"The case?" I asked, confused.
"Yes, the case that involved the singer?"
I started laughing, "Darren, he knows, he's a hunter too." Darren exhaled in relief and sat down.
"I think I've found her hiding place." He said, handing me a few pictures of an old house.
"How did you find this?" Whyte asked, looking at the pictures.
Darren smiled "I stumbled upon it." I arched my left brow.
"Stumbled? I doubt that, but I've learned not to question your resources. So, she wants us to find her? This almost seems too easy, we're missing something." I said looking at the pictures. Darren was back to his old charming self. Any trace of his previous outburst gone.
"Can I stay with you until we get rid of her once and for all?" Whyte asked, looking rather pale and run down.
"Yes, but then you have to abide by my rules, understand?" I asked, my voice filled with seriousness.
"Yes, ma'am." He replied smiling.
"You look like you're going to pass out any second, I'll pay then you can go rest for a bit," I said standing up.
Darren followed me. "Al, can we talk please?"
I turned around and faced him, "Look, Darren, I appreciate all the help, but I think you should sit this one out and let me and Whyte handle this."
"You're kidding right, you trust the drunk who looks like he's about to pass out any second more than me? Is this because of earlier?" I looked over to Whyte, how could he have gotten that much worse so quickly.
"It's not that, this is just not your fight, okay? Please, I need to get him home so he can sleep off this hangover."
I turned around and walked away. I didn't have the mental strength to deal with the many sides of Darren. I needed to focus on the Siren, nothing else mattered at this point.
"Come on Whyte lets go," I said walking into the harsh winter air.
Darren grabbed me by the arm gently
"Al, there's something on your friend's arm."
I looked down at what Darren was pointing to; the veins in Whyte's arm had now turned black. Sweat was pouring down his forehead; I took off my glove and placed my hand on his forehead.
"He's burning up, help me get him to my car, April will know what's wrong with him," I demanded. Whyte was completely numb, and his eyes looked glazed over.
Darren supported most of the weight as we slowly dragged him to my car. I got on the back seat with Whyte doing my best to keep him awake. Darren phoned April on the way to ensure she was up to speed by the time we arrived.
Whyte was fading quickly. He started mumbling excessively; about how it was his fault that his brother got killed, how Will should be the one who lived, how he was the bad brother, the rest of it was unclear.
"It's not your fault Whyte, it's mine. I should have been honest with you about my feelings for Will, he went after the Siren because of me. If you had never met me your brother would still be here. I'm so sorry." I pleaded, trying to keep his head up.
I could see Darren observing me through the rear-view mirror. We made eye contact a few times.
The drive to my apartment felt like ages.
We carried him and laid him down on the sofa.
"Who is this?" April said bending down to take a closer look at his arm, the black veins had now spread further.
"It's Whyte Durin," I replied, placing a damp cloth on his forehead.
"As in your Whyte? Lost year Whyte?" She asked, surprised.
"Yes," I replied impatiently. This was hardly the time to play ten questions.
"Wow, he's kind of hot." She said, continuing mixing herbs. I ignored her comment and turned my attention back to Whyte.
April made a small bundle of different herbs and tied it together. I recognized some of the herbs such as lavender and devil's shoestring.
"Okay, if it burns red it's a magical infection, which can be cured if it burns black it's a hex." I could see the sorrow in her eyes as she spoke those words.
"What happens if it's a hex?" I was not sure if I even wanted to hear the answer.
"Then we make him as comfortable as possible." She replied.
In other words, death.
I've heard stories about hexes and how there was no reversing it, but I never thought there was a remote possibility that those stories were true.
"Here it goes," April said, focusing on the bundle of herbs.
I held my breath in anticipation. It caught fire.
At first, the smoke was grey then slowly turned blood red, I exhaled in relief.
I squeezed Whyte's hand tightly.
"Red is good? You can cure him, right?" I asked April hopeful.
She shook her head. "It's not that easy, I first need to find out what type of poison was used then make an antidote. Al, I know nothing about magical infections."
I looked at her in shock.
"You didn't even try! We can't just let him die. I'm not letting him die on my watch." I exclaimed.
I could feel the darkness pushing towards the surface. You're going to kill him just like you killed his brother; everyone dies on your watch. You're a failure. You should just give it up.
Leave me alone! I shouted in my head. What was happening to me?
