Chapter 10

Rowen slowed to a halt outside of the doorway and stared into the room for a moment before leaning against the door frame. Dais was slouched in a chair in the guest room, close enough to Claudia to see her chest rise and fall evenly underneath the blankets Mia had tucked around her. She'd been pale before, but even in the dim light of the room, it could be seen that some color was returning to her cheeks.

Dais, on the other hand, looked down right miserable.

"How is she?"

"Better," Dais murmured, barely moving to acknowledge Rowen's presence behind him. "Her breathing is no longer labored and some color has returned to her skin."

"That's good," Rowen said quietly, his eyes drifting from Dais back to Claudia and lingering there for quite some time. "You care a lot about her,"

"Why don't you sit with her," Dais said abruptly, leaving his chair and brushing passed Rowen in the doorway. "She doesn't want me anywhere near her right now."

Rowen didn't have a chance to protest before Dais was already making his way down the stairs. Sighing quietly, Rowen turned back towards Claudia and collapsed in the chair, content to avoid whatever blowout was about to take place down stairs. The guys were seething over this, but even Kayura looked about to blow. She was riled up about something, and his instincts told him that Dais was about to get the brunt of it.

That was fine with him. He had listened to his fair share of all of the fighting so far and quite frankly, he was over it. He was more of a strategist anyway. All they were talking downstairs right now was whose fault it was and why nothing had been done to begin with. Not to mention Kento was running his mouth about Kima since Cye had run off after her.

Dais wouldn't hear the end of that, either, since he had provided Cye with her address…

...

He'd barely stepped into the room before Kayura was on him like a box of paperclips to a super charged magnet.

"And you! Idiot! Moron! SAP! IDIOT!" Kayura punched him hard in the chest, causing him to stumble back a half step. "Do you have any idea what kind of crap you could have gotten us into? What the hell are you doing with her anyway? Are you crazy!"

"Someone needed to look after her," Dais growled, shoving her aside as he moved to stand near the window.

"And why the hell did it need to be you? You idiot, they can track you just as easily as they can track any one of us! You're like a homing beacon leading them straight to her!" Kayura moved towards him again while the rest of the room's occupants just watched in mild confusion. "I told you to stay out of this one!"

"Kayura, shut up!" Dais growled, turning on his heel to face her. "They can track her just as easily as the rest of us. My presence in her life has neither added nor subtracted from that!"

Kayura huffed, clearly frustrated. "You idiot! Why did you have to get attached?"

"Why do you have to be such an insufferable bitch?"

"You son of a-"

"OKAY!" Mia leapt to her feet, jumping between the both of them. "Stop it, both of you! This is so stupid! There's too much else to be discussed right now that we don't have the time for the two of you to be bickering. Dais is right, if the Dynasty wanted her, they would have gotten to her eventually, with or without Dais being there. Quite frankly, I'm glad he was there, otherwise they might have actually gotten what they wanted. Now, both of you, have a seat so we can figure this thing out,"

Dais and Kayura glared at each other and continued to do so even after taking seats opposite each other.

"Let's start with the obvious question; why is the Dynasty after Claudia?" Ryo offered as he got up from his spot on one of the couches and moved behind it to stand at the head of the room.

"She's a direct descendant of Anubis' family," Dais and Kayura, as well as Mia and Sage muttered at one time.

"Alright, so she's part of Anubis' family. Meaning that so is her brother, which is obvious considering how much like Anubis that kid looks. Now what do we know about him?"

"He disappeared shortly after the Dynasty first appeared all those years ago," Mia offered. "It's the whole reason Claudia came to Japan,"

"Exactly. Meaning it's likely the Dynasty already has Dorian. It also means that, whatever they needed him for, he obviously isn't enough."

Dais and Kayura both blinked and glanced at Ryo, but said nothing.

"And they need Claudia to aid in whatever the hell it is they're doing?" Kento ventured angrily. "Dude, that's low! What the hell are they up to? I mean, seriously, what more damage could they do!"

"A whole lot more," Dais muttered, glancing briefly at Kento before getting up again only to head back towards the window. "Whatever the plan may be, Cale and Sekhmet are pretty well ensnared again. I never truly believed they would be able to resist forever, but I had hoped that maybe…"

"So did I," Kayura admitted, sighing quietly. "Our main focus now is to be on thwarting whatever it is that they are planning to do. And in order to do that-"

"We have to keep Claudia under constant watch," Sage growled quietly. "Especially if she's the main piece to their puzzle."

"Ok, so we keep an eye on Claudia and keep her out of trouble," Ryo nodded curtly. "In the meantime, we need to find out more about her brother and Anubis' family line. Not to mention anything and everything we can about the Dynasty's current plan of attack. I trust you guys can handle that?"

