Elaine's POV
"Kai, you need help. I can't leave you here all by yourself," I whispered harshly at what he was asking me to do.
Whether or not I was going to be of any help to him by staying, that still didn't justify why I should leave if those figures I was looking at were really the cult members.
"If worse comes to worst and I have to defend myself from them, you are my weakness, Elaine, and I can't afford to be weak in a battle with them. I have to win with everything I have, and that would be impossible with you in the way," he explained, pain evident in his voice.
"What if—"
"Just leave and be safe first."
With his constant pleading, I took a final glance at the figures ahead of us, taking a mental picture of them even though their faces weren't clear. I dived into the forest—but not with the mindset of getting away from them.
If the cult members were just Lycans like Kai and didn't have magic like Luca, then it would be possible to take them down when Damien showed up. I flashed a quick glance at the bracelet while running like my entire life depended on it.
"Damien!" I risked calling his name in the dark, but that was because he was taking longer than expected to show up and help Kai.
Hearing small movements ahead of me, I decided to stop and take a break from the marathon, breathing heavily against a tree trunk.
"Damien?" I whispered after a while of hearing nothing else.
Now something wasn't right. If it were Damien, then he was obviously tracking my location, so finding the exact spot where I was shouldn't have been a problem. However, this was strange. I picked myself up and ran before whoever or whatever it was could see me.
After what seemed like only a few seconds since I left my resting spot—with Damien still not showing up—I bumped into a hard chest, sending me to the ground.
"Luca?" I called out.
"What the hell are you doing here all by yourself?"
I wanted to tell him everything that had gone wrong tonight. I wanted to ask him for help as though he were my last resort, as if Damien wasn't going to show up like Kai thought he would. I wanted to trust him just this once and trust my head instead of listening to everybody's warnings against him.
"Elaine!" He snapped me back to reality.
"I think I'm lost, and I'm trying to find my way back to Damien," I lied—though not completely.
"Well, this doesn't look like the right direction in any way, except you were coming back from somewhere—"
"I told you I got lost!" I snapped.
He had a strange look in his eyes and a smirk I almost missed, which made me very uncomfortable. Really, I wouldn't even be mad at Damien if he chose to show up now because, all of a sudden, I just felt uneasy around Luca.
"What's the issue, Elaine?"
"I'm sorry. Uhm…" I stammered, struggling with the mental math between asking him to help me get to Damien's place or asking him to go back and help rescue Kai. Damien made it clear, though—Luca was no helper to anybody.
"Please, can you help me find my way to Damien?"
My question took him aback as though he had expected a different answer. He kept looking ahead of me, slight confusion in his eyes.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded in response and started taking a few steps forward until he followed suit.
"If you need help with anything, I hope you know that you can count on me, no matter how bad it is."
"Strange, but thank you. You're already helping a lot tonight by taking me to Damien's place."
"Faster," he murmured near my left ear before increasing his pace, leaving me behind.
"How is Kai?" he asked out of the blue.
"Fine, but please, can we just focus on getting to Damien? I'm burnt out already, and I just need to get some rest."
"Oh," he cleared his throat. "I just thought you might still be interested in his curse and maybe looking for ways to help him gain redemption."
He sped up after saying that, as if intentionally trying to punish me by making me run faster to catch up. Maybe he just wanted me to beg for his mercy because he knew this concerned Kai—and that I'd do anything to free him from his awful curse.
"Please, slow down," I begged through heavy pants, but he didn't listen.
I kept trying to catch up, even though it looked impossible, considering how determined he was to make me suffer.
"I know what you're doing, Luca, so please, I beg you, stop."
I hit the ground with my last words, and thankfully, it got him to stop. Walking back to help me up, I looked him directly in the eyes.
"If you know anything about Kai's situation, I really need your help. No matter how little you think it is, I need you to tell me everything you know."
"But you see," he smirked, "I'm actually not that interested in saving Kai. Telling you all I know would mean you'd use it to help him—and I clearly don't have the same agenda as you," he said coldly before finally helping me up.
"Even if I gave up something you'd want in exchange for a little information?"
"Even if you decided to give yourself to me now, it would be the wrong timing, and I wouldn't even spare you the privilege," he emphasized each of his words.
"Fine." I swallowed hard, stopping the tears that nearly reached my cheeks. "Let's keep going."
Luca looked a little surprised, and I was obviously sad at his decision. Maybe it gave me a new drive—maybe it ignited something in me, pushing me to move and challenging me to try everything I could without his help.
Unlike before, I was the one ahead of him this time. I didn't know how that was possible or how I was able to make the right turns on instinct—until I sighted his large gate.
"There!" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Wait, Elaine! This is no joke. You should have clearly told me that you knew where you were going instead of wasting my time," he hissed angrily, almost catching up to me.
"Oh, maybe at some point, your help and your offer to help will always be as futile as dust," I mocked him.
"I know this is about Kai, and there's no point in telling you otherwise. But this is something you should know—it'll help you understand things better. Kai was cursed to restore the order of power to its natural form because no one can be the most powerful of all. No one can emerge as the ultimate ruler. So if you think you can show up in ten seconds and swiftly change what has been in existence since the beginning of time, then know this—someone who shares your same goal but started long before you will beat you to it."
I didn't react at first. I just let it sink in, digesting each sentence and its implications.
Trying to bang the gate to get Damien's attention—to let him know he had disappointed both Kai and me and that I had found my way to him instead of the other way around—I paused midway when I saw that his gate was already open.
Strange.
I glanced at Luca, who no longer seemed amused after our recent banter, but he acted as though I wasn't even there and walked past me, wearing the same confusion I felt.
He pushed the door open while I followed carefully behind him.
"Damien!" I gasped in shock.
Part of the tiles were soaked in blood, and he was clutching his neck, choking and struggling to breathe.
"Lu-ca," he kept repeating his name, pointing his index finger at him, his eyes filled with deep hurt.
I tried to report him, only to realize he had no physical injuries. He was bleeding without being cut or wounded. I followed his gaze and the intense emotions in his eyes to Luca, who smirked as he made himself comfortable on one of the couches.
"What did you think?" He chuckled darkly. "That I'd help you even if you begged for it?"
"You're a dick!" I yelled at him.
"Of course I am. And you? You're so foolish and easy to manipulate," he smiled, rubbing his palms together. "It was all a perfect setup, Elaine. Meeting you in the woods instead of Damien, slowing you down without you even realising it, everything, Elaine."
I felt bloodshot rage building inside of me. The urge to suddenly snap his neck and feed him to the beast of the night, but Damien who's body was starting to get cold remained my concern.
"K-k-kai," he stammered, while I helped him stay in a better position. Seeing that there was really nothing I could do at this point other than to play by his rules at least until I could save either Kai or Damien first, I swallowed everything else inside of me and begged.
"Please, Luca, I need you to stop."