We're just trying to help you see the truth. The voices replied and went silent again.
"I know who can help him, but you're not going to like it." She replied looking at me, sympathy filled her eyes.
"Who? Honestly, I don't even care as long as Whyte makes it out alive." I replied.
I'd completely forgotten Darren was there, he was standing silently in the corner observing.
The drive to this mysterious place took a lot longer than I'd expected. Every second on the road was spent in agony hoping, praying Whyte would hold on a little longer, April said that if the magic researched his heart he'd be dead within seconds.
When I met Will my life changed, it felt like my life had meaning again, like there was a possibility that I could find love again. He was sweet and kind and a much better person than I could ever hope to be. Even though I was definitely not over Darren, I had hoped that one day I could learn to love someone as deeply as I had loved Darren.
Whyte was Will's younger brother and most of our nights ended up bailing Whyte out of jail or ending bar fights he had started. But when he wasn't drunk, he was actually sweet.
Never in a million years had I thought that I'd have two brothers fighting for my affection, even though Will had made his feelings and intentions clear from the start, Whyte played a different game where he'd do something nice followed by something completely mean and spiteful.
After almost a year Will had made my decision for me, he'd taken himself out of the running which in turn left me heartbroken and afraid. What would this mean for me? Would I have to go back to New Haven with my tail between my legs? Would I actually tell Whyte that I had feelings for him?
I never chose between the two because I didn't want to get in between two brothers, so in turn I suppressed all my feelings.
I was sitting outside at the pool motel trying to figure out my next steps, tears running down my cheeks. Did I use Will to help me forget about Darren? I should have made my intentions clear from the start? I enjoyed the attention I received too much to do the right thing and now I had hurt someone I've grown to care for deeply, all because of my selfish intentions.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and looked up, it was Whyte. He didn't say anything, he just sat down embracing me. He softly kissed my forehead, I pulled away looking him in his eyes. "Those eyes should never fill with tears of sorrow ever again." He said lovingly. I leaned in closer, our lips touched. It soon turned into a passionate warm kiss.
That was the night Will went after the Siren alone, because we were too busy making out to notice that he had left. It was also the last time I'd seen Whyte, after we spent the night together, he went out looking for Will and soon discovered both Will and the Siren were dead. I focused my mind back into the present.
After more than an hour later; we drove into an area known as Harwood Heights, a nice quiet place with diners and small shops. It was completely different from anything I'd seen in Chicago thus far, it also reminded somewhat of the town I grew up in.
We slowly drove into a quiet suburb; with beautiful houses and white picket fences. We came to a halt in front of a big two-story Victorian style house with a dull white exterior with some pop of red on the outside shutters.
April got out of the car, ringing the doorbell seconds later there was a middle-aged woman standing in front of her, she didn't look pleased with April.
She had long dark brown hair; she wore jeans and a neat blue button up shirt. I could see they were having a heated argument and a few times April pointed towards the car, after a few more minutes the woman turned towards us and beckoned us to her.
We got Whyte out and carried him towards the house.
"Take him to the attic." The woman told April. This was the type of place I could see myself living in one day.
We walked through the beautiful house that was filled with Victorian style furniture, up two flights of stairs and finally entered the attic. It was a beautiful clean attic with wooden floors and some old furniture standing around. The place was filled with witch stuff and old books.
We laid Whyte down on top of an old withered red couch. There was some sunlight streaming through colorful rose glass windows.
We were joined by the woman April had talked to earlier and another older woman; she looked ancient, with long grey hair pulled into a tight bun, she had a sharp nose and looked eternally pissed off.
She was wearing a dark purple type of pants suit with some kind of floral pattern. The older woman took the lead; she talked to the other woman in hushed tones as they tried to figure out what was wrong with him. To me it sounded like witch mumbo jumbo, I leaned in towards April and whispered:
"What are they saying?"
"They've seen this type of infection before, they're trying to figure out how to save him, Al, some of their suggestions are crazy."
Could the Siren really be behind this? How could she have infected him with Dark magic? Was she working with someone else? Or were the two completely unrelated?
"The young one is Octavia and her mother Pearl." I looked at them in wonder as they scattered around. Pearl's gaze focused on me, she kind of gave me the creeps.
"You! Come here." She ordered pointing her bony finger towards me.
I complied.
"You're in good health?" She asked, eyeing me.
