The next few days were pretty much normal. Amelia and AJ both went to work, life was good. On Saturday, Amelia had to close up the store. It was almost midnight when she was done.
Not wanting to walk alone, she called Sebastien. He picked up after two rings.
"Hey Mimi, what's up?" he asked.
"Nothing much. I'm walking home from work and I wanted someone to keep me company."
"Even though you only live two blocks away?"
"Yes. That still doesn't change the fact that it's almost midnight and there are all sorts of creepy things that live in Chicago."
Sebastien laughed. "Well, I can't blame you for that. So, how's AJ?"
"She's okay. She kind of pissed me off the other day because I found out that she's playing a dangerous game with a vampire."
"Oh really? Who?"
Amelia paused for a moment to get the keys for the apartment from her pocket. She unlocked the door and stepped inside.
When she got inside, she got the shock of a lifetime. Sitting on her couch were four vampires, including the man who had talked to her at the grocery store!
"Oh my god," she said, the phone still held to her ear.
"What's wrong, Mimi?"
She took the phone from her ear. "Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?"
"Ay, muñequita, no me recuerdes?" asked the man in the white suit with a flash of fangs.
Amelia was too shocked to say anything.
"Amelia, what's going on? Is everything okay?" Sebastien asked, but Amelia could barely hear him over the sound of her own heartbeat thumping wildly in her chest.
"What do you want?" she asked, finally finding her voice.
"Well, it seems that your little hybrid friend took something from our leader, William, and now, he has to take something of hers. That something, as it happens, is you!" said a blond haired vampire with an Australian accent.
Although Amelia knew that she was outnumbered, she refused to go down without a fight.
"If you think I'm coming peacefully, you have another thing coming!" she exclaimed.
"All right, have it your way," said a vampire with brown hair.
Without warning, the vampires closed in on her. She tried to fight her way out of it, but there were too many for her at once. The last thing she saw before being rendered unconscious was one of the vampires picking
up her phone and smashing it.
****************************************************************************************************************************
It was almost one in the morning, but Sebastien Lefebvre was nowhere near tired. For one thing, he was hanging out with his best friends and secondly, he was almost 250 years old. He didn't get tired that easily.
As he walked back from the kitchen with some soda, his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Amelia.
"Hey Mimi, what's up?" he asked as he set the soda down and sat down next to Pierre.
"Nothing much. I'm walking home from work and I just wanted someone to keep me company," she replied.
"Even though you only live two block away?" he asked
"Yes. That still doesn't change the fact that it's almost midnight and there are a lot of creepy things that live in Chicago."
He laughed and had to admit, she was right. "So, how's AJ?" he asked as he picked up the controller.
"She's okay. She kind of pissed me off the other day because I found out she's playing a dangerous game with a vampire."
"Oh really? Who?"
He heard her pause and heard a faint jingle, meaning she was getting her keys from her pocket. After a moment, she said, "Oh my god" and there was a hint of fear in her voice.
"What's wrong, Mimi?" he asked.
He heard her say, "Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?"
Then he heard a male voice say something in a foreign language.
"Amelia, are you okay? What's going on?" he asked, not liking this.
He heard her say something else, to which a different voice replied. Then he heard what sounded like a struggle!
"Amelia, talk to me! Are you okay? What's -" he said, but then the line went dead.
He stared at his phone in shock.
"Hey Seb, you okay?" asked his friend Chuck.
"I'm not sure. Hey Chuck, do me a favor and call this number for me, will you?" he asked as he listed off Amelia's phone number.
"Why did you have me call that number? It said that it wasn't available," Chuck said as he put his phone back in his pocket.
Sebastien really started to sweat.
"That's Amelia's number. I was just talking to her! What if something happened to her?" he asked to no on in particular.
"Wait, what happened?" Jeff asked, pausing the game.
Sebastien recounted the conversation up until the line had gone dead. Each of his friends tried to call her number, but they each got the same message, that the line was out of service.
Sebastien began to panic.
"Seb, what's wrong?"
"Don't you get it? Something bad has obviously happened to Amelia! I have to go to Chicago. WE have to go to Chicago!" he exclaimed as he stood up.
"Hold on a minute, Seb. Calm down and tell us why you think something bad happened to her," Chuck said, the voice of reason.
"Because," he said, trying to remain calm but failing miserably, "I heard what sounded like a struggle and then the line went dead."
"What's the big deal, Seb? Why do you care so much for this girl? You hardly ever see her," David piped up and Sebastien glared at him.
If Jeff had not unclipped his power bracelet and wrapped his arms around the enraged Lycan's torso, David would have probably been dead. Sebastien struggled, but Jeff was holding on for dear life.
"Seb, just calm down! He didn't mean it!" Pierre yelled, trying to remedy the situation. Eventually, Seb calmed down and Jeff loosened his grip a little bit. Taking a deep breath, Seb addressed David.
"I care so much for her, David, because of who she is. She is the current host of the demoness of Hell, Illshya."
"So?" David asked, clearly still not getting it.
"Oh my god, David, don't you know anything!? In the 1400s, Lycans were enslaved by a cruel vampire monarch named Viktor. Lucian was able to escape from Viktor and to ensure that Viktor couldn't harm him, he signed a blood pact with the demoness of Hell. She gave him her protection, ensuring that Viktor wouldn't bother him. In return for signing the pact, he offered the undying loyalty of him and his followers to her. That's the reason why I care so much! If anything happened to her and I knew about it and didn't do anything to help her, Lucian would have me killed for breaking the terms of the treaty! That's why I care!" Sebastien declared forcefully.
"Okay so now that we know that, what do you want to do about it?" Pierre asked.
"I want to go to Chicago and completely destroy whoever decided to hurt her," Sebastien said, his voice deadly.
The next morning, the plane from Montreal left the airport. Its destination? Chicago.