Chapter 12

-Chase-

I hated it when Aaliyah hypnotized Dante. I knew it was for the best, but the guy had been through so much already! Dante himself didn’t seem to mind, but for me, hypnosis was damn near disgusting. I hated the idea of losing my free will. I trusted Aaliyah, of course, but seeing Dante, sitting on the couch without the tiniest spark of intelligence in his eyes almost made me angry.

“He’s ready,” Aaliyah spoke, looking away from him. “He won’t notice a thing.”

“Hmmh…” I breathed out, grabbing the bag she gave me.

“Did you know about that place?” she asked.

“He didn’t tell me much, but yeah, I knew about it,” I told her, starting to clean Dante’s skin carefully.

“We need to do something,” she said angrily. “What they are doing to our kind is pure torture! Did you know they cut off his arm to test his healing abilities?”

“What?” I turned to stare at her.

“They did so much worse than that – I couldn’t even watch half of it!”

I took a deep breath so my own anger wouldn’t leak over. “I already killed that woman – Dante’s ex,” I said quietly, peering at Dante who wasn’t even blinking. The dull expression on his face hurt my soul.

“Good, but that’s not enough,” Aaliyah spoke.

“I didn’t go there to kill her,” I admitted, focusing on Dante’s arm. “I was going to just find whatever I could about that place, but she was clever enough to not have any evidence in her home… But what I did find…”

I had to take a few more deep breaths, to soothe my soul before I could continue. “She had a study room, where she had plastered the walls with news clips and reports about Dante’s disappearance. It looked so real… A grieving wife who was desperate to find her husband, but it was all lies, and I got so mad… How dare she act like she cared while she was the one torturing him all that time?”

I turned to look at Dante again and pushed back a tiny lock that had escaped his ponytail. “She had their wedding picture in the living room. Dante looked so handsome in it. So happy… I just snapped. I was so fucking mad at her.”

Aaliyah didn’t say a word, but she gave me a sympathetic look when I finally turned to face away from Dante.

“I got a new soul in case I decide to become a mridira after all,” I added, reliving the moment when that bitch drew her last breath – it made me feel better again.

“You and I will go visit that place,” Aaliyah said, leaning closer to me. “And you’ll have plenty of souls for the rebirth.”

“I have no idea how to get there,” I sighed.

“I do.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. “Really?”

“I saw him escape that place – I saw street signs and other landmarks, so it’ll be easy for me to find the way there,” she said confidently. “Are you in?”

I hesitated for a moment, but when I looked at Dante and saw his lifeless eyes deep in his skull-like face was more than enough to convince me, so I turned to nod at Aaliyah.

“We shouldn’t go there alone,” I told her, grabbing the syringe. “I want to level the whole place, so we’ll need more firepower.”

“I’ll grab a few friends, you’ll grab yours, and we’re set,” she said.

“I also need a couple of days to get ready,” I said. “I can make a few potions, but some of them will take a day or two to make.”

“Friday night then. We’ll have one hell of a party,” she smirked, her eyes flashing in anger.

I smiled and nodded, before focusing on the task at hand. It took me a moment to find a vein in Dante’s arm, but soon I had a few vials for Aaliyah.

“Do you have any idea what’s causing Dante’s mutation?” I asked while packing her stuff away.

She let out a deep sigh, shaking her head a little. “They used so many chemicals on him… Most of them were highly toxic. They even put him in this… glass cell and doused him with acid… I think that’s the reason why he can’t heal anymore. It was too much on his body. I just…” she trailed off for a moment, looking sick again. “I’m afraid that it may not be just one thing that caused it. It may have happened over time and all those different tests were part of the cause.”

I nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of…”

“That doesn’t mean there’s no cure,” she said gently.

“I hope you’re right,” I sighed. “If we could just find a way to at least stop the transformation from happening, that would be great.”

“I’ll do my best,” she promised.

*****

I decided not to tell Dante about our plan to invade the torture lab on Friday night. He didn’t need to know about that – all he had to do was rest and heal and grow stronger. I did feel bad for keeping secrets from him and sneaking behind his back, but I comforted myself with the thought of getting to tell him the great news on Saturday morning.

That the facility was gone, and the people who hurt him were all dead.

He would finally be able to breathe and start his life again. He could go to his family and I could help him get to know more about our society and himself. He deserved that, and I was ready to do whatever it took to give him that.

