Two Sides of The Moon - Chapter 36: Chapter 36

-Oliver-
Later that day, once we all had rested a little, we got called to join everyone else in the Hall. Once we got there, there was a big line of people waiting for their turn to get inside, but we were escorted past it.
"What's going on?" I asked when we stepped through the doors and saw the line continuing down the hallway. There were three rooms, and those waiting in the line were stepping inside one by one.
"Everyone is getting a talisman," Aurora explained. "Come – Ray is waiting for us."
I was impressed at how quickly they had started producing the talismans. But we were in a hurry, and that talisman protected us all from minor shadows, so it was important to get one for everyone.
Our group walked past them into the Main Hall, where Rayleigh and Thisalee stood with the other alphas and their betas. I quickly noticed their outfits – long fur coats and nice suits. Thisalee was even wearing jewels around her neck. Some of the Alphas had their clan emblems painted on their left cheek.
"So... What's the occasion?" I asked on Jaden's behalf.
I glanced at my mate and read his thoughts. These clothes were meant for big events, or when they were expecting company. Other Alphas or important people in general.
"We are expecting visitors," Rayleigh said, looking nervous and giddy at the same time. "One could say once in a lifetime kind of visitors."
"We have gods popping in and out. There's peacekeepers waltzing in and out," I said, again speaking on Jaden's behalf. "What could be better than that?"
"Well these people are coming from the Castle of Lilith. Vampire witches," Rayleigh said, but couldn't continue.
"That's uh..." Arch said, trailed off with his eyes closed, thinking really hard. "That's the castle vampires stole from demons years ago."
"That's the one," Rayleigh nodded.
"The demons won the castle back a few years ago," Arch continued.
Rayleigh nodded again. "The castle is ruled by Queen Rianna, a royal demon, but it's not just demons who live there. You know Mother Heidi?"
"Uh-huh, one of the strongest witches of our time," Arch nodded.
"Show-off," Tilly muttered.
"Her family lives there, too. And the peacekeepers arranged a meeting with Mother Heidi and her mate, Wendell. They're coming to help us with securing our lands," Rayleigh said, his giddiness returning.
"You forgot to mention something," Thisalee said.
"Huh? Oh yes!" Rayleigh said and turned to us again. "Apparently, the Son of Lucifer also lives in the castle."
Now that was exciting news.
"Will he come here?" Jack asked.
"Not yet, no, but he has agreed to come to our aid," Rayleigh said.
Jack nodded. "Would like to meet him."
"You will," Rayleigh said. "It's going to be very busy around here for the next few days. I hope you all will treat our vampire guests with respect. We have no quarrels with them, so play nice. These witches are powerful. They can easily cancel your existence if they so wish."
"Stop scaring the kids. Mother Heidi is..." Thisalee said, trailed off, and glanced at us. "Just don't do anything disrespectful."
"So we get to meet them too?" I asked.
"Of course. They'll arrive in a few hours. In the meantime," Rayleigh said and gestured toward a door behind them. "You can make your talismans there. We already put the materials up for you guys."
Since I already had mine, I just watched and helped the others make theirs. Jaden wanted his to look the same as mine. I found that really adorable.
"I wonder what he's like," I heard Jack muttering to Arch – the two of them were sitting right next to each other, their arms and legs touching.
"The Son of Lucifer?" Arch asked just as quietly, and Jack nodded.
We all had noticed the shift in their relationship. They were much closer now. Jack didn't seem to mind whenever Arch touched him or leaned closer to whisper something to him. And Jack's spirits... They were growing stronger by the minute, like he was literally drawing power from his mate.
Well, soon to be mate. It was just a matter of time now, and that made me smile.
"You really want to meet him," Arch noted.
"Yeah, well, he's... I mean..."
"He's like you," Arch guessed.
"I mean, I'm not... I'm not a son of – oh for fuck's sake, Fenrir! Get out of my head!"
Arch laughed lightly and carefully put his arm around Jack's shoulders. Jack blushed lightly, and his posture turned a bit timid, but he didn't move away. And in a short moment, he relaxed again.
I couldn't help but notice how similar their talismans were.
I glanced at Tilly, who was somewhere deep in her thoughts. She kept glancing out the window, up at the sky. Her spirits were calm as well. She'd been distressed the entire morning, so it was nice to see she had found peace again.
Oliver...
I turned to look at Jaden, who showed me his talisman.
Look! It's done!
"It looks great," I said, putting my talisman next to his. "They look almost the same."
Uh-huh...
It was not exactly words I could hear. More like I could feel his thoughts. It was fascinating, and I loved it.