"Yes, ma'am," I replied.
"You're tainted by darkness." She said looking at me like I was the devil; she's the second person to say that.
"Excuse me?"
"No matter, you're the perfect host."
April walked up towards us.
"No, you can't be serious Pearl, it could kill her." She shot April a warning look.
"She already has darkness inside her, it won't kill her, she'll have a few agonizing hours then it'll be out of her system, like detoxing a drug addict." I looked between April and Pearl as they argued my fate.
After five minutes of them arguing I interjected.
"Enough! Both of you. I'll do whatever it takes; I trust you won't let me die Pearl?" I said looking the old lady squarely in the eyes.
"Of course, and we'll still try and find a cure. Your friend's time is almost up and he won't live long enough to see the cure, so if you're sure you want to do this we have to do it now."
The entire time we were there Darren had stayed completely silent.
"Al? Can I talk to you in private?"
"Guys, will you give us five minutes?" I asked.
"Only five then we have to start," Octavia replied leaving the room.
"You can't seriously be considering this, it's crazy. Clearly, that old lady lost her mind with all the darkness mumbo jumbo."
I couldn't tell him that she was right, I don't know how or why but there was something inside me, something dark.
"Darren I'll be fine trust me, I'm stronger than he ever was. I'll fight it and win, just this once. Trust me." I could see Darren didn't trust me, and that hurt, but I was doing this with or without his consent.
"I'm not going to sit around and watch you die. I just hope this guy is worth your sacrifice." He turned around and stormed out.
Seconds later April and the other two were back in the attic.
They drew a sort of heptagon with Latin or whatever ancient language written in a circle around it on the floor; Whyte was placed on one side and I was laid down on the opposite side. Like a yin yang.
"This is going to hurt like hell darling I won't lie," Pearl warned, I braced myself.
"Do it."
She cut into my arm; blood gushed from the cut. I had to grab hold of Whyte's arm with my bloodied arm.
The witches formed a circle around us holding hands, they started chanting, and they repeated the chant a few dozen times. The cold grabbed hold of me, which turned into a burning sensation on my arm. I sat up clutching my arm desperately trying to soothe the pain.
It felt like fire and brimstone inside my arteries. Like acid was coursing through my veins.
The room went dark.
I woke up a few hours later with worried faces looking down at me.
"Why so serious?" I tried to joke
"Let's keep the reckless stupid actions to a minimum from now on okay?" April said hugging me.
"I'm pretty sure Al doesn't understand what qualifies as reckless." Darren said to my surprise.
"I thought you left?" I asked him, trying to sit up.
"I did." He replied shortly.
I looked around the room and drew in my surroundings.
"What happened?" Everyone stayed silent just staring at me. What happened when I passed out? By the looks on their faces, it couldn't be anything good.
April finally spoke up.
"It was horrible; you were screaming and crying like. . ." She paused and Pearl filled in. "Like you were in Hell. You don't remember any of this?" She asked, surprised.
Pretty sure I'd remember being in Hell. "No, I remember passing out and waking up, everything in between is blank."
Octavia handed me a glass of water. "Maybe that's for the best, it's your mind's way to protect you, sometimes our brains block out horrible memories, it's a safety precaution of sorts." If it was so horrible that my mind was blocking it from my memory, I definitely don't want to know what happened.
"How long was I out, Whyte is he?" Pearl interjected — "He's fine, still resting, you recovered much quicker than we'd anticipated."
It's good to know that whatever darkness is inside me protects me from a magical infection. Let's add that to my long list of unwanted symptoms, other items on that list include: voices in my head, super fast healing, and evil auras. You know normal things. Maybe I wasn't Mundane after all.
What if I was the very thing I hunt? What if I was slowly growing into the monster I was supposed to become, you know like monster puberty.
But I'd rather focus on the case than worry any further about this monster crap.
I walked up to Whyte who was still passed out.
"How long until he'll wake up?" I asked, facing Pearl.
"Not sure, he's not as strong as you, he might still be a few hours," Octavia replied, putting a damn cloth on his forehead.
"Have you figured out what type of infection this was?" I needed something to go on. Any information at this point would get me going.
"Yes, we found this one." She said pointing to an old big open book lying on the table. I walked over and started reading.
"Venenum hederam?"
"Yes, it's Latin for Poison Ivy," Pearl said.
