The boys waited in Elle’s parking lot for the royal to show up, Lamar checked his phone, it was 12:01.

  “His late.” Lamar said in a panic.

  “Calm down, he’s only a minute late.” Daniel said.

  “Yeah but what if he lied about not knowing he was trying to kill me and he actually did know. So he said what he said so we wouldn’t kill him. Then what if the council finds out and they try to come after me for fighting a royal. Then I’ll have to fight the council, and I mean I’m powerful but I won’t be able to take on the most powerful duskers out there, and…” Sean smacked Lamar in the back of the head to get him to shut up.

  “Ouch!” Lamar grabbed the back of his head.

  “Calm down brother, you’re starting to spiral.” Mycal said.

  “You’re right, but there are other ways to calm someone down you know.” He said rubbing the back of his head.

  “True, but this was the fun way.” Sean chuckled.

  They thought it was best if they met at Elle’s instead of the compound, home court advantage they figured.

  Before Lamar could make a comeback a midnight blue Tesla Model S pulled into the mostly empty parking lot next to Mycal SUV. Out step the royal who didn’t look like he was a royal. He was wearing a red and black flannel, black jeans, and some wheat colored Timberland boots.

  “What do you have on?” Lamar asked. It’s not like there first introduction.

  “You told me not to dress and I quote all royal and shit.” He said making air quotes.

  “Did you bring the blood?” Daniel asked.

  The royal grabbed a black backpack from his passenger sit. “It’s in here.” He said holding up the bag.

  “Okay looks like you two got it from here, we’re going to head out.” Sean said.

  “Where are they going?” The royal asked.

  “To kill some of your kind.” Mycal said as they piled into his SUV.

  Lamar chest tightened, he was afraid this was going to piss the royal off and they were going to get into some massive fight in the parking lot, but to Lamar surprise the royal just laughed it off as Mycal and the others pulled off out of the lot. Lamar let out a sigh of relief and gestured for them to head to the entrance of the diner.

  Lamar stopped before they entered, “before we go in I need you to drink this,” Lamar pulled out a small clear vile with a red liquid inside out of his black Nike cross body bag he was wearing.

  “What is this?” The royal asked with a curious look.

  “In theory it’s a potion to mask your vamperic aura, all it takes is one kin dusker to get a feeling and will be in trouble. It also should let you get pass the wards that are set up without you bursting into flames.” Lamar was the one that set up the wards, anything other than a dusker or a human crosses a certain point and instant incineration, so he knew the potion would combat the wards but he wasn’t too sure on if other duskers would pick up on him. All duskers had a 6th sense when it came to the supernatural, some were stronger than others, with mages being the strongest. He was hoping there was one mage in particular wasn’t working tonight.

  The royal drank the content of the vile, a warm feeling rushed through his body as the potion took effect. “We should hopefully be good.” Lamar said as they made their way inside the diner.

  The diner wasn’t as busy at night as it was in the morning, most of its patrons were duskers son they were out patrolling and hunting, you have a few here and there that came to grab a quick bite before heading back out, or some traveler that wanted to rest why they were on their way to were ever it was they were going.

  Tonight was no different, it was practically deserted, with there only being a few duskers inside. They were making their way to the back were the storage closet was when Lamar stopped.

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “Trouble.” Lamar whispered.

  “Hey L, I didn’t know you were coming in tonight.” Elle said as she sauntered over to the entrance.

  “Hey Elle, yeah just got some work to do nothing major. I thought you were off tonight?”

  “I was supposed to be, but Tina’s little girl came down with a nasty cold. So I told her I’ll cover for her tonight if she cover for me tomorrow.” Elle smiled.

  “That was nice of you, well I’m going to go to the back for a bit, have something I need to work on.” They tried to walk pass Elle. She reached up and put a hand on the royal’s chest stopping him for walking any further.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “I guess I’m going to have to do the introductions then. I’m Elle and this is my diner, “she said smiling and reaching out here hand, “and you are?”

  “Oh sorry, I’m Roberto, but my friends call me Rob.” He grasped Elle’s hand and shook. Elle turned to Lamar still shaking’s Rob’s hand.

  “So are you going to explain to me why there is a royal in my establishment, and furthermore why isn’t he a pile of ashes right about now?” Rob tried to let go of Elle’s hand but she had a firm grip and was a lot stronger than he expected.

  “Ro royal, he isn’t a royal.” Lamar stammered. Elle let go of Rob’s hand but didn’t break eye contact with Lamar. Lamar chest tightened again, he never lied to Elle, one because he didn’t like to and two there really wasn’t a point, she was a supernatural lie detector.

  “Okay, I’ll explain everything later I promise, but right now I have to take him to my workshop and get some stuff figured out.” Lamar pleaded.

  Elle took a deep breath, “Lamar you know I trust you, and for you to do this you must have a good reason,” she turned to Roberto and looked him dead in the eyes. “Royal or not I will kill you if you do anything I deem threating.

  Roberto gave a nervous laugh, he could knock her head off her shoulders in an instance he thought, but for some reason she scared him to point that he couldn’t even move. She let go of Roberto’s hand, she gave Lamar a look of concern and headed off to the kitchen. That look crushed Lamar, he hated making Elle worried, but he knew he didn’t have a choice everything he needed to figure out what was going on was in his workshop.

