The City of New York bustled.
Cars honked around, people walked to and fro. People were moving with their lives and lights glowed everywhere as the day drew towards its end.
People moved around, not even noticing the empty space that once occupied Sarai's house. The spell she casted didn't let people see the destroyed house and no one knew that something like this was going on in the city.
The house remained ruined, cloaked by a spell and occupying a group of supernaturals staying there because of the protection the place offers.
They have been unfortunate. Their lives are in danger. Their tomorrow isn't guaranteed yet and their only wish now is that they could find a way to get out of the mess they have found themselves in.
All this unknown to the world.
Crushing sounds erupted as Kylian silently walked towards the direction Heald went, his shoulder length silvery hairs swung around with every step he took.
At first, all he could see he went on were broken walls, shattered grounds, littering iron rods clothed in dried concrete and woods and furniture.
But soon, as he swerved by a shattered wall, he could see Heald, sitting on a dust covered chair that seemed to have survived the destruction of the house.
He didn't even care to clean it. All he did was stare at the empty space as he sipped the bottle of Bourbon in his grip all by himself.
Kylian sighed.
"Hey, Heald."
Heald didn't turn to look back at Kylian. He held the bottle bottoms up and gulped down the content as his throat made funny sounds. The liquid in the bottle clashed against the glass as he lowered it.
"What are you doing here? You should be with Sarai as she casts the spell to rid us of our life-seeker." Heald chuckled.
"You did something awful, didn't you?" Kylian settled his butt on the floor beside the chair Heald is sitting on.
Heald was silent, awfully silent.
Kylian sighed. He was right afterall.
"What did you do?" Kylian asked.
"I did what the ladies can't bring themselves to do. I cleared the gaze." Heald muttered and brought his lips to the bottle again as he gulped like there's no tommorow.
"I knew it would come to this. You shouldn't have done it. I have been the only one with a dark burden on his shoulder, so it should have been me," Kylian said.
"You are wrong, Kylian." Heald snapped.
Kylian's eyes flashed. He stared at Heald with his mouth agape.
"You are wrong. I have done terrible things. Did I ever tell you my past? I only told you I'm an Englishman who sailed his way here during the East India company time."
Kylian shifted on his butts.
"That was a lie. I was lying on my sickbed, being transported away in a lazaretto ship from London when a vampire turned me. The blood of the several sailors and crewmen on board served to complete my transfusion. But that's not all.
"For months, my ship floated on the oceans with no direction and my only source of food was the occupants of the passing ships I would hail and then go on a rampage that would end with the dry bodies of merchants whose only goal as the sailed towards America was to have a good life and good future in the new investment in New Amsterdam. I have done terrible things, Kylian. You are not the only one with a dark past, mate."
Kylian sighed. His gaze rose up to the sky which has now darken from the nightfall. His eyes glinted with bitterness as he muttered. "Then let's get soaked together. Akotal will be here in no time."
**********
"Adrian! Adrian!! Adrian!!!" Bellerin called as he raced after him.
He could see Adrian but the latter didn't answer despite hearing him calling.
He jumped over a burnt furniture, placed his hand on a half half broken wall and leapt over it. He could only thank the heavens that he finally caught up with Adrian.
"Adrian, wait!" Bellerin shouted.
"Leave me alone, Bell." Adrian snapped.
"You need to calm down."
"Why should I calm down, uh?!" Adrian's eyes were literally blazing with anger.
"She's not yours."
"So that's what you are gonna say?"
Bellerin shrugged. "What do you expect me to say?"
"He has taken her as his mate, butvhes not protecting at all!" Adrian shrieked, his veins bulging.
"Well, he is protecting her."
"Hiding his ass behind half a dozen supernaturals is a way of protecting her?"
"You don't expect him to go against Akotal alone. We all have the same enemy, so it's normal us to fight him together." Bellerin spread his arms wide. "Or do you have a better idea?"
"Of course, you won't understand me." Adrian's eyes flashed with perplexity. "And trust me, I have a better idea of keeping you safe."
