Everyone is silent for a few seconds then Lilia says, “I think you should. Unless anyone has a good reason for you not to do so.”
“I agree,” says Esther, “and anyway, who is to say Evarius won’t start threatening us if we don’t do what he says?”
“Right,” says Brent, “also, for now, it isn’t harming anyone. So, I think we are good to go for now.”
“Okay, then. I’ll go and get it.”
“Yes,” all of them say together.
“Where is it anyway?” Lilia asks.
“On an island. Would take over two hours to reach the shore and then some more to reach the Island. I have never b
Tasha and Damion meet at 6:15 in the morning the next day.“Uh- there’s an addition in the plan,” says Tasha.“What addition?”“Evarius is coming with us.”“What? Why? Did you invite him?”“Why would I invite him?”“You seem to like him.”“I don’t like him,” says Tasha, annoyed, “and he invited himself. What was I supposed to say? No? It’s not like we really have a choice where he is concerned.”“Very well. One more pair of eyes would do and anyway, it’s because of him that we are going there at all.”“Yeah.”A few minutes later, Evarius joins them, and all three drive out of the city where Tyrus joins them too. Finally, the four of them start their journey to the shore. It takes them about two and a half hours to reach there. Then, they compel a boatman to lend them his boat and set sail for the island.*After breakfast, Adeline leaves the house. She walks to the old auditorium where she had met Nadia for the first time in decades. She is going to meet her again. The anxiety about l
As Evarius and Tasha are walking and looking for trapdoors, Evarius chances a glance at Tasha now and then when she is not looking. They might think that the reason he has come with them is to keep an eye on them, but the truth is that he has come so he can spend some time with Tasha. He doesn’t need to keep an eye on them, he knows that they will get the book. To that point, there is no issue. The issues will begin only after that. He sees Tasha sitting on her feet and clearing leaves, twigs, and dust from a spot on the ground.“Anything there,” he asks her.“Uh... no... I thought there might be.”She gets back up and says, “How are we going to find a trapdoor that has obviously been built to remain hidden in such a huge place? I know when compared to other islands, it’s a small place, but it’s still huge.”“We’ll just have to keep looking, I guess.”“That desperate to die, are you?” Tasha says, raising her eyebrows.“You have no idea,” says Evarius smiling, “come on, let’s look that
Everything happened so quickly that Carl barely had time to register anything. When he gains some sight, he finds himself pinned to the ground by a vampire he does not recognize. But he seems much stronger than any vampire he had ever encountered in his life. Carl tries to push him off but fails. The vampire punches him in the face and Carl feels his nose break and hot blood pour out onto his face.The vampire gets off him and pulls him straight up with him. Then, in a barely audible whisper, he says, “Push me and run as fast as you can. I’ll pretend that you slipped out of my hands.” Carl has no idea why he is helping him but does as he is told.*Damion had got up and was looking around for Tyrus. Finally, he spots him coming towards them. He looks ruffled but otherwise uninjured.“He scarpered,” Tyrus says.Damion turns around in time to look at Carl, push Evarius and run off.“Stop him!” Damion shouts.“It’s okay,” says Evarius. “Pick up the book. Close the door and let’s leave.”
Damion, Tasha, and Evarius go back to the University while Tyrus takes his car that he had parked outside the city and leaves for Byfall County.Damion and Tasha go to her hostel to meet Lilia and Evarius goes back to wherever he lives. He had told Tasha to read through the book and see what she finds. As he had lived for two millennia, he knows Latin and is willing to help her whenever she needs it. Although, there are a lot of terms and the ways sentences have been written that he cannot decipher because it requires knowledge of magic which has somewhat different terminology. Tasha has been learning that through Anastasia’s books.They meet Lilia and tell her everything that had happened.“Oh my God!” Says Lilia “I am so glad none of you got fatally injured or worse...”“Looks like it was good that Evarius came with us after all,” says Damion.“Yes, it was. Have all your injuries healed?”“Yep. I am all fit now. I think a nice sleep would bring everything back to normal for me. I’ll
Tasha looks over at Lilia and sees that she is smiling.“What?” She asks her.“Nothing,” says Lilia, quickly composing her face into a more serious expression.Tasha narrows her eyes at her, and then Lilia says hastily, “Well, I was just wondering when are you going to ask Evarius about all this?”“When I see him next.”“On your next coffee date?” Lilia says, suppressing a smile.“They are not dates! I told you he just wants to keep an eye on me.”“Did he tell you that?”“No, but it’s obvious, isn’t it?”“Or maybe, he just likes you...”“Oh please,” Tasha says, rolling her eyes, but she can pretend in front of Lilia, not herself. She likes to hear that other people think he likes her. But she diverts attention from that and says, “Instead of cooking up stories for other people, why don’t you focus on your feelings for Damion.”This wipes the smile from Lilia’s face, and she says, “He won’t even talk to me properly. We haven’t had a one-on-one conversation since I asked Tyrus to the ba
“Why does it bother YOU, Damion?” Lilia continues, “What is it to you who I sleep with? We are friends, right? I am single and am allowed to fuck whoever I want!”“You are not my friend,” says Damion angrily, moving his hand through his hair, “and you never will be just my friend. Okay? I can’t do this best friend thing. I am sorry. I am sorry that- that I couldn’t help it and fucking fell in love with you!”They stare at each other with anger pulsating inside both of them, then Lilia says, “As if I fucking hate you,” and rushes in to kiss him. Damion moves his hands into Lilia’s hair as both of them kiss, pouring in the passion of all the angst and aggression. They kiss for a few minutes and then Lilia says, “If I had known that a conversation with you would lead to this, I would have done it a little sooner.”“Tell me about it,” says Damion, smiling.Damion lifts Lilia and she wraps her legs and arms around him. He navigates his way to the bedroom as they keep kissing. When they re
After being accosted by a vampire while trying to get the book, Carl had run off to the other side of the Island. He did not leave because he wanted to see what happened to Garrit and Luther. He waited for about half an hour, and when he thought that his son and the others might have now left, he went in search of his two accomplices. By that time, they had gained consciousness and control of themselves and were looking for him. When the three of them meet, they share the stories of what happened to each of them in detail. Luther had lain there on the ground after being hit by Damion, and when he gained consciousness he had found Garrit some distance away. Garrit told them how he freed himself from the hybrid and ran. Finally, Carl told them about his encounter, and his main point of discussion was the vampire who had saved Damion and then let Carl go. He could have easily killed him. Carl knows this. The vampire was too strong for him. But he didn’t, and he does not understand why. N
“I am staying over at Damion’s. Will tell you everything tomorrow!!!”When Tasha got this text from Lilia, she smiled and texted back, “Didn’t I say it won’t go downhill! Have fun!”After that, Tasha started reading the opus again. Over the last three days, she has been reading the book whenever she has time. It does not have too many pages, but the information on each page is extensive. It has taken Tasha time to get used to the writing style. But now, she can read it at a decent pace. She has already read through the details of the process that led to the formation of vampires. There are some details about werewolves too, but the book spells them differently. That’s why she had earlier thought that werewolves are not mentioned at all. However, even though werewolves are mentioned briefly, there is no mention of an incarnation ritual. No different spelling. Nothing about making a werewolf all-powerful, none at all. There are segments of some types of dark magic and sacrifices too, bu
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