A Modern Myth III

[--Kyle--]

Luciana sat in the control room; the room was completely dark except for the hundreds of monitors on the wall ablaze with light showing many different places of security cameras. But they were not cameras anywhere near the building she was in. All were from schools, cafes, streets, banks, and various grocery stores that they had tapped into.

“I need more coffee,” she said to the intern on her left. He nodded and got out of his swivel chair, leaving it spin slowly in his absence.

Her division was run well, and she wanted to keep it that way. Not a single mythical creature on her watch had done any sort of crime before. But a rumor had been starting of a small town that had an overly populated amount of mythical creatures. They had wondered why, but no evidence that they could tell pointed to any suspects. That meant someone was either covering for them or there hadn’t been any crime at all. While the investigation was still going, it had already been over two years since everything had quieted down, and so far they have found nothing.

The intern returned, handing her coffee to her. “Thank you,” she sipped it and put it down on the long table that was in front of them with the computers. An array of keyboards and switchboards sat in front of the computer screens.

Luciana was about to switch over to another shot of parking lot when the doors opened behind them, sending in more light into the room. It was her sister, Lilith. They looked exactly the same except for the small mole on Lilith’s chin; they were identical twins.

Lilith walked in, her leather high-heeled boots clicking on the laminate flooring. The doors shut again behind her, leaving the room dark except for the glow of the monitors.

A stack of files dropped in front of Luciana, “We have our suspects,” Lilith said, walking around and leaning on the counter in front of her.

The files had pictures paper clipped on the outside. Luciana looked through them; a girl with white blonde hair, another with purple, a boy with violet colored eyes, and, what seemed to her, an ordinary human girl, among a few others.

“Who are they?” Luciana asked, setting the files back down.

“Our new targets,” Lilith said harshly, picking up her sister’s coffee and drinking it. When she was finished she, leaned against the counter staring at the monitors, and added, “Project ‘K’ is a go.”

“K?” Asked Luciana, “What is that for?”

“Kill.”

---

(Two Months Later)

---Xian’s POV ---

I took another sip of my coffee. It was cold. I hadn’t realized the time it had taken to listen to Ethan’s entire story of how he had managed to get a coat hanger stuck in his shirt behind his neck all day without noticing it. Then again, I hadn’t really been listening.

“Xian, are you okay?” Ethan said after realizing I wasn’t listening anymore. “You seem a little distant lately.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. I didn’t want to tell him. I knew I had to eventually, but now wasn’t the time.

I sat there thinking of the dream - the vision - I had been having every night for the last few nights. The dream would start off fairly normal: Ethan flying around the room or flowers popping out of the electrical outlets again. But the dream would always switch into something more. It would turn into a vision.

I could always tell what just dreams were and what visions were. Dreams always felt impossible and visions felt as real as if it were happening to me while I was awake. No matter how the dream started, the vision would begin in a dark storm outside; one minute we were inside and lilies were flying out and electrocuting us, and the next I was outside alone.

The storm would roll in and there would be a flash of lightning. A woman stood, her dark hair blowing in the wind, arms on her hips, a wild look in her eye, looking straight into my soul. And suddenly, next to me would be the same woman, but entirely different in attitude.

I wondered so many times what the vision meant, and why I was there for this stand-off of this woman. But how was it possible there were two of her? It made no sense to me that it was a vision and not a dream. It was impossible that she was in both places at once.

Whatever the vision meant, he knew that something bad was going to happen. It’s been over two years now since everything finally settled down and he didn’t want to tell Ethan that something else was going to happen. And soon.

“Is Luana picking Addy up from school?” Ethan asked, flicking the crinkled paper ball he had made from his straw around on the table. The small coffee shop they were in buzzed loudly with many conversations, the sound of the coffee makers, and the aggressive drilling sound of the blenders.

“Yes,” I answered not really sure if I was correct. She had said something about it this morning. But as Ethan had said, I had been a little distant. “I think so.”

“What do you mean you ‘think so’?” Ethan said loudly. “You’re her guardian, how do you not know these things?”

“How do you not realize you have a hanger in your back all day?” I said, a little bit irritated. If only he knew what I had on my mind right now.

“I thought you weren’t listening…” Ethan got quiet, hurt by what I said. I made fun of him a lot.

I was going to apologize, but after taking another sip of my coffee, almost choking and spitting it back out because I had forgotten it was cold, my phone vibrated in my pocket also sending a little chirp of music.

I fished it out of my pocket and looked at the number. Restricted. I pressed the green button, “Hello?”

“Xian,” a female voice on the other end said; the voice was familiar.

“Who is - ?”

“It’s me,” there was a short pause. “Valkyrie.”

Yep, something else was about to begin.

[Kàylà]

~Valkyrie's POV~

"Mama?" An unclear voice tried calling to me. I opened one of my eyes and saw my son Taavi staring back at me with big green eyes that resembled his father's. He had just recently learned how to say a few words and he used them whenever he could. Taavi wasn't just any normal infant though, his blood shared that of the vampires which like his eyes he had received from his father.

