After a couple of tries, Nico finally broke the door down. I was an idiot to think she wouldn't attack. Ruthless creatures like them always go for hybrids, especially powerful or innocent ones.
Rosaline had her hands clasped around Oni's neck tightly. Nico was about to shoot her with a bolt of electricity when she held him as a shield. "Ah! You hurt me, you hurt your little friend right here." Her pupils turned to slits. Oh boy, this is bad, I thought.
"You have two choices, Rosaline; hand him over and we'll be on our way. Or, you die right now and never see us again." I tried negotiating.
She thought about it. "Hmm, I think I'll go with killing all of you but the other hybrid and sell all of you at MizuKai Market! Certainly seems like a win-win situation, if you ask me."
Something in Sholto snapped, and he transformed into a snow tiger and dug his claws into Rosaline. She faltered and tried to rip him off her body, dropping Oni in the process. Crimson grabbed the unconscious boy and ran out the room, leaving us to deal with the rogue Lyrquif.
A yelp was heard as Rosaline jabbed her claws into Sholto's abdomen. She threw him to the other side of the room and headed straight for Skai. Panicked, he raised his hands and shot pillars of ice at her, lodging her in place on the wall.
Crimson came back in and stared at the frozen creature, shocked. "Hey, Crimson?" I asked, pushing everyone out the door. "Could you maybe . . . ?" I pointed my chin to the angry woman while picking up Sholto.
She sighed. "You owe me." She walked up to her and raised her hand.
"Always." I closed the door and listened to the muffled screams of the Lyrquif with everyone. One of the servants came by and noticed the situation Sholto was in and went back to retrieve a bottle of Lyrquif tears.
"Ugh . . ." Oni slowly but surely started to wake up, no doubt by the noise. "What happened?"
"You passed out, and could have been used as a play toy for a bunch of scary people if we didn't get you out." Nico yawned, and paid no attention to the servant with the bottle.
Skai sat beside his brother, unsure as to what to do now. The screaming stopped, and Crimson finally came out, and smiled at all of us. "I'm happy to tell you that this house now belongs to us."
Jay tried to take a peek at what she did, and Zane immediately stopped him. "It's best if you don't look, lest you wish to spend your nights with nightmares."
"Really?" Keith's eyes seemed to sparkle. He jumped up and sprinted to the door.
Eli grabbed him and started pushing him back. "Sit back down, you idiot. We weren't asking for volunteers." The servant poured the entire bottle on Sholto's wound before it could get worse. He hissed and scratched the guy, but he didn't do anything else.
He stood up and smiled at us. "If everything is alright now, there's a car waiting for all of you outside, sir."
"Great! That must be them," I pointed my thumb at the room behind us. "If it's not too much to ask, we need someone with a strong heart and who has a hard time fearing dead things to clean this mess up." I walked past the servant and made my way to the entrance.
"Of course, sir." Mune gave me a questioning look.
"What was that all about?" He raised his hands in defence. "Not that it really matters but . . . ?"
"Lyrquifs are the evolved state of a Carthyan. Unlike Carthyans, Lyrquifs have a mindset that exists in between psychotic and barbaric. Their only weakness is money and recognition. They crave attention, and are experts at stealing and killing. Most famous people are Lyrquifs too."
"Really?!" Jay exclaimed. "Who?"
"Oh, you know, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, Shakespeare-"
"So Shakespeare was a killer." Crimson smirked.
"Hush. So what?" I hissed at her. "There are also many Lyrquifs that were known to be criminals." We reached the entrance and made our way to the limo waiting for us.
"Like who?" Mune asked. We all got in, and the driver started the car.
"Oh, like Ted Kaczynski, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer-" I paused when I saw their confused faces. "Please don't search them up when you go home."
"But those are all guys," Lina stated. "What about women?"
"They prefer to be well known, but not as much because of the results male Lyrquifs showed when they revealed their true natures." Eli looked at me like I was a professor.
"That's interesting and all, but that's not what I was asking about." Mune revealed.
"Oh? Then what were you trying to ask me?"
"I mean, before the servants would call you by your name, but after saving Oni, they started calling you sir."
"Ah, okay. So, what happened was Crimson killed Rosaline. Since it is known that everything any Lyrquif owns after their death belongs to their killer, Crimson became the new owner of that house. However, Crimson finds keeping earth things pointless, so she just gives everything she owns here to me. So when Rosaline died, everything she owned went to Crimson, which then went to me." I stretched, and relaxed in my seat. "I hope that answers your question, Mune."
