DAG 10
The last three days have been a lesson in patience. It has also been a period of change that I never expected. Having Esmeralda in my life has opened up my eyes to the impact mistreatment has on a woman. She might be a strong woman, but there is a wall that she has built around herself that needs time to pull down.
Even though we are learning more and more about each other every day, and we are closer than I could ever have hoped with everything that happened to her before, I still feel like there is something that she is holding back from me. She has also kept to herself as much as she can by staying in the room instead of coming out and meeting the others.
Freya and Anastasia are the ones that usually go and sit with her for a couple of hours, and today when I saw the three of them walking towards the back door, I felt like we have broken down another one of her walls. Maybe by walking around the property with the other two women, she will realize that we are nothing like the fuckers she was with before.
“If your scowl could kill, I would be toast.”
Glancing at Tal, who is sitting opposite me, I grunt. Tor has called a meeting, and the two of us are the first to arrive. It’s never good when Tor calls a meeting because it means that there is trouble brewing. But we are warriors. If there wasn’t some kind of skirmish going on, we wouldn’t be happy.
“Do you know what the meeting is about?”
Tal shrugs at my question as he rocks on his chair. “No fucking idea. But I have places to be, so I hope it doesn’t take long.”
I shake my head in amusement. Tal is a water bender and every free moment he has, he spends it at the beach surfing. We tease him that if he could, he would be a fish.
“Going surfing again?” Asgar asks as he walks in. “Will be rough today, but that is the way you like it, isn’t it?”
Tal grins and shrugs.
“You know me, nothing like being one with your element,” Tal quips.
“You are going to have to postpone your plans,” Tor says as he walks in. By the scowl on his face, it’s clear that something happened. Colborn, Garth and Ulrich follow him into the room.
“Fuck, I was looking forward to it,” Tal mutters in annoyance, just as Dane, Einar and Eirik walk in and close the door behind them.
“Yeah, well, I was looking forward to not hearing you whine. Guess we not getting what we want, are we?” Tor grunts as he looks at Tal. “And where the fuck is Haldor?”
“He’s on his way back. Should be here in another few minutes,” Eirik replies as he takes a seat.
“Well, let’s start anyway. He can catch up when he gets here,” Tor says as he sits on his chair and leans back, placing his fisted hands on the table. “We have a lead on Aldor.”
That has all of us commenting in excitement.
Aldor was the name of the Keres in the journal that Esmeralda stole. We have gathered information that he is the one responsible for finding the women and then getting the Cape Town gangs to kidnap them. When we catch the fucker, we aren’t going to give him the same treatment we have given another Keres. We found a way of stopping the fury from overtaking the Elementals and turning us into Keres. Every Keres we capture, we help turn them back into Elementals and keep them controlled until they found their mate.
If it was a Keres that had lost his mate, then there is nothing we can do, and that means that the only way to stop them is by ending their existence. We don’t know which type of Keres Aldor is, but whichever one he is, he will be obliterated. All of us at this table have seen vestiges of the destruction that Aldor and his evilness have wrecked in our women.
He is the main culprit in Esmeralda suffering what she did. If I find Aldor first, he will be dead. I have a thirst for his death like I have never had before. There is a bloodlust coursing through my veins insisting on revenge.
“Where the fuck is he?” Dane asks as he sits forward on his chair.
“He was sighted in Durban, but talk is he’s on his way her,” Tor reveals as he raises his hand to stroke his stubbled jaw. “We couldn’t find the motherfucker because he goes under the name of Jonathan Weekly.”
“Jonathan Weekly, the shipping tycoon?” Einar asks with a raised brow.
“The very same one,” Tor states
“No wonder we never found all the ships that they transport the women in,” Colborn says.
“How did we never realize this? I mean, the asshole has been on TV. How did we not pick up that he’s a Keres?” Ulrich asks as he shakes his head in disbelief.
“It’s not as if we can sense his energy from the screen,” Tal says sarcastically.
“How did we find him?” Asgar asks, just as Haldor opens the door and steps in.
“Find who?” he asks as he walks towards the empty chair.