Chapter Thirty-Seven

The War

Alia’s force field had destroyed all the buildings at the entrance of the Evening Club. Edgar led his army over debris as they tried to figure out where Elena could be hiding with the Alpha’s heir. All Edgar could think about was his child. Where on earth was his power hungry Luna hiding his heir? He searched his memory for any clues of a hideout within Elena’s Utopia. She’d trained her army deeper inside the Evening Club. She could be hiding inside a bunker. But would Elena hide underground now that she probably knew he had an army of magical creatures?

Edgar froze as something dawned on him. His mind strayed back to the day he had visited the Club with Edgar. They’d seen vampires and werewolves at the bar. Elena had been grooming her own army along with her own armed military force. She probably had her own team of witches and wizards.

“Follow me,” Edgar instructed. He didn’t want to lose even one member of his army. He led them behind a rock formation that had survived Alia’s and his baby’s force field. He needed to fill his army in on what awaited them. “Listen up!” He waited for his army to calm down. “The opposition is made up of magical creatures just like we are. However, they have one distinct advantage—they have trained ex-military veterans on their side who are armed and ready to kill.”

“How will we defeat them?” someone asked.

“Wit, intelligence, and strategy,” Edgar said. He gestured at the group on his extreme right. “We need to spread out and avoid being detected by the opposition. I want all of you on this side to make your way to the highest points on this property. Once you are each at a point, hide and cover those of us who will be on the ground.” He gestured at the group on his extreme left. “All of you will man the exits. Make sure nobody leaves. Do not attack anyone who tries to leave unless you are attacked first.” The group nodded in unison. “The rest of us will spread out. The most experienced among you will be the group leaders. This is a huge property and Elena London is armed and dangerous. She could use just about anything to attack us. She has access to technology, magic, and weapons.”

Satisfied that he had told his army everything they needed to know, Edgar released them to their respective points.

He turned to Alia. “That leaves us.”

“I need to find our baby,” she said determinedly.

Edgar sighed. “So do I but I have no idea where to even begin.”

Alia was silent for a few moments. “To find out baby we need to think like her. Your Luna is devious. She likes hiding in front of you.”

Alia was right. “So where do you think she’s hiding?”

“I’d say she has an underground city.” She pointed at the air filters which looked a little like chimneys amongst the debris. “Those are their air ducts.” She pointed at solar panels lying undamaged on the ground, that had been designed to blend into the landscape. “That’s how she’d getting energy underground,” Alia said. She ripped the solar panels out of the ground.

“Can’t you just blow them up to save time?” Edgar asked her.

Alia smiled. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She raised her hands, and thought of the baby she hadn’t held or seen. The energy flowed out of her as easily as her breath. Within seconds, she’d shattered hundreds of solar panels. She didn’t feel an ounce of remorse for leaving Elena in darkness underground. Of course her baby would protect itself from danger. “We need to cut off their essential supplies,” Alia said. “With the power out, their cameras are probably down too, so they will have to surface if they want to fight us or escape.”

“How did you learn all this?” Edgar asked.

Alia smiled despite the situation they were in. “I wrote video games for pocket money in high school.”

“Ah, I see.” He smiled as he accompanied his true love on her surveillance of the battlefield.

Alia blew up more solar panels as they walked. Her anger created more dangerous force fields. She had to remind herself that she didn’t want to harm anyone, and that the vibrations from the explosions would likely scare their baby. She was tempted to blow a hole in the ground but she didn’t know the underground design; even if she guessed a possible, sensible design, she had no idea where Elena would be or where she was hiding the baby.

Alia stopped walking when a familiar sensation filled her chest. “Edgar, our baby is near.”

Edgar gasped. “Where?”

Alia shook her head. “It’s almost as if it’s...” She fell silent and pointed next to her. “Perhaps I am just losing my mind.”

Edgar understood that somebody may be listening.

“I think he’s moving towards the gate,” she said.

Edgar nodded and followed Alia away from the spot where she’d sensed the child’s presence.

“She’s near with the baby,” Alia told Edgar, “I can feel our baby. He senses me too.” The look on Edgar’s face filled her heart with an emotion she’d never felt before—maybe this was what motherhood felt like, Alia thought.

“Is she underground?” Edgar asked.

“It’s possible. I don’t know how powerful the baby is but they could be anywhere. Underground, above ground… do you know if Elena has access to powerful magic?”

He shook his head. “The oldest magicians, wizards, and druids are on our side. If she has access to magic, then it’s from new magicians who use hasty spells that tend to wane in a short while.”

Alia smiled. “That’s excellent.”

Edgar looked at her, confused. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

She smiled. “We need to hide."

Once they were safely hidden behind a solid wall remaining from one of the conference centers, Alia told Edgar her theory. “This place is designed like a video game I wrote about two years ago. The person who commissioned it gave me a title; she called it 'The Evening Club.'”

Edgar gasped.

“She wanted only one entrance and exit. Every other boundary was sealed off with magic or some dangerous force. And the only way to get out of the Evening Club was to find the magical angel hidden in a secret chamber in somewhere in the game. The chamber could move at any point during the game, but in order to leave, the player would have to exit the chamber with the angel and run through the gates.” She paused. “Who is guarding the gates?”

“Harry,” Edgar said.

“We need to go there and wait for Elena to leave. In the game, once the player is out of the gates, they are not protected by magic."

“But she has our baby,” he reminded her. "She has better protection than any magic could ever offer her."

“If I can still connect with our baby, it means they haven’t bonded yet. So I doubt our baby will be protecting her.”

Edgar started to smile. Just then a series of gunshots rang through the air.

“Edgar!” Harry screamed.

He grabbed Alia’s hand and they ran to the exit.

***