"Finally! Where were you? We were freaking out!"
I looked at Felix while drinking a bit of the cocktail from my bottle. "Lix, sorry, but you're always freaking out. I was in the underground city market, of course. Did you forget I've never even been in a market before? I couldn't help it. Besides, I was with Bell and Hanna. Though Hanna was taken away by Elsa's uncle, and they must be in a very nasty situation right now," I grinned mischievously.
["I wanted to see the market with you!"] Jack pouted.
"Oh? I thought wings was your favorite," I closed one eye and then opened again. "I wanted to talk to Bell alone. There were some personal matters I needed to speak with her about. Also, I felt you in the market, it's not like you didn't see things!"
He growled, ["Yumi doesn't like spending money. You, in the other hand, doesn't mind doing that at all."]
"Yes. You could buy your team some stuff after the match!"
I narrowed my eyes at Noah, "Ah, I see. I'm your piggy bank."
"Sister," Noah turned to Kalisha. Everyone did. Expectantly.
"Oh, come on," Kalisha gave me that beautiful look of hers. "You are the richest in here, we all know. Oliver and Jack told us, alright? Besides aren't you responsible for us? It would be cool if you sponsored us in the market, you know? Show how you care for your team as a team leader."
Savannah nodded, "Oliver always did that!"
Aye, they are pissing me off, but Kalisha is beautiful when she says it like that. "Fine. Not today, I have… things… to do after the matches. But tomorrow and on Sunday I'll let you chose what you want from the market before the matches. For some reason, I feel like a mother," I mocked. "And don't call Oliver-Sean's team. I'll be only paying for you, and Bell. And Hanna if she wants to go around. And my father, of course."
"The power of Kalisha," Shiryu exclaimed smiling happily.
"And poking on her pride," Yumi added.
Felix laughed, "Not a mother, but an older sister."
"Hah, we should call her younger siblings to join then," Melvin said with a mischievous grin. "She's doing a better job on us than on them."
I glared at him, "Hey, pointy ears, I'm trying, alright? I'm doing my best, and it's my first time. I'm still slightly annoyed too."
Rolling my eyes, I summoned the bottle of animal blood I bought for Jack, and the twenty four magnum ice cream pallets, half of strawberry and cream, half of chocolate with peanuts.
"And it's not like I didn't buy you all anything. It's food though. I bought two for each of you, I picked two flavors for each player. I chose my favorites because I didn't know yours. For you to have it while we watch the matches." I pointed to the magical square floating above the arena, that showed the order of the matches. "We'll be the 8th game, the last one."
There's a backstage room for each of the teams, with a view to the whole arena and everything else in it. So, we can even watch it from here. Though that would be quite boring. We all have first roll seats in the best location to watch it, and father is waiting for me in there.
"They are doing this to keep everyone in here for the whole time," Yuliana pointed, opening the strawberry with cream ice cream. "What they want to watch the most is Oliver's matches and yours. That's why Mia did that earlier, displaying you both and all. Also why she mentioned your magic powers. Disintegration and time."
Dorothy nodded, going for her chocolate with peanuts ice cream instead, "Put one of you to play first, the other to play at last. It's to make a grand opening match and a grand closing match."
"And it'll probably be the same tomorrow," Priya pointed, having her chocolate ice cream too. "Oliver's team will play first, because he's the team leader of team A, and he always plays first."
Danielle actually did something surprising, she got rid of both the packages of the ice creams and did something to glue them together, and now she's kind of having both. "Though tomorrow we have two matches. So, maybe it'll be his team, then another, then ours, another, his again, and then ours. To keep it interesting."
Now Felix chose the strawberry flavored, "What Elle said. They always do this. And now that everyone wants to watch the winged-serpent matches until the final, they will definitely be pining on the arena to watch. Before the most watched games were Sean's, since everyone wants to see him doing his dusty-finger stuff. But now is different."
"You're new meat," Noah snapped his fingers, having the chocolate one. "You have Felix, the previous team leader, and stole Oliver's players."
