“I hoped I wouldn’t find you here, I really did.”

Could blood actually freeze? Because it felt like mine had.

Basil was standing right in front of us, with two guards at both his sides. Five against four—we were outnumbered.

Baron and Garret automatically dropped to the ground—Matt and I were on our feet in seconds—and headed straight for Basil and his guards, changing into their immaterial form, while Matt shield me with his body, standing right in front of me.

“I wouldn’t advice that,” Basil said shaking his index at them.

I didn’t even need a second to understand why he was saying that and the two men were transforming back in their bodies, falling on the ground, shaking, blue light running over their bodies, looking like they had just been stroked by lighting. I covered my mouth to stop the shriek from escaping my lips.

Why was this happening? He wasn’t supposed to be here! Why was he here?!

Basil took a few steps forward and bended, so to be on Baron and Garret’s level. “Electric field,” he simply explained and then got back up. “Nathan here is a very useful little soldier, aren’t you Nathan?” He patted the shoulder of one of the guards beside him. I was too frightened to even look at him for too long.

We were dead weren’t we? They would kill us…

“It pains me to have to do this really, trust me Child, you weren’t the one I was after,” Basil said looking around him.

“Then what do you want if you’re not after Jasmine? What do you want with us, what are you even doing here?” Matt shouted, his voice dripping with rage.

“Well it could be for the fact that you and your little friends twisting in pain on the ground killed hundreds of my kind. But frankly it’s not for that. You see I have plans, I always have plans.”

I gripped Matt’s arm to keep from falling. This was seriously beginning to feel like a superhero movie and the bad guy would go on his lecture, sharing his world domination plan. But in this situation I did not see how we could win. Not with Baron and Garret lying on the ground and Matt who couldn’t change forms…

The bad guy would win.

“You see my dearest Jasmine, I wasn’t coming for you in the first place, when your adoptive parents died. I didn’t even know you existed until you called for help. Even then, when you did call I wasn’t coming for you. You were just a bonus of some sort. Your parents have kept you hidden very well from me. I must admit I’m impress, by both of them.”

I couldn’t find my voice so Matt spoke again, asking what I would have asked. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I had no business with Jasmine. But I do with you.”

Baron and Garret were getting back on their feet, obviously not in a good mood, and after Basil had talked he motioned to them, one simple move of the fingers. Two guards were heading straight for them.

“With me,” Matt groaned.

I didn’t actually understand right away why Nathan, the boy who had electrocuting them wasn’t doing it again. But then I remembered the whole needing fuel, needing to actually kill people to get their powers. Maybe he was almost out. It had seemed to take him a lot of effort to do so in the first place.

“Yes, with you Dimathrias. I know what you did. I knew you were the only other one who knew how to save a human by locking your Life Force with theirs. I knew you would use it, such a predictable little soldier. And then all I had to do was find you.”

While Basil was doing his little speech, our two friends were fighting against the two Immortals, one was obviously able to teleport but luckily, since they could read minds, they had a little advantage. The other one must have speed because he didn’t disappear but he definitely got blurry. Again, Baron and Garret had an advantage over this.

But I couldn’t concentrate on their fight, on them, because I was here with Matt and even though he was surely a great fighter, he couldn’t be immaterial and he had to protect me because I had no idea how to do it myself.

Matt squeezed my hand in his. “What for? To kill me? Go right ahead, kill me but leave them alone.”

“No, no, no, Dimathrias, don’t worry, I don’t want to kill you.” Basil laughed. It could have sounded somehow sweet if it hadn’t come from him and in this situation. Because right now it just sounded creepy. “I need you. You see, we’re the same, you and I.”

Matt snorted in disbelief, backing up while Basil moved forward towards us, still two guards following him. “We’re nothing alike,” he groaned again.

“Oh but we are, we are Dimathrias.” His eyes were almost glowing when he said that. “I’m not one hundred percent myself in there, like you’re not one hundred percent yourself.”

From the corner of my eye I could see one of the Immortals, on the ground, not moving anymore, and Baron and Garret fighting the other one together.

“What are you saying?”

“What do you think I’m saying? Can Spirit really die? Disappear? Have you ever heard of that?” He sounded excited when he said that, like he was sharing something grandiose, something spectacular. But all he was doing was freaking me out, scaring me. What did he want from us, damn it!

“Haven’t you boys wondered why my killing spree slowed down even though you weren’t there to stop me anymore?” I could feel Matt completely tense as Basil kept speaking. “I hate having to admit to this but it’s not only because I had enough Life Force in me, it’s because he’s still there, telling me not to.”

Matt had completely frozen, and so it was my turn to speak, even if I did in a small voice. “Who?”

“Well your father Aaron, of course.”