*Thane's POV*
I glanced at her. "What are you saying?" I demanded. My heart was beating fast now and I was beginning to realize what was going on but my brain wasn't catching up with my heart.
"What are you saying?" She said in disbelief. "You came up to me, remember?" she searched my eyes for some sort of recognition but I was sure she was met with nothing but confusion because her eyes dilated from disbelief into shock. "You can't remember what you told me?" She demanded.
"I didn't tell you anything. You told me… remember. You said it would have been good, that you had higher goals. Can't…" I paused, although the entire passage was dark, we could see each other's face clearly.
We were, after all, both creatures of the night. I was a werewolf, slave to rage and anger especially under the moonlight but my strength was unparalleled.
She was a vampire, an immortal being of almost godlike powers and yet here we stood face to face with each other, unable to figure out why we fell apart. "I never said that." She said simply. "And I am guessing you didn't leave me stranded on the road and told me to never look for you because you realized you had no love for me, only pity." She nodded.
"Someone did this," I realized. Our love, what we had with each other, someone wanted to break us apart and they succeeded. "But who?"
She glanced at me with an almost teary face. "I wondered for months… why would he say such a thing…" she was speaking to herself now, like she always did when she was trying to figure out a situation. "I came by the house. It was gone… no one was there. Sarah… she convinced me…" she began to speak but I cut her short.
"Sarah?" I demanded. "She advised me to sell the house and leave. She said you wanted nothing to do with me again. She told me about your marriage to Drago… she even tried to…" I paused remembering what'd happened.
Sarah was our friend, not much of my friend but I came to respect her. However, Athena and her shared a bond of friendship that was almost unbreakable. "So she did this." Athena raised her head in clarity and I nodded. "What do you say we destroy this cult and find that bitch and end things promptly!"
"I couldn't agree more." I said as we both fled through the passage. By the time we moved, Drago was already dead.
"What was your plan?" she asked me.
I revealed a jar of poison, hanging down from my belt and also dipped my hand in my pocket showing her a magical circle. "This will help reverse what they have been building for months. It is like an error in the magic code. I have only been able to come here once, but I got everything."
She smiled. "you still have that impeccable memory." She turned forward as we dashed through the hallway. "The ritual will start in the next five minutes so we need to act fast."
I nodded. We exited the passageway after about three minutes and entered into the center of the hallway. While we were running we made multiple plans just in case our individual plans went haywire.
At the center there were multiple people seated around a lit up stage. All of them were important people in the society and they all sat there. The sight disgusted me that I almost lost control in that instant.
The stage had a long broad pike at its center and multiple magic circles were etched onto its floor.
"Calm down, " Athena said behind me. "We need to keep our heads down.
"I know. Get to work," I said.
She crouched down beside me and started to fix a dynamite around the chair we were at. I watched her work, her brows furrowed and her focus undeniable. I smiled. For the first time in months, I was happy again.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" A voice called out from the center stage. A woman was standing in the middle of the magic circles. "We are about to begin the ritual. However, before we begin, I would like to introduce you to our guests."
She said, and pulled off her hood. I bulged my eyes in shock and instinctively tapped Athena. "What?" She whispered, but she must have seen the horrific gaze on my face because she didn't speak anymore but instead looked in the direction I was calling from. Standing in the middle of the room was Sarah.
The light directed at the center stage shifted towards them and the entire audience started to laugh. "Welcome. Athena Von Harkness and Thane Bloodhound."
I froze in place. This was unexpected. Athena glanced at me, and I could see a little flicker of fear rundown her face. Three hooded men surrounded us immediately, all of them pointing a musket in our direction.
They signalled for us to head towards the center stage and we complied. When we got to the center stage, Sarah was waiting for us with a smile. Her red hair was tied into a ponytail and the freckles on her cheeks that always made her appear innocent had a devilish glint to them now.
"Sarah?" I blurted out first.
"Yes. Hello, Thane." She waved at me in a sarcastical manner. "Relieve them of their weapons please," she said and her aides obeyed. They searched us from head to toe and stripped us off all the contents in our pockets and the ones attached to our clothes.
The crowd gasped when they peeled off multiple dynamites from Athena's body. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, this two came here with ill intent. To stop us from achieving our goal. We worked hard for this, didn't we?"
The crowd roared. "Sarah. What are you doing?" Athena voiced.
Sarah just gave her a dismissive wave and continued with her speech. "Today the Clockwork Union will be disbanded and we will realign to become the Children of Miracle!" The crowd cheered once more.
"As for you two," she turned to us. "I always knew you were going to try and ruin what I have built. That was why I drove you apart, but still it seems you are both doomed to always find each other." She shook her head. "I needed two more sacrifices anyways! Tie them up!" she yelled in a very angry manner!
"Sarah, you were behind this? You know what you are doing right? Ninety five people were found dead in the last three-months, all killed the same way. The rate of lunacy has increased, disease, accidents… you name it. We tried to solve this together. What are you doing?" Athena yelled! Her body was boiling, and I could feel the anger.
"What I have to!" She yelled. "You are content with the way the world is, aren't you. Hunting for small criminals, while the real ones eat all the good things of this world. My mom died, my dad died. My son died. What did this world do to repay me, they put me back on the streets. I was a police and the support they gave me was to leave me without a job!"
"Like I have anything either! My pain doesn't bring justification to drown everyone else in misery and neither does yours!" Athena yelled back.
"Read my lips. I don't give a damn about your morality. I have made my choice." She said and then closed her eyes as she began to chant an incantation.
I just gazed into space, glaring as if I have been under a trance but, I wasn't. I have only been counting. Just as Sarah finished counting, I glanced up at Athena with a wink and she smiled.
The ground which we were kneeling on cracked all of a sudden and all the magical circles drawn on it diffused into space. Sarah tripped backwards in shock. "What happened?" She yelled, then our eyes met. "Thane, what did you do!"
"Well, you forgot to remove this from me," a paper dropped from my sleeves and I held out the magical circle that I'd shown Athena earlier.
"Do you realize what you have done?" She yelled.
"No… no I don't." I chuckled. Of course I did. Summoning a Yokai can only happen when four condition are met. One. The true name of the Yokai is known. Two. The stars allign to the exact time the particular Yokai can be summoned. Three. Enough blood sacrifices have been made. Four. Enough desires have gathered to bring about the summon.
This meant the plan that I'd just cracked can only happen in another three years. "I a going to kill you!" She yelled and flung a musket in my direction, but before she could aim, an explosion shook the entire area.
Athena and I didn't even think we broke into a sprint and we could hear Sarah's scream as we escaped. However, soon enough, the screams of rage that we heard suddenly turned into screams of agony.
We stopped and turned back, only to see a black smoke emitting from everyone as they screamed in pain. My eyes bulged. "Corruption!" Athena and I spoke at the same time.
"Yes, but…" she glanced at her arm and it was pulsing with black pus.
"Our body is corrupted," I spotted similar traits on me. "The demonic aura managed to escape."
"What do we do?" She said, as she watched Sarah crumble to the ground in agony.
I fished out of my pocket two talismans and showed it to her. Athena glanced at me with her eyes bulged. "Soul Transference?" She demanded.
"Before we get corrupted body, soul and mind," I replied. "It is our only option!"
She nodded and snatched it. The thing about the talisman was that it would eject our soul and place it in a new body, but we probably would lose lots of our memories and it would take an hassle to get them back but, we had to. The corruption of a demon was incurable.
We both swallowed the talisman downing it as our body began to get covered in black pus as we faded into blackness.