[Chapter {24}]

Callum's POV

"Where are you guys taking me?" I asked but like the other seventy seven times, they ignored me.

"I demand to know where you're taking me?" I tried again, but the one holding my arm only snickered.

That's it, "I'm asking one more time, where are you taking me?" I growled already glowing an electric blue.

The guy holding my arm yelped, and released my arm.

"Calm down Callum, we're not doing anything bad, just following orders."

"Matt? You're here to?"

"Hmm."

"Why the hell did you let these guys ambush me, and then blindfold me," I cried.

"They didn't ambush you, they just brought you here like they were ordered to."

"They threw me in a sack Matt," I deadpanned.

"Yeah, that was our bad," a different voice said sheepishly.

"You wouldn't have come with us if we just asked, so we had to resort to our last option," another voice said.

"I would have come with you guys, if you had told me where we were going."

"That's the thing, we can't tell you, Nathan will have our heads," he exclaimed and I chuckled.

"Nathan is behind this? You should have said so," I smiled.

"Damn it, Seb, now he's really going to have our heads. Callum wasn't supposed to know that," a voice cried making my smile widen.

"It's not my fault, Oliver, our Luna's so manipulative," he whined, and soon after, I heard a whack from his side. Oliver probably hit him.

"Chill guys, at least now I'm willing to not make a fuss now that I know Nathan is behind this. I can also pretend to be surprised for the sake of your heads staying intact with your body."

"Really?" Seb asked in a hopeful voice.

"Really," I assured him.

"Matt, I hope we're going the right way," Oliver asked sounding confused.

"We are, now quit whining," Matt grumbled.

"Whatever you say dude, you're the beta. Nathan will have your head if anything happens to Callum," Oliver mused giving up on the discussion.

I'm not dumb you know. I know that whatever Nathan has planned, is highly related to my birthday. I'm also sure that wherever they're kidnapping me to, is where it's all taking place.

I got a little annoyed this morning, when I woke up to an empty bed beside me. I honestly thought he forgot my birthday, because he didn't even wish me a happy birthday before he disappeared. He left before Dawn, and I hadn't been able to find him since then. Then they came along and kidnapped me. I was more than ready to conclude that this day was ruined.

We walked a certain distance, all that I could hear being the noisy chirping of the evening animals. It was a little past seven pm after all.

Oliver and Seb, had their hands on my arm, steering me in the right direction as Matt presumably led the way.

We approached a certain area where everything grew a bit noisy. There were also streams of lights reflecting through the brown blindfold in wherever it was so I suspected we had made it to the venue.

One of the guys took off my blindfold, and I had to squint a little to adjust to the brightness. This part of the forest was even more bright than other parts, thanks to all the fairy lights they hung up on the trees.

I rubbed my eyes again, only so that my double vision would turn single. I could see my mom, Vanessa, Veronica and Damon from here. Even Lincoln, Justin and Britney were here. My mom's sister and surprisingly Vanessa's parents, were present too.

"Happy birthday Callum!" They all yelled in sync as soon as they spotted me. I grinned wide at them, but immediately frowned when I realized someone important was missing.

"Where's Nathan?" I asked not liking they way my heart was pounding in anxiety.

"Somewhere," Veronica trailed.

"Yeah, he's somewhere, he'll probably be back soon," my mom added and I narrowed my eyes at them. They were lying, and they weren't even trying to hide it.

"Well come on, there's no time to waste, we only have less than fifteen minutes to spend with you," Lincoln disclosed, my frown intensified.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked and Justin who was standing beside him just shrugged.

"Oh Callum, you ask too many questions. Just come and celebrate with us okay, it's your birthday after all," Vanessa said.

"We even brought gifts," Britney admitted granted grudgingly.

"Correction, we were threatened to bring gifts," Lincoln laughed even though he didn't seem to mind.

