Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 5

“Vampires, werewolves, fallen angels and fairies lurk in the shadows, their intentions far from honorable.”-Jeaniene Frost.

Chapter 5

-Karen-

“Get into the portal when I tell you to move.” Victor gripped at his locket. “We’re going to be in a dangerous place. So, be ready.”

“I have a problem.” I raised my hand.

Victor groaned and turned around from the wall.  He raised his eyebrow.

“I can’t leave my house just like that. Mom isn’t home and dad may come any time.” I looked at him. His eyes twinkled or maybe it was the lights. “Can we do something about this?”

Nate moved a little beside me.

“We have to use the time portal then.” He said softly. “Victor, do you know any portal that can slow down the time or something?”

“If we’ll use a time portal in this world, while we’re in this world; there is a chance we’ll be stuck in some time swirl.” Victor licked his lips tensed. “I’m saying this because mostly I’ve used a time portal whenever I had to switch from one dimension to another.”

“Is this a risk worth taking, Karen?” Nate asked me. I didn’t know how to answer him. I couldn’t risk three lives.

“You should be asking me, dude.” Victor patted his shoulder. “In my opinion, we should leave and come back as fast as we possibly can.”

“Since when did you become the responsible brother?” Nate asked. His sharp teeth scared me.

I had earlier noticed that Nate had changed. He looked more powerful than he was. Travelling through dimensions usually made him weak but looking at him now, I doubted it. He seemed strong enough to fight battles. Even his talking style was different. Was he annoyed by Victor for some reason? What were the two brothers hiding?

Victor cut him a glare and I sensed the unspoken tension between the brothers.

“Since when do you consider me your brother?” Victor’s jaw tightened. “Last time I checked, you were at my throat to kill me.”

“We’re worlds apart. But we’re still brothers.” Nate’s voice was filled with anger. I didn’t know these words could be spoken with much angst, until now.

“We should go,” I said, breaking in between the brothers who were going to kill each other anytime. “We shouldn’t waste any more time in this…fight.”

Victor and Nate glared at each other for another passing second and then Victor eased up his body. His face showed how he turned into his careless self suddenly. Nate closed his eyes and then looked away when he opened them. Something was terribly wrong.

“You wanna use the time portal?” Victor asked me.

“No, can’t risk being sucked into the time swirl.” I flashed him a smile.

For the first time, I didn’t get an egoistic smirk on that gorgeous face.  There was just a little nod from him. I wanted to ask Nate to explain this to me. I needed to talk to him. He would tell me everything. It was heart-breaking to watch them like this.

“I promise you that you’ll be here before the time runs out,” Nate whispered to me. “I know it won’t take long for us to convince the vampire.”

Victor opened the portal, and I took Nate’s hand when we stepped into the green portal after Victor. He didn’t bother to look back at me or Nate. He was surely pissed for a reason that I had yet to know. The blinding green light washed over us.

I closed my eyes and waited for the stomach-churning moment. Nate’s hand gripped mine harder. I gave his hand a squeeze to ensure that I was okay.

The portal ended in an abandoned alley. A black cat meowed and glared at Victor who barred his fangs to scare her off. The cat looked like she was going to attack him, but chose a better option to run away.

“Stop scaring innocent animals,” I said, making a face.

“She could have been a vampire in a cat’s disguise.” He replied.

“You people can shapeshift?” I was surprised.

“Some of us can.” He answered. “Now let’s go.”

Nate and I followed him without any hesitation. I knew he was lying but I didn’t want to fight him. He wasn’t in a good mood. After the conversation with Nate, he seemed far off.

We got to the footpath and started walking fast. We passed some people who were busy with their mobile phones. I saw how the fingers flew on the keypad to type. They didn’t even glance up from their phones to look at us or anyone around them. They were too lost to do that.

“Do they even know they are walking?” Nate asked me. “They are so lost in that device.”

I looked at him, then at our intertwined fingers. His hand was cold in mine. I always thought my hands were cold but his hand proved me wrong.

“Does this trouble you?” He asked.

“Ah, no,” I said. “We should be happy that they aren’t paying attention to us.”

His eyes narrowed at me in the darkness, like he was trying to figure me out. He smiled at me.

“I’m not talking about the people, I’m talking about this.” He shook our hands. “Do you have a problem with my cold hands?”

He could read my mind. He knew what I was thinking.

“They may be cold but they are still comforting.” I smiled. “It’s nice to have a friend to hold your hand while walking to the vampire’s shop.”

“Are you afraid?” He asked. “He won’t hurt you, you know.”

Victor stopped in his tracks and turned left to enter a street, we followed him.