There had never been a half human, half vampire baby reported in our world, neither Nathan or I had any idea what to except. As we watched him grow in the first year and a half of him belonging to this world we didn't really notice any effect that the vampire blood had on him.

We wondered if like full vampires, the vampire blood would kick in when he hit puberty just like normal vampire children. Only time would tell. Taavi did seem to catch onto new things easily, he already had learned how to get out of his crib whenever he wanted to, which made time outs hard to enforce unless either Nathan or I kept an extremely close eye on him.

"Good morning sweetie." I said with a small sleepy smile on my face. I gently picked him up and laid him on the bed between Nathan and I like we would when he was still just a baby. I wrapped my arms around him protectively and cradled him to my chest.

It was hard to imagine my life before Nathan and I had Taavi, it was harder to imagine still, my life as a vampire. The memories were starting to fade that had once been crystal clear. This both made me happy and upset me at the same time. There were somethings I wanted to hold onto while others I was glad to let go.

The peaceful morning was interrupted by the trill of a phone ringing, at first I wasn't sure if it was mine or Nathan's that was going off, but then I recognized the ringtone as the one I had assigned on my phone.

I quickly grabbed it off of the nightstand that was by my side of the bed and looked at the caller ID. Kynaree&Cecil it read. I flipped it open, smiling to myself, Cecil must be at work at Kynaree is bored again. I thought to myself. "Hello?" I said

"Valkyrie?" A male voice came through the other end of the phone. That definitely isn't Kynaree. I thought to myself as I recognized Cecil's voice.

"Yes, what's up?" I asked after I yawned.

"The MMC knows about the baby....and I think we may all be in grave danger once more." Cecil tried to tell me in a calm voice. It took all of my focus to not let the phone slip out of my hand and go crashing to the ground.


~{}~ The Twins POV~{}~

"Project K? Are you sure we need to go through with this? It's been two years since there had been even a remote amount of mythical activity there." Luciana tried to reason with her sister, her identical twin that couldn't be anymore different from her than a butterfly was from a cockroach.

"Yes I am sure." Lilith snapped. "A war, and another almost war all in the course of two years? These creatures are threatening to uncover everything that we have worked so hard to conceal from the real world."

"But nothing's happened for quite some time. It's been peaceful everywhere for the longest time, are you sure they are really a threat?" Luciana argued back.

"It's possible, but it's also possible that someone is helping them cover it all up. There is a worker at the London, Ministry of Mythical Creatures who is engaged in a romantic relationship with one of the suspects. I think he is helping them cover up everything that they have gotten into lately." Lilith calmly told her sister.

"Also...the vampire turned human...she just recently had a child...with a vampire. That is illegal in both the vampire society, and in our laws. Something has to be done about it." Lilith continued.

"And the MMC worker? Who is he?"

"Cecil Linton Cooksley."

[×|{å†ìe×]

~<>~Rodger's POV~<>~


The Ministry of Mystical Creatures branches were very much the same. I would know, I've traveled to each and every one of them for a supervisory check-up. They all had the smell of printer paper, disinfectant, and professionalism. The agencies were all kept very clean and organized. However, the branch I was visiting today was the same branch I grew up in. Where my grandfather taught my father, where my great-grandfather taught my grandfather, and well, you get the idea.

I got waves, head-nods and "How're you Rodger?" from just about everyone I passed. I smiled at them all, acting cheery. I wasn't here to be in a cheery mood, I was here to talk to Cecil. I approached his cubicle feeling a mix of worry and nervousness. Today, I was going to tell him about "Project K" with the hopes that he would understand. Cecil was reasonable, he would see that the MMC only did what they deemed necessary. I turned the corner to find no Cecil.

I scanned the room, still seeing no Cecil. "Hey," I said, turning to a desk-neighbor of Cecil's, "Where's Cecil?"

"Dunno, didn't show up for work," the young man answered with a shrug.

Maybe he's sick, I told myself, there's no way he could know about "Project K". I shook my head in the attempt to clear my mind, silly, Rodger, silly. While I was here I decided to head to the man in charge of this particular branch, a good friend of mine, Franklin Williams. Frank's office was down the hall and it only took me several strides to get there. "Hey, Frank," I said upon entering.

"Rodger," he said, pleasantly surprised, but not as pleasantly surprised as I would have hoped. His expression confused me, I couldn't really figure out what it was. "Just the man I wanted to see."

I walked into the room further and took a seat across from him. His office was quite a beauty, he had a wall of books behind him, an enormous television screen on the wall across from him, and a fake window on the wall between them. "Um, just curious, did Cecil call in sick today?" I asked, before he started another topic and my train of thought was interrupted.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," here came the expression again. It looked like he was trying to come out with the right words, finally he said, "Well, just look." Frank sighed, and moved his computer mouse so that the screen lit up. I sat up straight and craned to see the monitor. The program he was on I recognized as our mystical creature database. It was basically a search engine that let us search easily for the profile of whatever mystical creature we needed information about. He typed in, "Valkyrie Ourea."

