The Noblesse and his Love

Chapter 11

Thoughts 

*Rai-Lin*

I woke up the next morning to Frankie teaching Raziel how to work the door. Leaning against the wall, I watched as Raziel opened the door by himself. Frankie, who was watching from beside me, starting clapping. "Congratulations, Master."

"Frankenstein."

"You've finally done it."

"I couldn't have done in without you, Frankenstein." There was something genuine about Raziel's tone.

Frankie beamed with happiness as we both rejoiced. He knew, while I still wished I could have killed Jake, Marie, and the vampire, I had forgiven him. We never could stay mad at each other for long, especially with Raziel around. He tended to shorten out tempers.

"Now, you know how to open the door," Frankie said.

"I can open the door and go out on my own now?" Raziel glanced at the sunshine streaming through the doorway."

"Yes, Master. You may go out with great confidence."

I smiled. It was a true smile, one that hadn't graced my face in centuries. It was moments like these that I lived for. There hadn't been many in the 820 years since Raziel was put to sleep, and the ones I did have usually involved them, at least until I lost that as well. It had been a very long time since I had had a reason to feel happy, but now I felt amazing.

The feeling continued as Frankie, Raziel, and I sat down for tea. I could feel the contentment and happiness radiating off them as well. As least, it was until Frankie's phone rang. "Why would Shinwu be calling?" he wondered aloud before answering. "I'm home. Is there something...?" The call cut off.

Frankie glanced at me, and I shrugged. "I'm not feeling like he is in any danger," I concentrated for a moment. "In fact, his mind feels quite close." The doorbell rang as soon as the words were out of my mouth.

I remained seated as Raziel and Frankie went over to the camera screen. I had a feeling about who it could be. My suspicions were confirmed when Frankie said, "Shinwu, just climb over the fence."

I didn't move as the children filed in. I continued to sip on my tea, Raziel by my side. Shinwu waved at me. I waved back out of courtesy. It wasn't that I didn't like the children-I did-I just didn't want to become too attached to them when they could be so easily killed.

Soon, there were food wrappers all over the living room table. Frankie was twitching at the mess. I smirked into my tea. 'Frankie, darling, do tone it down a bit. The kids might notice how high strung you are.'

'Shut up and get out of my head.' I laughed mentally before pulling away from his mind.

"We came to see you all because we thought you'd be bored," one of the kids was talking. "You all must have stayed home several days now. What did you do the whole time, all by yourselves?"

The kids continued to babble on while I was entertained by my brother's breakdown. He was drinking his tea, oblivious to the kids calling his name. He finally jerked out of his thoughts. "Ah. Oh, my. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you calling me."

I snorted as I let my mind open enough to hear the kids' thoughts. 'The chairman looks ill. Is he okay? Is he going to pass out?' So much for the kids not noticing.

"You look pale. Are you okay?" Yuna asked Frankie.

"I'm...I'm fine. What was the question?" Frankie tried to cover his tracks. In my opinion, he was failing.

"When do we get to go back to school?"

"We're worried we might get behind in our classes compared to the other schools," Ikhan put in.

Frankie thought about it. "Well, it won't be possible until the police announce it is safe again."

"It looks like they don't have a break though."

"It won't be easy considering the degree of the case," Frankie said.

"Except for being bored, I kind of life this," Shinwu said before his phone started ringing. "Huh? What the...?"

I tensed, hearing the fearful thoughts running through Shinwu's head. "What is it, Shinwu?" I asked, though I already knew.

Yuna, you are calling me."

My mind flashed back to the strangers. They had taken Yuna's phone. Why were they calling us? My hand started to curl into a fist before Raziel slid his hand in mine.

"Let me answer that," my brother said, reaching for the phone. "Yes."

My sensitive ears picked up the conversation. "Hmm...This isn't Shinwu's voice. Right, you are one of the two guys. I can never forget that voice. Good, actually. We called Shinwu because we got some business with you two, not the students. Meet us where we first met. The building under construction." The phone clicked off.

I paled as Raziel's hand tightened on mine. He, too, could hear the conversation. Fearful thoughts echoed around my mind, thoughts that weren't my own. The kids were terrified. Struggling to keep the thoughts at bay, I noticed Raziel send me a concerned glance. I shook my head as I pushed away the thoughts.

I came back to myself as Frankie stood up. "You should go home now. It's late." I knew he was trying to get the kids out, so we could meet the strangers. "Just in case, I will go and get Yuna's phone."

"What? No, that's okay. Since it's my phone, I should go. You don't need to go through all that trouble for me." Yuna's eyes were wide.

"That's right, sir. We will go with her, so don't worry," Shinwu beat himself on the chest. "The chairman getting a student's phone back. That's nonsense." Despite their brave words, I could still hear murmurs of fear from their minds. Shinwu's contained the least, so I knew he actually meant what he said.

"Why is it nonsense?" Frankie asked. When the students couldn't come up with an answer, he continued, "It is not nonsense. Maybe in other situations, but we have to be careful for now because terrible cases occurred around here recently. It might just be picking up a phone, but we don't know who he is. And since I know what has happened, I can't just sit here and do nothing. I have a responsibility to keep my students safe as the Chairman of Ye Ran High School."

I stared at my brother with love in my gaze. Frankie and I were the same when it came to protecting those we loved. I may not have liked to kill when I was younger, but I did it without hesitation when someone I loved was threatened. Many a thing had lost its life when trying to attack Raziel. I just wished I could have protected him when it mattered most.