Tainted Blood

Book Five

Chapter 115

Lillie had raced down the stairs and tackled Stark to the ground. Stark grimaced at Lillie's weight on him.

"Unseal. My. Powers," Lillie said emphasizing each word between her teeth. Stark smirked at her arrogantly.

"I can't do that."

"I'll… kill you," Lillie said lacking a better threat. Stark continued smirking as he pushed her off him and sat up.

"You do remember that was the reason why in the first place," Stark said obnoxiously and added," Stark doesn't want to die."

Lillie curled her lip at him and turned to see an apple in Stark's hand. He was about to take a bite out of it but Lillie snatched it out of his hand.

"Fine, I'm stealing this. I could make juice with this," Lillie mumbled to herself and then limped off into the kitchen. She hadn't healed from getting her leg broken by Seth. Stark clicked his tongue in irritation.

"Your welcome."

"All your efforts for Lillie and you end up getting the short end of the stick. It must do something to your ego," Alana exclaimed in a condescending tone. She was standing over Stark with her arms crossed. Stark smirked at her as he stood up.

"Coming from the ex- high ranked vampire… Your ego must be worse than mine right now," Stark said obnoxiously and walked away. Alana ground her teeth together looking irritated at the reminder of her exile.

Zarik stopped beside her munching on a bowl of popcorn in his hand.

"Maybe you should stop trying to piss him off," Zarik exclaimed in a surly tone," Maybe he'll stop wanting to kill us."

Alana snatched the bowl out of Zarik's hand roughly and put a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

"I just don't like that sadistic glint in his eyes and that arrogant smirk of his."

Kain awoke to the sun shining into his eyes. He felt like he'd been hammered in the head and beaten repeatedly for years. Wait… that might have happened. However, images, real or fake, bled into one and he was having a hard time sorting through them.

When he wanted to use both his arms to support himself, he ended up falling to his right side. Nothing was supporting his weight on that side. Kain slowly looked to find his right arm wasn't there.

"This is… a dream," he mumbled holding his head. He felt like the world was spinning as horrifying images flashed through his mind causing him to quickly jump out of the bed looking alert and paranoid.

[Flashback…]

Caleb and Kain fell to their knees trying to catch their breaths as dozens of demon corpses were littered around them.

"If this happens again… we need weapons," Caleb growled under his breath. Kain glanced at Caleb and then indicated the huge sword in his hand.

"What's this? A big stick?" Kain retorted breathing rapidly.

"Sometimes it seems like you are waving around an oversized stick," Caleb exclaimed huskily.

"Took down so many demons… The Hellraine sure has good bodyguards."

Caleb and Kain quickly turned their attention to the voice to see a masked male stepping over the demon corpses.

"I should get rid of you two… It would be perfect to gain some trust from Kalis," the masked male exclaimed more to himself.

"Kalis… a higher demon?" Kain questioned. The masked male seemed to give a small chuckle.

"Yes, he is," the masked male answered and continued," Now… for the entertaining part."

In a flash, the masked male was in front of them bringing down one of his blades causing Kain and Caleb to jump in opposite directions to avoid it. The masked male raced toward Kain. Kain quickly stuck the oversized sword into the ground using it like a shield as the masked male slashed hitting the sword instead. Kain quickly round house kicked the masked male and then pulled the sword out of the ground. In a quick motion, he slashed the masked male but instead of dodging he grabbed the bladed end causing Kain to widen his eyes for a moment.

Did his hand… change for a moment? Into a shadow form?

Suddenly Caleb appeared behind the masked male attempting to slash him with his claws but the male quickly turned and brought down both his blades in succession. Caleb quickly leaped back as he glared at the masked male.

Kain hammered his oversized sword into the ground causing the dirt to rise up towards the masked male impacting him hard. Kain quickly ran towards Caleb.

"Get out of here," he snapped as the dust began to cover them making it hard to see. Caleb groaned.

"I'm not—"

"Caleb… We're both injured. There's no way we'll win this. We'll head in opposite directions," Kain exclaimed in a stern tone. Caleb scowled and quickly raced off as he saw Kain go in the other direction.

[End Flashback.]

Caleb ran his hand through his hair in frustration as he remembered those memories. Kain had completely tricked him and he fell for it, but the masked male that had attacked them… It sounded familiar now that he was remembering the event.

A knocked sounded on his bedroom door causing him to look up as the door slowly opened.

"Hey… Caleb…"

Caleb didn't need to look up to know who that voice was. It was Lillie.

"Shouldn't you see Kain?"

"No, I know you felt… really guilty at leaving Kain back then. It was one of the reasons you didn't end up meeting back with me and Stark," Lillie exclaimed slowly. Caleb had his face buried in his hand.

"He was gone when I went back… I saw blood. I thought he died. He didn't."

Caleb could feel Lillie sitting beside him and had wrapped her arms around him.

"That's not your fault. He knew what would happen, Caleb. But… right now… I don't know how to face him. He'd never choose to become a guardian," Lillie exclaimed in a small voice. Caleb turned to look at her.

"He won't hate you, Lill."

Lillie gave him a troubled look.

"How would you know that?"

Caleb scowled at her at the fact she had asked that question.

"Because I definitely don't and never will."

[End ch115]

End Note: I thought I'd make a moment with Caleb and Lillie. Caleb is definitely different when he's alone with Lillie and he has another side and I just wanted to show that. I don't know if it's corny or sappy or sweet. It took me a while with the flashback because I just could not think of a good fight scene for it.