Chapter 7 - Uninvited Guests
There were quick successions of tapping on the rooftop followed by a few chilly winds. Even the hair strands on Liana's body screamed in panic. It was like watching some horror show, holding your breath anticipating, but the difference was she was actually living inside it. Liana started having an emptiness growing inside her pit. Like something was sucking at her very core and it's made her weak at her knees.
"Steady! They can sense fear and pain," Draco ordered, helping Liana recuperate.
The glass at the back shattered as Liana saw what she should not have seen.
A deformed face with bifurcated eyes. Made of thick dark smog, dripping as it crawled, inhumanely upside down, hanging from the wall. It jumped from one side, then it went to the next, but before Liana could move, it was standing against her breast.
She felt the cold sweat form on her forehead and under her nose.
It tilted itself in strange angles as above Liana's head it rose.
"Surrender! By your Majesty's Order! " Draco yelled.
But it kept staring Liana into her eye as she felt everything tighten from inside out. She turned her eyes to find her body slowly phasing into solid stone. Despite that she looked at Draco desperately, asking him to hold Damian before he slipped from her hands and hit the ground.
But this time Liana caught something else in Draco's eyes.
He was looking in another direction, like someone waiting for a cue. But Liana was in no position to even turn to catch its view.
"Now! " Draco barked as two consecutive jumps surrounded the Shadow in some kind of a net. It howled in pain as the two figures struggled to have it restrained. Draco walked nonchalantly towards it this time, filled with air and poise like he usually is, and robust.
He placed a hand on its mouth as it shrank. The two figures came in front of Liana's sight as they packed The Shadow up like some pile of dirty laundry.
"Nearly done..."
But Draco slammed the speaker at his back before he even uttered the rest of his words.
"What took you so long, Calix? Did you find the ones issuing this order?"
Draco demanded as the lad looked up at him with timid but big eyes.
He was covered in steel, waist down like Draco was the first time she had a clear view of him on that ground. The lad had fiery hair, reddish in hue very unlike Draco's white which was now short and cute. "Ah! Did I just think this dragon was cute!" Liana hit herself in her head and winked hard trying to shake what was in her mind.
"Oh! You. I had completely forgotten. Neutralize this one Raba, before we are found. " Draco looked at Liana as if disgusted with her winks and threw the instructions at the girl standing next to her.
She looked as badass as it could get. Liana kept staring as she blew her with a blast. The girl Raba, opened her perfectly sultry mouth as flame poured out from some mount. It warmly melted the solid entrapping Liana inside and she broke free and almost fell on her rescuer once again.
"Careful! " Raba smiled at Liana with the sweetest voice.
That was completely opposite to what she looked like. Her hair was tied in several tails unlike the boys and it appeared golden-like, very much close to a blonde. Her frame was strapped in leather and steel but what set her apart from the two men were her hands, which appeared mechanical. They didn't just seem metallic but Liana could tell by the touch that they were actual steel.
"Is that our little prince? "She asked Damian in a little embrace.
"Let him be for a while. We still don't know how many more are lurking. They all nodded and then looked like they were getting ready to leave. "Are you sure we should head back first?"
"How long do you plan to stay here?"
"
"It's better this way till we are able to detect the source of the defectors. I cannot risk what happened to happen again."
Liana listened with concentration trying to understand what they were getting at, however Draco tucked her back under his arms as the other two leaped out of the open window frame. "So? "
Liana finally asked when nothing came from Draco's end.
"So? So what? Don't you know where you live? Do you need help to even find your own home? How pathetic."
Drack rolled his eyes like Liana had asked him an elementary question.
"Is he planning to come to my house? Is it for Damian? Can I even trust this man? It's improper to take someone to one's house on a first date.
Date? How did I even come with this word... Shit! shit! shit! There is definitely something wrong with the wordings in my brain. "
"Do you plan to stay here all night?" Draco's husky voice brought Liana back from her self-reprimanding journey and she smiled the most awkward smile, and then moved slowly away from under his hands. "Umm, may I ask if you were asking for my house so you could see Damian and me off?" She asked, knowing full well, it wasn't what he was talking about.
"See you off? I am going to live with you. You have my son and I need to be here too. We cannot set off to our kingdom right away. And isn't it obvious we would need a place to stay. Since he is already living with you, it's just going to be one more gracing your lowly residence."
"Yeah," Liana forced another smile, " Live with me, Yeah! And grace my lowly residence, " She looked at themselves and repeated, "Just the three of us. Under a single terrace. Alright. As you say, Your Majesty. I will lead the way." She cursed under her breath so hard, she almost bit her tongue away. But Draco seemed to be quite impressed by the last few of her words. He nodded apparently quite pleased as she walked sulking in front, taking the lead.