Chapter 60

"I am Akeem, a follower of the White Circle, a messenger of one of the High pillars. On behalf of the White Circle, My High Pillar offers you a hand of alliance. Are you here to take it?" He stretched his hand towards her again.

Zezi's lips tugged upwards in a smirk and his lips slowly fell back into the thin line it had been in before.

He was asking her this after he had already revealed his face and told her about "The White Circle"? They must be so confident in their powers to remain unfound if they wanted to be, because that had to be the only reason for going about things this way.

He slowly stretched his hand more to her in the form of a handshake, like the only reason she had not accepted it the first time was because she hadn't seen it in the first place, but Zezi still disregarded it, folding her arms across her chest, her eyes concealed.

She wasn't stupid, he still hadn't answered her question yet.

"What are you? You have no scent," her pearly white teeth came to sight, her lips stretching into a smile, you are hiding it. How? Somewhere along the line, she had started to enjoy this, "You are not a vampire, your heart beats. Pretty loudly too. What. Are. You?"

Akeem finally dropped his outstretched hand and folded it across him.

"Human." He arched an eyebrow at her. "Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm weak, werewolf. The White Circle is not weak."

Zezi wasn't bothered about their strength; thinking of every possible enemy as a being possessing the highest powers its kind could ever attain was something she always did.

That was one of the things that had kept her alive this far. Besides, doing otherwise was highly detrimental and could result in death.

What she found surprising, though, was that he was human. She didn't know humans roamed the Castle. Not after she had found out that Gwen was also a vampire. He must be in connection with a witch or wizard, their White Circle must have that in their midst. Only witches and wizards attacked werewolves with wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane had been in the first message sent to her.

"So is the White Circle filled with only humans?"

"No." He folded a hand behind him, then stretched one to her for a handshake again. "I offer you a hand on behalf of my High Pillar, who offers this alliance on behalf of The White Circle. Will you take it?"

She eyed his hand thoughtfully, weighing his offer. Although she had made a decision long before this moment, the things she was just finding out about this White Circle were making her wonder if they would even be of any true use to her.

Were they even worth it?

"What shall I stand to lose?"

"What do you already have?" If Akeem was angry at how long she was dragging this, he didn't show it. In fact, he felt at ease, like he was in his element.

Like this was what he did every day.

It made her wonder how many people he must have already spoken to and met in the Castle. Was one of the Royalty part of it? A friend of the Royalty?

The King couldn't plot against his own self. So maybe Laura? Or Lady Delice?

Something about that train of thought didn't quite seem right or possible, so she dropped it.

"My life."

"Are you prepared to lose that? Victory against the King will certainly come at a great cost. Lives will be lost." He spoke with an accent she was just observing, it was almost unnoticeable when much attention wasn't paid to detecting it in the first place.

So this Akeem was lecturing a former War General on possible attack risk.

How very interesting.

"I am willing to give that. What do I stand to gain?"

"Your revenge." Then he added with an assuring smile. "Our revenge."

Ah, there it was.

Finally!

The sense of togetherness. The tactic of Common Goal 101.

Zezi scoffed.

He would have to do better.

"Do you even know what I want?"

"Of course. We in the White Circle all want the same thing. A collective goal to send the King down the drains along with all of his followers."

Zezi squinted her eyes at him.

"Akeem, I hope that drain is big enough because I want more."

"All of them?"

For the first time, something flickered in his eyes, an uncertainty. He had gone out of his well-prepared character for a moment and went to his real self; that was all she needed.

That one moment.

"That is not going to work." She turned away, leaving.

"There are some good ones."

She turned back to him, shaking her head. "I am not interested, it doesn't just seem like a wholesome goal to me. We obviously don't want the same thing; we'll always clash, and that is a bad partnership. Tell your High Pillar that."

High Pillar. That was just a weird title for a leader. All Zezi could think about whenever he said that was an imagery of tall brick walls.

They should have picked something else. It would have been better.

"Once you set sight on a messenger of the High Pillar, you cannot turn down their offer." His grip was tight on her hand and anger raged in her.

She growled lowly, showing her canines. He let her go immediately, staggering back, before he quickly regained his composure.

"What will the White Circle take from me, ehn? My life?" She let out an airy chuckle. "You are welcome to entertain me, I've been waiting for someone to volunteer."

That shift in his eyes again.

The fear was starting to get to him.

Maybe they weren't so confident in their powers to remain unfound after all, maybe they were just certain of how they could feed fear and intimidate the other party to dance to their tune.

Pathetic.

This certainly wasn't going as planned for him, but for Zezi, this was perfect; although not as planned, it was wonderful.

"I've been waiting for someone to take this burden away from me, someone to carry the blame." She moved closer to him, her eyes shifting, her anger reading its ugly head.

Maybe she should rip his head, maybe that would make the White Circle come for her, kill her before the King has a chance to play protector.

The idea sent tingles down her spine, and she found it increasingly more tempting by the second.

These days, her logicality always ran away from her, and impulse determined her actions. There were many things that she didn't think through.

Her claw sneaked under his chin, raising it up.

"I think you should be worried about your life instead. In case your White Circle didn't warn you. I'm a very aggrieved woman and one heck of a crazy werewolf."

Then she heard.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Whatever could it be that had made him lose his control of hiding it?

A sinister smile snaked up her lips.

This should be fun.