Still having difficulties closing my mouth I could feel the eyes of everyone in the room boring into mine and for once I was at a complete loss for words. Nigel, however didn’t seemed to have any problem processing did as he made his way towards us.

“You two know each other?” Casey asked, her eyes trailing between Nigel and I.

“He was kind of the one who discovered me.” I answered, my voice strained and I could feel the tension relaxed marginally. Liam was shooting not so subtle glances at Gerald who was still a picture of calm but I could see the surprise in his eyes, too. Clearly he did not expect his friend to know me.

“That’s right.” Nigel said, stopping about a few meters in front of us and someone found a chair that wasn’t broken to sit on. “Abigail and I go way back.”

“Would anyone explain to me what in god’s name is going on?” Vanessa said and I was taken aback by her aggravated tone. “This gentleman does not seem like he needs any help.”

Nigel winked at Vanessa who only scowled in return. Having been expecting this moment since we part way with the others I looked at Gerald first to see if he had anything to say.

“We are actually here because of something else.” the man had finally spoken and I crossed my arms over my chest, ready to watch the scenes unfold. “”We have another mission, a much more important one that we must address and the reason we are here right now is to find out our next step.”

Casey’s eyes immediately darted towards me and when she saw my calm demeanor she flashed me a you-better-have-a-good-explanation face. Vanessa, however, was livid.

“You are breaking the code!” She declared and I winced at the volume of her voice, glad that there was this barrier that was probably sound proof, otherwise we could be heard miles away. “You have no rights to drag us here without telling us what we are getting into.”

Gerald nodded and I had to bite my lips to stop laughing. “You are right.” He said, which pacified the red head a little bit. “You have the freedom to stay or go; our plan up till now was mainly to get Abigail out of the headquarters.”

With all attention back to me I shifted my weight from one foot to another uncomfortably. I knew that I could always trust Casey and Vanessa had proven herself to be a loyal companion thus far and it was only fair if I let them know the entire truth.

“Wow.” Casey blinked as I told them about the message Akram had sent me and how Gerlad had come up with the plan to get me out. I didn’t explain why I didn’t go to Lynette and it seemed that both of them respected my decision even if they didn’t understand it. I still couldn’t explain to myself why I didn’t, I just not feel like it was the right thing to do.

“And this is where I come in.” Nigel declared, standing up and throwing his hands in the air in a grand gesture. “I am here with information regarding the whereabouts of Katerina Falcon.”

Unable to restrain myself I threw him a skeptical look but fortunately he was too wrapped up in his speech to notice. “I happened to be one of the very few people in this world who had been to the top secret residence of the Originals when they first united together. It is widely believe that this is where Katerina spend most of her time when she cut off contact to the rest of the world.”

My heart began to beat faster in excitement. The residence of the Originals, where legends were made that had shaped the world we are living in today! Remembering how familiarly Akram had addressed Victoria Balikova I wondered if he too, had spent some part of his life there but quickly dismissed the thought. Perhaps they had known each other before Victoria had become such an influential figure; whilst my ancestor was a hero in many ways, the Originals were the people who gave us order and peace back.

“And where is that?” I asked and Nigel beamed at me.

“A castle in the mountains of former Romania.” He said, clasping his hands together and my stomach dropped. That would be a few months’ journey, at least.

“Great.” Casey said and threw her hands up in the air, but the smile that was still plastered on Nigel’s face I knew he was up to something. I looked over to Gerald and saw the usual poker face again and rolled my eyes. What else did I expect?

“We could fly there.” Nigel mused, more to himself than anyone but it was enough of an invitation for Casey.

“How? And with what?” She snorted, placing her hands on her hips in her no nonsense kind of way. I was sure people were all thinking on the same line and Nigel chuckled.

“I know of a jet that we can use.” He said, a smug smile on his lips as he waited for our reactions. “I also happened to be a qualified pilot.”

My eyes widened in shock and I thought over what he had just said. I had only ever flown once and the experience was both terrifying and exhilarating. However even with my limited experience with aircraft I knew that controlling one is no easy feat and few have the resources and clearance to operate one. The fact that Nigel was a pilot and have access to a plane seemed to be a huge convenience and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a catch behind this.

“How can we trust you?” Vanessa asked, her eyes narrowing into silts with an uncharacteristic distrustful look. Instead of feeling angry about the accusation Nigel smiled brightly and for the first time look towards Gerald.