  “She is one scary woman.” Roberto said.

  Lamar head dropped a little, he started making his way to the market entry. He stopped before he got to the door. He took out a pair earbuds and sunglasses out of the cross body bag and handed them to Roberto.

  “What are these for?” Roberto asked, looking confused.

  “Just put them on please.”

  Roberto did what was asked, when he put the earbuds his hearing was completely gone, when he put on the sunglasses so was his vision. Lamar took out a small spray bottle and sprayed it under Roberto noise, it was lavender and that’s all he could smell now.

  “THIS IS A BIT OF AN OVERKILL DON’T YOU THINK!” Roberto said not realizing how loud he was, Lamar didn’t respond. Instead he knocked on the storage room door and said the secret phrase, a bright light flashed underneath the door. Lamar took Roberto’s hand, which caused Roberto to flinch a bit. Lamar guided down a set a stairs and through another door.

  The market was always busy at night. Full of duskers buying items to help them during patrols, Lamar’s workshop was pretty close to the stairs so he didn’t get to many onlookers taking Roberto into his shop. Lamar let go of Roberto’s hand as the entered his shop. Lamar turned on the lights but he kept the curtains drawn so no one could see inside.

  “I’m assuming I can take these off,” he said as he took out the earbuds and then took off the sunglasses. It took a few seconds for is eyes to adjust to the light, “wow.” There were all types of weapons hung up. You had a wall for guns, for swords and daggers, a wall for axes, and another wall with weapons like chain whips and maces. “This is incredible,” Roberto said.

  “I’ll be right back.” Lamar walked to the back of his shop, he went to grab the ingredients he needed to test the blood.

  Roberto took this time to look more around the shop, it was surprisingly big he thought, besides the weapons it had a small section for books that he assumed were grimoires and another section for little vile full of different color liquids, which he could only assume were potions. He walked over to the bookshelves and grabbed a book. The title read A mage and their wand. A how to guide. He chuckled, “they really have a how to guide for wands?” He said out loud not noticing Lamar coming back into the room.

  “Yeah they do, and other guide books as well.” Lamar said putting down the ingredients he needed for the spell.

  “So where is your wand?” Roberto asked putting the book back.

  “Wands are more for beginner mages, it helps them channel and control their powers. It’s a rarity that a senior mage would use one, same thing with incantations or spells.”

  “So you’re pretty powerful then?” The question caught Lamar off guard that he almost dropped the bowl he was carrying.

  “Why do you say that?” He asked with nervous energy.

  “I mean I saw you use magic a few times now and each time you barely spoke a word, so if what you were saying is true that means you’re a pretty powerful mage.” Roberto closed the book and put it back in the spot on the shelf he got it from.

  “If you’re going off that logic then I guess so, but I assure you I’m just your average run of the mill mage.” Lamar chuckled.

  “I highly doubt that, but if you say so then it must be true. Anyways how does all this work?” Roberto said walking towards the front counter where Lamar was setting everything up.

  “Simple if the blood turns black then someone tampered with it.”

  “And if it doesn’t.”

  “Then we are back at square one. With no other leads.” Lamar said.

  Lamar took a few moments putting the ingredients together for the spell which he mixed into a large bowl, he asked Roberto for the blood. Roberto reached in his bag and grabbed a clear medical blood pouch he went to hand it to Lamar when he suddenly dropped the bag, it hit the concrete floor exploding on impact. There was blood all over the floor and the base of the counter, there was even blood covering Roberto’s pants and boots. Roberto grabbed his chest, clawing at his shirt.

  “What’s wrong?” Lamar screamed.

  “I don’t know but it feels like my chest is on fire.” Roberto said in agony.

  “Oh no.” Lamar rummaged through his bag, he found what he was looking for, he jumped over the counter were Roberto was now on the floor winching and holding his chest. Lamar took of the top of the vile and told Roberto to drink. Roberto did as he was told, a few moments passed and the heat in his chest begun to subside, and the pain was no more.

  “What the hell was that?” Roberto said breathing heavy and drenched in sweat.

  “So remember how I said that in theory earlier. Well it seems that I’m just too good with the wards because the potion I had you drink earlier was wearing off.”

  Roberto glared at Lamar. Lamar stood up and helped Roberto to his feet. “Great the blood.” Roberto said as he looked at his pants and boots covered in it.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Lamar said.

  He was able to scrap up enough off the ground to test. “I’ll test this and you go get cleaned up,” he said pointing to a bathroom in the corner of the shop.

  Lamar was able to get enough of the blood to be able to test it. The spell was going to take a few minutes to take effect, he was going to give the guys a call to see how the patrol was going and seeing if they were going to need any help later.

  “What up.” Daniel said answering after the third ring.

  “How is the patrol going?” Lamar said as he watched the contents of the bowl

  “Going good, we got a couple of rogue werewolves over here in Ottawa park woods.

  “YES!” Lamar exclaimed.

  “Not that exciting just some werewolves.”

  “No it’s not that, the spell worked, the blood was messed with.” He said as it turned a black in the bowl.

  Roberto hearing the Lamar yell came running out of the bathroom “What’s going on?”

  “The blood was tampered with, also can you put your pants back on.”