"So Akotal might be alive now?" Heald asked, his eyes glittered with a perplexed look.
Kylian sighed and subconsciously moved back to Christa's side, crossed his arm around her shoulder and held her close to himself.
All he could think of is how he can protect Christa. And it wrenched his heart, knowing the truth; If Akotal comes back to life, he'll come after them first.
Caius couldn't even explain his thoughts. He just sank his butt on one of the beds at the corner of the room. His face had a deep look of dejection.
"Now we know our fate, what do we do?" Mei Li asked, her face was expressionless but her eyes were closed.
They all moved their gazes to her and watched her in silence for almost four minutes.
Hector groaned and rested his back on the wall as he recounted. "First thing is that, we get that pretty red haired girl out of here. That's if we value her life."
Caius moved his gaze to Christa when he heard this. His heart banged hard against his ribs as he stared at her. All he could see was Ava. He just can't help it– his face turned away when Kylian's murderous look collided with his eyes.
Kylian looked away too, when he saw that Caius had taken back his eyes. He sighed and faced Hector. "We can get her out of here but, where do we take her to? Even if we take her to a place miles away, Akotal won't take up to a few hours to catch up with her."
"What are you insinuating then?" Caius asked, with a raised brow.
Kylian turned to Caius and locked gazes with him. His look were as firm as a rock as he said. "I will keep her by my side."
"Do you realize that if Akotal gets her hand on her, we are doomed. Because he gets back his full strength and he'll have all eternity to give us all a hell of life." Caius said with a deep frown, his index fingers pointing downward as he said the word 'earth'.
"You shouldn't worry, I can protect her."
"That's what you will believe, right until she gets caught up in your wrong choice." Caius muttered with a perplexed look. Bitterness flashed through his eyes as he added. "That was what I believed right until Ava died."
"I'm not you. I'm Eleodore." Kylian replied, throatily.
Caius flinched, then a smile broke from his lips as he reared back
Heald couldn't help but look at Kylian in amazement. 'Kylian just called himself Eleodore, for the first time'.
Even Mei Li opened his eyes and looked at Kylian. All she could see was a vampire, determined to risk her life to defend his mate.
However, Caius turned to Benzo who's still lying on the bed, unconscious. "If we are going to face the resurrected Akotal, we need all hands on deck."
"He hasn't opened his eyes since we came back from the castle." Mei Li replied with a downcasted look.
"We don't even know where he might be now." Hector muttered, with helplessness etched in his words.
"No, we don't need to know that," Caius said, then added. "He will find us."
All of a sudden, the door opened.
They all turned to the door.
"Sarai?" Heald whispered.
Sarai gasped for breath and sweat dropped from her forehead. She inhaled and exhaled raggedly and her pale face seemed to turn even paler.
"What happened?" Heald stepped forward as worry flashed in his voice.
"Akotal, he's alive and he's here."
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
Gasps erupted and eyes widened in shock. Fear coursed through the air and tension thickened.
Just as they were still revelling in their shock, a voice came from the outside.
"Evening, dear spirited challengers. You should be expecting me, I presume."
Mei Li's face was ugly as she asked. "Is that him?"
Caius' eyes had a knowing look as he nodded, bitterly. "Yes. That's Akotal.
"What do you want?!" Kylian growled, holding Christa closer to himself while the latter hugged him like her life depended on it.
"Now that's the mate talking. My dear skull, I want nothing much." Akotal said from the outside. His voice was much lower as he added. "Just want to make use of my renewed strength. It's been a looong time since I have felt this energetic."
Bang!
The building shook hard as something smashed into it.
They all lost their stance.
"What's that?!" Fear flashed through Hector's eyes as he screamed.
"It's him. Akotal. He's using his telekinesis on the house. It's going to tear apart and crush us all." Caius shrieked in response, his eyes calculative as he braced himself.
"What?!" Heald's eyes flew wide. His eyes caught a dark cloaked figure standing outside the house, with its eyes solely on the building.
'Akotal.' he thought.
His eyes widened when he saw the figure point his finger at the building and he felt an invisible force launch at the house. He screamed at the top of his voice. "Stay down!!!"
Bang!
A huge portion of the north wall, the opposite side of where the beds were, tore apart and bricks and debris bursted everywhere. Heald was knocked aside by a brick and he crashed to the ground, unconscious.
Hector grabbed one of the beds and lifted it to shield himself from the falling and collapsing bricks but a force ripped the bed from his hand and a lintel iron rod fell from above and plunged into his neck.
His eyes widened and he could only gasp for his life as he fell to the ground with his blood forming a pool underneath him.
Kylian held Christa close to him and shielded her as the walls collapsed and the ceilings fell down. Bricks slammed and bashed at his back occasionally, while he could only grit his teeths and endure the pain. Protecting his soulmate was all he could think of, even if it meant being bashed in the head.
His eyes only flashed with more tenacity as he protected Christa with his body.
"Stay down, everyone!"
Bang!
Mei Li sliced a brick into two with her sword and knocked a rod to a side as she somersaulted to the left.
She landed on a bed and kicked the wall, initiating a back flip, evading another rod that smashed right into the bed.
But as soon as she lands, a brick landed on her leg and a cracking sound emanated.
Her face contorted horribly and her lips parted as she hollered in pains.
The chandelier on the ceiling jerked and the bulbs clinked against each other as the house shook more and more. Mei Li's eyes lifted upwards just as the chain holding the chandelier cut and it plummeted towards her head. It was too late to move and she could do was raise her sword above her head as the chandelier smashed down on her. A portion of the iron compartments of the chandelier slammed on her head and she collapsed on the ground.
