A Loyal Companion
SIX: Feast

“Ondine!”

I jerked as a loud voice called my name loudly, sending echoes down the hallway of the old building. I turned to look for the source of that voice, and found a teenage girl was running straight at me. Within seconds she leaped and gave me a tight hug. I didn’t have any chance to slipped away from it as she clung to me like there was no tomorrow.

Oh gods… here goes my silent time, I thought as my brain registered who the voice belonged to.

“Great to see you too, Chloe” I said as the teen huged me tightly. The girl was short and skinny, afterall she was only thirteen, or looked thirteen, acted like a seven-year-old most times, while she was actually almost twenty five, no one knew why her growth was stunted. She stopped ageing at thirteen, which wasn’t normal, not even for an immortal. The only reason why she was in Tarrant was because she was one of the best witches we had. She finally reached puberty last year and her power had been growing rapidly since then. I could only imagine how powerful she’d be once her full potential was released.

“You can let go of her now, Chloe, otherwise you would suffocate her”

I looked up to the gentle Margaret, her mentor, who always managed to look ten years younger than her age, and walked as if she was floating. A smile escaped from that gentle face of hers, followed by a nod.

“Pleasure to see you again, Ondine” she paused and acknowledged Aidan’s presence behind me, still half naked.

Aidan gave a small bow to her, I would too if only Chloe wasn’t hanging on to me. I couldn’t remember how she had gotten so big. I remembered when I held her in my arms singing her lullaby to put her to sleep when she was a baby. The years gone pass and suddenly she was a loud teenager clinging to me.

She finally let go of me when Aidan peeled her away from me.

“Where is my hug?” he asked.

Chloe looked at Aidan and whimpered away to hide behind Margaret, as if she was scared to see his fiery eyes. Margaret led the way to the main hall, leaving Aidan and I alone.

“She doesn’t like me that much, does she?”

I straightened my shirt and rolled the sleeves up above my elbow.

“I think it’s quite the opposite”

“Yeah right”

“She has a crush on you since she was nine”

“That I know, but doesn’t seem like it anymore”

I gave him a teasing face and poked my finger on his bare chest.

“Maybe turn down that charm of yours, she's so young she doesn't know how to deal with that”

He grabbed my finger and led it into his mouth, caressing my finger with his lips. I shivered with the sensation and texture of his flesh.

“You’re just trying to get her clinging to me so she stops clinging to you. Cheeky”

I stared at him for a moment, before finally giving him a wink as I drew away from him, leading the way to the great hall, where everyone else were, but I could feel his gaze was still on me, picturing me somewhere else in so many different positions, as much as I wanted to bring his imagination to life, we had work to do. I had to leave it for another time.

Darkness fell onto the Tarrant sky as we waited in the dining room. Plenty of food served before us, untouched, we were waiting for our host to arise from his slumber. Tristan was sitting at the end of the table, beside an empty chair, Cael’s chair. His hand was holding a glass of red wine. He was wearing a navy blue shirt with three buttons loose, exposing the smooth skin beneath the fabric.

I turned away to explore the room, looking at the four other long tables next to ours. The werewolves occupied two of them while the other two were empty. Two other tables were set on the other side to our table. They were full of healers, witches, sorcerers, sorceress, necromancers, not to mention the ones like Yolen and Yanou, who stole my breath with their beauty for a second as my gaze went pass them. I found Cael was walking towards Tristan as I turned my gaze back to the empty chair beside him. The man ran his nails on his lover’s shirt, up to his jawline and gave him a brief kiss. Cael’s skin looked much paler beside Tristan’s. His yellow hair was tied with a black ribbon, his broad shoulder held muscles that were formed by thousands of years of battles. The thin white fabric he was wearing exposed the pale but perfectly built body of his. And his face… his face was beautiful, deep blue eyes were more alive than everything else about him, and the charm, made me lock my gaze on him as the two men kissed.

Cael turned to face his guests and spread his arms, a gesture of welcome.

“Greetings fellow warriors! Welcome”

A group of vampires came into the room, occupying the empty tables. Chilling air went pass as they gracefully took their seats. Those creatures were so delicate, smooth, pale, beautiful and hypnotic, deadly and yet seductive. The vampires merely joined us for dinner for courtesy sake, but they didn’t eat, not because they couldn’t, but because they didn’t need to.

