***********LEE**********

                                    I saw Huntress turn to me, and start to fall, her eyes blank. I ran toward her and caught her. “Huntress… Huntress, wake up…”

“Too late.” It was Cloud, then he sent a gush of wind toward me pushing me a few feet away. I looked at Huntress as I moved nearer to her again, I saw the arrow disappear. But her eyes were still closed.

“I thought you needed her alive.” Lei snapped.

“I do… She isn’t dead yet, see?” he lands beside her and put his hand over her, I saw Huntress start to flinch and then cringe in pain.

“Stop it!” I shouted.

“Let my sister go Cloud!” Hunter says beside me.

“Oh, I will, after the ceremony.” He said then he looked at all of us, “You are coming right?” the laughs and picked up Huntress and flew off.

I summoned my wings and flew after them and so did the others.

We all landed at the football field where the Unity bonfire was. There a holy table was placed in the middle of the Heaven’s gate. The Heaven’s gate was the unity circle that is used to unify two immortals, Cloud laid Huntress there. Then he looked up at us, “You know what to do.”

They turned to Night Wind, “Each of the circle bears your sign, stand inside it and all will be taken care of.” He said.

They nodded and stood in the circle with Cloud. I was looking down at Huntress, her eyes still closed. She haven’t immortalized yet. I thought.

“Feeling useless Myst?” Cloud asked. I glared at him, “That’s ok, cause you are.” then he turned to the others, “Now give me your blood and powers, or your precious Huntress will die.”

“Wait,” Mave says, “don’t she need your blood too?”

“Still the typical curious Devil Incarnate aren’t you?” Cloud asks, cynical. “Well, if you must know, I only need her blood in me to gain the connection, my blood as the old prince will awaken and I shall be the official prince of Cresta again and she wouldn’t even need to be connected to me.”

“Good,” we all heard Huntress say, we looked toward her, I smiled. She’s ok… I thought. “I don’t want any of your dirty blood mix with mine.”

Cloud glared at her, “Oh don’t worry, after this the only affiliation you’ll have is with death. Now, start the ceremony!”

I looked at the others, they all looked down and closed their eyes, the girls bit their thumb and gave a drop or two of their blood in the circle, which glowed. Then I looked back at Huntress, she looked my way, smiled and then reached for her heart and closed her eyes.

I smiled and reached for my heart and closed my eyes, then I heard her through my mind, tonight let me be nameless… I recognized the spell and gave a small nod, and whispered along, “Let me not be who I am, let a rose not be called a rose, but call it what the heart calls it.”

I felt my power run through me, then I looked toward Huntress who still had her eyes closed.

Then all elements start to react against the powers of the others. Thunder rolled, the earth was shaking, rain poured, the flame from the bonfire raised.

“Now is the time, the power is mine, let your blood flow with mine.” Then he bent down and bit Huntress. I saw Huntress cringe as Cloud continued to drink her blood.

Then a few seconds later Cloud stood up, blood dripping from his mouth. And he laughed. “Finally! Revenge has such sweet taste.” He looked at me, I glared at him, “Come my minions! Awake from your slumber and join me!” he shouted.

We all looked up as we saw some black dots from a distance clocking the moon, it were vampires, Clouds’ minions. Then he looked back at me. “And it looks like your princess isn’t that strong after all.” With this he flew off. I mortalized, I need not to be here for this mortal, I thought. Then I felt the others mortalized as well. I ran toward Huntress and looked down at her, “Huntress? Huntress…”

Hunter stood on her other side. “Huntress? wake up… Huntress.”

Then Huntress flinched, “Shh… not so loud…” she whispered, we all smiled and took a breath of relief. “No one’s crying right? I don’t want to see pathetic people.” She teased. We stifled a laugh,  Hunter picked her up and hugged her.

“So are you ok?” Iris asked.

“A bit of body ache, low in blood, bloody and bruised, other than that I’m ok.” She said, hugging Hunter and pulled away.

Iris reached for her and hugged her as well along with the other girls. The she stepped down the table and looked toward me and smiled, I smiled back. She walked toward me and stopped in front of me.

“Looks like it worked.” I said.

“It did.” She said, still smiling.

Then I stepped up and reached for her and hugged her tightly. I heard Huntress stifle a laugh and hugged me as well.

Then we heard Hunter clear his throat. We let loose and turned to him, “What worked exactly?”

“There is one great power in the universe that not even we can control brother.” She said.

“What’s that?” Nayre asked.

Love, I heard Huntress say in my head, I smiled. “I can’t tell you what it is.” She said, “You need to find it yourself.”

“So, what exactly did you do?” Mave asked.

“We made a spell that will change my identity to whoever our heart desires, its old magic, but it saved Huntress.” I said.

