Chapter 20: Dine and Dash.

  Lamar was doing some inventory of his weapons he had at home when there was a knock at his front door, he put down the crossbow he was currently holding and went to answer it. There was a monitor right next to his door that was hooked up to a camera that was on the other side. It was Chris, Lamar hesitated, what was he doing here he thought.

  “I know you’re there; I can smell your cologne.”

  “Damn werewolf sense of smell.” Lamar cursed under his breath.

  Lamar opened the door and there stood Chris holding some takeout bags and a expensive bottle of wine.

  “What is all this? And you know I don’t drink.” Lamar said taking the bag of food that Chris handed to him.

  “The wine is for me, and I know you’re probably hungry, you tend not to eat when you’re stressed.” Chris followed Lamar into his kitchen where Lamar grabbed some plates and a glass for Chris, they then sat down at the dining table.

  “The apartment looks nice.” Chris complimented.

  “Thanks, I finally decided to decorate it, didn’t really have the time before so I decided to make some.”

  “You know you didn’t have to leave though; you could have stayed with me.”

  “Chris if I would have stayed you wouldn’t be breathing right now.” Lamar shot him a look of contempt. Their relationship was still a sore spot for him, honestly if it wasn’t for this situation they were in now he still wouldn’t be talking to him.

  “Are you ever going to forgive me?” Chris asked with sadness in his voice.

  “Eventually I think I can. I took a lot a shit from a lot of people on both sides of the fence, but I didn’t care because I loved you and I thought you loved me, so it’s going to take a while before I can get to forgiveness.”

  “I did love you, I still do. I made a bunch of stupid mistakes and I get that, and I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

  “That maybe so, and you truly might still love me, but Chris you don’t respect me or what we had because if you did you wouldn’t of did the shit you did. Furthermore I don’t want to rehash all of this, I’m assuming there is another reason you came over here?”

  “Just wanted to see you is all.” Chris admitted. Lamar could tell he was being sincere and started to feel bad for the attitude he was given him. He decided to relax and enjoy the meal, he was hungry, he didn’t remember the last time he ate something today if he ate at all. They sat and ate, and he even let his guard down enough that they started reminiscing about the good old days when they heard the lock on the front door click.

  “You are expecting somebody?” Chris asked.

  “No, I live alone.” Chris was relieved to hear that.

  The door swung open and in walked Sean, Mycal, Roberto and Daniel.

  Lamar came around the corner hands sparking with electricity ready to shoot the first person or thing he saw.

  “Whoa whoa whoa it’s just us.” Mycal said guarding his body.

  “What the hell are you guys doing just barging in like that?” Lamar stowed away his powers.

  “What are you eating? It smells good.” Daniel said making a straight shot to the dining room.

  “Would you not just…” It was too late Daniel already was in the dining room. He came out eating a egg roll and giggling.

  “You sneaky sneaky sneak you.” Daniel said waving the egg roll in disapproval.

  “It’s not what it looks like.”

  “What’s not what it looks like, the others brushed passed Lamar and went to see what Daniel saw, there sitting at the table was Chris pouring another glass of wine.

  “What the hell!” Mycal said.

  “He came over to talk and that’s all.”

  “Okay so did we, we can have one big conference.” Mycal pulled up a chair and sat at the table.

  “Wait why are you here?”

  “You really think I’m going to miss the biggest fight of our lives, not a chance.”

  “You died in that last fight remember.” Sean said.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “What about the whole coming back to life thing, we can’t explain this to people.” Lamar said frustrated that Mycal was back.

  “Illusion magic.”

  “I don’t know illusion magic.”

  “Well you better figure some out or invent something that can make it look like it.” Sean told Lamar.

  “Yeah yeah, I’ll figure something out.”

  “Why are they putting all of this responsibility on you.” Chris interjected.

  “Who asked you anything.” Daniel said.

  “Nope, we aren’t doing this right here. Let’s just get to why you guys are here.”

  “My mother called me; she wants to help us kill my father.”

  “Why would she help us?” Lamar asked.

  “I don’t know, I haven’t met with her yet, but if she is being honest, we can really use here help.” My mother is as strong as my father, maybe even stronger. She is a direct decedent of one of the very first vampires.”

  “Doesn’t that mean you are to?” Mycal asked.

  “Yeah, but the older a vampire is the stronger they are and I might get to that type of strength one day, but right now I’m nowhere near strong enough to stop him.”

  “Do you really think your mother will kill your father?” Chris asked.

  “Their marriage is one of convenience and not love, it was just to keep our bloodline going.”

  “Say we pull this off some kind of way, then what we just ride off into the sunset.” Mycal brought a good point they all thought.

