Full of Regret

“They did what?”

Everyone was in the living room. The mikes and cameras were on the table and Mr. Kegorska had decided it would be a good idea to tell everyone what had been going on without our knowledge. Bruhno had been the one to burst out with his incredulous question.

I decided to try to explain it once more. “They planted microphones and cameras around the castle and nobody knew it until recently. The wedding will be planned somewhere else and the mothers will not be involved at all.”

Everyone cheered at the prospect of no more crazy mothers and nobody else questioned what they had done due to the fact that they were finally gone.

“Well, thank you for getting rid of them!” Matt exclaimed and hugged me.

“I didn’t really do anything. You make it sound like I killed them or something.”

He paused for a minute.

“Would you?”

He looked and sounded so hopeful that I just smiled and turned my attention to another conversation that had started.

Adinn and I had to talk still and I could tell by how anxious he seemed that something was up. He knew something and had to share it with me, something about Alcazar. It was most likely time, or it would be very soon.

The group soon broke up and Adinn and I went to the room we shared to talk as sure as we knew nobody else was around.

“It’s time. The day after tomorrow we’re meeting at the cave you guys went to. It’s your suggestion to meet there, although it was me who is inviting you. You’re going to want to go, but nobody else will let you go alone, so the whole group will be there. You’re going to have a fight with them, saying you trust me and everything while they’re honestly saying that you shouldn’t trust me. I’ll be trying to convince you that I’m all you think I am, although you know I’m not bad, you’ll think I’m good, but won’t know I’m ‘working’ for him. Then Darian will most likely start a fight with me, saying I’m a liar and whatever and then everyone will be surprised when he’s right, but then, when you tell them to, everyone will attack Alcazar and whoever he brings with him and we’ll go from there, okay?” he asked me, having thought it all out already.

“Sure. Sounds like a plan. I’ll warn the others that they shouldn’t take anything too far. Like killing you or anything. Not to overreact because that could be dangerous. If they go too far, it could get us all killed and the plan will have been for nothing.”

“Exactly. We have to take it far enough that we convince him and then you supposedly hate me since I’m supposedly on the bad side, but then we’ll tell everyone it was a plan to get Alcazar there with some of his people,” Adinn said, pacing slightly as he thought more about the day after tomorrow.

I sat on the bed for a moment, then crossed over to Adinn and stood in front of him so he’d stay still for a minute before hugging him. It would soon be the end of our relationship for the most part and everyone would know the truth. I didn’t want to lie to my friends, but it was for their own safety so they wouldn’t know too much and have Alcazar or one of his followers read their minds and catch that it was a plan to get one over on them.

Adinn hugged me back gently and I knew we were both going to miss being together. I pulled away slightly when I suddenly remembered something. Adinn’s arms remained wrapped around my waist as he looked at me with confusion.

“I have a friend. She’s a type of werewolf and she lives by the cave. I’m sure she would help us because while we were staying at the cave I told you about at the very beginning of everything, we found her and I taught her how to fish when she was starving. She was getting protection from her dead demon love and if she wandered too far away, she would get killed. She said she’d do a favor for me and the group if we needed one. I’m sure if she has enough strength, she would help us if something goes wrong the day after tomorrow. Just letting you know that if you see her, she’s a friend, not an enemy,” I explained and he nodded, smiling.

“I won’t hurt her. But thank you for warning me so something doesn’t happen if I do see her,” he said, his smiling never fading. I loved how he would be genuine around me and he wasn’t somebody other than himself. “I’m sorry we’re together in these circumstances. I wish they were different.”

“Me too.”

“You know, I actually wanted to be with you to just be with you, but you were with Darian and that’s all I needed, to actually steal his girlfriend from him. But I know you wouldn’t do that to anybody. You’re not that kind of person. You wouldn’t intentionally hurt anybody unless they deserved it greatly or unless they were going to hurt others and the only way to stop it was to physically hurt them, but you wouldn’t do anything to harm anyone emotionally. You were the one who convinced everyone else to let me stay with you guys and for that I am grateful. Otherwise I would be going after you and I wouldn’t be here now,” he said quietly, looking into my deep red eyes with his own that matched the color of mine almost to the exact shade.

