She thought about it for a little while longer. “I have an idea,” she said. “Why don’t we all go?”
“Remember how the last time you suggested that we all shot you down, because, as I’d like to remind you, the vampire council already knows you?” Oz asked, agitated this time. “You’re risking our plans, Isabel, I don’t know why you’re being so stubborn about this.”
“I’m not stubborn,” she said, narrowing her eyes at Oz. “I just have a plan.”
“And what would that plan be?” he asked. Isabel wondered why he was being so critical towards her. She wondered if it had anything to do with Presten.
“You know how we’ve all come to master mind control?” she asked, searching Oz’s face for a reaction, and when she didn’t get one, she moved on to the rest of them. “Some of us haven’t exactly mastered it… but you know what I mean.” They nodded. “Alright, well, I was thinking we should all go to the mansion together, but I don’t think we should go inside.” There was a pause. “How about we all gather somewhere out in the forest… and try to lure the succubi, make them come to us?”
“And how will we do that?” Ava asked, staring at Isabel with heavy lidded eyes.
“Mind control,” she said. “If all of us go, we’ve got a better chance at getting through to them. That way, we can lure the succubi out of the mansion, and then all of us, as a collective group, can use our powers to bend the vampires.”
Oz thought about that for a second. “And then?”
“And then we all head out to the vampire council to make our case.”
“You do know where the council is, right?” Oz asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Isabel shook her head.
“I’m guessing it’s somewhere around here?” she asked.
“It’s in Nice. We’re going to have to take a train there,” he said, matter-of-factly. At that point, Isabel was just annoyed by him. The truth was, Oz was probably the most sensible person in the room, but there was something about the way he was dealing with Isabel that made her furious. She hated when someone talked down to her and at that point, Oz was making her feel like an idiot.
“Listen, we were going to pay the council a visit, anyway,” she said after a long pause. “So we might as well just do it now, all of us.”
“It’s a risk, you being there,” he said, his lips barely moving.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
The silence poured into the room from all directions. Like a cloud, it descended on them and just lingered there; Isabel was suffocating. “Alright,” Oz said finally. “Do what you wish. I just don’t want you to get hurt in the process.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Now, what do the rest of you think about heading over to the mansion right now?”
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Presten said, his deep-set eyes boring into Isabel’s. “We just need to stick together and clear our minds from all the negative energy; if any one of us is distracted during the time of summoning, our entire plan will go to shit.”
“You’re right,” Isabel said, nodding. “I think we’ve all gotten the hang of this whole telepathy thing… it’s controlling the vampires that’s going to be tough.”
“You know what the best thing is?” Presten asked, his lips curving to a sly smile. “We’ve got an entire book dedicated to mind control on our hands. Don’t forget to use that, Isabel.”
“Oh I won’t,” she said. “I’ve read quite a big chunk of it so far… believe me, it’s going to come in handy.”
“Alright, should we get going?” Oz asked, already making his way for the door.
“And the prisoners? Who’s going to stay with them?” Ava asked.
“Presten, you can stay,” Oz said with a smile. “Seeing as though you’re probably the most powerful incubus in this room, I think you should keep an eye on the hostages.”
“Alright,” Presten said, his eyes darting from Oz, to Isabel, and then to Oz again. “I’ll take care of it.
“Okay, let’s go,” Isabel said, turning to leave. She eyed Oz as he swung the door open and stepped outside. “Boy, do you look pissed off,” she said, walking over and standing next to him. She just didn’t understand why he was acting the way he was. Something was off, but she knew that now wasn’t the time to confront him about it. Ava joined them and the three of them marched across the yard.
“Oh, hey,” Ava said, her eyes fixated somewhere over Isabel’s shoulder. She looked over and saw all five succubi— the “newbies”, as she liked to think of them- huddled at the far end of the field. “I don’t know why we keep forgetting about them,” Ava said, skipping across the yard.
“I didn’t forget about them,” Isabel said. “I keep an eye on them all the time… I knew we would find them out here.”
“They’re always in a group,” Oz said, looking at Isabel with glassy eyes. “I wonder if we should be worried.”
Isabel shook her head. “No, I’ve been watching them very closely lately… they seem alright,” she said.
““Alright” doesn’t necessarily mean dedicated,” Oz said. Isabel rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe how negative he was being. She wanted to scream her lungs out to him, to tell him that she couldn’t take it anymore. It was all so frustrating, given the fact that she needed to feed. And it’s not like she needed to feed on just about anybody, she needed to feed on Oz. She didn’t get why he was pushing her away, why he was shooting her down. She thought he would be more supportive of her by now, but it didn’t look to her like he was going to get over this anytime soon. Whatever “this” was.
“Well, I guess we’re going to have to find out,” she said, waving to the group of people standing at the far end of the field. They dispersed for a moment before they came together again, marching towards Isabel and the others.