"Error: No information found."

My heart started to sink, next he tried to look up Kynaree, then Trudie, then some of the Dartans, "Do I really need to go on?" he said, sounding annoyed, yet still sounding regretful for having to show me this.

"Error: No information found." popped up for each search.

"Is something wrong with the database?" I asked weakly.

"Its just them." He didn't need to clarify who "them" were. "I thought I would tell you before informing anyone of higher authority... I wouldn't normally do this Rodger. You're my friend," he sighed. "Just call him. Talk some sense into him."

"I didn't think he knew about it," I said grabbing Frank's phone off his desk. This needed to be dealt with immediately, before he did anything too rash. I glanced at the monitor again, okay, anything more rash. I dialed Cecil's house number, waiting for a high-pitched Kynaree to answer. It made it to their answering machine. Next I tried his cell phone, which didn't even ring. "He's not answering."


~<>~Kynaree's POV~<>~

"Knock, knock," I said, as I knocked on Trudie and River's front door. Then I noticed a door bell and started ringing it in a continuous fashion. Cecil stood next to me holding our bags.

A tall bleach blonde-haired man opened the door for us with a puzzled expression, "Um, hello."

"Whit!" I cried, and hugged him tightly around the waist, our height differences were pretty extreme. "Sorry for not letting you know we were coming... Cecil broke our cell phones." I let go of Rivers and smiled at him. Smiles made everything better.

[<^>Krustine<^>]

~Trudie’s POV~

“Have a good night!” I said to Ray as I was getting into my car after locking up the restaurant for the night. I was looking forward to getting home to see Rivers for a peaceful night. As I was driving home, I thought about the book I started last night. This was my fourth time reading it, but I haven’t memorized the words yet.

When I opened the front door, I heard the sports channel playing in the living room. This was the usual when I stay until close; the only difference was the horrible smell coming from the kitchen. When I went to the kitchen to see what was burning, there was Rivers standing in front of the stove, which was a rare occurrence in this household. Even weirder, was I thought I saw Cecil and Kynaree sitting at the island staring at Rivers with an odd expression on their faces. This can’t be real. Maybe if I walk out of the room and in again, I won’t be seeing them.

“Hey Trudie!” Kynaree said and ran over and gave me a hug.

I didn’t even know what to say? What to do? Why are they here? Not that I am not happy to see them, but what is going on and why is Rivers cooking? I don’t make him cook even when I have to work long shifts, I make something before I leave that he can reheat or send something home from the restaurant, but never… never does he cook.

“We are hungry, can you cook us something?” Kynaree interrupted my thought process.

“Preferably not burnt?” Cecil added.

I walked over to where Rivers was still standing in front of the stove, and looked at the pan, I wasn’t even going to guess what he was attempting to cook. “Uh, I’ll make some Grilled Cheese. How’s that sound?”

The responses I got were a mix of “Sounds Perfect!”, “Good” and the sound of Rivers throwing whatever he was attempting to cook in the garbage.

Without much conversation, I started the grilled cheeses, but after a while I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to say something, “So, uh, does anyone want to tell me why you are here?” I asked Cecil and Kynaree.


>^<Rivers’ POV>^<

When I heard the doorbell I thought that was weird, I wasn’t expecting anyone, but it was weird to see Cecil and Kynaree there when I opened the door. I didn’t even know what to say. I invited them in and acted as if I was expecting them and after a while, offered them food, before realizing I ate the rest of the left overs for supper earlier. I needed to act fast and figured out something to cook, and act as if it was something I did all the time. By the time Trudie got there I was on my third try of cooking something and not burning it.

Thankfully, they asked her to take over in the cooking area, but then Trudie got to the question I have been dying to ask all afternoon, Why were they here?

"Here's the thing." Cecil said, with a slightly shaken look forming on his face. "We are in danger."

"What do you mean, what did you do?" Trudie asked. She sounded like she thought they robbed a bank or something.

"Not just us, all of us. Xian, Ethan, Valkyrie, Nathan, the baby... everyone."

[×|{å†ìe×]

~<>~Cecil's POV~<>~


"Wait, why? Who are we in danger from?" Trudie asked.

This was a wonderful question, one I wasn't sure I could answer correctly. "The MCC," I said, although it still sounded strange, even to me. Before Trudie could interrupt I tried to explain, "They think that the battle we faced with Dr. Dartan wasn't necessary, they think we provoked him. "They" being a pair of twins who are in the highest rankings of the MMC."

"Can't we go to them and straighten this out? We can just explain what happened," she suggested.

"I like that idea," Kynaree said with a smile spread on her face. Kynaree and Rivers were listening intently to our conversation, Trudie was just the only one asking questions. Rivers had an annoyed expression on his face, the same one that had remained there ever since we'd arrived.

I tried to answer her question, "The MMC are set in their ways. I can't even trust my father right now. Believe me, I've thought things though."

