By May 5, Day was so worried that he had stopped sleeping. He was doping himself on the tea, which he was sucking heavily. He couldn't close his eyes as his mind struggled to find where Minndt could be. All the leads had failed, and the lack of news did not help. No matter how hard he tried to locate his friend's phone, nothing. Not the slightest signal. Check the outskirts of Inverness, nothing. Not the slightest warehouse. Even the house on Bellfield Park Street had given nothing. Lying on the tatami mat with Foud next to him, the blond stared at the clouds as he reflected.
"Hey, oh, the two omegas, we stop daydreaming now!" Nyx suddenly exclaimed, leaning over them.
"The omega tells you to look elsewhere," growled Foud before turning onto his stomach.
"Get up. You're going to fall asleep again in the middle of the day."
"What can that do to you?"
"It can make me feel like you're bursting with energy at night when I want to be quiet."
"Poor little vampire, am I preventing him from enjoying the moment he's at his peak? If you have to worry about anyone's sleep, it must be about Day."
The young man in question looked at them in turn before standing up.
"I'm fine," he declared without energy as he stretched. "I need a sweet tea."
"You especially need to sleep." retorted, Moainlooking up from the map on the large table.
"I'm fine."
"You look like a panda, and that's not a compliment."
"I'm too worried to sleep. If it happens to him. He's not sleeping right now! If it is ..."
"Day, stop. Now. Stop with your "if it is." You are ruining your morale."
"I'm worried."
"We're all worried, we all want to find him asap, but you must not ruin your health. He would rather see you healthy than like a lethargic panda moping deep in his bamboo forest."
"Yes, but…Wait. Forest?"
"Yes. We put you at the bottom of a bamboo forest. You go unnoticed among the pandas!"
"No, not that, forest!"
"I think some neurons just roasted in his little head," signalled, Toxinwatching him walk over to the computer unused.
"My neurons are doing fine."
"Of course."
"I might have a new lead."
"A new lead?"
"Compared to what you said."
"Minndt is in a bamboo forest with pandas?" Foud asked with the utmost seriousness.
Everyone turned to the second omega, who raised an eyebrow of incomprehension.
"It's not that?"
No one took an answer, and everyone gathered near the blond, focused. Thanks to the internet and satellites, the omega could get a much more detailed and realistic world's map. More than those drawn on scrolls. He took the time to focus on Inverness before speaking.
"We didn't think of looking in the forests. We are idiots!" he said, looking at his friends around him.
"There is no forest in Inverness, is there?" Nyx questioned, putting his hand on his shoulder. "There's no green around except for the parks. So unless they're taking him for a walk in the parks of this city..."
"There's some further. See if I zoom out there is more green, as you say."
"And so we're going to reforest every green spot, including the fields?"
"No, we will refine."
"It didn't get us anywhere the last time we did this."
"We couldn't see wide enough!"
The gods behind the youngest shared a confused look before focusing on the virtual card. The blonde continued to slowly zoom out to view a larger area around Inverness, letting landforms and extensive forests appear along with nature reserves.
"Sorry, what exactly should we see?" Lou wondered, looking at him.
"The best way not to attract attention in a country known for its forests and parks... It is to go to a small and extremely sparsely populated place," Day explained as moving his cursor down to a small village.
"And so?"
"Vampires know how to blend in, but they need food without attracting attention. There is a place near Inverness. That is a family domain that offers their homes for the holidays."
"Keep on going."
"I heard rumours about the place when I was working in the pub, this domain is called Farr House. Some people said that strange things were happening in this area. Tourists who stayed there said they had seen people coming out of the forest after midnight. Once I asked a group of young people if they saw these people during the daytime. They all said no. They never saw any of those men in black outside the grounds."
"It would be too reckless to keep someone you've kidnapped in a place where people go back and forth a lot."
"Not if it's not next to these dwellings. There is a mansion in the piece of the forest. Here. But as this whole plot is private, no one ventures out onto the path, which is closed anyway. The loch here is at the estate, and there are two paintballs."
"Paintball?"
"It's a team and strategy game where two teams are shooting at each other with paintballs."
"Interesting as a game. Who owns this domain and this lake?"
"And forests there, there and here too. If I remember correctly, the family name is Monty."
"Monty with a y?"
"Yes, I think so. You know?"
Lou's eyes lifted to Nyx and his brother, who crossed their arms at the same time before sighing in sync. Day turned to them and raised a questioning eyebrow at their dark expression.
"Why are things so complicated," lamented the twins in harmony.
"I think I'm missing a piece of information."
"We know of a family named Monty who live in the north of England." slowly recognized the one commonly referred to as Dark Nyx by Foud.
"Perfect! That will make it easier to find their property and its surroundings."
