Chapter 1

"I am home Mother." Damian says sarcastically, expecting his best friend to answer while he was removing his shoes and placing them on the newly made shoe rack. After almost three deep breaths, the lock of the door clicks, revealing a lean, tall, young-looking man with beautiful black locks, wearing a loose Hawaiian T-Shirt, and loose trousers. Damn. Man, isn't he cute. With a sly smile reaching his face, he directed Damian inside. Suddenly a sense of realisation hit Damian,

"Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?" the words were fearless and straight to the point. Because of course, no matter how beautiful this man is, he, could still be a trespasser, or a kidnapper, or robber, or a murderer. After gasping pretty loudly in his mind, scared of who this beautiful man is, Damian focuses on the man.

"Let us talk inside Damian, outside isn't the place." breathing all the words so casually as if he'd done this whole his life.

"No. You will answer my questions, or else I'll call the police." the man's full lips were distracting Damian a little bit, but he chose to ignore them and continue ahead, "You will also tell me where my-" calling his friend, his friend, would make Damian vulnerable, so he chose to go with roommate. "roommate is. Or else you know what I'll do." seeing the man smile to himself, not even making the slightest effort to hide it, made Damian confused.

"The Prince of The Scarrow's is giving a threat about calling the police, what have the times changed into." all while shaking his head in both disappointment and sarcasm with a weird smile snaking on his face. It made Damian fume, but also clicked something in his head, this man's voice seemed familiar, also he hadn't heard a word of what the man said, being fumed and all, but he did hear one certain word, and it kept ringing in his ears. Scarrow.

At this point, who this man is, was pretty much clear, he was the detective that Damian had hired to find someone. Leonidas, or much often referred to as Leon, was probably the best person Damian could have hired, not only because Leon was the perfect person for this task, but also because they have been best friends for a long time now, so there wasn't much formality left in both their blood. Damian was both disappointed and happy; disappointed with Leon because his disguise wasn't good enough, and happy with himself to catch such an old detective's disguise.

With a sigh, Damian stated, "Do better my dear detective." with a rather cute smile Leon asked, "What gave it away?" almost instantly, Damian answered, "Your voice, it wasn't all noticeable, but because I've known you for quite some time now, and it took me some effort to figure out who you were, congratulations-" Damian took a deep breath before continuing, "but, your task is to fool me and no one else." nodding both sincerely and understandingly at Damian's words, Damian remembered that Leon isn't the one to small talk, if he is here then he must be here for a reason, so he continued once more,

"Oh yeah, why did you come here, everything ok?" Leon's face dropped immediately, with a sorrowful sigh, he said, "Its about Sorin-" hearing Sorin's name made Damian alert once more as he paid all the more attention to what Leon was saying, "I came here to inform you about Avyanna about how we might have found her, but when I arrived, I rang the doorbell, knocked on the door, even banged the door, but no answer-" he took a deep breath, as if what was to come now, wasn't pretty, "then I pushed open the door, it wasn't in good condition, everything was... broken... and, I couldn't see Sorin, I tried to find some clue Sorin could have left, something... anything that I could find, but I didn't find anything other than what the kidnapper had wanted me to find, it was a note, I haven't read it yet-" he took his hands out from his short's pocket, revealing a sealed envelope, "The seal is not easily recognizable, but I know where it's from-" interrupting him, Damian said, "who?" this one word was all Damian could say, before bursting, either in tears, or in anger, possibly both. Staring at the floor, Leon answers, "I think it belongs to the Valliant's" it can't be Snatching the envelope from Leon's hands, Damian takes out his phone from his pocket and clicks a picture of the seal, to investigate it further before tearing it up to read it.

This is a warning. Stop trying to find princess Avyanna, or else the consequences won't be good. Your pretty boy is in the warehouse behind the old Mechanical Hearts Studio, he will be unharmed for now, but if you don't stop finding princess Avyanna, he won't be the next time.

