CHAPTER: 8. THEY LOOK STRANGE.

EZRA'S POV

The footage had been running for about what? Forty minutes before I realized I was yet to blink. I reached up quickly and pressed two fingers against my right eye, just to confirm if I could still blink. I didn't want things going wrong when I was this close to my goals.

Luckily for me, I could still blink so I looked back at the screen.

Ice Princes Of Hell. To be very honest, the name was ridiculous. What were they trying to do? Intimidate their rivals before putting on a show?

A scoff escaped my lips faster than I could comprehend. Even though the name was ridiculous, the team was far from looking like it.

I had managed to find and pull up their last six matches from the league archive. I lined them up in sequence on the screen, from the oldest first and watched them all the way throughout intently...without even pausing once unless I wanted to rewind.

It wasn't even because I thought I had misread a play. I hadn't. I just needed to be sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.

Turns out I was. The problem with these Ice Princes wasn't that they were quite fast, though they were. It wasn't that they were physical, though that counted a lot. The problem was just in the way they moved together.

For whatever reason this was, it troubled me greatly. They weren't moving exactly like a team. It was like a single thing that had been split into four. I rubbed the back of my neck and exhaled tiredly.

"This is crazy. It doesn't make sense."

A part of me wanted to overlook this process but it could turn out to be a biggest mistake for me so I needed to concentrate. I leaned forward on the couch, elbows on my knees, watching the footage from their quarter final three weeks ago. Number twenty-two had the puck behind the opposing net and without looking, without any visible signal, number seventeen was already moving into the slot before the pass was even a thought. The shot came and it went in.

The commentator lost his mind as the whole arena erupted in screams that scared me for a second. While their team cheered, the four players looked at each other but instead of hugging or fist humping or yelling like my team members and I usually would, they just moved away from one another. Weird.

I watched it again, trying to get a signal that could explain their coordination and there was nothing. Either way, it was really unsettling to watch. I just didn't know why however I felt this dread looming upon my soul.

I still continued watching. Something in my chest moved. It felt like a pull, low and directional. I shut my eyes for a few seconds before dismissing it. It was simply heat still sitting under my skin. That was all. I could bear it. I have always bore it.

I looked away from the screen and rubbed my face with both hands, dragging my palms across my jaw. Four games out. I had four games to prepare for this and I intended to use every single one of them. I needed to understand how they communicated or didn't communicate. I needed to understand the defensive structure that I had only caught on the third watch.

I needed to understand who made the decisions and the honest answer after six matches of footage was that I wasn't sure anyone did. It just seemed like everyone had a role, knew their parts and played well according to plan.

I pulled the case out of my hoodie pocket and set it on the cushion beside me. I clicked it open and noticed that I had only two suppressants left. I stared at them for a moment. I had no issues with getting them just some months back and now, I was barely hanging on.

Then I picked up my phone and scrolled through the messages until I found the thread I was looking for. The last message from the Voss City Supplier was dated eleven days ago. It was just an address confirmation for the last pickup. I had messaged him six days ago with a new order. Then five days ago. Then three.

But guess what? Nothing. I tried again now, watching the message sit there as delivered, no read receipt, no response.

It was either he had been picked up, moved on, or simply decided I wasn't worth the trouble anymore. Anyways, I continued my search for a better option. I had another contact, a woman named Petra who ran a small apothecary near the east transit hub and kept a back stock of things she technically didn't sell. The last time I'd gone to her she'd charged me triple the going rate and then told me to find someone else next time, which clearly suggested that next time wasn't an option.

I looked back at the two suppressants in the case. My current cycle was shortening. Six weeks ago, one dose every four days. Now closer to about every two and a half instead. At the current rate, two suppressants gave me roughly five days of functional cover, less if anything spiked it. The match against Ice Princes of Hell was four games out, which depending on the schedule ran to about three weeks. I had five days of cover and three weeks to fill.

The math didn't work. I closed the case and put it back in my pocket. The crystal screen in front of me was still paused on the four of them at center ice. I reached over and turned it off, the image went dark and the apartment settled into its usual quiet.

Was it draining living this subtle lifestyle? A lonely one? I remember Cole confessing about how sorry he felt for my situation and even offered that I could come stay with him or he could come over to my side.

I appreciated the gesture but I didn't want that. How was I able to survive? Probably because I wasn't even new to it. Living with people back then was not better. I dreaded facing those 'vampiric' siblings, if there was any word like that.

I took the case to the bedroom and put it in the drawer of the nightstand, precisely where I always kept it. I charged my phone, pulled the blinds down and got into bed.

I didn't instantly fall asleep. If anything, I was focused on the red moon whose parts I could see through my blinds. I had grown with it and the first time I saw it? I remembered asking Caius then and he responded saying that it had something to do with the atmosphere changing and that it was nothing.

But the more I grew, the stranger I found this. It had to show during my moment of heat. Was it a coincidence or was there something more to it? I couldn't tell. I shut my eyes and squeezed my face as the pain enveloped my body again. I didn't need anyone to tell me that was enough staring. I gently lay back on my bed and didn't bother opening my eyes.

Sleep came fast the way it usually did after a game and in some minutes, I was out, bearing the pain that was still shaking every part of my body.