Born Enemies, Fated Mates

The Escape

The night had come. In the middle of the darkness, Eliora woke me.

"It is time to leave," She said.

Of course it was time. The time I had awaited all along. One more night and the full moon would be here. Tonight was my last chance to escape.

"Quick." She grabbed a few things. The paper which Lily found earlier glowed under the light of the dim lamp, held tightly by Eliora. "We have to go quietly."

The key was with me. I held it close. We were going to really escape. The three of us. "Where is Lily?" I checked around.

"Maybe stuck in the dreamworld because she is too scared to wake up." Eliora rather focused on the things she needed. I bent over to Lily's bed.

"Come on, Lily. It is time to go." When I reached for her under the thick blanket made of animal skin, her body pressed deep like soft feathers. In an instant, I threw away the blanket. There was no Lily, just a line of pillows.

"She is gone!" I could not believe my eyes. Maybe the night was playing tricks on me. Maybe it was the dim light. Maybe...

"I knew it!" Eliora cursed. "That little snake is so loyal to Lysandra Marble now. I told you we should not have told her."

I could not accept this. How could Lily betray me? Was she even capable of such betrayal? We were technically sisters now, how could she forget that?

"We have to go now. If we stay any longer, we are dead people." Eliora was already at the door, calling at me. "Stop brooding over her. We have to run. If they meet us here, it is over!"

In a jiffy, I brought myself back to reality. I had to accept this. Lily had betrayed me just like Vermin. There was absolutely nobody to trust in the world. I should not let that stall me. Lysandra Marble and her stupid boyfriend must be on their way now. I had to escape as soon as possible.

"f**k!"

Through the door I followed with the hurrying flash of a speedster. Eliora was the only person by my side. Together we ran through the thick forest. Eliora checked the papers regularly.

"The abandoned flying machine is somewhere around here. It is not far from the slavequarters."

Did she not say she knew exactly where it was? I looked around, heaved in suspicions. I hoped Lysandra would not find us. I hoped that the pair of red eyes in the dark was not following us too. We had to find our machine as soon as possible, else we were done for.

And so we were. Shouts came from far away.

"Find them!" I heard.

"They cannot have gone far!!"

Our window did not last long enough. They were already onto us. Lights appeared far away from us, on a search for us.

Together we rattled among the tall grasses of the island to avoid being glimpsed. But that would not protect us forever and we knew it. If we failed to find our escape machine in time, the key would be just as good as useless.

Then we went out of tall grasses. It was over.

"Or not..."

Before us stood a giant ship, one which I had never seen before. In the many wars my pack fought against the Sunfyres, we saw many of their machines flying in the sky. But none like this one. It was huge, it was massive and it was dark, one with the night. No wonder we had not seen it from afar, yet that did not explain why we could not see it in the day either.

"Quick! The key!"

I held it out. What do we do next? We climbed the machine, looking for a compatible entry point. It took many seconds. The voices were coming closer. Then finally I found it.

Before I could think, I had inserted the key in its rightful place. The keyhole grew mysteriously red and the red light shone into the deep skies, announcing our ambitions to the whole island.

It did not matter. The door was opening, we were going to get in before those guards would get here. With Eliora's papers guiding us, we were going to escape before anyone would get to us.

Only that they were waiting for us to open the door. As soon as the door lifted up, it revealed a set of strongly built men smiling at us.

Before I could access the situation, the forest around us produced more men and soon we were caught in the middle of a mini army of Sunfyres. The three men in the ship walked out slowly.

"Well well well, that took some more time than I thought." The man in front spoke. I had never seen him before. He was tall, he had full black beard. He was strongly built, his face was not merciful and his eyes glared rage. He also looked a bit familiar, but that was far fetched in my heart.

"What do we do now?" I whispered to Eliora. She must be as suprised as I was. We thought we were going to walk away easily, but somehow our enemies were ten steps ahead of us.

"Do whatever you like." The man responded. How did he hear what I said? My voice was so low. This man was surely no ordinary werewolf. His powers must be at a wild altitude for him to be capable of such abilities. His powers must be really strong. "I would expect some suprise tactics from the daughter of Adrian Bianco."

When he said that, my blood vessels dilated with much pressure. How in the world did he know my name? How did he know my identity? My relationship with Adrian Bianco? Who the hell was this person?

"Who are you?" I said, flustered.

He signalled to his men and they came closer, ready to apprehend us. We had to fight back. We were not as strong as they were but that was the only option. If we could get them out of the flying machine and get in ourselves, we could fly away right under their nose.

As I turned around to tell Eliora, she welcomed me with a massive kick to the face. While I landed on solid ground, I felt the world tumble around me.

"What are you doing?" I coughed on the ground, she came closer.

Beside me she knelt, saluting the tall black bearded man. "I have done exactly as you asked me to, Master Malcolm." She bowed her head.

As I remained rooted to the ground in shock, my eyes shifted from Eliora to that evil man who wore a sadistic face. His eyes glowed red. I recognised that red. It was the same red that had watched me from the dark. The same red eyes that had spied on me.

He was not Vermin afterall. He was not my father, Adrian Bianco. He was the other son of Denver Wolfsbane.