Chapter 1

“Damn!” He yelled, reaching blindly in his fury from something throw able, “Damn it all!” His strong, elegant fingers clasped around a large box. Without any effort, he tossed it through a brittle window to his left. As most old, brittle windows do, this one shattered, sending out a pure ring as the glass skittered to the ground below, soon followed by the louder contents of the now demolished box.

“Gust!” Pyro shouted. As a fire element, his temper was almost always one of the first to erupt, “Would you please shut the hell up?!” He glared at the younger elemental, disappointed by his lack of control and stealth skills, “We all have to get downstairs now, because of all the fuckin’ noise that Gust made.” Pyro turned and stalked off, sending one last glare that would have killed a human instantly.

The temperamental vampire stormed to the hidden door that led to the abandoned bunker they were residing in, and down the dusty concrete stairs, his foot falls no more than a whisper above the wind. It was an intricate thing, this bunker. A concealed door, which led to stairs, which led to a tunnel with various false doors, and a final three stair flight, to the final destination (many miles) beneath the graveyard their bunker was located.

Gust stiffened with an abject fury, a slight but vicious wind whipped at Pyros’ retreating back, surely enough to cause another dispute between the two, when a soothing hand rested on the irrational wind elementals shoulder, “Just let it go, Gust.”

He sighed, letting the wind fall to nothing as he looked at Seq, his blood mate. She was only slightly shorter than he, but her eyes were a glittering green, dark brown ringing her pupils making them stand out quite magnificently. She preferred to wear England gothic clothing that varied from deepest purple/red to the lilac shirt beneath her corset styled vest. He smiled at her as she frowned, clearly uncomfortable with his scrutiny, even after one hundred some odd years.

“Pyro’s right about one thing,” she dismissed his affectionate gaze with a flip of her dark brown, multi faceted hair, “You made enough noise that anyone who was actually able to follow us would have heard.” She sighed heavily, letting her eyelids droop.

“Seq!” he replied indignantly, “You’re supposed to be my girlfriend! In the handbook, page three-sixty, section one-oh-one a, it says you should always be at my defense, not… not siding with the enemy!”

“Oh, shaddup.” Seq rolled her eyes, letting them land on her beach boy, allowing a serious and pondering look to cross her face. “I’m still having second thoughts about that.”

His heart flip flopped in his chest, “Still?! What do you mean by still?! I thought-”

“Shh!” She interrupted, “You’re always so loud.” He stared at her with that puppy-dog face, his sky blue eyes, rimmed in silver, made the picture overly perfect, “Come on.” She amended with a wink. Gust gaped (reminding Seq of a fish of some sort) as she and Kye followed Pyro down the stairs.

“You always were too loud for your own good…” Came a cool, aloof voice, “Or ours. Are you sure you’re a vampire?”

“Sye.” Gust tensed, “Shut up!!”

Sye chuckled, “Let’s follow the leader!” He motioned for Gust to follow.

Trying to regain his composure, and take a stab at Sye, he banged open the door, “So, you’re afraid of those H.? They are only humans.” He sneered.

Sye was about to respond as they walked down the last few stairs, when Pyro growled. Not a loud sound, but something that resonated throughout the ware house.

“Didn’t I say shut up?!” he leapt across the distance separating him from Gust to stare him down.

Immediately, Gust backed down, though angry and humiliated from being chastised and rebuked on all sides of their mangy ‘pack’. To avoid a fight he lowered his gaze to the left.

“Besides,” Kye followed up, quiet as always, “They use high tech supplies, such as holy water tags, and rounds of stakes… though those have never been dipped in the blood of a werewolf or cursed by a witch… seems to be quite a stupid and futile effort… Anyway, it could have been worse, I could have missed the vial attached to Sequoias’ ear.”

“What was on Seq-?” Gust’s eyes widened and he forgot all about Pyro and his humiliation, but his guilt, on the other hand. A slight breeze tousled everyone’s hair.

Kye looked to Seq, who just rolled her eyes. She turned to Pyro, ignoring Gust, “Did you get what we needed?”