"You witches and your Latin titles, would it kill you just say, Poison Ivy?" I asked, continuing to read which I couldn't because it was in Latin.
"How old is this book?" I said flipping through the pages, everything was written in Latin. I know a few words, not enough to read anything in this book.
"Stop doing that. This is a very sacred book not meant to be in the hands of the mundane. But it's a good sign if you can touch it." Pearl said, slapping my hand.
"Why?" I asked, intrigued.
"I put a protection spell on the book, no evil can touch it." She replied
Great so whatever was inside me wasn't evil, just yet, something to look forward to.
"But there is a darkness inside you," Pearl said, eyeing me, something in the way she looked at me gave me chills.
"Okay well then back to Poison Ivy. Can you translate this, please?" I said, staring down at the book.
"You really must educate yourself." She said pushing me out of the way; this old lady is really getting on my nerves.
"Not my style, translate?" I asked impatiently. She rolled her eyes and started reading.
"It's a magical poison that was created in the medieval times by a witch who called herself poison ivy. The ingredients include poison ivy."
I interrupted, "Hence the name, continue?"
"It's a fast-acting poison, which can be ingested through liquids."
"How fast-acting?" I asked.
"Five to ten minutes."
"Holy cow, we've or rather I've been assuming he got poisoned before he came to Chicago, but if it's fast-acting it means he got poisoned while drinking coffee with me at Le Morsel."
"Maybe the poison was meant for you," Darren said looking pissed.
"Great like I don't have enough problems already, some wacked out Witch has it in for me now."
"I think you mean Warlock? I've seen this magic before. See every Witch has a sort of magical fingerprint that we leave behind when performing magic. I knew it looked familiar, I saw it on the amulet the Warlock used to try and steal my power." April said.
I sighed. First time for everything usually I had to worry about April being a target because of her association with me, and here we were with the roles reversed.
"So suffice to say the Siren is the least of our problems now. Let's focus on stopping this Warlock then after we've dealt with Merlin we can focus on the Siren."
"NO! We can't just let her get away." Whyte shouted suddenly joining the conversation.
I rushed over to his side.
"Don't try and get up, you need to rest, you barely made it out alive."
He frowned. "Rest? I understand that you have more important things to deal with, but I need to find the Siren."
"This affects all of us; don't you want to stop whoever poisoned you?"
"No, I'm guessing it was probably meant for you, which makes this your problem, not mine."
Sometimes, most of the time Whyte acted so juvenile.
"Whyte you can't be serious?" He was crazy if he thought I'd let him go hunting the Siren alone.
"I've been sitting around moping about my brother's death for the past six years; I need to get back into the game." He was blaming himself for the death of Will, which makes sense because we weren't there for Will.
"Will died because he didn't have a proper plan, he was upset about us and didn't think clearly, we also got caught up in the moment and weren't there for him, please Whyte. I'll give you the stake if you please just wait and come up with a proper plan, we need to be there for each other, that's what Will would have wanted."
Whyte's looked up at me. "You're right, I don't want to make the same mistake. I guess it's time for me to finally grow up."
I smiled down at him.
"He would be proud of you."
I turned to face April.
"I think I'm going to take Whyte home to rest, you guys stay here and try to figure out a way to track this Warlock, he just pissed off the wrong person."
We slowly drove back to the city so that Whyte could get some rest.
All while April and Darren stayed behind to try and figure out how to track down this notorious Warlock. It took me a few hours to get to our apartment and then back to Octavia's house.
When I finally arrived, it was well past midnight.
"Please tell me you have something?" I asked, walking into the attic. April, Octavia and Pearl were all busy reading books. They looked exhausted and overworked.
"No, unfortunately, the only way to track this Warlock is through a personal item, which we obviously don't have," April said, shutting the book with frustration.
I sat down on the couch. I didn't even realize how exhausted I've been.
I looked around and noticed something else, Darren was gone.
"Where's Darren?" I asked April.
"Oh, he had to leave."
"Of course, I think we should call it a night, we'll come back after work tomorrow," I said standing up.
"There's no way you can sleep in the city tonight. Driving back now would be dangerous," Octavia said, stopping me.
"We can't leave Whyte alone in our apartment." I replied.
"After the magical infection he'll be worn out. We have a guest room and I'll borrow you some clean clothes for the night." She didn't need to say that it's end of the discussion for me to know it was the end.
