"I? Don't have a choice? You are joking" she walked past me, and when she was about pass Josh, he held her wrist really tightly. She stopped moving. It was obvious that she was in pain."You don't. So quit acting like a bad-ass heroin that you're not. And cooperate with us." "I think you guys don't get it. I don't trust you." "No, I think you don't get it. This isn't a movie, and if it was a movie, you're not the protagonist. So get it in your head, we don't trust you either, but one thing I'm sure of is that we all want one thing, to end this war. You can't do it alone, and we need as much help as possible. So..." "... So, you want me to join you? I already told you, I don't work for people." "Yeah you don't, but that's one thing we have in common. And trust me, the only difference we have with you, is we work with people. And that's what I'm proposing, join us, we'll work together to end this war and then go our separate ways. It's that simple and face it. You can't do this alone." "Fine, whatever, you have a point. So is there an initiation or something?" She asked mockingly. "First we need to talk together, so please excuse us," Max said, Heather was about to open her mouth and say something, but obviously changed her mind. She left the room and went into the tunnel."What are you doing Josh, you just invited a stranger to join us. She could be a spy. We can't trust her." "Josh, I think max is right. We can't trust her. We don't know what she's up to." "Well we don't have a choice. She has read the book, our only lead. I also don't know what she's up to, but I'm sure she's not working with the Prince. And it's okay not to trust her, but at least trust me." I do trust Josh, so if he decides that this is the best option, I don't have any more complaints. "Alright, Josh if you say so," I said, giving my approval. "Whatever" Max who still doesn't sound convinced said. "Well, I guess we are a team now," Heather said from behind. Wow, so much for _excuse us for a moment, Heather!_ "Yeah! Welcome to the team." I beamed trying my best to act happy."There's not much info about the stone in the book, but according to what I've read, the stone isn't here, and it was not at any time with Amber, in fact, it was at no time taken from the castle. It should be in there right now." "So, you are trying to say that the prince killed my mother, kidnapped my sister, tried to kidnap me, and almost killed Nathan for a stone that is in the castle he destroyed and left a long time ago?" This is outrageous, I just got dragged into a story that isn't even mine, I'm not a part of it, but I'm going through hell because of it."The only reason this war started was that the black coven king wanted to take the stone that belonged to the white coven. And yes, you are not a part of the war, but you will be sooner or later. Once the prince finds the stone, he's going to wipe out the existence of all creatures except for humans and his people of course. Then he's going to give his people permission to feed on the humans as much as they want. They'll be chaos as he plans to rule over the humans too." "That's their plan?" I could feel goosebumps all over. The prince is nastier than I thought he was. "Yes, you know now they can't feed on humans as they like because vampire existence is a secret, barely just a myth to the humans. The former leaders decided to make supernatural creatures' existence a secret for safety purposes. Nevertheless, now, the Prince wants to change all that." "How did you get your hands on so much information? I mean, I know the prince has big plans but no one has ever gotten the detailed info." Josh said. "Yeah, me too." Max joined in. "I have my ways, but now's not the time to talk about that, we need to get out of this shit hole before we starve to death," Heather said with pride. "Right, we need to find a way out," Josh murmured. "I wish Nathan was here. He'd just break the wall with his earth powers." I really miss him, and weirdly, the only power these two have is fire. "Already tried that. It's like this tunnel has she power proof spell. I think it was made in case of attacks." Heather yawned. So, she also has water powers, cool! Guess I'm the only one with the lame oh air."By the way, if our powers could work here I would have teleported a long time ago." "Yeah, guess I didn't think of that." "Let's try breaking the wall," Max said, but that sounds stupid if you ask me. How on earth can we break a wall that even magic can't?"There should be an exit, somewhere in the tunnels. Cause, who will build a safe room that can't be opened from the outside." I said, and they all agreed. We left the library and went back to the tunnels. Checking the walls if there was any sign of lock or opening but there wasn't."I think we should split up, heather and max, check this side along the tunnel walls while kara, and I would check inside the library." Josh said as he led a long way to the library. I don't know what the heck is wrong with me, but I really wish I was teamed up with Max. But hey what can I do? "You sure Max and Heather are fine together? Cause you know, max doesn't seem to like her." "oh, I'm sure they'll be fine. By the way, they will have to learn to like each other. We are on the same side." I was disappointed with his answer. I was really hoping he would make me switch places with Heather. whatever. "I found something!" I yelled drawing the attention to the team. They rushed to where I was to see what I found. It was like one of those security door lock stuffs in movies and big places. It shows a spot for four digits to be entered. And there was a dial pad below. "What do you think the code is?" Heather asked, and I was surprised at the way she considered herself a member soo quickly."Kara, what do you think aunt will use as her pin?" Max asked. And that's how our pin guessing frenzy began. Not her birth date, not mine, not Kendra's, not 1 2 3 4, or 4 3 2 1. I've tried everything. I even tried my dad's birth date, I know that was stupid cause who would use the birth date of a guy who abandoned them and never turned back."It's okay kara. We'll get it." Max said holding my shoulder."What about her anniversary" Heather muttered."No, I don't think so, mom hates dad, there's no way she's going to use that." "Try her birth date." "Josh, I'm sure you know I have already tried that." "Which date did you use exactly?" Max asked, and I kinda felt like hitting him."July 3, 1980, so I put 7380." "That means She's 38, according to your maths," Josh mumbled, mostly to himself. “But that's not her age…” Heather uttered. It's funny to see how she's accepted her fate and joined the team wholeheartedly. I still don't trust her but if Josh and max are okay with her presence, so am I. “So? You are trying to say." “I'm trying to say, maybe the pass code is miss Amber's birth date, but not this one, the real one.“ She says, actually making sense.“ But we don't know what her real birth date is.“ Max grumbled.“Nathan told me she was about 2000 3000. I can't remember precisely.“ Sincerely, the idea of my mom being that old still irks me. "Yeah, it's 2000, but I don't know if there's any digit included.“ Josh says.“Actually, I think it's between 2400 and five. That's according to my calculation since it's been a long time since we last met.“ Heather said thoughtfully. “But we don't know the actual month and day.“ Josh said, “Okay, why don't we try both, 2400 and five.“ I said."Using the same month and day.“ Max added. “Yeah, that could work.“ Heather said. I hope it does. The thought of mom lying to us about her age and date of birth is kinda painful. Remembering all the birthday parties we've thrown for a fake birthday is disheartening. We tried 2400, but it didn't work, then we tried 2500. It took a little time after trying her real date of birth before the walls slowly started opening, leading us to the hall way. “Omg it worked!!“ Heather said screaming and jumping like a teenager that got a new phone. She dragged both max and Josh into a hug, and I gotta admit. I never thought she'd have that much excitement in her. Josh raised a hand, signaling me to come to join the hug. I did happily. And that's it, our first group hug. The only reason we could get out of that room is that we worked as a team. Because Josh talked us into saving Heather's life. I could see the beginning of our story in their victorious smiles. Not a story with one or two main leads and stuff. No, a story where we all have our important roles, and we all are leading.