Chapter Fourteen: Plans
Separate plots are formed.
The agreement has been killed.
Brink of all-out war.
The next morning, Phil, Luna, Luis, and Chelsea were silently sitting inside the Estrella’s living room. They had sat there silently ever since they returned to the house. No one knew how to break the news they had recently discovered. In one night, it seems like their reality had been shattered into pieces. Victor, Emily, and Rick came downstairs at the same time (Kara was still sound asleep in her room), puzzled by those who were just sitting in the living room. Emily spotted that Luis’s left arm had been cut, although not deeply.
“What happened,” Victor said, ignoring the fact that Chelsea was in the room.
“I told you they would attack us,” Phil said in a low voice. “The vampires, Alexander’s group; they’re the ones who are going around killing everybody. We saw them doing it.”
“Erika must have alerted them that you were coming,” Emily insisted.
“Erika is dead.” Phil told them, rising up from the couch. “Drake told us himself. And ... there’s something else.”
“Well, tell us,” Victor spat.
Phil wasn’t quite sure how to find the words. Rick had been with him through everything since the day they were born. Now he had to tell his best friend the worst news he could possibly tell him. Luna stood up, knowing how hard it was for Phil to say.
“We found Emma,” Luna answered, her voice going soft. “They turned her into one of them. She’s a vampire now.”
Rick’s heart sank, going completely black. All of his hard work, it had all now amounted to absolutely nothing. There was no way to turn back into just a regular human once you became a vampire. It took much of his strength to remain standing, but he didn’t hold back his tears. This was the only time in his life that he had ever cried.
“Are you sure of what you saw,” Victor urged out of them. “Think! Could you have been mistaken?”
“We’re all sure,” Phil answered. “Alexander’s group, they were feeding off of an innocent woman. They broke the contract.”
“Contract,” Luis and Chelsea both asked.
Phil adjusted his body to where the two of them were sitting. It seemed like obvious information that they should have been brief with, but he knew that even small things could be overlooked.
“Before many of us were born, Alexander met with my father,” Phil began to explain. “Alexander told my father that he wasn’t like most vampires; that he cared for humans. He wanted to get rid of those who didn’t value human life, the real monsters. They made a treaty that day that neither of them was able to cause lasting harm to the other as long as each side kept their word. The vampires were to only kill off criminals, because they needed to feed, and transform others into vampires in life saving situations. Part of that deal was that we couldn’t know where their headquarters is located, and even if we found it, we are forbidden to enter it. That is, until they attack an innocent person, consciously or unconsciously. That makes them fair game.”
“And how do you expect them to still stand by the treaty,” Luis asked, dumbfounded.
“You’ll be surprised by how powerful magic really is,” Chelsea said, making her presence clear in the room. “It’s an all knowing force; once you make a magical contract, it all becomes bound together. Until one person breaks the contract, everything still stands. You can lie to whoever you want as many times as you wish, but magic is something that can never be lied to; it knows exactly what’s going on.”
“So, now what do we do,” Luna asked.
“What do you mean ‘what do we do’,” Rick spoke, his voice trembling. “We do what we have to: We take them out. They need to pay for what they’ve done.”
“Rick!” Emily exclaimed, now holding her son.
“Are you ready to accept the consequences?” Victor told his son, his tone harsh and unrelenting. “That girl you pined over so much, she’s now a vampires. Do you accept that? Do you accept that you have to kill her as well? It’s very clear to you, she’s the enemy now. Do you have what it takes to kill her?”
Everyone gasped. Luna had never heard her father sound so callous about anything before. Rick released his mother and faced his father, his anger burning. Everyone was standing back, fearing that he would transform right in front of them. Rick wanted to strike his father; he knew he deserved. Rick hated everything! His body jerked, fighting off his transformation. Desperate, he turned and struck the solid wall next to him, making a hole that was much bigger than his fist. His body had stopped fidgeting, causing everyone to be calm for only a second.
Rick ran out of the house, Phil following after him. Luna tried to get up but one look from her father caused her to turn into stone. She held tightly onto Luis’s arm, refusing to cry in front of her father. The noises were muffled. There was a lot of yelling coming from the outside, taunts back and forth. This had been the first time in a long time that the two twins have ever fought over anything. A car door loudly slammed and then they heard the sound of glass shattering. There was a couple of more seconds of loud fighting, then the sound of tire screeches and a car finally drove away in the distance.