"What's next then, Cecil?" Trudie did not sound happy. "I'm just supposed to drop everything and we're supposed to run away for the rest of our lives?"

"..I don't-- I'm not-- I don't know." I was lost. I hoped that someone would come up with a plan besides me. Everything felt so complicated. I wish I didn't feel so torn, feeling like this was like I was betraying Kynaree. Honestly, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have left the MMC. I knew it would've been easier to escape with just Kynaree and I, but she would never have forgave me if I let everyone else be caught. Deleting everyone's profiles meant I couldn't change my mind, I couldn't go back.

"Didn't you 'think this through,'" Rivers asked with a look that gave me the urge to punch him.


~<>~Kynaree's POV~<>~

I could see the expressions everyone was giving each other. Worried, annoyed, and slightly angry. Trudie and Rivers were staring, in a sort of glare-like way, at Cecil. "Come on, guys," I said, "This isn't Cecil's fault. He's just trying to help us out."

"I need some time to think," Trudie said and left the living room with Rivers following her.

"Start packing," Cecil called after them.

[Kàylà]

~Valkyrie's POV~

I paced around the room with Taavi on my hip, Nathan watching my every move, wondering if he was going to have to take Taavi from me. "How can this be happening? How can they know about him? I thought we were being extra careful so they WOULDN'T find out about Taavi!"

"Valkyrie calm down, we were being extra careful but you know how good the MMC is, they know everything about every mythical creature out there." Nathan tried to reason with me.

"Mama! Down!" Taavi ordered me. He wasn't a child who liked to be held for a long time unless it was under his conditions, I set him down gently and continued my pacing.

"Is it possible that the MMC would contact the vampire council and tell them everything? Are we in danger from not just the MMC but also from our own people?" My voice was becoming frantic. Nathan crossed the distance between us and put his arms around me in an attempt to calm me.

"It is possible, but if the MMC wants something with us then I don't think they are going to try to involve the vampire council since they want us for themselves." He said appearing much calmer than myself.

"Who do you think Cecil warned? Do you think he got to Xian yet? What about Trudie and Rivers? I'm pretty sure he would have called Trudie and Rivers right after he called us or before."

"You can try calling Cecil back and finding out." Nathan suggested. Without saying another word I grabbed my cell phone and quickly dialed Cecil's number. This number is no longer available please try another number or hang up.

"I think he destroyed his phone. I'm going to call Xian just to be on the safe side, so he isn't caught off guard." I started dialing Xian's number, wondering if he would pick up since it would be under a restricted number.

"Hello?"

"Xian." Was all I could think of to say.

"Who is--"

I cut him off before he could say anything else. "It's Valkyrie." I could tell by the way I said my own name that he knew something was up, that this wasn't just a purely social call to catch up on what he had been doing.

"What's going on Valkyrie?" He asked, his voice no longer sounding confused but instead dead serious.

"Cecil called me about an hour ago and gave me some interesting information. The MMC knows about Taavi, my son, and apparently all of us, you, Ethan, Trudie, Rivers, Cecil, Kynaree, Nathan, Taavi, and I are all in danger."

"Why?"

"I have no idea yet, Cecil destroyed his phone so I can't get a hold of him, I'm not even sure if Trudie knows yet." I told him honestly.

[--Kyle--]

-- Xian's POV --

"Well, if he's not answering...I'll call Trudie," I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote, as quickly as I could with what was happening. Ethan stared at the paper, a confused expression on his face. I didn't blame him. I was too.

"Okay, call me back when you know what the hell is happening?" Valkyrie sounded frantic on the other side of the phone.

"Will do." I closed my phone.

"What is going on?" Ethan asked.

"I...don't know." I lied. This is what my vision/dream must be referring to. But what about the women? But it was true, I still did not know the details. I hated lying to Ethan. His large eyes stared at me with confusion and fear.

I dialed the phone for Trudie.

"Hello?" Trudie didn't answer. It was Rivers. I sighed internally.

"Uh..." I cleared my throat. "Is Trudie there? This is Xian."

I could swear I heard a snort at my name. "Yeah, she's here. I guess your wondering about everything too?"

"Yeah," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, Trudie went outside for a minute...here's Kynaree." There was a muffled sound and a thunk. "Hello?" A soft voice answered.

"Hey, it's me, Xian." I said, my voice brightened slightly.

"Xian! Hi!" She said. At least she was always happy... but I quickly realized she would not be the correct person to explain things.

"Is Cecil there?" I asked.

"Uh yeah..." She sounded disappointed that I wanted someone else. But I needed answers. There was another muffle, a thunk, a groan, and I thought I heard Cecil say "No, I don't want to."

"Hello?" Cecil's accent was annoyed.

"What. Is. Going. On? I just need to know." I said simply. I needed an answer and my patience was getting thinner and thinner.

"The MMC think that the battle we faced with Dr. Dartan wasn't necessary, they think we provoked him." Cecil said, with a sigh at the end.

