Mia
“What is your plan?” I asked the boys as we were seated in the garden the next afternoon after lunch.
“Not your business.” Quinn replied. “Remember dad doesn’t want you involved.”
“You have to be dreaming if you think that I resigned from my job to sit at home and play doll.”
Jack laughed at my words. “You will look beautiful as a doll.”
I hissed and gave him a heated look. “I’m not joking here.”
“We aren’t as well.”
I sighed, frustration tensing all my joints. “Albert doesn’t want me to go to the Sea of Death as he thinks it is dangerous.”
“It is dangerous.” Quinn affirmed.
“Will you stop interrupting me?” I yelled at him.
Jack chuckled. “Now, that is the Mia we know.”
I hissed, clenching my teeth in annoyance. “I repeat, do not interrupt me again.”
I breathed and continued with my words. “Albert doesn’t want you to go on the journey to the sea of death as well because of the dangers there. I read up on it and found out that more than eighty percent of those who went there never returned home and only a few number of those who returned did so in full health with their body parts complete.”
“We get the full scary image you are trying to paint here, Mia. You don’t have to be so gothic. What are you trying to say here?”
“You are not in a rush to get to the Sea of Death. That shows that your dad is scared of the journey and looking for another way to get the dark wizard without risking the lives of his sons. I’m asking about that plan. Let me in on it.”
“You are too smart for your own good, Mia.” Jack sighed.
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“It was.”
“Noted. Thanks.” I said. I would not be swayed. “Now, what is the plan?”
“We are trying to find out where the dark wizard is. If we can catch him unawares, we can cage him just as we did earlier. It would have been easy if he didn’t have that damned immortality powers he stole from our mother.”
I sighed. The crazy dark wizard. He had killed their mother and stole her Luna powers so he could live long.
“What if he leaves again? He could always escape just as he did then.”
“Dad has a plan.” John smiled. “We will cement off the entrance such that no one would be able to get in and the dark wizard wouldn’t be able to get out as well. Eventually, he will dry up of hunger even if it takes centuries for that to happen.”
I nodded. That sounded like a plan. Albert mustn’t really want them to go. I must confess that I didn’t as well.
“If dad can imprison the dark wizard all by himself, I’m sure the four of us can get him.”
I had my doubts but I nodded. The dark wizard had gotten stronger and their plan was risky but it wasn’t as dangerous as going to the Sea of Death. That was more of a straight ticket to hell.
“How do you find the dark wizard? You don’t know where he lives.”
“We don’t know but he must be around here. He has proven with the attack on dad’s birthday and at your place that he is nearby.” John said.
“We have hacked into all neighboring cameras. I’m sure he would show up in one of them and we can trace him with that.”
“What if he moves through the air as he did that other day?”
“He would have to use a physical form too. He would have been weak if he had been moving through the air all this time.”
“He changes his form. How will you identify him from the cameras?” I asked.
“Damn, you ask too many questions.” Quinn snapped. “We are using a technology that runs through all the video footage and detects magic in every individual that appears in them. The image of the dark wizard would appear differently and that is what we are tracing.”
“Noted.”
***
We were all seated at a mini office in the house. It served as a semi-clinic where they treated themselves when they got hurt as they couldn’t go to the hospital and also as the security room where we were monitoring the cameras in the neighborhood.
I was amazed and couldn’t stop looking around. There was a lot I didn’t know about this house. I wondered what other rooms were there that I didn’t know of. Maybe I should ask them to give me a tour tomorrow as I was already getting bored, having nothing to do.
I would eventually know of everything in the house when I became the Luna of the pack. Damn it, Mia. Where had that thought come from?
I averted my face before the boys saw the blush on it and started to pester me, trying to know what I was thinking of.
“Hey, Mia. Isn’t this that friend of yours?” Jack asked, tapping me on the lap.
