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
Anastasia had been teaching Tasha for about an hour. Lilia is watching her follow Anastasia's instructions. There is no way for her to judge how Tasha is doing because she didn’t know what they were doing. Anastasia had taken Tasha to a small clearing in the forest and the rest of them had followed. Since then, they have been watching her roam around, lie down, wave her hands in all sorts of ways, and use weird words. Tasha had just managed to light up a line of salt that Anastasia had spread in front of her. To Lilia, it looked quite impressive, but Anastasia said that it was just preliminary stuff.Tyrus and Damion had gone to contact some people that they hoped would help them in rescuing Brent and Esther. No matter how much Lilia wanted to go over to save Brent and Esther, she knew that the rest of them would do everything to prevent it. She understands why. The amount of power and say Carl will have after the ritual, no one wants that. But she did not want the blood of two people