Adam

“Where is she?” The dude with the greasy blonde hair asked for the fifth time. I still couldn’t remember his name, despite asking him twice tonight. No one answered as we hid behind the bushes, right next to Sophia’s house.

He shot up and shoves his face close to mine, his eyes bloodshot. “Why isn’t she here?”

I pushed him away, gritting my teeth. “Again: I do not know. Stay back and wait.”

He spat on the ground next to me as he returned to his spot, glaring at the empty house. Some people were way too eager to attack an innocent person, and I doubt it had something to do with the blood trance. Some people are just naturally evil.

Lucas leaned closer to me, leaves rustling under his feet. “Shouldn’t we head back to Samuel and tell him to reschedule?”

I sighed. “I would say so, too. But I doubt the rest of the group shares our sentiment.”

He glanced at the others, a frown on his face. “Hey, shouldn’t we leave?”

The dude with greasy hair whirled around to him. “Are you out of your mind? We have a mission to take care of.”

“I know, but she isn’t here. Samuel didn’t tell us to wait around for the entire night. What if someone spots us? ” Lucas meagerly responded. When he wasn’t in combat mode, he surely didn’t bring across the same energy.

“Leave then, if your legs hurt from waiting,” the other dude mocked. “Go home and rest.”

Lucas’ eyes turned into slits as he reached for a knife hidden in his boot, but I stopped him, shaking my head. “It’s not worth it.”

He let out a puff of air and dropped to the floor, crossing his legs, as he stared back at the house.

I turned to the group next to us. “Let’s not provoke each other. We’re a team and we shouldn’t fight. Let’s wait for a little longer, and if she doesn’t come back within an hour, we report back to Samuel.”

The greasy hair dude crossed his arms and was about to let something - properly very educational- roll off his tongue when the other scholar with short red hair raised his hand and glared at him. “Stop being such a prick, Lenard. We already wasted enough time sitting around here, and one more hour seems like a good compromise.”

Lenard turned around and shuffled deeper into the forest, muttering something under his breath I couldn’t make out. Not that I cared. At least he would stop arguing with us and maybe I could finally remember his name.

Now I only had to hope that Sophia wouldn’t return within an hour, but only a few minutes later a car drove through the gate, and we dropped lower to the floor to avoid the beam of the headlights.

“That’s her!” someone said, followed by a giggle that caused goosebumps to crawl all over my skin. I watched Sophia exiting her car with a heavy stomach. Instead of entering through the front door, she walked right toward us, cold sweat running down my back. Why was she coming here? She would make things way too easy for them by waltzing right into our arms.

“Let’s move,” Lucas said, his eyes hard as he jumped up, rushing in her direction, his hand glistering as he summoned a small dagger to appear in the palm of his hand.

Everyone else followed suit, as I struggled to get on my feet, watching the scene in front of me in terror. A high-pitched shriek left her throat when she spotted Lucas running toward her. He wielded the dagger in her direction, but she sidestepped it last minute, glaring at him.

“What are you doing here?!”

The group rushed closer to her, as her eyes jumped from one person to the other, a fire in her eyes that made me hold my breath. She had the same look on her face when she stumbled over us in the dining room.

“Come with us willingly and we won’t hurt you,” the red-haired scholar said, his hand resting on the scepter dangling by his side.

Sophia pressed her lips into a thin line, her chest heaving up and down quickly. Her eyes landed on me, and I nodded, a spark of hope flaming up in her eyes I wasn’t sure I could fulfill.

I didn’t know how to get her out of this without risking both of us getting hurt or, even worse, killed.

Sophia didn’t respond, her hands clenched into fists by her side, a wave of power seeping out of her.

“Ticktock, time is up!” Lenard shouted, his eyes wide and crazy as he jumped into the air and blasted a ball of black, oozing magic towards her. She sucked in a breath and summoned a fireball, so strong and large that it not only smashed right through Lenard’s dark magic but also went flying to the rest of us. I planted a shield into the ground, the fireball smashing against it, as the heat felt like it was burning me alive. Lucas roared as he summoned one knife after another, throwing it at her with lightning speed. Sophia jumped out of their way, her movements fluid and fast, as expected from a vampire.

The other scholars watched them for a moment before joining the attacks. Sophia danced and dodged around them until her movement got sloppy, and sweat ran down the side of her face. One of Lucas’ knives grazed her arm, and she dropped to one knee, as blood slowly trickled down her arm. Lenard took the chance to cover her in black goo, rooting her into place. Sophia struggled to break free, the sticky magic gripping and sticking to her like honey. I bit my tongue, stopping myself to go to her, even when her eyes searched mine in silent questions for help.

Lenard’s laugh echoed through the night. “And he told us to watch out for her. Laughable.”

Sophia glared at him, her eyes murderous, before she slumped forward, her body going still as she stopped resisting. My knees went weak as I watched her give up. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

I took a step forward, unable to stop myself any longer, finally wanting to help her, when she screamed, and only a second later, an explosion rippled through the air, shaking the floor, as a ring of fire blasted out of her, searing the grass as it quickly made its way toward us. I whipped out another shield, stopping the flames just barely as they licked the surface of it. Sophia staggered back to her feet, her face pale and breaths rigid.

The flames slowly died as my shield lost its durability, exploding into little blue butterflies. Her eyes went wide as she watched them flying away into the night sky.

“What is going on here?”

My glance fell behind Sophia, seeing an old man running toward us, his eyes wild. Her housekeeper had returned, and I couldn’t help the smile that spread over my lips.

“Retreat!” I called and we all turned, hurrying away into the safety of the forest. I looked over to Sophia one last time, who was still watching the butterflies flying away. And when she turned around to Pascal, I saw the tiniest butterfly tattoo behind her left ear.

“Come on! Hurry up!” Lucas said and pulled me away.

I couldn’t believe we didn’t succeed, but if this wasn’t fate, I didn’t know what was.