Rage and Ruin | 2

0 | 5

D E L P H I N I U M

Hunt had the eight of us driven to the ONNT building in downtown New York. The council had gathered and was going to make a decision about the situation with Imperium. The director had wanted us there to give the council a recollection of what we'd seen and heard there.

I felt nervous on the car ride there, though I wasn't quite sure of the specific reason. The discovery of Imperium had clearly put me on edge. I hadn't been able to sleep properly ever since we'd gotten back to the United States.

I felt as if at any given moment, they could be watching in the shadows and waiting to attack. Benny was out there. He'd come close to killing us on several occasions. It could be any day now where he attacked and succeeded in ending us once and for all.

The car door was opened for me and we were escorted into the familiar building. Led by a group of Hunt's men, we made our way into a massive room where at least twenty people sat around the table. I saw Hunt present, but he was the only one there I could immediately recognize.

"Please sit down," a woman sporting a sleek blonde bob and a pantsuit said to us, gesturing to a line of empty seats by the wall. We obeyed wordlessly.

"As you already know, we have assembled here to discuss your findings in Romania last week," the same woman addressed us all as she sat back down. "We'd like to hear your testimonies: everything you saw, encountered and did."

"Finn," Hunt called, wanting the blonde boy to speak first. Finn and Hunt had always gotten along better than the rest of us.

Finn got up and stepped forward, looking slightly nervous but nevertheless determined. "Start from the beginning, Mr. Peterson," the woman said.

"Yes, ma'am." He stood with his head high and back straight, like a soldier. "We were in a dense forest. Delphinium led us to an overlook, where we were able to view a massive fortress in the distance. It seemed as if it was built into the mountain underneath it. We were all shocked because Delphinium told us that she had destroyed the place in the past."

"What signs of life did you see?"

"There were a few armored trucks driving up to the mountain," Finn told her matter-of-factly. "We were too far away for even Arlo to get a good look at the top of the fortress to see any people inside. But then, as we were going back through the forest to return home, we were attacked by a group of their warriors. We won the fight, but I fear that there are lots more just like them coming."

"You were attacked?" A man asked, raising his light, almost nonexistent, eyebrows. "Did you recognize any of the people that assaulted you?"

"Only one. It was the same man in the mask that came after us in the airport with a gun. The one that Kane later saw conversing with a member of the Crepuscule Club."

"That will be all. Thank you, Mr. Peterson," the woman stated cooly. "Ms. Tesla, please tell us what you saw."

I stood slowly, feeling the weight of everyones' gazes on me. Walking over to face the council, I couldn't help but remember the last time I'd been in front of them, forced to speak. They'd been wondering what to do with me right after I'd escaped Imperium's clutches, an assassin that had internationally racked up numbers of kills in the triple digits. Except then, I'd been in chains.