Secret War

Chapter 10

10

"Who is Raisa, who's coming?"

"Misha." As soon as she said that her eyes snapped open and for a moment I thought she was going to scream. "He's on his way here personally this time..."

"Who's Misha?" I asked when I noticed how everyone froze.

"You know when we were talking about master Strigoi who aren't exactly nice and that there was a Strigoi outside of this family that we knew of?" Luka asked through gritted teeth. "Misha is a Strigoi who I'd fought and lost against. If it hadn't been for Riya we'd all be dead right now. He's terrifying Roza, none of us are a match for him."

"Wait a second? Is this the same Misha who destroyed hundreds of villages?" Konstantin asked.

"That's right." Riya nodded with a stern expression.

"And you fought him?" Aleksandr asked and Riya nodded.

"We barely survived that fight." Zana shuddered.

"I'm going to call upon a council meeting in town. I want you all there ASAP." Riya commanded. Right now, I saw her for what she used to be. A leader and a legendary guardian. I could tell that this Misha guy was terrifying just from their tones and I could tell that Riya didn't want to fight him, and yet at this moment, she was so collected. So calm. She was a true leader. "Roza get changed and Cain I want you to escort Roza when she's ready to the town hall."

"Understood." Cain nodded.

"K and Alik, I want you two to follow me. Zana I want you to gather together all the guardian families and ask them to set up as many wards as possible. Luka go around the perimeter and see if you can sense him at all, that might tell us how far away he is."

Everyone left and I ran as fast as I could to get changed. By the time I was done Cain had weapons of all sorts wrapped around him. I grabbed the weapons that I smuggled out of the academy and he carried me to the town since it was most likely best for me to preserve my energy.

"How many of you are blood whores?" Riya asked. The entire town looked stunned and shocked. I wasn't sure how much of the conversation I had missed but I knew that they all knew they were in great danger. Almost everyone put their hands up. "Oh come on people, don't lie right now. I realise you might want to help but I need to know how many of you aren't experienced with bites so we know to be careful."

"We're not afraid!" they boomed.

"This isn't about whether you're afraid or not. This is about how much you're willing to offer. If you're inexperienced, you might offer too much and we don't want any deaths around here." Riya reasoned. "Just please answer the question truthfully."

This time about a dozen or more people raised their hands.

"How many are experienced fighters? I'm not just asking for who was specially trained as guardians. I'm simply asking how many know how to fight with a weapon of any sort."

Almost the entire room raised their hands.

"Out of curiosity, are there any Moroi here?" I was surprised to see a lot of raised hands. Riya cursed and frowned. "Raise your hands if you don't want to be fed from." No hands appeared in the air. Even the Moroi were willing to be fed from. By Strigoi. Riya really had changed the views of everyone in this town. They were all prepared to help no matter the cost. "Okay, there are passages underground that Misha can't possibly know about since I built them, they lead to a dozen different towns so don't worry about being trapped should he manage to find a way down there. If you see any Strigoi who aren't us six, I want you to run as fast as you can. Only fight if it's a last resort. Don't try to be heroic or anything. Those of you who read about the Strigoi community will know that Misha is deadly. He kills for the thrill not the thirst. He won't bother drinking from you, he only takes from Strigoi. Don't let him trick you into anything; his compulsion abilities are too high for any of you to deny him. What ever you do, don't look into his eyes. Stare at his feet if you ever see him. Hate to be grim but once you look into his eyes, you're utterly screwed. I want you all to listen to whatever these guys have to say. If they tell you to do something, it's not for the fun of it. Is everything clear?"