“I really hope you prove me wrong,” Oz said, crossing both arms across his chest.
“Oh, I will.”
***
“Alright, I think we’re getting close,” Isabel said, catching a glimpse of the old mansion. They had been hiking for around an hour. When the tip of the tower came into view, Isabel crouched down amongst the weeds. “Let’s stop here,” she said. The rest of them crouched down next to her and eyed the mansion apprehensively.
“Do you think it’ll work if we try and tap into them from all the way over here?” Ava asked.
“It has to,” Isabel said. “I don’t think we can get any closer, it’s too risky.”
“There are a lot of us. I think this might work,” one of the succubi said, her eyes fixated on the mansion. She got down and hugged her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth repeatedly. Isabel clenched her eyes and tried to focus. She looked around once to make sure everyone else was doing the same and then she went back again, trying to immerse herself in her own little world. No one had taught her how to do this; it was all a matter of instinct. She took a deep breath. The wind caressed her face and she could feel every muscle in her body turn flaccid. It was like she was doing yoga. Alright, now, tell them to come out. Come out, come out, come out.
“Come out, come out, come out,” Oz said out loud.
“Come out, come out, come out,” all seven of them said in unison. “Come out, come out, come out.” The silence lingered in the air. Isabel tried to focus all her energy on that one thing, on luring the succubi out of the mansion. It was like her soul was leaving her body— or at least it felt that way— and she was watching herself from afar. She felt like she was floating around freely, that she was communicating with people and things she never thought she would be able to communicate with. Come out, come out, come out. Come out from the mansion, join us.
“Join us, join us,” Oz breathed. The rest followed. Isabel opened her eyes and stared out into the distance. She could see the trees swaying back and forth in the wind, but no people. She wondered if this was actually working. The air was so still, despite the wind. She had never felt so peaceful, yet so worried. A series of para
doxes, a chain reaction of impending events that were yet to come. Isabel felt connected, not only to the people in the mansion, but also to the circle of people around her. They were all crouched down on the ground, taking up different positions, positions that were quite peculiar in their nature. Oz stooped down next to Isabel and she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She basked in it, wishing she could let him know how much she loved him, but then decided to stay focused, clenching her eyes again and ducking her head down low. Suddenly, she heard rustling sounds. Her eyes shot open and she started scanning the place, trying to discern the source of the noise.
“Did you hear that?” Oz asked, turning to look at her. Isabel nodded.
“It’s coming from over there,” she said, looking somewhere over her shoulder. Suddenly a bunch of figures appeared from amongst the trees. They staggered towards Oz, Isabel and the rest of the gang, and when they spotted what seemed to be the source of the frequencies, they nodded at them, as if to acknowledge their presence. Isabel noticed that one incubus lead the pack.
“Hello,” he said, smiling at her. “We heard you from over there.”
“Welcome,” Isabel smiled, motioning for him to sit down.
“We can’t,” he said, seemingly distracted. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible, it’s not safe here.”
“How did you get past security?” Oz asked, rising to his feet.
“We fed off your energy and tapped into their consciousness,” he said, his hands balled up into fists. He wouldn’t stop looking around; Isabel thought the vampires would strike at any second. “For the first time, we evaded them, something we thought we would never be able to do. I’m Jared, by the way.” He reached his hand out to Isabel.
“Isabel,” she said. “Have you sedated the guards?”
Jared nodded. “Yes, we have. But not for long… we better get out of here before they wake up again,” he said. The rest rose to their feet, and in a matter of moments, they were back on the hiking trail again. “So, Isabel, what brought you to us?” he asked, glancing at her.
“I know you,” one of them said. “You’re Isabel, the chosen one.”
Jared paused. “Wait, you’re Isabel?” he asked, his eyes wide as a set of plates. “I don’t know why I never made the connection, this is awesome!”
Isabel didn’t really know what to say. She wasn’t used to people recognizing her. “Thanks,” she said after a long pause. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never been put in a situation like this before.”
“What, no one has ever recognized you before?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “That’s strange. You see, I’m an old succubus. I’m quite old, actually and I’ve been imprisoned for quite a long time now. I hear things, things about impending battles and about the chosen ones. I know about you and Presten,” he said.
“Presten is at the other mansion,” Oz said. “You’ll get to meet him in a little while.”
Jared smiled. “I’d be honored to,” he said. Isabel started making her way downhill again, motioning for the rest to follow her. “Where are we headed now?” Jared asked, a cheesy smile plastered to his face.
“To the rebels’ mansion.”
