“But—” I began. Zarlach held up his hand.
“I don’t want to hear it. Even though I have no idea whose idea it was, I’m certain I’ll find out, eventually.” His eyes landed on me and I knew he accused me. I didn’t know how—I guess one could call it a hunch.
“Go ahead,” I mumbled crossing my arms. Sinking further into the silver sofa. If he heard me, he didn’t say anything but decided to continue.
“Four of us will hunt down leads that PASA have acquired. Something which I’m certain will keep us busy,” he said. “So as of now. Helena and Marbuque will practically babysit you guys.” He paused for a moment, “Any questions? No free comments.” This time he paused much longer, emphasising the trouble we’d get into not that I was scared but everyone else seemed to agree with him very quickly.
“Yeah,” I began all eyes turned to me, “How long will you be gone?” Zarlach regarded me, carefully almost questioning if it was wise to answer or not.
Then eventually he said. “Long enough.”
Unbelievable. That was one strong word. Possibly the best to describe Zarlach and his stubborn nature at the moment and how unbelievably unfair he was. It, to me, was almost like being grounded except, he wasn’t my dad but obviously all the adults agreed it was fair justice to our injustice. I couldn’t stand this. So I stood and glared. “Problem?” he asked.
“Hmph.” I sounded, giving him the vibe I wasn’t going to be speaking to him anytime soon. That thought alone really did bother me for some strange reason, it was Zarlach—it wasn’t like I cared and anyway I couldn’t care. He had a girlfriend if you could even call her that.
Everyone was quiet as was I. Storming out of the room in complete daunting silence was a reminder, I potentially shocked everyone. However, I knew I was the one to blame and I’d take that blame—right after I found Kal. Entering my room, the automatic doors opened and closed behind me. I moved over to my temporary bare bed. It was nothing compared to Kal’s apartment but it was doable and small. So I knew I could manage. The door opened and in came the robot butler, he held a tray with a wine glass of blood. “Meal time, miss.”
“Okay.” Very punctual. Wow.
The robot strode over to me and placed the glass down on a desk mounted into the wall. “I shall leave it here; will that be all?”
“I’m quite hungry, you don’t mind getting me more. Sorry to be a bother.”
“It’s no bother at all.” He skipped out of the room and I relocated to the living room, spying Zarlach near the door in the small foyer area. He was speaking to Misca as she stood with Dante and Eyris. So I took this opportunity, while his attention was elsewhere I headed to the kitchen. After opening several cupboards, I realised were empty. I groaned. I didn’t want just blood I harvested a strong graving for cheese and not the kind on pizzas or spaghetti but the cheese ball kind.
“Little miss,” called the robot. I regarded his sophisticated ways and smiled, taking the glass in hand and the blood bags. I thanked him and watched as he disappeared behind that door.
Turning my attention to a certain someone, I called, “Zarlach!” He glanced at me straight faced and grim. “Does mom and dad know?”
“Yes.” Damn! And here I thought I had him.
“What? Expected, irresponsibility on my part?” he teased. I crossed my arms and glared.
“Maybe.” That smile he wore disappeared quickly. His golden brown eyes were glazed in annoyance. I smiled, turning away from him, I headed back to my room. I watched as Marcus and Odette stood at the end of the hall. Not too far from where Marbuque on the living room sofa where he regarded those two every now and again.
Their lips moved but no volume sounded. I slinked over to them as discreetly possible and as I inched closer I noted they were plotting, “No!” I growled.
“Come on Cecelia,” Marcus began. “Do you really want to leave Kal at the hands of whoever? Also are you okay?”
“I doubt anyone would hurt her. And I’m fine just needed some time to myself,” I mumbled, tightening our little Faction, I was out of Zarlach’s view and moved further around the corner. Marbuque regarded us once again and we, I noted, all smiled and he turned his attention back to the holographic projection that displayed shocking news—of Vampiere attacks.