On Wednesday, I asked Zane to visit me at the store. He was suspicious on the phone since I refused to tell him why I needed to see him, but he promised to show up soon. While I waited for him to arrive, I tried to come up with some bullshit story about the facility and how I heard about it, but that man was my best friend, a brother. Besides, he deserved to know the whole truth because even though we were only against a bunch of humans, there were still risks.

Around noon, the door was opened, and I lifted my eyes off one of my spell books to see Zane in his ridiculously colorful outfit and blazing red hair stepping in.

“I have arrived!” he declared, spearing his arms like the diva he was. Eru ran to greet him, meowing loudly for attention. He scooped her in his arms while on his way to the counter. “So, what’s up?” he asked.

I gave him an apologetic smirk. “Do you have any plans on Friday night?”

“Not yet – why?” he asked, squinting his eyes at me.

“Well…”

It was safe to say that the story I told him was so not what he thought he would hear. He just stared at me with wide eyes the entire time I spoke about Dante and the torture lab, and by the time I was finished, he seemed speechless.

He opened his mouth a few times, only to close it again. He let Eru down on the counter and walked around the shop for a moment, then stopped in the middle of it to stare at me.

“Come again?” he asked.

“We need your help to bring that place down,” I said quietly, walking to him. “There’s no one else I can trust besides you and Aaliyah.”

“Uhm, for one, thanks for going to Aaliyah before you came to me,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at me. “Two, you’ve had your ex in your home this entire time and you haven’t told me about it?”

“He made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone about him – he’s scared to death,” I tried to explain, but he shook his finger at me.

“I’m not just anyone,” he reminded me, and I sighed.

“I know, I know… I had no idea what to do.”

He stayed silent for a moment, but then he let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine – it wasn’t your decision to make.”

“Thanks for understanding. The reason why I asked you here is that we’re going to pay them a little visit this Friday, and I was wondering if you’d want to lend us a hand?” I asked.

“Me? You know I’ll go wherever you want,” he said quietly. “That place needs to be destroyed.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling relieved that he wasn’t mad at me.

“So? What’s the plan?” he asked.

“Friday night. We go there, save everyone we can, and obliterate the place,” I explained shortly.

“Simple – I like it,” he smirked.

“I suggest you pack everything you think is useful. They are heavily armed and know a thing or two about how to deal with supernatural beings,” I explained.

“But they’re all just humans, right?” Zane asked.

“I think so, but we should be careful.”

“I have a thing or two that we can use,” he said. “Are they expecting us?”

“Don’t think so. I should add that we’re not planning on leaving any of them alive,” I told him.

“Trust me, there won’t be even cockroaches left when I’m done with the place,” he said, giving me an evil smirk.

“Good. I’ll let you know once we have more details,” I told him. “I’ll have to get back to work – I’m sorry I couldn’t do this over the phone.”

“It’s fine – I was getting bored anyway since you completely forgot all about me,” he said while making his way to the door. “But I get it – you had stuff to take care of.”

“Yeah… I’ll call you later, okay?”

He nodded and waved as a goodbye, before stepping out the door. I returned to my spellbook, feeling a wave of restless energy washing over me.

I couldn’t wait for Friday night.

*****

The rest of Wednesday and the entire Thursday went by slowly. Aaliyah managed to locate the lab, so all we needed to do was gear up and wait.

Dante was being even quieter than usual, which was making me anxious. He wasn’t eating well, he slept most of the time, and he wasn’t spending any time looking out the window like before. He was… It almost seemed like he had given up.

On Friday night, I brought him his potion, but this time, I had made it much stronger to make sure he wouldn’t wake up while I was gone. He was lying in his bed, his back turned to the door, and he had closed the curtains.

I made my way to his bed and turned on the light on his nightstand, but he didn’t move or say anything. It broke my heart seeing him like that.

“How are you feeling?” I asked quietly, placing the glass next to the lamp. He just shrugged. “Dante?” I placed my hand on his shoulder, caressing his cold skin a little.

“I’m fine,” he mumbled.

“You know everything will be just fine, right?” I asked.

“Sure…”

“You’ll see – everything will be all right soon,” I promised.

I moved my hand on the bandages on his arm, starting to peel them off. The wound was looking a little bit better now, but there was still a long way to go. I thought about what Aaliyah told me, and the rage filled my heart once again. Would he ever be able to heal again like a werewolf was supposed to? Even the healing herbs I used in his potion weren’t doing shit!