The man in question had been silent the entire time, which whilst not uncharacteristic but definitely not expected at the face of a crisis, though technically this wasn’t one as it was a pre-arranged meeting. As if his time had finally come, Gerald took a step forward, crossing the invisible boundary that separated us from Nigel and turned around to face us.

“Nigel is a friend of mine,” Gerald began and I tried to school my face into a neutral expression so I wouldn’t end up pulling faces whenever he used the word friends. “We had missions together in the past and I will personally vouch for him.”

It wasn’t every day that Gerald Fitz William would back someone up and despite our difference I knew that I could trust him on matters like this. Besides, what choice do I have?

“That’s good enough for me.” Liam replied immediately, stretching his arms as he repressed a yawn. I had a sneaking suspicion that he had been asleep the entire time.

“Ladies, now it’s time for you to decide if you want to come with us.” Gerald dished out the deadline and looked intensely at the other two. Which I would say wasn’t very helpful.

Looking at me Casey sighed and I knew she wouldn’t abandon me, even though all she wanted to do was to go somewhere safe and have a shower. “I am in.” She said, her tone reluctant as she dramatically slumped her shoulder. The corner of Liam’s lip twitched up and I knew he was secretly pleased about it. the two of them had been hitting it off quite well and I couldn’t help but giving into a smile myself.

“I will come too.” Vanessa said, in an even more reluctant tone. “I feel like I should see this through.”

“Excellent!” Nigel chirped, clasping his hands together and looking at everyone. “There isn’t a minute to lose, let’s get moving.”

Feeling taken aback by the abruptness of the change I walked forward slowly, still tentative about the new direction we are heading. Not letting my reservation of this show I forced myself to march forward in my normal pace.

“How far is the jet?” I asked to distract myself from the antsy feeling in my gut. Nigel smirked in his manic-like way and pulled his arms around me and I had to stop myself from cringing.

“Now if I tell you that would ruin the surprise.” Nigel sung and I shrugged his arm off, crossing my own over my chest.

“If the jet isn’t here then why did we have to meet here?” Casey complained, behaving more like her normal self.

“It’s all part of the grand plan.” Nigel said with a secretive smile and I rolled my eyes. Whatever it was that he wasn’t telling us might just come back and bite us in the arse. He also seemed to quite enjoy playing the role of heroic helper to a noble cause.

To make things a little better we began heading south east once we got out. I kept doing a quick sweep around to watch out for the group that had headed to the Ruin. It appeared that they had either gone in the center or had already left. The agitated feeling kept popping up in my gut and I tried to assure myself that the plan was going well and that we were one step away from meeting Katerina, but somehow there was the nagging sense that something was going to go wrong kept haunting me.

“How far is it?” I asked, speeding up to take a step next to Nigel. Giving me a curious glance Nigel chuckled.

“Relax, we will get there soon. What’s with the third degree?” Nigel joked and I pursed my lips. I restrained myself from asking more questions because it felt silly, but it was like my body was trying to send me a message.

Recognizing the signs from last time I knew this was more than just a passing feeling. My hands started to sweat and I could feel myself becoming progressively ill.

“Gail, are you okay?” Casey’s concerned hand rested on my shoulder and I stifled a groan. I could feel the other surrounding me and I tried to open my mouth and warn them but nothing came out.

“How far is it?” I could hear Gerald ask.

“Only about three more miles.” Nigel asked. Several hands reached out to support me, and I was scoped up by Liam as Vanessa tried to heal me.

“I can’t seem to heal her.” She frowned and the feeling of her cold hands on my face woke me up marginally. “We might just need to hurry.”

“I am fine.” The worst of it had passed and I knew that meant whatever danger was coming it’s close. “But something’s coming.”

“I think she’s up with a fever.” Casey mused and I wiggled so Liam drop me back on the ground. The physical symptoms was passing over quickly now and I saw that we were now in front of an aircraft. So I had been under the weather for longer than I thought.

“Something is coming.” Liam’s alarmed voice cut across our conversation as the previously tempered reconnaissance device began to make beeping sounds. “And it’s coming fast.”

“Everybody up.” Gerald ordered and everyone started running towards the plane. As I took the giant grey metal structure in I quickly extended my mind. There wasn’t just one thing coming in our direction, there were two and as I took in the logo printed on the front of the plane everything suddenly made sense.

