Damion doesn’t say anything immediately. He is touched by the fact that Brent believes he would not have sabotaged his relationship with Lilia just for the sake of sexual drive. It is true, he wouldn’t have. But still, it felt good to see Brent acknowledging it even though he had hurt him.“That doesn’t make it right,” Damion says.“No, it doesn’t.”“I- I don’t know when or how it happened. I was there with her. We used to spend a lot of time together...”“I understand, it’s hard to get to know Lilia that well and not fall for her.”“I’m sorry.”“You cannot control your feelings. You can control your actions and you did, to a large extent.”Damion doesn’t say anything, he had controlled his actions for a long time, but he still wished he had not given in to his feelings yesterday. He wanted things to go forward with Lilia, but not like this.Brent gets up and walks over to Damion. He places his hand on Damion’s shoulder and says, “If Lilia has feelings for you too and you two decide t
The weekend had been weird in the house for Lilia. With all the mess between her, Brent and Damion, for the first time, she was glad that she would be leaving for University in the evening. But there is one thing that is still bothering her. Damion would accompany her like he always did, and she didn’t know how she felt about that. She had not had a one-on-one conversation with him since she had told him she needed time and it might feel weird to go with him. She wished someone else could accompany her, but as all of them were vampires or at least half-vampire, they couldn’t.In the evening, she bids everyone goodbye and sits in the car with Damion. They don’t talk for a while, but then Damion says, “We don’t have to make it weird necessarily, you know.”“But it is weird, isn’t it.”“Look Lia, I cherish the friendship I have with you. So, if there can’t be anything more, I want us to at least be good friends.”“What do you mean by ‘if there can’t be anything more? Do you want somethin
Esther is sitting in the kitchen, browsing through her phone and munching on chips. She had seen Brent leave about fifteen minutes ago, but he hadn’t come back inside. She thinks that it must be an important call that he had been trying to make. She gets off the chair and throws the empty packet of chips in the dustbin. She didn’t feel like cooking at home and eating today. It had been a long time since she had gone out to eat. Maybe all four of them could go out and party. After the pathetic weekend that Brent had had, it would feel nice to him. Although, he didn’t seem like a party guy. But everyone has a wild side in the right circumstances, don’t they?She walks out of the kitchen and starts pacing in front of the stairs thinking about all the places they could go to. She would tell Brent when he comes back from the call and they can ask Ty and Ad to meet them at the club directly. But Brent doesn’t come back inside. It had been over half an hour and now it felt weird to Esther. I
Damion and Lilia look at each other in shock.“I don’t have a boyfriend,” says Lilia.Damion takes out his phone and starts dialing Brent’s number.“Really,” says Carl, “not even the black-haired handsome vampire named Brent.”Damion is repeating "pick up, pick up, pick up" in his head, but Brent doesn’t pick up.“I don’t believe you,” says Lilia. “You are saying this just to scare me and I don’t believe you.”“Okay then,” says Carl, “you can try contacting your boyfriend and the blonde girl. See if you can reach them.”He cuts the call.“Esther!” says Lilia, “He has Brent and Esther. Do you think it’s true?”“I don’t know,” says Damion, “but neither of them is picking the call.”“Call Ty!”Damion dials Tyrus’s number and sees Lilia texting someone.“What are you doing?” He asks.“Texting Tasha or she’ll worry.”“Hello,” comes Tyrus’ voice from Damion’s phone’s speaker.“Ty, where are you and who are you with?”“I am with Adeline and we are driving back home from the mall. Why? What h
“How can Lilia go to Carl if the Junta had cast their spells?” asks Adeline.“Apparently, Carl can’t come to me but I can go to him,” says Lilia.“But why the hell did they leave that option open?” Tyrus asks bewildered.“Who knows? Do you guys know any witches?”“As I have been asleep for almost a century, I have no idea where anyone is. Esther must know plenty.”“Nor do I. I have never needed to. The witch department has always been Brent’s.”“So that means,” says Lilia, “the two people who can actually help us get out of this are the ones that have been kidnapped. Talk about sour luck.”*About an hour later, Damion finds himself walking through the forest to reach his grandmother’s hut. He is feeling edgy and his senses are as alert as they can be. He doesn’t want to get caught and complicate things more than they already are. He reaches the hut and knocks on the door, saying in a low voice, “Grandma, it’s me.”The door opens a few seconds later and his grandmother says, “Are you
“Tasha...” says Damion, “what are you talking about?”“Tasha is from the Serafina lineage.”“No, her full name is Tasha Gibbins.”“That’s because she is adopted. Her birth certificate has the name Katherine Serafina. Tasha is the name her adoptive parents gave her.”“Are you sure?” asks Tyrus.“Absolutely because I remember saying to her that her older name sounds much cooler when she told me about it.”They all stare at each other for a few seconds and then Lilia says, “Oh my God. Does that mean Tasha is a witch? But how is that possible? How does she not know?”“Witches have to be trained by someone to get control of their powers,” says Damion. “Some of them learn to use their powers themselves but for that to happen they need to know that they can harness such powers i.e the person needs to know that they are a witch. No one told Tasha. Even if she ever felt something, she must have struck it off as gut feeling or intuition.”“Yes,” says Lilia, “she does that a lot. Saying things l
Lilia and Damion are sitting with Tasha in her room. For the past hour, they have been filling her with details about vampires, werewolves, hybrids, witches, the ritual, the binder, the curse, etc. Lilia can see that Tasha is feeling her head pound, but they don’t have much time and they have to present her with all the relevant information.“I still keep wishing for you guys to say that this is all a joke,” Tasha says looking at Lilia and Damion hopefully. When they don’t say anything, she looks at the ceiling saying, “Apparently not.”“Tasha, I could transform into a wolf to make you believe it,” says Damion, “but I need a space slightly larger than this room filled with so many things. I will break something in here. But I have shown you how fast I can move. That’s not natural.” “I know. I know. But this is bizarre. If Lillia hadn't been here, I am telling you I would have run out of the room screaming. Why didn’t you tell me all this before, Lilia?”“Because the information was no
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse before,” Esther says, getting out of her cage and moving to Brent’s to unlock it.“I have never seen you bang someone’s head into metal bars,” Brent says, getting out of his cage.“Fair.”Both of them run to the gate and Esther asks, “Now what?”“We need blood or any chance of fighting our way out of here is down the drain.”“What about the second guard who would come in any moment now.”Esther looks over at Brent as she says this and sees a little hesitation on his face. She knows that he doesn’t hunt this way. Neither does she.“We’ll have to,” she says.“I know. It’s either kill or get killed. Get ready.”They stand on either side of the door, waiting for the guard. A minute later, he enters, and Brent grabs him, covering his mouth. He bites into his neck just as Esther does the same from the other side.*Lilia, Damion, and Tasha are driving to Damion’s grandmother while Adeline and Tyrus are following them in their car. They reach the park
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