"By the way," Yuliana gave me a naughty grin. "It was pretty bad ass what you did in the opening ceremony. Speaking with Queen Violet like that. Dimmy," I prefer baldy fangs, "told me she's a real bitch. Though it seems like River is kind of floating about that, I can tell Oliver hates her."
"And what did she said when she kidnapped you?" Dorothy asked.
"That was scary as fuck," Yumi groaned. "When the snake bit you and you disappeared, we all freaked out. Irene and Nevena called Oliver and the second we told about the snake, he knew it was his mom."
Shiryu nodded, "Then we went to Mia and she disappeared the very second we told her about it."
["Where were you?"]
"In her chambers in the Hotel," I sat down, taking another sip of my cocktail. "She's hot ain't she? I was stunned when I saw her. No shit the arsehole has that looks. Cute-but-bites doesn't look much like her, so he must have taken from their father. But really, what a hot bitch. Pretty rotten inside though. I meant what I said earlier," I grinned, staring at the window that gives us view of the arena.
"You are insane," Melvin gasped.
"I mean, she's not wrong," Yumi began.
"The Vampire Queen is hot!" Danielle finished.
"But dangerous," Elsa pointed. "And scary."
"Not like Hel isn't both of that," Noah chuckled.
"But what did she want from you, Hel?" Felix clenched his jaw in worrisome. "I doubt it was to meet her son's girlfriend. Besides, how the hell did she know your two are mates?"
"And why would she say that to everyone?" Kalisha frowned.
I tilted my head, eyes on my dark green nails, "In fact, she did want to meet me. Now, I don't know how, but she knows about my mom, her mate in question, that she was killed, that I'm you know who's grandchild, that I was tortured and all. However, she didn't know everything. To be honest, she came as if to tell me it all, thinking I didn't know. She probably thought mom wasn't killed in front of me, or that I didn't know who did it. So, I believe she came to try put me against you know who. But she realized I am already against her."
"What the," they gasped.
"She has a vampire with foresight on her side, that told her that the winged-serpent would be the key to destroy you know who, and that her son would me mated to the said-legendary-creature," I pointed at myself, then took another sip of the cocktail, using my ice magic to keep it cold. "She told me how she doesn't give two fucks about race, but cares about power and she was actually overjoyed that the winged-serpent in question would be mated to her oh-so-not-precious son."
Moving my bottle, I shook the cocktail inside just for the sake of it, "What amused her the most was that you know who's secret weapon that was intended to finish her and the Vampire Court, actually ended up mated to the Crowned Prince of the Court that was to be destroyed by me. She also didn't know you know who tortured me all by herself. Well, then mother-in-law threaten to hypnotize my mate and make him kill me," I grinned in pure disgust. "And threaten to kill you all if I didn't go along with her."
They all turned pale, "That's why you went to break the bond."
As Oliver walked inside the arena with the others and a barrier fell all around them blocking everything from the outside, I turned to Dorothy, "Yes. The point with his mom, is her using me because I'm his mate. So, I thought that if I broke the bond, she wouldn't be able to harm him with me."
"You asked Mia and she told you!" I nodded to Yuliana.
"Indeed, she did."
"And?" Felix asked paler than ever before, his voice a squeak.
I got up and opened the door, "Come on, the match will start. You better not tall Oliver or the Circle what I told you. He doesn't know, and if he does, right now while his mom is here, he might do something that won't end well. For neither him, River, or the Circle kids."
Melvin's eyes widened softly, "Is that why you're not talking?"
"Partially. I enjoy seeing him angry at me. If I don't speak, he will stay angry, and I'll have my full of joy," I grinned mischievously. "I'll talk to him after the final match, you all don't need to worry. Instead, you should all prepare yourselves, we'll be leaving on Monday. That is, if you all still want to go to Emerald Sky City!"
"Of course, we do!" Kalisha and Noah exclaimed.
"Yes, we do!" The others followed suit.
Cute kids. "Then let's win this. I'll tell you everything I'm keeping to myself before we leave on Monday, after the ball on Sunday."
"There's more?" Shiryu gasped.
I grinned at him, "There is so much more!"