FOUR

The park was nearly an hour away from the station. A few minutes closer to my place, but obviously, I wasn't going to let a vampire step through the threshold. And with the bench Lucina suggested we should sit on, it seemed like she thought the same. There were only eight people in the park. An unusually small number for a public space like this, but I blamed the faraway smell of rain. A couple, an old woman who was probably blind, her grandchild, a depressed man who leaned on a small tree by the edge of the park, and then Luciana and I. The eighth was the woman who walked through the park to get to the other side of the road.

From where I sat, hands folded across my chest, I could see clearly, the couples who sat right in the middle of the field, on top of a rainbow coloured blanket and surrounded by small containers of food. I could hear their heartbeats. It was fast, very fast, as both smelt of nervous sweat I couldn't seem to find on their exposed skin. Either they were newly weds, newly dating, or just so completly and irrevocably in love enough to ignore the fly that buzzed towards the food. The slight shake of the bench brought my mind back to where I was. I looked to the side and saw Luciana, her hands in the jacket pocket, which were clearly tightly fisted, as her eyes were fixated on the same couple.

I couldn't pinpoint if she was hungry or just angry. Both options weren't exactly good.

"Looks like they don't care about the weather," I said as I looked up to the sky. The clouds were starting to get grey, and day was slowly turning to night. Even the blind woman had readied herself to leave.

Luciana scoffed.

"It's so pathetic, " she said.

"Is it?"

She only sighed and then looked away from them. I concluded that she was angry.

"Have you ever heard of Ocorus?" Luciana asked as she crossed her leg.

"The airline?"

"Yes, but apparently, it's not just an airline. Airline is just a cover-up for the main thing," she said, slouching her form, then looking exactly like the creature she is.

From the side, her skin was flawless, full of colour, and I could hear her pulse from where I sat, a large space left between us to avoid any contact.

She looked normal. Smelt too normal.

"Like some kind of underground business?" I asked.

"Underground is a word for small. Ocorus is bi, but ye, it is underground," she replied. "It's a rehabilitation centre for helpless creatures. Sick, mentally ill, poor, lost, and so on."

"Creatures. Like with the 's'? There's not just one?"

"It's one of the reasons my brother and I are here. They took one of our kind but with Ocorus being completely non existenet, it would be hard,"

"So this Ocorus is run by the Grey family?" I asked her

"It was started by them, but now run by wealthy people. Although they are the owners." She replied. "At first, it was just a rehabilitation centre. A place truly made to help creatures, but that was their first step. Soon, it turned to some kind of twisted art display. Creatures like us were brought up for auctions and entertainment. "

"They are selling creatures?"

"At first, they didn't. They only display them to hungry humans, ready to spend every penny just to feast their eyes. Humans needed to see that these things were real and were exactly as they thought. Animalistic. So they paid good money just to watch, until they wanted more."

"So the humans know that we exist?" I asked her as I sat up, my eyebrows furrowed as I was stuck between bafflement and disbelief.

"Some of them. The ones ready to spend and cautioned enough to keep their mouth shut. Soon, they needed to be close to people like us. They wanted us, and of course, since Ocorus were paid enough, their wishes were granted, but thankfully, not all were allowed to buy. Only special ones,"

"As in, the ones sane enough?"

She nodded.

"Obviously, Ocorus wasn't ready to give out creatures to mad people. It'll bring death and draw attention straight to them," she said. "My father was fine with everything even though the whole thing didn't sit well with him. That was until one of my brothers was taken. Trails led straight to Ocorus tracks but of course, no one truly knows where that could be"

"Shouldn't it be somewhere around or under the airline?"

"Mr Grey is smarter than that. I checked myself, but nothing is there."

"So they just go around the world, picking up creatures that are too weak to be on their own," I said, and luciana nodded.

"You're one of the special cases, although I wonder why you're not in a cage like the others,"

My heart skipped a beat at her words, my mind starting to spiral again, but I pushed it down.

"So you're saying I have a bid over head. Someone is willing to buy me," I said, cringing heavily as I spoke.

"For some reason, the Grey family is keeping you off the bid and to themselves. Although words about you have spread. Fortunately, it's just words. No one knows what you look like." Luciana said.

"How do you even know all this?" I asked her.

"Princess privileges. My father is the king, so we hear everything, "

"Lovely."

I looked away from her with a heavy sigh, finally understanding why she looked so normal with an ability to conceal her scent. Luciana was royal. A royal vampire. It even made her more dangerous, but here I was, feeling no sense of flight or fight and calmly talking to a creature I've been trained to hate.

"So that's why they took your brother? Because he's royal?"

"Yes. For them, it means so much more money. My guess is that they would keep him for a long time till something big comes in exchange for a royal vampire." She said.

"How come your brother hasn't done anything. Royal vampires are the strongest of your kind,"

"Ocorus is a business for mystical creatures known to have inhuman strength. I would be utterly disappointed if they had no sort of device to restrain them,"

"If I'm supposed to be there, at Ocorus, why am I here?" I asked.

Luciana looked at me.

"You're different, Amira. Priceless. When a wolf is rejected by their true mate, it comes with a curse. A curse that drives them mad and straight to an unquenchable hunger and thirst that'll lead them straight to death," I knew everyone knew the history and how it could work, but hearing her say it to my face made me feel exposed. "But here you are, sitting calmly. You'll go home, eat, sleep, and maybe you are a little bit crazy from the curse, but for some reason, you're different from how rejecteds have been phrased."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It's an impossible thing. You're impossible, and because of that, a few of my kind hates you," that was so comforting to hear. "Our guess is that they are keeping you close to them to maybe use you as a weapon. It was supposed to be a secret, but then it wasn't."

