While all the team left to find a way to avert their impending doom, a threesome remained at the rubble made up of Sarai's safehouse.
Christa, the unconscious Benzo and Hector, who was obliged to protect the formers.
Benzo is still unconscious and the bandage on his chest was still at large.
Hector and Christa sat a few meters from each other, sitting on rubbles.
Christa gave herself the job of picking up little stones and then throwing them away. Her face was grim and her eyes constricted.
Hector would cast her glances, momentarily then, he would look away. In his hands were his two vervain laced daggers and he flicked it with his eyes flashing with a complex emotion.
All of a sudden, he stopped.
Christa kept on doing what she's doing, picking stones and throwing them away. Perhaps, it helped ease her mind for a while. But at one point, she would try to pick it but the stone would fall. She would try to pick it again but the same thing will happen. Then she lost it.
"Hectro," she called.
"Hector." Hector corrected, without looking at her as he kept on flicking his daggers.
"Oh. Yeah. Ummm, do you think we can survive this?" Christa asked with the side of lips twitching constantly.
"Of course. Once the others come along with the helping hands they got, then we'll be good." Hector feigned a grin.
"Tell me the truth. I'm no longer a novice in this supernatural stuff anymore." Christa muttered soberly.
"Look. I doubt everything. Like…" Hector raised his hands up along with the daggers as he lamented. "This is a Primordial vampire we are talking about. A Primordial vampire at its prime now. I don't think it's going to be easy at all."
"Em." Christa nodded and hugged her legs, then she closed her eyes.
Hector gazed at her for a while. Then he couldn't help but ask. "How are you holding up to all this? 'cause I'm sure you are a human with a normal life since childhood. How come you can adapt to this without breaking down?"
"Pfft!" Christa chuckled. "That's wrong. Right from my childhood, I was never a good definition of normal. I write, I draw, I paint things that are scary, things that are supernatural. I read about folktales and paranormal documentaries. I read about vampires and beasts. I never doubted that they exist. I wanted to believe they exist. I wanted to see that they exist. And that have been my one ever goal all my lifetime."
"Wow! Your goal?" Hector grinned with a raised brow. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "Is your goal now achieved?"
Christa opened her eyes. "As you can see. This is even more than achieving. I now know that witches exist. Vampires, werewolves, even those beasts you call warthogs. They all exist. What else could I want?"
"Trust me. It is no good to know that supernatural beings exist. There's a lot of danger that comes along with it." Hector muttered with a serious look.
"Yeah. And I'm ready to embrace it." Christa smiled, a hint of bitterness flashed through her eyes as she thought about her mate, Kylian. She sighed and hugged her knee tighter. Then she thought. 'I hope he's safe.'
Hector gritted his teeths then he looked away.
All of a sudden, a scream erupted.
Christa and Hector flashed their necks to the direction.
It's Benzo. He's awake.
Benzo's eyes were wide open as he screamed at the top of his voice whilst jerking very hard.
Hector swooshed to him and grabbed him. "Hey, you are awake."
Benzo stopped screaming. He lifted his head to gaze at Hector's face.
"H- Hector." Benzo muttered.
His eyes were filled with agony and madness.
Hector saw it easily. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"I am-" blood spurted out of his mouth as he opened his mouth to speak.
"What the hell is happening to me?" Benzo's eyes opened wide.
"You have been unconscious since we came back from the Primordial's castle. We don't know why but you are not healing. And you weren't poisoned by Adama's venom, so what could be happening to you?" Hector's eyes flashed with confusion.
Benzo sat upright away from Hector's support. He palmed his forehead, which was sweating hard. His eyes lowered to his chest when he felt the sting of pain there. The white bandage tied around his chest to his back was what met his eyes. "How many days have passed?"
"Two days." Hector gazed at Benzo with worry as he began. "Whatever is happening to you is not Adama's venom. So you gotta get your ass together and heal up."
Benzo suddenly grabbed his head. His eyes closed tightly.
"Hey, what's happening to you?" Hector edged closer to him.
"My head. It's spinning."
"Uh?!" Hector's face scrunched up.
Before Hector could blink, Benzo sprung up to his feets and tore apart the bandage on his chest.
Hector's eyes widened. "What the hell?"
"I am gonna die! Two days, and I couldn't heal. I'm going to die!" Benzo completely fell apart as he lamented hard. His eyes were filled with fear and madness.
"Calm down, Benzo." Hector tried to get to him.
But then, Benzo lashed out. He held out his hand towards Hector. And two balls of flames launched out of it.
Narrowly, Hector tweaked and dodged one but the other scraped his shoulder. His face contorted in pain and he groaned loudly. The burnt spot was red. And it didn't heal for several seconds.
Fire is one of the banes of Vampires anyway.
Christa flinched with fear flashing across her eyes and edged to a side of the place, staying at a safe space of meters away from the duo.
Hector's eyes flashed with fear at this. If that fireball had struck him on the chest, it might tear it apart and that could have been his death. Fear coursed through his heart at the thought of this.
