“So what do I have to do?” Carrie asked as she looked down at Radu who was laying in the shallow grave. She knew that she had to cover him with dirt, but she didn’t know how he was expecting her to lead Helga away from them. “She will be able to read my mind.”

“You can do this.” Radu seemed to have all the faith in the world in Carrie’s ability to throw Helga off their trail. He gave Carrie one last big smile and then she started to pile dirt on top of him. He had given Carrie a list of possible sites where they might head. The places that Solomon and Helga would already be expecting.

“I have to get the key to the fortress, and they know that it is hidden in one of my other churches or castles that I built as the prince of Wallachia.” Radu had given Carrie a list, but he wanted her to think about a wooded area somewhere in the middle of the different sites. “We wouldn’t have made it all the way there, not with the time that we had left to run.”

With the grave filled in, Carrie started to think about a map of Romania that she had been looking at on their road trip. She remembered a lot of the details of the map. She was going to try to mislead Helga, and she was going to need to find a specific spot and focus on that.

As she sat on the ground, focusing hard on the mental image of the map, Carrie could feel the book calling to her. It was still in the backpack, but it was like the backpack was tugging at her. Carrie opened the backpack and flipped the book open. She was hoping that the book would have a solution to her problem.

The spell that looked back at Carrie was called a projection spell. “It allows me to walk a projection of myself out into the world so that people will chase the spell and they won’t look for where I really am.” Carrie read the spell out loud and looked down at herself. It seemed her body was rippling, pulling apart but there was no pain. Suddenly, she was looking at herself from the outside. Her double was wearing the same clothes and shoes, and seemed just as shocked as Carrie did.

Carrie started to run on the spot. The double started to run to the other side of the monastery. As soon as the double was out of Carrie’s sight, her eyes blurred. She blinked and blinked, as a swirl of liquid colors moved in front of her eyes. Carrie blinked for a third time, and suddenly she was seeing through the eyes of her doppelganger.

She ran to the front of the monastery and looked for clues. Where would Helga be right now? Carrie thought, as she ran over to a pile of ooze on the lawn. It was the vampires that had been killed during the attack. Classic Solomon. The powerful vampire no longer took the time to hide his actions from the world. He was too strong to worry about people or governments; in fact it seemed like Radu was the only thing that scared him anymore.

Solomon’s uncharacteristically cautious attack on the monastery proved to Carrie that the ancient vampire wasn’t sure he could beat Radu, even in his weakened state. There had to be a reason that Solomon didn’t just walk in and take what he wanted.

“Carrie!” Carrie didn’t have to turn to know that Helga was calling her. “Are you okay? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Carrie watched as Helga walked out of the monastery. The door, the one still standing, seemed to be hanging to the stone frame by a single hinge. Helga’s face was covered by a warm smile, her arms wide open.

“Where are the others?” Carrie asked. Helga’s smile never wavered.

“They have headed off to bed,” she assured Carrie’s double as she reached out and put her arms around the magical creation. “Are you sure you don’t need to do the same?” Helga was nodding as if she was going to be able to influence Carrie’s decision. Carrie was getting even more upset as she realized that Helga still thought of her as a little girl that the old witch could manipulate.

“How did they hold off the vampires?”

“I created a protection spell and encased the church in my shield,” Helga seemed very proud of herself. “I had to be outside of the church to do it. I bet you thought I had turned tail and run. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to explain my plan better.”

“So am I,” the double gushed. “I have something I need to show you.” Carrie took Helga’s hand and led her around the back of the monastery’s property. The woodlot started there and led off into the mountains. Carrie wasn’t sure how long she could keep Helga from discovering the ruse, but she decided that heading off in the wrong direction was a good start.

“You guys ran out of a tunnel and headed into the woods last night,” Helga laughed. “That’s genius. Solomon must’ve been so mad. I mean he hates when a plan doesn’t turn out right.”