"Hey."
A voice sounded behind the two and they looked back.
Behold it was Christa.
Her eyes narrowed at Adrian. Her index pointed at his face as she pondered. "I think I know you."
Adrian gritted and his eyes flashed with tenderness. Then he nodded. "Yes, you do. And that's why I'll be doing what I am about to do. I'll protect you."
*********
"Ello Armadi fuetosh ashpura!" Sarai kept on chanting.
The chanting went on and on for like five minutes before the wind current picked pace. The atmosyphere around churned with magic and the others stepped back a bit.
A bright light covered the Registro and the runes around the book lit up. Like locks, the runes began to move around, interlocking and disentangling.
It went on for almost another five minutes before finally stopping and the runes went off again.
"Puff! That should be the victory, I guess." Benzo grinned and rubbed his palms together.
Sarai opened her eyes. They were moisture and a gleam was in it. She has never thought she would be near any of her ancestral properties in her life. She normally runs from it all, not even an enchanted candle of the family.
Those properties does nothing but to remind her that she's the last of the straight Armadis lineage, others that are still alive are just far distant relatives.
However, she clenched her teeths, hardened her heart and pushed away all those thoughts.
She grabbed the cover of the Registro and flipped it to a side.
A page full of a different language was revealed.
They all sighed in relieve.
However, Sarai's face was dark with confusion. She flipped the first page, then the second, then the third, yet her confusion only grew.
"What's the matter?" Caius asked.
"I can't read it. It was written in a different language." Sarai's forehead creased in a deep frown. "Spells are written in Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, and several other ancient languages. And I can say I know a lot of spells written in this languages but this… I haven't seen before."
"Armadi witches aren't known for writing spells in languages like that." Melissa tilted her head towards Sarai.
The latter gritted her dentitions. "We can't be so sure. Whatever language this is, I can't read it."
"That shouldn't be a problem, there are several centuries old vampires here so any language it's written in shouldn't be a problem." Hector said.
"Remember, not all spells can be read by anybody but a witch." Melissa noted.
"No matter what, we have to take our chances. There's not much time left. Come have a look." Sarai gestured to Hector.
"I'm close to four hundred years old and I know languages like Slavic, Mongol, Ugric and several others." Hector came closer. His eyes stared at the pages for a while. After about a minute of staring with no comprehension of what's on the page, he succumbed. "I don't know this one."
Caius moved closer. He squatted by the book and stared at it.
Caius is over six hundred hundred years old vampire and he knows almost every languages in the continent Europe due to his early years as a indigene of Florence, Italy. His father was one of the founders of the city of Florence and they were key family there. And asides that, Caius is a good traveller who would wander the whole continent for years and come and go again and come back.
He did that all his first hundred years.
However, no matter how hard he stared at the letters on this ancient book, he couldn't get a thing. After minutes too, he sighed and stood up. "I can't read a word."
"Now what's the essence of having the Registro if we can't read it and get the spell we need." Hector panicked.
Bones-the-old and Caius' exchanged ugly looks.
"The sun is down." Mei Li's face flashed with horror. "That Primordial will be here any moment from now."
"I can see I'm much expected."
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
Gasps erupted among them as they turned to the dilapitated entrance to see Akotal.
His multicolored eyes sparkled as he said, "I'm pleased by the amount of red I have seen today."
Caius gulped and Sarai's lips trembled as she reminisced what Akotal had said when he told her to tell her crew to give up Christa or die, last night.
Hector and Benzo could feel their skin crawl as they gazed at the most terrifying person they have ever seen in their life.
Akotal grinned and his mysterious Primordial eyes gleamed with enjoyment as he said, "but I'm not satisfied yet."
"Akotal." Caius smiled bitterly.
"Caius, we meet again."
"To get to them, you will have to go through me." Caius clenched his fists.
"Well, It would be my pleasure." Akotal's eyes glinted.
"You will only be violating the law of your clan if you kill me."
"I might not be the one to kill you. But you will be weeded out of the way, anyway." Akotal muttered.
