Having disappeared for such a long time, I've decided to reward you, my loyal readers, with an extra-long chapter and action-packed too!
As usual, underlined conversations are thought-speak.
Launching straight into the story….
Skye did not know that he was in deep trouble, at least not until he went to the Elders' Meeting.
"Say, Juan, since when are you ever so concerned about the happenings in the Daybreak Center over at Mexico? I haven't heard you talk about anything else since you're back," Eliza said, sarcasm lacing every of her words.
Juan was defensive, "We should always be watchful of the things happening in other centers."
"Really? I say you're just concerned about getting a free holiday there under the disguise of going for a mission," Eliza cast her hawk-like gaze around, speaking slowly and making sure that the elders in the room were taking note of this little drama.
"Alright. We can talk about this some other day," Dermot said, putting his hand up to silence Eliza's protests, "We indeed ought to be mindful about what's going on in other centers. They might have some implications on us." Dermot looked around, and saw across the table that Skye was deep in his own thoughts.
"Skye." Dermot called. The young Elder looked up with a blank look on his face.
"Skye, were you paying attention?" Dermot asked, his baby blue eyes fixed on Skye. He noticed that the young man's gaze had fallen again.
"Yeah, sorry." Skye said.
Dermot decided to let it ride; he had a more important issue at hand. "Skye, did you do a thorough check on Aria before sending the understudies for the mission?"
Skye's head snapped up, "I… did."
"But not thorough enough. Do you know that she's a scout for the Night World's Council?" Dermot asked. He saw the color drain from Skye's face.
"Oh, shit." Skye muttered.
"This is very serious, Skye. By sending the understudies over without doing a careful, thorough check on the subject, you're not only jeopardizing the lives of the understudies, but also all Daybreakers' safety."
"I'm sorry. I've overlooked it this time. It won't happen again." Skye apologized, his head bowed, and his voice hardly audible.
"Shouldn't an Elder not be so careless?" Eliza chided. The others murmured in agreement.
"I still have yet to settle an issue. During the attack by Blood Iris the other time, why were you guys sitting ducks in the room while others were fighting?" Dermot raised his voice above the murmur sternly. His question brought about its desired effect: everyone was silenced.
"Anyway, I've sent another team over to assist them. Right now, this meeting is over." Dermot announced.
The Elders began to file out of the room, but Skye was still in his seat, massaging his temples. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see Dermot looking at him, his face creased in genuine concern.
"Are you alright?"
Skye sat up straight, "Yeah,"
Dermot sat down beside him, "Are you distracted by other stuff lately? You seemed listless."
Skye glanced away, and played with his cup on the table.
"Skye, I've always looked upon you like my own son. If there's anything –"
"I'm alright, really." Skye said.
Dermot sighed, "Is there anything going on between you and Jade?" He saw Skye's arm stiffened and stopped playing with the cup.
"Jade's an attractive young lady, but she has a soulmate, Skye. You're an Elder, you must remember the rules," Dermot stood up and wheeled his chair into its place. "Whatever you do, make your choice wisely and carefully, because you'll not only hurt yourself." With that, Dermot turned and left Skye to his own thoughts.
Rising, Skye flung his cup across the room, shattering it into pieces and left.
"Goddamnit!" Russell swore to Kyle, "We're under attack!"
"An under-" Kyle fended off a chest blow that the attacker struck, "-statement, I would say." The attacker jumped a step backwards, and Kyle took the chance to study him. Likely to be a witch, he thought. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, the witch disappeared.
"Damn," Kyle muttered. He knew that the witch was still present in the room, just that he masked his presence. He saw one of the crates rose in mid-air abruptly, before it was hurled towards him by an invisible force. Diving to his left, the crate sailed over his body and slammed into the wall behind him.
And then there was silence. The air was still and Kyle tensed his body, ready for any form of assault. He tightened his grip on his shotgun loaded with multi-purpose bullets. He felt a disturbance in the air to his right and snapped his head that way. Throwing up a defensive arm, he blocked the punch threw by the witch and brought up the shotgun with the other hand. The sound of the shot echoed in the enclosed room and Kyle heard the 'cracks' in the witch's ribs as the bullet shot through them. He watched the witch slumped to his knees before collapsing on the floor, motionless.
"Russ?"
"Uh-huh?" Russell sounded distracted.
"Are you done?"
"No, it's hell of a – Shit!" He cursed. "Talk to you later."
Kyle wondered if there was any more sudden attacker, and kept a lookout for them as he called for Feymon.
"Feymon? Are things all right over there?"
No answer.
The door on his right opened and Kyle held up his shotgun and fired away. It was based purely on instinct, and Kyle prayed that his instinct served him well.
It did.
The bullet ripped a hole through the wolf's fur, but it kept advancing towards Kyle.
Without panicking, Kyle perfected his aim and this time, he shot the wolf squarely in its head. Unlike the witch's quiet death, the screams from the dying wolf were enough to wake the dead. Twitching as it fell, its body was unceremoniously crushed by the heavy door that crashed down on it.
It was a gruesome sight.
Kyle stared at the growing puddle if blood oozing out from the flattened body, his mind not really on the corpse. Should he go on, or should he go over to the other room and check on Feymon? Making his decision in a snap, he smacked the button on his right. Picking his way cautiously over the mutilated body, he entered the room on his right.
No one was in the room.
Kyle frowned. This could be a problem.
"Russ, Feymon's missing."
"Huh? Damn. I'm done over here. What shall we do now?" Russell asked.
Kyle bit his lower lips. If they looked for Feymon, they would be using up precious time that should be used to look for Tommy.
"Should we call for Zach?" Russell asked.
