They have walked for about five minutes when they see someone walking towards them. Tasha can’t see who it is, but then she hears their voice.“Tasha...”It’s Evarius.Tasha rushes forward and hugs him tightly. He hugs her back and asks, “Are you okay? And Nadia?”“Okay,” Tasha whispers. “We are all okay. What happened? Where did you go?”Tasha moves back and looks at Evarius’ face. His expression piques her anxiety.“What is it?” She asks, already afraid of the answer.“We couldn’t stop the Junta. They disappeared and took Lilia with them.”Silence greets these words. Tasha does not know what to say. She just stares at Evarius.Then, Nadia asks, "Where are the others?""They are heading towards the cars, and we should too. It's not safe to remain here. Come. I know the way. I'll lead you out."*Evarius leads everyone out, and they hardly talk. The journey back is much quicker because now he knows the way. Evarius's mind is trying to make sense of everything that has happened in the
Damion had not said a word until now, but Evarius's last line hit him like a boulder to the head."What?!""How do you know?""Oh my god!"The room is full of exclamations and questions of all sorts and all eyes are now turned toward Damion."Did you know?" Brent asks him."No, I didn't," are the first words Damion says since he had screamed Lilia's name in the jungle."How much chance is there that it's true?" Esther says.Damion turns his mind back to the times Lilia and he had had spontaneous sex in the recent past without protection. "I don't know how or when," he says, "but it's certainly possible...""Wait a minute," Sabina says, turning to Evarius, "How do you know?""Yeah,' prompts Esther."I heard them," Evarius explains, "I did not register it at the time because I was too focused on saving everyone's life. But I was the first one to reach there, and while I was roaming around the edge of the clearing to find the best way to attack, I caught snippets of their conversations.
“I think we should first do a locator spell to find out where Lilia is,” Esther says.“But we don’t have any personal items of hers,” Tasha says.“I do,” Esther says, “I brought her hairbrush and a map, just in case.”“You are brilliant,” Damion says appreciatively.Esther smiles and says, “It’s in the car. I’ll get it.”Esther returns a minute later with both things, and Tasha stretches the map out on the table. She takes Lilia’s hairbrush in one hand and does a spell, waving her hand over the map. All the others wait patiently.“I don’t understand,” Tasha says after a while.“What is it?” Damion asks immediately.“According to the spell, Lilia is here, in Arrowall, and because we are so close, I am sure she is in the jungle.”Damion looks at the others in confusion, “Does that mean they just shifted to a different part of the jungle.”“Could be...” Brent says.As all of them discuss how far the Junta could go from the original position and where to search, Tasha’s mind takes a diffe
Carl is sitting with Luther and Garrit. Luther is doing some spells to pinpoint where the Junta might be. They know that the Junta does not like them very much, but it seems like they like the original vampire much less. Aren't enemies’ enemies friends?Luther opens his eyes, and Carl asks immediately, “Did you find them?”“Yes. Arrowall.”“Should we go there?” Garrit asks.“You are forgetting,” Luther says impatiently, “they have the binder, and we can’t go near the binder. We won’t be able to reach them.”“So, what do we do?” Carl asks.“We send them a message.”“You can do that?”“Of course. We just need to make sure we say the right thing. Give me a pen and paper.”Garrit gets a notepad and pen for Luther and hands them to him.“Okay,” Luther says, “How about we can help you against the original vampire?”“Are you absolutely sure that the original vampire is who they are going after?”“A Serafina witch created vampires. What else could it be?”Even though Luther seems absolutely c
Damion is pacing in the forest as Tasha and his grandmother are practicing magic, sitting under a large oak tree. He can sit down too, like Evarius, who is sitting a few feet away with his eyes on Tasha. Damion stops to look at him carefully and thinks that either Evarius is just a really good actor or he is thinking of something entirely different or he is in love with Tasha because the softness in his gaze is such that Damion feels like he is intruding on something very personal or intimate. He looks away and starts pacing again. He does not think he can take just sitting and doing nothing. Maybe Evarius is okay with it because it seems like the girl he cares about is right in front of him, but not Damion. His Lilia is far away, in danger.His heart aches as he imagines the situations in which Lilia could be right now. He is not even sure if she is pregnant. Does Lilia know herself? What a beautiful moment it would have been for them had the situation been different. But now, Lilia
Carl, Luther, and Garrit are on edge, waiting for the Junta’s reply. It’s been over half an hour, and there has been nothing.“Maybe they are not interested,” says Luther.“Or maybe,” says Garrit, “they just need some time to come to a decision. We are not exactly friends. Are we?”Carl likes Garrit’s reasoning better, maybe because he himself wants to believe that. Then, suddenly, they notice smoke in the middle of the room. A golf ball-sized ball of smoke just hangs in mid-air, then a crumpled-up paper falls to the floor, and the smoke vanishes.“It’s them,” Luther exclaims.Carl grabs the paper off the floor. His hands shake a little as he opens it. It says, “We are ready to meet.”There is also a mobile number.“Yes!” says Luther, who had read the message from the other side.Carl immediately takes out his phone and dials the number.*Tasha has been sitting under the tree with Anastasia for about two hours now, or at least that’s what it feels like to her. She hasn’t checked the