Then a duly sign at the end. "She was here." Damian says. "Who?" asks Leon with his eyebrows knitting, and a confused look on his face. "Avyanna." He felt a bit weird hearing Avyanna's name from Damian's mouth, he knew Damian believed that Avyanna was innocent, but still, she did commit a murder, even if he doesn't think so, Leon manages to convince his brain to think about this later, and focus on what's going on right now. Seeing Leon's face look a little worried and weird, Damian says "Were you expecting someone else?" While furiously shaking his head, Leon says, "No, no. It's not that. It's just that why would she come here by herself? Knowing that we could catch her and you know talk to her." in exactly one breath. A smile with sadness in his eyes, occurs on Damian's face, "She never has her gaurd down, can never have it down, that's why no one can dare touch her without her permission all while staying alive. So you need not be worried about her-" the smile from his face changes into seriousness as he clenches the letter tightly, "all you need to be worried about now, is Sorin, we need to bring him back home, change back, and meet me outside." listening to the whole thing intently, Leon keeps nodding his head slowly, "no need to wait brother, just a swish-swish, and I'll change back." true to his words, right in front of Damian, a green dust hovers over Leon, and in a fraction second disappears, just to show the real Leon. Leonidas Graham. The ever-famous detective and shapeshifter, who everyone has a crush on; now wearing a black t-shirt with jeans, his face transformed from a beautiful square cut, to a cutting sharp diamond cut, from a clear face to one covered beautifully in freckles, his hair turned pure blond, with beautiful curls. Leon's face, still beautiful as ever, turned to stone as he asks Damian to come with him to the warehouse, Damian simply nods, wears his shoes back and follows Leon.

They both agreed that it would be best to go in a car, even though the location isn't far, as even though not far, it will still drain their energy, and if there is an attack, more likely they won't be able to fight for too long. The ride to the warehouse was silent, not a single one of them said a word, in a matter of minutes they are right in front of the gate leading to, first a huge ground, then in middle, the warehouse. Damian smiled to himself, thinking about far better locations Avyanna could have hidden Sorin at, but then the smile quickly disappears, when he recalls that Avyanna's mission was not to hurt Sorin, or to trouble Damian by having Sorin get kidnapped, but rather a warning, a warning that if Damian doesn't stop finding Avyanna, they know their target, because of course, Sorin doesn't even know how to protect himself, won't ever keep a bodyguard, and Damian can't stay with him forever.

Snapping Damian back to reality, Leon drags him towards the warehouse's entry. It looked almost as if it came straight out of a horror movie. It was made like a mansion, and seemed as if it could have looked really beautiful once, but clearly not now. All the paint had been worn out from this mansion, and as this was the season of rain, all the blacks had been dripping onto the building; true or not it had been heard that, the daughter of the owner of this mansion died in a car accident, it had always been her dream to have a warehouse full of books named after her, so after she died, her father donated his house to a bookselling company, and named it "Maria's book store", but that was 25 years ago, now that company is closed due to some fraud accusations, and the mansion has been turned into a haunted one.

They reached the doors, it was a hell of a walk through the ground, also, calling these huge gates, doors, would be a shame. The gates were rusted so took a tad bit struggle to open up. Once were opened had absolutely no shame throwing all the dust that they had collected all these years onto Damian and Leon, bathing them in it the second they stepped inside. After coughing for a straight minute, Damian recalled that Sorin had fatal dust allergy, and nudged Leon to keep on moving, who was also coughing at the time. The house wasn't at all like what Damian had imagined it to be like, it was worse; he thought it'd only smell of books, but it reeked of alcohol, and rust, and dust, but suspiciously enough, also of blood. They rushed towards the room, from where the smell of blood came from, only to find that it was locked. Damian and Leon locked eyes before turning sideways and pushing the door open together. The room was dark, darker than the mansion was, and in the corner of the room, was sitting a boy, a boy who Damian had known all his life, known him so perfectly that Damian could recognize him in any situation. But he was unconscious and bloodied, Damian rushed towards him, followed by Leon. Sorin's hands were tied by a rope, but not just any rope, a rope on which wolfsbane had been poured (Wolfsbane is fatal to wolfs, and considering the fact that Sorin is a type of wolf, it had burned through his skin.) this rope was tightly bound to his legs and hands, making them both look like a deep shade of red, almost as if it was black, being burned. But other then these burns, his leg had been slashed from a blade, a cut deep enough to both leave a scar and cover the area near this leg full of dried blood. Leon quickly cut open the rope by a sharp blade that he always keeps with himself; Damian picked him carefully up after that.