“I care about Darian and I hated hurting him for a plan. But I honestly don’t think we’d have worked out much longer anyways. Time is all we have and I think it started out being the right time, but it was turning into something wrong. I knew you weren’t bad, although you definitely annoyed me at first, acting all arrogant and macho. And I wish this could be through different circumstances as well, but it isn’t. And I think it may work out one day, after all this. That is, if it’s the right time for both of us. And if we haven’t both moved on by then,” I said, looking back into his eyes.

“I don’t think so. Now that we’ve been together, I don’t think I can move on that easily, although it would be nice not having to worry about any psycho vamps coming after us all.
Well, you’re the main target, but you know what I mean.”

I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.

We just stayed where we were. We were still hugging, at least until there was a light, hesitant knock on the door. It was almost hesitant, like it knew it was interrupting something and it didn’t want to, yet it had to for one reason or another. I knew exactly who it was and silently opened the door for them. Taz stood on the other side, looking a little nervous, as if he thought someone was going to hurt him if he didn’t say what he had to, or that Adinn or I would if he did.

“Come on in, Taz,” I invited warmly. I knew him well enough to know he wasn’t the kind of being to just barge in without being invited and he hated giving people news of any kind, unless it’s really great. He may have always had an outgoing, completely goofy side that showed most of the time, but he was as self-conscious as anyone. It wasn’t that he put on an air for others, but he did leave the past in the past and he would never let it seem like anything bothered him because that was weakness and he couldn’t let himself seem weak.
Ever.

He slowly stepped into the room, almost seeming to dread what he had to say. His shoulders slumped slightly as he stood by the door. I closed it and motioned for him to sit down if he wanted to. Another thing about Taz is that he could never really sit down without becoming more nervous. It’s just something about the action of sitting down and staring at his hands with nowhere to go that made him feel worse than if he’s just standing there, moving from foot to foot.

But this time he accepted the invitation to sit without thinking twice about it. He glanced quickly at Adinn when he wasn’t looking, unsure whether he should say anything about what he was planning to tell me in front of Adinn. I sat on the table across from the small loveseat so I was facing Taz and Adinn perched himself nonchalantly by the wall, keeping his distance as not to intrude on what Taz had to say.

I waited for Taz to begin, but he just sat there for a while, looking nervous and unsure as to whether he was doing the right thing or not. He leaned his elbows on his knees and stared down at his interlocked hands. He finally looked up at me and the look in his eyes said it all: it killed him to tell me what he knew he had to tell me.

“I hate this,” he whispered, his eyes connected with mine for a minute before he looked down again to regain his courage. “I know something that you need to know before anything else happens. I know something’s coming up soon with this war and you need to know this before you get too distracted and it comes out at the wrong moment. And you’ve been my best friend longer than anyone I’ve ever known. And we were part of a group with Nedi, but I’m afraid that’s done. She’s jealous and angry at you and she’s planning on retaliating at the worst possible moment and messing up your whole plan. She says she doesn’t trust you anymore and it’s all because she doesn’t want someone else to have the glory that she’s always wanted. She needs to be left behind when something happens. Locked in a room or something where she can’t get out and join the opposite side, because she will.”

I already knew what was coming and I knew Taz was telling me the truth. Nedi had told him all about it and had tried to get him to join her and turn against me, but he wasn’t. Most people would think I was missing something, but my powers were stronger than ever, especially the truth detecter. I nodded solemnly and heard Adinn tense up from his spot.

“I’ve known something was coming with her for a while now, I just didn’t know how bad it was. And I knew she’d try to take anyone she could with her,” I told Taz before turning to Adinn. “Do you think we should take her with and just let her not fight?”