Quatre- Muahaha... Sorry... I thought mentioning him helps. :P
Sarah- Hi there. Sorry for the late update. Thanks for your comments. It really is a great encouragement. Do read on
Yo yo people. It's been a long time yeah. I could have updated earlier but damned I was left without internet connections. Hence here I am in sch, presenting this to you.
The next chapter will hopefully be up by end of this week. If it doesn't... Then it will be up by only October... Coz my exams are coming (yes again) and this time it's for a whole full month. Thank you all of you for your extremely kind patience...
Alright... Here's what I owe you people!
"You what? Oh man... okay... sure. We'll see what we can do." Kyle Caldwin set down his mobile phone. Shrugging, he announced, "Well, we'll have to do without the map."
Russell made a face. "Gee, that's as good as going into the place, saying, 'Hey, this door looks great, let's go in and see if little Tommy's in there. No, wait, how about the next one? That better?' So much for Daybreak's efficiency."
The group had gathered in Aria's house the next morning, expecting to receive a detailed map about the layout of the building where Tommy was held captive in. But they had sat there the whole morning, receiving no fax from the Daybreak Intelligence. Tired of waiting, they decided to call up the Daybreak Center, only to be told that the informers could not offer the Daybreak Intelligence any important information.
"If the place has 10 rooms, the probability of us hitting the correct room would be 1 out of 10," Zach muttered, "And if there is a hundred room, it would be 1 out of 100. If there is-"
"Thank you, Zach. We can do the math for ourselves." Turning to Aria, who seemingly was so engrossed in painting her nails that she was totally oblivious to the on-going conversation, Kyle said, "You think you can help us?"
Aria seemed pleased by his attention, "How?"
"Do you know how the building in which Tommy is held in looks like?"
Aria nodded slowly, her big purple eyes fixed on Kyle.
"Can you draw it out for us?" Kyle tore a page out of his notebook and handed it with a pen to Aria.
Aria appeared to hesitate for a moment. Then, under the watchful eyes of the Daybreakers, she began to draw the bird's eye view of the layout of the building. Her strokes were light and quick, and Kyle inferred from her sketch that she had a knack in drawing and those paintings in her house were her works.
'They are." Aria said, beaming proudly at Kyle, who realised that he had been careless in broadcasting his thoughts.
Finally, Aria was done and Kyle placed the sketch on the center of the coffee table for everyone to see.
"So, it isn't that big." Russell commented.
"It isn't." Aria agreed sweetly.
The building had eighteen rooms spread out over two stories, nine of each level. The entrance led to a main room, which in turn was connected to other three rooms by the doors on the three walls. Basically, the nine rooms were arranged three by three, interconnected by doors leading to the adjacent rooms. The queer thing was that the lift leading to the second level was at the third room directly from the entrance.
"If Tommy was held in a room on the first level, and the... the kidnappers sensed us coming, they could easily travel between the two levels, possibly even without our notice." Feymon, who was seldom articulated in the discussions, stated. In contrast to his sloppy appearance, Feymon had a soft voice that had a melodious note in it.
Kyle frowned. Indeed, that could be a tacky issue. If they were to disable the lift... "How about if we leave two people on the first level, at the lift lobby while the rest move up to the second floor, and then we tamper with the lift?"
"Possible. But what if they were on the first level when we thought they are on the second?" Russell pondered.
"We'll be combing the place by spreading out into three rooms side by side at the same time. That way, we can corner them easier." Kyle looked at the group, each lost in his thoughts trying to find a loophole in their plan. Finally, ten minutes passed and no one seemed to have any problem. "So we ready to set off?"
Feymon went to the car to check on their weapons for the last time. At last, they were ready to leave.
Or maybe not.
"Wait! What about Aria?" Russell asked.
"What about her?" Kyle answered.
"She would need someone to take care of her, don't she?"
At that point, Aria suddenly looked very small and fragile, her big violet eyes looked pleadingly at Kyle and Russell.