They were just about to leave from the mansion, to the ground, when a dagger came piercing out of no where, just an inch away, and it would pierced through Damian's head, fortunately enough though, it hit the wall next to him; this dagger wasn't just a dagger, it had a letter stuck to it, Leon pulled the dagger out of the wall and then gently pulled the letter out of the dagger, and opened it to read it out loud.

Ian, it seems that you would have understood by now, how dangerous it is to keep on finding me, we know our target now, and if I made a mistake of writing unharmed in the place of alive, I am really sorry. DO NOT TRY TO FIND ME.

His eyes then shifted towards Damian. They were full of both sadness and confusion, as Damian still strongly believed that Avyanna was innocent, that it was someone else who framed her.

"What should we do now then Damian? Do we keep on finding Avyanna or not?" asks Leon with genuine curiosity.

"Let's just go home right now, then we'll discuss about this. Our main priority right now should be Sorin, and Sorin alone." says Damian while staring at the ground with a grim expression on his face, Leon simply nods and moves towards their car, leaving for home.

Upon reaching home, they got Sorin out of the car, Leon noticed that Damian's mood was just worsening, as Sorin had still not regained consciousness whatsoever. Inside the house everything was exactly the way Leon described, broken and out of place; Damian lays Sorin carefully down on the bed, thankfully enough, Avyanna hadn't meddled too much with both their bedrooms. Leon calls up Dr. Caleb Jackson, as Damian had no energy to; "He'll be here in about 15 minutes." Leon informs Damian after talking to the doctor. "k." while slighting nodding. Seeing Damian shift uncomfortably in his seat, Leon puts a hand on Damian's shoulder, in an attempt to lift his mood. But to Leon's absolute shock, the body laying on the bed next to them groaned while attempting to sit upright. "oh my gosh, Sorin-" Leon gasps, then holds his hand out to help him, "- here let me help you." Sorin, with a weak smile accepts it and sits. "Sorin, I am so sorry." Damian's voice was full of guilt; he reaches out to Sorin and hugs him softly, afraid that he'd accidently hurt him; noticing Damian, Leon smiles a little, remembering once again, how Damian can be a really gentle person if he is with someone he cares about. Before anything else cute and heart-warming happens, the bell of the door rings, alarming all three of them. Leon offers to open the door, not wanting to separate the two brothers from one another. On the door waiting was Dr. Caleb. Leon bowed to him as a gesture of respect and directed him inside towards the patient, also known as Sorin. Caleb rushing inside, gasps upon seeing Sorin sit despite his condition. "Who in the world gave you the permission to sit, Sorin" The doctor's voice boomed, alarming everyone. With his eyebrow about to touch his hairline, and his hands held out, Sorin, with the help of Damian, slowly lays down on the bed once again. Seeing Damian stand up and approach him, Caleb says "There is no need to explain Mr. Damian, your friend here-" turning his head towards Leon, "-told me everything about Sorin." turning his head back to Damian. Pursing his lips, Damian nods and walks away from Sorin, clearing way for the doctor. Caleb then asked both the young men to leave the room while he does the checkup. Both Damian and Leon agreed and left. After about 15 minutes, Dr. Caleb came outside and informed them about Sorin's condition.

"He will be alive, but he needs to be taken care of. He is still very weak. Be careful with him. For the wolfbane burn, you need to buy this ointment-" Caleb hands Damian a slip with some medicines written on it. "- some other medicines are also written in there, buy them all. I have applied the ancient burn solution. Which after tomorrow you will have to make-" seeing their confused faces Caleb continued "the recipe is in there too don't worry."

Damian and Leon kept nodding throughout, and at last thanked Caleb before helping him out.