When Lilia wakes up the next morning, it takes her a few seconds to realize why she is feeling so miserable. Then, the memories of last night crash in on her.“Good Morning,” Brent whispers from behind her.She turns around and sees him lying on his side, looking at her.“How did you know I was awake?” she asks him.“The way you were breathing. It became less relaxed than when you were asleep.”“What is going to happen now, Brent?” she asks him anxiously.“Lilia, we are all with you. We would have protected the descendant of Oswyn even if they were a complete stranger to us. But now, it’s you. We all love you and care about you. There is no chance that we would ever let anything happen to you. All we need now is a plan.”He gets up and grabs his phone from the bedside table.“Lilia, tell me this. Would you be comfortable sharing this information with Ty and D. If not, I won’t tell them. It’s your call.”“Of course, we should tell them, I trust them as much as you trust them, which mea
Tyrus’ mind is racing with ideas about how to best protect Lilia from this danger. He looks over at her sitting on the bed and thinks that she is handling the fact that a lunatic may be after her blood quite well.“I think the first thing that we should do,” says Brent, “is to delete her records from any orphanage or foster homes she has stayed in and any place she has worked in.”“Yes, that would be a good place to start,” says Tyrus, “Lilia you can list out every place you remember being, living, or working in and we’ll get to work. The less information there is about you lying around, the better.”“Does anyone else know about your birthmark?” asks Damion.“Tasha does,” Lilia replies.“We’ll have to compel her to forget that information,” Damion says.“But she’s my best friend. I trust her.”“Lilia,” says Brent softly, “It’s not a question of who you trust, if Carl somehow reaches her then the fact that she has this information will be dangerous not only for you but also for her. Do
Four weeks laterTyrus is laying in his bed with Esther, both sweating from a passionate session.“Well, at least there is something fun to look forward to everyday along with all the success that we’re having in the field of finding the descendant...” she rolls her eyes.Tyrus does not say anything. For the past four weeks, the four of them had been lying to her about still searching for the descendant. They had decided not to tell her, but it was becoming more and more difficult day by day to come up with excuses and problems that they were not facing in reality. Tyrus sometimes felt a little guilty about lying to her, but then he reminded himself of Lilia’s safety and the fact that as long as Carl does not find Lilia, it is a win for Esther too. They have told her that Damion is going to look around in the city where Lilia is because Brent can’t and Brent has also gone somewhere on the pretext of searching. So it was easy for them. But he was finding it extremely difficult to lie e
Damion walks to the park holding a bag of donuts. Lilia’s classes were about to finish and they had planned to meet here. Tasha had gone to meet a relative of hers nearby so Lilia was alone today. Damion had spent the past few weeks with Lilia and it had been his best three weeks in years. He had found work in the accounts department of the University and because he was quicker than usual people, he finished it way earlier. The rest of the time he spent talking, walking around the city, and eating with Lilia. Many times, Tasha and her boyfriend joined them. But a lot of times, it was just him and her.He often visited Lilia’s room in the hostel. She shared it with Tasha and they played games or watched television together. He had spent such a long time in the pursuit of the mission that he had forgotten what it felt like to just enjoy life as it is and as it came and it was so easy to enjoy with Lilia. She was funny, witty, and up for adventures. They had gone around to a lot of adven
The next day, Lilia is walking to her class. It is Friday and she is excited because tonight she will be meeting Brent. They would spend the weekend in a hotel in the nearby city.She takes a turn in the hallway and sees a man walking toward her. He is big and burly. He doesn’t look like a student and she is wondering who he is when he stops in front of her and addresses her, “Ms. Forbes?”She is taken by surprise, “Yes.”“I wanted to have a word with you if that’s okay.”“Um, I have a class in about five minutes. Can’t it wait? Is it urgent?”“If it hadn’t been urgent, I wouldn’t be here. Can you come through with me to the back garden?”“Uh- I don’t know, who are you? Can’t we talk in here?”He looks directly into her eyes and says, “Come outside with me.”For a few seconds, Lilia finds this very weird, but then with a jolt of shock she realizes that he is probably trying to compel her, but it hasn't worked because she is wearing the necklace Brent gave her. It is vervain.“Okay,” s
“Damion, come on, let's leave.”Damion sees Tyrus beckoning him in the direction of the cars.Damion suddenly realizes that he has been standing staring at Garrit stirring on the ground. He had been so shocked to see him that he had forgotten they were here to save Lilia.He turns back and starts running. They have to leave before Garrit informs the others. He must have healed by now. They jump into their cars and drive off as quickly as possible.*Lilia is in shock. She is sitting in the car with Brent who is driving at top speed.“Where are we going?” asks Lilia“My lake house. We obviously can’t go back to the University. It won’t be safe and we can't go back home either. If they know where you study, they probably know where you live.”“Who are they?”“It was Garrit.”“What?Only when Lilia thought she couldn’t feel worse, she did.“It means that Carl knows I’m the descendant, doesn’t it?” Lilia says.“I guess so.”They drive for another hour and a half and finally reach the plac
Brent and Lilia look at each other in shock. Who could it be? Lilia thought. She could come up with only one answer and she did not like it at all. She gets off Brent’s lap, grabs her jeans from the nearby chair, and starts putting them on.“You stay here,” whispers Brent urgently, “don’t come down until we ask you to, okay.”Lilia nods.*There is another loud knock. Damion is standing just in front of the stairs and staring at the door. He could check who it is but he was waiting for Brent to come down, just in case. Damion sees Brent halfway up the staircase where it bends to the right. They look at each other and then Brent nods.Damion walks to the door slowly, he can hear someone breathing on the other side. He places his hand on the doorknob and turns it.“Who is it?” Brent asks as he also reaches the door.There is no answer.Damion opens the door slowly, moving to the left along with it. If it was an enemy, he did not want to be in the direct line of attack.He peers from beh
Lilia is sitting in the main hall of the lake house with Damion, Brent, and the Junta lady. They had decided to invite her in. After all, she was here to protect her, or at least that’s what it looked like. Lilia is feeling nervous. She has no idea what is going to happen.She comes out of her reverie as the woman starts speaking, “My name is Chiara. I am the second in command of the Junta. We have been given the responsibility to protect the binder, that is you,” she points at Lilia, “and we have gathered that the sanctity of your blood is in danger. We are here to cast a protective enchantment over you. You would be able to return home after this because Carl or anyone related to him or working for him would not be able to enter within five kilometers of where you are.”“What? That’s amazing,” says Damion.“But the question is, how the hell did Carl find her out in the first place?” Brent says, “Don’t you have mechanisms against that sort of thing.”“We can’t know what is going on i