Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Reunions

Anaya’s P.O.V:

“Yes mum! I’m not on a date, I swear! I’m meeting with Mary and then I’ll go straight to her apartment…Okay, I promise I won’t get drunk. Bye mum, love you.”I hung up the phone as I passed the familiar bouncer, who gave me a nod of acknowledgement before putting on his poker face.

At ten minutes past nine, Joe’s Bar was comparatively empty, but considering it was a Wednesday night, I wasn’t complaining. This was my favorite place in all of New York, not just because the booze was cheap, but they also serve the best chili in the world.

I could easily spot Marissa’s flaming red hair right from the entrance. Her natural hair color was the palest of blonde’s and it tended to make her face look paler too, so she dies it a flaming red to look more vibrant and quite frankly, it matches her personality pretty well.

“Sunny!” Mary waved me over as soon as she spotted me. She was sitting on a bar stool, next two a couple other guys who at first didn’t appear familiar until I got close to them.

“Liam! Nate!”I exclaimed as my former co-workers and friends got off their stools to give me a hug. “I’m so happy to see you! I miss you guys.”

“What’s not to miss?”Nate replied in his usual cocky attitude that had Mary rolling her eyes and Liam slapping him on the head. “Ow! What did I do?”

Ignoring the boys as they got into yet another fight, Mary and I ordered our drinks and caught up on everything we’ve missed out on.

“He’s a complete Manwhore! You won’t believe it Mary, the tabloids were right. First day at work and I found him on undressing a woman on top of his office desk!” I told her.

“EW!” she cringed. “I can only imagine how many papers would have gotten stuck on all the bodily fluids.”

“Gross!”I shuddered at the imagery. “Ace is so much better than him, you know. He’s kind and caring and knows how to respect woman. And Lancelot changes women like clothing. I can’t believe they’re actually brothers.”

“Sister, were you blindfolded this whole time?” Mary asks incredulously.

“What do you mean?” I ask, taking a sip of the beer that the bartender had just placed in front of us.

“Antony’s the same!” Mary shrugged. “Caught him with three different women in two weeks and if the gossip column of our office is to be believed, others have seen him with several more. But never heard him hook up with someone from the office. Maybe he has a no-employee policy? I don’t know.”

My jaw had hit the ground by the time Mary finished talking and took a swig of her beer. When she turned to look at me, she frowned. “By the looks of it, you didn’t know that about him.”

I closed my mouth shut and took a swig of my beer before regaining my voice. “I had absolutely no idea. They’re really brothers, huh?”

“Tell me about it.” Mary shook her head in disappointment.

This was indeed hard to digest. Lancelot I could understand; he had that whole bad boy persona about him who didn’t care what others thought about him. The one who attracts all sorts of women who either want to fix him or become a little bad themselves. But Antony? He was the complete opposite to Lancelot. Sweet, kind, caring and understanding. Those are the words people use to describe Ace, and to think that he could be a womanizer…I shook my head, trying to clear it of the image of Antony sitting in the midst of hundreds of half-naked women. I had no idea where that came from.

“You ready to order?” A waiter showed up with a notepad in hand.

“Sure!” Mary answered, without the need for a menu card. “The sweet and sour chicken chili with sour cream on top and cilantro and lemon rice, for four.” We didn’t have to ask Liam and Nate because they would’ve ordered the same thing and they were busy shoving their tongues down each other’s throat.

The place had now started to crowd with some middle aged men joining together for a weeknight beer, but it was still empty enough that we weren’t suffocating or being shoved out of the way by college students who wanted to show off their killer moves. Liam and Nate joined us then and the evening passed by with cheerful conversations, merciless teasing and an awesome dinner that had us sighing at every bite.

Lancelot

“What’s the matter, brother? You look worried.” Ace came to stand in front of me, much to my annoyance, so I decided to express it.

“Why must you loiter around me to notice my every expression, Antony?” I questioned back.

“Because it was Miaka who put that expression on your face, and she just might be the only person in your life you’ve ever loved,” he stated.

Indeed, he stands corrected. We may not be her brothers by birth, but Erick and I, we both raised her since she was an infant. We taught her to talk, to walk, and to fight. It was impossible not to love her. We would give our lives for her if she but asks. We can never be truly angry at her, but it wasn’t Miaka who put a frown on my face. It was what she had said that did.

“Miaka just told me something… something that’s quite distressing,” I informed Antony. “It’s about Erick’s competition.”

“Emiel, was it?” Ace continued at my nod, “What’s so disturbing about him?”

“Alina told me something today,” it was Miaka who spoke from behind Ace, “something that indicates towards possession.”

“Impossible!” Antony looked at her unbelievingly. “Possession? How?”

“We have yet to confirm, but I have a hunch.” She led us to a secluded corner where no one could overhear us. “If what I’m thinking is true, then... this is no longer a battle for the throne.”

“I don’t understand, Miaka,” Antony pleaded. “What aren’t you telling me? What’s so bad about this?”

“Very bad if what we think is true.” I nodded at Miaka. Antony might worry, but he wouldn’t whisper. Miaka looked at me for a second and agreed. Then she confirmed what had been in my mind this whole evening.

“An Ancient is waking.”