Shadows (Book Two of the Royals Trilogy)

Chapter Nineteen

SKYLAR

The beeping of an alarm woke me up and I sat up drowsily, I hadn’t realized I had fallen asleep on the couch after eating. My dream had been confusing, it felt wild, like if there was something dark inside of me pushing me to fight to get free. I felt caged, like a wild animal left to live its rest of its days behind bars. I didn’t know what any of that meant but it freaked me out, I had never had such a vivid dream like that.

“What is happening?” I asked Blair who was already sitting on the co-pilot seat at the cabin, pushing away at the buttons. She turned to look at me and pointed at the screen. We were heading right towards a cliff. I instantly sat down, “Kira, give me options,” I said, hoping the computer could guide us safely through this.

The hologram of Kira’s face disappeared and instead it calculated multiple scenarios until one appeared highlighted on the screen. I quickly scanned the screen and yelled, “the first one, Kira, now!” The face nodded and instantly the propulsors under the plane ignited and just as the plane was going to land roughly on the ground, the plane surged upward and once it was stabilized, I moved the steering wheel down to land safely between a few trees, of course, with the help of the automatized assistant.

The plane moved a bit roughly as the wheels reached the ground. I sighed in relief and looked at Blair who still seemed shook by the scare. “That was quite a scare,” I said with a laugh and she looked at me like I had grown another head. She joined me after a few moments and shook her head in disbelief.

It was now before dusk, and Blair and I decided to get familiar with the area before we did any planning or searched for the mansion from my vision. The ground was humid, and the smell of wet grass and trees was noticeable, I knew from my geography class that Ireland was a country where rain was common, I just hoped that wouldn’t complicate the mission more than it already was. To my surprise, I could see the mansion far off. I calculated it was about 5 kilometers away but nothing that couldn’t be handled on foot. I was glad to see there were no villages nearby which meant the vampires had to be feeding themselves with animal blood and because of that, they were weaker.

As it started to get dark, we headed back to the plane and used the screen that was at the center of the plane to figure out a strategy. “Kira, open up a sketch of our surroundings in a 10-kilometer radius from here,” Blair said, and the screen slowly traced a draft of the area around us.

“Can you show us our position and where the nearest building is located?” I continued, knowing that the only closest building was the manor. Two small, bright dost illuminated on the screen and it started blinking. A path was drawn connecting the two locations. The nearest building is 6.2 Kilometers away from our location, the path to reach your destination is mostly flat and my sensors don’t detect any sign of animal life on your path. I smiled and nodded, and I blushed when I realized I was nodding to a machine that couldn’t see me. “Thank you, Kira.”

“What happens now?” Blair asked me with a raised eyebrow and I hesitating, considering all our options.

“I think it would be best to catch them as soon as possible. We should attack at dawn, take all of the things we might need, specially the immobilization handcuffs and the weapons Mark gave us, they should be able to keep them unconscious at least until we get them back to the cells.”

Blair nodded in agreement, “okay, I think we should take one of the small vehicles at the end of the plane, you didn’t see them, did you?” she said with a smile when she saw my confused face. I shook my head and she chuckled, “well I got another surprise for you,” she said as she took out a small device that looked like a cellphone, only thinner and smaller. “This is a device that takes Kira with us, if we ever need her help or need to contact our base this is the quickest way.” She handed me the device and I analyzed it but there was not much to see.

“Okay well, I think we should have a quick dinner and then get to our beds to rest. We are going to have a long and exciting day tomorrow,” Blair nodded her head and we took out all the ingredients to make ourselves a sandwich.

Just as we were finishing up, and idea popped into my head, I didn’t want to face Ethan and have him recognize me instantly, I wanted it to take him by surprise, I wanted to show him just how much I’ve changed in the last couple of months. I knew that it seemed foolish and childish to just change my appearance as a sign, but I felt the urge to do it.

“Blair, can you help me dye my hair?” I whispered shyly and she looked surprised by my request. She nodded hesitantly and looked at me with a confused expression. “I want to be different for tomorrow, I don’t want him to recognize me to prevent me from getting distracted,” I said softly, and she knew of who I was talking about.

This time, she got quickly to work. I had packed a dye just in case I did decide to go through with that idea. It was a reddish-colored dye, but it would have to do. Blair worked in silence as she helped me with my hair.

After letting it sit and taking a shower, the permanent color had stuck and I was now sitting on my bunk, drying my hair with a towel. I sighed as I saw Blair making the final preparations for the mission.

When we were ready to go to bed, we changed into our pajamas and took a bunk each. Blair quickly fell asleep after telling Gideon we had arrived. Her soft snores filled the quiet plane and I couldn’t lay still. Mark had sent me a message a couple of hours before, wishing me good luck and reminding me that his help was just a call or message away. I warmed my heart to think he cared enough about me to want to help us as much as he could to make sure we returned home. He was sweet, and maybe in another life, we could have been together, just a normal teenage girl with a normal teenage boyfriend.

But we weren’t normal, we were far form it, and I had a beloved, a centuries year old man who had hurt me deeply and who had taken part in the destruction of my life. It was still hard to believe that Ethan Royale was the man who was supposedly the love of my life. Not likely. I didn’t believe that love was supposed to hurt, not like that. I sighed and turned off my device, it powered up with the beating of my heart, but I didn’t want it to distract me as I tried to sleep.

This time, I was shifting on my bed, but I managed to fall asleep.

