Demetrious was curious to see what was happening outside. The order issued by Dante to the commanders was to get to their duties at their headquarters immediately but Demetrious wanted to get some information on the size and weapons of Dante's army. He slowly left his room for downstairs by teleporting smoothly without getting any attention. Luckily for him the head quarters of all divisions were in a large circle. So luckily for Demetrious all he had to so was to look outside.

He was hoping that Edward was not going to see him neglecting his duties. He didn't want to disappoint him. Those two brothers worshiped him for some reason and Demetrious felt uncomfortable about how much they looked up to him and let him give opinions about important decisions.

Demetrious was baffled how Edwin and Edward did not despise him. He could never understand their indifference to his track record of empathic actions that not many dared think about. He did not expect a warm welcome at all. These two commanders looked ordinary on the outside. Edward was a workaholic who had no time for anything else but reading, extracting secrets from artefacts, discovering spells and checking that all the files were arranged accordingly from all the research done by the enforcers. Edwin also was a hard worker too but had time for dating girls. He was a typical teenager who loved to talk about his dates and his efforts to be romantic. Unfortunately for him, girls feared him and his position as a commander so he was dumped after a few dates by the girls who probably loved him as well. Commanders and army enforcers were known to be possessive and cruel even when it came to their partners visiting families, they would not allow it as freely as other nobles did. Demetrious had the theory that since Edward and Edwin were from a broken home, they despised the idea of dominating their partners and throwing their powers at the weak to terrorise them like the other commanders did.

Having a positive experience with Edwin and Edward had not made Demetrious naive. He was still wary of working alongside Dante's commanders. During his house arrest when Eros and Leona were trying to protect him from the threats that had taken their older son, he had endured the visits of these commanders. He also was well aware of the rumours that were circulating about him and his defiance.

Demetrious used palace gatherings as the opportunity to eavesdrop on the conversations of these commanders. The tracker cousins, Lucia, Tanya and Flora seemed to blame him most for defying their master resulting in an angry Dante who revealed the extent of his anger in their mandatory daily meetings. According to Flora, one of the trackers had once made her seconds late in responding to Dante and he had condemned her to spend 3 months on night shift training of trackers. Dante had also obviously had executed the tracker who made her late. Tanya and Lucia had agreed that Dante was only this harsh when Demetrious violated protocols and automatically had to be let off easily as a Ronas.

Alexander, Nathan and Benjamin all believed he needed some training in the dungeons to eliminate any trace of his empathy that they had witnessed him showing. If it wasn't for those three he could have gotten away with breaking and entering into the dungeons and head quarters of servants. But those three were highly skilled nobles who had trained their enforcers to work like their lives depended on it. Whenever he was arrested and brought by them to Dante for breaking the rules, those three used to try to influence Dante's verdicts. They volunteered themselves many times to mentor Demetrious and kick the empathy out of him. But luckily Dante preferred to give him night shifts and curfews. He preferred sleep deprivation to the company of those horrific warlocks any day.

On the other hand, Xavier and Sean never blamed Demetrious for anything. They looked at him as Dante's blood relative who's defiance reflected badly on his trainers at Phoenix academy. They had made sure to bring this to the attention of Dante who had acted fast to send enforcers to arrest all people who had ever taught Demetrious anything. They were taken to Benjamin and Nathan who interrogated them for weeks and some were lucky to walk free because of their family's ranks amongst the nobles. But many of them especially non Arkansans were not seen again. Xavier later tried to make up for the negligence of his trainers when he assigned himself to train him personally during his three month house arrest. Dylan had also assisted him many times especially when he was teaching him spells on how to obstruct or intercept illegal crossings through summon calls and teleportations. Dylan was an expert in the field. After all he had helped capture many vampires and freedom fighters for Dante to get him promoted.

Demetrious sighed at his dark memories. He wondered what these commanders would be ordered to do when he confronted Dante for real this time. Either way Demetrious knew he had to watch his back more closely from now on. His fight was going to get more serious from now on. A lot more serious.

He was now watching the commanders overseeing the arrangement of their perfect army. As Dante had anticipated, new army recruits from the central territory had arrived They seemed ready and well motivated. It was an honour aftterall to be serving as a fighter for the Ronas dynasty.

His eyes suddenly fell on Tanya and Dylan having a heated discussion a bit further down from the ear shot of the soldiers at the side. Suddenly Demetrious's mind went back to Dante's orders regarding his personal vendetta to bring traitors to convert them to his loyal servants and catch fresh powerful beings from strong bloodlines. Demetrious sighed in frustration. Dylan and Tanya were to oversee this. They were held responsible of capturing the wanted list and He knew from experience that this combination was only going to bring doom and destruction.

Demtrious tought back to his plans. Eversince last night when he was inducted as a commander, he had gained more hope in reaching his helping hand beyond small acts of kindness to captives and servants. He was going to use his inside information to ruin Dante's plans. It was going to be a risky task but one he had to do. He had promised to Evelina to keep his hopes alive for building a better future before she had left to become an outlow.

