THE KINGS SCEPTRE

part 17

Mr addam was waiting at the intersection with his men for his daughter and her company arrival. He had on his crisp white shirt untucked and black trousers, down he had black loafers.

He checked the time on his golden wrist watch it read five fifty. There were seven cars all black parked in the open grounds outside of the intersecting roads, Addams and rods family had been enemies for years, it goes back at the beginning of time when kingdoms declared war on skylers.

As kings and their armies marched to fight skylers troops, them Rods went to fight Eltons one of wealthiest crystal blood family of that era. Their battle lasted on over a month at the end rods won the war and took over eltons wealth, and prestige. There onward Rods declared vendata to the remaining crystal blood families, till then they had already perished seven crystal blood families.

The war on addams family begun thirty years back, rods started by sabotaging their industries and other areas of interest. Addams returned the favour by counterattacking on the rods foundations too, by the time Mr addam became head of the family it was impossible calling for truce with rods for bad blood between them ran too deep. On the other side theobald was cunning like all before him, he took his family vendata with no questions asked. Theobald once he was in power put extra effort in fighting addams, that was the reason why Mr addam ran from the city four years back since he didn't want his children getting involved after all he had just divorced his wife, mother of his childrens.

Now he saw there was no way out than facing rods head on and finish them once and for all, before he hopped peace for his childrens would've lasted but that dream flew away when irina arrived. He knew even if by chance irina succeeded and escaped, theobald's wrath will befall upon them far more worse than ever, family included.

Before theobald takes the first strike Mr addam thought why not take it and not anywhere else than at the heart of theobald's own home. He was taken from his plans when he saw brown G-wagon approaching, he knew that car anywhere. Mr addam gave it to harry his older son as a birthday gift when he turned eighteen, in turn harry left it to ava for he travelled a lot after he had finished his high school education.

He looked again at the time on his watch, it was six o'clock sharp. The wagon parked off the road few meters away from him, inside he saw ava and another girl whom he assumed to be irina at the front seats, but the boy at the back he didn't know at all.

"about time." he told ava, after she turned off the engine.

"it looks very punctual to me." ava argued.

Ava wanted to be mad at her dad when they met just to show him how much he had hurt her by his absence for all those years, but the drive there and excitement of meeting him vaporized her anger. After climbing off the wagon ava lost it, she ran at him very fast and hugged him tightly as if he would disappear into thin air, her tears soaking his shirt. Her father stroked her hairs gently, he bent so as to level with her and see each other face to face.

"you are all grown up my princess." he told her in soft tone, low enough for only her to hear, as he swirled curls of her hairs with left hand.

Ava became embarrassed first for being called his princess the name he frequently called her during childhood, it always came better out of his mouth, not even jay could match with her father's imitation and accent. Secondly for crying, ava wanted to show him that she was an adult and could stand on her own but here she was, her tears soaked in his shirt.

"you left me." her voice cracked, she watched directly his green hypnotizing eyes. Ava always liked her father's eyes better for she took after her mother eyes.

He avoided her gaze,

"I am sorry." he said in shame, his head tilted looking down.

"I saw that being away was the only means of keeping you safe. of keeping you and your brother safe from theobald and his family. I'm sure by sure by now you got a hint about our family history but..." he kept quite, then looked at ava his face clearly determined. "I was wrong no parent is supposed to do that, especially to their children. I'm back now and this time is forever.

"promise." ava said, daring to hope this time to be real.

"promise." he replied, then pulled and hugged her tight.

Irina and jay remained in the wagon, giving ava and her dad some space to talk since they had their own differences to settle. When ava turned and waved at them they knew everything was cleared, they climbed off the wagon.

"Irina." Mr addam said as they shook hands.

"I'm Jay, a friend." jay introduced himself as he accepted his hand. Jay noticed Mr addam had a firm handshake and a good grip too.

"I don't know what ticked theobald off, the security at his hone have tripled." Mr addam informed them.