It was there, and then I laughed. Laughter was the least thing I had done since my stay in South nile, but with her words, I couldn't resist. It bubbled right out of me with snorts that pulled the couple out of the lovey daze to look right at me.

"Weapon. They are turning me into a weapon. For what? World War Three? I couldn't even save my own self years ago, and now I'm a weapon? Please," I said and ended with a chuckle.

I didn't want to believe. In fact, her words were unbelievable, but thinking deeply about it as Luciana had let me, it made sense. The scrutiny, the questions, the dinner, the observations, the protections, constant checkups, and hawk of a daughter. It made sense that they needed me for something if truly the Ocurus Luciana had explained, was real.

"It's starting to make sense, isn't it?"

I looked to the side and saw lucina's eyes on me. I only sighed and looked away.

"These people buying us, what do they need creatures for?"

"Experments. Like I said, Ocorus sells to special people with specific needs. Sometimes, it could just be for home keep but most times for experiments. I saw with my two eyes, and even as a royal, I was scared to be in their clutches. "

"You said they have a newsletter online. What is that for?"

"They publish stories and make a hell of a lot of money from it. People think it's all fiction and tale, so they buy it for their entertainment, but a few know it's true. The letters don't say much, but says enough, and of course, your story is the most popular," she said. "The rejected wolf."

"Jesus, I've never been glad to stay away from the Internet," I said.

"If you want to know more about them, you should be on the Internet. Everything is there," Luciana said. "I know a huge part of you does not believe what I said, but read about them and watch them closely, you'll see."

"So you're here to find your brother, right?" I asked, and she nodded.

"The Grey family is the closest to Ocorus. We need our eyes on them before they have there's on us,"

"So you're saying there's more of you in town?"

Luciana nodded.

"Not close, but close enough to watch. No one knows who you are yet, unless they would have come for you just to provoke Ocorus, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Why do I feel a threat coming?" I looked to her and asked.

"I need your help," Luciana turned fully to me and said, her face looked solemn this time. Sad and helpless, almost like she was trying to convince me. "You're the closest to them."

"And so what? You want me to dig through their things and then magically find a place that, according to you, has been non-existent for years. If Mr. Grey is smart, he wouldn't leave things around a house he brings me into."

"Except he will," she said. "My brother and I have studied them long enough. They're psychologists, right? They give you therapy and many others so they know how minds work. Ocorus is obviously somewhere we all see and know. It's right in front of us. We've dug so deep thinking that's how the Greys would hide things like that, but that's not how it is."

"So you're saying one of the buildings in this town could be Ocorus?"

"Maybe it's not a building or a place. It could be a person,"

"You're not making any sense," I looked away and said.

Luciana grabbed my arm so tight that I was unable to snatch it away when I tried.

"I don't have to make sense in situations like this. This is my brother Amira, I'm sure you understand or at least could imagine if you were in my shoes," I was finally successful in taking my arm back to myself, feeling a light ghost of her touch.

"I would never be in your shoes nor will I ever understand. If truly Ocurus is as you say and they are keeping me, I would have run away years ago, but guess what?" I said to her. "I have nowhere to run to. So you have to try harder than guilt tripping or threatening to get me to help you."

"Can't you just help?" I scoffed at her words.

"If the prince is successfully sold, the king would be enraged and unleash his anger, starting from the most precious thing to Ocorus,"

"So now I'm a thing," I said with a snort.

"You are a vital thing to them and believe me when I say they would do absolutely everything to protect you, and we vampires would do anything to get what we want. I'm not threatening you, Amira. I know you can never be scared because you are strong, but I'm telling you reality. The Grey family is not keeping you here because you have nowhere else to go. You're here because they want you to be, and you're not going anywhere because they don't want you to, " Luciana said so seriously, that I imagined her pouncing on me to conclude her words. She didn't. She only leaned away. "I just want to find my brother alive. My people want to make sure he's alive. Please, I need your help, and I don't know what I can give in return, but whatever it may be, I would help."

I did have one thing she could help me with, but I didn't speak. Not yet.

The sound of my phone drew my attention to my pocket. The screen was illuminated once I pulled it out, and Natasha's name was displayed, along with a text. Well actually, texts.

She was at my place.

"I dont know if I can keep the Grey family off your back, nor can I find your brother. You said it yourself, they are smart , and however you and everyone else may view me, I'm not like that. But I'll see what I can do," I said and stood to my feet. "Just to keep vampires off my back. The smell from you is enough, I can't imagine about three more."

Luciana smiled like she heard the best thing. I felt the urge to smile back, but I didn't. She is a vampire, I reminded myself. Her words may be true, and whatever she needed may be true, but they are not to be trusted. Those were my intuition speaking, but as it was latched to my brain, my body was wired to respond.

"I'm assuming you want something," Luciana asked.

I mirrored her stance when she stood. Hands casually in my pocket as I had come to notice we were the only ones left, the clouds now darker than before.

"I don't know yet. I don't exactly have anything to say I've lost,"

"You would find something."

Luciana turned and left at that. She was a small distance away when she sped off, her fast vamparic feet taking her right out of sight. No scent was left behind, only the breeze and myself as I wondered why wolves couldn't be blessed with such fast ability.

I got more texts from Natasha as I walked, turning right into a street, as I dumped the phone into my bag.

Impatience, I thought to myself. I wondered if she thought I had fled or something. For the first time in years, I was curious about them, and for a jobless and hopeless wolf like me, I had all the time in the world to dig. Helping out the crown Prince of the vampire throne would just have fall in place on its own.