We made a beeline for the Center, wasting no time. It seemed that Trish had volunteered to join the team looking for Eros and she'd been the one finding him. While Ryker focused on driving, I quickly sent a text to Trish, thanking her for doing this. Although she didn't have to help, she went out of her way to help me with Eros, knowing how much he meant to me. By the time the car stopped a few blocks away from Eros's apartment building, I frowned. It was unbelievable that Ares chose the same apartment complex as Eros, even though he rented a different unit. Perhaps the familiarity of the building somehow drew him into renting a unit there despite the high rental cost. This could be taken as a good sign that maybe his memory was still there, just hidden. That he could be saved.
I stepped out of the car and was greeted by both Trish and Young Seb.
"So what now?" asked Young Seb, looking at me and then at Ryker, who had gotten out of the car and was approaching us. "According to—", he turned his eyes to Trish who narrowed her eyes, clearly unhappy that Young Seb had forgotten her name, before adding, "her, Eros, or Ares is not in his place right now but he should be back soon. I mean, this is where he resides."
"Good," commented Ryker. "Well done, Trish. We should wait for him and while we wait, we can discuss our plan."
"How many people do we have here?" I asked, wondering if there was a way to prevent Eros/Ares from escaping.
"Aside from me, there are four more, including Miles," answered Trish. "I'm not sure about these guys."
"Twelve," answered a girl who had the same hair color and eyes as Young Seb. I recognized her right away as Seb's sister. "There are ten more and I've had two tailing Eros, while the rest are on their way here to help secure the place." She walked towards us, keeping her eyes on me. There was blatant curiosity in her gorgeous eyes, which made me wonder what it was about. "Are you sure you can bring him back? Can you fix him?"
No. I wasn't sure. I'd never done this before. Yes, I could temper with people's minds, and apparently also suppress Alana's consciousness — although I wasn't sure how long that would last, but I'd never retrieved people's memories back or neutralized witch's hexes. But I answered her with enough assurance anyway, because I knew I'd damn well give my best shot. "Yes."
Seb's sister nodded. "Tell us what we can do to help."
A quick glance at the building made me grimace. "I was hoping we could do it elsewhere. I don't know if it'll disturb the other tenants."
"I don't think we could lure him elsewhere," said Seb's sister with a small sigh. "Unless you want to kidnap him, and then relocate him somewhere."
"Or maybe we can do it in his place," said Trish. Judging from the way her eyes sparkled, I knew she was about to suggest something wild. "And move the other tenants on his floor."
Ryker arched his eyebrows. "And how are we going to do that?"
"We could even move out the whole building," said Trish, her smile shifting into a grin. "Just fake a fire. They'll evacuate everyone in the building. It'll take some time for the firefighters to come here and scour the building before giving an all-clear."
Surprisingly enough, both Ryker and Seb's sister nodded.
"We could do that," said Ryker. "I'll have someone on standby to burn newspapers in a trash can or something to trigger the fire alarm, and wait for our signal." He turned to Seb's sister. "Would you mind telling those two who are tailing him right now to let us know once he's heading back?"
"Will do, Alpha Ryker," answered Seb's sister. I was quite surprised that she would address him with his title, considering he was from a rival pack. She turned around and pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her jacket.
Seb and Trish were discussing the plan in a hushed tone. After all, we couldn't afford anyone outside our group to know that we were planning to fake a fire. Ryker turned and moved closer to me. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah," I answered, nodding. "I'm fine."
Ryker smiled, shaking his head. "No, you're not. You can lie to everyone, but you can't lie to me." He leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "You're nervous." He straightened up and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it."
"But what if Adelina lied? What if it wouldn't be that simple?" I was still not entirely believing what she'd said, that both Eros/Ares and Young Seb only needed to be in proximity to destroy the hexes inside their bodies. "What if there's more than what she said? Maybe there's something that must be done or things to be prepared for. Something she kept to herself so that we screw this up." I let out a deep sigh. "Damn it. I should've interrogated her further. I should've asked for more details."
"It's not your fault. If you need someone to blame, blame me." His silver eyes held mine and there was a glimpse of guilt. "I was too focused on my brother's death and what Alana did. I was distracted."
My throat tightened. "It was nobody's fault. I'll do my best so this would work," I said the last part more to myself than to Ryker as I made a promise to myself. I'd caused Eros to be like this. I must be the one to fix it.
It was an hour later when one of the Erebus members informed Seb's sister — I recently found out that her name was Yelena — about Eros's departure from a nearby restaurant. It seemed that he'd just had lunch. We had one man standing by the elevator on Eros's floor. He would inform us when Eros arrived. The two men who'd been following Eros would remain outside, watching the situation and surroundings and making sure to warn us when the firefighters arrived later, just in case we wouldn't be finished by then. Two men were hiding near the security room, making sure to delete any footage from the CCTV once the security left the surveillance room while the rest of us waited inside Eros's apartment. Yelena was a woman of many skills, and one of those skills apparently included picking locks.
Another text came in about twenty minutes later from one of the two men, informing us that Eros had entered the building. The guy standing by the elevator notified us about seven minutes later.
"I'm not feeling good," said Seb. His feet wobbled and his hand reached out to hold the sofa.
"It's probably the hex," I pointed out. "Eros is close. The two hexes are close. You need to hide, Seb. If Eros suddenly feels what you're feeling, there's a chance he might decide to go visit the hospital or something."
Seb nodded and Yelena held his arm, helping him get to the further back of the apartment. When the door was finally unlocked and walked inside his apartment unit, we were hiding and waited until Eros locked the door behind him.
Ryker and I stepped outside into the bathroom. I went to greet Eros first while Ryker rushed to guard the door, making sure Eros wouldn't bolt.
"You," Eros gasped. "You're that girl. Are you stalking me?" He whipped his head to look at Ryker. "Who are you?"
"We want to help you."
"I don't need you—" Eros stopped, clutching his neck. "What is happening?"
That was when Young Seb walked out of the bedroom and approached Eros. "Er, a witch did this to us."
"What did—" Eros/Ares probably thought that there was no point in asking again, especially since his first question was clearly ignored when he suddenly lunged at Seb. He threw a punch. It was a bit wobbly since he wasn't in good shape. Then, as if he realized that the closer he got to Seb, the sicker he got, Eros started to back away. He was about to get away when Young Seb locked his arms around Eros's body, preventing him from moving away.
I stepped closer to them, both of my hands up, and I touched both of their temples. I pushed my power into their bodies. I imagined them working their way down, trying to find where the hexes were before they exploded. I managed to find Eros's hex in his stomach, entangled with his colons. I channeled enough power to wrap around the hex while I tried to find the one inside Seb's.
"Shite," I cursed, as I couldn't find it anywhere. I went further down his body. The one inside Eros was thumping, which I took as a bad sign. It could explode anytime. Then, right when I was about to give up, I located Seb's in his thigh. But I was half wrapping my power around it when the two hexes exploded. I managed to contain the damage inside Eros's body, but Seb dropped to his knees, his arms let go of Eros and his hands were now holding his right thigh as he grimaced in pain. I used my power to dematerialize the remains of the hex inside Eros quickly, before I went to help Seb.
"Seb, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. She hid yours very cleverly. It was behind your kneecap, but I managed to drag it up or else your knee would burst and you might lose half of your leg. But—"
Seb was drenched in sweat. His sister was sitting on the floor next to him. "You gotta do something," she pleaded. "Anything."
I nodded, then summoned a ball of red smoke and placed it on Seb's thigh, desperately hoping that my superpower would branch out into healing as well.
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Dear Readers, will both of them make it out alive? ;)