BloodRose

14. The Furies

I stare at Alias for about two seconds before what he said actually starts to sink in.

"Wait," I say, "You want us to what? We can't kill that guy. He's probably more powerful than all three of us combined. And with an entire clan backing him?" My head seems about to burst with impossible information. First, I go into an execution and come out the other side alive. Then, I learn that my teacher's dead girlfriend/true love is alive and a vampire. Now, that same teacher wants to kill the vampire who has a cult behind him and many centuries of fresh blood strength over me and my friends. Not counting the fact that he could use afore mentioned, revived girlfriend as leverage.

Alias waits patiently for me to recover before he nods.

I stare at him some more until I'm sure he's not playing an April Fools joke on me. I hang my head and sigh. Either he is going crazy over the Hannah situation or he is serious that this guy will come after us. Whatever his reason, I agree with him that The Augur should not live one more day of his miserable life. I won't give him the chance to drag any more innocent Margarets into this life. Steel is in my stare when I raise it this time. Alias seems to sense the shift in my attitude and nods again, this time more confidently.

"Well, that was a good silent debate, but just to be clear, we are still going after him, aren't we?" Kyle asks and I roll my eyes, the corners of my mouth coming just short of a smirk. I assume that normally Alias would do the same, but currently he's got a lot of heavy stuff on his plate, enough to wipe a smile from anyone's face.

"You don't have to come if you-" Alias starts and Kyle interrupts him.

"And let your newest student get all the glory? I don't think so." Kyle elbows me and winks even though I already knew he was kidding.

Alias cocks his head to one side, "Then, let's go kill us an Augur."

We discuss our plan on the way out of the body dump and if I thought killing The Augur was crazy before, I'm pretty sure this plan is the most insane way to do it.

"You've got to be joking," I say, multiple times.

On each occasion, Alias responds with a quick, "Not joking," and keeps walking.

Every step of the plan swirls around in my head and each time one is brought to the forefront, I can only pray that it goes like we want it to. Skill will help with this new assassination mission, but at least half of it will be luck. We'll be lucky if we can spot all the guards. We'll be lucky if the door is unlocked. We'll be lucky if The Augur is where Alias thinks he will be. If even one step goes wrong, we could end up back in that same chair with no Hannah to save us this time. Still we don't have the luxury of time to plan it out thoroughly with Hannah's life on the line.

Whenever I bring my doubts up to Alias, he gives some ambiguous explanation and starts walking faster. This does not help soothe my nerves. If Alias can't be one hundred percent sure something will work, I start getting a little worried. I barely even notice when we stop at the blood bank. At least, I barely notice until Alias hands me three full, two pint bags of blood. The blood type never registers as I practically inhale the thick, red liquid.

After I drain four more bags, I flick my tongue around the familiar and somehow comforting sharp tips of my fangs. Normally I hate how they feel, but right now, about to charge into a more unpredictable and decidedly harder fight than anything I've ever experienced, the strength that comes with downing the blood gives me a confidence that I sorely need.

Without any more stops, we finally get to the front door of the compound and Alias holds his hand up for us to stop. Kyle has been silent the whole way and I'm starting to wonder if this isn't the first Crazy-as-Heck-Alias-Plan he's been in on. We watch the entrance for a couple minutes until we see a pair of guards laze their way around the corner. The relaxed postures and casual manner indicates that not as many people actually try to break into the compound as get out of it. After licking his lips several times, a new mannerism that does not reassure me, Alias turns and huddles close to Kyle and I.