Adeline scribbled onto her note, her grey eyes assessing the students on the football pitch. This one of the most tiresome thing she had to do---recruiting football players for the football team. Most of the students exercising had already collapsed to the grass in exhaustion.

But that bloody Nikolas Knight and his brother kept jogging and they had barely broken any sweat. As much as she hated to admit it, Nikolas had the perfect build for a striker---tall, amazing physique and good endurance. However, the last thing she would ever do is to ask a man who has no regard for women to join her team.

Her jaw tightened when he locked eyes with her, his hand running through his middle-parted raven hair. On instincts, she raised her middle finger and his reaction was glorious. Maybe she would be showing him her middle finger a lot more in the future. He more than deserved it. He needed it.

"Are you still looking for players?" Mei Lin asked, joining Adeline on the bench.

She sighed. "I've only got six people on the team."

"What about Jimmy Suther?" Mei Lin asked, motioning at Jimmy discussing with the Knight brothers.

"With Jimmy in, we have only seven players." Adeline glanced at her friend. She was gazing dreamily at Benjamin Knight and saying saliva was drooling from her mouth was an understatement. Adeline wouldn't have such madness happen under her watch. The Knight brothers were handsome but were the perfect epitome of toxicity. If Nikolas was the way he was, surely, his brother was the same too.

"Oy, Mei," Adeline said, tapping Mei Lin's shoulder. "Why are you looking at him like that."

"He's very handsome."

"And so is Nikolas but you don't see me gazing at him like a fool."

Mei Lin gasped and squeezed Adeline's shoulders. "Oh my God. You like him, don't you?"

"No I don't." Adeline would rather spend eternity in pain that to breath the same air he breathed. Nikolas was the last person she would dare use the word 'like' for.

"Say what you think but I know you do."

"I don't."

Adeline's breathing seized once her gaze fell upon the two people who approached the Knight brothers-the William twins. They were known for their excessive pelting of racial slurs and any form of disrespect to any ethnicity that wasn't of Anglo-Saxon heritage. And right now, they were in Adeline's school. What were they doing here?

"Those two..." Mei Lin trailed off, her dark eyes hardening.

"I know." Adeline watched the Williams twins talk to the Knight brothers, the usual evil twinkle sparkling in their eyes. Jimmy of course looked intimidated. But the later stood tall, showing no sign of emotion-Adeline was expecting them to be raging by now.

Instead, Benjamin said something that made Robert Williams turn red. His sister then dragged him away.
If she had hated the Knight brothers by a hundred per cent, it had dropped to a ninety nine point nine. She loved it when people like the Williams twins were treated the way they deserved.

Adeline yawned, her hand covering her mouth. "I'll be going to the library to go through the names I've written in this book. Hopefully some of them would join the team."

"Okay, I'll be here." Mei Lin sighed thoughtfully as she let herself get carried away by the charms of Benjamin Knight.

Adeline rolled her eyes and left. She had tried her best. You could take a horse to a stream but you couldn't force it to drink from it. Maybe what Mei Lin needed was to be taught a lesson by the Knight brothers. Then she'll see the reason why Adeline didn't want to associate herself with them.

Adeline exited the stadium and introduced herself to a building that had high walls and a ceiling covered in the mural of the last supper painted by Davinci. Students wove past her and after walking for minutes, she arrived a short flight of stairs that led to the library.

A gallery of shelves demarcated all sorts of books and at the side of the room were tables were people sat and read. Adeline narrowed her eyes as she took a seat by the window, the fair afternoon light grazing over her brown skin. The library was usually full. But it was empty today. And the librarian who normally had her station by the entrance wasn't at her post.

Biting her lower pink lip gently, Adeline ran her pen over the list of names she had written, deliberating on who was the best fit for her team. No matter the odds she set her table of preference at, Nikolas Knight always came out on top.

And not only that--his stupid image kept popping in her head. She hit her temple with the heel of her palm.

"Get off my bloody head." The image of Nikolas turned to one with an irritating smirk on his face. It was almost as if he knew he was tormenting her. When she saw it was no use, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the wooden table. Her head was throbbing from all the brain work she had to the earlier on and maybe a bit of a shut eye would help.

A soft thud made her eyes snap open. Laying on the floor a few meters away was an open book that fell from a bookshelf. Adeline inclined her head, wondering how it managed to find its way to the floor. Cursing under her breath, he advanced to it and picked the book up. Setting it back to the bookshelf, she walked back to her seat.

Thud.

She glanced over her shoulder. Another book had fallen from another bookshelf which was three bookshelves away from the former one she left.

