Obsidian (Mystic Stones Series #1) (12 page)

“I don’t think he knows where you are. He’d be here already.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Of course I am,” Alani said while she stood up, she smiled and continued to wish me a good night. “Aloha Ahiahi!” she said before heading to her room.

“Aloha Ahiahi,” I said back to her with a shaky voice. I worried about Tom coming for me.

After tossing and turning, I fell asleep on Alani’s couch and no heartbroken vampire burst through Alani’s door that night. Instead, I woke to the smell of ham and eggs, Alani’s favorite breakfast.

“Aloha Kakahiaka,” Alani said.

I replied to her morning greeting and rested on the couch until breakfast, then moved to the table to sit and eat with Alani.

“So, today we need to get supplies gathered and hopefully leave tonight or tomorrow morning,” I said.

“Hiu is on his way over right now. I already told him everything.”

“He doesn’t think I’m insane?” I asked. I wondered how Alani and Hiu could take the news so well.

“No. Neither of us thinks you are crazy. I told you last night. Kapunawahine told us about vampires for years but we dismissed it as a combination of old age and bedtime stories. I guess we should have listened to her.”

“What did Nalani say?”

“I don’t know. I kinda just tuned everything out when she talked about vampires,” Alani said with a shrug.

“We should go see her and convince her to go with us. She might be able to help.”

“I do want to take her with us, but I’m not sure she knows all that much about vampires. I think she just heard stories as a young girl,” she shrugged again.

“Well, right now even made up knowledge might help. If they come after us we are going to have to be able to protect ourselves,” I replied.

“Yeah, you’re right. Well, we’ll wait for Hiu to get here then we’ll go see her and then gather supplies. If she tells us anything valuable we can try to get one of those do-hickies,” Alani said.

She was good at planning stuff out, but I still wasn’t sure if we should risk our lives just to have GPS. Soon, Hiu arrived and he gave me a big hug. He’d had a crush on me since I moved to Hawaii but I loved him in a way I’d love a brother. He resembled Alani. His hair was a little shorter, and he wore it wavy. He was much taller too. I had never met Alani and Hiu’s father, but I assumed Hiu’s height was a result of his genes. Hiu was a surfer, so he had a lean musculature and dark skin. He wore khaki cargo shorts and a light gray wife-beater.

“Howzit, tita,” he said to Alani. Then he turned to me, “Aloha, nani! Sorry to hear about your boyfriend turning out to be a vampire. That must really suck!” Hiu said with a silly grin. Alani gave him a disapproving glance and said, “No make ass, kokohe.”

Hiu ignored her and asked, “So, woddascoops?”

Alani and Hiu could both speak Hawaiian. They mostly talked English around me, but their second language showed up in conversation. Pidgin, a slang language that came about in the pineapple plantation days, was also something they had picked up. Their grandmother didn’t approve of it, but Hiu talked more pidgin than Alani since he was part of the surfing community.
No make ass
meant don’t make a fool of yourself. I wasn’t sure what kokohe meant, but
woddascoops
meant what’s happening?

“We gotta go see Kupunawahine,” Alani replied.

Hiu was the older sibling, but Alani was more mature. They were the first people to welcome me and my parents to the island and their grandmother, Nalani, was always generous and welcoming. Their father had run off and their mother was currently in California pursuing an acting career.

I smiled to be a good sport, but deep down, I was still hurting over what I had to do the night before. I tried not to think about it. We had to get to Nalani’s house, so we all piled into Hiu’s white Range Rover. I sat in the back and hid from the eyes of any vampires on the lookout for me. I peered out to make sure I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“You act like you’re runnin’ from the law,” Hiu said as he eyed my through the rearview mirror.

We arrived at Nalani’s place. Nalani was the organic type. She liked to be outdoors so her house resembled a little shack on the beach. When the weather got bad she would go to Alani or Hiu’s house, but she was pretty stubborn and only left for extremely violent storms.

Nalani was already outside sipping on sun tea. She stood at about the same height as Alani and I. Her hair was a dark gray—she wasn’t the type to dye it—and it was pulled back into a loose bun. She wore a white sundress with light blue flowers that hung loosely on her average body. Nalani wasn’t thin or thick. She was healthy. When she saw me, she stood up with a big smile on her face and came to greet her “adopted” grandchild and her two biological grandchildren.

“Aloha, keiki!” she said.

“Aloha,” we all replied.

“What brings you out on this beautiful day?”

“Kapunawahine, we wanted to talk to you about something,” Alani said.

“Sounds serious. Come inside and we will get everything straightened out,” she said. She was also intuitive.

Inside, I retold my story that I’d already relayed to Alani. Nalani listened with intent and did not interrupt once. When I was finished telling my story, Nalani sighed and looked at all three of us with some despair in her eyes.

“I knew that one day they would come up with a plan like this. My mother told me many stories of vampires. They have been passed down since ancient times. The vampires came here with the Polynesian settlers. They followed them here all the way from East Asia. Vampires have been around since the beginning of civilized man. Their origins are unknown. Our ancestors fought them frequently. At first, they could not kill them because they were so strong. No spear could pierce their skin. Soon, the discovery and widespread use of obsidian became a blessing.

“When our ancestors started using obsidian as tools they also became weapons against the vampires. If a vampire is stabbed in the heart with an obsidian stone they will die. This is the only way to be sure they are truly dead. There are other ways, but this is the most effective.

“Also, there are ways to ward them off. Our ancestors found that if they killed a vampire with an obsidian blade and then used that blade to carve a ring or bracelet from a single seashell that it would protect whoever wore it from the charm of a vampire and also keep vampires from getting too close. It was said that the vampire’s spirit was trapped inside the obsidian when it was killed. Carving a shell with the same blade moved the spirit into a more permanent home.