I peered around the corner and spotted Zarlach and his part in the progress of leaving. He, I’d have to say was quick to move to the automatic doors and disappear with the others. Helena, I saw, stood at the opposite end of the hall, facing us with a questioning gaze, “What are you lot up to?” she evenly asked, judgement laced her tone.
“Nothing.” We all said. That only, I could tell, raised red flags.
“I don’t believe you,” she said, we were quiet. “I don’t think it’s fair that you lot insist on putting yourself in danger.”
“Trust me,” I began. “We’re not putting anyone in danger.”
“Not now but you did, remember?”
We were silent once again, this time we watched as she sauntered passed us and moved to sit next to Marbuque on the couch. I groaned wondering why they had to be so difficult and unfair. To be honest, she was a bit mean and the complete opposite of Marcus. Then again, she seemed to have a stubborn side to her that just may be perfect for him. As I took a step back to assess her and Marbuque I realised that those two were both better suited and rather complimented their predetermined mates.
Even though they were centuries older then us. I could tell or acknowledge that they too, found it difficult to deal with a selected mate let alone one that was several hundred years younger than them. It must have been more of a burden than anything else. So I turned my attention back to Marcus, his brows creased in thought as his eyes watched Helena.
I wondered what was next to come and how on this earth, was Zarlach and the others going to ensure they found Kal, just because they were following PASA’s leads doesn’t mean they were the real thing. The enemy could be throwing them off on purpose.
And because of that I knew I couldn’t stay here.
I ambled to my room and crawled under the covers, quickly falling into a deep sleep. I knew I was dreaming but the fear felt so real—so alive. Misty smoke and cloudy fog surrounded me and a voice, distorted and scrambled it was—something which mimicked radio frequency when a person tried to scan for a channel. “I want it, you know,” it said. “I wanted to ascertain it, I wanted the power.”
I heard the crumbling of paper beneath my feet. Glancing down, I noted an open old journal. I picked it up—even though I was curious as to whose voice rang around me in a haunting melody. I stood and glanced at the image that made my blood freeze, it was a sketch of a girl with her mother and father. The strangest part was, this little girl resembled me when I was young. I heard a something buzz in my ear and I glanced up, to see a Vampieruz face inches from mine.
His red eyes pierced mine and I knew he was dangerous. “I want HER!” he growled. I screamed and felt strong hands roughly shake me awake. My eyes sprang open and I registered someone above me, his hands gripped my shoulders and I feverously shoved him away.
“No! Let me go!” I called.
“Cecelia!” a familiar voice growled. “It’s me!” Zarlach’s voice rang, loudly and briskly above me. My mind eventually registered, I was in my room at PASA Guardian Reserve. He was silent for a bit and said, “It was a dream—” he began but seemed to stop, his eyes were locked onto my face and I watched as his brown eyes glowed a dangerous red in his idol form—bloodlust coloured his eyes and clouded his mind.
I knew that was what so follow wasn’t him. He leaned in, closing the distance between us and watched as his eyes lingered not on my lips as I hoped. Instead, they were locked onto the cut, they were locked onto the blood I knew he desired like a drug—he couldn’t have it, yet.
No one could. So I clawed at my power, feeling my fingers burn momentarily as I channelled my power and knew my fingers changed from idol to secondary. Before Zarlach could act primal�
�I jabbed at his side. He recoiled in pain and surprise. His eyes flickered in confusion before they narrowed in recognition. He stood and backed away almost as if I had burnt him. The look on his face stabbed at my heart in so many ways and I wanted nothing more than to apologise but we both knew he was in the wrong. He turned away, “I won’t let him hurt you,” he promised and left.
Before I could chase after him my double sliding doors opened again to reveal David. His face was concerned and he regarded the cut on my cheek carefully, “What happened?”
“I don’t know, myself.”
His eyes locked onto my fist that gripped at my linen. He regarded it before he said, “What is that?” Confused at what he meant I looked down and spotted that beneath my tight fist was a crumbled bloodied piece of paper. Pulling it open I regarded the four bloodied words:
I’m coming for you
I recoiled in fear. Certain that parchment would melt my fingers, staining my very existence. Even though I knew it was my nerves talking, I feared that dream was a message. David was quick to move towards me and kneeled, “Cecelia?” he examined and pulled my hands that cushioned my chin. Threading his warm fingers over mine, kept my mind in the present. It kept me with him—as I didn’t want to revisit my dream. “Do you want a drink of water?” he gently asked.
