chapter nineteen

“You do know that this is totally crazy right?” Rune said as he tried to keep the coffee jar away from Akira's reach.

“In all my years of living, And I mean this by a very long margin, I have never seen someone try to literally drown themselves in coffee.”

“Argh!” Akira groaned as she tried to grab the coffee jar from his hands but she couldn't.

“You have to stop this madness, you have other things to deal with, things like the prophecy.”

“Well…” Akira yelled, “there will be no prophecy if I leave this house or even worse if I am killed, I will not sit by and watch some lady who came back from the dead take away what's mine…”

“Did she just?” Rune thought. “Did you just accept that he's yours? Did you just acknowledge the mate bond between the both of you?” He asked.

Akira tried all she could to avoid his eyes, “I do not know what you are talking about?”

“Oh but you do…” Rune pressed, “you do know what i am talking about and it only took you two weeks.”

“Well I have no idea what you're saying.” Akira argued and with one small leap she swiped the jar away from him and hurried towards the library.

“Akira!” Rune cried as he went after her. He has lost sight of her as she was fast.

“She's been there for days now sire.” The librarian said as he approached the library with books in his hands.

“Thank you!” Rune said as he walked into the library with an expression of shock written all over his face.

“What are you doing?” He asked Akira who was buried knee deep in books while surrounding herself with more books like a fence around here.

“Reading, is that a crime now or are you going to try to take away my books?” She snapped.

“Relax…” Rune Said, “I am not your enemy you hear me?”

“Well you should have thought about that before you took away my coffee.” She responded.

“You're really going to hold that against me?”

Akira shot him a nasty look and buried her head back again Into the books.

Orion walked into the library, “Rune I am going to need you to…..oh!” he gasped.

“What's going on here?” He asked his eyes darting from Akira to the book fence that she surrounded herself with.

“I don't know, she's been drowning herself in coffee and paranoia since….”

“Since what?” Orion asked,his voice filled with concern.

His duty was to the alpha's mate who was going to bring them out of hard and dark times.

He was more than certain that the prophecy never said anything about her finding the key to defeating the darkness at the bottom of her coffee mug.

“Since Mirabel..”. Rune said,his voice low.

“Mirabel?! What has she done this time around?”

“Well Akira said she walked into her room and threatened her.”

Orion was livid.

“And you waited till this time to tell me about it?” He fired.

“I'm sorry, I did not think it was something serious, I thought it was her being jealous and all…” Rune paused, “if it makes any difference, she is already acknowledging the mate bond between the both of them.”

“Hmmm” Orion growled as she bent over to tap Akira on the shoulder.

Startled, she knocked over the coffee jar and, “so that's where that went.” Orion said.

“I'm sorry Orion, I did not see you there.” Akira said briefly, looking up from the books in her hands.

“Is there something that you would like to tell me dear?” He asked.

“Nothing. it's not like you are going to believe me.”

Orion turned and shot Rune a nasty look, this was all his fault after all. This was the result you'd get when you let someone else handle the thing you should have handled yourself.

“Trust me,I will believe you.” Orion Said.

Akira could see that he meant it, that looks of absolute confidence in his eyes. She gave in.

“Fine, here. Mirabel is not who you all think she is…” she said, handing Orion an already opened book.

“No….” Orion gasped.

“Yes, I wished it wasn't but it is what it is.”

“Would one of you like to keep me in the loop?” Rune asked as he approached them both.

“Are you sure about this?” Orion asked.

“There is no other way, I saw the signs clearly,”Akira answered.

“What signs?” Rune asked half yelling, frustrated that he was being kept out of the conversation.

“Sush Rune,you've had your chance.”

That struck rune across his chest like a heated knife.

“Ouch.” He said.

Standing, Akira walked and reached for the ladder and took out more volumes from the shelves.

“Every record shows them to be the same, only a few variations but they all point in the same direction!”

“Alright, enough. Will someone tell me what is going on here?” Rune yelled.

“Mirabel is…” Orion said, turning to him, “a strigoi!”

“Huh?” Rune scoffed in disbelief, “there is no way, are they not some kind of vampires?” Rune asked.

“Yes…” Orion answered, “we do not have the time to get into the lore right now, but if what Akira has discovered turns out to be true, you might as well kiss your peace goodbye.”

“Hold on,” rune said, “I feel like we're rushing things here. We've been with Mirabel for a long time. If she was indeed a vampire I think we would know by now.”

“Besides, how sure are we that Akira knows what she's saying…” he turned to Akira, “no offence…”

Akira made a funny face at him, “a lot of offence taken.”

Rune continued, “she might have made a huge mistake,how do we know that she is certain of what she's saying?”

Orion turned and whispered into Akira's ear, “I trust you and your judgement, but I think we're going to need more than speculations and a couple of old books with ugly pictures to convince Rune or anyone else for that matter that Mirabel is indeed a strigoi.”

“Fine…” she sighed while rolling her eyes, “flip that book in your hands two pages backwards…”she said to Rune.

Rune did as he was instructed and returned the book back to Akira, “here, it's just something about tattoos, we all know that Mirabel has no tattoos. I am going to need more than that to convince me .”

“That should be the easiest,” Akira answered as she wiped her sleeve on her face, just below her eye revealing a little red bump, “makeup!” She said,

“And how did you see Mirabel without the makeup?” He asked.

“Enough rune!” Orion ordered.

“No Orion, I will answer his questions, I just need to try out something first.”