"What do you want?" Sheila shouted, her heart racing hard.
"Nothing, dear Sheila. Just the Registro."
Just then a car halted at the front of Sheila's half burnt house.
Not up to a minute later, Melissa, Sarai and Mei Li raced into the backyard.
Melissa couldn't contain the shock she felt as she gazed at the bodies around.
Even though what they saw while entering the street, the sight of the houses that belonged to the witches were all burnt to the ground, was dreadful.
The sight in this backyard proved to be more dreadful.
"What have you done?" Melissa shouted in surprise. Anger flashed across her eyes as she conjured red orbs onto her palms.
"If you had shone that red orb talent of yours earlier, this wouldn't have happened." Heald muttered from behind the witch he held hostage. "But I would advise you to at least tell your old dear witch friend to cooperate because if she doesn't, I will surely rip this neck apart."
"You see what you brought to me, Melissa? After years of not coming here, you brought death." Sheila muttered with tears in her eyes.
Melissa didn't even know when the red orb in her hand disappeared. Her heart thudded and her eyes flashed with guilt when she heard what Sheila said. Her lips trembled as she muttered. "I'm sorry."
"You shouldn't have done this much, Heald." Sarai shook her head with a ugly look on her face.
"I had to, Sarai. And even if I don't want to, there's no going back now. It's already done." Heald's eyes flashed with madness as he added. "So it's now up to you ladies to handle this old woman and advise her to reconsider her prophecy changing scheme to burn the Registros."
"Take it."
"Uh?!" Sarai gasped.
"You heard me, take it. Take the Registro," Sheila said.
Sarai exchanged glances with Heald and the latter grinned.
Sarai shook her head with bitterness and hurried to the pile of spell books. She combed through it and within a minute, she found it, the Armadi Registro.
Heald sighed in relief as Sarai held the Registro to her chest. His face flashed with seriousness as he said, "Now you can't stop us from getting out of here."
Melissa, on the other hand, wasn't pleased with this as she glared at Heald. "Of course, she won't watch you get out of here alive.
Heald grinned. "I didn't say I won't give myself some measures."
Melissa gazed with confusion. Even Sheila had a curious glint in her sad eyes.
"Sarai! Mei Li! Melissa!" Heald called. "Go to the car first, I'll be right behind you."
Melissa took a last glance at Sheila. Her eyes flashed with guilt as she looked away and walked out of the backyard along with Sarai and Mei Li.
Heald watched them leave, then turned to Sheila. "If you want, I would like to help you heal your coven members with my blood."
"No, I don't need your help." Sheila's eyes blazed with rage. "You will pay for this, vampire."
"Well then, I will give my goodbye gift." Heald grinned. "I don't want you giving us a headache while getting out of here. There's a car packed outside this place, it would be of help."
Sheila was wondering what Heald meant when something happened.
Slash!
Miranda shrieked in pain as a slash appeared on her belly.
Sheila looked around but Heald was gone. Her eyes went wide when she saw blood oozing out of Miranda's belly.
All she heard next was a screech that emanated outside the building and then a rev that, every passing second, sounded farther and farther until it was no more.
***********
Hector and Christa watched with horror as Benzo screamed and writhed, gripping his head hard.
"Do something about this!" Christa shrieked.
Hector gave her a glance, "you know what happens when I go near him. He'll freak out and involuntarily send some burning balls at me. I'm not willing to loose my life to a madman."
"But we have to do something." Christa muttered.
Hector sighed and folded his hands as he watched Benzo. He is never going to go near Benzo, not when he has been burnt severally by the mindless mutant.
However, as Hector thought about what to do, Christa suddenly began to forward, towards Benzo.
Hector's face turned ugly. If Benzo hurts her, Kylian would skin him alive.
He rushed and stopped Christa from taking another step. With wide eyes, he snapped. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Doing what I'm supposed to be doing?" Christa replied with a grim look.
"And what could that be?"
"To save that man from his humanly predicament."
"Oh uh! You can't go near him, okay?! I'm not ready break my promise to Kylian and so am I not willing to go for a survival battle against a skull vampire. So you gotta listen to me."
"Do something. Or…" Christa stopped, knowing that Hector will have gotten the idea of what she's saying, already.
Hector groaned and turned away from Christa, to face Benzo.
Benzo's face was red and his situation was miserable. His eyes were dim, but pain could still be seen in it, flashing constantly, not ready to let him go. Benzo fell on his knees in agony, still clutching his head and gritting his teeths hard, stopping himself from screaming. Then he whispered. "Please help me."
