Stepping on the broken concrete blocks that lay on the floor and walking further into the dark opening in the temple, Chloe couldn't do anything but gape at everything she saw. A ten feet tall and five feet wide wooden structure that looked like a box stood alone in the middle of the huge room where she had seen the book. After reading the book, she had plenty of unasked questions and she tried to satisfy her curiosity. However, she needed to know more without Maya's knowledge.

Chloe swallowed and inhaled shakily, her hand stood firm on her sword. Not like she wasn't expecting to see anyone in the temple, because it was clear to her that this was Maya's home. However, the emptiness of the place was disturbing. Was she supposed to leave her home? And to where? Much as she would like to know, Maya's whereabouts aren't as important as scanning the whole place. Until the day she came back after Zeidan's encounter with her, Chloe never would have thought that there was possibly a place exactly where Maya had been staying. It didn't concern her.

All that was on her mind was to find her sister's killer and then she found a ninja who fears her and serves her. She never asked questions. She never stopped to think why. She only enjoyed the way she ordered her around. For twenty years give or take. It felt energizing the way they worked together in planning the fall of the King of Vampire City. Taking the whole Vampire city down infact.

"Would anyone like to tell me why they have broken into my home, twice in a row?" The voice startled her that she jumped before turning to face Maya in her dark cloak as usual. Will she ever get out of that thing?

"Where have you been?" Chloe tried concealing the discussion with her question but Maya didn't seem like she was having any of it.

"What are you doing here?" 

"Nothing. I just wanted to come and see you. Why are you suddenly sensitive to the fact that I came here? Are you hiding something?" She tilted her head at the woman before her who walked past her and turned her back to her.

"Leave!" She ordered.

"Where have you been? And you look so pissed."

"It's none of your business." She spat.

Chloe nodded and chuckled, something telling her Maya had been busy with lots of other things asides from their plan. 

"Answer me, Maya. You pledged your loyalty to me, remember." 

"I didn't pledge to be there for you forever..."

"Be with me, you mean? Protect me forever maybe?" Chloe probed and she could see her shoulder droop in defeat. 

"I lost my jewelry."

"Jewelry? Are you supposed to have any jewelry despite this cloak?" There was a brush of mockery in her voice as she asked. 

"It's not just any jewelry. I was supposed to keep it till I will be erased from existence. I got it from someone special and I can't help but have it with me again."

"So, you went out to look for it?"

"I gave it to people outside," Maya replied and she heard the woman sigh before she found a place to sit on the floor. 

"Go to those people and get your jewelry back."

"Trust me." Her voice turned dark. "I will."

"Why did you give them in the first place?" Chloe stepped into the room further and sat down beside her.

"We had a deal. Turned out I had been scammed all along."

"What?"

"First, I gave it to someone and I asked her not to tell anyone she saw my face. Well, she did give out the jewelry which meant that someone already found out about me."

"What did you do to her?" Chloe's heart was in her mouth because of what she had come to know of Maya, she never spared whoever crossed her path. But she wished she hadn't killed her because it would be her greatest joy to know what her face is like.

"I did to her what I was supposed to do." Her voice was expressionless. Not even a hint of remorse. Could she blame her? She had lived four hundred years of ups and downs and all manner of directions. 

"Who is this person? Or was?"

Maya turned to glare at her with those purple eyes. 

"Why do you ask? She is useless anyway. I would care less if she snitched on me but then I gave her my jewelry as a sign of my compliance. Yet, she went ahead to tell on me."

"How did you know she did?"

"I visited a drug store today." She spurted and she frowned wondering which drug store she meant.

"The place you got that bottle of pills." She emphasized and it dawned on Chloe that things had been going out of hand and Maya had been helping out. How selfish of her to think Maya could never be trusted and that she might betray her one day. 

"Why?" Her voice was shaky.

"You're asking me that question? Of course, I knew Zeidan would go there but I relented when the manager refused to disclose anything to them. However, I guess he changed his mind because he called them, wanting to spill everything he knew. I got pissed and..."

"You killed him." Why was her voice shaky? Yes, Maya could kill whoever stood in her way but does that include her? Will she kill her one day too? 

"I did what I had to do. But before I could kill him, he stated that Zeidan sent a picture of my Kryst to him asking if he had seen anything like it. Well, guess what? He said, yes, I showed it to him instead of money to get drugs because I thought we still lived in the stone age where things were traded by exchanging products."

"He told Zeidan that?" Chloe's heart pounded now and she was immediately covered in sweat. This wasn't how she had planned things.

"No. I heard him planning to tell Zeidan that."

"And you decided to stop him."

"I did what I had to do. End of discussion." Maya rose to her feet and Chloe knew certainly that she was serious about it. It's high time she left there.

"I'll just leave now." She rose too, her mind clogged with the addition of plenty of other questions. "But before then, whenever it has to do with me, will you still do what you have to do?"

Maya turned to face her squarely and she could swear that her knees quivered under her stare. Her eyes looked like they could kill and as she walked gingerly towards her, each step pounded just like each beat of her heart.

"I can do whatever I can to see that no one crosses me but if you, Chloe, dares to cross my path," she moved closer and with her hand pulled her chin up. "I'll do what I have to do by then. So, be careful."