“And who did you changed into exactly?” Jed asked.

“A girl I saw on the street.” Huntress said. “It doesn’t matter really, I just took her identity, that cleaned my blood of all its connection with Aengelle. So there’s no harm done.

They exchanged looks and grinned.

“Well, that was some party.” We heard someone from behind us say.

“Mr. La’Montrelle.” They all said in unison.

“Master Azuay, are you ok?” Guillenne ran to his side.

“Master Azuay?” Huntress asked.

“He’s my mentor, well, new mentor. He was the one who cleaned my mind of Cloud’s lies.” I said.

“He was?” she asked again.

Master Azuay laughs, “Miss Huntress, please do forgive me if I scared you on our first meeting, but I was just fascinated of your mind.”

Huntress grinned and shook her head, “Exactly what Master Shisek said.” Master Azuay laughs again, “And I’m guessing it was my father who told you that?”

Master Azuay nodded, “But I told him not to tell you of my identity, for some important reasons.”

“Like?” I asked.

“Like the fact that Cloud Gatherer might find out of me… you see, I am the Guardian of the stars, I know the story of everything.”

“A know it all.” Nayre said.

Master Azuay laughs again, “You can call me that.”

“That’s so cool.” Jed says.

“But I’m not alone, your Master Shisek is one as well. We are two of a handful of the remaining star Guardians.”

“And why exactly are you hiding from Cloud?” Taea asked.

“Not only him.” He answers, “But to all men, Our knowledge of things can cause disasters. Our knowledge can end the world as we know it.”

We all exchange looks.

“So you are an oracle of the past present and future and yet you are subjective of it?” Mave asked.

“You can put it that way.” Master Azuay nodded.

“So, can you tell us what’ll happen if we don’t clean up the mess at the ballroom and don’t erase the memories of the witnesses?”

“Well, you can just imagine pitchforks and fire, but I guess nowadays it would be dissecting and studying you.”

We shrugged, “Can’t we just have detention or something?” Nayre asked.

“Don’t worry about it” we all turned and saw Master Shisek walking toward us. “I have taken care of everything.” Then he walked up to Master Azuay, “Azuay, my brother.” They hugged.

“Shisek, it is nice to see you again.” Mater Azuay says.

Then Master Shisek let goes and looks at all of us, “Is everyone ok?”

“Well. Aside from Huntress’ punctured heart and neck, everything’s pretty dandy Master Shisek.” Taea says.

We all laughed this time.

“Well, we better start cleaning here, before they come and ignite the bonfire.” Guillenne snaps her finger.

“Hey, wait a minute, if Cloud didn’t succeed, don’t you think we should unify you now?” Nayre asked.

They all exchanged looks and smiles.

“Well, let’s fix the ceremonial circle again.” Mave says, walking toward his place.

Then Taea walked up to Nayre and gave him a pat on the back, “Well, what do you know? Your brain actually has working cells.” She teased. We laughed again as Nayre runs after Taea.

Hunter and I walked toward the middle of the circle. “We don’t need this.” I said, I made the stoned table crumble into a dust. Huntress smiled and reached for my hand.

“I bet Cloud’s still at the palace gates.” I said.

Huntress stifles a laugh, “And he doesn’t even have a clue what happened.”

An hour or so later, everyone was back inside the ball room, the bonfire had been lit and everyone was dancing the night away.

Huntress and I were at the garden under one of the trees that overlooks the ballroom. I was lying down on the grass with my head on her lap, and she was running her hand on my hair, her back leaning on the tree, then she looked up at the moon. I was holding her hand, playing with her fingers.

“Hey…” I whispered.

“Hm?” she asked without looking down at me.

“You ok?”

She smiled, “Yeah… I guess I’m not use to getting shot at the heart and bitten all in one night.” She joked.

I laughed, “Well, tell me if you’re use to it, I’ll throw another party and invite Cloud.”

She laughs this time. “Believe me, you’ll be the first to know.”

Then she looked down at me. “Thanks for being there.”

I smiled, “Anything for my Juliet.”

“I don’t know if I’ll still be here if you weren’t there.”

“Well, I’m still lousy at it, aren’t i?” I pointed out, looking at her hand, “I mean, you were shot at the heart, weren’t you?”

Then she nods and leaned back, “You are pretty lousy, aren’t you?”

“Thanks a lot.” I said, sarcastically.

Then she looked back at me and leaned forward with only a few inches between us, “That’s ok, if you’re too good, cupid might not have hit me as well.”

I grinned and then she leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

“You’re getting cheesy too,” I teased, and she laughed a hearty laugh, then I sat up and faced her, I reached for her face and she looked at me straight in the eye, and I whispered, “This is only the beginning, love…” then she nodded with a smile.