We ended up in a rundown village after a couple of hours. It looked like there was no one even living there nor any animals roaming around that I could see. The wind was calm yet silent as we got off our horses and looked around the area. There was something strange about this place. Not that there wasn't any animals or people around but the village just had a certain ominous feeling surrounding it.
"Eerie isn't Marcus?"
I looked over at Giovanni and nodded.
"What is this place? It's old and rundown. Not to mention that there's no one even here."
"Very observant Marcus. But you forgot a very important detail."
"What's that?"
Giovanni went over to me and then pointed to a tower.
"The glow in the tower. That's where we are going to meet a few people."
I looked at him and nodded and then we started to head over the the base of the tower and went to the closed door and then Giovanni opened it and walked in. I started behind him as we ascended the stairs to the top of the tower. As we neared the top I could hear the faint voices of different people arguing with one another. One of the voices sounded like a young woman and the other was of a man that sounded like an adult. As we got to the door Giovanni knocked and then it opened showing the man in the front and the girl behind him peering from the side of him. The man grinned and then put his hand on Giovanni's shoulder.
"Welcome my dear friend. It's been too long. And I see that you brought a friend with you."
Giovanni smiled and pulled me over to him and the other two.
"Marcus, these are my two friends. Marco and his daughter Mia Abato."
"So this is the one I've been hearing about lately. Kind of a shrimp if you ask me."
He went over to me and then took a big whiff of me and then smiled.
"He may be a shrimp, but with what's been going around with you kid, you have promise. And I like that. Ramsa may not like you but the real question with him is who does he like really."
He gave off a hearty laugh and so did Giovanni. I gave off a slight chuckle and that's when Mia looked at me with her green eyes. She pulled down Marco to her height and then whispered something in his ear. He then looked at me and sighed softly.
"Sorry Marcus, Mia is just a shy person. She tells me that she's seen you before around the city when you both got stopped by those two guards awhile back and that one of them is your father."
I looked at him in shock. I didn't know that I was even being watched that day. Giovanni started to laugh though. I don't know what was so funny about this. I looked at him as he looked at her and then started to speak.
"I thought that was you Mia but I wasn't for sure if it was or wasn't. But now I know. You did well hiding from us. You're becoming more and more like your father each day."
She smiled and giggled then went running over to Giovanni and embraced him in a big hug as he hugged her back. She then looked back over at me and smiled softly and then went back over to her father. Mia looked like she was only around the age of sixteen really and her father, well he looked as old as mine is. As I looked them over I started to smile a bit because it reminded me of how I was like that with my family. I don't know what they're like now that I'm gone. Are they better off without me or are they worried about me? Or do they even care that I'm gone and haven't returned? It doesn't matter now. I'm gone and now I'm with Giovanni and that's that.
"Marcus are you okay?" Said Marco
I snapped out of my deep thought with all three of them looking at me. I guess that I wasn't paying attention that much. I hope that I didn't miss anything
"Now as I was saying, as Mia was doing her spying I myself was wondering around the city and as I was walking I heard the thoughts of others around me and one of them struck out to me. It sounded familiar but I had to make sure of it. I wanted to be wrong but then the person that I was tracking started to talk about us Deamons and Vampires to himself. That's what I thought at first, then I heard another voice. Giovanni, it was Ramsa. He was talking about plans to someone. Who, I don't know. All I know is that he was making plans for something with someone."
I looked over at Giovanni but for some reason his facial expression didn't change. I knew he was thinking though because he then started to pace around the room a bit. Once he was done he went over to Marco and put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly.
"Thank you my friend. I will definitely look into it. Later though. For now we must start heading back to the city and come up with a plan of our own on what to do next."
Marco nodded and then Mia came up to Giovanni and hugged him tightly and once she released her hug she went over to me and surprisingly hugged me as well. I stood there and then softly hugged her back and that made her happy and made her smile. She released from me and went back over to her father and took his hand in hers.
"Well my friends. It was good to see you all and I hope that we can meet again."
"As do we Giovanni. Viaggio sicuro."
We exited the room and headed down the stairs but as we were walking we heard the sound of soft footsteps and we stopped then turned around and there coming to towards us was Mia with a small parchment in her hands. She passed Giovanni and stopped at me and held out the parchment. I took it and she smiled then ran back up. I looked at the parchment and then slowly opened it. Giovanni came to my side and looked at it with me.
"Looks like it's in Deamon. I'm going to let you decode it yourself and see if you can get it and read it."
I sighed as he patted my shoulder and headed down the stairs. If it wasn't one thing it was another. And now I'll be up all night trying to figure this out. On my own to be precise. So I pocketed the parchment and followed Giovanni out of the tower and onto them horses and we rode away to the boat.
