Chapter 3 Three

The bathroom was tiled entirely in only plane white tiles with a toilet towards the corner. Once I was done taking a shower I wore a black tee shirt with the jacket on top and the black denim jeans. The boots were my exact fit. Hmm, I thought. I laced the boots and sped down the stairs to the parlour.

Everyone was here; Leya, who was wearing a brown rain coat with black leggings and boots. Tia, so engrossed in a conversation with Jereum, was wearing a small brown denim jacket on top of a black crop top, black leggings and boots. I stood at the start of the staircase, looking at them; Leya was fiddling with the buttons on her raincoat and Jhan was staring out of the window.

I took a few steps towards them; Leya noticed me and smiled lightly. Jereum spied me over Tia's head and grimaced. Tia turned as well and—without me even noticing—Jhan was already at my side.

"Where are we going?" I asked, with the hope that we were going to the hospital I was held in to figure out some things about my life... But I knew that was shooting for the stars so I kept my hopes low.

"You need a proper introduction to the higher court and acceptance into the blood," Jhan said.

"Excuse me... Blood!?" I asked.

"Of course 'blood' you dimwit," Jereum sneered and this time it actually got to me... Hurt me.

"Tia will explain to you on the way," He said.

Jhan started towards the small corridor that was beside the start to the staircase. We all followed behind him. He got to the main door, twisted the knob and pulled it open.

I stepped into a small lawn, the moon was barely out and the air was chilly. A few people walked by, totally ignoring us. There was a garage at the left side of the house.

As Jhan walked towards the garage, probably to start their car, I took the opportunity to exchange small talk with Leya.

She was right beside me and was paying attention to a firefly that had just landed on her nose. "Leya..."

She turned her head—the firefly beep-flew away gracefully—and looked at me.

"So... Do you know how old Jhan is?" I asked her, hoping for a straight forward answer.

She looked at me for about five seconds, each passing second only made me regret asking the question.

"He's a hundred and sixty," She said simply.

My mouth fell open but the loud honking of a black minivans horn distracted me from pondering on the mind blowing fact I had just engulfed. Jereum took the front seat—second to none huh? I thought, which left I Tia and Leya to the back seats. The car slowly started to move.

"Kaldar?" It was Tia, I barely heard her the first few times—I was too engrossed in watching the yellow light from the street lamps flash by as we drove down the road.

"Kaldar!" She said more persistently. That was enough to catch my attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just... Never mind. Yeah, what is it? Tell me about the blood—that's what you wanted to tell me... Right?" I remembered Jhan telling me that Tia will fill me in on our way there.

"Yeah, sure. The blood." She said.

"Okay, The blood are our higher court, they are the oldest living vampires and also the ones who make our laws. They keep the peace between humans and—"

"Wait, humans know we exist?"

"Not really, but if a human does find out they use their mind's-eye to manipulate their memories."

"Oh, so Jhan can also manipulate memories?"

"The mind's-eye can only be used to effectively manipulate the memories of ignorant humans or vamp-pi-erz—"

The minivan suddenly screeched to an abrupt stop; throwing Leya—who was sleep-moding—forward, and Tia to the left, making her shoulder crash into me. I heard Jereum curse angrily a few times and then I heard Jhan trying to calm him down.

"Is everyone okay?" Jhan asked. His voice was surprisingly calm.

'Did we get hit or something? Did the brakes fail?'

"All good." Tia confirmed as she pulled herself from me. Leya just looked vaguely dazed by the whole incident.

I heard the front door open and in a flash, Jereum was out of the car, bellowing curses at some figures a distance in front of our minivan.

"What's going on?" I asked to no one in particular. I was beginning to feel either afraid or slightly frightened. My heart was pounding and I did all I could to suppress the fear from my voice but I was already breathing out of harshly.

Jhan exchanged a few looks with Tia who then exchanged the same suspicious look with Leya.

"Tia!? What's going on?" I asked in a more controlled voice.

She looked intensely at me for about five seconds before saying, "It's the dalaz boys." Or at least that's what I heard.

I looked through the right side window—the car had swerved sideways. I easily spotted about seven figures and an angered Jereum drawing closer to them with every curse he threw. The street lamp that shun above, casted gloomy shadows around them. They stood beside each other, giving only about a meter of space between themselves. They hung their hooded heads low, their hands held at their sides wielding wooden stakes.

'Oh my! Why won't he stop? Can't he see their weapons?'

"They are holding weapons, why won't he stop? Can't they hurt him?" But nobody seemed to pay any attention to what I was saying.