Jodie gave a snort. "Oh, don't worry. I'm sure she can take care of herself."
"Jodie! Don't be rude!" Russell chastised. He noticed Kyle's raised eyebrow and quickly added, "I meant, Aria's safety should always be our top priority."
Jodie opened her mouth to say more, but she changed her mind and stormed out of the house. Women! Russell grumbled to Kyle before going after his soulmate.
Aria approached Kyle and picked a strand of hair off his left shoulder. Smiling up at him, she said, "Be careful."
Kyle kept his tone neutral, "Will do."
"You know," Aria's hand lingered on his shoulder, "I'm really grateful for all that you've done."
The vampire turned his head to the side, "We did nothing. It was our duty anyway."
Aria laughed softly, "You like to talk in collective terms, don't you?"
"We are a team."
"Really? Then what will happen if two members of the team fell in love with the subject?"
Kyle fidgeted uneasily, but Aria kept her hand on his shoulder.
At that moment, Jodie and Russell returned. The couple seemed to be temporarily at peace, but their well-kept distance from each other signified that a wrong move could easily spark off further argument.
Kyle shrugged away Aria's hand. "I think we should go now." He walked over to the driver's side, then thought otherwise and moved to the back seat instead. Leaning against the car, he said, "Um, Zach, how about if you stay behind and look out for Aria's safety? If we need you we'll give you a message."
Zach nodded and stood beside Aria while the rest got into the car.
"Do us proud." Aria said to the departing car, and then turned her back on Zach and went back into the house.
Tonight would be the night, Skye had promised himself earlier on. But, right now, sitting beside Jade, he felt extremely pressurized as he found no way to put it across to the human girl.
"Something on your mind?" Jade asked, peering at him intently.
Hell, a lot, he thought. It had already been months and he still had not told anyone about his vision of Paula's death. That was how haphazard his 'gift' of vision was: there was neither benefit of the date nor time of when it would actually happen. He felt himself getting worn out by the visions – partly for the white blinding pain he would feel zapping his forehead whenever he had a vision, and mostly due to the unpredictability of the actual happenings as compared to his less than adequate information provided by the visions.
More recently, he had been having a recurring vision of a lady – one whom he could not recognize thanks to the blurred out vision. This vision was not like any others – it had no real event in it other than a far away profile shot of the lady. It was also because each time he had this particular vision, a dull heartache would follow as he tried to make sense of it.
He soon learnt to try not to probe too deeply into it, but curiosity got the better of him.
Jade was still staring at him, reminding him that he had yet to answer her question. It was, to put it dramatically, he told himself, the moment of truth.
"I found the potion to break the soulmate bond," he blurted, sounding too blunt even for his own ears. Beside him, he felt Jade took in a sharp breath at his revelation.
"Oh, really?" He heard Jade's unconvincing effort to sound nonchalant about it, "But I thought it didn't exist?"
"It does, now." He answered, his voice suddenly weary, instead of the relief the revelation should have brought.
Uh oh, the voice had the cheek to say.
Damn it. Told you it's a bad idea.
By now, the pair had lapsed into an unnatural silence. Something in Skye wanted to try to make things a little less awkward, but the mental drain on him dampened his effort to make the attempt.
In the end, it was Jade who spoke. "So... what are you going to do about it?"
Break all the soulmate bonds, the voice laughed diabolically in his head.
"Nothing." He said flatly instead, as if trying to reassure himself at the same time. His witch sense told him that it was time to go off for the Elders' Meeting.
"I have to go now." He rose and said. The sentence brought relief to Jade apparently, who also stood and smiled to Skye.
He returned the smile, and gave a light peck on her head, before heading for his meeting. All the while he wondered if he had done the right thing by telling her about the discovery.
And soon, he will realise that he had many more things to worry about.
RIght... So, more actions coming up next! What will the team face up with when they go into the building? What more drama can unfold?
Stay tune for the next episode of Companero del Alma! Meanwhile, review please! Thank you!