"You mean the MMC that you and your father work at?"

"My father works there, yes." I didn't ask further about that. "One of the highest in power in the MMC... well two of the highest...the twins. Luciana and Lilith Pierce."

My blood ran cold. Twins. That's what the dream meant.

"What do they want?" I asked. Ethan continued to stare at me.

"From what I understood they want the lot of you...either dead or alive, I am not sure. There was specific talk about...the baby."

"Oh," I looked at Ethan. He still looked worried.

"If that's all, I should go..." Cecil said.

"Wait," I stopped him. "What about Addy? And the other Dartans? Do they know about them?"

"No. They were never in their records. The only Dartans they have are you and Ethan."

I sighed with relief. "Okay, good. Thank you. We'll be in contact."

"Right." The line went dead. Cecil hung up.

I closed my phone again. Ethan waited. "Sorry, one more call."

"What did she say?" Valkyrie was still frantic.

"I talked to Cecil. He's there at Trudie's with Kynaree." I looked up at Ethan, staring into his eyes as I spoke. "But we need to talk more. We shouldn't be this separated. Ethan and I are coming to you and Nathan."

"Oh...alright. I agree, we shouldn't be separated." Valkyrie said. Ethan's looked surprised.

Valkyrie told us where they were located and I wrote it down on the paper. I closed my phone again. After finally explaining to Ethan what was happening. I told him about the vision/dream.

"WHAT? Why didn't you tell me??" Ethan was angry.

"Because, I didn't want you to freak out. I mean you just got married, I didn't want to cause an issue."

"Well that worked brilliantly." He said, folding his arms, glaring at the sidewalk outside.

"I'm sorry." I said after a few moments.

"Wait. What about Addy and Luana? Are they in danger? Are they coming with?" Ethan began to panic.

"No. They aren't in danger and they are not coming with. They do not know about them. They aren't even on their records. Apparently all of Dr. D's creatures were deemed as destroyed in the battle or something."

"Oh...alright...well...when do we leave?"

"Now."

[Kàylà]

~<>~The Twins~<>~

"So what is this really about Lilth? This can't be just because of all the 'mythical activity' they these creatures have produced in one area over two year. There has to be something more." Luciana said calmly.

"Do you really have to ask Luciana? Did you really forget what we lost during that war dear sister? Have you already forgotten that thanks to them, and that Dartan war....we lost William, our brother. Those creatures provoked Dr.Dartan, there was no reason for that war! William died for no reason!" Lilth slammed her fist onto the table.

"So you want revenge?" Luciana asked slightly afraid of her sister but trying not to show it.

"Don't you?!" Lilth screamed.

"William's death was a tragic event but the death of all these creatures won't bring him back!" Luciana yelled back, tears starting to form in her eyes as the mention of their younger brother was brought up.

"But he can be avenged! His death will be in vain unless we do something about it!"

"This isn't the way!"

"Yes it is, the operation will go as planned." Lilth's voice became cold and calm once more. "And if you aren't with me dear sister, then you are against me and you will share the same fate as them." She turned around and started to walk away.


~Valkyrie's POV~

Xian and Ethan were already on the first flight to Utah and I was supposed to pick them up at the airport. Nathan and I sat in the airport terminal waiting for their flight to get in. Taavi sat on the floor playing with his toy trucks, smashing them into each other and laughing. I smiled at him and then turned my gaze to the clock. Five more minutes until Xian's flight came in and then there was the waiting for luggage. I sighed realizing that we could be sitting here for awhile.

Nathan put his hand on my knee to get me to stop anxiously tapping it on the floor in an annoying rhythm. "Calm down Valkyrie. What are you so nervous about?" Nathan whispered.

"I don't like being out in the open. There could be MMC operatives watching us everywhere." I whispered back.

"I've been checking everyone's minds consistently there isn't anyone from the MMC here. You can relax." Nathan told me trying to calm me down. It didn't help at all though. Finally Xian and Ethan emerged from the terminal walking towards us. I picked Taavi up and we went over to great them.

"Long time no see." I told them with a smile.

"Yea now if only it was under better circumstances." Xian said with a sigh.

"Agreed. Taavi are you going to say hi to Xian and Ethan?" I asked my son. His response was to turn his head and bury it into my shoulder. "Sorry he's not usually shy."

"It's okay, lets head back to your apartment so we can discuss what is going on." Ethan suggested.

"Good idea." Nathan agreed with them.

[<^>Krustine<^>]

~Trudie's POV~

When Cecil told me the MMC was looking for us and wanted to kill me, I didn't know what to do. I needed to think, so I told him that and ran upstairs. The thing that got me uneasy was when he yelled after me to 'Start Packing'. How do I just pack up my life and leave. Who is going to run my restaurant? I am always here. I go away for a weekend at most and Ray would look after the place, but he doesn't know anything about running it full-time.

