Chapter 29

We found ourselves in the living room of our home. I didn't even feel dizzy this time. I'm getting pretty good at this teleporting shit. I was brought out of my cocky state of mind by hand waving in front of my face.

"Nice of you to finally notice me." As I do a lot, I roll my eyes.

"Whatever, Nina. So, what's next?" I looked around at everyone. I saw Hannah shrug her shoulders. I let out a sigh.

"Well, then. Noor, any suggestions?" She looked deep in thought.

"I think the best thing to do is to get the message out to everyone that a battle is going to be upon us and to prepare. Shelter the old, weak, and children. I am going to make an announcement." She looked directly at me. "We will do the announcement together." She then turned to the rest of the group. "We will meet up in an hour to eat if we get a chance to. This battle could go down at any moment. Prepare yourselves now!" With that, we all broke apart and went in different directions.

Noor and I made our way to the front of our home. There was a podium set up with a mic and a camera set up in front of it. Beyond that was a massive group of people.

"They are our army." I nodded my head. She confirmed my exact thoughts.

"You ready?" I took a deep breath.

"Yes. I already had my public speech-as-a-queen-cherry popped." She shook her head at me.

"Always joking. Alright, I'll start us off." She walked up to the podium. Her vision spanned over the army, and then she looked directly into the camera.

"I am declaring a state of emergency. We have finally identified our enemy. Their name is Keres. They are commonly known as the Puppet Master. We have figured out a way to defeat them. There will soon be a battle upon us. Prepare yourself, prepare your families. This battle could happen at any moment. Shelter the older, weak, and children. If you can fight, be prepared to defend yourself and your loved ones. I will now turn it over to your other queen, my mate, Lareina." I smiled at her and switched spots with her. I took in a deep breath and looked at the camera.

"I know this is a scary time for all of us. The unknown of when and where they will attack is nerve-wracking, but rest assured, we will have soldiers posted everywhere to help protect everyone. We will defeat this enemy of ours; I can promise you that. I will lay my life on the line for each and every one of you; at the end of this, we will be victorious. As Queen Noor said, prepare yourselves. We are going to battle." With that, I looked back at Noor, and she gave me an approving nod. I saw the red light on the camera turn off, signaling that we weren't live anymore.

"How'd I do?" I whispered as I got to Noor. She smiled and gave me a small kiss on the forehead.

"You did perfect, my love. Your words were very reassuring." I matched her smile.

"Awesome." She walked back to the podium, and I looked at her, confused.

"Mobilize." She looked at a small group of people in the front. "Prepare your teams and get into your positions. It's code Halo." You could see something flash through their eyes. It looked like an array of emotions, and I am pretty sure I saw a bit of fear.

"Yes, Queen Noor." They all said in unison and bowed. They then turned around and started shouting out commands.

"Code Halo?" She looked at me and nodded.

"Yep! Time to be saviors." I looked at her in surprise.

"Nice connection." She took my hand and pulled me quickly towards the doors to our home.

"I know. We need to eat a light meal and prepare. I can feel something brewing." I took a moment and focused on the energy around us.

"I feel it too." I quickened my pace to where I was beside her now—still hand in hand.

We made our way toward the dining room. Once we entered, I found everyone in our close group all there. We all looked at one another, all of us talking with just our eyes. All of us confirmed that we all felt the air starting to shift around us with our eyes. Noor and I sat down, and in front of us were bowls of some sort of pasta.

"I wouldn't have picked pasta for my last meal." I took a bite. "But it sure is delicious," I said with a full mouth. I heard a snort and looked up to find that the snort came from Nina.

"Great table manners there, sis." I waved her off. I took another big bite and looked at Nina directly.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes at me, and Serenity chuckled. Noor lightly smacked my shoulder, and I looked over to find her smiling.

"Stop pestering your sister." She said this in an amused tone.

"Thank you, Noor, for having my back." Nina stuck her tongue out at me. I do what I do best and roll my eyes at her. After that, we all went back to eating in mostly silence. Light conversations here and there, but mostly we all stayed confined in our own heads. No doubt preparing ourselves mentally for what is to come.

We were brought out of our thoughts when we heard a loud boom. Not far behind the boom, we felt the ground shake. I immediately looked at Noor and then around at everyone else. I felt my mouth go dry and felt my heart rate pick up. I then felt the all too familiar tingles radiate from my hand. I looked over to Noor and the warmth from our connection pulsed, shocking my heart back to a regular heartbeat.

"Well…" I stood up and dusted off my pants even though nothing was on me. We then snapped our attention to the door that was slammed open.

"They're here." The man panted out.

"Tell us something we don't know." Noor smacked my arm. I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders. "What? We all felt the ground shake and heard the boom." I turned back to the soldier. "So? Where are they?" He gulped.

"To the West. Past the gardens." I nodded my head.

"See. Now you are giving useful information. Now, go back out there." He stood frozen for a moment till I made a shooing motion with my hands, and he finally ran out of the dining room.

"He was already scared shitless, and you didn't help at all." I looked at Nina.

"They'll be fine." I waved her off. "Okay, then. Let's go do this shit." Everyone sat frozen. "Come on. We've fucking got this! Now, get your assess up. We have to start kicking names and taking ass." Noor spoke up.

"I know I'm not from the human world, but I'm pretty sure you said that phrase wrong." I sighed.

"Yes and no. Yes, it is originally kicking ass and taking names, but I'm quoting Mantis from the movie Avengers Infinity War. So, in that sense, no I am not saying wrong." I started waving my hands throughout the air. "Why are we even discussing this. We literally have a battle to get to." I grabbed Noor's hand and pulled her up. I gave her a slightly quick but deep kiss. I then looked at everyone. "Now, come on. Let's do this shit." This time everyone stood up and we made our way out of the dining room and toward the gardens.

Every step we took felt almost weighted. I could feel the adrenaline

pumping throughout my body. My fight, flight, or freeze responses were all over the place. Part of me wanted to flee. Part of me wanted to stop right in my tracks, and become a statue, but I knew I couldn't. I had to fight. I had to fight for the ones I loved and for my people. I was the only way to defeat this guy. I still don't know how I'm exactly supposed to do that, but I'll figure it out. I've always been good at winging it.

We were soon on the other side of the gardens. Everything around me went silent and began moving in slow motion. The battle had broken out and everywhere in front of us you saw individuals fighting. Powers being used, weapons being used, and old fashion hand-to-hand combat. I felt Noor grab my hand and give it a light squeeze. She moved closer till her lips were about an inch from my ear.

"Let's fucking do this." She whispered out. It was the only thing I could hear; just her.

I felt this energy start buzzing inside me, and slowly I heard the noise of the battle filter into my ear. I let the energy take over my body and I knew that the galaxies within my black eyes were glowing. I looked at everyone around me and noticed that their eyes showed their supernatural sides were present. What took me by surprise though was seeing my sister's eyes glow bright blue. That's so strange, her eyes weren't blue earlier.

"We mated before battle. Transition into siren life is pretty much instantaneous." I looked at her and felt a sly smirk adorn my face.

"Don't think that we aren't talking about this later." She scoffed, but I could see her start to blush.

"Whatever. Can we just get this over with already?" With that she took off running and sliced someone in half. My jaw was slack. I felt a tug and it brought me out of my awe state.

"Come on." I took off behind the group and ran alongside Noor. All of us kicking names and taking ass like pros. Now, all I need to do is find the one pulling the strings.