"No. He has to look after Aria. We cannot afford to lose her now." Kyle sighed. "Continue on your way. We'll see what happens next."
He went back to the center room and into the final room in the middle column, where the lift lobby was. He was somewhat relieved to see that no one was standing guard there. He did not fancy having to fight an attacker in every of the room.
The door to his left opened and Kyle whipped up his shotgun.
"Woah! Chill, it's just me, man." Russell put his hands up in the air.
Kyle lowered his gun, "Knock, will you?"
The two of them looked at the lift. Then, without saying a word, they took to each side of the lift, leaning against the wall with their guns ready. With a loud 'ding!' the lift door opened.
"Aria!" Russell called out in surprise.
Aria stood in the center of the room with the other newcomer – a balding guy who did not looked friendly. She smiled as she took the scene in.
"Welcome," Aria said simply, spreading her arms out as if she was welcoming visitors to her house.
"Aria, stay away from him," Kyle trained his gun at the balding man as he spoke to Aria.
"Oh, right," Aria looked at the man beside her in genuine surprise. "Meet Senibry."
"Who?" Russell asked dumbly.
Kyle frowned. He did not like what was happening. "Where's Tommy?"
"Don't be cute. There's no Tommy." Aria answered, ending her sentence with a giggle.
"What?" Russell was at lost to grapple with the turn of the events.
The balding man took a step forward, and stopped when he heard the warning click from Kyle's shotgun. "We're from the Night World Council."
Kyle's frown deepened. "What?" Russell asked again.
"We're sent to recruit some new blood for the council. We heard of you guys, and wanted to sound you out," The balding guy continued, "And we're pleased to say, that both of you, gentlemen, have passed the test."
"It wasn't that hard anyway," Russell muttered.
The balding man heard him, "As you can see, your teammate Feymon didn't make it."
Kyle felt sick as he watched Aria's smile grew with pride, "You used us."
"Didn't." Aria replied, "I merely wanted to offer you something better, more prestigious than being the lackeys of the Daybreak Council."
The balding guy cleared his throat, "Now, if you would like to accept our invitation to join the Night World Council –"
"Not so soon," A new voice spoke out.
The people in the room turned to see Jodie stepped into the room, two tubes of emerald green potions in her hands.
Aria's eyes widened when she saw them. "Put them down!"
Instead of listening to her, Jodie gave a triumphant smile, before she held the two tubes high up in the air and released her grip on them. The tubes smacked on the ground and broke into pieces, the contents flowing out slowly. Jodie then lifted a foot and crushed the debris.
Russell felt his head cleared greatly, as though he was viewing the world in a brand new pair of spectacles, "What the hell was that?"
"Love potions," Jodie answered without taking her eyes off Aria, who was seething with anger.
Suddenly, it all became clear to Russell.
"You cast love potions on us?" Russell shook his head in disbelief.
Even the balding man looked surprised at Aria. Eventually, he decided to ignore the dramatic turn of events. He had a duty, and he had to fulfill it. "So, are you going to join the Night World Council?"
"You think?" Kyle shot back.
The balding man shrugged, "Guess not," Then, without a warning, he reached for his knife at his hips as a bullet ripped through his hand. "Argh!" dropping the knife, he clutched his maimed hand. Aria took the chance to slip into the lift.
Jodie gave chase immediately.
"You take care of it here!" Russell shouted to Kyle before squeezing through the closing doors of the lift.
Blood still spraying out of his hand, the bald man slammed his hand down on the button of the left door, but Kyle had foreseen his intended act and brought his own hand down on the button of the right door. As a result of both buttons pressed simultaneously, neither door opened.
The man, for all his worth, could not fight without his right hand. Desperate, he tried to get a hold on his gun with his left hand.
"No way," Kyle muttered and knocked the gun out of the balding man's hand. Bringing his own gun up, Kyle's head snapped to the left as the balding man punched him hard in his right cheek. He felt the balding man's bloodied hands clammed down on his and they wrestled for his gun. Kyle maneuvered his elbow up and decked the man in his jaws, but the balding man would not relent.
A single shot resonated in the room, but it was not Kyle who pressed the gun.
Smiling hideously, the balding man swayed on his feet before blood gurgled out of his mouth. Finally, he collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Kyle shook his head grimly, before heading for the lift.
Arriving on the second floor, Kyle saw Russell and Jodie negotiating with Aria, who was sitting on the window ledge.
"Don't, Kyle, don't come over," Aria sobbed. Already, lightning stabbed through the air and the rain began pouring in through the opened window.
"Aria," Kyle said calmly, "You won't die even if you were to jump down from here." Behind his back, he was assembling a spell-binder.
"You ruined my chances of a promotion!" She continued, "Why won't you people just join the Night World organization? Why stay with the goddamned Circle Daybreak and be such righteous jerks?"
Suddenly, Aria laughed. She threw her head up and laughed a sardonic laughter as a thunder clasped in the air. "Kyle, you're right, sweetheart, I won't die," she shook her head, "I would only die if I jump and hex myself with a fiery blaze!"
Without any warning, she pushed herself off the ledge. Kyle leapt forward and threw the spell-binder on her.
They could only watch as Aria landed on the grass patch below with a loud thud, nothing worse than a few broken bones.
And that's the end… Next up on Companero del Alma:
-Jasper appears (for real!) and discovers what Jade's been missing out on.
-The team returns to Daybreak Center as Kyle looked forward to what was supposed to be a sweet reunion.
More angst and heartbreaks! Stay tuned to Companero del Alma….
The next update would most likely be after Nov 25th…. So hold your breaths, amigos, and pray I don't die on you!
May the force, be with mE!!!! :P