"That's unsual." She reduced her eyes to the size of a slit and picked up the book. As she reach to put it back into the shelve she saw something. A featureless white face with the letter "Z" engraved into its skin. The mark looked like a wound that had healed a long time ago.

The book slipped out of Adeline's hand and she dropped to the floor, a scream erupting from her. Her voice echoed through the library and her heart clenched when she saw dark, wet leather-like fingers curling over the top of the wooden shelf. The door at the exit shut on its and she knew it would be unwise to head there.

"Sleep," a soft shrill voice whispered and Adeline's eyes instantly became heavy. What was happening to her? Her legs were limb and she couldn't move an inch. She had to leave here before whatever this thing was caught up with her.

Her vision became hazy and a soft tap sounded before her. "Sleep."

The monster or whatever it was squatted before her and ran its wet fingers over her cheek. They were freezing. The creature's humanoid body was clad in black and it was so slender you could assume it was made of sticks. Her heart pounded fiercely and she tried to scream once more for help but her voice was gone.

Was this how she was going to die? Whatever this thing was, she was sure it didn't want her alive since the first word it mentioned was sleep.

"Sleep, Adeline," the creature said once again. Her vision focused on the Z that carved on its featureless white face. What sort of thing was this?

"Now that's no way to treat a lady."

Nikolas? At the sudden thought of his name, life was brought back to her body and she managed to scurry back away from the monster. It hissed and stood, its head towering over all the shelves.

A gleaming sword sped over Adeline, tendrils of darkness trailing behind its golden hilt. The blade of the weapon grazed past the creatures face, leaving a red scar. It didn't seem to react to the cut.

"Get away from it!"

She didn't need to be told twice. She followed the direction of the voice and came in contact with Nikolas and his brother who stood at the entrance of the library. But they looked different. Their eyes glowed red and their canines grew longer, turning to fangs.

None of that looked human. What were they? She had a feeling she didn't want to know what it was. So for her safety, she hid behind a table and watched the scene from there.

Adeline's stomach knotted and it took all of her sanity not to throw up. Nikolas opened his hand and the sword flew right back to it, leaving another cut on the creature's pale face.

Was that physically possible? Nothing happening was possible so it appeared plausible that the question had to be asked. Adeline didn't know how to assimilate anything happening right before her eyes.

The Knight brothers disappeared into a void of darkness and appeared next to the creature. It threw its arms around trying to hit them. But their speed was far superior to it, disappearing and appearing at their own will. Adeline didn't know whether they were teleporting or whether they were just unbelievably fast.

Whenever they vanished into a void of darkness, tendrils and threads of shadows warped the spot they were formally at. Nikolas struck the humanoid creature with his sword and it blocked the hit with its leather forearms, leaving its stomach vulnerable.

Benjamin took the opportunity and landed a deathly blow, blasting the creature to the other end of the library, the walls and floor reverberating as it landed on a wall, cracking it.

"That hurt," Benjamin said and blew out air on his fist.

The creature stood and jumped out the window, crashing through the glasses. Adeline closed her ears at the deafening sound the shattering window panes were making. After a minute, when she was sure the monster wasn't returning, she stood, her breath shaky.

"What do we do with her?" Benjamin asked, his red glowing eyes returning to brown.

Nikolas didn't reply. Instead, he walked over to Adeline and grabbed her by the shoulders. Her joints were still weak from shock. So all she could so was stare into Nikolas' amber eyes as he stared deeply into her soul.

"You don't remember anything that happened. You came here to read and you left," he said, his fingers digging deep into her arm, a searing pain coursing through her nerves.

"What do you mean?" His amber eyes flashed with shock. Was he ridiculous? Who would he stupid enough to forget what happened now. Let him not forget she just saw him grow fangs and fight some sort of bloody inhuman creature.

"My compulsion isn't working." He muttered, his eyes narrowing.

Adeline was getting irritated by his presence and wanted to rid herself of his hold. But his grip was too tight. "It's not working because your method of thinking is stupid."

He sank his fingertips deeper into Adeline's arms and she winced at the pain. "You don't remember anything that happened here today."

"Let me go." Why would she want to forget today? All she wanted to do more than ever was to understand what she just witnessed.

"You just came here to read and that was all."

"Let me go!"

A blinding white light was released from her chest and the library was covered by a dome of this unusual lighting, every inch of her eyes begging to be closed before she would lose her sight. Her chest burned and tightened. What was happening to her?

The light dispersed into the air and by the time she opened her eyes, the Knight brothers were gone. Her legs turned to jelly and in seconds, she slumped, her head hitting the floor and knocking her out.

***
Author's note: Sorry this chapter took long. My phone got stolen so I needed some time to get myself together. But I was luckily able to to trace the phone and get it back.

Yours truly,

Lord Victor Hastings