I rested my head on his shoulder and put my arm around his stomach. He peered at me, his beautiful eyes sparkling at me. He had a lot of happy thoughts and feelings, and all of them made me smile wider.
I hugged him tightly and took in his scent. Almost like we weren't in constant danger.
Hey...
I looked up at him, and he kissed the top of my nose.
We will kick their asses.
When he said it like that, I believed him.
Once the talismans were done, we begged for Aurora to let us go for a walk while we waited for the visitors. We knew we'd be stuck indoors for a while, so we wanted to stay outside as long as possible. She finally agreed, but only if we got more guards with us.
Things really were busy in the territory. The first and most noticeable change in the security of the territory was this massive wall that was being built pretty much at the speed of light.
"Wow, you guys really are working fast," I muttered when we stopped to watch them.
There was one group cutting down the trees deeper in the territory, and we spotted a big truck bringing them to the builders. It was still odd to see a normal-build guy, not much older than me, grab a ten-feet long log and carry it to the pile on the ground. I would never be able to lift it!
"Werewolves," I breathed out as the guy returned to the truck.
Jaden was amused. He wiggled his eyebrows at me when I looked at him.
I chuckled and turned my attention back to the fence. There was another group digging the ground for the logs, and another one mounting the logs side by side into the ground.
"Peacekeepers and witches are adding their protective spells to it once it's done," Aurora explained. "It will surround the whole town, but we don't have time to build it around the entire territory."
"What about those who live outside the town?" Arch asked.
"I'm glad you asked," she said with a smile. "Apparently, peacekeepers can move entire houses."
We all were silent for a moment.
"That's so cool," Tilly finally said.
"We get everyone in the safety of the walls, and once our allies are done with them, the enemy will have a hard time passing through."
"And so will the shadows."
I jumped around when I heard Natalie's voice coming from behind us. I ran to her and hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't come to you sooner," Natalie muttered. "We had to find that hole in our wards, but we finally located it."
"I was fine," I told her, but didn't let go of her just yet.
I really needed that hug from her. I knew I was fine and as safe as any of us could be all along, but it wasn't until now that I actually felt fine.
"You're such a brave boy," she murmured in my ear and hugged me tighter.
Once I was ready to pull away, she planted a kiss on my forehead before letting go.
"We brought a lot of new totems," she said, turning to look at the wall. "We'll spread them along this wall once it's done."
"It's going to be impenetrable once we're done with it," Aurora said, and for the first time in a long while, she actually was confident. "We're reinforcing it with all the dwarven iron and witchwood we can find."
"It still won't stop Cameron," Natalie sighed. "Nothing will."
"Except for another champion," I said. "I'm sure the gods will find one."
She smiled at me and hugged me again. "You're right."
"I hope I am..."
Because the only other way we could deal with Cameron was me killing him, and we didn't want that.
'I don't want you to kill him, but... It is better than an eternity of anguish,' Cedric spoke quietly inside my soul.
Everyone glanced at me, so I knew Cedric was allowing them to hear us as well.
"We will do whatever we can to save him," I promised him.
'I still can't believe he turned to the dark side... But... At the same time...'
I waited for him to continue.
'He was fire,' Cedric finally said. 'His emotions burned hot. His love and his rage. He was not an easy lover to have.'
"Did he ever hurt you?"
'No, nothing like that, but we fought. Sometimes we fought over the stupidest things. And he could not stand the idea of me wishing for death.'
"We can still save him," I said. "We are not letting the darkness have him."
'I'm afraid it's too late. Once in the dark, finding your way out might be impossible.'
"But it has happened," I said. "All hope is not yet lost."
'Do you think... If we can save him... That he could ever forgive me?'
"If he loved you, then he should forgive you. You were old. Your time had come," I said. "If he can't... It's not your fault. You did nothing wrong."
Cedric was silent, and I suddenly had the feeling my answer was not what he wanted to hear. I understood why. He was still in love with Cameron. He wanted his lover back. He wanted to have his man by his side once again.
And they both could be reborn.
"We will save him, and then we force him to forgive you," I told him.
Cedric laughed lightly. 'Good luck forcing him to do anything.'
I could feel his tenderness when he thought of his lover.
"You will have him back," I only said. "I'll do whatever it takes so you can have him back."
'But first we need to catch him.'
"The peacekeepers are ready to move the second he returns," Aurora said reassuringly. "Come – I think we should return to the Hall."
The line for the talismans was much shorter now when we got there. I could see a lot of people showing theirs to their friends, and it was a big relief to notice almost everyone had one now.
"We've managed to trick humans into making their own as well," Natalie told us.
"How?"
