Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 11

“True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.” Ellen G. White

Chapter 11

-Karen-

Victor caught the phone before it could hit the floor and shoved it into his pocket in the blink of an eye.

“Karen,” Nate’s arms came around me, supporting me. “He’ll be alright. We’ll find him.”

“How can you be so sure that they abducted him?” I asked Victor who had his jaw clenched. “Why would they even do that?”

“You are the one asking me that?” He asked back. “They wanted you, Karen. They were probably planning to take you with them. But when they failed they took your best friend instead.”

“How do they know about me or the people close to me?” Tears burned my eyes. They couldn’t hurt Jon. I would kill them all.

“I told you not to trust anyone.” Victor eyed Nate as if he was pointing at him. “They are keeping an eye on you. They would do anything to get you, Karen. Now that Jon is with them, they would use him as a tool to lure you out in the dark.”

“You’re not helping, Victor.” I sighed, placing hands on the sides of my head. I fell on the bed.

“We have to find him before they hurt him. I know those dogs. They will hurt him.” He said.

“But how are we going to find him?” Nate asked.

He was right. How could we possibly know where they had taken him? The werewolves were spread all around the world, according to what Victor had told me. It was nearly impossible to find the exact place where Jon was.

What if we couldn’t find Jon?

The fear crept in my heart and head, paralyzing me. I had never been more worried about him for my whole lifetime. Of course, he had hurt himself a lot when he was a kid and when he was on the school’s football team. He came home with a new fracture every day until he really learned to push other kids out of his way in the game.

“We have to go to Crane,” Victor muttered. “Get ready. We have to ask him about Jon’s whereabouts. He is the only person who has connections with the filthy werewolves.”

“He hasn’t left yet?” Nate asked. He had some blood drying on the side of his mouth. I would have been scared if I was the old ‘normal’ Karen. “I thought he went to the other dimension.”

“He is still having issues with his family to leave the place and I think the werewolves have offered him protection from the war,” Victor replied. “I’ve told him not to rely on their promises. He knows better.”

“What are we waiting for?” I stood up quickly, shocking both of them. “We should be leaving.”

“Have you looked at the time?” Victor rolled his eyes. “Maybe finding him will take more than this night. Nathan is still not fully energised. If sunlight falls upon him, he’ll burn then turn into ashes. Poof!”

“Then use the time portal.” I urged. “That’ll save time.”

 “Nice idea but that’ll have side effects. Last time I told about the time swirl.” He said. “Jon won’t be able to remember most of his time between the werewolves or we may just end up in the past or future.”

“I think that’s a good thing because I don’t want him to be left scarred for life. And if we land in the future or past, I don’t care as long as Jon is safe.” I moved closer to Victor. “Please just…get him.”

Victor’s clear grey eyes stared into mine and he moved a little back.

“She’s right. We should find him no matter what it takes.” Nate said from behind. “A time portal is the best idea we can come up with. It would save Jon from getting a bad impact on his life and maybe the sun won’t rise until then.”

“Right,” Victor said. He didn’t look at me. “Let’s create the portal then.”

He grabbed his locket and closed his eyes. Some seconds later a swirling portal was summoned on the wall. I had gotten used to it by now.

I was about to enter the portal when Nate caught hold of my hands. He looked at me and I saw emotions crowding those shining eyes. His hands were cold but I didn’t care as long as it was comfortable. At least he wasn’t acting distant like his elder brother.

“Karen, stop crying. We’ll save him.” He whispered to me. “I know he is safe somewhere and nothing can hurt him, okay? We’re in this together. We’ll find him, bring him back and everything will be fine. Be brave, as always.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“Let’s not waste time.” Victor declared. “Get in.”

Was it wrong to have an intense feeling of punching this guy in the face while my best friend was kidnapped? Wait—don’t answer that.

We landed in the same place where we had last time.

As Crane’s cupcakes came in view, my heartbeats raced to the extent that I could feel every thud it made against my chest. I felt uneasy pain. I exhaled loudly to make myself calm.

Victor stole a glance at me by looking back once. But he didn’t say anything.

“Are you fine, Karen?” Nate asked. He was so opposite of his hostile brother. “We’re about to get in there.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied. I really wanted to know Victor’s thoughts.

“Crane, we need your help,” Victor shouted when we got inside the shop.

Crane was standing on the other side of the counter.

“I would love to help you, Victor but right now I, myself are in trouble,” Crane answered. He looked troubled. “My wife doesn’t want to go to the other dimension because she thinks werewolves and vampires are here to protect us. What should I do?”

“Crane, it’s not the time for family talks.” Victor licked his lips. “A human boy is missing.”

“You don’t mean Jonathan Carlton, do ya?” Crane asked.

I moved forward and pressed my hands on the glass counter.

“Where is he?” I asked. “How do you know about him?”

“Lady, the supernatural news is always an epidemic in this area and when it comes to Crane’s knowledge, you can’t have any suspicion. You can bet on it.” Crane’s fangs were creepy. “The boy is being held as a prisoner in the Lykourgos manor.”

