~ 25: A Mission to Rescue - Part 2 ~

I carried Mel with my newfound strength as quickly as possible. I didn't kill them, so I shouldn't be running from the crime scene. But I had harmed them, and there was no proof of them having harassed me. Unless the cameras were still running because some genius had meddled with it.

Plus, I didn't know how long my strength would last. If it was Lucas's doing, then he might have extinguished his energy to save me. And if he was still supplying me with his extraordinary powers, it would mean that he was lying on the boundary between life and death.

Every door had been shut by their system, so there was no room for escape. I went into the only free room that I had come through, hoping to get both of them out alive.

His sprawled body was bathed in a pool of blood. Someone might have checked up on him since there were footprints of blood walking away from it. Assuming from what happened earlier, with the thug of a cousin appearing suddenly in front of me, he must have gone to see if I was telling the truth. Or perhaps he had gone to kill a defenceless him for letting me in.

I ran towards his unmoving body and placed Mel against the wall. Her eyes were open, but her consciousness kept fluctuating. There were hardly any food items in the room, so I could only fetch her some drinking water.

I helped her drink it as she couldn't move a limb. And then with the other bottle in hand, I walked up to Lucas and sprayed the water on his face, hoping that he would wake up.

He didn't budge. There was no sign of his chest moving, his pulse on his wrist or throat, or him groaning in pain. I shook him and called his name but got no response. I checked his eyes and they were partly looking up. Then terror caught hold of me.

I slapped his jaw, hit his chest and did every possible thing to check the existence of his soul. I checked my reflection in his blood to take notice of any sign of his power. There were no black eyes and dark hair.

Tears welled in my eyes. Though foul in the beginning, his brief existence had given me the feeling of family that I missed most. The homesickness wasn't that bad since I knew I could always meet them up again. But the lack of that love and affection had left a void in my heart, and he had been the only one to fill it.

I sat on his lap after leaning his heavy frame on me and wept on his shoulder. His body was turning colder and my tears were creating a river.

In anger and distress, I cried, "You promised me your allegiance. How dare you leave without letting me pay for it? How can you leave me in guilt for a task I didn't want to take part in?"

He neither spoke a word nor moved an inch. My heart fell deeper into the abyss of endless darkness. It was unbelievable that I was the cause of his certain death. And that he had seen it all along and hadn't commented a word on it.

"Who's that?" croaked Mel. She had finally able to come out of her stupor.

"A brother who decided to save us," I replied softly. "One who is more than a kin."

There seemed to be no way to get him back, amongst all the sirens ringing around the place. It was only when they had stopped that I remembered the remedy I had always had with me and that never let me down.

I unclipped my necklace and placed it around his neck. I kissed the stone and prayed for it to work. I concentrated hard on it, trying to get it to work on him soon.

"Come back, Lucas," I muttered in a trembling voice. "Come back and let me fulfil my part of the promise, whatever you wish it to be."

After one final touch, I heard a gasp. The huge frame pushed me forward, nearly crushing me under his weight. Three gulps of air passed and warm arms wrapped around me. I cried again, this time with relief flooding into my soul.

The fact that he had caught me to prevent me from being held captive, testing me out to see if I would be any good against this injustice and creating a risky hole through which he could save me and Mel, couldn't bring more joy. I had only seen my dear family help me out in such dire circumstances, and he had entered that circle the moment I realised the eternal truth behind his actions.

"You are here, little one," he said softly. "So it worked despite my efforts of death."

"It only worked because of you," I shot back. "How dare you try to change the future?"

"It was obscure to me. And I wanted to find out the meanings of certain visions, which I was able to ascertain today."

That reminded me of visions I had myself. I was out to seek their answers as fate wished, but with a seer, it would be done soon enough. But the time wasn't ripe to speak up on such a topic.

"If you create such a scare again, I swear I will find you and beat you up, even after death."

His chuckle resounded through his chest and my head. Then he said with a smile, "Okay, Little Sister. Let's go."

'You heard everything... How?' I asked in my head in wonderment.

'If you are on the brink of death, you can hear both the worlds,' he answered, nuzzling my neck. 'They are too noisy for your liking.'

I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at him. He hadn't spoken a word out of his mouth. How was he able to hear and answer me back mentally? Was it because of the promise that bound us? It seemed to be the only plausible explanation for him to communicate with me whenever I was in need of him.

His sleek, long leather jacket hadn't absorbed any blood. Yet the spots of blood on it had seeped through my clothes, causing it to look like I was responsible for a murder. Plus, I still had his blade with me and he had mine, which didn't have any of his fingerprints. They could confiscate his weapons and give me jail time for making him bleed like a stuck pig.

He understood the signs of me looking around. With a snap of his finger, they had vanished from sight. From the corner of the room in the cupboard, we heard a rattle. My mouth was open in amazement while he smirked.

"But what about her?" I asked, looking at Mel. "I thought..."

Before I could finish, a flare rose in his hand. He hissed in pain and leaned in a little, but didn't stop writing an ancient character. The lines which he drew were in black and around them was a ring of red flares. He blew it in Melissa's direction, causing it to disappear from his hand in a wisp of black smoke. Her head hit the wall and fell back.

We picked her up and carried her between us, one arm of hers around each of our shoulders. The woman had suddenly become heavy, probably because I had lost much strength through fulfilling my promise.

We heard the shutters open in the other hall as we made our way out from the back of the basement. We had to go the main shutters at the back to come out free.

We were just paving our path of escape when we heard a commanding voice shout, "Halt! Who goes there? Hands up where I can see you."