Carl and Luther are driving to Arrowall. Garrit and some other members will follow them sometime later. They didn’t want to head down to the town all at the same time and make it look like a procession. So, they have decided to come in batches.Carl is the one driving, and they are about one hour into the trip when his phone pings with a message. He glances at it, expecting it to be Garrit, but it’s not. The name on the screen makes his heart flutter with anxiousness. It’s Evarius.With one hand on the wheel, he unlocks the phone with the other and quickly reads the message.“What is it?” Luther asks. “You look tense.”“Evarius just texted me. He wants to meet.”Carl turns the phone to Luther so he can read the text.“He doesn’t say why?” Luther asks.“Nope. Just one message. What should I do?”“The timing is fishy, don’t you think?”“Yeah, yeah, of course. We contact the Junta, and within two hours, Evarius contacts us. Looks like he knows...”“But how?”Carl shrugs, “It could be a c
Carl turns around to look at what is happening with the four people and is surprised to see the girl standing and the men on the floor. He had felt that she is not a vampire, which had led him to deduce that maybe she is a werewolf or a hybrid. It hadn’t crossed his mind that she might be a witch. From the look on Luther’s face, he had not anticipated this as well. Carl sees Luther being pushed back by whatever the girl had done and knows that now they are screwed. He and Luther had planned to make one perfect move that would let them escape. Meeting Evarius would have meant they would know what he wants, which they could have told the Junta after escaping. But now Carl feels that their one chance to make a move has been messed up.Before Carl can even get to Luther, he sees a blur that is Evarius get off the ground, seize both of Luther’s hands, rotate them and pin them behind his back.“Aaaagh,” Luther screams.Carl is feeling panicky now. If Luther is in pain, he would hardly be ab
Six years later.“Tasha! Where are you?”Lilia is standing at the bottom of the stairs in a sea-glass green colored off-shoulder gown and looking up. She sees Esther stepping down the stairs in a halter neck gown of the same shade as hers.“Have you seen Tasha?” Lilia asks her.“She was with me like five minutes ago, and then she went downstairs.”Lilia groans.“I can’t see her anywhere.”“She’ll turn up,” Esther says, now climbing downstairs, “she is very excited for the day after all.”Lilia smiles, “Yeah, she is. I’ll check with the men. Maybe she is there. Does Sabina need anything else?”“Not for now. I just gave her her perfume of demand. She wants everything to be perfect! Honestly, I don’t blame her.”“Mumma.”A voice comes from their right, and they see a small blonde-haired girl in a light green frilled frock running towards them from the hall.“There you are!” Lilia exclaims. “I was looking for you everywhere. Where did you go?”“I was with Uncle Ty. He said he wanted to se
He is hoping that she will feel him and realize what he is trying to say. Should he close his eyes? But he doesn’t want to. He wants to keep looking at Tasha if things go the way he thinks they will.Just as he is looking at Tash, he sees a trickle of blood flow out from her nose. She is having a nosebleed.“Tasha!” He says.Sabina hears his voice and looks up to see what the matter is.“Are they doing something to her?” She asks in a horrified voice.“I don’t know,” Evarius says, panicking. “Hey, Tasha!”He shakes her, but it’s no use. It looks like she and the eight Junta witches that are still standing are having a battle inside this trance that they are in and it’s hurting Tasha. Evarius has no idea what to do. He places his hand again on Tasha’s and closes his eyes this time.*Tasha feels rather than sees Evarius enter this realm. She uses her other hand to force him out. She can do this without him. She knows what he is trying to do. She won’t allow it.“No,” she says in her mi
Relief courses through Tasha as she sees Lilia standing near the fire looking absolutely fine. She rushes over to her followed by Evarius.“Let’s leave,” Tasha says to Lilia.“I have been trying, but I can’t,” Lilia says pointing to the Head’s grip on her wrist. “It’s like she has an iron grip.“It's magic,” Tasha says and places her hand over the Junta lady’s.At first, Tasha can’t feel anything, but then it’s like she is being sucked into a different world and now she knows why the Junta can’t hear anything from outside because she can’t hear anything anymore either. But now she can see. She can see hundreds and hundreds of people lying on the floor slowly turning gray and Tasha realizes with a jolt that these are all the vampires that are dying. The younger ones first.Tasha focuses harder and now it’s like she is flipping through a book and in the next few pages, she finds a lot of other people of different ages clutching their chests. Dying. Among those people, she also sees hers
