Chapter 86:

Pythia POV:

I looked around after reading the note a few times and couldn't see anything. "I want the borders patrolled, tell me how many scents you pick up and where it trails to." Tye barked out, everyone scattered in different directions to see if anyone might still be lingering outside. I couldn't feel anyone staring at me anymore so maybe he was making sure I got the note? "Did you see anyone around the note or anything?" I asked, looking at Lillith. "No I didn't, I mean it stunk but other than that nothing suspicious." Lillith replied. "Alright, I think we need to sit down and let Delilah explain on who Bartholomew is." Tye said, looking at me. "That's a good idea, maybe she can give us an insight on what those things really are." Alley said gently. "Okay, well let's go then." I said walking forward. "Are you okay?" Tye asked softly. "I'm fine, honestly I just want all of this over with so we can live normally. We haven't been able to have another baby because of all of this and I am tired of putting our life on hold." I replied feeling a little sad. "As soon as everything is over I'll put a baby in you, I promise. From what Athea said we won't have much longer. It'll all be over with soon enough." Tye replied, kissing my temple.

I took a deep breath and tried to relax. As much as I would like to agree right now it just seems like forever away. As we got inside I noticed everyone was already there, "I'll get dinner started." Beth announced. "I'll have the others come and help you." Alley said softly before her eyes glazed over. Before I knew it there were about four others in the kitchen grabbing what they could. I made my way to the living room and sat on the floor, Tye sat in the chair behind me and started playing with my hair which made me relax a lot. "Okay so how do I do this?" I asked, looking around. "Just let Delilah do the work just like before, only this time you won't shift." Tye replied. "Alright Delilah, I'm ready when you are." I said. I felt a little pressure but nothing too painful but when I opened my eyes I was me but not me. "Delilah?" I heard Alleys soft voice fill my ears. "I am." Delilah replied. "Thank you for coming out and speaking to us." Stephen said with a small smile. "If it will make it easier to kill them I will do what it takes to keep Pythia safe." Delilah replied. Was she smiling too? I couldn't really tell.

"Who is Bartholomew?" Tye asked while he kept playing with my hair. "He is an absolute disgrace. We took him out many centuries ago. He is one of wolf and vampire but not just any wolf or vampire, he comes from royal lines on both sides, which makes him a lot stronger than the rest." Delilah replied. I could hear the bitterness in her voice. "Wait what? What royal line?" Stephen asked. "The line known as fire, it was meant for good but he had other plans for it. He was turned by the first queen of vampires which gave him the royal line from her. Kings and queens of any race are the strongest out of them all." Delilah replied. I caught the look on Ambrosias face and it was pure shock. "So my ancestor turned him? Why?" Ambrosia asked. "She wanted the ultimate warrior. Vampires have come a long way since then but Bartholomew ended up killing her so that he could rule." Delilah replied. Oh shit. Bartholomew killed the queen back then? Oh no, I watched the anger twist across Ambrosias face and I needed to remind myself to talk to her later on about all of this. 

"What happened to him?" Alley asked. "Athea and Lucinda came to me and told me the problems that he was causing, it took us all to take him down. All he wants is power, that is why he wants Pythia. She is the blessed, comes from the first line of dark witches and is queen. He has spent his afterlife with me and even though he was already dead his strength never faltered. There were times he would try to attack Lucinda but I always stopped him." Delilah replied. "You know how he fights?" Tye asked. "I do, I have spent centuries fighting him." Delilah replied. "Can you show us? Are the others like him?" Stephen asked. "I could show you but in the end none of you are strong enough to kill him. Pythia will have to do it, she is a queen and much stronger than she thinks and now that she has me she matches him. As far as the others, they are stronger than your average wolf and they will be hard to beat but yes, I can show you." Delilah replied. "What is his endgame? Why Pythia other than her lineage?" Tye asked with an edge to his voice. "He wants ultimate power, he wants revenge on those of us who killed him first and held him in the after world. Should he succeed at killing us all he will go for Lucinda and Athea next and take over everything." Delilah replied. 

