148 Rescue I

THE PIT

SECTOR 3 AREA 9 TOWER 17

KODAK TERSOLON.

I was running out of patience, as. Cool headed as I might seem patience was not my thing. The very idea of waiting always made me anxious, especially now whenwe had such a sensitive mission on our hands.

While this place was not at the very edge of the district like our tower, it was still isolated. No vampire has lived here before, or had a reason to be here unless they had something to do away from prying eyes. Which was why it made such a good spot to hide a kidnapped noble princess.

The tower was heavily guarded, and they had routine patrols and shifts that followed a very tight routine. We needed to get in undetected, and any noise would probably throw that plan out of the window.

We had to get to the princess without alerting any one of the numerous guards in the tower. It was a sensitive mission, but there was something else that had my blood pumping faster than normal; this was the first time I would be taking the fight to the guards.

And I was nervous and excited at the same time. I shifted my eyes to the left and right of me, Teluna looked tense standing by my right, he's been somewhat off ever since Asare had given him a rather peculiar heart to heart talk after the fire wolf's attack.

From my experience, I think the young vampire was maturing and coming into his own person, he was faced with choices and differing beliefs, and with what he has gone through, the idea of being merciful to his enemies seemed to be tearing him apart. Or it could just be that he really did not want to be known as a monster, if that was the case then I truly understood why he was so out of it.

Because if he eventually becomes a monster, then the council of light wins, because we would have become the very thing they said we were, and validated their decision of locking us up like a pack of animals in a cage.

Gus was kneeling on the ground, eye's closed and laser focused. I felt so inadequate standing next to him, and more than a little upset. It was obvious Gus had a special place in the mind of both Kael, Asha, and Asare.

I don't blame them though, Gus was a genius at everything he did. Twelve years old and he has barely been unsealed for more than a month, but on his own he has innovated and created new techniques and battle skills, never before recorded in vampire history.

He was resourceful, perceptive, intelligent, and could find out things no one else can. I felt jealous, and angry and frustrated. This was no longer the brother I have spent more than half my life trying to protect, he was his own man now, his true self.

I watch everyday as my mother smiles more and more at him, pride evident in her face as I become nothing more than a face in the background. I should be happy for them, and I am, we've been through a lot in our lives and we all deserve a silver lining.

I just wished his silver lining did not make me feel so alone and useless. Gus picked himself up and turned to me, there was a soft smile on his face, and in that moment the anger in my heart faded.

My jealousy would be back eventually, but for now, this was my little brother. And the look on his face was something only I and our sister have been privy to in the past; He's found something out, and he was proud of himself about it.

Just like a little child he wants to show off to his big brother and be praised for it, he was so childish even with all of his maturity. I guess no matter what happens, I can never stop being his big brother, even though it seems he doesn't need me to protect him anymore. Teluna and I heard his voice in our heads.

"The current patrol will leave for a six hour break, and they will be replaced by another patrol in approximately ten minutes. There are five members in the new patrol, and they won't stray too far from the entrance, keeping it and each other in sight at all times. To get through, we have to make sure they all die at the same time, and in a completely silent manner. Kodak you're the only one capable of pulling that off."

I was surprised by what he said. I didn't even know what he was talking about, how was I supposed to kill five werewolves and maybe humans, standing more than a dozen feet away from each other at the same time. It was impossible, at least for the current me.

"While I'm pretty good at using blood techniques, and Teluna can teleport through the shadow realm with such ease it looks like he'sbreathing. You're the only one out of everyone who's unsealed so far, that's capable of controlling and manipulating blood to a degree where it literally becomes a body part of yours. Of course that would be brute strength in the art of blood manipulation, with no sort of subtlety involved, but! You're the fastest and you can be silent when you want to.As soon as they move to change the patrol, Teluna will teleport the blood through the shadow realm to their position, you have to be ready to manipulate the blood the moment it appears, and make sure it kills them all at once, and silently too. You're the only one who can do this because of how in control of you emotions and skills you can be."