“Didn’t he put together that there was a secret entrance?” Carrie mocked the evil vampire. “I mean the last time he attacked Radu was here in Jgheaburi, and Radu managed to sneak into the monastery right under his nose.”

“Yes, I guess he should’ve put it all together,” Helga tried to keep the smile on her face. Carrie wanted to scream at Helga as she watched the witch struggle to stay calm. Carrie was having her own struggle to stay calm. “So, how far did you make it?”

“I don’t know,” Carrie said as she looked at the trail ahead of her. “It was really dark, and I was so freaked out. I started walking back as soon as Radu went to ground. I don’t know what time that was at, but it feels like I was walking for hours.” Helga seemed a little suspicious. “I could go back to the motel and have one of the other girls come with me.”

“Oh my, that won’t be necessary,” Helga’s words were like a punch in the gut. There was no one back in the motel. The girls had been captured and Solomon had them hidden away somewhere. Suddenly, Helga’s decision to keep Matthias and Anatolie at home made more sense. Ali and Raven were much easier to deal with without their powerful vampire lovers.

“Where are they?”

“What?”

“Where are we?” Carrie laughed as she got control of herself again. She had to try and remember that her job right now was to get Helga off their trail. “Sorry, I just felt very confident earlier, and now this forest just seems like a bunch of trees, if you know what I mean.”

Carrie stopped and bent down to feel the ground. It was something that she had seen trackers and guides do in movies. She wanted to make it look real, but mainly she just needed to kill time. When she bent down her hand touched a small, heavy rock. It fit perfectly in her hand. Carrie put the rock into her pocket.

Carrie kept walking further and further from the church in the cliff. It was a dizzying trail that seemed to twist and turn as it moved around the mountains. Carrie was half expecting to see herself as she turned around each new corner.

Helga was talking the whole time as they walked. It definitely felt like they had been walking for hours. Helga was pitching ideas for what the coven could do next. “Raven might want to go back and finish university, but I think that is more of a social thing. Did you guys actually learn anything there?”

“I guess not,” Carrie shrugged. She was trying to keep her answers short, as it was easier to keep the contempt out of her voice a few words at a time.

“We should be trying to take advantage of our strategic positioning here in Romania,” Helga said as if she was orchestrating a takeover of the country. “We already have the support of the werewolves. If we can get Solomon out of the way, we could run this country.”

Carrie tried to pretend that she believed Helga. She wasn’t even sure why she was talking that way. The coven had always been about helping witches to control their powers, and suddenly they had shifted gears to domination of the mystical world. How did this make any sense? Carrie decided not to think about it, she was just going to walk.

“Watch out for the roo…” Helga said and then stopped.

“Is something wrong?” Carrie asked as she turned to see Helga staring at the ground. Carrie followed her teacher’s eyes to see that she had just stepped through a large root.

“I didn’t even suspect it,” Helga sighed as she laughed to herself. “This is very good. You have got the double spell down pat. I will have to be on my guard in the future.”

“Or you could just stop working with Solomon and you wouldn’t need to be,” Carrie teased as she joined in the fake laughter. “I need you to know that I really thought that you were amazing at one point in my life, and I would’ve done anything for you.”

“Why thank you,” Helga made a fake curtsy, her plastic smile pulling her entire face tight. “I want you to know that I still love you, and no harm will come to the witches of my coven.”

“It isn’t your coven,” Carrie snarled as she reached her hand into her pocket and wrapped it around the rock. “You didn’t even realize that those girls you took last night were doubles. Get her!” Carrie yelled as she looked past Helga. Helga turned to see nothing but trees. The thud of the rock hitting the back of her head nearly made Carrie throw up.

Carrie left her doppelganger out in the forest and returned to her body. She had to find out more before they left town that night. She needed to tell Anatolie and Matthias as much as she could so that they could save the girls. Carrie made another double and sent this one into the town. She headed right for the motel.

“What are you doing here?” The motel manager seemed a little jumpy. She clearly hadn’t gotten over being assaulted in the parking lot.