Tasha and her group move forward. They do not find any more werewolves in their way. Maybe they are fighting on the other side. When the very edge and can clearly see the cloaked witches standing in a circle Tasha says, “Okay, I need to break into the innermost circle. That’s where the real stuff is happening. The rest of the circles are for elevating the effectiveness of the spell.”“I think we should spread out and take on as many witches as we can without causing too much chaos,” says Evarius. “Otherwise, they will try to push us back like last time and it will complicate things. Although this time we have witches which is much better.”“Okay then,” let’s spread out. “We won’t be able to see each other. So, once you and your neighbors are in position, wait for ten seconds and then attack. This will ensure that we do it at the same time.”Everyone agrees with this idea and spreads it out. Evarius stands right beside Tasha. They wait for ten seconds and then Tasha places her hand on
Evarius is clenching his chest and breathing heavily. It feels like someone is stabbing him in the heart continuously.“What is happening? I don’t understand,” he can hear Tasha say, as if from a long distanceHe cannot speak for the pain that he is feeling and just as he feels that he is going to pass out from the pain, it starts reducing in intensity, and soon it is gone. He massages his chest, but it feels absolutely normal now. What the fuck was that?“Evarius,” Tasha says, on the verge of tears.“I am fine Tasha.”“What? No -““Yes. The pain is gone.”“But why did it come in the first place, that’s the question,” says one of the witches.“Exactly. What did it feel like?”Evarius explains it to them. The more he talks the more confused Tasha looks.“Nothing like this happened the last time,” she says, “Did it?”“No.”“Then why now? They are targeting my bloodline, but I don’t feel anything. This is just weird.”“But the Serafina line is related to vampires,” a witch suggests.“Yea
The sun has gone down the horizon and because it's a new moon, the night is very dark. Lilia has been brought out of the house and she sees that it’s not a small house, it’s actually a huge mansion. The junta has cleared the space for the ritual and other than cloaked figures, Lilia can spot some other people. This makes her wonder. Who are these people? All the time she has been with the Junta, she has only seen them in cloaks.She walks to stand in front of the fire beside the Head who gives her a little smile. The smile makes her otherwise rigid face softer and calms Lilia’s nerves.“How long will it take?” Lilia asks.“A few hours. It’s a long process. We will be done before dawn, I hope you have rested during the day.”Lilia nods.“Then, you’ll be fine,” the Head says.Lilia glances around the scene. There are a lot of people here. Much more than there were before. There is a lot more commotion and people are talking continuously and moving in and out of the house. It almost seem
The junta is gathered on the first floor of the mansion. This entire floor Carl has given to them for the time being. It is in the backroom on this floor that they have kept the binder. They don’t want Carl to get close to her before they have no choice.“I have given her the food,” Chiara tells Amyra.“How is she?”“She is fine. I told her she will be going home today and she looked happy with the prospect.”“Good. Now, we just need to make sure to get her out of this place before Carl lays his hands on her. Make sure that no matter what happens he can’t get to her. Once she is back home, we will place the spell that keeps Carl and his people away from her back and she will be safe.”“I will make sure that everything goes as planned,” Chiara says.“It should because if it does we will be able to correct the grave historical blunder that our ancestors had committed. We will finally be able to wash our hands off it.”Amyra turns around to look out of the window thinking about all the g
Carl, Luther, and Garrit and sitting with the Junta head. Her name is Amyra. They are discussing the arrangements that Carl has provided the Junta with and something else that he has found out recently.“Are your plans for the new moon set then?” Carl asks her.“We are almost done. We’ll be ready by then, don’t worry. We’ll be off your hands after that. You’ll get what you want.”“Which is the binder?”“The binder, yes.”“Good. But there is something else that I think you should take notice of.”“And what is that?”“The binder’s friends are in town again. Does this mean that they know she and you are here?”“How can I tell you that? This type of thing should be your concern. Anyway, I have no idea how they can possibly know that we are associating with you. We never associate with werewolves and vampires, or at least that’s what everyone believes.”“Right,” says Luther, “but let’s say they do know and they try to sabotage our plans. Will you help us fight them?”“Of course, we will. H
Everyone looks from Evarius to Sabina to Tasha in shock, but Tasha smiles because she knows that Sabina’s fainting means that it has worked.“What happened to her?” Tyrus asks, kneeling down beside her, looking scared.“She’ll be okay Ty and so will Evarius,” says Tasha. “Can you guys please carry them inside? Their bodies are going through a change and they might be down for some time.”Tyrus carries Sabina in and Damion and Brent carry Evarius. They place them on the two sofas and Tasha asks, “Did you guys feel something when Evarius fainted.”“Yes,” five of them say.“No,” says Damion.“Of course, you didn’t feel anything, D. You are a werewolf. The rest of you, what was it?”“A swooping gust of wind inside,” Esther says.“Yeah, like a blood rush,” says Nadia.“Does that mean it worked?” Brent asks.“In my humble opinion. It does.”“Is there any way to check?” Tyrus asks“Not really,” says Tasha, “at least nothing that I know of. But I am sure we will find something out once Sabina