I am Twelve - The Witch Assassin's Target

Chapter 21 - The chase

#musicvibe - Heart of the hurricane, Beyond the Black

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Caniluna Castle

October 21st, 2146

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Alex POV

Garrett stood up and folded his arms across his chest.

“Alright.” He said. “Are we drawing straws?”

Violet rolled her eyes.

“Really Garrett?” She muttered.

“What?” Garrett shrugged. “Let’s just face it. No one wants to do it.”

“Wow, we really are terrible people.” I muttered and stood up. “I’ll do it, you chicken shits.”

Garrett gave me a thumbs up.

“Great, let’s send in the Alpha to check on the Alpha.” He grinned.

I rolled my eyes and headed off to find Tyson.

After everything that happened, Tyson was just a shell of himself. He was barely eating, barely speaking and he locked himself in the office every chance he got. We all really started to get worried about him, but we all agreed that it was almost impossible to reach him and we didn’t know how to make him feel better.

The only thing we could think of to help Tyson was to bring Valeria back here, but Mr Sampson still had no news of her, so we waited impatiently while being painfully aware that the full moon was only a day away. We were worried what would happen to both Tyson and Valeria if we didn’t manage to get them back together before then, and we really started to run out of time.

After sniffing the air to locate his scent, I frowned and headed towards the dungeon.

Why would he go down there?

I slowly walked down the stairs and found Tyson sitting in the cell where Valeria had been kept. Small strands of Valeria’s hair stuck out between his fingers and he twirled them carefully while staring off into the distance.

“Hey.” I said softly. “Can I join you?”

Tyson nodded and I sat down next to him. We stayed silent for a few minutes, and I was struggling to figure out something to say.

“She’ll come back.” I whispered and gestured to the hair. “I know she will.”

Tyson shook his head.

“Why would she?” He scoffed.

“Because she loves you.” I replied.

Tyson nodded.

“I never deserved her.” He said softly.

“I think we all feel that way about our mates.” I shrugged. “I mean, I kinda feel that way about Violet all the time. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a mate is the most precious gift, and it sometimes feels too precious. But I really think we get the mate we deserve, we just can’t see it for ourselves.”

Tyson nodded again and we both fell silent once again.

We both looked up when the dungeon door opened with a loud bang and Kayden sprinted inside. He braced himself against the bars and tumbled into the cell. I stared at him in disbelief while Tyson sat up straighter, as if a slight glimmer of hope ignited in him.

“We found her!” He shouted. “We have to go. Right now!”

Tyson and I jumped up from the floor and we all ran up the stairs together to find a car pulling up in front of the castle. The window rolled down and I saw Mr Sampson sitting behind the steering wheel.

“Hurry up!” He called out. “We have to go!”

Garrett, Evy and Violet sprinted out of the castle after us and I turned to Violet.

“Go.” She said. “Bring her home.”

I nodded and I squeezed into the car between Kayden and Garrett in the backseat while Tyson sat down in the passenger seat. The tires skidded on the gravel as Mr Sampson sped out of the courtyard and through the village.

“Where is she?” Tyson asked.

“I tracked her to Calais.” Mr Sampson replied. “We have to get on the ferry as soon as possible, because I don’t know how long she’ll stay in one place.”

“Then floor it.” Tyson replied impatiently.

Mr Sampson didn’t hold back, and soon we were speeding down the highway towards Dover where the ferries set off to Calais. Tyson was tapping his leg the whole way, and even if I thought it was really annoying, I didn’t dare asking him to stop. I knew that he was probably stressed out of his mind that we wouldn’t get to her in time.

We stayed close to him during the whole ferry trip, and he paced the deck, anxiously waiting for the ship to dock. We all exchanged glances, but no one said anything.

We all joined Mr Sampson in a rental car and drove to an apartment building in Le Pont Du Leu. Mr Sampson parked the car outside and pointed at the front door.

“If my intel is correct, she’s in there.” He said. “Can you feel her?”

Tyson shook his head.

“No.” He whispered. “But I think it’s because I can’t sense Willow. And I don’t think Willow can come through right now.”

He put his hand on the door to get out of the car.

“Tyson, wait.” I heard myself say.

I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe sneaking into a building to find someone that’s currently hiding from us isn’t the best idea.” I said. “I’m not sure why she even ran in the first place, but maybe we should be careful so that we don’t spook her.”

Mr Sampson nodded.

“Alex is right, Tyson.” He said and turned back to me. “She’s probably afraid that more people have been affected by the witch and she doesn’t know who to trust. That must be the reason why she ran.”

“I can try going in.” I offered. “If she’s in there, I’ll be able to find her scent and track down which apartment she’s in. I wasn’t in Caniluna when the witch was alive, so it would be less likely that I would have been affected by her.”

Tyson sighed, but nodded.

“Just bring her back.” He whispered. “Please.”

I nodded and gave his shoulder a light squeeze before getting out of the car and jogging across the street to the front door. The door was locked, so I randomly pressed a button on the intercom and jumped slightly when a male voice spoke to me in French through the speaker.

I didn’t speak French.

“Erm… Pizza?” I said hesitantly.

The door buzzed and I awkwardly said ‘Merci’ to the intercom before walking inside.

“I can’t believe that worked.” I muttered to myself before asking Eze to come forward and help me search for Valeria.

My heart paced when I picked up her scent in the staircase, even though it was very faint. I sniffed the air and snuck up the stairs until I reached the top floor.

Typical Valeria to stay on the top floor. She was the only person in the world that could jump from these heights and land without effort.

I just had to make sure that she didn’t run from me.

Before I could knock on the door, it swung open on its own. I stared at the door in disbelief and cautiously walked inside.

I had taken less than five steps inside when I heard the click of a gun and something cold pressed against my temple. When I glanced to the side, the barrel of a gun was staring right back at me.