Caius sped around the building, dodging bricks and falling iron rods that Akotal's telekinesis had torn from the lintels. Sarai created a shield above her and it protected her from the disaster.
"Protect them all!" Caius screamed to her hearing.
"I can't afford to create a shield to cover such amount of area. My magic is not back to its peak yet!" Sarai screamed back.
Caius tweaked his body to dodge a rod that nearly shoved into his belly. He gritted his teeths as he responded. "I will bring them near you. Then you'll cover them all up."
"Okay!"
Bang!
Caus dodged a large brick and grabbed Heald's unconscious body. In a second he dropped him near Sarai and she covered him with her shield.
A large brick smashed into the shield and she staggered a bit as her face turned paler.
"Are you okay?!" Caus asked and smashed his fist into a brick breaking it into shreds.
"Yes, I'm fine. Bring them all here!" Sarai responded as she regained her stance.
Caius sped towards Mei Li and grabbed her by the waist. Within a second, he gave her to Sarai too.
Bang!
A brick smashed into Caius' chest with powerful force and he was thrown across the room. The beds brought him to a halt and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
His eyes shone viciously red and he got back to his feets. A growl escaped his lips and he sped from the spot, dodging a rod.
He sped to Kylian who covered Christa with his body as the bricks smashed him all-over while he grunted and took in all the pain.
"Take her to the shield!"
Kylian's painful gaze turned to Caius. His dentitions tightened and loosened momentarily as the pain made every vein in his body bulge.
"Now!!" Caius roared.
"Yes." Kylian replied and carried Christa in a bridal style. He began to walk towards the shield, because with how weak he is right now, he can't dare to run at high speed.
Passing over rubbles and manoeuvering his ways whilst carefully dodging falling bricks and rods, he advanced towards the shield.
No brick or rod was launched at him as it was when the others tried to make a move. It's Akotal that's controlling the rods and bricks, using it as weapons, but he didn't use it to attack Kylian to stop him from going to the shield's protection and it's because of one thing.
Christa, the descendant of the Travellers of a Thousand Stars.
Or maybe it's not.
Soon he was there with Christa and Sarai protected them too.
Caius proceeded to Benzo and he grabbed him. In a second, he got him to safety too.
Now it remains Hector. His body laid unmoving in the midst of his own pool of blood and rubbles.
Bang!
Evading a falling brick, Caius appeared before Hector and he moved to grab him.
However, another brick slammed at his chest and he staggered back. Blood spurted from his lips and his eyes went wide. Giving him no time, a rod plummeted from the above and pierced Caius' leg, nailing it to the ground as he roared out in pain.
Sarai could only watch the two that now remained outside the protective shield. Her eyes glistened with perplexity.
Heald is unconscious, so is Benzo who hadn't woken up since they got back from Akotal's castle. Mei Li is out of strength and so is Kylian who had taken in many hits from the hard bricks that collapsed on him, he's on the brink of falling on the ground right now and he won't be able to rescue Caius and Hector.
Just as she watched them, helplessly, unable to do anything to save them, all the bricks and iron rods that had been falling suddenly stopped.
Sarai's eyes constricted with confusion.
"Hello, dear."
Sarai heard someone call. She knew at once who it's.
Her eyes fluttered with perplexity and she slowly turned her face to the dilapidated door of the house as she muttered. "Akotal."
"Of course, it's me. Armadi witch."
Sarai's eyes widened when she saw Akotal.
Even though she hadn't seen him face to face before, and had only heard about him from Caius, she still can't forget one thing about him.
One thing everyone, including those that haven't seen him before knows. And that is, Akotal's face is burnt and melted all-over.
But now the burns on his face are gone and his skin is as fresh as a new day and it sparkled with beauty.
Caius lifted his gaze from his impaled leg. His face had pain all over it as he turned to look at Akotal. His eyes widened and terror flashed through when he saw Akotal's fresh face.
"Drooling over my new look? I bet that is it." Akotal grinned. His gaze turned to Caius. "Hello, Caius."
Sarai's eyes flashed with fear and wary. She gulped in the lump in her throat as she muttered. "You can't get in."
"Yes, I know. I know I can't get into the house of an Armadi witch in her full bloom. A bountiful amount of protective spells and magic will be the painting and the beautifications of the entire structure." Akotal grinned and casted a look at the floor of the entrance. Then he said, "so getting in is the least of my intentions."
"What do you want?" Sarai muttered.
"I want you to deliver the descendant to me, within seven hours. Or I'll be forced to use the other means. The old fashioned way. The hard way." Akotal gestured with his pallid hands as he said, "I suppose you will be as wise as the former Armadi Witches by persuading your comrades to do just as I say since I have no intention to kill them yet."
With that, Akotal turned his back and began to walk away from the house.
"What if we don't?" Sarai could feel every fiber in her body tremble as she asked in a daring manner.
Akotal stopped. His lips curled to a side and his eyes glinted as he said, "I don't know why, but I feel delighted whenever I'm challenged. But I won't take it easy this time because I obviously have lost patience when I died."
Sarai blinked and her heart clenched as she watched Akotal's back.
Akotal turned back to face the devastated building. "But if you are bent on making things hard, I will be so happy to unleash hell on you all, and afterwards send you to your graves."
In a flash, Akotal disappeared, leaving behind the weary Sarai and her devastated mates.
**********