It was slowly getting darker and the insects chirp became louder the more they waited into the night. The last hints of sun peeked out of the horizon spreading little crimson and purple rays of light, illuminating the sky in a strange color.
Right outside the house, Adrien and me stood with our backs to the wall, assessing the situation.
I could hear his steady breathing as he spotted the horizon. He smiled, "Ashe, look, it's twilight."
I turned my head to look at the scene and goosebumps ran through my skin. "Twilight…" I looked up at the boy next to me and his sharp canines caught my again. It would be hard to ignore that now. Which dumbass had enabled the damned Skills?
My head hurt just thinking of it. I was pretty sure Adrien was once human now. I had seen him all those years ago before he entered the game. More eerily, I had seen the exact day he got into Breakfire Online. Who knew things would turn out this way?
I wished my dad was alive right now. I could have asked him everything and the confusion in my head would have been put to rest.
I felt a hand pat my head. "What are you thinking so deeply?"
I looked up at his hand in surprise. He was tousling my hair. I shook my head and stepped back, "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be rude to me?"
He sighed and looked the other way, "Yes, I am supposed to be rude to you. You left me to die in that forest. Had you always planned to kill me? Are you just like your father too?"
I glared at him in anger, "What did you say about my dad?" My fists curled. But I couldn't hit him, no. There was no use. It wouldn't hurt anyway.
"You'll know what I mean when we reach our destination today," he narrowed his eyes and looked the other way, patting the front of his forehead, "Now, what is your plan?"
I stepped closer to him and raised a finger at him, "You. Don't think I'm letting you go that easily."
He whipped his head around to look at me and I took in a breath. We were nose to nose, glaring daggers at each other. My heart pounded. Not moving, he looked down at my finger and bent down to bite it.
I frowned and tried to shake it free. Instead he grabbed my wrist and threw me against the wall and pinned me in between.
Our noses touched now, simply grazing and sending heat through my skin. I was silent, waiting to see what he would do next.
We stared at each other for a while and waited for him to say something. He breathed heavily, poring his gaze into my soul as to threaten me.
I narrowed my eyes and after realising that he wasn't saying anything, I parted my mouth, "Third guard on the right of the biggest bush. He's the dumb one. Draw a trail of blood from a spot somewhere in front of him to the back garage," I ordered and he blinked out of his trance and stepped back, still in serious mode.
"And where will I get that much blood?"
I didn't take my eyes off him as I pointed to my own neck. His eyes widened in worry. I left him to die in that forest…it hurt me to see him still have the audacity to worry about a devil like me.
"But you have already lost a lot of blood…"
"Just do it. I'll be fine," I said with a strange confidence. For some reason, my body know it could handle the loss as something similar had happened before. But what exactly happened, I didn't remember.
He sighed and tilted his head and leaned forward to wipe my neck off the blood. I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't see the blood on his hands.
I heard him take a breath.
"What is it?" I asked tentatively.
"It's so hard not to take another lick," he confessed and recollected himself before turning around to do what I had told him to. I watched him run in the dark, so beautifully agile and draw the trail without anyone noticing.
Not before long, he had drawn the trail all the way to the garage way at the back of the estate.
When Adrien was back in his position next to me, he panted with exhaustion and looked at me, "Okay boss. What's next?"
I made sure the summer house behind the house was open and whispered, "Okay, be ready to run into the summer house okay?"
He nodded.
I lifted a hand with three fingers on my hand. "1, 2, 3…"
I inhaled a sharp breath and screamed.
I screamed as loud as I can, more loudly than the blood hounds so that my voice echoed throughout the whole estate. Adrien jumped up in surprise but without questions we took off running across the grass and into the summer house. After he got in and banged the summer house close and locked the door from inside.
Crouching down, we both peeked outside from the only glass window at the line of guards.
Sure enough, my scream had triggered the guards and the stepped around, searching for the origin of the noise. As some of the others walked toward the mansion, one guard…the dumb one to the right of the biggest bush stepped on something squishy.
He frowned and looked down under his foot and clicked on his pocket torch to see the blood Adrien had planted there. Panicking, he called and emergency alert to the other guards and all of them came rushing to that spot.
I side eyed Adrien and nudged, "This is our opening, let's go!"
We opened the summer house door again and stepped out and ran to the opposite bushes to the tiny side gate of the estate that lead outside. It was, like expected, unguarded now.
We were only half way there when I heard Adrien scream as someone pulled him back. I halted and turned around to see a tall, buff guard holding Adrien by the collar.
"And where do you think you two are going?" The guard narrowed his eyes at both of us. Adrien and I exchanged frightened glances. Adrien narrowed his eyes at me, 'Genius you said? Look who's a genius now?' he silently shouted at me.
I widened my eyes, 'How am I supposed to know the guards were not dumb?'
He gritted his teeth and I looked at the huge guard glaring down at both of us.
Oh god, we were trapped.