Caius gulped and his eyes twitched at this.
Tension grew and the others all stood on alert.
"Where is the descendant?" Akotal asked, throatily.
"You are not getting her." Hector growled with great difficulty that showed how much he's struggling with Akotal's suppressing aura.
"Well, there's no need to tell how this could end if you stand in my way."
The memories of the destruction Akotal brought on them last night was still vivid in their heads.
"Well, here is the good news. I can't die twice. It's only once." Benzo grinned.
The others clearly agreeing with Benzo, all clenched their fists and prepared for battle.
Benzo's palms lit up in flames.
Hector sprouted his claws and fangs.
Mei Li tightened her hold on her sword.
Mac half transformed as hairs grew on his face, fangs protruded from his mouth and claws, as sharp as razor sprouted from his fingers. He growled loudly and the hairs on his cheeks spiked.
"Then, let's begin." Akotal grinned. He pointed to towards the group and the shattered bricks of the devastated building levitated into the air.
"That won't be necessary."
They all turned towards where the words came from.
Lo and behold, it's Bellerin. His face was bloody and his eyes looked weary.
On seeing him, Akotal lowered his hands and the stones floating in the air dropped on the ground.
Caius' eyes widened. "What happened?"
"It's Adrian. He took Christa away saying he wants to protect her. I tried to stop him but I couldn't." Bellerin turned to Akotal. "He's at the abandoned factory Kylian swept through weeks ago. Go meet him there."
"What?!"
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
They were all shocked.
"Thank you, kid. But…" Akotal narrowed his eyes as he gazed at Bellerin. "You are poisoned."
Even though Caius already knew what poisoned Bellerin, he still couldn't help but ask in shock. "What is it?"
"His bees stung me."
"Ah!" Caius growled.
"Perhaps, your son couldn't bear the thought that I was alive because of him."
"It wasn't his fault!" Caius growled.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Your lives will be spared now." Akotal said and grinned at Caius. "Your son has decided to make the sacrifice."
"Don't you dare touch my son!" Caius growled.
"Well, if he obediently hands over the girl, I might spare his life."
The wind howled and before they could know it, Akotal was gone.
"What did your son think he's doing?!" Hector snapped.
Caius opened his mouth to say something but he couldn't say a thing.
Just then, Kylian and Heald showed up.
They all had shocked expressions when they saw Kylian. Things are about to get rough.
His soulmate is taken.
Kylian frowned when he noticed the tension in the air. "What's happening?"
They all hesitated.
Kylian turns to Bellerin and seeing his bruised face, he asked. "What happened to your face?"
"That should be the least of your problems now, Kylian." Hector said, with his face ugly.
Kylian's eyes moved between them all for answers but hesitation was all he could get in response.
"It's Adrian." Bellerin muttered. "I'm afraid, he took away Christa and asked Akotal to come get her. He thinks he can protect her alone."
Kylian couldn't even say a word. His face distorted in disbelief and his lips twitched.
His eyes blazed as he asked in a guttural voice. "Where is he?"
Bellerin shivered at the murderous intent that burned in the voice.
"Where is he?!!!" Kylian appeared before Bellerin in a second.
The latter stepped back and trembled with fear. "The abandoned factory you swept through weeks ago. That was what he said."
"Kylian, you need to calm down, if we don't do things with sense here, Akotal will kill my son and he will have the girl." Caius muttered with urgency.
Kylian said no word as he sped off without waiting for anyone.
********
At the abandoned factory.
Akotal stopped in front of the large hall in the middle of the entire factory.
The door was ajaw, yet he didn't make any movement to enter for almost five minutes.
"What? Are you scared of me that much?" A voice echoed from within the dark hall.
Akotal grunted and his multicolored eyes took a shade of red as he stepped into the dark hall.
With his supernatural eyes, he could see two figures in the dark. Presumably, Adrian and Christa.
"You brought her to me on a silver platter." Akotal's voice was tinged with joy and satisfaction.
"You can't blame me, old man. I had to do something."
********