"Jereum can handle them," Leya said, but I wasn't convinced. The odds of the situation—if it excavated into a fight—was not in Jereum's favour. And this did not seem like a friendly encounter.

I couldn't just stand by and let this happen. I pushed open the door towards Tia side and hopped onto the tarred road. The air was chilly—compared to the warmer air in the minivan. Jereum was very close to the one in the middle now—only about a meter of space between him and the black dressed bandit.

"You tyrants better get you Abnormal asses off this road before I tear you to SHREADS!!!" His voice suddenly became inhumane.

He took a quick leap forward, launching the sole of his boot into the mid-section of the unfortunate that was front of him.

The hooded figure went tumbling back towards the ground and finally stopped after a few meters of painful rolling. It surprised me greatly. The attack—which looked like a simple kick—sent the person tumbling a great deal through the air before finally trashing himself and rolling over against the tar.

One of the tyrants—one to the left—tried in an attempt to stab Jereum with the wooden stake he held... But failed; Jereum caught his hand by the wrist, lifting the tyrant off the ground and threw him with an incredible force against the building to the right. The tyrant slammed into the concrete walls, breaking off parts of concrete on collision, and dropping to the ground.

I was amazed by his unexpected skills. Maybe this was the reason the others didn't even bother. Jereum should have been a master combatant.

One to his right swung his stake towards his turned back, I was about to yell a warning when Jereum turned on his heels with the speed of the wind and sent his fist into the tyrants face; the tyrants literally soared through the air and slammed against the same spot the other had—caving deeper into the wall on collision before dropping onto the first.

The remaining four that were still on their feet hissed at him as they took cautionary steps back. All their pupils seemed to be giving off a reddish glint and I could see their prolonged canines.

What happened next all happened so fast; one of the tyrants conjured a small phial bottle. The tyrants threw the bottle at Jereum's face; everything seemed to slow down and I charged forward from the spot I had been standing. The bottle collided with Jereum's face and broke apart, the liquid inside immediately started to burn away at his skin. Jereum fell to his knees and let out an ear deafening shriek, clutching at his melting face.

One of the tyrants sent a big boot into Jereum's chest which sent his head slamming into the tar—cracking the solid ground. The tyrant swung the stake back and then brought his hands crashing through the air and towards Jereum's chest.

I was filled with adrenaline, and I had only one thing I mind; save Jereum. The speed at which I moved was impossible to comprehend, it was like I had warped though space and just somehow teleported in front of the tyrant. I pushed him back with a strength I didn't even know I had. The tyrant was thrown into the air, soaring about fifty meters back.

"Woah!" I exclaimed.

I let out a grunt in agony as a sharp pain lanced through the spot between the base of my neck and my left shoulder.

"Argh!" I screamed. I looked at the area and I saw the latter of a stake that had been pierced so deeply into my body. I felt the skin and muscles there start to burn away. A beast-like power spawned in my chest and it was banging to be released on them.

I looked at the three of them. The red glint in their eyes was gone and all I could see in place was... Fear.

"What are you?" One of them asked.

"Can he be a Su-supreme?" One asked the other that was now acting leader.

At that point I was filled with so much rage my thinking seemed to be clouded.

"WHO DID IT???" I bellowed before sending my fist into one of them who flew just as far back as the first. I grabbed another one of them, throwing him with so much power into the last one. All of them seemed to be unconscious. I spied the first three that Jereum had knocked out start to wake up and dived for them.

A loud cracking sound then a very fast whiff of air and a powerful force sent me flying backwards through the air and slamming hard onto the ground. The force so great I slid across tar, ripping and breaking a path as I scythed backwards against the ground.

I was almost dazed; it was a struggle to get back my on feet and now there was only one thing on my mind; to rip apart whoever had hit me. I saw the others; Tia, Leya and Jhan. They were out of the car and approaching my assailant; the person was dressed in a red robe with golden embroidery designs an a hood over his or her head.

I was filled with so much rage I couldn't even think straight. I got into a squatting position and then with incredible strength and power, I pushed myself off the ground, soaring through the air and towards the red hooded figure. Everything had paused all around me or was just moving too slow.

I was speeding through the air with my fist outstretched to deliver a skull cracking blow. I was only about an inch away from victory but then... The person turned around with an incomprehensible speed, getting below me and grabbing me by the jacket. Pulling, throwing and sending me with my own velocity head first into the hard, cold tar. My skull smashed into the ground, I heard the words, "insolent child," and I instantly lost my grip on consciousness.