I managed a nod and he pulled my tired body to my feet. “It’s okay, you can go to bed.”
He shook his head. “Not until you’re all right.”
Is he helping me? Does he really care? Or am I a conquest? Something I never in my life thought a person was capable of but for guys—not all—some seemed to do just that. I hoped with every inch of my being, he wasn’t that type of person. I mean Ryan wasn’t and I guess, maybe I should take a leap of faith and see what happens. It had been months since I’ve had a boyfriend and life hasn’t been that bad—minus the attacks every now and again. “Okay, do you want to come with?” I asked and this must have surprised him because he seemed to need to do a double take before nodding.
We exited the room and headed for the kitchen. No one was up. Glancing at the clock at the far end I realised may be just that—midnight here because the clock struck the number thirteen. As I moved to the kitchen I felt David beside me, taking the plunge I stepped in closer, this gave him the invitation—his hand landed on the curve of my hip and I relaxed against him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I confessed. “Better actually.”
“That’s good,” he said, I glanced up at him and watched as he smiled down at me. His eyes became hard as he eyed the cut on my face, he pulled my face closer to his and analysed it more closely, “It’s not healing.” I only understood a few moments later, when the warm web blood that slipped down my face began to harden. Placing my fingers against it, I tapped it and pulled them away from my face only to realise he was right but I knew it must be deep.
Placing the cloth to my face, I understood the blood would clot shortly. I moved away from him and over to the bench. David seemed to take a moment to recover and shy away a little as he searched for a cup. “Sorry there’s no cold water,” he managed.
“It’s okay, I don’t mind tap water,” I confessed, it was water I needed and desire not blood for a change. He seemed to get the gesture and I wanted until he handed me a glass of water before I offered for him to fetch some of his own if he wanted. He sat beside me and I felt a sense of Deja vu as I recalled, Zarlach sat on the same side of me as he did. Bang! The building shook and my hands gripped the bench. The alarms boomed. “What’s going on now?” I demanded.
David was tense, “They found us.”
“But how!” I wailed as the alarm rang in my ear. David didn’t answer my question instead was very quick to pull me after him as we moved to the door as the others entered the living room. I heard Zarlach call directions at David who didn’t respond but pulled me after him. Out of the apartment we went and down the emergency stairs. I wanted to fight but those vampieres I knew would take me out—I did was I was able to just once and I wasn’t sure I was really able to do it after all, it seemed like beginners’ luck.
Instead of going down, David led me up. I wondered what he was doing and pondered, if he recalled I had the power to destroy those vampieres, “Of course you do.” He continued to look ahead, “But now isn’t the time to test that. You’ve only scratched the surface of your power. If not careful you could potentially kill everyone here.”
“What about Marcus, Daphne and Bella!” I called over the howling wind as we reached the rooftop of the building. There at the landing was an S18 Rotocopter, the pilot glanced at us. The plane-looking-helicopter began to roar as it created gusty winds.
“I need you to get on!” he called.
“What?” I asked. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, his voice loudly yelled against the winds around us and its despondency for dominance. I didn’t know what else to say or do but given that I may not see him again for a while. I took another leap of faith and lightly placed a peck on his cheek.
“Thank you for everything,” I said turning to leave only to be spun around. His lips moulded against mine, something I was surprised to have returned. By the time the kiss was over, I was a little breathless and disorientated. The loud hammering of the copter, pulled me back to my awkward reality I faced. I just kissed David. I stared at him and he smiled, automatically I returned the gesture.
