The study hall in the left wing of the mansion wasn't as grand as I thought it would be. Tall wooden bookcases lined the crimson velvet-swatted walls. A long table that could hold more than twenty people centered the room, illuminated only by a big round fluorescent lamp that looked like it belonged to some operating room rather than a study area hung from the ceiling. Sun light passed through the dark red tapestries, making faint wavering lines on the black carpet.
Archie was standing beside a wide pull-down flat LCD monitor, writing random words on the touch screen with a digital pen. Vladimir and Vincent sat on the front seats, elbows on the table, and chins on the back of their hands. As we stepped in, I saw Rosario tugging the plate of chocolate cake away from Amyr.
"Finally," Vincent groaned. "Now, can we get this over with?"
Vladimir fixed a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose and nodded at the silver-haired man to begin.
"My pleasure," said the familiar, gesturing for us to the take the seats behind our masters which we did in a hurry.
He ran a hand over the screen and several pictures lined up in front of us-pictures of eleven boys of different nationalities, between ages twelve to mid-twenties. However, their appearances were similar in some ways, like the pale silvery-gray eyes and the wavy dark hair except for the other two blond boys who looked exactly alike, they could only be twins. I knew right away from the portraits lining the hallway along the training room that they were Reapers-Vince's and Vlad's older brothers.
"Based on the detailed description given by Master Vincent," the butler-looking familiar began. "We can narrow the list to five." He began swiping the pictures of the older-looking Reapers into a folder until only five pictures remained.
In front of me, Vincent did not pay any attention. Darkly, he picked up the fountain pen in front of him and started sketching intently. The look on his face was so serious as though he was pouring all his seething rage on the paper. While he was doing this, his face had this special look-intense yet sentimental-that seemed to me like he was in a special Vincent zone no one could cross. Several seconds later, I found myself looking at the picture of the intruder, his bandaged face, his dark hooded cloak billowing against the wind as he glanced over his shoulder to see if Vincent was catching up. It was so lifelike I almost gasped at it.
Archie dragged the remaining pictures to the center of the screen, blowing them up a bit so we could see clearly.
"The height and body built point to these people. Master Cairo, The First," Archie said pointing at the picture of a boy no older than fifteen with slick black hair that waved at the back of his head. He had the air of authority with the hard look on his face.
"He's the oldest among all the brothers," Mei whispered behind me.
"And I'm guessing he's named after the capital of Egypt," I murmured back, rolling my eyes. How old could these people be?
"Oh, no," Mei shook her head. "The capital of Egypt was named after him."
"Oh... why not?" I smiled sheepishly at her.
Shooting us furtive glances, Archie cleared his throat to get our attention and continued his presentation. "Master Darius and Master Cyrus, The Third and The Fourth, respectively. " He gestured at the twins with dark blond hair, about the same age as Cairo. "Master Pierre, The Sixth and Master Kyoshiro, The Tenth," he continued without moving a facial muscle.
I saw Mei cringe a little at the mention of The Tenth-an Asian boy with neatly cropped spiky black hair, ominous slanted eyes and a thin slit-like scar at the tip of his right brow. From what Mei told me, it was Kyoshiro who found her and gave her to Vladimir. It must be hard for her to hear that the person who had saved her life many hundreds of years ago could be the one sabotaging our operations.
Vladimir rubbed his chin. "Pierre won't do this kind of thing," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, eyeing at the picture of the pale-faced Pierre who looked the same age as him.
"What makes you so sure of that?" Vincent asked, not lifting his gaze from the picture he was sketching.
"This is just not the sort of thing he would do." The boy shrugged calmly. "I know Pierre. He's a pacifist. If he could, he would do without conflicts. No second thoughts. He'd rather slump over his piano in his spare time than try to pick a fight with us. And I don't think he has the knowledge or the ability to cast such powerful Binds that would prevent souls from entering gates."
"Well then," Archie straightened his tie and dragged Pierre's picture off the screen. "That leaves us four more. We know that this intruder is working alone-"
"We do not know that for sure," Rosario butted in before Archie could finish.
"Actually, I am quite sure," replied the silver-haired familiar, opening an application that showed us the map of the Centralia. The main Spirit Gates were colored red while the minor ones were yellow. "These are the recordings of all the active and inactive Gates for the past week."