What about Rivers? He wasn't in that war, if he didn't come along would they just come after him here because I married him? Do they want to kill him because of me? If he dies, its all my fau--

"Trudie?" I heard his voice cut me off in the middle of my apprehension. I looked up at him, his face was full of fear, he almost looked to the point of tears. I probably wasn't far behind him.

I couldn't say anything, if I did I would start crying and that wouldn't be good. So I just went up to him and hugged him as hard as I could.

"Trudie?" His sweet voice still trying to get me to look at him and tell him what he wanted to hear. "Trudie." I finally looked up at him, tears filling my eyes.

"What am I supposed to do? What are you going to do?" I finally said.

"I'm sticking with you. I don't care about anybody else. I Love You, and if this is it, and they beat us, I want to spend my last few days with you." He looked down at me and tried to kiss me but I looked away.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to run. I want to live, I want to run my restaurant until I can retire, then I wanna let Ray or someone buy it, take it over, and go there to eat all the time just to make sure the food is still good even though I'm not running the place, because my name is still behind it." I said.

"I don't want to die either, but if that is what is going to happen, I would rather do it at your side. I love our life here, I would never think about running away except I want to live, and if that means running and fighting, them I guess I'm going to run, but only if you run with me. I love your restaurant and I hope I'm sitting beside you at all those meals you eat at the restaurant after you retire." He bent down to kiss me again, but this time I let him.

"I Love You, Rivers." I said after I could get a breath.

After a couple seconds of just standing there in our embrace, he says "We should probably get packing."

"Right, I'm just gonna run out to the car, I think I left my phone in there. I need to get ahold of Ray and tell him I won't be there for a while and he won't be able to get ahold of me."


~River's POV~ After Trudie ran outside I started getting the suitcases together. I couldn't believe this. Years ago, before I met Trudie, I would have never thought I would be willing to put myself in danger for a girl. But that was high school, this is real life.

The phone started ringing as i was throwing some clothes into the suitcase. When I answered it, it was Xian. He wanted to talk to Trudie, but since she was outside and I didn't want to talk to him right now, I brought to phone downstairs and handed it to the first person I saw, Kynaree. He just wants to know whats going on anyways, she can tell him.

[×|{å†ìe×]

~<>~Kynaree's POV~<>~


I laid back on one of Trudie's expensive-looking rugs after I handed the phone over to Cecil. Nobody wanted to talk to me right now. Everyone was too worried about the MMC, but I knew better. I knew everything would be fine after all of us were together. Besides, Rodger would never let the MMC find us, and if they did he would find a way to make everything okay.

I sighed and rolled onto my stomach, Trudie's rugs were so clean. Her whole house smelled wonderful. I closed my eyes and laid there like that until I heard Cecil's footsteps come my way. "We're allowed to use the furniture, you know."

"Mmmhmm," I replied. Rolling back onto my back and opening my eyes. I looked up at him, "Cecil, what do you think is going to happen?"

"I don't know," he took a seat on the couch next to me.

I smiled, "Me neither, but once we're all together I bet we'll have a lot of fun. It'll be like old times when we were back in High School."

"... Back in High School we had a miniature war with Dr. Dartan and were being threatened by Oni. Is that your definition of fun?" he said in a joking manner.

I shrugged, "Those parts weren't very fun, but the parts in between when we were all together were fun." He didn't reply. "I like Trudie's house, it smells nice... When are we going to get to see Ethan, Xian, Valkyrie, Nathan and Taavi?"

"No clue. We should all figure out where to meet. I mean, we can't stay here for long, the MMC has this address on their records. We should be leaving very shortly.. Could you go tell Rivers and Trudie that? I don't think they want to see me right now."

"Sure!" I sprung upwards and headed towards the stairs. Trudie and Rivers were already walking down the stairs by the time I got there. "Once you're ready, we're going to leave."

"Where are we going exactly?" Rivers asked.

"I don't know."

"Does Cecil know?" Trudie sounded tired, and still a little angry, but mostly tired.

"I don't know, probably not, but where ever it is I'm absolutely certain we'll have fun."

"Was that sarcasm?" Rivers wondered.

"No. We'll all be together, of course we'll have fun."

[Kàylà]

~Valkyrie's POV~

We drove back to the apartment in silence. The only noise coming from Taavi who was trying to play with Ethan now that he was warming up to them. He kept showing Ethan his toys and throwing them on his lap as if he expected Ethan to do something with them. I had to give Ethan credit, he was pretty good with Taavi, and had a lot of patience with him.

I tried to tell Taavi to leave Ethan alone but Ethan just waved me off and said it was fine. I shrugged, said okay, and went back to staring out the window in silence. Once we were finally safe at the apartment we finally got down to business. I laid Taavi down for his nap and then joined everyone in the living room to discuss what was happening.

Nathan was the first to break the silence. "Tell us what you know." Xian gave us a grave look and then began.

"The MMC wants the lot of us me, Ethan, you, Nathan, Kynaree, Trudie, and possibly Cecil, and River's dead..." Xian explained to me.

