Huntik Trilogy. Volume 1 The Battle Against The Specter

Blood

The departure for Canada was organized early in the morning, after Sophie had spoken with Metz.
Zhalia still carried her secret and her anxiety for knowing if Dante was well or not.
Lok and Sophie were determined and sure about the moves to make, Metz had taken care to take the diary and the notes written by Sophie, while Cherit was looking everywhere for Lok's backpack, the only place where he could hide for the whole duration of the travel.
"According to the notes, we know that the 'base of evil' is not far from the destroyed base of the Foundation, first we put our luggage at the hotel, then we go to the new base and finally to the enemy's lair." Metz said to the team.
"Isn't it better to ask for reinforcements?"
"No Lok, the less we are, the less likely we'll be discovered. Dante can resist until we arrive, but not until tomorrow, it is vital to succeed in the mission. Any other questions or anything to add?"
No one answered.
"Then let's go!" Zhalia urged them.
The team members took their backpacks and left.

In Toronto it was raining. The sun of a few weeks ago, when the team had faced the mission, was gone.
Sophie couldn't silence the voice that kept repeating in her mind only one word and, moreover, disturbing.
- Blood! Blood! Blood! -
Sometimes Sophie seemed to want to crush her head to have a moment of peace too, because, as they approached the den of evil, that voice was mutating from an incessant whisper to a continuous cry.
Metz, Zhalia and Cherit watched Sophie tremble and Lok came closer and closer to comfort her and give her courage.

In the base of evil there was no one, except a jackal in the basement guarding a secret room below it divided into smaller rooms. The seekers found themselves forced to split up to explore the secret rooms below the basement, revealed by Lok.
Zhalia volunteered to go down.
The light in the corridor was dim since the only light source came from the rooms lined up along it. A cry attracted Zhalia's attention to one of the rooms. There was no doubt: it was Dante; she would have recognized that voice among a thousand.
She took the decision to follow it and she went through the corridor, but she had to stop, seeing a sliding door open unexpectedly and seeing Shadow to come out with a grin on his face. Instinctively, she made herself invisible with Camoforge and only when Shadow walked away opened the door. What she saw left her shocked: blood everywhere and dirty knives on the ground, then on a metal table the body of Dante covered with wounds and completely soaked.
The seeker was unrecognisable; it had nothing to do with the young man, smiling and confident, sometimes arrogant, with the ability to instill security in his team members.
"Dante!" Zhaliaexclaimed running towards him, canceling her spell.
"Zhalia, is that you?" he asked in a whisper.
"Yes, it's me! Don't force yourself and stay relaxed!" Zhalia invited him, taking his face in her hands.
"How did you find me?"
"It doesn't matter, now we have to get out of here!" she communicated to him, freeing him from one of the rings that blocked him at the table.
"Zhalia, if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up."
"It's not a dream! I'm here, in front of you!" Zhalia continued, freeing his arm and holding his hand.
Dante smiled faintly, then closed his eyes.
"Dante, please, hang in there! You cannot leave me, don't do that!"
"Zhalia, I don't think I'll be able to resist for any longer..." he whispered at the end of his tether.
"You cannot do that! Dante there's something I have to tell you and it's important that you know it!" she went on, freeing him from the rings to his ankles.
"What should I know?" he asked, trying to keep his eyes open.
"You will become a father!" she said in one breath, not knowing how to communicate the news. The words would have been the same even if Dante had been healthy.
"Zhalia, are you sure?" Dante asked, widening his eyes in surprise.
"Yes, it's been before we left together on the mission that I wanted to tell you, the right opportunity has never been presented." the young woman squeezed the hand of the seeker firmly "You mustn't die! There is also another thing I have to tell you and it's that..." she took a deep breath because those words were dying in her throat and pronouncing them it meant exposing herself completely, something that she had never done with anyone neither with him in those last years. "I love you!"
Dante tried to disguise the pain on his face with a smile and put a hand on her cheek.
"Zhalia..."
"I sent my position, and soon the others will come to help us." she silenced him.
"Zhalia!" Sophie called her appearing on the door of the room. "Oh no, is that Dante?"
Sophie had heard the voice growing again and she was the firts to find Zhalia.
"Hi Sophie, it's nice to see you again!" Dantesighed, before closing his eyes another time.
"Dante!" Lok and Metzexclaimed, they arrived thanks to Cherit who had warned them of Sophie's change of direction.
"Dante, answer me!" Zhalia's voice was more and more insistent, but Dante didn't react.
"Zhalia, cover our escape, we must go immediately to the new base of the Foundation, before Dante dies!" Metz ordered, taking the seeker's body with Lok.
Zhalia used Thoughtspecter to be able to leave the enemy base without being seen.

In a short time they arrived at the safe house and opened the main door, finding themselves in a room with a wooden floor, where some members of the council had gathered to discuss around a table with the new chiefs in charge of the base.
The sight of Dante's body in the arms of Metz and Zhalia, who had replaced Lok, immediately aroused concern.
"What happened?" the new seeker head of the baseasked.
"Metz, I demand explanations, immediately!" Uffizi intervened.
"Dante has been captured and tortured by our enemy, call the base nurse now! He is dying!"
"Zhalia..." Dante whispered, attracting the attention of the female seeker.
"Dante, I beg you, don't force yourself. It will be all right, I promise!"
"You have to listen to me just this time, then I promise you I'll be silent."
Zhalia nodded, trying to keep control.
"If I had to die, I want you to know that I have always loved you..." he took one last deep breath and he saw Zhalia's eyes become languid. "And that I'm happy to become a father..."
Zhalia was paralyzed in fear of Dante's words. She felt like someone was digging a hole in her chest. The person she cared about the most was poised between life and death; not that he had never been, but that time there was something different. The thing that had banned her was that she had not known how to react promptly; as if trying to control herself had become an unbearable burden and was letting her deepest emotions come to light.
"Excuse me, let me pass!" a female voice said behind the council members.
The nurse had arrived just in time to rescue Dante; she placed him on the table on which they were holding the meeting. The woman brought everyone out of the room, there wasn't even time to move him to another place so bad was the situation in which the seeker was in.
Cherit managed to sneak into the room just in time.
"Don't worry. I won't leave him for a single moment!" the titanpronounced.
Zhalia saw the door closing when her eyes crossed with Dante's eyes one last time. In his eyes she saw a flame of a man who doesn't want to give up; a flame of someone who would fight with his nails and his teeth because he has too much to lose.