"I'll take care of it," Kayura said as she climbed to her feet. "I can move freely between both worlds thanks to Anubis and the Ancient One. However; Dais shall remain. Without your armors, you aren't going to be of much use. You'll need his armor to help protect Claudia, whether she likes it or not. And whether you like it or not. I will be in touch,"

Kayura was slipping out of the front door just as Cye was walking back in through it.

"Where's Kayura going?" Cye asked as he came into the room and stared around at the dim faced expressions on all of his friends.

"She's going to find out as much about what's going on as she can," Ryo said quietly. "Did you find Kima?"

"Yeah," Cye nodded, folding his arms over his chest. "We had a nice long chat. She's going to let us help her after all."

Kento made a rude sound which was rewarded by a nasty glare from both Cye and Mia.

"There's blood on your shirt," Mia murmured as she got up and walked over to him, tugging on it. "Let me clean it before it stains,"

Cye nodded and shrugged out of the shirt, sighing heavily. "She's alright. She let me clean and dress the wound before the poison could spread too far. It'll siphon its way out of her system by the morning." Cye glanced towards Dais. "How is Claudia?"

"Still unconscious, but getting better."

"She'll be sore for a while," Sage admitted a second later. "Cale's dark energy isn't something you can just recover from. It lingers for a while,"

Cye nodded faintly as Mia came back into the room, draping a clean shirt over his shoulder.

"She just needs rest," Mia offered, glancing at Dais. "And I'm sure all of this was a lot for her to take in at once. She'll need time, but she'll get through it,"

Dais glanced at Mia and nodded, though he wasn't completely convinced of that. At least, when it came to his part in her life.

...

Claudia…

She groaned quietly as she sat up and looked around. She was sitting in a bed of grass and surrounded by trees and bushes, the air was moist and the sun had long since gone down. She was sitting in a forest…but why?

Claudia…

"Dorian?" She murmured as she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. "Dorian, is that you? Where are you?"

A cool breeze swept through the trees and she shivered violently. She didn't like the feel of that wind, nor the eerie fog that came with it, yet something in it pulled at her. Claudia followed that breeze for at least fifteen minutes before the fog finally started to thin out.

In the distance a great shadow formed that made her nervous.

"Dorian? Dorian?"

Inside Claudia…

"Inside?" Claudia walked in a small circle and gasped as she turned back towards the shadow that was now an enormous red gate towering hundreds of feet into the air. "Oh my God…"

You have to open the gate, Claudia. You have to open it to let me out. I'm trapped in here. Claudia, you have to come open the gate.

"I have to open the gate,"

...

"I have to open the gate,"

Rowen's head jerked up from his book as he heard Claudia's voice faintly from the bed. "Claudia?"

"I have to open the…gate…" She stared over at him and, startled, screamed bloody murder, scrambling towards the other side of the bed and regretting the movement dearly. "WHO ARE YOU!"

"Whoa! Claudia, it's me! It's Rowen!"

The sound of thunder could be heard as a stampede of people came careening up the stairs towards the room. Dais was the first across the threshold to reach Claudia and calm her.

"What the hell happened?" Sage asked as they watched Dais try to get Claudia to recompose herself.

"I don't know. She muttered something in her sleep then woke up and freaked out about me being in the room,"

"Temporary disorientation," Sage murmured. "It happens when you deal with Cale. Is she alright?"

Dais nodded while Claudia struggled to keep her balance without his help. She seemed to suddenly remember that she was mad at him but her body was so weak that it couldn't really support her on its own.

"Get away from me!" She swatted at him and nearly fell over, which only pissed her off.

"Out! Everybody out!" Mia announced as she walked over to Claudia and threw her arms around her shoulders to steady her. Claudia didn't fight against that support. "I said out!"

When the rest of the group made a beeline for the door at long last, Mia lead Claudia back to the bed and helped her get comfortable. "You're going to have to take it easy for the next couple of days. You were hurt pretty badly."

"Raj, that…that jerk! He lied to me!" Claudia growled, trying to calm down and relax. She was hurting and she was not happy about it. And then she remembered her dream. "That place…the Dynasty…"

"What about it?"

"That's where Dorian is, isn't it? You said he didn't come back, so he's still there,"

Mia nodded. "It's a possibility."

"He's there. He's waiting for me to come and save him,"

"You really think so?"

Claudia nodded as exhaustion began to pull her under again. "He told me…he said I needed…to…"

Mia sat there for a moment in slight surprise, unsure of what Claudia was going to say and even more unsure of whether or not she would have liked hearing the rest.

She needed to do what?

...

End Chapter.