"This is the catch."
"Why you don't get along well, is that it?"
"Well, we've never seen a single person..."
"I'm starting to get lost."
"Our uncle, the youngest, had a good idea of forming a couple with one of the members of this family. But from what we know, there was a kind of conflict, and they did not see each other again. I would have told you to ask him for some information, but since he's not here anymore…So maybe we shouldn't point out that we have some kind of connection."
"I see... where exactly are your uncles?"
"This is a great riddle."
"What do you mean?"
"We don't know where they are, and then we have very few memories of them."
Darth Nyx's usually mischievous tone had suddenly turned cold and his gaze more piercing. Dat understood that he shouldn't insist and nodded in understanding before opening a new web page. He typed in the family name in hopes of finding some information, no matter how unnecessary.
"There's nothing. It just says the Monty family owns this estate." he sighed in disappointment.
"It's not all on the internet, apparently," pointed out Leit with a small smile.
"I could search an internet searchable archive, but… do vampires register the birth of their children?"
"Of course, like everyone else!" Nyx was indignant at once. "Can you find archives like this with a single click?"
"You usually have to register on sites but yes. Let's see if Inverness County has any free online archives."
"Information is very rarely free."
"Some are. Ah, the birth register is searchable until 1950!"
"You can go back in the dates. the Monty family is big and old."
"That much?"
"Oh yeah."
"I'll go and see if there were any births in the 1950s."
"In any case, it would be funny to come to the estate and run into your uncle's ex." Toxin said, looking at the two vampire brothers.
"Technically, exes since vampires work in pairs with every birth. It wouldn't be surprising if our uncle's twin brother…"
"Has slept with your uncle's ex's twin brother? Can you imagine what it must be like if the four..."
" Shut up, Toxin. Shut up."
"A vampire foursome, the sheets don't have to stay white for long."
"Shall I hit it, or do you do it?" Nyx asked of his brother.
"I shall do it."
"No, but I was joking! It's okay, back off!"
Before the God of Toxicity even had time to argue any longer, Darth Nyx pounced on him, and it was only a few seconds before they got into a fight. Toxin narrowly dodged his fist each time, but when his attacker grabbed his jaw, he realized he couldn't escape the next blow despite his attempts to release it. He closed his eyes as the first formed and waited for the blow that was barely caught by the blond omega.
"Let go immediately," he ordered Darth Nyx firmly, tightening his grip on his wrist. "We have enough problems for you and Nyx to start making new ones."
The dazed vampire nodded slowly and stood up, leaving a speechless Toxin lying on the floor, watching Day return to his research as if nothing had happened.
"Did he just stop it without difficulty?" he asked in bewilderment.
"Would you have preferred that he hit you by chance?" replied the blond, glancing at him.
"No! But…"
"But what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"The training is paying off, it seems, "smirked Moain, coming over to pat his shoulder. "Our little Lord is starting to unblock."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Your strength. It is great."
"But what exactly are you trying to tell me?"
"That what's stuck in your veins is being unblocked."
"What?"
"Hey, eh, hold out your hand to see what's going on!" exclaimed Foud, excited by the news.
"It's not an object, Foud!"
"You mood breaker, shhh. Come on, Day. Reach out your hand, and let's see what happens."
"It will happen that you are going to get a slap in the face if you keep going!" Nyx yelled, looking him straight in the eye. "Don't even try to insist."
The lightning god raised his hands in surrender but kept his big smile on just to annoy him. It worked wonderfully, the god of night and death crossing his arms more firmly as he turned to the blond, very focused. The birth records by year opened one after the other in search of a person affiliated closely or remotely with the Monty family.
"Two births to a parent affiliated with the Monty family between the 1950s and 2021!" he informed so suddenly that everyone jumped.
"Oh, scared the hell! Never do that again, blondie. Oh damn… When are they born?" hastened to ask Foud, leaning over his shoulder.
"A girl was born in 2001, and a boy was born in 2002."
"So two twins and a boy with at least one parent in common. What's their name?" Nyx questioned, uncrossing his arms slightly.
"Astra and Skye, but there is no twin."
"There is one. Vampires are always born in pairs, as I said, and they are always the elders, whether one parent or both is a vampire or not. If you are a wearer of the vampirism gene, then your first child will be double. "
"I didn't know this detail."
"Now you know it."
"But why did they only name one child?"
"Because for humans, there is only one. For the first twenty years of their life, the elder one lives in the mind of his twin. The pair of children sharing the same body until their twentieth birthday when they divided in a long and excruciating process."
"At this point?"
"Yes. It is so much and extremely painful. We die for a while before coming back to life, separated. Besides, these twins are going to go through this process soon if their birthday has not yet passed."