“Why did he make the portal so far away if he knew the place?” I asked.

“Werewolves are lurking nearly everywhere,” Nate replied, trying to catch the pace with Victor. “They would know instantly if a portal is created. Victor tries to choose a safe place to make the portal.”

“Lovebirds, we’re here,” Victor called.

I looked ahead at the shop. There were many shops around us in the lane, right and left but they were all closed. Only this shop was open. The shops looked old and dirty. I don’t know where we were right now but I could tell it wasn’t a decent place to be. I furrowed my eyebrow and read what the shop’s nameplate said.

It said ‘Crane’s cupcakes.

“I thought we were here for a vampire,” I said. “What kind of vampire makes cupcakes for a living?”

Victor moved fast and stood in front of me, facing me. Our faces were inches apart. His eyes searched mine and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Nate’s hand squeezed the blood out of me. I wanted to tell him that he was breaking my hand but I could do nothing else than staring into his brother’s eyes.

“You don’t get to make fun of vampires in the vampire territory,” Victor whispered to me. “There are more vampires here than you can imagine. They can hear you easily. Even if their prince is here, I’m sure they would go against the rules to drink the blood of a witch.”

“Stop scaring her, Victor,” Nate said through gritted teeth. “Get back to work. I’m here to protect her.”

“Don’t forget I was the one saving your asses last time.”

He couldn’t stop bragging about saving us last time we were captured by a crazy, revengeful vampire and his gang. I didn’t know if he really wanted to kill us or not. Victor had come to save us, fighting all the gang members and killing them. He was going to remind us of it for the rest of our lives.

“Let’s just get in to see your vampire friend.” Nate ignored his comment.

We entered the shop by opening the glass door. The shop was dimly lit but I could see things clearly. There were many colourful cupcakes on the display shelf. They looked so lovely and of course tasty. The names of different cupcakes were written on a list that hung down from the nearby wall. I didn’t read it but I knew they were enough to make me feel hungry.

There were two persons already in the shop. One was a girl and the other was a boy. They wore black jackets and jeans. I couldn’t see their faces because they were turned towards the counter but as soon as they heard us coming in they turned to us. Nate suddenly dragged me back and stood in front of me like he was trying to protect me from the two.

They turned around and I saw their faces. The guy had long dark hair touching his shoulder. He also had a small scar under his right eye. The girl had tied her long blond hair into a ponytail. There was something sinister about them.

They looked at Victor and then at Nate. Victor opened his mouth into something that looked like a snarl. The guy gave him a tough look and they walked out of the shop.

“Who were they?” I asked.

“They were werewolves,” Nate replied.

“Why didn’t you kill them?” I gulped. “They had the vampire prince standing right here in front of them. Why didn’t they attack you?”

“The guy who owns the shop has a bullshit rule of no killing or fighting here,” Victor said. “I would have killed those dogs as soon as I had seen them. Now I know they would be surrounding the area, waiting for us to come out.”

A shiver went down my spine. The last thing I wanted was to get killed by werewolves.

“Crane, get out of your hiding spot,” Victor shouted. “I’m here to see ya.”

“Why are you here?” A young voice called back from the door behind the counter. “I’m not coming back to the hell.”

“Show me your beautiful face, Crane.” Victor snorted, raking a hand through his dark hair. “Come out and see who is here to see you.”

“You brought visitors.” The voice said. “I see.”

A dark figure came through the door. The guy was thin and pale. There were dark circles under his eyes like he had never slept. The vampire was a guy no more than twenty years. How could he have been an elder at the time of Victor and Nate’s father?

“Nathaniel, I so glad to see you.” Crane bowed. “You look great in comparison to the last time I saw you.”

“Crane,” Nate addressed him. “This is Karen…”

“Aha, I know what the supernatural world is talking about.” Crane tilted his head and smiled at me. “The news of a new witch, the descendant of Valerie is the hot topic of the supernatural world.”

“So the werewolves know about her,” Nate said. It wasn’t a question.

“Of course they do.” Crane tapped his finger on the counter. “Victor, why are you here?”

“In this state of emergency and enraging war, I’m here to call you back to the dimension.” Victor’s voice was stern and polite at the same time. “We’re grouping the vampires together.”

“Blah, blah I know what you’re doing.” Crane shrugged. “They are going to strike you with a force that you aren’t ready to face. They have been asking me to make weapons to weaken vampires.”

“And you’re obviously creating them on their demand,” Nate said. I could feel the anger. “How can you even do this? It is against the rules of vampire society. You can’t make weapons to hurt your own kind.”

“I bring the news.” Crane bit his lips. “Ask Victor.”