Chapter 3

The man asked Adrian but its obviously knew the answer.His rich voice was like dark chocolate. A divine combination of syllables and tune..As every word fell on the ears of the listener it was like being whisked away by the melody of a harp played by an agile musician.Why would such a picture perfect entity like himself be corrupted and head on a path of evil

"He is not carrying it", replied the thin voice from earlier.As the voice said this, Adrian s eyes shifted unconsciously towards the source of the sound. A young female stepped into the light and preceded to stand in front of the wall where she was in full view.She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest.Like seriously are all scary people this beautiful.

Her petit features were incredible.she was the human form of a pure white lotus in a lake, illuminated by the delicate caress of moonlight. Her hair was dressed in a variety of exotic ornaments.The auburn mane ran all the way to her waist and was plaited to form one braid.lose hair that managed to escape the braid laid on the side of her face, slightly encircling it, giving her a pearl shaped contour.As for her confirmation,it was quite small but that doesn't mean she is a candidate for being underestimated.She was wearing the same boots as the man and they seemed to be dressed in similar uniform.She turned her head to look at the man on the chair and said softly yet still chilling.

"We should leave", the woman clearly bored by her discovery or maybe due to her rather not being in the presence of Adrian.

"Why should we?the fun is just beginning",as he said that he took out a small darkened oblong object.He held the item between two of his slim fingers.He flicked the object and it fell on the floor.

"Oops",said the man without a doubt had purposefully wanted the thing to fall . With that sentence ,a cloud of smoke started to engulf the intergral of the floor.As this happened , Adrian tried to remove his feet but his efforts were meaningless.As the smoke dressed the entire floor and then the man slided the chair backwards to stand up. He went towards Adrian. the man raised his hand and his slim porcelain hand changed shape into a dark foamy feature. He positioned his hand -like claw and more dark smoke encompassed the talon. The man passed by the guard who stood still the full-length of this episode. The man walked over to Adrian ,his steps were steady but seemed as if they were unreasonably huge. Before long the man was standing atleast half a meter from Adrian.

He lifted the monstrous hand to his own face ,peered at it before moving it towards Adrian.The second the hand stood near Adrian s face, he felt an overwhelming surge of heat to his face .He tried to scream but his mouth was still sealed.The heat was so much that he felt as if his blood was boiling.As this was happening, sweat and tears were being mixed up but that was an understatement to how much pain he was in.He was so focused in the fire burning on his face that he didn't notice the smoke that had covered him all the way to his neck.All the man did was move his hand near Adrian and the smoke flowed into Adrian s flesh.However the case the dark smoke felt like piping hot lava and all of Adrian s face was on fire.The man moved his hand in a clockwise manner so that the plumes entered Adrian s face directly from the front. If Adrian was not silenced,he would have blew the roof off with his wails of pain.Avalanches of tears ran from his eyes. He was being burnt alive!!As the tears left his face, the man was breaming with satisfaction.Was he crazy ?how can he set someone on fire and have the audacity to smile.This is too gruesome of an approach.The pain continued to flow and Adrian 's eyes started to roll upwards but the burning didn't stop.

"Valian!!Are you crazy.Stop it",barked the female by the wall when she noticed Adrian s eye roll..She tried to move over to stop Valian but she couldn't move her feet.Valian had trapped her too in the smoke.. How could something as light as smoke be so strong.She struggled her body to get out of the smoke but she fought it the smoke ascended her entire body.

"Don't be stupid, besides I only want to see", responded Valian still flaming Adrian and having no intent to stop.

"Valian!! Valian!! Stop it .Syin told us.."

"Aghh..Syin this ,Syin that!!Will you just shut up and watch!!", replied Valian easily exasperated by hearing Syin s name

.He is the one who sent them here after all to take Reed s talisman.Valian purposefully delayed the time so that Reed would tend to Syin s howl.. the wolf howl from later was Syin calling for Reed's attention, who probably thinks that Reed doesn't have the talisman but Reed still has it ,and Syin has the whole pack assembled to fight with Reed because the word on the street is that Reed's men killed teenage Alpha wolves.Syin wants to know why . That's not the truth but what wolf would believe that as Reed is one of the infinite number of the nightwalker archenemies.Also the woman doesn't know that the delay they had encountered was all Valian s doing

Valian continued to fry Adrian and at this point Adrian s head was slightly hanging to the side.He was breathing slowly like he had been running for a long time.