“I’m not here,” Carrie said as she let herself pass through the desk. She came to a stop right in front of the older woman. Katrina was in her early forties, and she had a touch of grey running through her long, dark hair. It was her kind eyes that really made Carrie regret smacking the clerk around.

“So, what can I help you with?” Katrina seemed to have a taste for the supernatural. Her eyes started to grow when she saw Carrie move through the desk.

“My friends are in trouble, and I need to know where they were taken,” Carrie said as she watched the manager already springing into action. Katrina was cueing up the security footage as Carrie moved all the way through the desk and turned to watch the video.

“I wasn’t sure what I should do about the incident this morning, but there was a van that pulled up here,” Katrina explained. It was the monastery’s van, but the monks were nowhere to be seen, and the people driving the van were emptying out Carrie’s room that she shared with her coven. “I couldn’t call the police, the people who took your stuff used the key, and it just seemed impossible to explain.”

“I get it,” Carrie sighed as she watched it all unfold. “Do you know where this van went after that?” Carrie asked as she watched the van pull away on the video. The vampires were headed out of town. There was nothing for miles in any direction.

“Someone told me they have a campsite three or four miles outside of town,” Katrina shrugged. “I haven’t been able to get out to see it. I have to watch over the motel. It just doesn’t run itself.”

“Well, I need you to get out there and find as much information as you can,” Carrie ordered. “I am going to be sending two vampires your way, and I need you to be the lead on this mission. They are going to be trying to get my friends back.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Radu and I are going to be getting a book to safety,” Carrie explained, but she could see that Katrina wasn’t following the logic. People’s lives were at stake and Carrie was worried about a book. “My friends were willing to die to protect this book and I can’t let them down.”

“I will do what I can,” Katrina nodded as Carrie held out her hand. They shook and then Carrie headed out of the motel. She moved through town trying to draw as much attention as she could. She was heading away from the monastery and the shallow grave where Radu was resting. Carrie didn’t know if anyone in town was helping Solomon, but if they were they were going to see the girl he was after heading in the wrong direction.

Carrie ran down the middle of the road for a while and then she started singing as she skipped down the streets. If the vampires started questioning people, they were going to remember this girl. At the end of her little ruse, Carrie ran down the road that led out of town.

Carrie left her double to continue the run down the road. She blinked her eyes and let go of the doppelganger. She didn’t know how long they lasted for, but Carrie was hoping that the decoys would stick around long enough to cause some confusion.

Carrie opened her backpack and took out the book. “How do I get a message to Matthias and Anatolie?” Carrie asked the book and then let the pages fall open. The book showed her a spell. “Write them a message?” Carrie read the words out loud as if she didn’t recognize them at all. They were English for sure, but that didn’t help her understand. She stared at the page and wondered what she was supposed to do with that information.

As she watched the page a black pen started to push through the paper. Carrie took the pen and held it in her hand. The page was now blank. Carrie wrote a note. “Ali and Raven have been taken hostage. Helga is working with Solomon. Talk to Katrina at the motel.” There was only one motel in town so that part was fine, but Carrie wondered about the rest of it. She wished she could give them more information.

Carrie closed the book. She wasn’t sure how the message would work, but she trusted the book. It had gotten her this far. Carrie knew that the book was a powerful magical tool. It was going to be hard to part with it. She put the book back in her backpack and zipped the pocket closed.

It was getting dark and Radu would be rising soon. She couldn’t wait to know if he was going to be ready to travel. Carrie couldn’t believe the feelings she was having. She normally wasn’t into older men. Radu was almost 800, but he only looked to be in his late forties. A very in shape late forties, Carrie reminded herself. Not that that made a difference, it was still weird for her. Carrie was always very cautious about dating, and this match made no sense to her.

Logic had always worked for her before, but as illogical as this match seemed, Carrie couldn’t fight it. She was losing herself in these feelings and it was scary, but it was also thrilling, and amazing. “Oh no, not now,” Carrie grumbled to herself.