Back To You

Chapter 16

A few hours before Aidan's unfortunate encounter with the vampire and his blade, Emilia lay in bed, deep in dreamless sleep, when her phone rang.

The events of the night before had drained her physically. Once they left the castle, the witches had travelled in a convoy of vehicles until they neared London, after which they dispersed to their respective abodes. Such practice was commonplace amongst the witches, as their kind preferred independence and solitude, contrary to werewolves and their love of group housing. There was safety in numbers, but it also drew attention and risked the occurrence of mass casualties. A much better option was blending in with the human population, living in small family units or on their own.

Emilia and Paul, along with a couple of security guards, were the only ones headed to the London branch of the Witch Committee, which was thoughtfully concealed as a fine dining restaurant famous for its seafood cuisine. The facade had turned out to be immensely profitable if a little too conspicuous.

They headed to the topmost floor to send a brief of the attack and aftermath to the other Committee members. The entire floor was an open-air office, appearing at first glance like a tech start-up's workspace.

Paul continued to grouse while typing out a detailed email, "The Committee will moan and cry over the loss of life, but nothing will come of it. Nothing but a bunch of weak, passive fools who can't see the changes happening on the ground because they are truly out of touch with the world, doing nothing but remaining cooped up in their hidden safe houses!"

Emilia said nothing, used to her father's vitriol over his perceived inadequacies of the Committee of Twenty-Five. He wanted the witches to be on the offensive. Unfortunately for him, most of the committee preferred not to engage in a full-on war against the vampires. Emilia didn't particularly care, either way. She continued to deal with the stack of reports on her table until they were resolved before taking her leave. Paul nodded dismissively in return as she wished him goodnight. He was still furiously typing when Emilia left.

One of the security members escorted her to a detached three-storey in a more luxurious residential area. The house was big, too big for one person, but Emilia had purchased it anyway. It was in a good location, not too far from work, and in her opinion, it was better to have more space than less. Emilia half-heartedly unpacked her bag, placing the black jewellery box back in its original position on her vanity table, where it would remain indefinitely as long as she wasn't on the move.

After showering, Emilia half crawled, half rolled her way to the centre of the king-size bed, finally spent after having used a fair bit of energy healing those who were seriously injured in the castle attack. It was a wonder she had lasted so long, even managing to finish some paperwork that wasn't particularly urgent. Suddenly it occurred to her that she hadn't eaten the whole day. 'Eating's for the living, and I haven't felt alive in centuries,' she humorlessly thought.

Too tired to contemplate further, she fell asleep within minutes, only to wake up to the incessant ringing of her phone, feeling like she hadn't slept at all. Sunshine illuminated the entire room, reminding her that she had forgotten to draw the blinds the night before. Shimmying to the edge of the bed, she somehow managed to find her phone on the bedside table with her eyes still shut, only opening them a smidge to look at the caller ID. It was an unknown number.

"Hello?" Emilia tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Finally! Do you know how hard it was getting a hold of your number?! I'm pauperised now after paying for the bloody asking price." A woman replied while breathing hard, sounding like she was at the gym.

The voice on the other end of the line was familiar yet unknown to Emilia, who questioned, "Who is this?"

The voice on the line paused as if in shock. "What the hell, Emi?! It's Netta!" The vampire queen answered breathlessly.