CHAPTER 9
It wasn’t long before the pack arrived outside the mansion again. Isabel had gotten used to hikes; somehow her transformation had given her the unbreakable stamina of an athlete, the kind that’s not even comparable to normal human strength. She signaled for Presten to step outside, so he did, and when he was confronted with seventeen people standing out in the field, his lips curved to a smile. “I see you’ve done a good job,” he said, marching to them. Jared stared at him in awe.
“You’re Presten,” he said, pushing past his mates and reaching his hand out to him. “I’m Jared, I’ve heard a lot about you at the old mansion.”
“Oh, wow, I did not expect that,” Presten said, taking Jared’s hand and shaking it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jared.”
“Pleasure to meet you, too,” he said. Presten could feel the eyes of the crowd on him. He peered over his shoulder and the rest of newcomers were staring at him like he was some kind of god. He knew he was the chosen one, but never in a million years would he have thought people would actually recognize him. “So, should we head out to the train station?” he asked, turning to Isabel.
“Yes,” she said, averting her gaze to Oz, who just nodded at her.
“It’s a long way to the train station,” he said. “We’ll need to take the bus. But remember, none of us are allowed to talk about internal affairs in public, especially when there are a lot of people around.”
“Roger that,” Isabel said. The pack made their way downhill again, Isabel and Presten walking side by side. The four succubi had decided to return to the rebel mansion to keep an eye on the hostages while the rest were away. Isabel put all her trust in them, after all, it was Ava who recruited them, and she trusted her judgement over anything. Isabel and Presten were lost in conversation, Isabel mostly forgetting that Oz was even there. There were times when she would feel his eyes on her, but she didn’t care. He was emitting so much negative energy that even Isabel couldn’t handle it. She bumped into Presten as they walked, their bodies colliding intermittently as they made their way downhill. The air was crisp and for the first time in a long time, Isabel felt free, and no one could take that away from her. She wasn’t trapped inside a musty mansion anymore, and neither was she confined to a green patch of a yard. And the truth was, it felt great. “You know, I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said, the steady thump of her footsteps setting the beat for her movements.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this, either,” Presten said, his eyes on the ground beneath him. “We need to be careful, though; once we get there, we need to have come up with a plan. We can’t just barge into the council.”
“I know,” Isabel said. “We need to settle down somewhere first.” The pack made it to the bus station and when they got on the bus, Isabel took the seat next to Presten, the two of them not speaking a single word to each other on the way to the train station. Isabel just stared out the window, her eyes following the road. The landscape shifted from rural to urban as the bus made its way downtown. “This is really weird,” Isabel whispered, her lips barely moving. In a way, she felt like she was relearning everything all over again. It was almost as if she had forgotten how to deal with people, how to smile at them as they passed her by and how to properly thank them when they held the door open for her. All those little things, she needed to learn all over again. She had been trapped in this tiny community for so long, that everything she once knew had become so foreign to her, so unnatural.
“What’s weird?” Presten asked, looking over her shoulder at the view outside. “The view’s beautiful.”
“Exactly,” Isabel jumped. “Aren’t you stunned by it? Don’t you miss it? Don’t you miss being outside?”
“I do,” he smiled. “I actually haven’t stopped freaking out ever since we left the mansion. I feel like an alien.”
“Me, too,” Isabel said, not taking her eyes off the road. “Everything is so… dynamic, but in a different way. Cars are hurrying by; people are going about their lives. But they have no idea we exist. They mock people like us, because they only see us in storybooks.”
“You’re right, but that’s where we’re meant to live. Otherwise, the vampire’s prophecies will be fulfilled,” Presten said. Just the mention of them made Isabel’s skin crawl.
“Alright, well, we don’t want to talk about this too much… we don’t want anyone to hear us,” Isabel said, resting her head on Presten’s shoulder. She closed her eyes and dozed off for what felt like a couple of minutes but was probably longer. When she felt Presten’s hand come over her shoulder, she flinched awake, staring at the people around her as they grabbed their things and hopped off the bus.
The pack stood on the platform for a while before Oz realized they were too early. “Alright, well, we have time
to sit down for some tea, who’s in?”
“I am,” Isabel said, nodding to a few chairs spread out over the pavement. “Let’s go sit there.”
There were so many of them now; a part of her wondered if they would be able to devise a concrete plan with that many people involved. She wasn’t used to working with a big group and she wasn’t used to devising plans like this. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was responsible for this whole thing, well, she and Presten. “Alright,” she said, slumping down on one of the many foldout chairs spread out in front of the coffee shop. “Now, first thing’s first: how about we all get to know each other?” The succubi exchanged brief glances before they pulled out some chairs and sat down in a circle. Isabel eyed them expectantly, waiting for them to introduce themselves.
“I’m Solange,” one of them said. Isabel tried to identify the source of the smooth, sultry sound, and when she realized the voice belonged to the woman sitting next to her, she smiled.
Love of A Dragon (Exalted Dragons Book 1) Page 72