We sat down around the large table with tons of things displayed on it. All this activities were weird, even for a vampire's birthday. We ate, drank, –well I forced myself not to make a face at the taste of actual food– and my mom used this opportunity to tell embarrassing stories about my childhood. Vanessa joined in a while later, and although I was beyond embarrassed, I still smiled because not everybody got the opportunity to be told embarrassing stories about yourself by the people you love.

"How were you guys able to convince Lincoln, Justin and Britney that it wasn't weird to set up a birthday party in the middle of the forest?" I whispered to Matt who was sitting beside me.

"I don't know, vampires are really convincing, and threatening," he nudged his head in Vanessa's direction. My mouth formed an 'O' in understanding.

"It wasn't that difficult to convince them though, humans are less perceptive. They like it when everything stays the same, so they don't have to worry too much," he reasoned.

"Guys, we have to go or he'll have our heads, we're far behind time already," Vanessa spoke looking at her empty wrist.

Everybody except me, seemed to understand what she meant, and so they started packing a few things.

"Where are you guys going?" I asked exasperatedly, not liking how I was kept in the dark about everything today.

"We're going back home, but you'll have to wait here for about a minute or two because someone else is coming to meet you," Veronica said in between stuffing things into bags.

"Bye Callum," Oliver and Seb called at the same time, as they all exited the forest, leaving me sitting alone on the cold forest bench.

I knew that they'd been referring to  Nathan, when they said someone was coming to meet me, it had to be him. Nevertheless, I still felt worried sitting here all by myself.

I let the cool breeze, and the sounds from the forest calm my nerves as my mind drifted on its own.

I yelped albeit, in a very unmanly fashion –I don't regret it– when I felt a palm snake it's way around my eyes.

The intruder chuckled, a deep resonating sound that had me shivering. I knew that laugh even before I heard the voice.

"Guess who?" he whispers right in my ear making goosebumps spread up my arms.

"Nathan," I whispered not sure why we were whispering.

"In the flesh," he laughed taking his hands off my face. I quickly tried to pick up my dignity and composure that were sprawled carelessly on the floor.

"It took you long enough, I was beginning to think you disappeared from the face of the Earth," I replied as nonchalantly as I could.

"So you missed me then?"

"You've been gone all day, what did you expect," I pouted, abandoning my nonchalantly demeanor.

Nathan laughed again, before coming to sit beside me.

"Here," he said holding out a flask to me.

I took it from him gingerly, "what's in here?"

"Blood," he answered casually, and my eyes widened.

"Relax, it's animal blood. I know you don't drink human blood, so I went hunting for animals while the others had you distracted," he explained but I didn't fully get it.

"Why do I need to drink blood?"

"Because I need you to be at your strongest today," he replied a cheeky grin on his face, coupled with that mischievous glint in his eyes.

I didn't believe him, but I drank from the flask anyway, seeing as Nathan had me wrapped around his finger.

Truth be told, I did feel stronger after emptying the flask. I wasn't necessarily hungry –modern day vampire and all– but which vampire ever turned down blood.

"Come on, I got us lanterns. I want us to light them up and watch them float," he said grabbing my wrist.

I stumbled behind him, and gasped when I saw the clearing. There were multiple lanterns lined up, and there weren't any trees around the area to disrupt their movements.

Nathan stopped in front of one of the lanterns, and handed it to me. I held it cautiously, while he lighted it's fuse. As soon as my grip on it loosened, it was floating away from me, towards the sky. It was truly a mesmerizing sight. Only Nathan will ever think to do stuffs like this on my birthday.

"Come on let's light the others, we have about nineteen more." I raised an eyebrow at the number, because normally, two people usually only let loose one lantern each, then again, who ever said Nathan and I were normal.

"I would have gotten more, but I wanted to spend intimate time with you, and I can't do that if we have lanterns interrupting."

We lighted the other nineteen, after which Nathan led me to a spot in the clearing that was covered in fluffy blankets.

We laid down and watched the lanterns float, in silence.

To be continued

PS: This chapter was too long, so I had to cut into two, I'm posting the continuation immediately though.

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