Ava, jay and irina looked at one another they hadn't yet told him about their encounter with theobald's men at the museum. Mr addam watched the three of them, he felt they were hiding something.

"I fought some of his men, when I retrieved the sceptre from the museum." irina opened up. "I think he knew I would come here next and use the gates to travel back home, for his men had seen me with the sceptre."

"that can't be possible, theo doesn't know location of the gate." Mr addam objected. "its only source of location is found in the archives of crystal blood families."

"maybe they knew about it after overthrowing the Eltons." irina told him.

Mr addam shook his head in agreement, there was too much at stake arleady to worry themselves with more issues.

"so, what is our move?" ava asked.

"none. we just go, break down his gate and storm inside with our men in vehicles, from there it would be hell of a mess." he said in normal tone as if all was fine.

three of them gaped at him, smile formed in ava's lips.

"that's it then, simple and clear hope no one is lost on the details." she spoke while looking at irina and jay as if expecting a hand to be raised. Both of them shook their heads to show they understood, Mr addam pulled ava aside by the shoulder.

"it's going to be dangerous." he told her looking worried.

"don't worry, I'll be fine." she assured him.

"there'll be bullets all around, bodies will drop." he told her rapidly, fear evident in his eyes.

"I said don't worry." she emphasized then squeezed his hand. "after all, irina told us the gate needs to be opened by two of her closest companions. mostly important me."

his father gave a sigh of defeat,

"these quest and their stupid rules." he grumbled.

From a distance they saw a blue Honda coming at full speed.

"that's your brother alright, always on clock." Mr addam joked.

Ava looked at her father surprised, harry her brother was another lost sheep always on travels, guess it runs in the family. He was a party guy that's the main reason why he rarely stayed home, leaving ava alone in the mansion. Last time she spoke to him, harry was partying in London.

Honda stopped in front of the cars then harry removed his helmet. He's what you would call Mr perfect, his hairs were pure black and wavy, his eyes were green taking after his father but had sparkling in them, he had a short and small nose, the lips were shade of pink when he smiled gave his dimples a show together with his perfect rows of teeth.

"I haven't missed the party now, did I?" he asked hanging his helmet at the front of his bike.

"no, you haven't." Mr addam replied with a smile.

"knew I was early." he said then winked at ava. "hello, little sis."

"how was London?" she asked.

harry looked puzzled then caught on,

"Ooh, I left London two weeks ago, then went to Havana, now those guys party like crazy. Making Londoners look like newbies."

ava always liked hearing harry's travelling stories, they were full of events that some time she saw as if were made up fantasies.

"okay, nice catch up kids. It's about time to go and end this vendata." Mr addam cut their conversation short.

He then turned to ava and her friends.

"when we break in you will get inside his mansion using the rear gate, us we'll be causing havoc at the front gate. I don't want any of you near the line of fire." he ordered them. "once irina have crossed over, I want the two of you clear off the area."

No one argued with him, seeing that they all understood Mr addam went to his car and climbed on.

"Okay men, let's roll the night have just begun." he shouted at his men.

Everyone scrambled to their cars. Ava, jay and irina got back into their wagon, they waited until every car was ahead of them and joined the tail. It was six forty five and the sky was already dark, no star or moon was present in clouds.

It was starless night.

************

Betty and her people were outside rods mansion waiting inside their cars, they were nine of them.

"you sure the gate is here?" Otto asked her mother.

"yes, I'm sure. This mansion belonged to Elton family during that time, they were wealthiest of all crystal bloods and that prestige they received it for the gate was placed under their care." Betty told Otto.

"The place is heavily guarded, anyone in their right mind would be aware that breaking in is suicidal." Otto told her, as he looked at the guards scattered and moving around the mansion like ants.

"that is what any normal person would think Otto. Skylers aren't normal neither are they average, I'm sure the messenger have arleady formulated some kind of a plan." betty said confidently.

Then they heard roar of engines of cars coming from the opposite road, when turned to look they witnessed more than three cars heading directly for the mansion their lights off.

"it has xekinise." that was all betty said, her eyes gleaming viciously.