Soulmate

Chapter 20

After many minutes of arguing between each other, the group still didn't quite agree to go to the forest. While they were debating loudly, Maria's father bursted into the living room, a look of horror plastered on his face.

"The sun is rising!" He shouted over the voices of everyone else in the room. They all stared at him with shock as if he had gone mad, all except for Maria and Kurog, who had anticipated this outburst. Maria grabbed her bag, her eyes growing empty from the exhaustion and fear. Her father started urging the ones who didn't move fast enough for his liking, and pushed them out of the mansion. Klaus and Felipe grabbed Nicholas, who was only beginning to come to his senses with the healing aid of his wolf. They starter going into the two cars and Maria's father gave her one last heartfelt hand on her shoulder before saying farewell; the woman was stricken with surprise and confusion, but preferred to hold her questions for later, leaving her to blink in stupor.

The two cars drove away in a hurry, and soon disappeared into the distance with a cloud of dirt behind them. "They made it." Felipe let out a short yet strong sigh, relieved that their plan was successful.

"Don't talk too fast, boy..." The two men stayed standing outside the door for a while. Silence roamed beside them, along with a few small animal noises, such as birds or frogs. They kept staring at the end of the driveway, waiting anxiously.

"How are you feeling?" Felipe asked slowly, breaking the silence and with worry in his eyes. Maria's father rose his hand to his neck and plunged his hand down his shirt, fishing out a silver necklace quite similar to his daughter's. The vibrant emerald stone had started to turn dull and dark a little past the half of the precious stone.

"I think you should hand it over again." Proposed Felipe in a polite voice. "Before, you know..."

The older man stared at the jewel in his palm lovingly, and reluctantly handed it over to the younger man, staring at him carefully with his dark eyes. The stone slowly returned to it's original colour and Maria's father let out a faint groan in pain. His soft and bright brown eyes slowly melted into a darker shade, almost completely black.

"Why do you keep doing this to me, Nino?" Maria's father hissed angrily. "You'll get me in trouble with the Boss."

"For Maria, and for her." The old man tensed up, and scratched his gray hair. "You know it would be what she wanted, if she could come back and fix things." Maria's father listened to the boy's words, but had no reaction to them. The old man started up to the sky with a bittersweet grimace. Multiple cars started rolling up the long driveway of the mansion. Felipe quickly hid the necklace in his pocket, and both men stood tall with a stern expression on their faces. Once the nearly countless cars stopped into a straight row, vampires started exiting the cars, some lightly burnt, others limping and bloody. A few of them even had to lean on the one beside them to walk. There were none dead, though Felipe knew that they wouldn't have brought them back; none of them were important enough to be grieved, let alone healed. They marched into one perfect line, in a row of two, stomping like robotic soldiers. After all of them had entered the mansion, two other serious looking vampires stepped out of the first car of the line in full discussion. The closer they came to the two men, waiting patiently for someone to acknowledge them, were able to hear them talk. They spoke of their latest raid, nearly successful if their prisoners hadn't run away from them. The tallest among the two, who was also the one with the highest ranking, stiffened and stopped in his tracks.

"What it this smell?" He asked loudly, glaring over to Felipe and Antoni. The two vampires walked passed the old man and the young one with suspicions looks on their faces.

The first rays of the sun finally touched the earth and the vampires inside started to lock down the mansion, closing all the blinds and locking all the doors, and blocking any kind of natural light. One lower cast bat opened the front door just a crack to search for his higher ups, and waved his hand to urge them to safety. The tall bat dismissed him, having a few precious minutes to spare.