The Firelands

51 - Knowing The Enemy

10thday of the fifth Month, Worth's Moon

9:30am

The Ice Lily Inn

The gods were good enough to listen to him, they eventually calmed the storm, but not until late at night. Which meant that morning, Theth sat up in bed, looking at the door, listening to movement out in the corridor.

Quickly getting dressed, he opened the door and looked out. It was Lalee and Arena, talking quietly as they headed for the front door, smiling and greeting him as they past.

Theth looked across the hall to Cascadeia's room, then went down the hall to Kalen's room.

Knocking on the door, Zedkiel called him in and he quietly closed the door behind him, leaning back against it.

Zedkiel was awake and just buttoning his shirt up, turning to Theth as he entered, Kalen was still in bed.

"Are you alright?" Zedkiel asked quietly – allowing Kalen the chance to either choose to wake up and listen or just ignore them.

Theth looked at the floor.

"Theth?"

He looked up. "We need to leave."

Zedkiel stared at him in surprise. "Leave? Theth look at the weather, it will kill you."

"Then we have to leave as soon as possible," Theth insisted.

"We shall, why are you so shaken up, did something happen?"

Theth glanced at Kalen's bed. He had been around the vampire long enough to spot the difference between his acting sleep and his actual sleep. At that moment, he was acting sleep.

So he just came out and said it.

"I think Cascadeia is manipulating Kalen and will be a danger to all of us."

There was silence for a moment, then Kalen shifted and sat up, a dark expression in his eyes, at the same moment the door opened a little and Incendio slipped in.

"Did you hear what I said?" Theth asked, looking at Incendio, who nodded.

"And what makes you say that?" Kalen asked coolly, throwing off the covers and throwing on a shirt, turning on Theth.

"She knows Zedkiel's full name," Theth said, his dark gaze matching Kalen's.

Kalen's eyes flickered to Zedkiel – the news had clearly sharpened his attention – but his gaze remained dark.

"What of it?" he asked instead.

Theth glared. "She knows his face on sight, so do The Fury."

"You have no evidence to suggest she's with them," Kalen said. "Isn't that your own paranoia and mistrust of people talking?"

Theth stared at him, then stormed forwards, shoving his face in Kalen's. "Don't you go turning on us over a girl you don't know," he growled. Kalen stood his ground, but his eyes flickered away for a brief moment and Theth prodded him in the chest. "No, it has nothing to do with my paranoia and mistrust of people, though if you had any sense of survival like normal vampires you'd have a healthy dose of paranoia and mistrust as well, given our situation, guess those humans dulled those sharp senses of yours."

Kalen's hands shot up to grab the front of Theth's shirt but Incendio was there, catching his wrists to push them down and Zedkiel finally stepped forwards, forcing them apart.