Chapter 23

Even though there are now guards outside my house, I still feel like I'm being watched in my sleep. When I leave the house, the guards follow close behind, yet I still feel like this hidden evil is following me. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but my gut is yelling at the top of its lungs that I'm in danger.

Every time I talk to Emma about this feeling, she assures me that I'm fine and just being paranoid. That I have some of the best warriors looking after me day and night.

However, here I am, another night, that I'm too scared to sleep. I'm just lying here staring blanklessly at my ceiling. I let out a huge sigh, when out of nowhere I heard a loud bang come from outside and a lot of growling. I spring out of my bed and head towards my balcony. I look down and gasp.

"Oh, no!" I immediately turn and rush downstairs towards the backyard. The moon provides the only light. I inch my way towards where I heard the commotion, hoping that what I saw from my balcony isn't true. However, when I drew closer, I learned that my hopes were shattered.

There they were. Their lifeless bodies being illuminated by the moonlight. I heard a noise from behind me, and I spun around to see a hooded figure. At this moment, I couldn't move or talk; hell, it even felt like my breathing and heart came to a complete stop.

"Ah, Mila. So beautiful. Do you think your beauty will ameliorate when you're dead? Don't worry about answering; it is rhetorical; I know you will." They lightly chuckled sinisterly. They were truly disgusting and disturbed. They continued to shorten the distance between us, but I still didn't budge. Come on, body fucking work, move, defend, do something!

Out of nowhere, I saw this blur of fur pounce on the mysterious hooded person in front of me, knocking them over and me onto my back. I scooted to where I could see what was going on. A huge black wolf was circling the person. The black wolf's aura emanated waves of dominance. The wolf stopped looking at the person for only a second, looked over at me, and just by looking at their eyes, I knew it was Julian.

Soon I felt a presence next to me, and I looked up to find Emma. Her eyes completely black, and the red specks swirling within the brightest red I've ever seen them be. One by one, Lance was there, Elisia, Chloe, Carol, and wolves I had never seen before. They all set up a perimeter around the mysterious being and stared them down, giving off the vibe of "I dare you."

The hooded figure looked around then looked at me. I couldn't see their face, but I saw their eyes. They were completely red, and I was terrified.

"I'll see you again soon." They said to me, right before they disappeared into thin air. Once they were gone, I could finally feel oxygen make its way to my lungs in gulps.

"Are you okay?" I don't know if I nodded my head or not; everything around me started becoming distorted. My breathing became irregular, and my heart was beating so hard and fast; it felt like it could explode. I saw Emma move my head to look at her, and her facial expression grew into that of concern. I saw her lips move but heard nothing; then everything went black.

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I woke up to sunlight, hitting me in the face and a massive headache. I looked over and found Emma sitting in a chair deep in thought.

"Did all that really happen?" I whispered out. Her eyes snapped up to meet mine, and she hurried over to me, grabbing my hand.

"Yes, it really did. I'm sorry for not being there. I was investigating another death at another portal. Julian's guards sent out an SOS right before they died. We all got to you as soon as we could." I nodded, moving eyes to look off into the distance. I saw dead people last night. I can't get their eyes and how lifeless they were out of my head.

"Mila, are you there?" I was brought out of my thoughts by Emma.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry. What were you saying?" She sighed and sat on my bed right beside me. She kissed the top of my head gently.

"I know it's gotta be hard seeing what you saw last night. I'm here for you if you ever want to talk." I just closed the distance and gave her a small kiss and a forced smile afterward.

"I know that you are." She was about to say something when her phone went off.

"Hey, Hector, what's up?" All of a sudden, her face fell. I don't know what was said to her, but I know it wasn't good. Her eyes snapped down to mine, and they were showing me that whatever it was going to hurt. She nodded her head a couple of times before she hung up.

"Mila…" She paused, not saying anything. I sat all the way up, giving her my full attention. My nerves are in overdrive at this point.

"What is it, Emma? Just spit it out." I can't deal with any dramatic pauses right now.

"They've got Julian… We don't know if he's alive or not." My stomach was in knots, and I felt sick. My heart feels like it's been shattered.

"Chloe can't feel the bond or locate him. I'm sorry, Mila, but it's not looking good." She whispered out the last part. Each word brought me more pain than the last.

"How?" That was the only thing I could get myself to say.

"He was with Chloe and Hector going over plans when a few hooded figures appeared out of nowhere. A black mist absorbed the whole room; once it was gone, so was Julian and the hooded people." I popped up from the bed, pacing back and forth, as everything started to spin around me again.

"No, no, no, no, no. No!" I whipped around to Emma, and I whispered out one more no before collapsing. Emma caught me right before I hit the ground, and she brought us to the floor. She brought me close as I sobbed into her shoulder.