I couldn't argue with that logic, especially when my skills were being praised. I gave them both a nod as I prepared myself. Before we had launched this operation, we had tried to investigate the guards in the tower as best as we could without alerting them.

The strongest person in that tower should be at the level of a shadower, it was the reason why only the three of us were sent here. Asha thought it was quite reckless, especially since the person whose life is in danger is actually Kael's sister, but Asare convinced her.

He said this was an important test for all three of us, and because of the nature of this situation, I suspected that he or Asha were not very far away, just in case something goes terribly wrong. It made me feel a bit relaxed. Just as Gus had said, a few moment later, five guards made their way into the tower to facilitate the change of the guard.

We came here with two seven inch wide and three foot long metal canisters of blood, hanging from a make shift strap on our backs. Teluna was adamant about not using one, looks like he has a thing about not using blood to fight.

I felt the blood in the canisters, felt them roil, bubble and boil at my commands. At first the scarlet liquid resisted my control, fought back, and it almost won. What many don't realize is that blood is an element itself, and quite frankly the hardest to master.

The very essence of life, hidden within it were traces and pieces of the shattered souls, mental energy and body of the person or thing it once belonged to. Blood was alive, and to truly control it, you must learn to live in it's own moment, rotate in its own axis, and be bound by it's rules.

I closed my eyes and for a second, a single second that felt like a lifetime of emotions and memories, of aches and pains, and joy and laughter. Full of life but covered with death, life and blood.

I connected, I submitted, and then I subjugated and controlled. And it moved, every infinitesimal piece of it, down to the very cells that it's made off. It bent to my will, shook and vibrated as I spilt it into dozens of tiny needle thin blood blades.

I heard of this move from my brother, apparently he used it against the sirens during the banquet, but it was a momentary innovation with only a fraction of its potential achieved. Today I'll show them how its done.

Five new soldiers marched out of the tower, actually holding guns in their hands this time. They were armored, from below their neck down, leaving only their head exposed. This new set of guards were a grade above the ones that just went it, and when Teluna realized this, he turned to Gus with a questioning look on his face.

But all Gus did was to bring his hand downwards a few times as if to say 'calm down.' Then he pointed at me and back at he guards. We only had a small window of opportunity to act, and I would be relying not just on my control over blood, but on Teluna's ability to create portals through the shadow realm for transportation.

As soon as the final guard came out, two of the guards turned and marched east, and another two, west. The final guard was keeping his position at the front of the tower. Teluna turned to me, and his golden eyes burned in anticipation. It was time.

The needle thin blades of blood I had created where no longer than a pencil, making them so small required a bit of concentration, but there was a trick to manipulating blood. It goes beyond just envisioning the shapes you want, you also had to feel it, like an emotion.

I made them rotate at really fast speeds, that the wind around us was stirred. Teluna blinked once, and a roiling hole of tangible shadows appeared in mid air. I only felt the chill from it for a moment, before I sent the spinning blood needles through it.

Almost immediately another portal appeared right behind the last guard standing at the entrance of the tower. He didn't see it coming as more than four dozen blood needles perforated the back of his skull. His body was falling to the ground when I split the needles in half, and sent one half left and the other right.

They flew through the heads of one guard each, but by this time the remaining two guards were already alerted and were about to raise an alarm and mount a defense at the rapidly approaching needles. We were about to be exposed, but I couldn't stop, not now.

Two portals appeared in front of the needles, making them disappear. Barely a second later, two new portals appearedbehind the heads of the two guards, who were helpless in stopping the redirected needles from poking holes at the back of their head.

We had been able to take them completely unawares, due to Teluna's timely creation of his portals. I turned to thank him, only to see him hunched over and breathing as hard as he could.

No matter how strong he was, it seems creating two different portals at the same time, much less in a row, tired him out. Much like all of us, he needed training to refine his abilities. Gus gave a stiff nod as his voice rang out in our heads.

"Good Job, Let's go!"