The Beautiful Monster

Chapter 226  Make a move

"I miss our bed," Tyler commented as he glanced at Melina. "Our patio we sit out on."

Elias glanced over at Alyssa, sharing a faint smile with her. There were plenty of things that he missed too, which was why he wanted to have this conversation with everyone.

It was time that they actually came up with a plan to take Alaric down. They had bought up enough time, and he was tired of running.

He felt recharged. He got Melina back on board. He was ready to face off with Alaric and roll the dice. Running around forever and fearing every time they stopped for an hour in one place was no way to live.

 He would rather die fighting than live the rest of his life that way, and he knew that the group had to feel the same way. They were all homesick and missing their old lives.

"This will be over soon," he promised Alyssa. He hadn't told her what was on his mind yet. He wanted everyone to hear it from him at once.

He expected a long conversation and some possible arguments in response, but he would hear everyone out as long as they heard him out too.

Alyssa gave him a confused look.

Elias looked away from her to address the whole group.

"I think we should make a plan to end this and defeat Alaric," he announced to them, making all of the chatter die down around the table.

"Got any ideas?" Scott asked before sipping on his black coffee.

This was the part where he expected people to argue with him. He cleared his throat and straightened up a little, folding his hands together in front of him.

"I think we should go after him instead," he replied, watching everyone's eyes widen."

"Confront him?" Tyler questioned Alaric.

"Are you insane? Do you want to die?" Scott asked with a sharp tone.

Elias shook his head. He didn't suggest that out of carelessness. In fact, he had thought about this a lot before he went to bed this morning.

They had to do something! They couldn't just keep running when Alaric was so close to them anyway. They had a chance to stand and fight, and maybe they should take it.

"He'll catch up with us again and catch us off guard. If we bring the fight to him, we'll catch him off guard and we'll have the advantage!" Elias pointed out.

He knew that he would have to give more reasons than that to convince them that this was a good idea, but he was willing to sit there and talk things out with them.

"How do we catch him off guard?" Alyssa asked him.

Elias wasn't sure how to answer that. Alaric always seemed to have eyes on them so that he knew where to find them. They didn't have that privilege, but he was sure that they could figure something out between all of them.

Two of them had witch blood and two of them were vampires. Someone had to figure something out.

"We figure out a way to track his location. Then, we catch him off guard and attack him with everything that we got," Elias replied as his eyes swept over everyone. "He doesn't have that witch around anymore to help him."

Tyler didn't argue. He merely nodded and listened, while Melina also stayed quiet.

"This still sounds like a suicide mission. He almost killed us last time," Scott replied as he shook his head. "You're setting us up for failure if we do this."

"Maybe not. We have to have some sort of plan," Elias said, trying not to fully argue with Scott. He didn't want to start a shouting match in the diner.

He wanted to calmly talk things out until they all reached some sort of solution. He didn't want to drag anyone into a situation that they were uncomfortable with. Their plan would fail if that happened.

"Yeah, like save up our strength or find people to help us," Scott scoffed.

"No one will help us," Melina sighed. "Everyone is scared of Alaric, and he's only interested in us."

"We're all scared of Alaric and still fighting him!" Scott said before sinking back into the booth. "This isn't the right move."

Elias tightened his jaw slightly, keeping his sharp words to himself. He didn't want the group to fight among themselves when they needed to be a united front.

"Well, if you think of an actual plan, let me know. For now, this is all that we have," Elias replied before looking at the others. "Anyone else have a plan?"

Gradually, everyone else shook their heads. His plan was the only hope that they had so far besides continuing to run, which no one wanted to do.

Taking a stand was their next move, whether they felt ready for it or not. Alaric was still coming to get them regardless.

"I'm not trying to risk our lives, but I'm tired of going around in circles. I'm ready to take a stand," Elias told them. He didn't want to risk any of their lives.

He wanted all of them to live, but they were running on fumes at this point. All of this running around was draining their energy by the day, and he didn't want to waste any more time or energy when he could possibly be done with all of this.

"I'll stand with you. You know that," Melina told him with a gentle smile. "I think we should stand up to him. I'm tired of him scaring me away."

Tyler put his arm around Melina's shoulders.

"I'm with her," he said, sharing a grin with her. They looked as determined as Elias felt.

"Alyssa?" Elias asked her as he peered at her. He didn't want to worry her too much, but she had to understand that this was what they needed to do next.

Any decision that they made was risky, but this one could end of all this sooner rather than later.

Alyssa stared at him for a few seconds, looking wary. Her face then softened, and then she nodded to him.