58: The blinding power

(Irene POV)

(Ugh, it hurts. What the hell happened to me.)

"Ow, it hurts. Do not touch that."

(Huh? Who is that?)

"Come on just a little bit. Only a lick."

"don't you dare come closer."

I felt like crap. I did not know where I was nor did I know whose voices were there.

"How much did I drink last night Xeros?" I opened my eyes and asked the question. But instead of Xeros, there were two complete strangers in front of me.

"Who the hell... Ugh...…. This hangover feels awful. I'll never drink again in my life." My head was killing me and every single muscle in my body hurt.

(This is really bad. My body has never ached like this before due to a hangover...…. Wait... why is my body aching in the first place?)

Then the realization came to me. I immediately looked up. Everything was still a bit blurry but it was all coming into focus. Bit by bit. The two of them had stopped talking. I strained my eyes to look. As the image cleared the two strangers did not look like strangers anymore. I knew them very well. Then the event of the fight started to come slowly back to me.

(Oh no. I need to move, quick.)

My first impulse was to roll away and call for Cannibal. But the moment I tried that; I fell. My legs were stuck together and my arms were tied by a rope.

(The leg lock curse!)

"What....... we just found some time to talk and you want to go already. At least stay for dinner." The vampire chuckled.

"CANNIBAL... COME TO ME" I shouted.

Silence fell after that. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds. Cannibal never came.

"Oh, I just remembered...…. Are you trying to summon that thing over there?" The vampire pointed towards something.

Instinctively my eyes moved there. Cannibal was there alright. Trying to answer my call but it was restrained in what seemed like magical ropes.

(I am an idiot. Of course, they would do something about cannibal)

"I am not in the mood for any small talk. I am going to ask some questions and you are going to answer." I looked up to Nathan who was speaking.

He was really beaten up. Numerous wounds on him were bleeding and he even looked pale due to the blood loss. I could see that they had tried to heal him but none of them was a healer. In comparison, the vampire was fit as a fiddle. I bet he had also got hurt during the fight but he was a vampire. They possessed superhuman regenerative abilities.

"You are strong kid, I'll give you that. No ordinary person would be able to stand after that much of a beating." I looked up in admiration.

(How I wish that this kid would join us.)

"Strong huh?" He slowly walked up to me.

And then he extended his hand and grabbed my hair. In the next moment, he smashed my face in the ground with enough force to break my bones.

"AAAHHH" My nose broke and even a tooth fell out. I felt something trickle down on my face which I assumed to be blood. My whole face felt hot and the pain was killing me.

"did I not tell you that I am not here for any small talk?" He brought his face so close that I could feel his breath on my face.

I looked into his eyes and in a moment I knew that this boy in front of me would not hesitate to go to any length for his desire. I was a fighter but even I could be broken. And my body was telling me that I would not hold long. But that did not mean I would give him the information he was asking for. I knew what he was going to ask. It was pretty obvious but I could tell him none of what he wanted to know. I had to hold out until help got here. If help got here that is.

"Are you willing to talk now?" He growled.

"It really hurts." I replied

"You think I care. Why would I care when you guys never cared. Do you have any idea how much it hurt back then?" He lifted my face even higher holding me by my hair.

"Come on.... That was a gesture of our love." I tries to smile.

With great pressure, he plunged my face into the ground again. Then he lifted me and punched me in my stomach.

Once, twice, thrice...….. Before late, he threw me back, and then came kicks. After seven, I lost count. At this point, foam was coming out of my mouth.

"That's enough." I heard the vampire speak. But the kicks never stopped

"I said stop" He shouted but the kid was not budging. And then the kicks stopped.

I opened my eyes to look. Tears were falling from my eyes making my vision blurry. I tried to look anyway. The vampire was holding the kid with an arm and the kid was breathing heavily.

"Let go of me."

"Stop Nathan"

"Just let me go."

"You don't have to go that far."

"I have to"

"No, you do not."

"She will not tell us anything if we are gentle with her."