“You are stealing someone else’s plane!” I inhaled sharply and almost stopped in my tracks. Attaching a hacker device onto the keypad on the door he threw me a smirk.

“I never said I own the plane.” He retorted and I groaned, both at his words and at what’s heading our way. We were about to hijack the aircraft belong to the School of Medicine and Science, whose occupants are current rushing towards us in what I assumed to be a all-terrain mobile being chased by a mob of Legres.  Yupe, things were looking up.

“You what?” Appalled by the idea Vanessa paled as she processed the turn of events.

“No time.” Nigel said as the door made a beeping sound and began to open towards the ground like a slider. “Get on in.”

Sensing that the two groups were only minutes away I complied. Whilst it felt like a crap thing to do, we really did need to get to Romania and this was the fastest way. As we all piled in Nigel immediately darted to the cockpit and began hacking into the system. Should have known that everything would be password protected; we all settled down into the luxurious white leather seats that come equipped with seatbelts and I tapped my feet in agitation. Any day now.

Suddenly the door opened again and I could hear Nigel cursed under his breath. Peering out from the widening space I could see the strange mode of transportation they were using thundering towards us. Having only glanced over it with my mind I was immediately mesmorised by this strange invention; instead of wheels, it had sprawling legs like that of an insect that crawl its way forward, with a metal and glass center well above the ground shaped like a bullet where people were sitting in a single row.

“Who are you people?” Voices were coming from the speakers on the plane and I could see the guy at the front’s lips moving in sync to it. They must have a connection system going on. Gerald was now standing behind Nigel, his presence a sense of motivation for Nigel to basically get his act together and haul us out of here.

Behind the weird crawler was a pack of felixia, led by an unusually large-sized alpha. My heart clutched at the thought of us leaving the four people in the thing here in cold blood.

Stop. I commanded the alpha, who stopped in its track and tried to fight back. Frowning I blocked out my surrounding and concentrated. It was bad enough that we were stealing their way out, the least I could was to make sure they weren’t going to end up as felixia chew.

When I opened my eyes again, I was shocked to see the strange thing barreling into the half-opened door. Jerking out of the way I gasped as smoke and hissing noises filled the room accompanied by more cursing from Nigle.

Before anyone had time to comprehend what happened the aeroplane began to take off. I checked through the window and sighed in relief when I saw that the felixia had stayed where they were.

The sound of coughing dragged me back to reality and I looked at Casey who gave me a wide eyed look. Things did not work out as planned and now we had more unexpected company.

Figures begun to emerge from the mist and my body tensed, anticipating the worst. Instead of being attack, a hunched figure waving his hand clambered out with one hand covering his mouth. Taking a step back I eyed the approaching silhouette cautiously; there is a high probability that they have weapons on them.

As the smoke dissipated we could see the party more clearly; there were four people in total, three men and one women all appeared to be around our age. It is safe to assume that they were students. The machine had crushed landed in the middle cutting off the aircraft space in half; Nigel and Gerald were in the cockpit at the time and now we were isolated.

“Who are you people?” The guy at the front with bushy dark hair and green eyes demanded after finally stopping his coughing fit. I looked at Liam and Casey for suggestions but neither of them seemed to know what to say. Feeling the weight of someone’s stare I looked around and saw a face gaping at me. A face that I knew.

“Abigail Beckett?” The guy asked cautiously drawing attention of the entire room. I blinked, studying his face as memories flooded back to me.”

“Viktor!” his name rolled off my lips and my mind flashed back to the last time we had seen each other at the attack that had changed my life. “What are you doing here?”

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Viktor is the school prefect that tried to hold the Legre back when Gail's school was under attack for those who don't remember him. I had always planned for him to come back into her life (Nigel was a weird accident haha) because the two of them had shared a life changing moment (not romantic....you guys keep thinking that I am going to pair Gail off with every guy, I don't :P)

only 2 more chapters to go! I am still in the planning stage for the third book and I am hoping to begin writing during Christmas (if my Master project allows me time, but I promise to try) and upload again in January.

Also to pursuit my explore the option of becoming a travel jornalist I have started a blo (which has some old posts too, from last year :P I am so flakey it's horrible). The link is here if you want to support me or if you wonder what my life is like:

http://everchangingshadow.blogspot.co.uk/

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think and remember to vote!

Next update will be Wednesday, and the last chapter will be uploaded on Saturday!