"Valian!!!Valian!!!You are going to kill him",yelled the female who was covered in smoke up to her last rib

Valian completely ignored her..He stopped cooking Adrian s face .As he ceased, he moved his hand from Adrian s face,who apprently had stopped trying to fight the pain.He was paralysed by the pain. Valian retracted his hand but still kept it midair.The hand changed back to human. immediately Valian 's hands reached for Adrian s hairline.Adrain s hair was drenched in perspiration but his face was currently bone dry. Valian placed his thumbs and his fingers in Adrian s skull and made small motions before he gripped onto something.He slowly pulled on that thing and a sheet of what looks like skin emerged from Adrian s face.The woman stared in disgust and wrinkled her eyebrows.This expression was quickly followed by her mouth hanging just a little bit agape.Valian pulled off a sheet of skin and underneath seemed as if there was another layer of skin. he tossed the peeled off skin on the floor and he placed his hand to the side of Adrian s face, straightening it.He scoffed the minute his eyes fell on Adrian s face.His smile grew from ear to ear..

He always guessed that something was offish about the king of the guardians.He always suspected that Adrian could be concealing something but he never imagined it would ever be something like this.The woman who had been yelling at Valian like a useless dog had been shocked to see that underneath this mask was a very young and inhumanly handsome face.

She had arched her eyebrows in extreme surprise..What other secrets are these people hiding..

"Do you know what this means?",asked Valian.He didn't wait for an answer and continued in obviously sarcastic sulk,"There is nothing this coucon won't do to keep his secret hidden

The woman realized what he meant by that but kept quiet.She couldn't wrap her head around what was happened.valian looked at Adrian and was taken aback by how incredibly handsome this face was.He looked almost like the woman in the room but even better.All the features of an old man faded in a moment.Valian thought he would maybe find a wolf under the mask not a human. Valian was satisfied with himself. He then placed the back of his hand on Adrian s temple and wiped away the perspiration .Suddenly Valian s smile melted into confusion.He looked into Adrian s tired and worn- out eyes. Valian 's head out of the blue felt constricted. He suddenly became serious . Adrian dropped a tear and when Valian saw this ,he let go Adrian like a hot potato . He took a step back and stared at the body on the wall. He looked somewhat scared.This is the first time the woman had seen Valian with this expression.

"Valian, what's wrong",she inquired but before she could get her answer, Valian run out of the room and jumped through the window.As soon as this happened, the smoke jail freed the three characters in the room...She instinctively tried to run after Valian but then she stopped. She has to clean up Valian s mess!!.She produced a whip like thing from her hand and slashed the floor.this caused the smoke to clear up. The zombie guard went over to the skin on the floor and picked it up. He moved his hand over the underside of the mask in circular motion .Black plumes of smoke exhuded from his hand to the mask. He moved it towards his face and darkened tentacles grew from the mask .The tentacles attached the mask to his face like a magnet. He looked exactly like the old king of the keepers. The woman waved her hand and Adrian fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.He collapsed to the floor and was kneeling on his fours.The woman walked over to him. She wanted to touch his face and make him look at her.She reached downwards but retracted her hand and instead just spoke

"I don't know who you are and I don't know if you are not afraid to die, what I know is that the same won't be said for your ... Yevana..Don't be stupid or I will slice her throat and send her piece by piece. Keep quiet and don't be a hero",she said all this and jumped out the window.

The zombie guard was getting dressed in the king a clothes while Adrian was still on his fours.Adrian lost his strength and just fell to the floor,tears didn't cease to stop.

He laid there with his head rested on his arm and one more tear fell from the corner.

"It's you", Adrian murmured this before he fell unconscious..