Quinn
“I can’t believe that I am here to help the vampires to solve their dilemma.” Jack lamented. “I thought I was only here to get dad and leave. It was bad enough that we helped the creatures of the island of Gayalluc get rid of the guardians tormenting them. I can’t believe we are doing the same for the vampires. At this rate, they should start calling us superheroes instead of werewolves as we are going about saving the world.”
Mia chuckled and shook her head at him. I smiled, glad to know that I wasn’t the only one who thought he was being ridiculous. He heard her chuckle and blushed, grinning at her.
“Call me Captain America, baby or Spiderman.” He grinned.
She snorted. “You don’t want to be called Wonder Woman?”
John and I laughed and shook our heads. Leave it to Jack and Mia to always have something to banter about whenever they were together, regardless of the situation.
“Anything you want to call me, baby, just make it sound sexy.”Jack said, winking at her.
I shook my head. “Let’s get serious, brother. There is an issue we have to find a solution to or else we die tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to die tomorrow.” Jack gave a mock shudder.
“I thought as much.” I nodded.
“How do we do this?” Jack asked. “I didn’t think that I was coming here to save the vampires from themselves.”
I kept quiet, refraining from telling Jack that he had said that before. I knew he was stressed and scared and trying to hide how annoyed he was as well. That was the only reason that he could be as rattled as this and repeating his words.
I wondered if he knew that he was doing that. He was doing a very poor job of keeping his emotions under lock and pretending to be fine.
John sighed and shook his head. I frowned as I looked at him. He must be really bothered by what he had seen because it seemed like he had aged years in just the few minutes that we got here. I knew that was nonsense because we hardly age, not as fast as that.
“It’s not as easy as it sounds. The vampires wouldn’t believe us if we tell them that their king is going crazy. I don’t think anyone else noticed the color in his eyes. I was surprised that you didn’t notice it as well. The color just came on in his eyes for a brief moment and was gone as soon as it came, as if it was never there. They will rip our throats with their fangs if we tell them that the king is crazy.”
“Yeah, we sound crazy saying that.” Mia agreed. “I would believe that you are crazy if you are a vampire and you tell me that.”
“Thankfully, you are a werewolf and not a vampire.” Jack grinned. “It would hurt me if you think that I am crazy, baby.”
“Focus, Jack.” Mia snapped at him.
I was glad that I didn’t have to be the one to tell him that. It would be as if I was acting too inflexible. It was good that Mia had been the one to correct him. Hopefully, he would focus this time. He got distracted too easily, always finding one way or the other to turn a situation into having fun and I didn’t like it.
I believed that I was going to find out what was wrong with him when we were done here. I chuckled at the thought of looking for why a werewolf was too playful and got bored easily after finding out why a vampire had red eyes and was acting crazy. I smiled at the thought of telling John and Mia had that would be our next mission. They wouldn’t look at me as if I was mad, wondering if some of the craziness of the vampire king had rubbed off on me.
I realized that Jack was right. We should be called superheroes now and not werewolves. We were solving problems that didn’t belong to us instead of living quietly.
I couldn’t believe that I already Jack as having a problem and was already trying to fix him.
What a dilemma.
“How do we go about this though?” Mia asked.
“Maybe we would have to make the red color appear in the eyes of the king. If we can do that, then we wouldn’t have any other trouble convincing them that their king is not normal. We can all find a cure for him if they believe us. What do you think?” John said.
I nodded. “I think that is a nice idea.”
“If the king is indeed crazy, don’t you think that someone of them would have noticed it? It isn’t okay for someone to behave that way and others wouldn’t have noticed.” Mia asked.
“I think they might have noticed and didn’t know what to make of it.” I said. “Who else noticed that all of the court officials except the king and one other person were surprised to see us? It was if they weren’t expecting us. I think the attack on our house was a private one and not much people know about it or else the guards at the border wouldn’t have behaved the way they did when they saw her.”
Mia nodded. “They believed that we were playing around and found it hard to believe that we had a reason for wanting to see the king.”
“We needed to come up with a plan soon to convince the vampires and get them on our side or we die tomorrow.” John repeated.
“We know, man.” Jack sighed. “Stop reminding us of death.”
We heard footsteps and quickly went mute. Someone was coming in into the dungeon and we didn’t know who it was yet. With the way their ears were as advanced as ours, we didn’t want to risk it that we talked into the ears of the wrong person that could get us killed faster.
We gasped as the footsteps stopped in front of our cell and it turned out to be that of the king. Oh goodness! I was glad that we had stopped talking on time. We could have gotten ourselves into trouble if we hadn’t.
I searched his face to see if he had heard anything of what we had said but it didn’t seem like it. His facial expression was cool and he didn’t seem angry.
That was good. Even if he knew that he was crazy. I didn’t think that he was going to appreciate being told that he was.
“I heard that you sent for me.” He smiled as he got to us, pinning his eyes on us.
His eyes were normal at the moment, their usual shade of silver and blue. We kept our eyes on his face, not intending to miss the change in the colour of his eyes when it appeared. I regretted that I hadn’t seen it that time when John had said that it had appeared.
“I don’t think so.” I replied, smiling at him in a patronizing manner. Maybe he would get angry that I dared to act friendly with him and the color would show.
He smirked. “I knew you would say so. The guards said you cursed as loud as you could when you were locked into the dungeon. I bet that you were cursing me. If that wasn’t asking for my presence, I didn’t know what else that could be. I thought it wise to visit you and show myself to you.”
I sighed. “You shouldn’t have bothered, your highness. I can assure you that wasn’t our intention.”
“Why are you smiling at me?” He growled. “We are not friends.”
“Of course, we are your prisoners.” I said. “I smiled so that you can know that we meant no harm to you.”
“Is that why you are looking at me in the eyes? Is that how werewolves treat their leader?” He growled at us.
“Yes, your highness.” There was no way that we would take our eyes off him. We wouldn’t blink until we see the color shift in his eyes unless he walked away himself.
“You lying bastards! How do you like your new home?”
We all snapped to attention at his words. It wasn’t what he had said but what happened as he had said it. His voice had sounded like that of the dark wizard and we saw his eyes change from the silver and blue that it was to red.
We gasped and stared at him in surprise, even as he walked away from us, laughing and gushing about how we were going to die the next day.
We looked at one another in the silence that followed, unable to voice out what we had realized.
The vampire king wasn’t crazy. He was possessed by the dark wizard. That explained the unexpected attack and the odd attitude from him.