“This can’t be true.” Victor murmured.

Did he say Lykourgos manor? I had never ever heard of this place before.

“The place is closed. No one is allowed to get into that manor. It was sealed a very long time after what happened to the owner.” Victor protested against what Crane had said. “Lykourgos is only a legend that isn’t even true.”

“True or false he is like the God for werewolves. Tell me, did you spend your time investigating the manor about the presence of werewolves there?” Crane challenged. “You can’t just rely on the false facts, Victor.”

“Where is this place?” Nate asked.

“It is somewhere near her town.” Crane pointed at me. “But not in the same territory as the Escoffier mansion. Victor knows the holy place. It’s in your dimension too, alive and working.”

“We need to get there before it’s too late,” I said. My head was spinning with bad thoughts. “Are you sure Jon is there?”

“Why are they keeping him in the Lykourgos manor?” Victor asked out loud.

“The werewolves have been living there for a long time, hiding from the civilisation when the full moon appears in the night sky. They have a lot of facilities to chain or tame the new werewolves in the basement of the manor.” Crane explained. “After the full moon, the werewolves can shift any time, according to their preference.”

“Tonight is a full moon night,” Nate commented. “What are they going to do with Jon when the new werewolves are in the manor?”

“You’re scaring me more,” I said.

The thought of having Jon with newly made werewolves was scarier than having him surrounded by older werewolves. They knew their limits. They knew how to control themselves but what I knew about new werewolves from all the books and movies, the new werewolves were the ones who killed ruthlessly without giving a second thought.

I had to save Jon as soon as possible.

“We have to get to him,” Victor said. “He is in so much danger.”

My head snapped in his direction. Since when did he start caring for Jon this much?

“You would need this,” Crane said to Victor and handed him a small gun. Then he moved his mouth close to his ear. He murmured something which I couldn’t hear. We waited for them to part.

“Good luck with the rescue operation but remember one thing: when the full moon appears, enclose your fears.” Crane looked at me and smiled. “A witch is the only key to fight, fear o’ the monsters of the night.”

I gave him a funny look. Was he trying to be funny?

Victor created the time portal after we bid our goodbyes to Crane. The guy wasn’t happy. He needed to make his wife understand that the world wasn’t as secure and peaceful as she was expecting it to be. Their small children were at risk.

“It only took us one minute to go there and come back here,” Victor said with his eyes on the wristwatch. “The time portal works just fine in the same dimension.”

“I told you there’s no harm in trying that,” I said.

“Let’s walk.” He said.

Ouch.

Did he just ignore me?

“Victor, what is this Lykourgos manor all about?” I asked. He couldn’t go on ignoring me forever, could he?

“Lykourgos was the legendry werewolf, one of the very powerful who existed at the time of our father. The manor wasn’t built by him exactly but some other werewolves who thought he was their almighty built it. They were his worshippers. They named it Lykourgos manor.” Victor said deadpanned. “Lykourgos manor is usually only used to constraint the powers of a new werewolf. The powers of a new supernatural are always at their peak so, to restraint them, the young werewolves are chained in the basement. So I’ve heard.”

“Then why did you say that the manor was closed?” I asked.

“The things I’m telling you of are from the other dimension. The manor is there for these activities but in this dimension when I checked, the manor was sealed.” He replied. “It seems like I was wrong all the time. The hideout for werewolves never changed. They created the impression that it was vacant and abandoned but in reality, it was all concealed.”

“How are we going to fight all of them?” Nate asked. “How many werewolves are you expecting to find there?”

“I don’t know.” Victor shrugged. “There can be more than hundreds of them.”

“Are you frigging kidding me?” I stopped on the tracks. “We’re going to attack a werewolf hive without a solid plan. Do you really think we’ll make it out alive?”

“Without a plan or help from other vampires, we don’t stand a chance against them, Victor.” Nate shook his head.

“You said the powers are their peak when they are young and plus it’s a full moon night. I don’t think they would let us crash their party.” I held my hands up in exasperation. What the hell was he thinking? “This is like throwing yourself in a well when there is a lot of water and you don’t know how to swim.”

“Well, that kinda suits the situation.” Victor raised his eyebrow perfectly. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited for us to go on.

“We are trying to save Jon, not kill ourselves in the process.” Nate looked up at the sky. “We need a plan first and then we have to accomplish it.”

“That’ll take too much time,” Victor replied.

“What do you want?” I asked matching his tone. “Go there alive and come back as dead peoples?”

Victor turned swiftly to look at me. His face was expressionless. He tilted his head a little and looked at my face as if he had seen it for the first time. His eyes looked lost somewhere else. Then everything changed. His eyes lightened up and a smirk appeared on his sculpted lips.

I couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked when he did that. It had been a long time since I saw him smirk so carelessly. I really hated it when we weren’t fighting. The unspoken silence between us was a killer. Hell, I loved fighting with him.

“What, are you turning crazy now?” I frowned.

“You just gave me the plan.” He smirked.

And just like that, his smirk turned dangerous.