Chapter Twenty-two

♦September's POV♦

"They've been talking nonstop." Selena grumbles, glaring at the back of Neruda's head.

Cyril decided to use the SUV to take us to club Xhex, heavens knew how he was able to convince the rest to come clubbing after the day we just had.

  "Honestly, I just want a long soak and my bed." I yawn, falling on Selena's shoulder.

  "Ew." She pushes me away. "I don't want your germs on me."

  I level her a look. "We're here." I inform her, stepping out.

Cyril doesn't even look back at us, he's already going in with Neruda at his side.

  "You think Zach will be jealous?" I ask drily, watching them go.

Selena doesn't reply and I take a look at her murderous expression. "No. Nope, just no." I shake my head. "There will be no spilling of Neruda's blood."

  She just gives me a chilly smile. "He doesn't have to bleed to die."

"Why don't you like him?" I ask curiously. "I mean you just met the guy tonight."

  "And he wasn't very nice." Selena shrugs. "I don't have any issues with him but he needs to know he's on my turf and should respect that."

  "You're sounding like some mafia boss." I tell her leading the way inside. "He's just here on an obscure mission that probably won't even last long, he'll be gone before you know it." I sympathize with her.

"I hope so." She says darkly slipping into her seat.

   "Hey you guys." Arianna greets cheerily before glaring at Zach and Cameron who sat opposite her.

  They both mumble unintelligibly, faces averted.

She growls at them, her eyes gleaming.

"Hey." They greet, still barely audible.

  "They're still on this?" Travon asks in surprise, sitting with Lucy at his side.

"Apparently." I murmur, confused. The entire situation is just ridiculous and I'm stuck here not knowing how to act or what to do.

  "Does anyone know where Dane is?" Selena asks, tapping her phone. "He said he'll be here by right now and I'm still not seeing him."

   "Well I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for his delay." Lucy says reasonably.

  Selena was already past reason. "I'm going to carve my name on his forehead when he gets here so that he won't forget our appointments." She says matter of factly, a decisive look in her eyes.

  "Selena you promised..." I start to say.

"Not to gut Neruda, that was the promise. Dane was never part of it." She interrupts.

"Can we talk about this some other time when I'm not trying to ingest edible substances." Arianna complains, glaring in our general direction.

  "It's just soda, you don't have to make it grand like some fancy food." Selena eye rolls.

"Have you guys seen Cyril?" I ask, putting an end  to their escalating argument.

  "Yeah, he was here for a couple of seconds with some new guy who was very hot..."

  "I don't support that statement." Zach says tartly, interrupting his sister's gushing.

"Of course you shouldn't, you're a guy." She says, the 'duh' floating around the statement.

  Selena doesn't look impressed. "And where did they say they were going?"

  Zach shrugs nonchalantly, staring intently at his untouched drink. "Just said they'd be back soon."

  "Hello people!" Dane greets, flopping down on his seat with exhaustion.

"What happened to you?" Arianna demands, wide eyed. "Did you fight with the pigeons in the parking lot."

  "And got barfed on by a rainbow." Lucinda adds, staring at him in shock.

  "Bella happened." He says shortly.

Arianna snorts a laugh. "Your baby sister?"

"Yes." He groaned out, gingerly touching his shredded hair. ""That devil's spawn made me sit through hours of makeover and tea parties, what I wanted to do was take a knife and stab her in the eye, pinky up of course." He adds cruelly, a dark light coming into his black eyes.

  "She's just six years old." I tell him off. "Plus, the knife will probably shatter then melt before it can get to her."

  "Arianna, can't you help him?" Lucinda asks, she's obviously getting used to having friends with powers.

  "I guess, I mean I don't want to be seen with him looking like that." She considers, humming.

  "You're a good friend Ari." He spits sarcastically at her.

"Why thank you." She replies with gusto, secretly using a bit of glamour on him.

   "There, you don't look like a walking disaster." I appraise him, "Now come and give my twin a welcome kiss, she's been very sad since you weren't around." I exaggerate, laughing silently when she returns the favor even though she's glaring at me.