Sitting at our table were all the head councils and the leaders of the troop. I sat joined their table as usual, sitting at Gin’s side. Aidan was in the same situation like me, we were both free souls. There were a few of us out there, I didn’t expect to see them here, but I knew I’d see them at some point during this battle. Even a free soul would join the battle to stand our ground.

The thought of seeing another free soul flew my mind back to Talon, a lone werewolf who travelled with me a long time before I made friends with Aidan. We found each other on my way to Althos, city of lights. I didn’t know many Supers back then, but one thing led to the next, or more like one fight led to the next, and we found ourselves on the same side a few times, and before we knew it, we were allies. He died protecting me from a sorcerer gone mad, who possessed an Ancient’s weapon, a weapon born with an immortal like me. Any weapon that was born by an immortal could strike a killing blow and inflict mortal damage on us immortals. If the wound was caused by it, we would heal like any human would, slowly and painfully. Which means my Crimson Tears could take an immortal’s life in a single blow. I had only seen a few who bore such weapons, they were older that I was, and they all had their own traits and specialties. I would be glad to see them join forces with us in the battle, because I knew Absolon would have many warriors born with such weapons.

Gin’s voice broke my thoughts about Talon, he was engaged in a conversation with Cael regarding the portal. I knew I should be listening, but I listened more to my stomach, which by that time was rumbling and asking for the food served before me. The rest of the table didn’t wait a moment to start the feast. There were plenty of food, it could feed a whole city, but for us it was a little more than enough, considering the werewolves out-eat many of us.

I was eating my turkey and drinking the red wine in my goblet, the taste of it was exquisite, smooth, tender and juicy. I praised whoever the cook was. I looked to my left, Gin was telling Cael about the dreams I had and about Crimson Tears crying blood. I looked down to my chest, the mark was still there, but it was no longer bright red, it was more like a dried blood under my skin. I felt it thumped along with my heart, as if it was a new heart planted beneath the skin.

“It seems like Aranthias’ power has risen” my hearing picked up that sentence as it left Cael’s lips.

“How so?”

“We don’t know exactly. Seems like the legend was true, the baby left in the underworld was Aranthias. However, we don’t know why he didn’t come to his power until thousands of years later”

“One logical reason behind it is that Underworld suppressed a lot of things, including memories, powers and time, that’s why those dark warrior are so powerful against us” Tristan cut in.

“There maybe another reason why the portal is opened, only that we wouldn’t know until further investigation” his lover added. His slim finger was pointing at the scarlet teardrop beneath my skin. I swore I saw his green hypnotic eyes gleamed and turned gold for a moment. He pressed his lips tight and turned to whisper on the sorcerer’s ear. The sorcerer’s gaze turned to the mark, and reached for it, bending over Gin, but stopped in mid-motion and looked at me.

“May I?”

I nodded and let him touch the mark. His fingers touched my skin ever so lightly that I wouldn’t have noticed he was touching it if I wasn’t looking. I saw his eyes closed for a moment. A few seconds later he opened his eyes and smiled before getting up from his seat and left the room as he brushed his fingers through his lover’s hair. I turned to Gin with questions all over my eyes. Cael noticed my confusion and poured me wine to fill my empty glass.

“Don’t worry, he’s just doing what he’s good at”

I sunk back to my seat, I knew I wouldn’t get the answer until Tristan came up with it. I had tried to get answer out of Cael in the past, but Cael liked curiosity, he would give only little clues, he liked to tease, I wasn’t falling for that one again. I’d just found out when the time comes, and save me the anxiety of not knowing. If Cael thought I should wait then probably I should wait.

After dinner I went back into my room, sneaking out of the dining room before the hyperactive young witch could catch up with me.

A knock on the door startled me. I put Crimson Tears back in its sheath and answered the door.

The beautiful sorcerer stood there with a smile, his green eyes gleamed as he stared at me.

“Get ready”

Before I could ask what he had found about the mark, he disappeared into the dark corridor. I closed the door behind me and got out of my white shirt and trousers, putting my battle gear on. I quickly got out of the room after strapping Crimson Tears’ sheath on to my back.

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