Phil entered the house, shaking his head. He then turned to his father, who didn’t seem affected by anything that was going on. Phil was on emotional auto-pilot, rushing over to his father. At first, it looked as if he were about to strike. Instead, Phil grabbed the collar of Victor’s shirt, and pinned hid directly to the part of the wall that Rick hadn’t already smashed.
“Why did you have to say that to him,” Rick screamed right at his father’s face. Emily tried tugging on Phil’s arms but they wouldn’t budge even a centimeter. “Do you have any idea what’s going on in your own family. Or do you just not give a damn anymore?! Get with the program, you old bastard, these are real people with real feelings. You can’t treat them like that! Not everyone in the world is as cold hearted as you! You need to learn to know what’s best for everyone instead of your own damn self. Are you even listening to me?!”
Victor’s eyes never met with Phil’s. Phil’s teeth were clenched, with his fists clenching harder with every passing word. To Luna, it looked as if Victor was bored and uninterested in what his own son had to say. She saw Victor playing with is fingernails and making small spitting noises as Phil was making his point clear. Phil wanted to strike him; he wish he had it in him to hit his father in the middle of his face. He took in a deep breath, counting to ten inside his head. He released Victor from his grip and threw him to the side.
“You’re not even worth the effort,” Phil said to his father. He then turned to the three young adults who were sitting on the couch. “Luna, Luis, Chelsea; let’s get going. You don’t want to be here for when the cops come, do you?” Out of context, this all seemed like a family discussion gone completely wrong. Phil assumed that a neighbor would have called the police on them after hearing all the yelling and property destruction. All three of them got up and walked towards the door in unison. Before Chelsea walked out the door, Phil grabbed onto her wrist. Her body shook. “You’re a good kid. He doesn’t know what he missed out on. I’m sorry I haven’t been a good big brother. Can you ever forgive me?”
“Um, sure, of course,” Chelsea answered, her voice trembling. “Thank you, Phil.”
The four of them left the house, Phil slamming the door behind them. The only thing that Phil regretted about it all was forgetting to grab the keys to the Jeep. His mind was on other things, mostly on where his brother was headed. It was obvious that he was going to go after the vampires, but no one knew where to start looking. Due to the treaty with Alexander, they didn’t know the location of the vampire’s hideout.
“What are we going to do now,” Luna asked as they walked in the direction of Luis’s house.
“Chelsea, do you mind if Luna and I stayed at your house for the time being,” Phil asked.
“Of course,” Chelsea said, blushing. “You all are
welcome at my place anytime.”
“Thanks,” Phil told her. Chelsea pulled her hood over her head, doing her best to hide her embarrassment. “Now, we just need to find a way to track down Rick. He’ll die without us.”
Light felt that he and Drake were finally seeing eye to eye once again. The night’s incidents had gotten Drake’s mind going in motion, scheming their next movements. Everyone was hanging out of the thirteenth floor, waiting to for Drake to come up with a plan. The werewolves knew that they have feasted on innocent humans. It wasn’t something that they could easily brush of or just tell them that they were mistaken, they had seen it with their own eyes.
Drake knew that it was his own fault that they were caught; he had gotten too cocky with his attacks. The treaty that Alexander and the leader of the werewolves forged so long ago had been shattered, meaning that they could now be a target. Werewolves weren’t cowards, and they weren’t idiots either, that much he knew. He felt that they had at least a while before the werewolves would find this place. It would be smart to keep everyone inside for the next few days, only leaving to feed when they absolutely had to. It was the only way to ensure that they would stay alive for that much longer.
“But where’s the fun in that,” Drake asked himself, a cool smile emerging across his face.
The broken treaty was now out in the open, meaning that they were free! There was no reason to go around hiding it all or blaming it on new vampires or the drug cartel. The vampires have also become more evenly numbered to the werewolves. Hiding would be probably the dumbest idea Drake would come up with. He didn’t want to hide his group; he wanted to create more followers for him to control, to create a new world where they ruled over the humans. The vampires were going to take over. That was what he wanted in the end.
“We’re all going to be leaving tonight,” Drake informed them as he rose to the middle of the room. Everyone gathered around him, ready to listen to their orders. “The werewolves are now aware that the treaty has been broken, the one I broke some time ago. I take responsibility for that. However, ask yourselves, where you would be if I didn’t take their lives and chose you to be in this flock. You have all grown so beautifully in this short amount of time, stronger, faster, and smarter. You do not deserve to live in this world, run by those who are the lowest of the low!