But when he saw Benzo, his fear turned into confusion.
Benzo gazed at his hands with fear. His eyes would move between his hands and Hector. "What is that? How did I do that? H- how?"
"Benzo, what's going on with you?" Hector was getting impatient. Benzo had fired flames at him, almost ending his life and now, the same Benzo is acting strange about it. Like he doesn't know about his flames powers.
What could be more frustrating.
"What's happening to me?!" Benzo cried.
"Calm down, okay? Calm down!" Hector tried to move closer to Benzo.
However, Benzo stretched his hand forward and flames bursted out again.
This time, it struck Hector on his two legs.
Hector's agonizing scream was eminent. The pain flashing through his face and eyes were brimming. Every muscle in his body was tensed as he shrieked at the top of his voice.
His burnt arm is yet to heal and now, his legs are burnt too.
His eyes flashed with anger as he turned to Benzo. He advanced towards Benzo with his claws spreading.
But then, Benzo grabbed his head and began to scream too. "My head. It's spinning! It hurts!!"
Hector gazed with wide eyes.
Christa was extremely terrified.
All of a sudden, after screaming for a while, Benzo collapsed and went unconscious.
Christa sucked in her breath with wide eyes. "What is happening to him?"
Hector grimace as the pain from his burnt legs and arm bit him. An ugly look flashed across his eyes as he replied. "I don't know. But we might be in for another. big. trouble."
********
Woodhaven, Queens.
Sheila led the trio ladies to her house.
Finally, the head-on fight had been avoided. This was Melissa's idea, a head-on fight would have been disastrous because it's evident that the witches will trash them in a swoop. But now, with Melissa's plan, they had averted that and are now in Sheila's house.
Mei Li exchanged glances with Sarai and spread her palms.
"Where is it?" Sarai whispered. She meant Mei Li's sword.
"It's in the car." Mei Li whispered back.
Sarai sighed and her shoulders dropped. "Now we are undefended."
"You said?" Sheila asked, turned back to look at Sarai.
"Uh?! N- nothing." Sarai grinned, uncomfortably.
Sheila's eyes scrutinized Sarai's face for a while then, she faced forth again and began to lead them into her house and finally, into her living room.
"I know your mother, Katherina." Sheila muttered.
"Uh?!" Sarai's attention piqued.
"She's always all about helping others that she forgot about herself." Sheila stopped as they got to the living room and she turned to face them, with her eyes solely on Sarai. Then she added, "About her daughter."
Sarai flinched. Her eyes flashed with hurt. Her fists clenched beside her. Her lips pressed against each other then she opened them as she asked. "Tell me, what do you know about my mother?"
"Trust me. I know much more than you, her daughter, will ever know."
Sarai almost staggered when she heard this.
Melissa glanced at Sarai and sighed. She turned to Sheila as she said, "can we go back to why we are in here now?"
"Yea." Sheila grinned. "What brought you here?"
"Can we begin with why you witches are all alarmed and vigilant?" Melissa raised a brow, with a frown.
"Have your seats." Sheila gestured to the brown colored lounge chairs.
They all sat down.
"There was a prophecy. It's about an impending danger that is likely to fall on all of us in this City, if not this country. And according to the seer, evil will come in the way of magic, so we witches are obliged to take whatever measures necessary." Sheila narrated with a serious look.
"Oh. That sounds scary." Melissa muttered.
Mei Li had a deep frown on her face as she digested what Sheila said. She couldn't help but think the prophecy is somehow connected with Akotal.
But there's one difference.
And that's 'the way of magic' that's added to the prophecy.
"The Dark Witches." Sarai whispered.
"You said?" Sheila asked.
"Nevermind." Sarai responded, quickly.
Sheila gazed at Sarai for a while. Then she looked away. She asked Melissa. "Now what brought you here?"
"We need your help." Melissa muttered. She exchanged surreptitious glances with Sarai.
Sarai shifted in her seat as she began.
"There's a powerful person after our lives and we need a Registro, maybe we can find a leverage in it. But I can't find my family's Registro. I was hoping you would help me."
Melissa said, "We need a Registro."
Melissa feigned like she didn't know about the fact that the witches were the ones taking the Registro.
"A Registro? Wow. It's been a while since I heard about that thing." Sheila laughed, playing along too.
Melissa glanced at Sarai and she understood.
"We know that you guys are the ones taking the Registros." Mei Li spilled.
"Wow! Hahahahaha!" Sheila laughed. Soon she stopped and gazed at the trio ladies with a grim look. "That's true. We are the ones taking the Registro."
"Why?" Sarai frowned hard.
"Remember I said, we witches are obliged to take whatever measures to avert the impending evil." Sheila asked. Then she dropped in a bombshell. "We were the ones taking the Registro of every witch family. It's our safety measure to stop whatever evil is coming."
Melissa, Sarai and Mei Li, they all shifted in their seats.
"And what are going to do with the Registros?" Melissa asked with a raised brow.
"Of course, we will be destroying it all." Sheila dropped in yet another bombshell.
*********