"It's all thanks to the supernatural community we have living in our town," Natalie explained. "They're hosting a lot of fun activity parties for their friends and neighbors in the next few days. The companies, schools, daycare centers, the hospital and even the mall are in on it. We're trying to make sure everyone gets their own."
"And no one's going to ask why?"
"We've disguised it as a trend," Natalie said with a smirk. "And most of the people living around here are already aware of what's going on, so it's been easy to convince people that we all need the talismans."
Once we got back inside, the atmosphere had changed. It was clear the vampires would arrive soon since the Alphas were quite restless.
"They'll be using portals," Rayleigh told us. "The peacekeepers are with them now, so it's just a matter of time before they're here."
His words made me both excited and nervous. I'd met a few vampires at school, but I'd never actually talked with any of them. And this Heidi was a witch as well. A powerful witch.
Mike and a few other Spirit Walkers joined us a moment later, letting us all know that the totems were ready.
"How are you doing?" Mike asked me when he came to stand with us.
"I'm good," I said, and got a hug from him as well.
We chatted a bit while we waited, but eventually my focus started wandering. I watched the other in the room. Everyone seemed equally nervous, but in a positive way. We had hope now, or at least we thought we had. We were gaining strong allies, so we weren't alone in this anymore.
If only we knew who we were fighting against. The enemy was smart by not revealing who they were. We had no idea what they were capable of, or how strong they were, or how big their army was. It was easy to fear something so faceless. It was easy for them to put us down on our knees and fill us with fear. But what if the enemy was just one man with maybe ten people by his side? We wouldn't be this afraid if we knew that.
But we didn't know that. Most of us must've painted pictures of thousands and thousands of people, each of them way stronger than any of us, easily slaughtering everyone we held dear.
Fear. That was one of our worst enemies.
Our wait came to a sudden end when a big twirl of black dust appeared in the middle of the room. We all straightened our postures when Aadhil stepped through with another peacekeeper I hadn't met yet. They nodded as a greeting and stepped aside, taking their places on both sides of it.
I held my breath when the dust continued swirling. A second later, a tall African American couple appeared from it. The woman was wearing a long, elegant dress and a black shawl, and she was supporting herself on a shiny black walking stick. Her red eyes swept past us all, while the man straightened his jacket with a proud expression on his face.
They were gorgeous and frightening, but their souls drew my attention. I couldn't say if they were souls exactly. They were almost invisible even to my eye, but I could feel some kind of... energy. Something very old. Old and vicious.
They were joined by a small group of other just as well-dressed vampires, all of them giving us looks that couldn't be called curious per se, more like mildly interested.
"Mother Heidi. Father Wendell," Rayleigh spoke politely and bowed his head.
"Alpha," Heidi spoke.
"I'm Rayleigh Abner, the leader of this alliance."
I tuned out when he introduced the other alphas. I wasn't the only one ogling at the vampires as they stood there. They all were eerily beautiful with the perfect skins, colorful lips, and intensive stares.
"Thank you for coming to our aid," Rayleigh finally said.
"Your enemy is threatening the entire world. They are our enemy now as well," Heidi spoke. "We are here to prevent them from getting what they want. I understood there is someone they are after?"
That was my cue. I cleared my throat and stepped forward. They all turned to look at me. They didn't look too impressed.
"Oliver Attwood, a Spirit Walker and the Harbinger of Hades, the bearer of his Echo," Rayleigh spoke, gesturing at me. "We believe they are trying to corrupt Oliver and turn him against us."
"What an impressive title you have for such a young man," Heidi said as she stepped closer to me.
"I'm still sixteen, ma'am, not really a man yet," I said.
"You stand tall," she said, taking a better look at me. "Your age has nothing to do with it. I have heard of the Echo, but I thought it was a long-lost artifact."
"Gaea was protecting it," I explained. "They gave it to me so I'd use it to protect this world."
"And the enemy wants you to use the Echo to destroy it," Heidi nodded slowly. "The only artifact that can kill souls. You have the power to kill everyone with a snap of your fingers."
"Yeah..." I muttered.
"That artifact should not be in the hands of a mortal," Heidi continued. "I'd love to know what the gods were thinking when they gave it to you."
"They believed it was better off with me than in Gaea's protection," I said.
"I do not trust gods," Heidi said with a dark voice. "I do, however, trust my own power. As long as the Echo is in your hands, we need to make sure you do not give in to the corruption."
She turned around and snapped her fingers at her companions. They bowed and left the room.
"Let us begin," Heidi said, and followed the others out of the Hall.
I glanced at Rayleigh. He just shrugged and made us all follow the vampires.