Pyro nodded, beside Kye in nothing more than a blur. He seemed to be zoning out, but then he abruptly turned and began rummaging through an obviously random box. Kye sighed at the obvious show of disorganization, but smiled, eyes still closed, as a pair of very familiar arms wrapped around her, as did a comforting scent. “What’s he doing?” Sye whispered into her ear.

Kye shrugged, “We’re about to see.” She replied, motioning to the sound of Pyro as he slackened his searching efforts, “Look.”

Pyro walked towards them, feeling slightly proud, and frustrated, as he looked at his rag tag team. The part that had taken his kind thousands of generations to find, he and his group had completed the first half of their mission. They looked at his expectantly. Smirking, he held up a manila envelope. His smirk reached his eyes as he emptied the contents into Kyes’ open arms.

Everyone exchanged smiles… everyone but for Gust.

“This is what we were attacked for?” He raged, turning a flattering shade of pink, actually adding some color to his perfectly pale and even pallor. “A file and two books?!” He picked them up, judging the weight of the books, one in each hand, “Well, if we sold them, we could get a pretty penny for their covers, bu-”

Seq slapped her hand to her forehead, “Did no one inform Whiney Mcbratpants over there why we went on the mission?” Inside her head, the words, ‘this can’t be my life mate, this can’t be my life mate’ droned in a chant.

Pyro glared at Sye, “You were supposed to inform everyone of this mission and its purposes.” He glared, cutting off Syes’ feeble excuse, “I commanded you to tell everyone!”

He spun on Gust, who was still angry, but mostly confused, his sandy blond hair was tussled and his face was slightly creased in worry. “These,” he hissed, his patience more than used up for the rest of the week, “were found in ancient Upper Egypt, in the tomb of-”

“Him.” Kye finished emotionally, still, after all these years, unable to say his name. Pyro rolled his eyes at the dramatics.

“Yes… “him”.’ Pyro sighed, suddenly drained of emotion and wishing to enter the false sleep all of the half-breeds went through. “Anyway, I stole… er, borrowed this folder,” he held it up for emphasis, “from the H.A.V. headquarters, hence me needing support and backup.”

He spun on Sye, “Do you realize that if you slipped up that badly, this whole mission would have been an utter failure, and I could have died, or you, or any individual in this group?!” His eyes were burning, which made him all the more intimidating, “From now on, Sye, I demand your full cooperation and obedience. Do you understand?”

Sye had the grace to look away, “Yes, Pyro.”

“Aw, man! If I had known that’s what you set out to do, Pie, I would have been more compliant at being the bait.” Gust played at the cement with his toe, bashful and completely reprimanded. Pyro realized just then how harsh he had been behaving.

“Yeah…. Well…” He stammered, “It’s alright, I didn’t realize you didn’t know… Sorry about being so bull headed… and stuff.”

Seq smiled at the stuttering Pyro, “You need to shut up.” She turned to Kye, “I have a few questions meself. Which is the curse, which the prophecy, and what is in the folder?”

Kye grinned, tracing the silver inlay of the black book lovingly, “The prophecy,” she swept her hand in the general direction of the other, “the curse. I…” she hesitated, bracing herself for the ridicule she would get for this, “have no idea what is in the folder.”

A shocked gasp come from someone, and they all glanced at her in mock horror. Kye smiled sheepishly, a blush sprawling across her face.

Pyro knelt down, retrieving the file from its place in the grime and cold, “It contains the sacrifice.” The room went uncomfortably quite as he began to open the file. “You know,” he tried to joke; “It would be so much nicer if we really didn’t care.”

He went slowly, taking his time. Day melted into night, for vampires have eons of patience built behind their perfect, cold faces.

He finally eased open the last bit, and watched the file spew its contents into his lap. A profile and a little picture, clipped onto the corner of the profile by a paper clip. Pyro raised his eyes to his comrades slowly. The horror on his face was mimicked onto theirs as well.

AN Dedicated to my Friend, she is always in my mind and my heart Love you Chellers! Hope you're reading this, and you enjoy it.