"You know that Ana can simply use legilimency on her. You do not need to torture her like that."

"I-I...." For a moment the kid became speechless.

"You knew that and even then you did all this."

The kid turned his head away without saying anything.

"Let's just go home." The vampire said.

But the kid simply shook away his arm.

"No" And he started to walk towards me once more.

Before he could reach me the vampire caught his arm again.

"NATHAN"

"Just let me go". He pulled his arm away. "You do not know how it feels. All the pain and suffering. Being held in the same place for years. Undergoing experiments and suffering through painful wounds just because some sadistic bastards wants so. You don't know anything." He was practically shouting now. "I lived that life. I endured it all and now that one of those bastards is in front of me you are telling me to let them be just like that. You think I can accept this." This time the vampire was speechless.

I could do nothing but listen to them bickering wishing that the kid would listen to the vampire. It was then something hit my eye. It was a small beam of light. I immediately looked up.

"I am going to find them all and I am going to let them feel what I felt."

"Nathan"

"Don't 'NATHAN' me. These guys do not deserve any sympathy Jac. Just look at her." He pointed towards me.

"She is one of the people who tortured me and also caused that. ...…"

"And I do not regret any of it." I chimed in on their conversation.

Both of them looked at me in surprise. Then the kid's expression changed from surprise to that of absolute rage. And I could tell that even the vampire was angry but he knew how to hold on to his emotions.

"That does it." The kid said coldly and then he pulled out his wand.

He walked over and pointed the wand at my face.

"CRUCI…." The vampire saved me in the nick of time or else I would have been hit by a crciatus spell.

"Are you out of your mind NATHAN? YOU ARE CROSSING THE LINE WITH THAT." The vampire held his wand arm and pointed it towards the roof.

"Let GO OF ME JACOB. DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT SHE SAID."

And they started to bicker. Exactly what I was going for. At that moment something fell from the sky. Both of them looked at the man in the cloak. That was when they understood that they had been played but it was already too late. The man pointed a hand towards them and with the other hand, he held me. Dense white smoke emitted from his hand and enveloped the two before they could do anything. And then he lifted me up and use a floating spell. In mere seconds we were both out of danger and flying away from the warehouse.

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(Nathan POV)

The man fell from the roof when both our guards were down. In a second, I was shrouded in darkness.

(What just happened? I need to get out of this place. What is this place? How did I get here.)

"Come to me. Aurora. Vespira." The twin blades that I had placed further away, came flying towards me.

"JACOB WHERE ARE YOU?" I yelled.

"HERE" His replay came almost instantly. But the problem was that his voice was not coming from any general direction. Instead, it seemed to be coming from all around me like an echo.

(What the)

"Nathan listen. This is a type of magical fog. Use the wind to drive it away." I heard Jacob's voice again. I did as he said. The wind obeyed my order and I slashed. Just as he had said, the fog immediately dissipated. And I saw the wall. I ran out of there. Jacob was already waiting for me outside.

"Where are they?"

"UP"

And without another word, he cast a levitation spell on both of us, and then we were at the roof. But there was no one. Not a person in sight for kilometers.

"How did they escape so fast? Did they apparate?" I asked in a hurry

"No, they did not. They flew. Irene was in no condition to apparate."

"Then we need to go after them right now."

"How can we know where they have gone."

"Seriously Jac you are asking me that. Use it." I forced me.

"You know that I am in no condition. Those two were strong and even before coming to the mansion, I had a fight that got me wounded. Between all the healing and blood loss, I am running quite empty. If I use that, I am not confident that I will be able to hold myself back. Especially since there is a full package in front of me." He looked at me...…. Specifically at my wounds while drooling.

"You have to try" But I was desperate.

"Okay...…. But I will have to have a little drink and a promise of a full-fledge meal later." He looked at me

"Whatever, just do it." I pulled up my tattered sleeve and placed it in front of him.