"Why do they want us dead? What about Taavi? What do they want with him?" The panic was clear in my voice and on my face. I was no longer able to control my emotions as well as I used to be when I was a vampire, I didn't want them to think that I couldn't handle this but I couldn't stop the panic from being plain on my face and clear in my voice.

"They think we provoked the Dartan war... as for Taavi, they want him alive for research, to figure out why his birth was even possible." Xian's face was grave. "There is something else, I had a vision."

"They started again? What was this one about?" I asked anxiously. He went on to explain about his vision and the twins. How one seemed pure evil but the other seemed like she was torn between doing the right thing and helping her sister.

"Who are the twins?" Nathan wondered. Xian had an answer for that too. He told us that they were the ones who ordered the death sentence on us, that they were two of the most powerful people in the MMC.

"But there has to be more reason for them wanting us dead then just thinking that we provoked Dr.Dartan." I reasoned.

"Cecil didn't say anything else on it, so either he doesn't know or it is just because of everything that has happened in the past that involved our group and they view us as a threat to the human world." Xian shrugged. He was as lost as we were.

"We need to meet up with the rest of our group, we need to figure out what is going on." I said taking charge of the situation.

"Are we going to them? Or are they coming to us?" Nathan asked his eyebrows raised trying to figure out what I was planning even though he could easily take a peak inside my mind to find out.

"Neither. We are all going to each other." The next thing everyone knew was that I was on the phone with Trudie as we tried to decide the safest place for us to go while Nathan packed, Ethan played with Taavi who had woken up from his nap, and Xian went out to buy the necessities that him and Ethan would need.

Finally after input from Nathan and Cecil, multiple times of telling them to shut up so Trudie and I could hear each other, and arguing about where we should meet up we finally found where we were going.

"Everyone! We're going to England." I yelled even though I knew with their acute hearing I could have spoke at a normal volume.

[<^>Krustine<^>]

~Trudie's POV~

I sat in the bedroom while I was on the phone with Valkyrie. I made Rivers stay downstairs and entertain Cecil and Kynaree so they weren't staring at me wondering what was being said on the other end.

I walked downstairs and announced to everyone that we were going to England.

Right away Cecil pulled out his phone and dialed a number he seemed to have memorized. Said some words I didn't catch and hung up. "We are getting on the chunnel in an hour." Cecil announced.

I looked over at Rivers and I could see a little bit of worry in his eyes. Hes probably wondering why he made the decision to marry me. The weird one who doesn't sleep and can see ghosts.

Before I could say anything everyone was standing up and hauling luggage out to the car. "Do you want to drive Cecil?" I asked.

When Cecil reached out for the keys that Rivers was holding, I could tell Rivers was a little reluctant to let him drive my car. I gave him the really look and got in the backseat and told Kynaree to sit in the front.

It didn't seem like a full hour had gone by and we were already boarding the Chunnel. We found an area where there were 4 seats. Two on each side facing each other. Rivers and I were sitting there and I was trying not to stare at Cecil and Kynaree, but what else was I supposed to do. No one was saying anything and it was becoming a really awkward situation.

"So, this is fun, isn't it?" Kynaree asked.

I couldn't help but laugh a little, Kynaree always just wants things to be fun no matter what. "So, what are we doing when we get there?" Rivers asked totally ignoring Kynaree's question.

"I don't know." I said. "Meeting up with Xian, Ethan, Valk, Nathan and Taavi somewhere."

"We are meeting at my Grandparents house. They are going to help us out for a little while." Cecil said.


~Rivers POV~

"We are going to your grandparents house?" I asked Cecil, giving him a horrific look.

"Yeah, my grandpa is member of the MMC, he is willing to put his loyalties to the MMC aside and help us out. And my grandma just likes to see me." Cecil responded.

So, if this is what Cecil is like, do I even want to know what his relatives are like?

[--Kyle--]

-- Xian's POV --

We hadn't really had a chance to pack much. We explained to Luana and Addy what was happening and said goodbye quickly and got on the plane.

The store shelf was empty. The bright florescent light shone down on the pairs of socks. Ethan had wanted the argyle ones. There were only plaid. My cart was already filled with a few pairs of jeans and some underwear. The only things we forgot to even pack. I grabbed the plaid; he would have to deal with it.

At the checkout, the woman scanning the items looked bored. While looking at the magazines on the rack, a sudden vision hit me once again. It was dark. One of the twins was there. She raised a hand and slapped someone. He hunched over in pain, holding his face. Thousands of monitors glowed on the faces of the twins. One twisted with anger, the other in sympathy for the guy.

The store lights flashed back into view, blinding him temporarily.

"Excuse me," the girls said on the other side of the counter. It sounded like she had said many times and she was annoyed.

"Sorry." I moved my stuff closer to her on the counter so she could scan them.

What did the guy have to do with anything?

-The Twins-

"She had a point, you know."

Lilith whipped back around. "What did you say?"

