The Accidental Vampire

"Little kiddo, when will you grow up?" Castiel patted Lilith's head gently. "Why do you cry?"

"You are back..." Lilith's muffled voice came as she buried her face in Castiel's chest.

"Should I not be back?" Castiel chuckled. "Anyway, I missed you too, little one. But no, I'm not back."

"This is only temporary. I came back to take care of a few things. It's almost time for me to leave."

"Please don't go..."

"So you do not want Atlas to be back?" Castiel inquired, seemingly amused. "I thought you would want him back."

"I want him back. He is a good person who deserves to live. But I also don't want you to leave."

"Don't worry. Only a month... After a month, I'll be back. Until then, you must help Atlas... Help him get all the Key Fragments and to open the place..."

"Help him open that place...? Why?"

"It's better if he answers you directly." Castiel kept patting Lilith's head as if she was a little child. Despite knowing everything, he didn't tell Lilith, partially because he wanted Atlas to say it directly and partially because Lancaster was here as well. It was better if Atlas dealt with everything himself.

"Just know, what he wants is also what I want... So help him. Also, I've taught him some spells. The rest, you can teach him. Teach him everything you know, as fast as you can. He would be needing it since even I'm not sure how long it'll be before things start deteriorating. He needs to be ready."

"Also, Zhang is dead. And Atlan is missing. So find Atlan, which I'm sure you can do. But more importantly, I already stole the key fragment of Lucius. So you should really focus on getting out of this place as fast as you can before he finds out."

"It should be time for me to leave. If I left later, Atlas will forever disappear. But before I leave..."

Castiel held Lilith's hands. He opened her hands and placed something on her palm.

Lilith glanced at what was kept in her hands. "This..."

There was a small folded piece of paper resting in her palm. From a single glance, she couldn't see what was inside the folded piece of paper, but seeing Castiel treat it with such importance, she believed that there was something really important in it.

Moreover, she could also feel a spell around the piece of paper, where only Castiel or people he allowed could open the paper and see what was inside it. If anyone else tried to do it, all they were going to find was an empty piece of paper.

"You'll know what to do with it when it's time...."

Castiel's words fell in Lilith's ears before he closed his eyes. The unique aura that was surrounding him disappeared entirely as if it wasn't there in the first place.

His body went weak, falling into Lilith's arms. Losing control of the body didn't place as much burden on Atlas' body as regaining the control of the body did.

When he was in the backseat, his consciousness absorbed all the information it could. However, now that he was back in the body, he truly felt the burden of everything he had grasped.

He was so tired that as soon as he returned, Atlas fell asleep.

"Is he fine?"

"Yeah. He is just sleeping," Lilith explained. "Just let him rest. He should be back to normal after getting enough sleep.

Lilith carefully made Atlas lie on the carriage seat, understanding that Castiel was gone again. However, now she was sure of one thing, that she always doubted. Atlas's presence in the body was because Castiel allowed him. As for why, she didn't truly understand. It appeared more than just taking pity on a person in need.

There was still the folded piece of paper in her hand, but she didn't open it right away.

"Lancaster, tell the carriage driver to keep going. Lucius might come after us if he finds out..."

Castiel told her many things, but one of the bombshells amongst those was that he had stolen the Key Fragment from Lucius. Since it was stolen, Lucius was going to find out sooner or later. And she didn't want to be here when he found out.

"To where?" Lancaster asked before stepping out of the carriage.

"West... We have an old friend to meet in the west. Tell him to keep going west, toward the Kingdom of Triad."

Lancaster stepped out of the carriage, noticing the carriage driver sitting on his knees. What are you doing there? Get up."

Lancaster informed him about the directions to take and where to go after calming the driver.

Meanwhile, inside the carriage, Lilith unfolded the piece of power that Castiel gave her.

"Hmm?"

Lilith's face became a bit confused as she noticed what was inside the paper. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

She folded the paper again and kept it safe with her, still trying to figure out what was the meaning of this.

"Can't you just tell me directly what you want me to do? Why be so vague?" She asked, glancing at Atlas.

"He said I'll understand what to do with it when it's time. But what if I miss that time...?"

She didn't know what to do. All she knew was that she was supposed to help Atlas get the keys and enter that place.

"If that's what he wants, then there must be a reason to it."

She decided to do what Castiel wanted without understanding why that was the case. She was sure that it was something important. And to achieve that goal, she needed to get to the next target. There were only two Key Fragments that were left. One was with Atlan, and one was with the Blood Council.

She decided to take Atlan's piece first since that meant meeting Yovana again as well, to return some favors.

*****

Lucius still had no idea that his Key Fragment was stolen.

Completely unaware, he entered the Franc Clan's castle. Because the explosion was stopped, most of the Clan was still intact.

Lucius went to the lower floor, seemingly looking for something. Before long, he reached the floor where Atlan was kept, but he didn't stop before the cell that belonged to Atlan.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking down at the floor. "It should be here."

He brought a small piece of wood out of his pocket and placed that piece of wood on the floor. After keeping the wood down, he started waiting for something.