“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
Brent had seen Esther jump between him and the werewolf, but he could not do anything before it bit her. He shoves the werewolf off her and then shoots him. It crumbles down to the floor. Brent turns around to see Esther lying on the ground, unconscious. He looks around for more werewolves, but there are none. The ground is littered with unconscious or maybe dead werewolves. He lifts Esther off the ground and runs out of there. They had been kept in a storehouse type of place, and he could not see any more werewolves and places of living around. But they may be able to smell him and Esther and may come at them at any time even if he can't see anyone right now. It is their area, so he cannot stop. He keeps running. He doesn’t recognize where he is, and his only chance is to go with his gut. After running a few minutes, he recognizes where he might be. His mansion is quite far from this place, but his lake house is nearby. So, he starts running down the hill with Esther still unconsciou
Brent carries Esther inside the house and up the stairs to his room. He places her on the bed and goes down to look for some things. He comes back with a pair of tweezers and a bottle of yellowish liquid. He sits beside Esther and takes off her shirt. The bite on the side of her stomach is quite deep. He pours the wolfsbane on it. Then, he uses the tweezers to pull out the bullet from her shoulder. He gets a pair of tissues and wipes her wounds clean. There is some blood on her face as well, he wipes it clean too, remembering the fighting scenes and how strong and brave she had been. He gets one of his shirts and puts it on her. After the tending and dressing, he places the blanket over her and leaves to wash. All his injuries had already healed, it was just dried blood and mud now. He takes his time while showering. It had been an experience to remember. He had not thought that they would manage to get out of it. They probably wouldn’t have, if not for Esther. His mind goes to images
“Of course!” Brent exclaims, facepalming. Lilia notices that he is smiling too, and so is Tyrus. “The main thing was to save Brent and Esther,” says Damion, “as for the ritual, Carl can’t do anything for now.” “What does that mean?” asks Lilia “Yeah, the rest of us are missing the point completely,” says Esther. “Remember,” says Damion, “I told you that Carl can’t reach the third ingredient i.e. the book because I have it.” Everyone nods. “Well, he tried,” continues Damion, “I knew he would try to get his hands on the third ingredient now that he thinks he can get Lilia. So, I went to that place to see if he would. He was going