Oh shit, we can't let that happen. "Tell us about the others.'' Alley said. "The others are like little mongrels'. Quick on their feet but wild in their actions. You never know where they are targeting because they give nothing away. They aim to kill and it doesn't matter if it is a fast death or a slow death, messy death or clean death. They have one goal in mind and that is to take down whoever is in their way." Delilah replied. "We never thought they would be able to get out so we never made it a point to tell anyone about it, you will never understand how guilty we feel about this." Delilah said with sadness in her voice. "We don't blame you, we are grateful for everyones help." Tye whispered gently. "Do they have any weaknesses?" Ambrosia asked. "Light, they have been confined in darkness for centuries so they have grown accustomed to the dark. They won't attack while the sun is up, although with them sharing with another wolf I don't know how accurate that would be now." Delilah replied. "Is it any type of light?" Jackson asked. "Any type of light, Bartholomew might be different because of his lineage but the others don't like it." Delilah replied.

"What about Bartholomews weakness?" Alley asked. "Not getting the attention he wants. He does things to gain the reactions he wants, without the reactions it makes him crazy, sloppy even. He is much like a child in that manor. He feeds off of chaos because in those moments you learn a persons true motive with things." Delilah replied. That oddly makes sense, in moments like when people get in a fight or flight mode, they will do what they can to survive. "So we need to make sure everyone is focused and don't feed in to whatever it is that they have planned." Alley said. "And don't let them see our reactions to anything." Jasper added. "Correct, they have never been trained so they don't know anything about it, they are just wild and crazy which grants them the step ahead of everyone else." Delilah replied. "So how do we train everyone then?" Tye asked. "To expect the unexpected. Fight in groups, never alone, we must teach everyone here and teach them to never let their guard down, not even for a second." Delilah replied. 

Okay that doesn't seem too hard, but training wise maybe we can come up with something to seclude everyone. Break them off into groups somehow and have teams waiting for the attack. Take them down little by little but as fast as we could. "Pythia has a really good idea." Delilah said, catching me off guard. I forget she can actually hear me. "What idea?" Ambrosia asked. "To break off into groups, seclude everyone and set up teams." Delilah replied. "That's actually pretty smart." Stephen said. "Yeah, well she is a pretty smart person." Delilah snorted. "Now, now Delilah don't be like that. He didn't mean anything by it." Tye said gently. "You match Pythia well you know." Jasper said with a smile. "Yeah, she is just like you in a way." Jenson added. "She is very fond of the two of you." Delilah replied. "Okay now don't tell them everything." I muttered, making her laugh. "Can we have Pythia back so we can eat dinner and talk about all of this?" Tye asked. Before I knew it I was blinking and everyone was staring at me.     

"So what is this plan of yours?" Ambrosia asked. "Well kind of like how we are breaking apart everyone to train, use that idea in the fight. We need to break them apart and outnumber them somehow, mix everyone up so the take down will be a lot easier to accomplish. Maybe we can seclude Bartholomew in a way that he is by himself and not getting the attention that he wants." I replied. "What if we set up a maze type thing?" Alley asked. "What do you mean?" Tye asked. "Like all of us that can use the earth element, set up a maze, make them split themselves up and we can station people within it and then the ones who make it to the end will meet the rest of those who are waiting." Alley replied. "That is actually a genius idea. but we need to wrap up the property so that they won't know what they are walking into." Jackson said. "We can use a cloaking spell, make them see what we want them to see, we can hide the maze from them but not from everyone else." I replied. "That's even better. We need to get started on this." Ambrosia said. "We can do this during the day since they won't really come out. The cloaking spell I can do from inside so they won't be able to know anything. We just need to let everyone know." I replied. 

"We can start on this tomorrow, for now we need to eat and rest, using the element can be tiring and I already know that we will spend a lot of time training." Tye said. "I'll agree to that, I am starving." I said with a smile. "The plan you all have will work." Delilah said. "I hope so, I had started losing hope for a while." I replied back. "I know you have. Not to worry, you will be protected but secluding Bartholomew is a great idea, let him see what is happening but don't let him take part in any of it until it is just him left." Delilah replied. "We need to get to the elders first so that they can't undo what we have done." I said. "The elders won't be hard to find, chances are they will walk through first." Delilah replied. "Are you okay my beauty?" Tye asked, looking down at me. "Yes, just talking to Delilah is all. She is very reassuring." I replied with a smile. For the first time in what seemed like forever I have a new found hope, now we just need to put the plan into action.