Annie, Maddie, Matt, John and Lisa, took off running as soon as Curtis built the wall of protection for them, and they did not dare looked back.
Jacob looked at Azazel who was now distracted by the plan Curtis had made, Jacob threw some strange powder that suddenly appeared in his hand at Azazel, and it seemed to blind him for a while.
Jacob ran over to where Lucinda and Lucas were, he carried both of them, and Curtis stayed behind as they made their escape, and once he was sure that everyone was gone, he left the wall behind and the ran too.
The plan was simple distract Azazel which would give them enough time to escape and think of another plan.
The reasonable thing to do right now was to retreat because, Curtis had told Jacob what had happened to Lucas when he tried to fight, and Jacob decided that trying to fight Azazel would be a death sentence.
So him and Curtis came up with a plan, Curtis would build a protective wall just to shield them for some time, while Curtis also sent some special dust to Jacob that would blind Azazel for some time.
As Jacob carried Lucinda and Lucas, he realized that his brother was as numb and as stiff as wood, which did not mean anything good.
"He's stunned, I cannot do anything about it" said Lucinda as she knew what Lucas was thinking and she linked him.
"What did he try to do?" asked Jacob.
"Well your brother tried to land a hit on Azazel but he was blown away before he could do anything" said Lucinda as she sighed.
And at that moment both Lucinda and Jacob looked to Lucas, and he smiled at them, he knew that those two were probably already scolding him in their minds.
"Curtis what's the plan??" asked Annie as she was tired of running, they had been doing this for a while now, and it was clear that they were not getting anywhere good with this.
If not for the agility spell that Lucinda casted on them, Annie was sure that they would have been extremely tired right now, and they would not even have the power to run anymore.
"You will know when we get there" replied Curtis
"Okay" said Annie
To be honest Curtis did not have a plan, but he could not tell Annie that, or else that would crush everyone's hope, and that was the last thing he wanted to do, how could he have been so careless to let himself be so carried away that he did not notice that Azazel was planning an attack.
He was one of the most repeating things in this cycle, and he should have known and been ready for when Azazel was going to strike, right now Curtis felt like he had failed as a guardian.
Now because of him and his big mistake he had put many innocent people in danger, and that was not something that he wanted to live with, so he had to find a way, no matter what to get them all to safety even if it meant him sacrificing himself.
Meanwhile back in the middle of nowhere.
"Ha, what a dirty trick" said Azazel as he wiped his eyes, the powder had done it's job of blinding him, but only for a little while, one mistake Curtis made was that he forgot that Azazel did not have normal eyes, and hence why the powder only stung, but it did not do any permanent damage.
"This is getting tiresome, I need to get my revenge" said Azazel as he began to walk, he was not going to run for prey who had nowhere to go in the first place.
Meanwhile back in the camp
"Captain, there is no way to contact the High Council" said the witch to Mira.
"It seems that the damage was more than we anticipated" she said.
"Then someone needs to go and deliver the message in person, because we cannot be left all alone here, if there are more recruits, I am sure that we will not be able to survive" said Mira.
She was basically alone in this and it stressed her a lot, not only did she stupidly loose five rogues that were very essential to finding out more information, but the worst thing was that she did not know where they were, they could be anywhere, and that was dangerous.
Mira had sent some vampires to go and scout the area and see if they could find where they disappeared to, but it was all in vain, it was like all five of the rogues vanished?? Mira was very sure that black mist was obviously not ordinary.
And she was also sure that whoever rescued the rogues was obviously their ally that rescued them, and it was certain that whoever he or she was, they were very powerful for casting such a spell.
"I will easily go Captain, if you send me" said the witch.
"That's alright, you can go" said Mira as she sighed.
"Thank you Captain, I will make sure to return as soon as possible" said the witch.
"Okay then" said Mira as the witch walked away.
"Any news?" asked Mira as she saw Liz and Brian approaching her.
"No Mira, no news, we have not heard anything about Commander Jacob, or Curtis, or even Annie" said Liz as she sighed, she was starting to get worried, what if something horrible happened??That was obviously not be good news at all.
"I also have not received anything from Commander" said Brian, the only reason he was still here was because Jacob told him to stay with Liz and he obeyed his commander to the letter, because if not, he would have left this witch that he found annoying a long time ago.
"Well there is really nothing we can do, we do not know what is going on, or what Azazel is planning, so it's best that we stay here, just in case anything happens" said Mira, as she had thought this through and she was sure that the best course of action was for all of them to stay put where they were.
It was not like she did not want to go out and help, that was far from it, it was because if she left, who would be leader?? Jacob had already left and he was yet to return and she could not do the same.
They just all had to stay right where they were until help came from the High Council.
"I agree with you" said Liz as she sighed.
Meanwhile back in the middle of nowhere.
Annie, Maddie, Matt, Curtis and everyone else had stopped to take a break, Curtis was sure that they had ran far enough, and he was bust thinking of what to do next, and so was Jacob.
Curtis did not know what exactly Azazel wanted, in times past he would have just gotten what he wanted over and done with, but now, he was just playing a game... his game.
Curtis knew that if Azazel actually wanted to harm them, he would have done so a long time ago, and the way he was acting now, he was sure that he was purposely letting them get away.
To be honest Curtis did not care at all, the only thing on his mind was using this new development to their advantage, but the only problem was that he did not know how to do that.
The suddenly without warning, the sky went dark, darker than it was right now, and a clear mist suddenly appeared.
"Umm what's happening??" asked Annie as she looked at the mist, but she got no reply, because as soon as she looked behind her to see everyone, she was startled by what she saw instead.
Everyone had dropped down to the ground like flies, as if they were dead, and it scared Annie, what just happened, Annie looked ahead, and she saw Curtis, how come Curtis and her were still perfectly fine?
"Curtis, what happened??" asked Annie as she looked at Curtis
"I don't know" said Curtis as he also had no idea.
"Annie get back!!" shouted Curtis. because as soon as he said that Thunder struck and Azazel appeared, which made Annie move back in shock.
"You did not think that you could get away that easily" said Azazel as he laughed.
"What did you do to them?" asked Curtis as he narrowed his eyes at Curtis.
"Oh nothing much" said Azazel
"They are not dead yet... they are just sleeping" said Azazel as he saw Annie looking as her so called loved ones.
"If you fail to wake them up soon, they will pass from sleep to death" he said as he smiled.
They all looked peaceful as they were sleeping, but the truth was that they were all on a timer, and once that timer ran out, they would be as good as dead.
Annie could not believe this, she felt like she wanted to cry, her friends, her parents, and everyone else that she loved, die because of her??she had to find a way to wake them up now.
"It's useless trying to wake them up normally, it's just a waste of time" said Azazel as if he read Annie's mind.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Annie as she did not know how she even got the courage to say that.
"Well I want them to die a slow and painful death... just like the way you killed my wife" said Azazel.
"What???" asked Annie as she was sure that she did not hear clearly.
"I want you to suffer, just like the way I suffered, when I lost my wife, because of you" said Azazel his voice was bitter and cold.
Annie was in disbelief, she could not believe Azazel's accusation of her killing his wife, she had never done such a thing, in fact she did not even know Azazel's wife at all, not to even talk about killing her.
"I don't know what you are talking about, I never killed your wife" said Annie confidentially, she was sure of what she was saying.
"Liar!" said Azazel with anger that could erupt a whole volcano.