Royal Academy: Hellfire's Fury

Chapter 10

Stefan's POV

I watch as Anna hugs Eliza and then Luca before they jump into the silver Range Rover and leave the pack compound. Alexis stood beside Anna as they both watched the vehicle until it disappeared from their line of sight, before turning slowly and walking back to Killian and I, standing on the porch with Liam, Reed and the kids.

"Okay! The party poopers are gone! Let's get this thing started!" Reed shouts as the kids giggle at his childish antics. Sebastian, Rosalie's oldest, and Damian, Reed's son, chose to walk off to the large swing at the far end of the porch, both powering up their handheld video games, while Rosalie's twin girls joined Dante and Danielle in the flower garden just off the side of the porch. Reed was now pumping a small bubble machine while slinging a water gun strap on his shoulder.

"Reed, seriously? Let the kids play and come into the study to help us sort out all those scripts Rosalie and Orion sent over." I shouted over the sound of the loud hammering by the patrols changing the security fences on the western side of the fence.

Reed runs around in circles with the kids as Killian snickered beside me. "I swear the guy is still a ruddy teenager. How does Seraphina put up with him?" he asks as Reed's head snaps to us as though he heard what Killian said. His gaze narrows as he pumps the water gun and slowly begins to walk over to us.

"Reed," Killian warns as both his hands came up with palms opened in surrender. "I didn't mean it that way, buddy."

"Don't buddy me!" Reed shouted as a stream of water was launched in our direction. I side-stepped to avoid the rain of water but only succeeded in planting myself in the direct line of Dante's very bad aim for Killian, as a water balloon slammed into my chest and water soaked my t-shirt.

"Ooops. Sorry daddy. That was for uncle Killian." Dante says, but had to slap his hand over his mouth to silence his laughter.

Danielle walked over with her own balloon and closed one eye as she too aimed for Killian.

"Hey, hey! That's not fair!" Killian joked as Danielle launched her own balloon. It slammed onto the top step of the porch, barely missing Killian's feet.

"That's it! This means war!"

Killian ran to the far end of the porch where the boys were on the swing and launched himself over the banister. Within seconds, he reappeared, armed with the garden hose. The kids screamed in delight as he began gushing streams of water all over. The sounds of their laughter and screams bring back the comforting feeling of ease in the family.

Annalise and Alexis made their way over to me as Killian and Reed eventually teamed up against the kids in the yard.

"I think Reed and Killian needed that more than the kids," Alexis grinned as she watched her mate frolic across the front yard while dodging water balloons and spraying the hose in all directions. "King Marcos sent a summons to him as well. But he's not immediately needed yet. Whatever is going on over there, Killian said Zane and Gigi are handling it fine, for now. Luca and Eliza are only heading over there for their own piece of mind."

"That's good to know. I was getting worried when she didn't call for the kid's annual birthday video call. All she sent was a message and their presents came a week early. It had me antsy." Anna said softly as Damian and Sebastian suddenly dropped their hand-held devices and walked over to stand beside us.

"Are you guys going to join them?" Alexis asked the boys.

Sebastian grinned and Damian shook his head as the older boys watched two grown men get encircled by the young children.

"Pretty sure the girls looped Dante and Dani on the strategy plan Damian and I taught them back home," Sebastian says as his smile broadened.

"Strategy? What strategy?" Anna asks as everyone suddenly goes quiet watching the small children, Reed and Killian, standing together back to back.

"The training camp at the Clan kind of encourages us to play along with strategy games while doing combat training. One of the techniques we did this month was blocking your enemy. Damian and I taught it to the girls and I think they just taught it to Dante and Dani. Look at Grandpa Reed. He almost looks terrified." Sebastian snickers as Reed shifts and pulls Killian as a shield in front of him as the children begin launching balloons at them at rapid speed.

"What the hell! Who taught them that? I'm drowning!" Reed shouted as Killian floundered in front of him, trying to block the multiple projectiles as they slammed one after the other into his face and chest.

Killian suddenly drops himself to the ground in an attempt to make Reed the target, as he starts bear crawling in the grass to get out of the line of fire. Alexis laughed out loud at the sight of her mate escaping like an army rat, mud and grass sticking to his wet clothes. Reed stood like a deer in headlights as the children armed themselves once more.

"Alright, come on guys, let's take time out now, huh?" Reed attempts to talk his way out of the situation but Claudia, the eldest of the girls, walks forward, her arms filled with the small balloons.

"Grandpa Reed, if we let you go, you have to promise us something in return," Claudia smiled as her sister, Elianna, walked up beside her, her hands equally filled with balloons.

"You're bargaining now? You kids watch too much TV. I'm the adult here. I say we take a break." Reed makes the mistake of relaxing his body. Claudia turns her head to her sister, who in turn looks over at Dante and Dani, who nod in understanding.

Multiple balloons launched themselves at Reed as the kids laughed out loud and Reed kept shouting that he would hide all the candy back home. The balloons stopped as Reed grinned, proud that he had found a weakness. He suddenly stilled in his spot as Claudia and Elianna watched him closely.

"What candy stash? Mom threw it all out. They rotted our teeth," Elianna spoke up as Claudia nodded beside her.

Reed smiled. "Yeah, well, that house built by yours truly. I know all the best hiding spots. But you guys didn't play fair. So no candy for you! Ha!"

Claudia and Elianna suddenly looked over in our direction as Sebastian and Damian took a step forward. "What is the first rule of strategy?" Both boys shouted together to the girls.

"Never abandon the plan!" the girls shouted back as they both launched their final balloons at their horrified grandfather.

Two balloons struck Reed in the spot that had his knees buckling and dropping to the ground. He howled out in pain as the children giggled in glee.

Anna, Alexis and Killian chuckled beside me as a smile pulled at the corner of my lips. This calm before the storm of confusion was exactly what everybody needed.