90
NIRVANA
“What’s the emergency, Zarah?” She took us to her house in a peaceful neighborhood for the first time.
“Big rock. Congratulations,” said the pretty Asian girl with long, straight hair. She was around my age, but we’d never met.
“Thanks. I’m Nirvana.” I offered my hand for a handshake.
“Aira. The witch apprentice,” she said humorously, shaking my hand. “Who’s the lucky man?”Content © provided by NôvelDrama.Org.
“That would be me. Knight.”
“Knight? Like Knight with K in shining armor?”
Knight chuckled. “Precisely, but I left my armor in the Californian desert.”
She whistled. “With humor, too. Are all alphas hot? Well, except for an old wannabe alpha. Thank Goddess, he’s dead.”
“Oh.” I was genuinely surprised. “There’s a witch apprentice?”
“Aira, not now. Glad you two made it.” Zarah had opened books before her.
“Nirvana, you’re here.”
I turned around and saw Dylan. “Hey. How long you’ve been here.”
We hugged each other.
“Yesterday. Congrats, by the way. I’m happy for both of you.”
“Thanks. So what are you doing here?”
“Apparently, Zarah forgot to mention the Alpha King had vast collections of books, and I read some of her Grimoire and other Wiccan books.”
“What’s Grimoire? Wiccan?”
“Book of spells, Book of magic. Wiccans are people who believe in supernatural magic,” Aira answered. She looked like a girl you just wanted to sit with on the couch, had some margaritas, and talked all day.
“Oh, okay. Did you find anything useful?”
“Nada,” Zarah replied. “Do you have the dagger?”
“Yes.”
“Wait. Where do you keep it?” Knight asked.
“I keep-”
“Never mind.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t tell me. Keep it to yourself. If I know where it is, those sons of bitches can use my knowledge to get to the dagger. Anyway, why are we here?”
“I’m making the potion. Sebastien and Archibald will be here shortly.”
“What do you need us to do?”
“You are a part of the ritual. I tested the blood Dylan took, and it worked, but the dagger and the wielder are needed for the completion.” Zarah seemed on edge. There was something she was not telling us.
“Zarah, what’s going on? When was the last time you slept?”
“I can only sleep if Cyrius is dead. The underworld is on the brink of ending, and your council is doing nothing.” She pointed at Knight. “And my coven has given me the liberty to do what’s necessary. That’s why I need you all here right now. The death toll and infected have significantly risen, and we’re not even close to finding out if our method will work.”
“Werewolves and vampires are not the only ones affected, are they?” My stomach twisted painfully.
“Yes. One of my old friends’s apprentices just got infected. She’s trying to slow down the infection. It works so far, but until when?” She looked distraught, and I knew what it felt like when the whole world depended on you, and there was a huge chance of failure.
“I’m so sorry, Zarah.”
“Don’t apologize. Just do your part.”
“One of Califf’s pack members got bitten yesterday, so I got home late.”
I looked at Knight. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I know you’d be affected, and we couldn’t do anything, Nirvana. At least, not right now, but we are doing the best we can. Now, Califf’s enforcers have been watching their territory 24/7.”
“What about us?”
“We’re doing the best we can.”
“I tried my best to put a spell around your territory yesterday because we need to keep the vineyards safe,” Zarah said.
“You did it? I didn’t know.”
“You have your own job, Nirvana. You can’t do everything on your own, and that’s why we divided our tasks. Focus on your training and doing your part.”
“Thank you.”
Zarah just waved her hands, and the entire house darkened as if she had put the house on lockdown.
“What’s going on?” I felt suddenly nervous and scared.
“Archibald is coming.” And with a swift of her hand, the portal emerged.
Sebastien and Archibald in his fashion aficionado walked in.
“Good. You both are here,” Sebastien said.
“Nice to see you both again, Alpha Knight and my dear Nirvana.” His eyes widened a bit. “With a statement, a huge rock on your finger. I guess congratulations are in order.”
“Get in here, Vampire, before I turn you into dust.”
“Whoa. Feisty. You didn’t give her orgasms last night, Bastie?”
“Shush now, Archie,” said Sebastien to his friend. “Don’t piss her off. She has a lot on her plate right now.”
I followed them into her kitchen. Well, I thought it was her kitchen, but the whole world spun. My vision felt dizzy as I hung onto Knight. The feeling was uncomfortable and gave me a vertigo effect that had almost landed my butt on the ground.
“Whoa! That was something. What the hell was that, Zarah?” Archibald asked.
I looked around. The place had changed. We were not in her kitchen anymore, but somewhere looked like a tomb or temple- their sacred ground. “Where are we?”
“This ground is sacred like a sanctum and can never be contaminated.” She gestured for us to come around the table with a big thick book with written language I’d never seen before. There were some tools like bowls and knives and small decanters of some sort.
“Dylan, stay behind. Sebastien, Knight, Archibald, and Aira will cut your palm when I tell you to drop your blood on the bowl. That’s when you do it. You should do it together for the potion to work.”
“What about me?”
“You will have your turn later. Once the blood mixes, it will turn black, and then you do the same as they did. Do you have the dagger?”
“Yes.” I bent down to take the dagger in my boot and cast an inconcealment chant, and the dagger appeared. “Here.” I put it down on the table beside the bowl.
“Take each knife and get ready.” Zarah began chanting in an unfamiliar language as the guys, and Aira grabbed their knives.
A strong wind suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began swirling around us.
“Don’t worry about that. Just focus on your task,” she continued chanting in a foreign language. “Now.”
Sebastien, Knight, Archibald, and Aira made a small cut on their palms and let the blood drop into the bowl. It somewhat started melting and smoking as if it burned inside.
“Get your knife, Nirvana.”
I took the last remaining knife and cut my skin. I hissed in pain and watched their blood start to turn muddy, oily black. It only lasted a few seconds, then turned black like an abyss. I squeezed my hand, and my blood started dropping into the bowl.
I yelped in shock. My heart pumped so hard as the bowl lit on fire.
“Leave it.” She flipped a page and read whatever was written in there. The fire stopped abruptly.
I only believed in magic once I met Knight and discovered the supernatural underworld existed. When our blood was black earlier, it just turned red again.
“Take the dagger and dip it. Just sink it and don’t do anything.”
I picked up the dagger and felt its power vibrating into my palm. Then I did as she told me to. The dagger seemed to suck up the blood, absorbing it in. I watched in awe until the bowl emptied like it was never used.
“Whoa.” Dylan looked down at the empty bowl.
“What the-?” I stared at the dagger’s blade, which turned black while the handle remained golden, which reminded me of the image of the dagger in the journal.
“Don’t let it out of your sight. We only have one chance to do it, Nirvana. Just once.” Her warning made my stomach churn.
“Now you carry the most powerful weapon to defeat Cyrius,” Dylan said as I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
“Do you feel anything?”
I shifted my gaze to Alpha King. “It feels like there’s a magnet. And it scares me. What if I fail?”
“You have us behind you, Nirvana. You just have to believe that you can do it. And good will always win against evil.”
“Thanks, Alpha King. That means a lot.” I put the dagger back in my boot and concealed it with the spell.
“If you both have important things to do, you better not waste more time.”
“Us?” Knight and I shared a look as if Zarah was referring to us.
“Yes, both of you.”
Knight nodded. “I’ll let you know.”
“So what now? How do we know this dagger works?”
“We will catch an infected and see it for ourselves.”
“If we are done here, I have to get back to the elders. We’re having a meeting, so to speak,” Archibald said.
“I’ll send you back.” Zarah shut the book by just motioning her hand in the air.
“Then you guys have an infected creature to catch. Good luck.”