  "Who's the dude with Cyril?" Dane asks, looking up at them walking over to our table.

  "Neruda." Selena says shortly.

"He's staying with us for a while to complete some special mission or something." I complete when it seems she wasn't adding anything.

   "That's cool." He murmurs.

They walk up and greetings and introductions are done all round.

   "I told Neruda about what happened in the basement and I think he knows what it is." Cyril says as they get settled down on chairs.

   "He does?" Cameron asks showing interest in something for the first time all evening.

"Yeah."

  "Good." He nodded. "Cause we need to know why they were after September."

"They were after September?" Neruda asks, swivelling his head towards me, red eyes gleaming. "I didn't know that."

   "Must have skipped my mind." Cyril says sheepishly.

Everyone is looking at me now like I could possibly have the answer to why a bunch of mindless life forms would want me.

  "Maybe cause I was the weakest," I mumble lowly, averting my head. "I-I'm a Blank Vampire..." I whisper, trailing off.

  I see the light go out of Neruda's eyes, his eyebrows furrowed and I frown.

  "I have no idea why they would be after you but maybe you're right." Neruda starts to say after a while of uncomfortable silence. "What I do know is that those things that attacked you guys are minions of the Beast."

  "That's just a myth." Dane waves his hand flippantly.

  "He's right." I support, "It's all a hoax, not to mention there's little to no material on it. I did a little research but came up with nothing but some vague articles." I support.

  "That's because it's kept a secret." He leaned back on his chair, blowing a stray wisp of midnight hair out of his eyes. "There would be constant panic if supes were aware of the fact that there's a monster that could eradicate the entire world living among them in the Olde Country." He continues.

  "I'm sorry," Lucinda interrupts curiously. "But where is this old country, what continent is it on?"

"It's neither here nor there." Selena replies her, "it's like an entire continent maybe even more than that hidden by pure magic. There are many portals and gateways to get into it and some supernaturals do prefer to stay in the Olde Country all their lives, others prefer to gravitate between there and the human world and some still would rather just live on Earth."

   "Whoa!" She whispers with wide eyes. "Can a human enter the Olde Country?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't advice you too, at least not alone." Neruda tells her. "It isn't exactly human friendly."

   "I see." Lucy gulps.

"As I was saying, the beast comes out every other odd century or so and only an Imperial can put a stop to it. Usually when an Imperial is born, they are taken to the Hellhound clan as soon as their powers of the elements start to show to train for their battle with the Beast. The Beast is more powerful now than it has even been for thousands if years, it might even be worse if it's influence is already felt here on Earth."

   Everyone was staring at him now with wide eyes, enraptured by his tale.

"So where's the Imperial now and why isn't the person stopping it?" I demand.

  "That's why I'm here, for the first time in forever we haven't found the Imperial. The Beast has only ever fully escaped it's bonds once and the entire world was nearly exterminated."

  Gasps resounded.

"How did they find the other Imperials?" Cyril asks.

"A Mage prophesies the birth of a new Imperial and all children born around that period are monitored. We never even have to look for Imperials because they almost always come to us, it's a big deal to be related by blood to the Imperial so there's a bit of a scramble for it. My dad told me that sometimes, the Hellhound clan might get a couple false alarms." He pauses and leans forward. "This time, nothing, I guess we went lax because the Imperial were always coming to us."

  "Why did they send just you? If things are that bad." Zach asks, looking bored with the entire tale.

"Because I'm the 'Ahri' of the Imperial." He stated grimly.

   "And you have no idea what that means." Selena eye rolls.

"He actually does." Cyril says quietly, his face reddening.

  "Oh really." She snorts. "He told you?"

"No. Tiny Max did." He continues in that quiet tone.

  Tiny Max was the owner of Club Xhex, a no nonsense giant who had taken a shine to Cyril.

"I took Neruda to him to ask a couple of questions to help with with his mission because if there's anyone that can find the Imperial in Brenton it's Tiny Max. Turns out he hadn't heard anything about an Imperial in these parts but he did know what an 'Ahri' was."

  "And what's that?" Arianna asked impatiently, already done with all the drama.

  "The Imperial's soulmate."