Chapter 5

Eliza woke feeling completely refreshed and relaxed. She stretched indulgently then just lay there for a while with her eyes closed and listened to the rhythmic breathing of Marcus as he slept. The sounds of people going about their everyday lives outside caught her attention so she quietly slipped out of bed so as not to disturb Marcus and walked to the window and looked out over Paris. The view from their highrise apartment was breathtaking, the city stretching out before her in all it's majestic beauty with cars and people going to and fro. A shiver of excitement ran through her body as the reality of finally being here suddenly hit her. She quietly made her way back to the bed and gently lay down upon it, propping herself against the pillow, and reflected back on the events that had transpired over the last few days which had lead to this moment now, with her laying here next to the one whom she loved more than anything in this world. Her mind then shifted to their task that lay ahead and a sudden burst of excitement filled her as she acknowledged that her plans and dreams were now so close to coming to fruition. She glanced across at Marcus who still slept beside her. He looked so peaceful and gentle laying there asleep, his chest rising and falling with each breath he took. An overwhelming explosion of love suddenly consumed her as she looked at him, and not being able to resist the urge, she gently leaned over him and awoke him with a gentle kiss to his lips.

Marcus tried to pull her down closer in a tight embrace but she slipped from his grasp and jumped off the bed, and with much excitement in her voice she exclaimed, "Time to get up sleepy head, the day's a wasting and we have an agent to find!"
Her jovial laughter that followed was infectious and he got out of bed with a deep laugh of his own.

Marcus made his way to the small kitchen to have some breakfast but Eliza was too excited to eat, she instead headed straight for the computer in the study and looked up the web site about the agent again. As he ate he soon overheard that she rang someone on the phone and could just make out some of the conversation, there was mention of an appointment, their names and their band name of DoMinion, then a little bit of chatter that he couldn't quite follow, then a jovial goodbye.
She waltzed into the kitchen where he was just finishing his breakfast and he could see she could barely contain her excitement.
As she approached him he queried, "I assume it went well then?"

She just looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes but just kept walking straight past him without a word and went to the refrigerator. While his eyes were transfixed on her she poured herself a drink and savored the cool refreshing beverage for a moment, then put it down and joined him at the table.
She could see Marcus was bursting with curiosity waiting to hear what the agent had said, and now that she had his undivided attention she began to fill him in on the phone call.
"I never got to speak to the agent, he is out of town at the moment, but I did get to speak to his assistant Katharine, she informed me that he is due to return tonight. He has a small music studio at his private home here in Paris where he often holds auditions when he is unable to do them at the office. Katharine made an appointment for us to audition there for tomorrow morning!" 

"That is excellent news!" Marcus said with a big grin. "That doesn't leave us much time to prepare though, I think it would be a good idea if we could find some props for the stage to make a more dramatic impact on our performance, especially if we are going to need to perform in our human forms."
The thought suddenly occurred to him that should things go well and the agent signs them up with a music contract, then he'd have to spend many hours from now on in his human form doing performances and appearances to the public, and the very thought of spending so much time in his human form made his face screw up in distaste.

Eliza noticed his expression darken and a cheeky grin came to her face as she said, "Oh, and I think I may have forgotten to mention, Katharine said that they get a lot of auditions and there are a lot of people that get turned away as they just don't have that special something that grabs you and leaves you wanting more. She asked me if I thought we had what it takes. I told her that I believe we definitely do, not only do we sound great but we also have a signature image as demon vampires, and our costumes look so realistic that you'd swear we really were vampires."

Marcus gave out a heartfelt and somewhat relieved laugh. "Brilliant thinking!" He exclaimed. "Just the same though, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I still think it's best that we go to and fro from this apartment in our human form. Mathias is still after us after all, and he'll probably discover that we are in Paris soon enough, and we won't want everyone to know where 'DoMinion' lives and make his job easier in finding us."

"Good thinking," Eliza agreed then added, "but we'll have to change back before we arrive at the agent's, after all, it would take hours to make a person look as good as we do, and it would be a bit hard to explain how we got changed otherwise, and I don't want to waste a lot of time pretending to get made up in our 'costumes'."

Marcus gave a nod in agreement then addressed the next issue at hand. "We're going to need props, I'll have a look on the web to see what I can find, in the meantime you should give some thought as to what we are going to perform."
With that being said they both got up and set about their tasks.
It didn't take Marcus long to find the items that he was happy with and organized to have them delivered to the apartment later that day. He also found a car rental agency and organized a van to be sent to their apartment in the morning so they can drive to the agent's house with the props.
Eliza on the other hand was struggling to settle on a particular song, she had it narrowed down to three, and since Marcus was now finished organizing props and transportation, she asked him for his opinion.

He looked the songs over and figured the best way to decide was to perform all three of them now and then decide which one they liked the best. After running through them a few times they both ended up agreeing on the same song and they spent the rest of the day rehearsing their performance. 

As soon as they woke up the next morning they were extremely busy getting prepared for their audition from the second their feet touched the floor. They had no sooner had a quick breakfast and shimmered into their human forms when someone from the car rental agency knocked on the door to inform them their van had arrived and handed them the keys. Now that their transportation was here they got busy loading all of the stage props and their musical instruments into the van, and once done climbed into the van themselves.
They both just sat there for a moment to catch their breath and collect their thoughts, then with a smile to Eliza, Marcus started the van and they headed off to the agent's home.

The agent's home was more of a mansion than a house, and as they pulled up to the front gate and shimmered back to their true forms, Marcus let out an impressed whistle. Eliza glanced across at Marcus and a radiant smile beamed across her face.
A female voice suddenly spoke from the intercom at the gate, "State your name and your business."
Eliza wound down her window and replied, "We're Marcus and Eliza Minion of DoMinion, we have an appointment for an audition."
The female voice spoke again, "Drive on in." and the gates swung open.
They drove up the driveway and the gates closed again behind them. They exited the van and made their way up to the front door and without hesitation Eliza pressed the doorbell.