“Once trapped inside the carved shell, the vampire’s spirit would warn other vampires of the danger. Any vampires that got close enough to someone wearing one of these rings or bracelets would feel the effect and be overcome with the sensation of being ensnared. The vampire would be warned that if they harmed the human anyway, they too would become trapped for eternity.

“Vampires are also fast swimmers, and would often follow the great navigators on their journeys to new lands, but soon our ancestors put a stop to that as well. Pennants made of feathers hanging from the top of their sails would protect the entire vessels’ occupants as long as they were at sea. It is important to remember that this only works on water vessels. It will not work on a home or building.”

We were astonished that Nalani knew so much about the vampires. When she had finished her story none of us said a word. Then, Nalani got up and went to a small chest near her bed. She opened it to reveal three obsidian daggers and a small jewelry box. She took out the jewelry box and opened it as well. Inside, were two rings and one bracelet all carved from seashells. Nalani was already wearing a bracelet and wondered if it, as well as the others in the jewelry box, contained the spirit of a vampire.

“I want you to pick one of these out, Ava,” Nalani said as she motioned to the jewelry box.

“Are you sure? What about Alani and Hiu?” I asked, but my question was answered when she gestured at them. They both wore rings carved from seashell.

“Of course I’m sure. I’ve saved these for an occasion such as this and they already have theirs,” Nalani said as she nodded towards Hiu and Alani.

“Okay, I like that ring,” I said as I pointed to a light pink ring.

“Can we borrow those daggers too?” Hiu asked.

“I hope you aren’t planning anything that will get you into trouble,” Nalani replied.

“We need GPS, if I don’t have da kine it may take forever to get there. Time is important, right?” Hiu reasoned.

“I suppose you are protected with those rings and you’ll go even if I say no, right?”

“Yes, I will,” Hiu said.

Nalani took the daggers and handed one to each of us. I put mine in my jacket pocket. Hiu put his in the pocket of his cargo shorts. Alani wasn’t sure what to do with hers. She was a non-violent person.

“Alani, maybe you should stay with Nalani, you guys can gather the supplies while we get the equipment. I don’t think it’s wise for all of us to go, sneaking in will be hard, but it will be easier if it’s just Hiu and I. We’ll be okay. We have the rings,” I said.

“Are you sure? It sounds too dangerous for just two people,” Alani protested.

“Don’t worry, Tita, we cockaroach da kine wikiwiki!” Hiu said enthusiastically.

I giggled and rolled my eyes, “It will be fine. Besides, someone armed needs to watch the boat. Make sure you guys get that feather pennant up right away.”

“Okay, I guess I can miss out on the fun.”

Everything was decided. Alani and Nalani would gather the supplies and guard the boat while Hiu and I went into the vampire’s den. My heart jumped when I thought about whether or not Tom would be there. I couldn’t imagine the look on his face if he were to see me again. I couldn’t imagine my reaction either.

Hiu and I took his Range Rover and headed to what used to be Herrick-Peyton. We told the others we were going to wait until dark to sneak onto company grounds and would be scouting the area until then. When we neared the building, we observed a bunch of people—or vampires—going in and out of the gate that I used to drive through. The security guards ID’d them before allowing entrance. We would have to sneak in another way.

We got some fast food from one of the adjacent buildings and sat in the car eating and watching. I saw Tom’s car pull through the gate at one point. I wanted to see the expression on his face and possibly get a clue about what kind of mood he was in, but the tinted windows made that impossible.

“There’s a service gate around back, we’ll have to use that, but we’ll need bolt cutters,” I said.

“I saw a hardware store down the street, I get da kine, you stay. Scope it out,” Hiu said.

“Okay, hurry back though, it will be getting dark soon and I want to get this over with before my nerves explode.”

Hiu smiled and then shut the car door. He headed south on Aneko Road then disappeared. Alone, my thoughts started to compete for attention. I hoped Tom would be in the office and not in the warehouse. In fact, it would be nice if no one was in the warehouse or, at the very least, only a few vampires. We may have a problem if it was anything like the scene it had been last time I was in the warehouse.

Soon, the sun sank lower and lower. Shadows took over the concrete.

Hiu returned with the bolt cutters and slipped back into the vehicle. Once the level of darkness brought comfort, I told him to pull into the alley behind the warehouses.

The alley was wide, and cars lined it on one side, so we wouldn’t stand out. A few nearby businesses used it as an overflow parking lot. We found a spot near the gate, which would make our getaway fast. We got out of the car with the bolt cutters in Hiu’s hand. I wrapped one of Hiu’s shirts around the lock to muffle the sound and he snapped the padlock with ease. Luckily, we didn’t make enough noise to be heard. Hiu quickly put the bolt cutters and his shirt back in his car and then we slipped through the gate.

We walked behind the warehouses to avoid being seen. Finally, we came to the back of the warehouse as I hoped the vampires hadn’t moved the devices to another warehouse yet. We snuck up the side of the building closest to the small entrance. Hiu gestured to me to take out my dagger. Just in case.

We could hear people scuffling around inside the warehouse. It didn’t sound as busy as the day I almost lost my life to James as there weren’t as many voices. We stood around the corner from the entrance as my heart pounded. Hiu seemed to control his adrenaline rush easily. As a surfer, he lived off the stuff.

Hiu motioned for me. It was time.

We rounded the corner and entered the building. About ten vampires worked inside, and they all stopped and stared at us. A few of them showed their fangs and others flashed an evil smile. Until Hiu brandished his obsidian dagger. The smiles faded.

Tom and I locked eyes. A gravitational pull existed between us, and I could tell I hurt him by the way his emotions flickered and disappeared. He fought to control them.

“We want da kine that block the virus. Geev ‘um to us and I won’t have beef,” Hiu shouted.