"Not really-" Mune began.
"You still owe me." Crimson retorted.
"So," Ash took off her hair accessories and shifted to Grai. "Who exactly is this friend of yours?"
"Please tell me they won't try to kill us." Zane murmured under his breath.
"Oh, it's Roland." Everyone but Oni and his friends looked at me with shock.
"Roland?!" Nico I could sense anger coming from him. "What's that snotty brat doing here on Earth?"
"The same reason you are too- by accident." Nico scoffed, and growled to himself. "Roland is a Bircusmik, so he's an expert in technology." I pointed to the back of my neck. "He'll be able to remove the chip, and maybe have it sent somewhere else for Yuuto to find."
"Oh yeah, Yuuto can still find us." Jay remembered. He glanced at the fuming Lorian. "So, what's the deal with Roland and him?"
Nico glared at me, his eyes telling me everything; Tell him and you're dead. "You can ask him that."
Keith tried looking for snacks, oblivious to what Nico wanted. "Hm? Oh, those two have a wild history."
"Really?" Oni asked. Sparks were coming off of Nico.
"Yeah. Roland has always thought himself to be extremely superior, especially to Nico. He was actually one of the most respected families amongst other kingdoms, second to our family." Nico looked like he was planning a murder. "To be honest, he was supposed to be betrothed to my sister to unite our kingdoms, but because of reasons between Lorians and Drakons, she was betrothed to Nico instead."
Lina looked at Grai in shock. "You're betrothed?!"
Nico scoffed. "Roland is nothing but snotty brat," Fire burned in his eyes as he talked about him. "His parents have been spoiling him from the start. He thinks if he says something to anyone, superior or not, he thinks it'll be done." He glanced at Grai, before looking at everyone else. "He doesn't like me because he's jealous I can last in a battle longer than he can. That, and that he couldn't get married to Ash so he can have more reasons for people to love him."
Mune tilted his head. "Couldn't people just say no to him? I mean, I understand he's a prince and all, but even they have limits too, right?"
Nico shook his head. "Yes, we have limits to what we want, but everyone 'adores' him, and that is enough to get him almost everything."
Jay raised his eyebrows, and took some snacks from Eli. "Yikes, even I would hate a guy like him."
"Seriously, you're betrothed?" Linda asked again.
"Why does it matter?" Grai raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I am betrothed to Nico."
"When are you getting married?" Oni asked.
"We have to wait until Ash's coronation to be queen," Nico interrupted. "After that, we'll be married."
Crimson yawned, and looked out the window. "Well, here we are, I guess."
The limo turned into a wide driveway, with a reasonably sized house standing beside it. We all got out and Zane rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, a boy around Oni's age answered. He had blonde hair, the ends dyed purple. He had a bit of oil grease on his face.
He noticed Nico and looked at him with grimace. "Oh, it's you." He looked at everyone else. "I'm not letting him in. I don't like him."
"Likewise." Nico gritted his teeth.
I rolled my eyes. "Just deal with it Roland. We don't have all day, you know." I pointed to the back of my neck. "We just need to remove this chip. After that, we'll be out of your hair."
He perked up at the sound of chips. "Chip? Where?"
"Back of his neck. It's a tracker." Eli spoke up. I could see the conflicted emotions growing in him as he thought about letting us in.
I sighed. "You do realize that the longer we wait here, the faster Yuuto will catch and kill all of us including you, right?"
He groaned. "Fine," He agreed. "But only if he doesn't break anything." He pointed at Nico. He simply flipped him off in return.
When we entered the house, Nico immediately spread himself on the couch. When Roland looked at him funny he raised an eyebrow. "What? I've been cramped with these guys for a long time. I need to stretch my muscles."
He rolled his eyes in response, and took me to a room with medical equipment. There was a golden retriever sitting in the corner, barking and smiling at the Bircusmik. I glanced at his legs, and he was missing one on the front right. "I'm still building a leg for him," He rubbed the dog's chin. "He lost it to a truck trying to help a person."
He got up and pointed at the table beside the medical tools. "But that's not important. Sit over there and show me where the chip is."
I did as I was told and had him examine it. "Huh," He said. "Well, it won't be difficult getting it out, but it'll hurt."
I shrugged. "I've been through worse, so it'll be fine." He glanced at me with concern, before shaking it off and grabbing a scalpel. He instructed me to lay down on the table, my back facing him.
"Just remember," He applied gloves and a face mask on him. "Don't tell me I didn't warn you." And dug the scalpel into my skin.