Hector's face flashed with pity. His gaze dropped to the ground as he asked Christa without turning back. "The roar is ringing in his head and the fear is coming along with it?"
"Yes." Christa gulped, unsure of why Hector is asking.
"That means he's not in the present moment yet?"
"Yes." Christa responded again, despite her confusion.
"Then I know what to do."
"What is it gonna be?"
"I'll bring him back to the present moment."
Bang!
The ground shattered at impact as Hector lunged at Benzo. The latter's eyes widened in fear and he lifted his palms instinctively and fireballs thrusted out of it.
Hector dodged the first but the second caught his abdomen. His speed dropped and he screamed out in agony but he didn't stop.
Before Benzo knew what's going on, Hector was before him. Hector's face flashed with fierceness as he grabbed Benzo's neck and shook him hard. "You are no longer in the castle, you are safe now."
However, it only worsens as Benzo screamed in agony. "My head!!!"
Benzo gripped Hector's arms as his kept on screaming. Hector's face contorted as flames oozed out of Benzo's palms and burned his arms.
Hector knew very well that if he didn't succeed now, he might not, ever again. Because Benzo will be long gone.
Hector gritted back the pain that his burning arms sent to his head as he shrieked. "Listen to me, that pain in your head is an illusion."
"My head!!!!" Benzo was far from listening to what Hector was saying.
Hector's face flashed with anger when he saw this. He gripped Benzo's right hand and twisted the fingers and it cracked.
Benzo screamed in pain.
"You see?! That pain in your head is non-existent. This one is real."
"My head, it's spinning!!!" Benzo still kept saying as he wiggled his body, trying to shake Hector so he would let him go. But Hector held him tight.
Hector seeing that that's didn't work, raised his right hand to Benzo's face while the left hand still held his neck tight.
Benzo's eyes were moving around at first, but after a few seconds, his eyes set on the hand. Slowly, claws crept out of the fingers. Benzo's eyes widened at this.
"Watch this!" Hector said then he plunged his claws into Benzo's shoulder.
Benzo screamed hard.
"You see, that's real pain."
Benzo shrieked and shrieked and flames erupted from his palms the more.
Hector groaned in agony as the flames burned him. He pulled out his claws from Benzo's shoulder and shoved it into the lower abdomen and blood spurted out.
Christa's eyes went wide. "Hector, stop!!"
Hector didn't reply. His eyes glinted with madness as Benzo screamed with agony at the top of his voice. "Come back to me, buddy." Hector yelled at his face.
Benzo's eyes so wide as it flashed with pain that within seconds, it began to turn red.
Just as Hector began to panic, Benzo's screamed in a struggling voice. "Stop, Hector! What are you doing?!"
"You are back," Hector said with relief as he pulled out his claws from Benzo's abdomen.
Benzo groaned as his every wound on his body healed up. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he muttered. "What the hell happened?"
"So much, man." Hector replied sighing in relief.
********
"Whowhoo! Yeah! We did it. Even before sundown." Heald jubilated, elatedly, pointing to the orange sun that is just about to be setting behind the high scrappers at the far horizon.
Melissa turned the wheels left and smashed the accelerator as the car swished past several vehicles.
"You killed those people. I made a mistake taking you guys to them." Melissa seethed.
"No, no, no. Don't say that. After all we got what we wanted. The Registro is in the safe hands of your cousin." Heald grinned motioning to Sarai.
"Sheila, her house is burned," Sarai said with grief in her tone.
"Oh, don't make this hard for yourself, sweetheart. We are going to be fine." Heald slurred.
"This didn't even bother you." Mei Li hissed, irritatedly. "Murderer."
"O, Kay. You have to stop now, girls."
"There's nothing to stop there, Heald. Those people were my friends. They trusted me and I brought death to their doorstep." Melissa snapped.
"That was bad."Sarai shook her head and clutched the Registro to her chest. "I never believed you could do it, Heald."
"For those I care about, I will do it again and again. For Kylian, for Christa, for Sarai. I will do it over and over again."
"That's not so surprising, though. He's a vampire, a brutal specie of supernaturals," Mei Li cursed silently.
"So, after all my sacrifices, all I get is being blamed?" Heald shrugged his shoulders with a bitter look.
"You shouldn't have done that. Sheila is never gonna forgive you. The witches are never gonna forgive you," Sarai said.
"I know, Sarai. I know!" Heald snapped.
They all went silent.
Heald began to breathe uncontrollably.