I groaned, hoping the blush had already cleared from my face as I turned back to the screen. I didn’t have to worry about it at all. The boys had their faces glued to the screen and weren’t looking at me. I didn’t think they would even have noticed if my face had turned into a tomato.
I gasped as I stared at the screen. It had been long I saw her but I couldn’t forget her face, the face of a traitor. She had pretended to be my friend while using me to get closer to the boys and set her master free. There was a lot I would love to say to her.
“Yes, she is.” I breathed. “Sasha.”
The boys all stood up. “Let’s go.” Quinn said. “We have found a link to the dark wizard. We can’t lose her.”
John rerouted the footage to his phone so we could still monitor her. I gasped as Quinn swept me up in his arms and they all raced to the car at an alarming speed. I jumped into the passenger seat as he sat me down on my feet. Quinn slid into the driver’s seat while the other two got into the back seat.
“She is still at the mall.” John said, his eyes on the screen.
Quinn nodded and started the car. I had never been so afraid in my life as I watched Quinn drive like a lunatic. He was so fast that I didn’t even see anything as we sped through the road.
I knew they were trying to get to town before Sasha left the mall but I would have loved him to be careful, knowing that a human being was in the car.
I hoped that we didn’t get into an accident on our way because that would be the end of me. The three of them would still survive as they were immortal but I would be dead in seconds.
I was about to open my mouth and remind Quinn to slow down when he suddenly parked the car. “We are here.” He breathed.
I inhaled deeper than he did, looking around to be sure that we were indeed in town and I had made it alive. I couldn’t believe that we had made a journey that took hours in minutes.
“She is about to come out of the mall.” John said.
“Good.” Quinn smiled. “I’m glad that speed wasn’t a waste.”
I was glad as well. I didn’t want to think that I could have died for nothing.
Jack got out of the car and hid behind the mall. Quinn swerved the car in front of Sasha as she came out of the mall. She gasped when she saw the three of us glaring at her from the car and wanted to turn to run but Jack was already behind her.
“Make a move and I will slash your throat with my claws faster than you can blink.”
“I won’t move.” Sasha breathed, her fear evident in her voice.
“Get into the car.” Quinn growled at her.
John opened the door from inside and she slid into the car without hesitation. Jack slid in after her.
“Mia.” She called when she got into the car.
I ignored her, fuming with annoyance. I had battled with guilt for months because of her and she dared to ask as if nothing had happened between us.
“Are you working with the wolves now?” She asked.
I couldn’t detect mockery in her voice but I was angry all the same.
“Don’t talk to me. You used me to unleash an evil man like that into the world.”
“I know that is how you would feel.”
“Where is your master?” Jack asked her.
“I will take you to him.”
We all turned to stare at her, surprised by her immediate willingness.
“This better not be a trap or I will kill you before your master can save you.” Quinn hissed at her.
“Why would it be a trap when I didn’t know you were coming? I’m sorry I released the dark wizard. I know you won’t believe me when I spent years looking for him but I regret getting him out of his captivity. I have become nothing more than his errand girl. He has changed and not the person I knew.”
John snorted. “He has always been evil. What were you expecting when you set him free?”
“Maybe he had always been evil but he had gotten worse. I expected him to teach me magic which he promised to if I found him and got him free but he hasn’t. He has been harassing me with his powers instead and I couldn’t run from him.”
“You regret it?” I still couldn’t believe her.
She nodded. “I do. I hope to be free of him and that is only possible if he is dead or locked away again.”
“Call dad and send him our coordinates.” Quinn told Jack.
“Maybe Mia should go home.” John said. “If we are fighting the dark wizard soon, she would be at risk.”
“You wish.” I snorted at him.
“You will be a distraction to us.”
“I will stay in the car.” I said.
“The dark wizard would still sense you.”
“I will keep her safe. We all know she is stubborn and wouldn’t budge.”
“Oh! Okay.” The boys looked at Sasha, feeling awkward about thanking her.
I wasn’t sure I could trust Sasha with my life either but time had a way of telling the truth.