The Real You

22. Crossing Barriers

Skylar

"How dare you come here?" Noah asked, undeterred by the witch's presence, "We won't let you leave this place alive..."

She scoffed, "Empty vessels make more noise. Heard of that?"

Noah fumed in anger and almost took a step towards the witch but Alex stopped him. He shook his head, asking him to calm down. For once, Noah listened to him.

"How long have you been here?" Alex's question shocked quite a few people in our small group. It was a very unusual question - as if he knew they were camping here for a long time. But now that I connect the dots, it is not hard to comprehend. They have been here, created rumors about the place so that no one would enter or check the surroundings. And the brave souls who were curious enough to check, heaven knows what they've done with them. I must admit this - Alex is really smart.

"Centuries..." She answered, "The foolish vampires never tried to question it. Not even your previous King. He never tried to probe into the legend but hmm...the younger generation has got some guts here."

"Did you just mean my father has no guts?" Noah's hand formed a fist and the witch laughed out loud.

"How impatient are you, cub? Did you get this anger from your mom or your dad?"

Noah moved forward to hit her but Alex blocked him with his body, "No!" He said firmly to Noah and held both his hands tightly, pushing him away from the witch, He told him not to do anything stupid and just wait.

"Why the fuck are we having this conversation with them?!" Noah argued with Alex, "Aren't they the reason for everything that has ever happened?"

"Noah, calm down" Delan tried to reason with his brother.

I see what the two of them were doing. The witch is trying to provoke them - she wants them to make a move so that she can fight back with her team. But we were clearly outnumbered. Two humans who are pretty much toast, Rochelle, Carter, and Victoria whose powers have nothing to do with physical combat. Well, all Noah has is physical strength that they can easily tackle. I counted the witches - thirteen of them. A good number to go with seeing how evil and vile they anyway are. Starting a fight would mean having some casualties on our side and we can't afford it. This will turn pretty ugly if we lose our cool and Noah has to calm down. I don't know what I thought but I made my way to Noah, to reason with him.

I placed my hand on his arm and tried to calm him down, "Noah...we don't have to listen to her"

"Oh?" The witch looked at me, as if she was noticing me for the first time, "And who are you?"

"No one you should bother about" I smiled sarcastically.

"Now the ex-King is letting rogue human refugees stay in his palace? I thought he would be better at something"

Before Noah could react, I said, "Oh! At least he has a 'better' fashion sense than you"

"And he is hot!" Sandy added.

"Uncle can do a headstand" Victoria sighed deeply, "I wish I could too"

"Oh, please!" Rochelle flipped her hair, "Have you seen him summon that electric buzz thing? It's like - he lights up this whole town! And no...not with his smile"

Victoria rolled her eyes, "That's a cringe Taylor Swift reference"

"But I still made a point! Right, Skylar?"

"Right!" I said, excitedly, "Dylan is so lucky!"

Alex cleared his throat, "Sky, she got the point"

He put it very mildly. The witch was fuming. In our attempts to pacify Noah, we ended up making her angry. Witch or Not, you never comment on a female's fashion sense. She examined her clothes, mine and hers again. I know she was making a comparison there and she clearly won. But I was not referring to myself. You don't tell a witch that her immortal enemy has a better fashion sense than her especially when she is angry that we busted her along with her company. The focus has shifted to me.