“Alexander used to speak of a world where we lived to protect these humans. Well, I am here to tell you that his dream is dead, much like him. If he were alive, he would have come back for his revenge by now. His wishes were as much of a sham as he was. You are now free to roam the nights and to take the blood that is rightfully yours. There are those who will fight you, who will tell you that you are wrong, but that is a lie. This is a direct order: kill all of those who dare to oppose you and your mighty strength. And if there are those who share these ideals, then their wretched human souls may have a chance to be saved! To those, I tell you to convert them into what you have become. Come sunset, we will enter this town, and take what we have the right to take!”
A thunderous applause followed Drake’s words. There was cheer, claps, and even whistling coming from his followers. They had been engulfed by his words and drawn in by the feeling of family and belonging. The one who soaked in all of this was Light, who was indeed the loudest of them all. The Drake he knew and admired had indeed returned.
“I can’t wait to meet face to face with one of those werewolves,” Karin cheered. “I’ve come up with some very useful illusions that I know will break them into pieces.”
“I don’t care who lights the match the burns down the entire world,” Light spoke with pride, “as long as I’m there to help spread the fire.”
“Come, Alexis,” Drake said, coming down from his mental pedestal. Alexis wrapped herself around her master, unaware of her movements. “Let us celebrate before sunset.”
The group’s whistling and hollering grew much louder. Drake’s actions inspired Light, who had complete manipulation over Norma, to do the same. Both of the couples rushed downstairs, both of the males simply giving strength to the control they had over their partner. Maka and Karin were left to do whatever they wanted. Karin had noticed that Maka was flying through the air, seemingly out of joy. That was when Karin had come up with an idea.
“Hey Maka,” Karin said, with a cunning smile, “how about we play a fun little game on the werewolves. What do you say?”
“Sounds interesting,” Maka sneered, floating down to properly talk to Karin. “What kind of idea do you have in mind, may I ask?”
Luis’s parents weren’t used to him having guests over, besides Luna, of course. Ashley was especially amazed by the variety of people he had coming over just to hang out with him. Everyone did their best not to discuss too much about the vampires around Luis’s family; Luis didn’t know how to explain to his family about the existence of vampires, werewolves, witches, and who knows what else. As far as anyone knew, Luis’s family was completely oblivious to him becoming a werewolf. Discussing such matters amongst each other became much more difficult when Ashley would come in every five minutes to flirt with Phil.
“Leave us alone,” Luis yelled at his sister, as they tried to talk in the living room.
“I’m just asking him a few questions about the finals that are coming up,” Ashley said in a high pitched girly voice, something that Luis had never heard her speak in before.
“But, I don’t have any classes with you,” Phil added in.
“He doesn’t know that,” Ashley whispered, pointing at Luis.
“I told you to leave us alone!” Luis exclaimed.
Luna grabbed onto Luis’s arm as Ashley ran out of the living room area. They didn’t need Luis’s transforming into a werewolf in the middle of his living room with his entire family here simply because his sister was annoying them. He controlled his breathing as he slowly sat down, Luna planting a small kiss on his cheek. Chelsea laughed at the silly face Luis made; she felt so weird being in a place surrounded by people who had truly accepted her.
“So, what are we going to do,” Luna asked everyone in a hushed tone. “We have to go looking for Rick, that’s a given. We can’t tell him to go back home though. And what are we going to do about the vampires?”
“I say we just take everything as it comes,” Phil told them. “I’m positive that Rick is going to be looking for the vampires, so I’m sure that we can find him roaming around downtown tonight. He may end up actually finding the vampire’s hiding spot for all we know. If that does end up happening, we’ll have to help him fight all of them off.”
Rick did not feel well saying his last statement. He did want to extinguish the vampires; for the past few months, they have been making his life a living hell. He worked much harder to make sure the city was safe, as well as being distracted almost every day during his classes. And now they had turned his brother’s crush into one of them. He could only imagine what was going through Rick’s mind right now, not only knowing that Emma had become a vampire, but he had to kill her in order to save other lives. Phil knew that he had to be the one to extinguish her life; Rick would probably hate him for the rest of his life because of it, but it had to be done.
“So, we’re just going to go out looking for him every night, hoping to solve one of our problems without any real plan,” Chelsea asked.
“Do you have any better ideas,” Phil asked.
Chelsea wanted to say something but caught herself. She didn’t have a plan either, but she still felt that winging the entire thing would most likely just get them killed. None of them wished for this to happen, but they felt as if it were their responsibility to stop it. This wasn’t something they were supposed to do alone, but they chose to do it. Not for the honor or glory, but simply because they knew that it was the right thing to do. An evil needed to be vanquished, and they were ready to give up their lives to show the vampires that their wicked ways were not going to take any more innocent lives.