Chapter 37 MASS.

SAME DAY
I spent the rest of the day with Dawn. She ate happily and cheerily. Talking about things that happened to her in her high school and recounting events to me that I could not even understand. Evening fell and Leya came in with a small bowl containing a weird liquid. She carefully dabbed the liquid on Dawn's face with a cloth and I wondered what the medicine could be made of that made it such a wound healer. I had asked Leya what it was at the time that she was still tending to Jereum's wounds, but she only smiled at me sheepishly and since then I had been too creeped out to ask her again.
Dawn winced as Leya brought the cloth to the slit at the corner of her lips. She tightened her locked fingers with mine and I looked at her reassuringly.
Leya finished.
"Thank you Leya," Dawn said. I had told Dawn her name earlier when Leya had brought in her dinner.
Jhan was doing a good job to keep her parents fooled. He said he'll knock on their door in the morning. When they'll come out to see who it was he'll engage into their minds and place carefully crafted memories of them and their daughter. He said he'll get similar memories from their past experiences to make new ones therefore keeping them fooled. In the end Dawn always ended up going for a morning jog and then hanging out at Tia's place.
He told me that her parents knew about Tia. But he had to make them believe that Dawn and Tia were best of friends. And that Dawn always hung out with Tia.
It was a good strategy and seemed to be working quite well. As for Dawn, she enjoyed staying here with me. She enjoyed Leya's food, my company, and Tia's jokes but feared Jereum's periodic red glinted glazes. Tia would glare at him whenever he'll appeared in the room, throwing his red evil glint at Dawn who's heart would start galloping.
I needed to meet the black wolf, we still had a pending deal to complete and I needed to get more information about the upcoming danger. Plus meeting the wolf could give me more information about the rival Lobo army and ways we could work together to defeat them.
Dawn was still awake. Jhan had stopped hotwiring her brain to sleep since she had regained most of her strength and since I always slept by her side, and I hadn't been able to sleep for some time now, she always wanted to stay awake with me. "You should rest," I told her.
"But I'm not sleepy..."
She looked as active as could be.
"Okay, I'll fall asleep with you then."
'You
She leaned to me. I lay back on the bed and she laid her head on my chest.
"I can feel your heartbeat," She said.
I rubbed my hand on her back, trailing my hand down to the side of her lower waist. She shuddered and winced. The skin there felt delicate, too delicate.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"Oh, it's nothing." She was nervous.
She raised her head from me. I looked her in the eyes, her gaze was unsteady.
"Dawn,"—I was getting angry—"who gave you that injury?"
I could see the fear growing in her eyes.
"It's nothing I-I—"
"It was him, that Lupine!"
"Tia told me not to tell you because—"
"And you listened to her?!" My voice was rising. The anger in me rising as well.
"Let me see it!" I demanded. She hesitated at first but then she rose up her shirt. I could see perfectly in the dark and on the side of her waist was a deep cut. It had healed halfway but I could still see the skin around it was red and soar and I could perceive the smell of her blood from the wound.
I don't know how long I stared at the wound, my fists on the floor clenched and shaking. The anger seeped into my eyes and I knew the red evil glint had appeared in my gaze.
"Kaldar? Kaldar please don't do it..."
"I'll kill him. I'LL KILL HIM!" I punched a hand straight through the floor board and I heard Dawn's freighted shriek as I stormed away. I felt a rising heat in my chest and the dormant beasts in my chest had awoken once more. My limbs shook in anger and breathing—although I didn't need to do it—suddenly became difficult.
I heard my own heartbeat as it galloped in my chest.
'How dare he?' I thought. 'He must have stabbed her...'
Tia caught sight of me. She sped to my front, blocking me from the corridor that led to the door.
She looked at me in the eyes. Hers gaze unsteady.
"Kaldar listen to me he's not worth it."
"Get out of my way Tia..." My voice was a low whisper and I kept my head down.
"Kaldar? Kaldar?"
I raised my head and looked her in the eyes. She gasped and stepped back.
"They'll kill you. Those adjudicators they'll kill you—"
I had pushed her with force. She fell to the side and I dashed away, breaking my way through the door.
In a second I was in front of the building of the higher court.
I didn't even need to think. In tuned into my see-through vision and scanned through the ground. The cells were down under and I peered through layers of stone and concrete until I spotted, at the very bottom, a large cell containing a single old man.
