Kathryn together with her team, prepared to go out and save Damien.
"Atleast let us wait for Damon to be back then we know the next step to take, I reckon he would be here any moment from now" Anderson tried to reason with Kathryn.
"I'm sorry but we can't wait for Damon, every moment we waste here waiting is dangerous...and need I remind you i am the captain of my team, I am mandated to bring back every civilian with me alive including your boss,now get out of my way" Lauren commanded but Andersom still stood unwavering on the way.....after all he was commanded by his boss to prevent her from going after him incase things went south
"And why aren't you saying anything Derek, if I'm not mistake he is your brother, aren't you worried that they might kill him?" she looked at him disappointed.
Derek sighed as he left the ladies he was tending to and walked up to her.
"They can only try but they can't kill him, and also like Anderson said, we will move the moment Damon is here with serena, you don't need to worry yourself, Damien can take care of himself" he said calmly and smiled at her before returning to tend to the ladies that were still unconscious
Lauren and her team stood surprised at how nonchalant they were treating this case.
''What does he mean that they can't kill him, we literally heard him through the comms wince in pain after gunshots went off, what if he is dead?" A member of her team asked her.
"I feel like they are hiding something" stephanie said as a matter of fact.
Lauren and her team were still having a mini meeting by the side when Damon and serena made it to the plane.
Some of the men went down to help get her up as she was already unconscious.
"Here, lie her here" Derek instructed the men carrying her.
"She fell asleep on our way back" Damon said and laid her on one of the sofas in the plane.
Derek and lauren examined her and found her to be slightly dehydrated, but nothing serious.
"She will regain consciousness in a couple of hours" Derek said to the team in the plane..."now let's go find Damien" he announced.
Both teams drove furiously in record time to get to the address mazariou gave before.
Damon's team were leading the way, reaching the location, their trunk banged on the gate in front of the old mansion bringing it down from its hinges with a loud thud.
When they got into the huge compound, it looked like an old mansion from the medieval time but with paintings.
The team were met with severed head of a man on the porch of the mansion with black blood oozing from the body just few inches away.
The agents brought down the entrance door into the mansion with a loud bang.
"Oh my God, what happened here" Stephanie asked petrified as they stared at the lifeless bodies of different men littered on the floor with no sight of Damien. Damon gave a lopsided smile when he saw the dead bodies.
Lauren held her breath as she scanned the bodies silently praying that Damien wasn't among the dead.
"Damien isn't among" a member of her team announced, she released a deep breath she didnt know she was holding.
"Alright, let's split up, since this is a big mansion, we will move in twos, the NDI agents will cover the ground floor while apex takes the rest of building" she instructed the teams before leaving with stephanie.
She and stephanie followed through the east wing of the house.
The more they opened doors into another living rooms the more bodies piled.
"Are those hearts?"Stephanie asked in shock.
"What exactly happened here, who killed these people" Stephanie queried again.
They got to where they had to split up in other to cover more ground, so she and stephanie split, with stephanie covering the whole of the floor while she covered the underground basement they just found.
Stephanie's cautionary words lingered in the air as Lauren prepared to venture into the unknown. "Be careful," Stephanie said, her voice filled with concern. Lauren, equally mindful of the impending danger, softened her response with a reassuring smile. "You too," she replied, knowing they were both embarking on separate paths that held their fair share of risks.
The moment Lauren set foot in the dimly lit underground basement, she instinctively activated her flashlight, its beam piercing through the shadows. The sickening stench that assaulted her senses nearly overwhelmed her, a potent blend of decay and despair. It was as if the very essence of death had permeated the air, intensifying the gravity of the situation. With steely determination, Lauren pressed on, her grip on her gun firm and her flashlight thrust forward to ward off any encroaching darkness.
"Where are you, Damien?" she whispered, her voice barely audible above the eerie silence. Each step she took reverberated through the desolate space, accentuating her solitary pursuit. The anticipation and dread intertwined in her heart, fueled by the haunting atmosphere surrounding her. In her mind, she braced herself for the possibility of encountering a ghastly sight—a decomposed corpse, the embodiment of the repugnant smell that had enveloped the basement.
As she ventured farther, the dim glow of her flashlight illuminated the path ahead. After a while, a mysterious figure emerged from the shadows, catching her attention. Without hesitation, she instinctively directed the beam of light toward the enigmatic presence, hoping to shed some clarity on the situation. However, what she witnessed left her utterly dumbfounded.
"What the hell," she muttered under her breath, her voice laced with disbelief. Her trembling hand involuntarily released the flashlight, allowing it to clatter onto the ground. The sight that materialized before her eyes was beyond comprehension, defying reality itself. She hastily retrieved her fallen torch, shaking off her shock, and trained the beam once again on the figure. Yet, to her dismay, it had vanished into thin air—like a phantom vanishing into the night.
Uncertainty gripped her, intensifying her senses. She spun around, her finger firmly pressing against the trigger of her gun. Every movement was met with vigilance, anticipating an imminent threat. Suddenly, as if her premonitions were realized, the figure reappeared, hurtling toward her with a malevolent intent. In a moment that seemed to defy the laws of time, the figure's advance played out in a surreal slow-motion sequence, providing her with a glimmer of opportunity.