The intern stood, "Luciana has a point. You can't take back anything by doing this. They haven't done anything for years, why now?"

Lilith's hand smacked the intern's face so hard that it sounded like the crack of a whip. "I advise you to either never speak again, or leave. What even is your name?" Lilith snapped.

"His name is Corey." Luciana stepped to Lilith. "He has worked for me for years."

"Keep a leash on your little pet then Luciana," Lilith looked into her eyes. "Don't try to stop me either."

Lilith left the room, the door slamming.

Luciana went to Corey. "Are you alright?" She touched the red mark where Lilith had slapped him.

"Yes, I'm fine," Corey looked down. He was embarrassed, Luciana could tell.

"It's okay," she leaned in and kissed him. "I'm so sorry."

"It's my fault," Corey shrugged. "'But thanks." They looked at each other for a moment and kissed again.

"You have to do me a favor," Luciana blurted suddenly. The idea came to her so quickly she began to trip over her words.

"Start over, start over," Corey said. "You are going to fast."

"You have to go to them. Find them. Find them before Lilith can. You have to help them." Luciana pointed to the files on the desk.

"What? I don-"

"You have to find them." Luciana gave him a knowing look. If she went, Lilith would know. Luciana had to stay there to lead Lilith off. "I will tell Lilith I will help her. I will try to stall as much as I can. But you have to get to them first."

Corey looked for a very long time, confused. Then finally, "Alright".

[Kàylà]

~Nathan's POV~

We were going to England to meet up with the rest of the group, unsure of what else we should to protect ourselves now that the MMC was after us. I was worried about Valkyrie and how she was handling all of this. I could just read her mind but I promised myself now that she didn't have that same privilege, that I would only do that if absolutely necessary.

I was even more worried about our son Taavi, they wanted him for research. I knew Valkyrie and I would take our lives to protect him, but would it be enough? Soon we would be boarding our plane that would take us to England, and hopefully closer to safety. We still didn't know the location of where we were meeting just yet as Cecil wanted to keep it as secret as possible so no other MMC members would find out until it was too late.

Not having an exact plan was making Valkyrie nervous, and with the news of Xian's visions we weren't exactly sure what the exact plan should be. No one really knew what we were up against except Cecil and smartly he wasn't sharing anymore information until we were all together so no one could tap into our phones.

We were taking separate flights in order to keep from arousing suspicion. Valkyrie and I were going on the 2nd flight as Xian and Ethan were going on the first flight. The flights were two hours apart from each other to hopefully give enough leeway to make it seem like it was coincidence that we had take the same flight.

Our flight was called to board and Valkyrie hoisted Taavi on her hip as if she had been doing it forever. The only problem was that Taavi hated planes, it was next to impossible for Valkyrie to calm him down and I could hear the angry thoughts of the humans around us, as she did everything she could to calm him down.

It was going to be a long flight...

[×|{å†ìe×]

~<>~Cecil's POV~<>~

The way people kept looking at me made me feel like I should know something. The MMC barely leaked enough information for me to catch onto as it was. The wait for the others to arrive felt like forever, but finally the seven of us were together. We took a bus out of London and found ourselves in Cranleigh. We waited near the Cranleigh Arts Centre, looking out for my grandfather to stop and pick us up.

"Why can't we take your car?" Ethan asked.

"They would find us too easily. License plate number," Nathan answered for me.

All of us hadn't really greeted each other in a gleeful way just yet. I think all of could feel the risk of being in public. Even Kynaree was a little less bubbly. Soon my grandfather pulled up to the curb. His car sat five people, including the driver. "There's nine of us," Xian said, sounding a tad annoyed.

I cleared my throat, "Well, Valkyrie and Taavi can sit in front." I didn't want to suffocate a child.

“I wanna be in the trunk!.. Oh my gosh, it'll be like your kidnapping me!” Ethan said excitedly. It was the first ounce of excitement we'd heard in, what felt like, days.

“WAIT A SECOND. I want the trunk!” Kynaree argued. Ethan and her both looked at me like I was the need who needed to decide. We debated briefly. One idea that came up was to remove Kynaree's necklace so that she was back to her natural size. I feared that it would flare up some radar panel at the MMC. I was at the maximum point of paranoia. The end result was Ethan squeezing into the trunk.

Afterward, Xian, Nathan, and Rivers got into the vehicle and waited for the three of us to join. I was stuck sitting on Xian's lap because I was the smallest of the guys. Kynaree sat next to me on Nathan's, and Trudie sat on River's. Even with my grandfather and Valkyrie scooting their chairs up as far as they could we barely fit.

During our ride Ethan began getting claustrophobia. All of us stifled the giggles as we heard him kicking the seats from behind. "It's DARK, it's SO dark!"

Throughout the ride we listened to an oldies station that refused to play anything except The Beatles. Eventually we finally arrived to my grandparent's house. They lived near the edge of town. Close enough for a long walk to any stores, but a short drive. Neighbors were a good distance away. At least it didn't feel like we were in public eye anymore.