Archie pressed the play button and the Gates blinked to life. "Day one," he announced and one of the red blinking lights on the northern part died. "Day two... Day three..." he went on and one by one, the lights indicating Gate activity dimmed. "As of day seven, which was last night, we now have a total of seven inactive major Gates, leaving us with just four more."
"And what does this have to do with the number of intruders?" Rosario replied skeptically.
It was Vincent who answered while carefully inking his work which was almost finished.
"Simple. If he can only close one Gate at a time, then he must be acting alone. Or else, we'd have lesser number of active Gates now. Which brings us to the twins," he muttered, pointing his pen at the picture of Darius and Cyrus.
Vladimir nodded, eyes widening with surprise. "Brilliant thinking, brother! The twins never work without the other. They're virtually inseparable so they couldn't have been the intruders," he exclaimed with a childlike grin only to be replaced with a worried look, terrified almost. "And that leaves us with two."
"Kyoshiro... and Cairo," Vincent muttered grimly giving more emphasis on the second name.
Across the table, Amyr tore his gaze away from the chocolate cake in front of him and stiffened. For the first time, he seemed to pay extreme attention and so did the other familiars.
"There must be a mistake," Mei protested in a small voice. "Why would Master Kyoshiro do this? I am sure that with a cabal only consisting of two familiars, he would have no time for this kind of charade with the vastness of his jurisdiction in Asia. He couldn't be the-"
"Stop this, Mei," Rosario snapped blankly. "We cannot let emotions cloud our judgment."
As Mei recoiled in her seat, I took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I felt like I hadn't yet gained the right to speak aloud but I still had to ask. "Then what do we do? Go to their houses and ask them if they were lurking in Sinclair territory for the past seven days?"
"It could be a trap," Vincent replied with a sigh. "The intruder might be doing this to lure us to his bait. I won't mind going to Kyo. As Mei pointed out, his cabal's small enough. We can easily overpower them. But Cairo?" He shook his head.
It was almost like they were all afraid of this Cairo person. He was but a child, the age of a middle-schooler. But for Reapers, looks could be a lot deceiving.
For a while, I stared at Vincent and saw the unsettling look in his eyes. "Why? They're your family. Maybe we could talk some sense into them. Make them stop doing this."
"Don't be so naïve, Aramis," he chuckled sullenly. "Your mortal definition of family doesn't apply to us. For us, it can't be real. It means nothing. Hundreds of years of conflicts and feuds erased all that."
There was a hint of bitterness and concealed hatred in his voice as he spoke but I didn't dare point that out. Where was this Vincent Rosario told me about? The Vincent who dreamed to have a family of his own when he was just a young boy?
Sighing wearily, Vladimir removed his thick glasses and nodded. "For centuries, our other brothers have been constantly at each other's throats, ready to strike at every possible opportunity. It has been one of the many weaknesses of immortals to constantly seek for power. So, in turn, Father split the world into seven considerably equal territories, mainly to keep us as far away from each other as possible."
I watched the boy massage the bridge of his nose, his pale face flushing slightly with exhaustion. It was impossible to imagine Vladimir fighting savagely with wraiths, much less his own brothers. He just appeared so frail and small and innocent.
"For Kyo," Vincent began with a relaxed tone that made me think that he was hiding something. "I don't see any reason for the guy to suddenly go nuts and go on a backstabbing streak. Cairo, however, is a different story... He would grab any reason to sabotage us."
Vladimir nodded pensively. "We can't say that for sure right now. But Vince is right. If this is a setup we could be walking straight into their trap if we go on asking them."
"So do we send them survey forms instead?" Amyr laughed.
I joined him if just to lessen the tension in the room. "Have you been involved in any villainous activity recently? Check," I mumbled with a halfhearted snigger.
"Good one," he said and we both chuckled and exchange high-fives before getting dangerous looks from Rosario. "Okay. Shutting up now," Amyr mumbled.
"If I may," Archie raised a hand after turning off the monitor. "If my speculations about this said intruder are accurate, we might be able to trick him into showing himself again. And that brings us to the plan."
We listened intently to Archie, minutes turning into hours. His plan was so intricate and elaborate that we would have to act at the precise time to capture this intruder. Every second would count and we could not afford to make any mistakes.
After a silent quick brunch, we retired to our quarters. The thought of our next mission unnerved me. What if I messed the whole thing up?