Reacting swiftly, her reflexes honed by countless encounters, she deftly evaded the figure's extended, razor-sharp claws. The world seemed to bend to her will as she nimbly sidestepped the impending attack. A surge of adrenaline coursed through her veins, fueling her determination to survive the encounter. He whizzed pass her and stopped on its track, it was puzzled to see a human with that ability.
He contemplated if it was safer and better to run off of the premises and away from the dangerous Damien, with his life still intact or eat a meal while at it, he chose the latter, after all it is a free meal.
He smirked and went at her again.
She dropped her torch and aimed at him, shoting repeatedly but to her shock he was still very much alive.
"Guns dont kill us vampires, you humans are so predictable" he said laughing hysterically while removing a bullet from a hole it burrowed in his head.
Lauren saw his elongated fangs and was petrified, but she needed to survive because she had alot of things to live for, so she unsheathed the twin daggers on her uniform and stood ready to fight to the death.
As he charged toward her once more, desperation fueled her strategy. With calculated precision, she purposefully enticed him closer, luring him into a false sense of triumph. Just mere inches away, she swiftly dropped to the ground, executing a split-second decision. Her hand grasped the makeshift weapon, jagged and unforgiving, and plunged it deep into his abdomen. A guttural cry of anguish erupted from his lips, evidence of the agony that now consumed him.
However, his pain did not deter him from retaliating. In a fit of rage, he seized her by the hair, yanking her forcefully, and flung her against the unforgiving wall. The impact reverberated throughout her body, leaving her gasping for air as the wind was forcefully expelled from her lungs. The searing pain of a fractured rib now marked her side, adding fresh torment to her already battered form.
"Fuck!" she cursed through gritted teeth, her voice laced with pain and frustration. In her fight to remain standing, she had hoped to brace herself against the wall, but instead, she was met with a surge of agony, a piercing reminder of her vulnerability and the grueling battle that lay ahead.
She watched as the deep cut she gave him closed up in seconds and his pale skin was as though it was never scratched.
"What are you?" She muttered...
He walked leisurely towards her like a predator ready for the kill. She looked at her sides for anything to defend her self and as if the gods where on her side, her hands touched an a two inches rod. She wrapped her fingers around it and waited for him to approach.
He squatted in front of her and smiled deviously.
"Its a pity that such a beauty have to die by my hands" he said as he touched the sides of her face with his pointy talons.
He was distracted by the beauty of her face that he didnt know when she stabbed the rod in side his heart. There was a look of shock and surprise in his dark eyes as he stared at her.
He fell on his back and gasped for air, she watched him as he turned into a rocky statue.
"I guess a stake at the heart kills you then" she said over his body before picking her gun and torchlight and continued her search for Damien. She had wasted a lot of time so she jogged on inside the basement.
Meanwhile....
"If I were you I would stop running mazariou, you wanted the sword, come out and take it" Damien taunted while strolling leisurely to where his prey was.
They thought they had him when they shot him multiple times with bullets made of lycans venom, but they had forgotten that he was from the Voltarie bloodline, and will take more than just bullets prepared to take him down, and also the fact that they didnt know he was bestowed the power and strength of the golden eyed vampire, the tale of thousand years old.
It took them by surprise when he rose from the ground after being assaulted with bullets for five minutes non stop and went ahead to rip out the hearts of three dozen vampires that came to bind him. He was too fast, faster than a speed of light, that they could only see his blurry images whizz around the room and bodies falling with a thud in its wake.
"Mazariou one last chance, I might forgive you if you tell me who asked you to plot against me, oh before I forget, I had the absolute pleasure of killing your hundred and forty foot soldiers, you might as well just come out, let's have a chat shall we." he taunted him, while getting closer to where he hid.
He halted on his tracks when he heard a familiar heartbeat in the building. He listened again to be sure that it wasn't all in his mind but alas it was hers..
"What is she doing here?" He muttered, and immediately his attentions were diverted, mazariou used the chance to escape from where he was hiding.
He contemplated on whether he should go after him or just go back to see Lauren and make sure she was ok, he chose the latter and zoomed out of the basement.
"Where is Lauren?" He asked immediately he walked in on the agents.
"Damien" Damon and Derek called out simultaneously.
"Mr Voltarie" the NDI agents looked at him in shock, he was alive but his hands were bloody red. 'Was he the one that killed all these people?' was what was on the mind of all the human agents there.
"We split when we got to an intersection, she took the basement while I searched the room, her comms are down and we've searched everywhere but haven't found her yet, so we are just waiting, hoping that maybe she will come out with you" Stephanie narrated.
"She is still out there, eveyone should wait for us, I will bring her back" he said, but before her left he instructed Damon and Derek to compel the human agents to forget the things they saw.
He rushed inside the basement and followed a particular route that no one knew of and silently prayed to the gods that Lauren doesnt run into mazariou.
He was about to enter through a door when he perceived the smell of a fresh human blood. He banged on the door and it fell from its hinges with a loud noise.
And there she was, lying on the floor with mazariou squatted beside her with his fangs sunk inside her neck.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE" he bellowed, his voiced revibrating in the whole building so much so that it shock it from its foundation.