After a moments pause they heard a woman's heels clicking on the floor as someone approached the door. The door swung open to reveal an attractive young woman standing beyond. As soon as she saw the Minions her face showed instant shock then transformed to sheer delight.
With much enthusiasm in her voice she greeted them, "Welcome! I am Katharine, won't you please follow me this way!"
And without another word she spun on her heels and lead them into the study where they all took a seat. 
"This is one audition I am personally looking forward to." Katharine began. "Your costumes look absolutely amazing, when I first opened the door I just thought I was going to die! I can't wait to see your performance."
"Thankyou." Both Marcus and Eliza said in unison, then Eliza added, "I'm sure our performance will exceed your expectations."
Katharine nodded then said a little somberly, "I hope so, but then I'm only the assistant, John's the agent and the one you need to convince. He's already waiting for you in the control room down in the studio. He's not the meet and greet type of person, that's my job. You won't be able to see him as he will be behind a one-way mirror, but he will be watching your performance intently and listening to you from the headphones to gauge the quality of your singing. I on the other hand prefer to be in front of the stage to feel the concert value of your performance. By doing it this way we rarely get it wrong."
Eliza's face lit up as she said, "Well if John's waiting then we are ready to get started. We have brought some props for the stage that we'll need to get set up."
"That's what I like to hear." Katharine said with a smile. "I'll give you a hand setting up and then you can start your performance as soon as you are ready."

Crank up the volume, press play and enjoy the performance by DoMinion.

When their performance had concluded Eliza and Marcus walked to the edge of the stage and waited expectantly for a reaction, but Katharine was just standing there looking at them as though waiting for something. Suddenly there was a creak of a door opening from the side of the control room and the agent John stepped through the doorway and stood in the darkened shadows in the corner of the studio. Through the darkness Eliza and Marcus couldn't quite make out his features, but he obviously must have been wearing dark clothing as all they could dimly see was a face and hands that seemed to be floating in the air by themselves. They both stood there holding their breaths for what seemed like an eternity waiting for John's decision.
Eliza's heart suddenly soared as John started to clap an applause very slowly, then as the words, "What a magnificent performance you just put on, truly I'm touched!" uttered from John's mouth with such sarcasm and venom, Eliza's heart suddenly plummeted to her stomach as she recognized that voice.
John stepped forward into the light to reveal himself as Mathias.

Marcus bellowed out such an enraged cry of fury as he suddenly charged at Mathias at full sprint.
Eliza's scream of "Marcus, NO!" rang in his ears but it was too late, he suddenly recoiled off of Mathias's protective aura with such a force that Eliza felt the shock of energy through the air from where she still stood on the stage, and Marcus went hurtling through the air and landed on the floor with an almighty thud unconscious.

Mathias stepped around Marcus and instructed Katharine, "If she tries anything, kill him."
"It will be my pleasure!" Katharine sneered looking at Eliza, as Mathias made his way up onto the stage and confronted Eliza.
Despite being completely outraged by the sudden turn of events, Eliza kept her anger in check, even though she knew Mathias had his defenses down in order to confront her, she dared not try anything for fear that Katharine would carry through with her instructions. Her mind was racing, trying to grasp for any solution on how she could escape this mess with her and Marcus still alive.
"I need to stall for more time!" She thought frantically to herself, so she asked Mathias, "How is it possible that you are here, that this whole audition scheme is an elaborate trap orchestrated by you?"

"Don't take me for a fool!" He sneered back at her. "I knew long before you succeeded in returning Marcus to this world exactly where you were. I've observed you from a distance for many years in order to get an understanding of which path you shall take which allowed me to devise this trap. I knew of yours and Marcus's love and talent for music, I know how you need souls to gain power and to access those souls your victims need to love you to make their souls vulnerable. It was obvious to me that once you succeeded in getting Marcus back that you will be searching for an opportunity to greatly increase the amount of souls you can consume to rapidly increase your power in order to defeat me."

He paused for a moment as he saw the realization of her error in underestimating him had started to spread across her face, then he continued, "I did contemplate coming after you while you were alone, but once I discovered you were collecting knowledge and power to bring him back I decided to bide my time and allow you to succeed, I shall have my vengeance against him for taking the one I loved from me while he made me watch!"
He had to stop momentarily to keep his emotions in check, then spat out, "I have been able to build powers of my own through wisdom and training from those who also possessed those powers, and there was no way I was going to let you two take the souls of many innocents in order to build your powers!"

Eliza's mind was reeling from Mathias's words. She glanced across at Katharine who still hovered menacingly over Marcus's still motionless body, and the piercing stare that was returned from Katharine cut through her.
Eliza fixed her attention back to Mathias and asked the obvious question that filled her with dread, "I guess you'll be banishing us to the underworld now?"
To her surprise a look of serene compassion came to his face as he said, "No my pet, that has never been my intention since the first day, you were once my wife until Marcus turned you into this and claimed you for his own before my eyes. I have now enough knowledge and power to try and make you human again so you can return to me as my wife, and once the demon side is stripped from you Marcus's link to this world will be broken and he'll be pulled back to the underworld where he belongs. Having the last thing he ever sees on this world is you back at my side as my wife shall be my vengeance!" 

End   Of   Chapter

Credits;

The French Mansion used in this chapter is one of my own creations and is available on the Exchange. If you wish to download it or give it a recommendation, just click on the picture and you'll be sent to it on the Exchange.