I did my best to calm down so I wouldn’t upset Dante. I cleaned the wound but didn’t put new bandages on just yet so his skin could breathe. Once I was done, he slowly turned on his back but didn’t look at me directly.

“I can see you’re feeling down, but trust me, everything will turn out great,” I told him.

“You’re wasting your time with me,” he muttered.

“I thought we already agreed that I’m not wasting my time with you,” I chuckled, and he finally looked at me. “Do you honestly think that I could just kick you out and continue living my life like nothing happened? I’m a bit offended.”

He let out a deep breath and shook his head. “No… I guess not…”

“See? Now stop thinking like that. My job is to help people. I make potions and elixirs for those who need more than what the human medical industry can offer,” I reminded him.

He nodded slowly, and his expression turned softer. He peered at his shoulder but quickly turned to look away again.

“Is this why you’ve been so down ever since we came back from Aaliyah’s?” I asked. He shrugged without looking at me, so I guessed the answer was yes. I touched his cheek to make him look at me, and when he did, I smiled at him. “I’m going to say this for the last time: I will not abandon you, so don’t let those thoughts eat away your strength, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered.

“Good. You should drink this now,” I said, taking the glass from the nightstand. “I made it a bit stronger this time to help you sleep through the night.”

“Thanks…” he mumbled and took the potion from me. I watched him drink the whole glass empty, and then took it back from him, while he was shivering in disgust. “Nasty…”

“Sorry,” I chuckled. “I’m still trying to find something that tastes better, but the only ones I can think of aren’t that strong.”

“I guess all I can do is wait for the time I don’t need it anymore,” he said, trying to sound brave but I could tell he was scared that he would never be able to live without it.

“Small steps,” I said as he lay back down.

I stayed with him for a long time. Once he fell asleep, I tucked him in as carefully as I could, and after a short moment of hesitation, I planted a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about them for much longer,” I muttered, before sitting back up.

I still wasn’t in a hurry to leave so I stayed there, watching his peaceful expression. I placed my hand gently on his cheek, brushing his skin lightly with my thumb. He used to be so handsome… I could almost see the wedding picture in front of me, and I wished I could murder that woman for the second time. No, a hundred times more. She had ruined Dante’s life, maybe for good, and I could not forgive her or anyone else who worked for her.

“They all will die tonight,” I told Dante.

*****

“You brought, uh…?” One of Aaliyah’s friends, Roscoe, muttered with wide eyes when we picked up Zane after midnight. “Is that a grenade launcher?”

“He told me to bring everything useful,” Zane shrugged and pointed at me before hauling the launcher and two more bags in the van.

“This is Zane,” I said slowly. “He’s a bit… eccentric.”

“A bit…?” Roscoe raised his dark brows.

“You brought a human with us? To fight humans?” Roscoe’s twin, Denzel, said with a scowl at the other side of the van.

“A human who owns a grenade launcher,” I noted. “Besides, I’m a human too, you know.”

“You are different,” he snorted. “Are you a warlock as well?” he asked Zane.

“Nah, I’m just a man with style,” Zane smirked while getting comfortable next to me.

Denzel snorted and shook his head while Aaliyah continued driving. The vampire twins exchanged a few words in their own language, Swahili, and then turned to squint their eyes at Zane again. I ignored them. I had to focus on keeping myself calm and composed. I had been boiling with rage ever since I left home a few hours ago. Eru was sleeping on my lap so I started petting her, hoping that it would calm my soul. I needed my full power tonight, so I had taken her with me.

The drive to our destination was long and annoying. We passed the time by going through our plan, making adjustments and coming up with scenarios we could be facing and how to deal with them.

But then, finally…

“This is it,” Aaliyah muttered while turning onto a dark dirt road.

We all fell silent as she kept driving. The darkness wasn’t a problem to the vampires, but Zane and I couldn’t see much in the forest surrounding us. Aaliyah wasn’t even using the headlights. The road didn’t seem to end anytime soon, which made my anxiousness even worse. I just wanted to get this thing over with so I could go back to Dante…

“Almost there…” Aaliyah said, and soon I could see something in the distance. A tall brick wall! My eyes had gotten used to the darkness just enough for me to make the outlines of it.

She stopped the car next to it, turning off the engine.

