49
I rushed Lauren to the faes emergency room and they immediately started to check her vitals. I stood to the side, along with Celestine and Amoya. The others were still at the area doing God knows what.
"She's perfectly healthy." The doctor said with furrowed brows as she rested the stethoscope down. "Everything is okay, her heart rate is normal and it appears as if she's just sleeping. There's something slightly off but I can't seem to place my finger on it."
I looked at my mate and tried feeling her presence through the mate bond. She was there, but it was faint.
"We'll keep her for the night and examine her, if thats okay with you, your majesty?"
I nodded and the three of us left the room, leaving the doctor inside.
"What happened back there?" Celestine asked, still in shock.
"I don't know." I mumbled. I was confused.
"Every single life force that I have put in there has died immediately upon touch. Lauren was there for a good few seconds before you notice her and nothing happened to her. It was almost as if... she was immune to the darkness." Amoya said as we left the ER.
I was silent the entire time, thinking of all the possibilities of how this could be possible.
One lingered.
One possibility lingered.
"Amoya." I stopped walking and so did they.
"Yes, Athena?"
I rubbed my hand over my face and sighed.
"Do they have any pictures of Ophelia's child?" I asked and she looked at me in thought.
"Yes, I suppose so. I can have Venice check the archives for you."
"Please do."
"Why?" She asked and I resumed walking.
I licked my lips as I stared out to... hole of darkness. It still looked the same as before, no changes to it.
"When she was seizing, her skin went pale and then back to normal, her eyes turned black - like the portal and it coursed through her body.
As clearly shown, she's immune to the dark magic.
Like you've said, any living thing that touches it, perishes.
What other logical explanation could it be other than she's the daughter of Ophelia? "
"She's human! So what if the magic doesn't work on he-" Amoya and I glared at Celestine, shutting her up.
"I'll have Venice check the archives and in the meantime, we can do run a background check on Lauren to see if we find anything about her. Celestine, you can keep tabs on Lauren and report to Athena if any thing."
Celestine nodded and headed back in the infirmary.
Amoya led us to their library and asked for a guy named King. The fae soon presented himself - except, he wasn't a faery. He was a horse- half man, half horse. My eyes widened slightly.
I've never met a centaur before.
They were rare, very rare.
"King." Amoya nodded at him and he did the same back to her. "This is one of the queens of the vampire nation and she is asking for your help. Athena, this is King, a centaur, one of the best I know at doing anything that requires virtual assistance."
We shook hands and he led us to a small room that was hidden in the walls of the library. It seemed to be his lair as he led us into the extremely tall room. There was a portrait of a few centaurs running wild and another of him.
"What are we looking for?" King asked as he sat- laid down in front of a computer.
"We're running a background check on Lauren Holness. See if there's anything about her off-putting about her." Amoya said and King hummed as he typed a few things in the computer.
It took a while to load and when it did, he showed it to us.
It's the same thing I saw when I got her file the first day of her coming to the castle. Parents - not available, guardian - Judith Holness, grandmother, Siblings - one, brother: Marcus Holness and other useless information.
"Do a background check on her grandmother." Amoya said as she stared at the computer in thought. "Did Lauren ever tell you anything about her grandmother?" I shook my head. "It's strange that they have the same last name."
"Blank." King said as he turned the laptop to us.
That's strange.
It's almost as if she doesn't exists.
"Her brother."
He did a background check and then showed it to us.
Everything else was either useless or blank. I growled in annoyance.
This is a waste of time.
"Nothing adds up." King said. "If I'm wrong, correct me, but from my observation, you're trying to find out about this girl named Lauren, her background data. Judith here, is who she lives with and Marcus is her supposedly brother. My guess here is that Judith adopted Marcus as a cover up-"
"Cover up for what?" I asked. It was weird that he'd assume that and we didn't tell him anything.
"I saw the entire thing unfold and I'm putting one and one together." King said and I nodded in understanding.
"As I was saying, she could've adopted Marcus so that it looked like she was a caring grandmother. Clearly, she put them both in her name. There's no stating where Lauren came from or her parents. She couldn't have been registered into the - I'm about to go off topic."
"Get to the point."
"What I'm trying to say is that, Lauren couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere and this Judith lady feigned her entire certificate. I say go to Judith and see what she has to say about this. Her parents are absent and suddenly Judith is the grandmother? One plus one is not giving two."
You know, that actually makes sense.
"We don't have time to visit Judith. It'll take me one day and a half to make it to her and then make it back here, three days. Things can get worse by then. There's no telling when this is going to explode on all of us."
"I have an idea." Amoya said as her eyes twinkled. "Find me the story of the dark mage."
King did as told.
He found the story and we grabbed chairs and sat down. Amoya hummed as she read a few words.
"This part where it says that grim magic was what made the child and was stored in it. " Her fingers trailed under the words. "As we know, two of the same type of magic attracts each other. The grim magic in the child - possibly Lauren - was attracted to the hotspot, the black hole."
"Here is a picture of Ophelia and she looks almost like Lauren. Same hair type, same face structure, same eye color, same lip shape. The only thing that I see from Malique is the nose."
"Her grandma - have you ever seen her?"
"No." I answered.
Amoya hummed in thought.
"I'll have Celestine take a blood test and from there, I'll draw any possible magic from her blood to the surface."
My phone rung and I removed it from my pocket and looked at the caller, Mateo.
"Ye-"
"FUCKING COME RIGHT NOW! FUCK!" The connection died and I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at the phone screen.
We heard an explosion and I flinched as we heard screams. I looked at Amoya and we rushed outside.
In the air pooled dark magic as it exploded like a volcano.
The magic made a whooshing sound before it exploded once more, going off like a bomb.
I placed my hand over my eyes, blocking the dirt that blew up from the heavy wind that came from the explosion and squinted my eyes.
The dark magic disappeared and Amoya and I rushed to the field.
My heart fell to my stomach as I looked at the sight in front of me.
All sight of purple magic has disappeared and it was now just plain darkness- black magic. The darkness spurted from the hole as it took over more and more of the surroundings.
We heard a laughing came from the dark hole. I was now convinced it was a portal.
"Missed me?"
Ophelia.