He helped me onto the rotorcraft and soon it began to awkwardly hover off the ground. The thing was this helicopter wasn’t like the ones on earth, the rotodiscs were spinning around on the thick blue silver sterling wings. Even with this new design the helicopter seemed to work as they did on earth—hovering high above the ground and while we were airborne and high above the city, I noticed the vampieres far down below, were swarming into the building, some were shot down others were blown up with charged grenades and others continued to scale the side of the building.
I spotted glass shattering and out zipped my friends, their silver cloaks gleamed under the shards of glass. They shot across the air into the next building over as they hauled the vampieres. The once safe area became a battleground once more and I was certain that something horrible was bound to happen. The higher we got the louder a scream sounded and I glanced up, a demon bat flew through the air.
The Knight beside me spoke, “Hang on to something.” The bat smashed into the helicopter and down we went. I wondered what could have caused such a beautiful creature to go ramped. David I realised was nowhere in sight. As the helicopter shifted under the weight of the bat. I grasped the handle beside the seats, with a sturdy grip, aware my life was on the line.
This time the bat destroyed a wing, shrapnel poured around me and I shielded my face only to be knocked back. My grip ceased and down I fell, I didn’t know where the next thing I saw was the Knight reaching out to catch me but only watched as he and the helicopter caught a flame.
I fell and watched as the flames changed from green to yellow, in an explosion of sparks and colours. Above the helicopter I saw a large red sterling ship descend from the clouds over head, just beside the green beam of light that shot high into the air. It was slow and I knew, the Grattican found Nefaliem’s weakness.
As I watched the large ship float high above. I saw fragments of distorted images and heard a voice gasping for air. Then new voices. “She’ll never be safe.”
“You can’t stop us.”
“The Council will burn.”
Then there was silence before I heard a familiar voice whisper, “Cecelia, run.” It was Kal’s voice. It happened once again, too quickly. As the flames of the rotocopter fell towards me like falling comets beautiful but dangerous there was another part that told me to stop and admire its deadly destruction. The flames burned as did my body—right now I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. Though as my mind vanished, I entered something beyond recognition.
It was an outer body experience. I stood staring at a mach
ine, green bubbles sizzled against the glass. Long silky silver hair shone against the liquid and danced slowly about a blue scaled female. And the person in an induced coma was none-other-than Kal. This didn’t frighten me because I knew this was what most creatures did.
They were captured and experimented on those they didn’t understand—nor accepted as part of evolving through adaption—evolution. So as I witnessed the dawn of something deadly I knew what was going on but where I hadn’t had a clue it was near but far. I sensed Kal, I knew she was in this galaxy but what part I was not certain. Then I looked up. There was one way I knew; I would find out the answer.
This new knowledge struck me. I wanted to save her as I noticed the shock of what I saw settle in. Voices bound around the empty room filled with glasses of beings from different races. So I knew that what was bound to come was something I knew would without a doubt chuck me in with the others—and I was no help to anyone there. So quickly I hid in the darkness. “My . . . my, what a lovely sight,” said the man as he regarded Kal. His dark hair was short and gelled in spikes.
“Very true,” the other said. “It took a while to place her here. She’s a stubborn fight that one.”
“I did warn you didn’t I?” he mused, his pale icy blue eyes locked onto Kal’s unconscious form. “She was bound to be trouble.” His eyes seemed far away, distant even as he gazed at her. My vision became distorted and I returned back to my world of ash and fire. I stared at the ships above and noted the crater I landed in and the rotocopter that landed not too far from me.
I pushed myself up and sat, taken in my ruined surroundings. I noticed my skin was cool but tough. Glancing down I realised I was in my Vampieruz form. It must have been triggered when I landed—to protect me. I touched my face and was in complete shock. I saw my reflection in the glow of the rotocopter—my face was distorted, my skin was burnt and only bones and a little flesh was left.
The pain. It ached all over my face. I screamed, consumed by the pain, I felt a cool sensation and watched as my bones, muscles and tendons, begin to heal and not before long my face returned to normal. I stood on my feet and scanned the crater and scanned my surroundings. I walked to the edge, as it became steeper I used my hands to help me steady myself.
Crimson Knight (Crimson Series Book 0) Page 23