…

Blair shook my awake the morning after, it was still dark out and for some reason I felt more tired than I had the day before. I sighed and shook my head, this was it, this was the end of our mission. After this, Emma and I would walk away from all this. Well, not exactly, first I needed to find a way to get Blair what she wanted, her freedom.

“Are you ready?” Blair asked softly and I guessed she wasn’t just referring to being physically prepared for the fight. She hadn’t brought up Ethan since I had talked to her about my vision, but I knew how she felt about beloveds.

I nodded and we headed over to the back of the plane where a small vehicle was waiting for us. The car turned on with the same cards as the plane, Blair had insisted on driving here as well which made me think she enjoyed driving more than I had thought. She placed the device that she had showed me the day before, at the center of the board. On the screen, a map appeared and guided us through the quickest way to the mansion.

I looked out of the window of the car as we passed a couple of trees. Something I hadn’t seen before caught my eye and Blair quickly passed past it and I jumped. “Blair stop, go back, I saw something,” I said eagerly, and she hit the emergency brakes making us go forward. She raised an eyebrow and kicked in the reverse and slowly moved back.

Once I saw what I was looking for, I jumped out of the car and kneeled to the ground, there were footprints on the mud, fresh ones. They looked like they belonged to a woman. Next to them, I saw other footprints, a bit smaller than the previous ones but they were just as fresh. “Those weren’t there yesterday,” Blair voiced out my thoughts. I shook my head and followed the trail a couple of meters into the woods.

“Are they your sister’s?” Blair asked hesitantly, not sure if I was getting my hopes up.

I shook my head and stood up, “no, they’re not. I would have recognized them. But these also belong to two women, and from what I can gather, they passed through here in a hurry no more than an hour ago. They’re heading towards the mansion as well.” I pointed at where the footprints disappeared, and Blair hesitated before heading towards the car and taking out the device.

“Let’s follow them to see where they lead,” Blair said, and she led the way deeper into the woods.

“Hey, hold on, how are we supposed to get the Royale Brothers into the car if we leave it here. Unless that device can somehow serve as a control remote for the car?” I asked and Blair smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I programmed it last night in case we needed it today,” she said proudly, and I smiled at my friend.

“Well thought, Blair,” I congratulated, and she smiled brightly. As we neared the edge of the woods, I began to take out my blades and my partner did as well, only that she was only using one hand because in the other she was carrying our GPS.

I had been right; the women were heading towards the mansion. Their footprints had disappeared inside. I looked at my partner who nodded and she placed the device inside one of the bags on her bulletproofed vest. She took out her gun and nodded when she was ready. I sighed before kicking the door open.

I expected to see some kind of commotion inside, I had even guessed the two women would be on the ground bleeding and crying for their lives as the Royale Brothers sucked the life out of them. But it was silent, and empty?

Confusion filled me as I scanned the room for any traps or signs of the Royale Brothers. “Let’s split up and check all the rooms, they should be hiding somewhere,” I said confidently even though I was starting to doubt my visions and I hoped I had made the right decision on convincing Blair to postpone her visit with her father. “Keep your microphone on,” I called, and she raised her thumbs up in response.

I turned on the coms that were on my head and automatically, a glass appeared in front of one of my eyes. It augmented my vision and a computer scanned for any sign of heat. I opened the nearest door in front of me while Blair searched the second floor. Inside I saw what appeared to be a small lab. It didn’t make sense to me, why would they have a lab? What were they experimenting with?

I stepped closer and looked through all the equipment and machines and towards the computer. I turned it on and saw a list of ingredients for a serum. It looked to be the result of trials they had been conducting. A dark thought appeared in my mind, were they experimenting on my sister? Was she alright? Had they hurt her? I started to breathe harder as I looked for any evidence that the subject was Emma but there was nothing.

I quickly got out of the room and searched through all of the first floor with no sign of life or supernatural beings. “Sky, I’m heading back down, there’s no one here,” I heard Blair say though the microphone.

“Copy that,” I responded just as I was finishing the main floor. There was only a door I hadn’t checked. I opened it, expecting to find some kind of pantry but instead I found stairs that led down into the darkness.

“What did you find?” Blair asked as she appeared next to me in a second. I gasped, she had taken me by surprise.

“I was just going to see where these stairs lead,” I said, and I started to walk down. “Are you coming?” I asked my partner in a teasing manner and she chuckled and nodded. I felt a bit better knowing Blair had my back.

In the darkness, the suits lighted up and the glass automatically changed to night vision. I looked for any sign of the light button until I saw it right in front of what looked like a heavy steel door. It had been roughly torn open, there were signs of resistance and claw marks on it.

A shiver ran through me as I started to wonder why this was starting to look like a very bad horror movie. We slowly walked inside and saw rows of cells, all empty. We searched in all of them but only one looked to have been occupied recently. There was a drawer and a bed, along with some books and a desk. But inside, it was empty and for some reason that made my skin crawl. Who were they keeping here? Emma? There were so many questions and so little answers, I didn’t even know if the Royale Brothers had even been here, but my instincts insisted on so.

I was looking through the stuff in the cell when I heard a yell coming from very close. Blair and I shared a look, “why do you think someone is yelling?” she asked warily, and I shivered.

“I don’t know, but I’m guessing it has something to do with that,” I said as I pointed to some claw marks on the wall of the cell I had been searching.

“Let’s go,” she said, and I nodded. The both of us ran up to the main floor and out of the empty mansion. We ran into the forest, following the desperate screams of a woman.