The Vampire's Requiem II [malexmale]

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One (Daimonas)

 I could feel all the blood drain from my face as Starling grimaced.

He said Zephyra. As in, the Zephyra. As in the vampire terrorist group that had been hunting down my kind since the beginning. They couldn't get it out of Vladimir, so they tried to get it out of Julian and when they found out that I had my own solid form, they tried to get me too.

The group that had kept me locked up in a glass container for a whole year. Poked and prodded me and treated me like a lab experiment. The reason I was scared of hospitals and dark places and being underwater and everything else.

I couldn't even find the words to express how terrified I was. Just hearing their name again was enough to turn my blood to ice. I just wanted to get up and run away and hide under my blankets back at the flat. Even more, I wanted to find Xed and Newell and Dominik to keep them safe... But then, I couldn't even protect myself from them before. How could I protect everyone else I'd come to love and care about?

"I'm sorry," Starling added, making me jolt out of my train of thought to see him looking at me with a pained express, "But if it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure I lost them at the airport back in Los Angeles."

"W-What'd you mean?" I asked at last, voice hoarse. Starling frowned, shifting uncomfortably.

"Well, it's not the Zephyra, as in the group led by Giorgos. They're a branch of the old Zephyra that call themselves the Stratius. Do you know a guy named Orion?" He asked. I frowned, feeling my stomach sink. Was Orion part of the Stratius? Was he lying back in New Orleans when he said he'd leave us alone?

"Yeah?" I admitted nervously. Starling gave me a grim stare, bending his straw in his drink.

"Orion used to be apart of that group. They were the ones that Giorgos kept on stand-by in case of a meltdown in the organization. They're sent out to destroy anyone who knows anything about the organization. Once they're mission is complete, they kill themselves." He explained, making me cringe. It sounded like an awful group, but it made sense. To keep their secrets safe from the world, it was either all or none and now that Zephyra had been broken up into pieces, it only made sense to destroy the last of the pieces.

"Wait, Orion used to be part of it?" I asked, confused. Starling nodded.

"I found Orion dropped out. He's gone into hiding. Because he was part of Zephyra, the leader's son no less, the Stratius are bound by oath to destroy him too. It's why he helped me get a plane ticket here. It was the only thing that kept me from roasting him over a spit, though," He muttered bitterly, "Orion hunted Newell down for the longest time. The bastard is so on my hit list." I shivered at that, averting my eyes and chewing my lip.

I debated telling Starling about seeing Orion in New Orleans. Orion was in hiding, so he didn't want anyone to find out here was there. It was probably why he looked so alarmed to see us. No doubt he had probably taken off to somewhere else after we left.

"Anyway," Starling sighed miserably, running a hand through his hair and pausing to take a drink of his soda pop, "I managed to shake them for now, but they're skilled and have lots of connections. They'll probably find me and, even worse is, they already know where you are." I stiffened at that.

"What?" I asked. Starling nodded.

"They tagged you, as in, someone has been following you and watching you and reporting back to them since you left San Francisco." He informed darkly, sending a cold chill through me. I couldn't think of anyone that had been around us the whole time, aside from ourselves. And it definitely wasn't Newell or Xed, both of them hated anything to do with Zephyra.