He gently grabbed my arm and he opened his mouth. Two fangs were visible in his mouth. And then he bit me. It stung only a bit and then the pain faded. It felt soothing. That was the effect of vampire saliva. He only took two to three sips. There was not much left in my body. Those three sips were enough to bring me to my knees.

"Okay..... thanks for the meal." He said.

Then Jacob took a deep breath and then he removed his eye patch.

I had always hated Jacob. And one of the reasons was his left eye. 'Odin's eye'...…. That was what he called it.

He slowly opened his left eye after removing the eye patch. Where his right eye was colored deep black, his left eye was crimson red. Just like mine. Yes, Jacob was another cursed child like me. But unlike mine, his curse was weaker. It was said that he was half cursed. That was why I always hated him. Deep inside I knew that it was not his fault but that did not help. He was the only person in the whole world who I envied and for that, I hated him from the bottom of my heart.

"Did you find something?"

"Yeah..." his voice felt distant.

"Then what are we waiting for."

"I said that I found something. Not them." He looked at me

"What does that means."

"Let me tell you how this works." He pointed towards his eye.

"I don't wanna know just tell me what you found."

"Just listen will ya." He was annoyed. "Oden's eye as the name suggests lets me find a thing at a great distance. I can clearly see up to kilometers. I can even see through objects. That eye patch is just decoration because I can see through it. Using this eye I can see many things and this is not even its full power. " He told me

"What does that have to do with our situation."

"The thing is that I cannot find someone just like with my ordinary eyes. To look at a distance I have to know the specific direction. Then, and only then I can look into a great distance by focusing. It's like zooming in on the world."

"Just get to the point will ya." I was getting impatient.

"I am getting there..... " He paused for a moment. "Since I did not know which direction they went, I had to apply another method to search for them." He paused again. "This eye allows me to look into one's power. I can tell how much soul power one possesses. It appears to me like a glowing light. So that is what I did to search for them. I looked for great soul powers. The soul powers of us morningstars are usually greater than normal people by a great margin. So I would have spotted them...…" He fell silent.

"AND" I shook him

"And I found a soul power. It's just that it is unlike anything I have ever seen."

"What do you mean by that. Did you not find the two of them."

"No, I did not."

"WHAT... wh-wh-why?"

"Thre are three possibilities." He rose three of his fingers. "The first one is that they got out of range by either apparating or flying. It would be nearly impossible to do so in this short time just by flying. So apparition is the only possibility. But Irene was in no condition to apparate. That is why this possibility is a no." He paused for a bit and I nodded.

"The second possibility is that they used some kind of cloaking device. But there is no such device that I know of that can hide from this eye at such a short distance distance. So, this is not possible either." He paused again.

"Then what about the third?" I asked

"The third is that the power I just saw, is masking the presence of the other two smaller powers. As crazy as it seems this is the only possible explanation."

"So you mean to say that the power you saw is large enough to hide the presence of two Morningstars. Is he another one of them or...….?"

"No, it is not a Morningstar that much is for sure. But this power is ...….." He started to rub his chin.

"This power is what."

"It is either equal or greater than mine." Jacob said nonchalantly.

Hearing this my heart almost stopped beating.

(MY GOD. Equal or greater than Jacob. That is almost to my level and I am the cursed child. Who is it)

"So our best gamble is to go in that direction." Jacob pointed.

"Let's go." I said and jumped from the roof.

It took us about ten or so minutes to reach our destination.

"Are you telling me that he or she is in there?" I asked him thinking that he was pranking me or something but he seemed serious.

We landed on the roof of a house right in front of our destination. Right in front of us was an ordinary muggle house.

"Let me check now." Jacob said and then I felt magic power gather in his eye.

For the next few moments, everything was quiet. And then he broke the silence.

"Oh my God. I don't believe this."

"What. What did you see?" Now I was anxious.

"It's ..... complicated. You should see it for yourself." He pulled out his wand and touched my shoulder with it and then he chanted

"participes visu" Immediately my vision changed. Now I was able to see what Jacob was seeing.

"OH MY GOD. That is the owner of this power." What I saw there, I was not expecting even in the slightest.