Breathing deeply, I removed my Nysmic clothes and stepped in the tub. Submerging myself in the freezing cold water, I closed my eyes. I thought about the strange entity inside me. It almost defeated me and took over my body last night. I hugged myself and buried my face on my knees. How long could I contain it? Should I tell Vincent? No. That would only make matters worse. It would just make him all the more willing to dump me back to Nirvana, knowing that there was some ugly wraith inside me. I had to swallow everything and stay strong.
To calm myself, I recalled the lullaby Mom used to sing to me when I was a little child. I just hummed the tune but the words were still clear in my head.
When you look at the silver skies, you'll find a kind pair of eyes
Dear little girl, please always smile, and the treasure you will find
Soon the shadows will come to slay when you're lost along the way
Find the diamond among tears, and you'll be blessed for years
Once I was fully dressed in a simple brown sweater and faded overalls, I flopped down my bunk and tried to get some sleep. I thought I would have a hard time trying to relax but soon, I was claimed by sheer exhaustion.
Everything seemed to be repeating in a scary flashback under my lids. Drowning. The suffocating feeling. The water inside my lungs. The cries of foreboding from Mrs. Moseley's lips. Don't cross the Gates! I could practically see the horror in her deep blue eyes. And there was screeching. A legion of wraiths screaming in their bloodcurdling voices. The scariest part was that I was one of them.
My eyes flew open and wide. I gasped for breath as I woke up from the nightmarish dream. I found Vincent kneeling to my side, his brows slowly relaxing from a worried knot. When I looked at him, he frantically backed away nearly falling to the floor before sagging weakly on the side of his bed.
"You were... dreaming." It wasn't a question but I nodded silently, sitting up. "A bad one?"
I chewed on my lip and nodded again. He looked down, fiddled with his thumbs and gazed at me through his dark lashes with those bright silvery-gray eyes.
"It's been a while since I had a dream. I don't even remember what it was about," he whispered, smiling to himself as though he was recalling a fond memory.
It made me realize that I wanted him to do that more often. Smile. And maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place to live in. For me at least. It was bad enough not having my own bed. Or my own clothes. Having him scowl at me all day and night would be total overkill. Maybe I could make him smile every once in a while. Dream on, Aramis.
"You know," he started again, loss in deep thought. "...whenever soldiers come home from war, they experience flashbacks of all the people they killed, the people they failed to save, the friends they lost, the battle, the chaos. It'll help if you... tell someone," he said in a reluctant tone.
"Like you?" I replied, managing to sound dubious.
"Yeah. I mean... sure. What do I care?" he stammered before regaining his conceited air. "Know what? Why not ask Mei instead? I'm sure she'd be patient enough for your nonsense and-"
I couldn't help but smile at him. He must've hoarded all the arrogance the world had to offer for the past six hundred years and stuffed it all under his skin but underneath it all was a different Vincent. The one he was trying to hide. For some reason, I started laughing.
He shook his head and stared at me. "And now, she's loosing it."
"I feel much better now." I grinned, examining him thoughtfully. Weird but true. I had no idea what's with him that turned me into a bipolar nutcase. Perhaps it was contagious.
"You do?" he mumbled.
He looked more confused than me as he ran a hand over his dark hair. I had the sudden urge to step closer to him and tweak the wavy strands away from his eyes, but I just kept on my seat and watched stupidly as he handed a small red box to me.
When I threw him a hesitant look, he flashed a scowl at me and groaned, "Oh. Just take it, will you?"
"Just shut up, okay?" I hissed, snatching the box from his hand. I was almost touched. Almost. "You're ruining the moment."
Inside the box was a new cellular phone. I picked it up and turned it on, wondering if my wraith text buddies would recognize my new number. Seriously. What would I need a phone for? We could use the transfer link whenever he wanted to say anything to me which was as often as never.
Vincent cleared his throat. He started scratching the side of his forehead. He was acting really weird. Maybe it was the cake Rosario made for me. I knew it was poisoned!
Anyway, he went on. "I thought... I just thought that... it's been a while since you ran away from home and maybe you'd want to talk to your Dad-"
Dad. I didn't let him finish. In a spur of the moment, I jumped to him and hugged him for three seconds before we awkwardly pushed each other away. Which was fine by me. It was giving me the goose bumps. Okay. I didn't want to admit it, but Vince was a pretty cool master. And thoughtful. And sweet. And caring in his own bizarre way.
"Thanks. This is the best gift I could ever receive," I said smiling, staring at his chin because his eyes gave me a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Ugh, immortal weirdness.