"You think I don't know? I know my future is uncertain from now on. The witches are never gonna forgive me. But you don't need to remind me of that." Heald sighed, his eyes flashing with what most vampires hated the most. Guilt. "If I didn't do it, no one will. And that would be our deaths. But now that I did it. We will live and our future is guaranteed except mine. And I'm pleased with that."
No one said anything else.
Heald was right.
He knew that if he didn't do it, the ladies wouldn't want to do it and they wouldn't get the Registro. So he took it upon himself to get it, even at the expense of the deaths of most of the Aryan witches.
He's marked for vengeance but he cares less, at least, he and his crew might survive Akotal with the Registro.
All of a sudden, the car screeches to a stop.
Heald lifted his face.
There was a hold-up and Melissa had stopped the car herself.
"What's going on?" Mei Li asked as she peeped and she could see people gathered by the roadsides watching something that's ahead of the hold-up.
Rubberneckers peeped from cars ahead them and gazed at something ahead of the hold-up too and their keen eyes and wow faces made Melissa wonder.
Heald's ears cocked as he listened to what the by watchers were murmuring with his vamp earing. After a few seconds, his eyes trembled slightly.
"I'll be damned." He opened the door beside him and got out of the car.
"Hey, what is it? Wait up!" Sarai screamed but he didn't even hear.
Sarai opened the door beside her too and got down. The other followed.
Heald got to the front of the hold-up and he halted on his tracks.
His eyes gleamed with confusion as he watched what's going.
"What is this?" Sarai asked as she and the other two ladies got there too.
Right in the middle of the road, stopping vehicles from moving on, were about twenty men and women. Not human men and women though.
"Vampires." Heald muttered.
They were all staring blankly into the empty space.
"Uh!" Mei Li parted her lips.
"What are they doing?" Melissa couldn't help but cock her brow.
Heald moved closer to the vampires, step after step, slow and cautious.
When he got into the range of about five meters away from them, he stopped.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Heald asked, raising a brow.
"Our people are dead, and so we are also going to die." One of them answered while the rest kept quiet, staring at the nothingness.
All of a sudden, all the vampires pulled out a stake each.
Heald's eyes widened at this and he subconsciously took a step back.
He can't be too careless, the stake, driven through his heart, can kill him so he had a slight tremble in his heart when he saw it.
Right under the watch of every eyes, the twenty or so vampires plunged the stakes in their hands each into their heart and one after other, they all fell to the ground death.
A loud scream of terror erupted from the people around and they took to their heels.
Even the rubberneckers in their cars scampered out with fear.
"What the hell?" Melissa's eyes widened.
"What just happened?" Mei Li's eyes fluttered and her face went pale.
"They were compelled," Heald said.
"Vampires? Compelled?" Melissa's face whitened.
"A Primordial can compell a normal vampire." Mei Li muttered with trembling voice.
"So that means…" Melissa's voice trailed off.
Heald nodded. "Yes. Akotal compelled them all to kill themselves. Things are about to get dark. And we need to get back to the others, now."
********
Kylian and Mac got back to Sarai's ruined safehouse.
They both entered without being stopped by the protective spells on the area. Afterall, they have no ill intentions, they are there to help.
"You are back." Christa sighed with relief.
"Yes." Kylian moved to her and hugged her. Christa clung to him like a magnet and hugged him back. She feels so safe in his hands. Kylian kissed her forehead before disengaging from the hug but his right hand still held Christa close.
"Benzo, you are awake." Kylian muttered with glee.
"Yes. After much struggle." Benzo snickered and Hector scoffed.
Kylian gazed between the two and then, his eyes caught Hector's burns that are slowly healing unlike normal wounds. "What happened?"
"Something much. But everything is okay now. You don't need to worry." Hector nodded reassuringly.
Kylian nodded and turned to Mac. "Benzo, Hector, meet Mac, he's a werewolf and he's here to help us. Mac meet Benzo and Hector. And my mate here, Christa."
"Emm." Mac nodded briefly and the two men nodded back too.
Caius walked in, just in time. Adrian, Bellerin and Bones-the-old were with him.
But the Casal vampires are not present with him.
Everyone gazed at him in confusion.
Caius sighed and lifted his gaze to the others. "The coven. They ran off."
"What?!" Hector gawked. The others were surprised too. But their surprise soon turned to dread when they realized that one of their cards is lost.
If the vampires are here, it would be easier for them to fight but now that they had all ran away, then they are left with little help.
"Why?" Kylian asked.
"Akotal is killing all our coven friend from Italy and this scared my coven. As I'm speaking to you, most of the vampires in New York are dead and those who aren't has fled for the hills."
***********