The Guardian (who they had decided to call Tony) sat in the back seat of Kenneth’s car. It was late afternoon and Kenneth was driving back to Darfalls.
They had stopped by at Lockwood so that Nella could go and identify her mother’s corpse.
Her brother had already returned and had identified his mother.
The police had found Nella’s fingerprints, along with Kenneth’s and Evan’s so they were invited for an interrogation.
The vampires found it easy to convince the police that they were innocent. When the officers did not believe them, the vampires depended on their hypnotic powers.
Eventually, the police decided that they were innocent.
Theo, Nella’s elder brother was a man of twenty-nine years with skin and green eyes identical to that of his sister. But he was tall and huge while Nella was slim.
He was stunned when he discovered that Nella had turned herself into a vampire, and even more stunned when he realized the true circumstances surrounding his mother’s death.
He handled it well though and even offered to help in defeating Upir.
Tony (The Guardian) had decided against that since he knew that Lehi could sense magic. He wanted to limit thier magic weilding companions to the barrest minimum. So although Theo insisted on accompanying his little sister, the only family he had at that point, he had to stay in Lockwood and hope for the best.
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to go back to Darfalls and try to attack Upir from there?” Evan asked.
“That’s one thing about abyssal magic,” Tony replied, “the closer it is to you, the less you can identify it. It’s a raw kind of power – too strong to focus on when it’s close by but strong enough to attract your focus even when it’s far away.”
“So the fact that the magic is close to them will make it hard for them to notice?”Nella asked.
“They’ll notice it all right,” Tony replied, “they just won’t be able to trace it.”
Kenneth sighed and continued driving.
They had arrived at Darfalls .
“Guys do you think it’s safe for us to stay in our houses, alone?” Nella asked, stressing the word “alone”.
Evan did not mind staying alone, just in
case they wanted to use him for a sacrifice.
Kenneth wasn’t bothered about staying alone either.
“I can’t stay there alone.” Kenneth heard Nella mumble to herself.
He knew she was still hadn’t gotten over all that had happened to her recently. She couldn’t stay alone.
“Can I come over?” Kenneth asked, “I mean can we – I and Tony stay at your place?”
“Don’t you have a house?” Tony asked innocently, oblivious of Kenneth’s reason.
Kenneth stared daggers at him for a moment.
“Are you homeless?” Tony asked genuinely.
“No, I live in a coffin in the basement of a church.” Kenneth seethed.
“He’s not homeless,” Evan said, “I don’t think Nella wants to stay alone.”
Kenneth was livid. He knew that if Nella thought that he offered to stay with her because he knew she was scared she would refuse.
“I can stay alone.” Nella said, just like Kenneth had feared.
“Of course you can sweetie.” Kenneth said, thoroughly angry.
“Really,” Nella continued, “I can stay alone – for real I’m okay”
“Why don’t you stop being okay for a moment and say the truth?” Kenneth snapped, “you’re going through the trauma of your mum’s murder, we get that and we – I understand but claiming you’re okay when you’re not is making it really hard for everyone.”
“What do you want me to do – yell, scream, cry?!” Nella yelled.
“I want you to stop being so ‘okay’ that you end up believing it – because you’re not!” Kenneth yelled back.
Nella recoiled, as did Kenneth. Tony and Evan coughed and shuffled their feet to ease the uneasy silence that had fallen on them all.
“I’m sorry Nella,” Kenneth said after a while, “it’s okay if you think you can stay alone.”
She didn’t respond.
Evan told Kenneth that his house was along that street and got out of the car. His house was still two streets ahead, but he wanted to escape the tense atmosphere in the car.
“Should I take you home?” Kenneth asked Nella.
“Can I stay at your place for a while?” Nella asked softly in return.
Kenneth smiled and said that she could. His house was a two roomed apartment. He and Tony could share a room, at least till Nella was ready to stay alone again. Besides, Lehi had been to Nella’s house so it was unsafe for her to stay there anyway.
Nella got some of her things and went to stay at Kenneth’s house.
It was night time, Upir and Lehi were standing in a clearing in the woods. The werewolves were still running wild at night. That was part of the plan.
The police were doing their best to handle the situation but they were dealing with beasts twice their size so they did not make much success. Besides, the werewolves were not exactly running wild every night, Upir just made sure that at least one human got attacked in his or her home each night. Soon she would step out into the public and inform them that only she had the power to keep the werewolves under control. When the humans became aware of that she would begin to exert control over them. From there she would start to influence political rulers and eventually she would place herself in power. It seemed like a rather complex plan but she had not spent over two thousand years in the abyss for nothing.
But now it seemed that someone else was using abyssal magic. The way things were at that point anyone who had access to abyssal magic was her equal, after all the only thing that differentiated her magic from other witches was it’s age and her contact with the abyss. Upir could not afford to have any equals – not even Lehi, so she had to find the person or people using abyssal magic and stop them.
“Are you going to seize the witches’ magic now?” Lehi asked, “I think we have to face this unknown person using abyssal magic first.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” came Upir’s reply, “and when we seize their magic, it’ll all be yours.”
Lehi grinned widely.
“But for now we have to find that person.” Upir said again, “I need you to try to trace the magic.”
“I can only do that when the magic is being used.” Lehi replied, shaking his head.
They had gone to the woods because their magic was more powerful when they were out in the open and because the neighbors might start to become concerned if Lehi started screaming like he done when he first felt abyssal magic.
“So you can’t trace it now?” Upir asked.
Lehi shook his head.
“No,” he said, “we have to wait. Whoever was using it will most likely use it again tonight.”
Lehi sat on a fallen tree, showing that he was serious about waiting.
Upir walked over to him and sat beside him.
“You’re not a normal wizard are you?” She asked him. She had been observing him and had noticed that he did not use spells. He simply made things happen. Lehi had tried to cover this ability by using spells when he was with others but Upir was not easily fooled.
“What do you mean?” Lehi asked.
“You are the only wizard I have met that doesn’t need spells to do magic.” Upir said.
“Of course I need spells,” he lied.
“I know you’re lying Ah’Lehi.” She said, calling out his name in full.
Lehi looked at her surprised, how had she known his full name?
“You are a strange one Ah’Lehi, ” Upir said again, more like an accusation than anything else, “what exactly are you?”