  “What if we revise the treaty that is already in place where all the supernatural beings have an equal territory and rights.” Chris suggested.

  “No way, if all you guys come together like that it will be the end of humanity in Toledo.” Lamar expressed.

  “The only thing that kept you guys from ganging up on the humans is the fact you all hate each other, if you guys come together we are done for and you know it. The fact of the matter is the oppression the vampires have over the other supernatural beings work in our favor.” Mycal stated.

  “The vamps are the most ruthless and probably kill the most humans out of all of us. What if we make a council which includes the duskers, that way.”

  “My brother will never go for that, if we take out my father, he will be the next in line to head the vampire race in Toledo, he may not be as ruthless as our father but he hate the wolves as much as father does.” Roberto knew what he was talking about, his brother would never agree to any kind of council.

  “We stick to the plan we had before, we take out the Eastside vampires and give it to the wolves and then we go after your father.” Lamar said.

  “My dad knows about that plan and they will be ready for us, we need to come up with a new idea, but we also don’t have time either.”

  They sat around the dining room table coming up with a plan of action, but they mainly argued. Roberto looked at his phone, it was almost time to meet up with his mother. Lamar was going to go with him just in case it was a trap of some sort. The others went to get ready for the assault on the Eastside mansion of vampires even though they still didn’t have a solid plan.

  The night was unseasonably warm for this time of year, Roberto and Lamar stood at the entrance to the skating rink. Roberto was nervous, he trust his mother but power can change anyone thought, his mother wasn’t like his father but she was still a queen nonetheless and she had her own responsibilities to the vampires, the fact she wanted to help was a bit unnerving.

  “You ready for this?” Lamar asked.

  “Not really, I don’t want to have to fight my mom.” Roberto said as they walked inside.

  “The rink was busy being a Saturday night, there were people of all ages skating to R&B music. The flashing lights lit up the floor as the laughter and music filled the room with happiness, in the middle of the rink skating like a professional was Roberto’s mother, Roberto just stopped and starred, she was memorizing to him.

  “Aren’t you engaged.” Lamar said nudging Roberto and laughing.

  “What, that’s my mom you creep.”

  “Oh, she just looks so young. Well she is a vampire so I guess that makes sense.”

  Roberto’s mother must of sensed his presence because she started skating in their direction. She got off the skating rink and gave her son a hug.

  “Who is this,” she asked.

  “Mom this is Lamar, Lamar this is my mother the queen of the vampires Isabella.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Lamar awkwardly bowed.

  “You don’t have to do that.” She laughed. She suggested they go have a sit in the eating area, they got a table quickly because mostly everyone was skating or playing pool in the billiards area. The waitress came over she couldn’t be more than sixteen. They ordered soft drinks and Isabella ordered a basket of fries.

  “Wait you guys can eat regular food?” Lamar was a bit dumbfounded at the revelation.

  “We can eat, it just don’t do anything for us, but we still can taste. I wasn’t excepting you to bring a visitor.”

  “I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect.” Roberto answered.

  The queen raised her hand and snapped her fingers, the music stopped and everyone in the building stopped skating and looked in their direction. A chill ran up Lamar’s spine, the room was full of vampires, how didn’t he notice this he thought. He clutched his satchel; he had a few potions and vamp grenades like the one he used at Roberto’s house. The queen snapped her finger again, the music begun to play and the vampires resumed skating.

  “Now son if I wanted you dead, well you know the rest.”

  “Was that supposed to scare us?” Lamar tried to sound tough.

  “Your heart is telling a different story.” She giggled.

  “I thought you wanted to help us mom.”

  “I do and I will, but you must do me a favor as well. When we get rid of your father, I want you to take over and be king.” She thanked the waitress as she put down her fries and diet coke.

  “What about Mark, he is next in line to be king.” Roberto couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “Your brother is to much like your father, he may seem less dangerous, but he might even be more sadistic.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I think you should do it, you’d make a good king.” Lamar joined in the conversation.

  They sat for awhile talking everything out when Roberto noticed that the time was slipping away, and it was close to morning. The vampires were still skating away. Lamar had to meet up with the guys for the assault on the Eastside.

  “I got to go, it’s getting early don’t you think you guys should get going, sunrise is in an hour.”

  “I think we are going to just stay here, I need to talk more with my mom.”

  Lamar got up and bowed to the queen again and walked towards the exit, but before he got to the door he stopped and turned to face the queen. He raised a hand and snapped his finger and all the vampires besides Isabella and Roberto fell to the ground unconscious. Lamar spell wasn’t that instant he been working on it since they sat down but he wasn’t going to tell them that, he gave the queen a wink and walked out the door.

  “Touché.”