Stunned, and horrified, the omega didn't listen to the last sentence and stared at Nyx for a long time, who was looking back at him.
"You will end up stabbing me with your emerald eyes." he pointed out to him.
"You are dead?"
"And come back to life, yes. Vampires are undead. It's all in the name."
"It's horrible."
"Yes, but that's how it is. We're fine now, I assure you. That was a long time ago."
"But even!"
"Why do you seem so upset by what I just said?"
"I think you were a little too direct in your explanation," intervened in the Foud eying look. "Too much even, no delicacy."
"I just explained!"
"Ah yes, and will you explain it the same to your children?"
Nyx's confusion could be read on his face before the sentence took on its meaning in his mind. He was born into a family of vampires, his mate no. What had been explained to him, from an early age - and who was now something of his past - was a fact that his companion had to take. Their future children will carry this embarrassment. Their future children will have to go through it. But for that, his mate will have to accept that first. He had to accept the horrible fact that his children would die in the greatest pain, once and that he could not change it. Nyx didn't hold back his mate as he stormed out of the room.
"I should have been a little more delicate, that's right," he confessed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"A tad bit," Lou pointed out sharply.
"Did I ask you something?"
"No, but I can tell you it's going to take a little while for him to digest the information."
"Yes, you just put in the face: "Your children are going to pass away. You are going to have to hear them screaming for help without being able to give it to them." It's rude, geez," added Moain, shutting down the computer.
"I fucked up. I know you can stop here!"
"You should go see him."
"Are you going to tell me what to do for a long time?"
"We're helping you to not sleep out of his doorstep tonight, thank us. But if you don't want our advice, it's up to you, eh."
"Alright, that's good, go on! What am I telling him?"
"First, apologize to him for the harshness of your words. That will be a good start," Toxin replied as he sized him.
"Reassure him too!" hastened to add Foud.
"Reassure him? What did you think he is, a child?"
"An omega that will carry your children, alpha asshole with a big ego. Already it is not" what "but who he is not an object!"
"But in my sentence..."
"Shut up! Just shut your fucking mouth!"
"Well, there you have it, you upset two of them," Leit sighed, smiling.
"But that's what gets carried away!"
"And you're the one who didn't give a damn about being delicate about anything!" Foud said, leaving the room. "Get lost! Asshole!"
The two panels of the door were brutally closed behind Lou, who ran after Foud. The looks turned immediately to a Nyx puzzled.
"It's been complicated for him since… you know," recalled, Moainwaving a little. "Getting mad at him will only make the situation worse, and you will undoubtedly put Day on your back."
"He should consider finding someone one day," Nyx's brother sighed.
"He says he will accept the man who will not only come to see him when he has his heat ..."
"Knowing that he only lets himself be approached when he has them, it will be complicated."
"I told him, and he replied that all alphas are the same."
"Ah damn, we are all the same!" Leit joked, looking at the men around her. "He is mostly scared, nothing more. I understand that these changes towards omegas hit everything the alphas told him during his youth, and the trauma hits the changes. Damn, I speak like Minndt!"
"At the same time, what an idea Master Bann and his parents had to leave him with alphas kids outside the walls. Even today, I don't understand how they could have thought for a moment that it was a good idea. "
"They wanted to experiment," Nyx informed thoughtfully.
"Yeah, but their stupid experiments has traumatized him and prevented him from thriving on all fronts. Damn it, he and the little blond make a hell of a duo."
"Quite, well yes, I'll grant you that. Day told me that talking with Foud made him feel good and, it reassured him when he was with him. At least we can leave them alone for a while."
"Yeah, but still, we don't know what can go through the mind of an alpha unbound if these two start secreting pheromones."
"Not wrong… What am I doing? Am I waiting?"
"Yeah, let's prepare before the plan to go to this area. You'll have a reason to strike up a conversation with the blond."
Moain opened the computer again to look at the map that hadn't moved before the plan began to set up. Figuring out who was passing by where, who was going on the estate, or what people were near the vacation homes took longer than expected. The afternoon has ended without them realizing it. It was Lou's return that gave Nyx the signal. He could go to face two upset and angry omegas. Seeking how he could strike up a discussion with Foud and Day, that had locked themselves in his room, the flaming god stood outside the door for a moment. If he came in abruptly, they might misinterpret his gesture and think he was furious. But if he waited, they might never make up their minds to permit him to enter. After a moment of thought, Nyx put his fingers on a small hollow serving as a handle and, carefully, open a panel before looking at the two omegas sitting on the bed. Toxin would have made a dubious joke if he had come with him. Nyx remained silent and closed the door behind him. Carefully, the god of night and death put the scroll he was holding on the table and walked over to the bed, coming to sit on the far edge of the two hostile omegas.