Circle Quartet: 28

Chapter 28

“I can’t believe that Yvonne is Black Magic Woman in disguise! She’s kind and gentle. And smart. Always help her friends in solving some of the assignments,” says Harley.

“And hot too!” adds Sable.

“Oh yes, she is! If you guys didn’t careful, you’ll get into a hot soup,” warns Jeff while crunching the chips.

We’re now in Alex room where he always keeps his junk food and chips supply in a big cupboard. After the out-of-the-blue meeting, our parents shuffled back to their chambers while we rushed to Alex room because he texted Jeff that he wanted to discuss more about that damn woman Alse. After all, we can eat chips and drink Coke, which are forbidden to be eaten in this house.

“So what are we going to do? She might be targeting us soon,” Sable is getting worry.

“Oh yes, she is targeting you guys. The reason why she wanted your classmate is because you carried the name Black. And you guys know that she desperately wanted to take revenge on the Black clan,” I state.

“Then, what shall we do?” asks Sable. He’s getting double-worry.

“Oh, I know!” Harley snaps his finger and beams like he’s gotten the greatest idea ever. “I can turn her into a frog. A big ugly frog,” Harley raises his eyebrows few times.

“She’ll turn you into frog, Harley. Remember, she still has some black magic powers even though she’s not in a complete form,” Beatrice jabs her finger to Harley’s chest. Harley gulps and chuckle uncomfortably.

“All we need is a very careful plan to spy on her. We might not know her next step is. And since Grandma has ordered that we shouldn’t go outside of her enchanted range, except for school, we need to find some ways to follow her,” says Alex who is being silence since out gathering started.

“Raven, can you turn into small things like a fly or a bee?” asks Ace who is tearing a bag of chips for third times.

“No, I can’t,” Raven shakes her head. “But Armand can. He can turn into insects by shape-shifting and using magic at one time. Hey, Armand, can you do us a favour?” Raven turns to Armand who’s supposed to be with us in Alex’s room.

The only response that we get from Armand is the sound of his snores. He’s sleeping on the floor. Everybody laughs.

“I guess that he’s a little bit tired. He’s not used to be up this late,” says Jeff and slowly picks him up. “I’m going to tuck him to bed.” Jeff leaves the room.

It’s nearly dusk when I awake. I don’t sleep on bed anymore. After I’ve been through the blooding ceremony, I demand for a coffin; a big black coffin just like in the Dracula movies. I don’t want to sleep in bed anymore. Dad told me that coffin is too out-of-date since bed is more comfortable but I don’t care. I longed to sleep in a coffin since I knew that I’m a vampire.

I slowly open my coffin, stretching my body and gulping two bottles of blood supply which came in last two days. Recently, I drink five bottles of blood per day. Dad says that I’m in a stage of ‘growing up’. After taking a hot bath (since its winter), I go downstairs to join them for dinner. Shockingly, there’s no one in the dining room except Jeff and Beatrice.

“Good morning, Alice. We have something to tell you,” greets Jeff as I take a seat beside Beatrice.

“Wait, before that, where’s everybody? And the food? I’m starving. I think I can eat a whole elephant,” I ask as I can see no one is around during dinner time. It dinner time and it’s compulsory for us to dine together.

“Guess that you haven’t received the news yet. Grandma Zelda, Mom and Aunt Ada are in the Magic Chamber. While Dad, Uncle Yale and Uncle Archie went out for a mission since this evening,” replies Jeff.

“Aunt Nadine needs to take care of the children. They are not allowed to go out in this short period of time until Grandma Zelda tells so,” adds Beatrice.

My stomach growls. I need food!

“Can I just eat something before we go on with our conversation that you’re saying just now?” I pat on my grumbling stomach.

Beatrice sighs and goes to the kitchen. Later, she brings out chicken pie with wine since I’m allowed to drink that.

“Great! Chicken pie! Okay, move on to the discussion!” I clap my hand and gobble the pie. Jeff chuckles while shaking his head. I smile sheepishly at him.

“I have one bad news,” announces Beatrice that nearly chokes me. “Three of us need to go back to the Academy in midnight by train. Zayne and Stefan will join us too.”

“What?” I choke and gulp down the wine. Jeff gently pats my back. “So soon?”

“This is an emergency, Alice. Alse is getting nearer and we need to get back to the Academy, preparing ourselves for the upcoming war,” says Jeff.

“This is getting uglier,” I blurt out. I hate war. I never been in war before but I hate it.

“One hour before midnight we have to go to the train station. Mom has already booked the ticket for us. We’ll meet Zayne and Stefan there. And bring weapon in case any nasty thing happens,” says Beatrice.

I groan in frustration. I guess I have to burn up my precious holiday. I still have 5 more days to go. Five more days! That damn Alse is ruining my holiday!

We reach the train station 11 p.m. sharp. Zayne and Stefan are already here when we arrive. We don’t talk much as we are aware of what we had received these past days. I don’t even talk much to Stefan even he sits next to me as we wait for the train.

There are not so many people at this hour except for those who work in night shift. I read a book while waiting for the train. Jeff is talking to Zayne but in whisper. The train arrives 10 minutes before midnight. We board the train and share one room.

I take a look outside the window. The city is shimmering with city lights. I can barely see the stars up in the sky. Two hours later, we safely arrive at the Academy. We are greeted by Grandma Maegan and Granddaddy Saba. The Academy is tranquilly quite but there are some students who haven’t gone to bed yet; the nocturnal like us.

It’s still early for me to go to bed when I get into my room. Abbie hasn’t arrived yet. Perhaps tomorrow she’ll be here. I text her that I have arrive and ask her when she’ll be coming. I really miss her so much and I have a lot of things to tell her.

I go to the library as its open during night time. I search for the book that will entertain me before Abbie’s arrival. Then I spot a book about dogs. Since I have two cute little puppies at home, I think I should read more about them. Taking care of puppies is quite difficult rather than adult dogs. After all, they are parentless.

Then I remember about a stray dog that Granddaddy Saba and Dad told me earlier. They wanted me to be careful of stray dog. Stefan comes as I’m searching for the book about werewolves. There are a lot of books about them on the shelves but I don’t know which one to pick.

“Hey, Alice. What book are you searching for?” asks Stefan as he stands next to me. He’s wearing his black leather jacket.

“Hey, Stefan. Oh, it’s good that you’re here. I need to ask you something about stray dog. Do you know the term of stray dog in your clan?” I ask.

Stefan is surprise when I ask him that question. He asks me to sit down before he can explain. I know that he knew about stray dog.

“Why do you want to know about stray dog?” he asks as we take a seat.

“Well…your Granddaddy and Dad mentioned about stray dog. I thought that they’re joking or something but that thing keeps bothering me sometimes,” I reply.

“In our clan, stray dog is a term for a werewolf who has been abandoned by the parents, whether the parents died or just left. It’s an old term actually because there’s once a couple of werewolf abandoned their child for the war. Then they died and the child had nowhere to go. He’s been on his own, alone, until one day another relative of his came and rescue him. From that day, that child was called ‘stray dog’. But we didn’t use that term anymore. For those who parents died will be taking care by any other relatives,” explains Stefan. I just listen to his story and nod once in a while.

“So there’s no stray dog in your family?” I ask.

“Actually, there is,” he replies shortly.

I blink at him, waiting for his answer. “Who?” I frown at him.

He closes his eyes and sighs. “Cody.”