Once the information had been transferred, she bid a swift goodbye to Dalia, and waited at the bar, as if she had been there the whole time.
The bartender smirked at her again, amused by her antics.
She just raised a finger to her lips.
Just as she was considering going back upstairs to find them, there was a disturbance in the crowd, and coming towards her was Roman.
An angry, angry Roman. His body was tensed and his eyes were stormy. He strode towards her as if about to kill her.
She stood up, ready to give a sarcastic answer, but when he got to her he just seized her arm with his hand and dragged her to the stairs.
His strides were long so she was half dragged, half stumbling along with him.
Once they got to the stairs, she yanked her arm out of his grip and continued up the stairs alone. She got to the room where his friends still sat. Quite a few vampire bodies were still outside the door, but people were dragging them away as she walked past.
In the room, she ignored the glances from the friends, and went over to the table, sitting on it moodily.
Once Roman came glowering in, he strode over to her and grabbed her wrists, fastening the chains around them roughly, as she protested.
"What! It wasn't my fault I have enemies - if anything it's yours for bringing me here-" She argued before his silencing and shockingly aggressive glare met her eyes. She kept quiet but glared back at him.
"Those bodies" he emphasized lowly, pointing to the hallway "is because of your little scheme. Their deaths are on your head. You've messed up everything here, made is so much harder than it had to be. You couldn't just sit in the corner like every other child."
He pushed her back onto the desk roughly, turning around to walk away.
She leapt off again, striding closer to him.
"You know what - yes - those deaths are because of me. Do you want me to feel guilty? Ashamed?" She said quietly, aggressively "Because I can tell you what each one of those vampires did." She challenged him, striding over to the few dead bodies at the entrance of the room. She pointed to one, and then another, bringing up old knowledge buried in the back of her mind.
"These two both raped and killed a 17-year-old girl, "She pointed at another "he, has multiple charges across the world for murder and child trafficking," she pointed at another, the leader "and this guy? Well, he was just a prime-fucking-example of what it means to be a waste of space. He killed over 150 people. Innocent people. And it wasn't a clean, quick death, no. He let them all bleed out, and these were all families. Everyone he killed, he killed their whole family line." Her voice was deadly. "So don't tell me who I've killed, because I know exactly whose death I've caused. And it doesn't matter if you want to tell anyone - tell everyone for all I care! Because I will wear the fact that I am the cause of their death like a fucking badge." She finished her speech in a low tone, face to face with Roman, who was emotionless, except his eyes, which seemed to be burning. She couldn't determine what emotion cause his eyes to be so fiery, but they were alight.
She brushed past and headed for the door before she turned around and addressed Roman's friends.
"And just so you know, I'm here as a hostage in order to manipulate an underage assassin that Roman is using. Nice to meet you." Her voice was sarcastic and dry, anger underlying every word.
She stormed out the door, before turning around and calling back.
"And don't worry Roman, I won't run away and stop being your precious hostage. I have no choice, remember?" She called back icily.
She hurried down the steps and out the door, breathing in the cold outdoor air with relief. Her anger was clouding the air up there, and it felt like she couldn't breathe.
She went to sit in Romans car and waited there for what felt like hours, head back against the seat, overthinking every single thing about her outburst.
She wanted to sift through the information she had been given, which was sitting in her mind like an unopened file, but knew she should wait until she was in a better state of mind.
Her eyes were closed as she threw her head back against the seat.
She heard the car door open, and Roman get in. He said nothing but started the car.
He paused for a second.
"I don't think that anyone deserves to die." His voice was deep, and low, and vulnerable. "but if anyone would, it would be them."
And then silence. His words reverberated around the car, a silent apology or attempt to reconcile. It wasn't much, but it was something. This brought a slight smile to Celia's face as they drove away, and her mind quieted.
And then they drove on through the night. In the morning they would be at the meeting point with the rest of the men, as they had driven quicker than expected.
That ball of longing and sadness that had been constant ever since yesterday morning grew, as she thought of seeing her brother again. She missed his familiar presence in her mind, though for just two days.
But for them, who had never been apart, two days felt like a year.
She must have fallen asleep in the car, for when she woke up they were still driving, but she had a jacket over her and that drowsy cloudy feeling when you've slept somewhere you usually don't.
She hadn't had any nightmares that night, which she saw as a plus.
She looked over to see Roman still watching the road.
"You were muttering in your sleep," he commented offhandedly, talking about her nightmares.
"Wouldn't you?" Celia replied grumbling, reminding him of the fact that she hadn't been free for over 12 years.
"I suppose so." He replied, and that was the end of their conversation.
She used this time to sift through her new information. The only bit she found interesting, though she couldn't be sure if it was a rumor or not, was that Zane was half brothers to Lincoln and Hunter and all the others.
They shared their dad, but Zane's mother was a completely different species, explaining his extraordinary looks, but also how he seemed outcast and ignored by the brothers.
The dad had married, and all the other brothers had the same father. What was peculiar is that Zane was younger than the eldest brother, who didn't appear to have his name widely known.
What would explain the resentment was if their father had cheated with Zane's mother, therefore Zane's age was right in the middle of the unknown eldest and Lincoln.
According to the information, Zane was around 24 or 25. The eldest was more around 26, Lincoln was about 23, Isaac was around 22, Hunter was 20 and the twins were 19. They all seemed so young, but she supposed that legally, they were adults.
Lukas and she had just turned 18, and she remembered that it had been a very very fun birthday. They had been told to kill a young girl, heiress to a company, and refused. As a result, they had been beaten to within an inch of their lives and separated for a week.
"How old are you?" She asked Roman, out of the blue, to distract herself. He looked surprised but answered.
"19 next month." She nodded at his reply.
"How long till we get there?" She asked that childish question.