Demetrious was now curious to hear what Tanya and Dylan were talking about all this time. Even Xavier was losing his patience. He was watching from the side looking as though he was listening to Sean but it was obvious he was shooting his murderus glare towards Dylan. After all he was so possessive of his blood angel and he normally personally dealt with anyone who even dared look at her the wrong way. From the looks of it, Tanya was losing an argument with Dylan which was obvious from the frown on her face and Xavier was not happy about it at all.

Demetrious looked around quickly and teleported himself near to their position hiding behind gigantic statues of Ronas the Great and his fighters close to the deadly pair. He had to use a powerful spell to break through the barriers Tanya and Dylan had put up. It took so much energy out of him but still there was enough to help him teleport back. He concentrated hard and now could hear them clearly;

Dylan was talking in his usual threatening tone; "Tanya, I am not going to cover for you. What you are asking is suicide. You can not request my assistance on this. I should really go to Xavier right now and tell him about all your little illegal trips through the borders. I should tell him about how you have been aiding your dear brother, Tiberius in the central territory. I am certain the minute he hears about your traitorous activities, he would go himself to arrest and interrogate him to lighten the load of your offences."

Tanya sounded horrified now "no, you cant tell him that. You know I have not been aiding Tiberius. I have been battling with him to come back home. It is not too late for him yet. His name is not on the wanted list like that half-brother of yours. He didnt leave illegally and has not even commited any crimes yet. His excuse to stay out there was to study the sacred river and its sorroundings to bring back some valuable information for Edwin and Edward....."

Dylan laughed loudly and interrupted Tanya "and now? what is he up to? say it Tanya. You know you don't even dare to admit what has become of him. He is a lost cause. He has already commited crimes by refusing your offer to return when he knows well he should have arrived back weeks ago to submit his reports to the research division. You are lucky, Edwin and Edward are lenient enough to accept your excuses for him remaining at the sacred river for longer. You are in danger too. You have gone too far in protecting him and covering for him. Not everyone can get away so lightly as Demetrious did for pulling that stunt with Evelina. You are commiting treason Tanya."

Tanya was now pleading in a soft tone Demetrious had never heard of: "please, you can't tell anyone. I will bring him back before he is caught. All I am asking you is to let my absence slide while I may have to go visit him. Please, I am short of time. I have to convince him to get back. You and I are in a different division as Xavier and Sean. They would be leading most of the fighting. No one else would notice my absence but you. I have to make my trips to save him from a lifetime of torment he would suffer if he is caught for the offences I think he is planning to commit. I will go during our preparation time. My family would be devastated if he gets himself arrested. I am begging you, not to tell Xavier. Imagine if Donavan's life was at stake, wouldn't you do anything to save him."

"At the moment, I am the only one who knows about your dear brother's traitorous activities. But how long do you think you can keep this up. You are lucky it was me who caught you last time you were returning from you visits. Fine, because of my friendship with Xavier, I let you continue your suicide mission. You better hurry and get him back before I lose my patience. we have a wanted list to catch. But Don't expect your secret to be hidden for long. There are so many guards working on the borders." Tanya took a deep breath from relief.

Dylan released a frustrated sigh "For the records, if I had access to my brother as easily as you did, I would have reported him along time ago. If he spent a couple of days in solitude with Benjamin or Nathan, he would never dare think of leaving Arkansas and betraying his bloodline. But too bad Donavan had chosen Alaska. If I touched Donavan, based on Alaskan laws, it means war. You know the protocols. No one but the Ronas have the authority to declare war . Now that there is excuse for a battle and attacking Alaska full force, I am going to catch him and teach him a lesson myself right on the spot."

Then Dylan changed his tone back to threatening again " The wanted list is long but our success in bringing back the top priority targets is going to be our lifeline. If you mess this up for me Tanya, I would kill you myself. This is a promise. I have just been made a commander and if you don't do your job properly, we would fail and then you know that it would mean demotion for me. So you better go there fast, get the boy and get back here and don't get caught or you are dead."

Tanya sounded relieved "I am so grateful Dylan. I would ......" And suddenly Xavier's voice interrupted them "Darling, are you ready to get your army on master's orders. He would be here any minute now. You must do the last minute checks before its late." As Demetrious felt Tanya's presence leaving them, as he expected Xavier exploded "what is your problem Dylan? Tanya looked as though she had a knife at her throat this whole time. Why was she so pale? If I hear you ever giving her a hard time, you will be sorry. I would make sure you never see daylight again. She is mine and I don't tolerate disrespect towards her. Now, go and apologise when you see her again. Remember my threat Dylan".

After a pause, if seemed like Xavier had left. Demetrious heard Dylan mutter "You wait, empathy would bring her down. That day when she breaks your heart, I would kill her painfully and slowly."