I felt tears running down my face. And I wondered if I cried out of anger or the pity I had for the Lupine once I would be done with him... If they'll be any remains if him.
I started my walk to the entrance of the building and there I spotted several adjudicators marching towards me. Everything seemed to slow down. Even sound.
"Turn away you are on higher court ground—"
I had moved so fast and in an instance the female adjudicator was cut off by a heavy punch to her face. I always wanted to do that.
More red robed vampires ran at me. Accelerating from the places they stood and throwing their fist at my face. They were slow, slower than before.
I gripped one's hand, throwing his entire body into another that was coming at my back. Another rushed at me, throwing a big boot at my head; I caught it with my plan. The force of the kick pushing my body back and causing my legs to scratch against the ground below me.
I felt the skin on my hands singeing but I didn't care. I dragged his body by that silver boot I held and threw him backwards.
Two more charged at me. They held silver blades in their hands. One slashed at my neck, I dodged back then gripped his throat. Lifting him to the air and then sending his body to the ground. I stumped once on his chest and I was sure I heard ribs fracture.
I sent my left boot into another's chest and then I kicked the shin of the other. He dropped to his knees and in quick body twist I sent the back of my shoe to his head.
Everything sped back up and I sped into the building, scything throw the doors. I used my see-through vision to scan the building again. More adjudicators on lower floors. I raced down the stairs, knocking any red robed vampire down with a single arm.
I was at the last floor. Staring into the dark cell in which the old but agile man was lying on the ground. His hands were bound in great and heavy shackles and there was a large metal ring around his neck.
I heard it, the sound of an object as it sliced through the air towards the back of my head. I grabbed the tip of the spear without even looking back. I sent my leg backwards without turning, kicking at whoever was behind me and I heard the sound as someone crashed into the stone walls behind.
I pushed the rusted bars of his cell to either side, bending the metal to create a large enough space for me to walk in.
Seeing him still alive fuelled my anger. His cell was dark and I was sure all what he was seeing was a part of red dotted eyes approaching him. I broke away the heavy ring that was placed on his shoulders. He shuddered and next I destroyed the shackles from his hands.
The sound of marching metal boots against the stone stairs sailed into my ears. They were too many. But there was another way out. Summoning all the power I had in my limbs, I held his neck and leaped for the ceiling.
Layer after layer of stone and hard mortar crashed upon my head over and over again until I bursted out from the ground below.
The old man was still alive. He looked me in fear. I had lost an eye and half of my face but I could feel it grow back. In no time in had regained my lost eye and part of the muscles in my face.
There was a pulsating ache in my head and I had to keep clench my jaws together to prevent myself from biting away his neck.
In a loud crack I picked the man up and threw him towards a faraway tree. His hit hard on it and in less than a second I was beside his groaning form. He coughed and gasped for breath.
I picked him up again and threw his towards the ground. He got hard and rolled a few meters from me.
He seemed to vibrate and in a flash there was a large ginger wolf where he had been.
"You think this form can protect you?!" I shouted.
I sped to him, he tried to bite at my head but I as faster. I dodged and sent my fist to the under of his snout. The wolf groaned and fell to the ground. He reverted back to his human form and I stumped on his back. He groaned but I didn't care. I sent my boot again with an even greater force to his back and I was sure that I heard his spine shift. I wanted it broken; he needed to be paralyzed before I kill him. I jumped to the air, letting out a loud cry as I descended but someone hit me away.
I tumbled across hard ground, rolling over and over again until I stopped. I cleared my dazed vision and I spotted my opponent. I saw the woman from the higher court. She stood a distance away and behind her a dozen more adjudicators ran towards me.
I charged at them, shouting to the air as I came closer and closer to them. I had gotten through a few adjudicators when they started to mass attack me. They were too many and were all over me.
I felt hard blows to my back and my head. I bent down and protected the side of my face. The hits kept on coming on rampant. Each blow harder the previous. I could hear them, they were all around me. I waited, enduring more and assaults until they had slowed and surrounded me. I shut up from the ground. Spinning with my arms out as I knocked them away from me. I saw the adjudicators fly off in different directions.
Exasperated, I turned to face the woman from the higher court. She kept a stiff expression and as started my charge towards I merely caught the glimpse of glint from silver before the hard blow crashed against my temple. Knocking me out cold.