He nodded at the road ahead of them, where they had just turned off the main road through gates onto a road that led down to a large building, or what almost looked like a prison, at the end. It was a whole compound, warehouses littered here and there, arenas, residences, and training grounds.
She felt her excitement grow as she sensed her brother getting closer.
Quite a lot of cars was parked outside the main building, and a lot of people unloading items and dragging them in.
The main building was modern and sleek, blending in well with the woods around them.
She couldn't see anyone important outside, so she figured that they had all gone inside, and her twin was either getting beaten up, kept hostage in a room, or thrown in a cell.
They pulled into a garage and Roman jumped out, hurrying around to her side.
He pulled her out by her cuffs, his demeanor changing to cocky and bossy.
"Now, you aren't going to tell anyone about a few vampires getting killed are you?" He questioned, smirking darkly.
"Are you?" She scowled back, reminding him that he would need to keep her secret a secret too.
He just grinned devilishly and dragged her into the house.
She tried to sense her twin as she entered the large building. It was as impressive on the inside as on the outside.
Through the reception, which was bustling. It was like a busy company building, but 'evilised'. It had guns freely, weapons transported, and when someone had messed up, it was obvious. They would publically get yelled at, and by the fact that everyone didn't seem to bat an eyelid. People looked serious and busy, all different types of people, people in suits who looked to be more of the business part of the household, people wearing leather or tight training clothes with guns and daggers and people wearing casual clothes, who seemed to be higher up in the command chain.
People stared snea
She was taken from the reception into a glass lift, up to the top where there was a large communal room, filled with sofas and chairs, where she saw a few of the brothers through a door in another room next to theirs alongside other new people, talking. They looked up as they entered, and Hunter gestured to where she saw her twin, his handcuffs on and a chain looped through them and attached to a ring in the wall.
Roman tugged her over there and looped her chain through there too before striding into the kitchen. She did find it weird that there was rings in what was effectively their living room, but she supposed they had prisoners often.
She grinned elatedly at her brother, who was torn between glaring at Roman's retreating figure and smiling uncontrollably at her. Eventually, his gaze focused on her. They wanted to hug but needed to look strong and as invulnerable as possible.
"So," he grinned "what did you do?" He gestured to the cuffs.
"Tried to escape to get info. Caused the death of 10 vampires." She said nonchalantly. "You?"
"Tried to smash the plane window so we would crash. Hijacked the food and drink cart temporarily and got a little drunk." He replied in the same nonchalant style. They smirked at each other.
"What info?" he asked more seriously, checking to see if any of their kidnappers were listening.
"I used Dalia, so I can't be too sure. I got some age stuff and some family tree stuff so far. From what I can tell, there's bad stuff between Zane and the rest, though they're half-siblings. The eldest is unknown," and then they both agreed silently that they should assume he is dangerous, "I don't know anything about our lineage, though. Did you get anything from them? Did they get anything from you?" Celia questioned. Lukas winced at the question.
"They haven't directly tested it, which I fear they might do now you're here, but I think they know somethings up with my healing." he grimaced in anticipation.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Roman knows that you use the first fight to learn your opponent's moves." She told him quickly. He just shrugged.
"Oh well. In terms of me getting information from them, I just got more of a feel of their personalities, which you'll do easily, or already have. Hunter is the one to watch out for in terms of punching and easily prone to attacks. Zane is, as far as I can tell, the most physically dangerous, but doesn't care about us, and I don't think he approves either." He told her. "Oh - there were two women on the plane too, but I didn't get much from them. One is called Ikara, and the other is called Natalia." Lukas finished and glanced at her once more.
"You out of yours yet?" He asked.
"Oh yes, I was waiting for you, because we both know how terrible you are at this." She taunted him.
She had slipped out of her chain, that she had been picking during the conversation, and he just slipped out of his. They still had the handcuffs on but had managed to pick the lock of the chain. They hadn't searched them at all when they kidnapped them, so what did they expect?
"Ah, that's nice." Lukas stretched. Celia rolled her eyes at him and threw herself onto the sofa next to them, lying stretched out, watching Lukas as he wandered around the room.
"You know, you don't have to be so curious. It's just a room." She commented irritatedly.
"Well, I have a high standard of living now, due to being held captive by so many billionaires. Luckily they all have the same 'rich person' ideas" She just rolled her eyes at his answer. "Ah, found it!"
He held up the tv remote and jumped onto the sofa next to her, causing her to quickly retract her legs and sit up, to avoid getting sat on.
"Really? Couldn't give me any warning?" She grumbled. "What's on tv? It's been a while."
She turned to look at the screen while Lukas pressed buttons.
"Oh wow, security cameras, my favorite" she argued sarcastically, but sat up and watched as they flicked through the different views.
"Interesting" Lukas murmured as they watched the different areas, a basement, the reception, a few arenas where multiple people seemed to be training, some offices, rooms full of weapons which caused the twins' eyes to light up, and lastly the room next door to them, where everyone was talking.
As they watched, though it had no audio, it looked like they were in a heated discussion.
Isaac suddenly looked up at the camera, his eyes narrowing. There must be an indicator of when someone is watching.
"Why does he have to be so observant?" Lukas groaned, not bothering to turn off the tv, and instead continued flicking through the different cameras unashamedly.
Celia fell against the cushions, mumbling into them. "You're going to get us killed."
"Yes, you are." the cold voice of Isaac cut through the room. Celia looked up once to see him leaning against the doorframe, his grey eyes icy.
"You can deal with the angry magic-wielding man." She told her brother.
"That's so nice of you. It's not like we've been through everything together, grew up together, only have each other in the world, depend on each other for everything-" Lukas started complaining sarcastically, before being cut off by further voices.
Isaac had come into the room now, and more people were behind him.
"What's going on here?" Lincoln questioned.