if we could get the wraiths inside the cemetery, then slam the wards shut with magic, they would be contained. We could bind them through the magic of the cemetery and they wouldn’t be able to leave and neither would their creations. Then we could have a little more time to figure out what to do with the wraiths.

It was an incredibly risky and daring move to make, but I admired Mae for choosing it. Other than capturing them, we really had no other choice. We formed our circle inside the altar room, ready to begin the chant that would create the magic to open the seal over the cemetery. Undoubtedly this was why we weren’t calling the DGC. The last thing in the world they would approve of was us opening the protective shield around Cougar Creek cemetery.

However, that was exactly what we were doing.

Mae began the chant. “Frellum medilintis hurghava. Frellum medilintis hurghava.”

My gaze was drawn to the two spots in the room that were still left empty. One of them should’ve been Kartika and maybe we needed her for this, but it was too much right now to try to explain to her what was going on. In her emotional state it didn’t seem the kindest thing to do. Instead, we would use every coven member we had and all of our powers combined in order to fight against the wraiths and bind them to the cemetery. One thing we knew was they weren’t expecting it and that it would also separate them from their liege lords, the dark Fae. Whoever was controlling them would actually lose control of their wraiths in time. I smiled to myself a bit. It was rather a master stroke of genius.

The chant began to drop the shield. We had a lookout standing in the kitchen, zombie dog Carl and Drake. As much as we needed Drake’s magic, we also needed the practical set of eyes looking out to see what was happening in the cemetery while we created the magic in the altar room.

“They’re freaking out,” Drake said. “Bashing at the barrier and trying to get in.”

We continued to chant.

As we grew louder, I could feel our energy moving and becoming a palpable substance. Red magic came out of the top of my head and green magic out of the top of Bianca‘s, turquoise magic out of the top of Jane’s head and a mix of purple and green out of Mae’s.. Together they formed a binding circle above us.

“The circle represents the shield over the cemetery,” Hilda said. “We now need to reverse the spell and open it.”

I was a little surprised, but I followed suit when I found out reversing the spell was literally saying the spell backwards. It took me a moment to catch on and catch up, but I mastered it, and in seconds the shield over the cemetery was dropping.

“They’re hungry locusts,” Drake cried from the kitchen. “They’re going in!”

“Are they all in?” Anita asked.

“Not yet, not yet. Keep going. Keep opening it,” Drake called out.

The chanting was straining on the bones, but I could feel the pumping of the energy through my muscles so I kept going with it.

Suddenly there was a great cry from Drake in the other room. “Close it! Close it! They’re in.” We had to close it super swiftly, so we said the chant double speed, working to get it out completely so we could make sure we trapped them all in before they realized what was happening.

“They’re totally focused on the corpses. And oh Goddess...” Drake’s voice drained away.

“Is everything OK, Drake?” Anita cried.

“Close it up, close it up, close it up,” he said frantically. “Some of them are noticing.”

We said the spell harder and faster. I could see Hilda was getting tired, but the cover was closing over the cemetery until finally it was closed.

“Did we get them?” I needed to know the perpetrators were caught.

“Yeah.” Drake sounded as exhausted as I felt. “You’ve got to see this. You have definitely got to come in here and see this.”

Chapter 39

Drained, we walked together past the red room and filed into the kitchen where the terrace stretched out with wide windows that gave us a perfect viewpoint of Cougar Creek Cemetery. I stared at what was going on and I wanted to retch. The wraiths had pinned down the corpses. The cemetery that should’ve only had skeletons, buried now was full of physical corpses. The were blood and bone with brains hanging out. They were like zombie dog, only they were human. The demon fires had cooked the skeletons and turned them into corpses and the wraiths were feeding on them. They were like hungry locusts feeding on the dead bodies, sucking up whatever nightmares and dreams that had haunted the lives of the corpses when they’d still been moving around the earth.

---