“There’s the gate,” she pointed in the distance. “The building behind it has several doors, but only one of them leads down into the lab. I’m not quite sure which one it was because the images were blurry, but there was a staircase right behind it so it should be easy to find.”

We all nodded and hurried to grab our stuff. I was careful when I picked up my bag of vials, making sure they were all secured inside their own little padded pockets. Then I opened the side door as quietly as I could and jumped out. I turned to look for the gate and saw it a few hundred yards away from us. I was about to start walking towards it, but Aaliyah appeared next to me, grabbing my arm.

“It’s too quiet,” she whispered.

Roscoe and Denzel stopped next to us, moving their heads a little to hear the sounds.

“It’s way too quiet,” Roscoe muttered. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“Yes,” Aaliyah nodded.

My heart felt heavy all of a sudden, and I started walking. By the time I reached the gate, I was already running, but then stopped to a halt when I saw what was behind the gate.

I grit my teeth together, balling my hands into fists, unable to control my anger anymore.

There were no buildings, only piles of rubbish and demolished walls.

“They’re gone,” Aaliyah spoke, stopping next to me. “There’s nothing here anymore.”

“No… I promised Dante they’d die today,” I hissed, pushing the gate out of my way. Eru was following me through the piles of broken walls until we reached the biggest of them all.

I had all my energy built up by the time I stopped and with Eru by my side, I lifted my hand up, and the pile of rubbish exploded in front of me. I repeated it two more times until I could see the ground.

I had dug up a massive hole, and I could see where the staircase once was, but now it was filled up with concrete.

“We should go,” Aaliyah spoke next to me.

“No!” I spat, pushing her hand away when she tried to take mine.

“We need to go,” Aaliyah said with a stronger voice, but I refused to hear her.

“This was supposed to be over tonight,” I muttered, glaring at the concrete.

“You killed their leader. Maybe it is over,” Aaliyah said, but I shook my head.

“They must’ve moved…”

“Maybe, but there’s no point in staying here,” she said.

Zane stopped next to me as well, letting out a deep sigh. “We need to go, Chase. There’s nothing for us here.”

I turned to look at him. “I promised it ends tonight.”

“There’s nothing we can do here,” he said, touching my arm lightly. “We need to get going.”

I turned to look at the concrete one more time before I finally let them take me back to the van.

I failed…

-Killian-

Breathing was still hard for me, but I refused to return to bed. I leaned heavily against the cane I still needed to stay up on my feet. I stared at her beautiful face behind the glass, feeling so much rage that I thought it would suffocate me.

“Who did this to you?” I whispered, my voice echoing in the empty room.

Lena’s resting place.

But not the final one.

When she was found dead, she was brought here and our doctors did everything they could to close the wounds.

“We will find a way to bring you back, my love…” I told her.

Her body was put in a glass container that was filled with preserving liquids to make sure she would be safe while we searched for a way to bring her back.

“Mr. Taylor? I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have something to show you,” someone spoke at the door, and I turned to glare at the man. He was the head of the security, so I gestured him to come forward. He hurried to me, holding a small stack of papers in his hands. “I think I found something… I was watching the monitors last night, and there was something odd… A group of people was at our old location last night, you see.”

“Probably just kids like the last time…”

“That’s what I thought so too, but look at this…” He handed me a screenshot of the security tapes from Lena’s house. The cameras had stopped working around midnight, and all we had was short footage of a random person passing by the house before that. That person was in the picture I was holding.

“This is from the night she was killed?” I scoffed. “I already saw that.”

“Look at the clothes,” the head of the security said with an excited voice. I sighed and took another look at the person. It was a bad picture, but I could tell the person was wearing a long, cloak-like jacket with a big hood.

“And this is from last night,” the man said, giving me another picture.

There were five people in the picture, approaching the gates, and a van. I took a better look at one of them.

“I’ll be damned…”

“It’s the same person – that’s the same jacket!”

“Did you get their faces?” I asked, but his enthusiasm dropped, and he shook his head. “What about the license plates?”

“The van doesn’t have any, but I have my contacts in the force – I’ll ask them to dig up every surveillance tape from that area.”

“Good – get to work,” I said, turning to look at the new picture as he hurried away. “So, you have friends now, mutt…”

I stared at the person in the long cloak, and I knew in my heart that I was staring at the murderer of my beautiful Lena.

And he had something to do with that fucking mutt.