She showed us to our room which had a small guest bathroom. "I'm sure I sleep just fine under the roof of people who hate me," April commented lying down on the bed.
"Stranger things have happened," I said, joining her.
"How do you do it?" She said facing me.
"Do what?" I asked.
"All this, I've only been hunting one day and I already feel like I want to give up. But you, you never give up, you just went after the siren and here you are not even working up a sweat helping us. You're kind of amazing."
"Amazing? You're a witch feared by witches with kick-ass powers. You don't get any more amazing than that." I said smiling at my friend.
April turned to face me. "What happened with the Siren, Darren seemed off?" In all this craziness all April knew was that the Siren had gotten away, she didn't know about my brush with death.
"Just know it was not pretty, April, he almost killed me." I replied, getting emotional.
There was a soft knock on the door. Octavia entered the room.
"Here are some clean clothes,"
I welcomed the interruption as I could feel my emotions pushing towards the surface.
"Thank you," I said, giving my best fake smile.
April could sense that I didn't want to go into more detail about what happened.
Falling asleep was particularly hard tonight; I never knew I was attached to my own bed until right at this moment. Or maybe it was the million and one things that I have to take care of, where surprisingly Nikolai wasn't even on the top 3 threats for this week.
"Would you stop doing that?" April asked.
"Doing what?" I asked, confused, guess I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep tonight.
"Over-analyzing, you're making me restless with your energy."
"My energy is just fine thank you, and don't tell me you're completely comfortable sleeping in the house of your nemesis." April shot up.
"She's not my Nemesis. We might not see eye to eye, but the Freya's offered to help us, you should be grateful."
What a load of bull. An hour ago April proclaimed that the Freya's hated her, now here she was defending their honour.
"The only reason they are 'helping' us is because they're scared he'll take your power and be unstoppable. Why are you defending the people who turned their backs on you?" April was silent for a moment.
"Because. . ." She paused and continued "It's nice to be around my people." This made me outraged.
"They're not your people, April. I'm your people." She could see her words hurt me deeply.
"That's not what I mean Al, I mean witches, people with magic." I knew exactly what she meant, but it still hurt knowing I wasn't enough for her.
I got out of bed.
"Where are you going?" She asked, confused.
"I'm clearly not welcome here with your people so I'm going home. You can stay here and do whatever the hell you want." She didn't try to stop or convince me otherwise.
I knew I was acting stupid and somewhat juvenile, but I couldn't help but be angry at April for putting all her trust and loyalty into people who were clearly just using her. She was so heartbroken when they exiled her, her powers got out of control and she coped by getting addicted to pain meds and even tried to kill herself a few times all because of these people. I was there to pick her up from the floor and help her get her magic under control. They abandoned her when she needed their guidance more than ever.
There were weeks where she wouldn't leave the apartment; especially the time she developed empathy, which is the ability to feel what other people were feeling.
Can you imagine walking down the street of a city and feeling every single emotion? I can't even fathom how horrible that must have felt.
I drove home slowly, only left with darkness and my own haunting memories. What if she gets like that again? She barely survived last time.
I barely survived last time. I was brought out of thought by the sound of ACDC Back in Black.
I reached for my phone.
"Whyte?" I answered the phone.
"I couldn't sleep." He replied.
"So you decided to phone me?" I asked, slightly amused.
He gave a soft warm laugh.
"Did I wake you?"
"No, actually I'm wide awake," I replied.
"Good, so I never thanked you for saving my life."
I smiled "No need, I'd do it again any day. I'm actually on my way to you."
"Alex." He paused.
"You know I don't blame you for Will's death, right?"
I didn't reply.
He'd completely disappeared after Will so I always just thought he hated me for getting in between them and ultimately being the reason his brother died. Sensing my inner turmoil he continued.
"Yes, we were caught up in the moment but Will made the choice to go after the Siren on his own. And we should forgive ourselves."
It was the first time in my life I'd heard Whyte sound so mature and clear.
I could only muster a shaky, "Thank you."
When I finally got home, Whyte was still awake deep into our Grimoire trying to find all the information he could on Sirens.
He looked up at me and smiled.
"Hey you." He said getting up.
He clasped my hands in his. "Leaving was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I couldn't betray Will. I need you to know I never forgot you."
"You don't have to — " he softly placed his lips on mine.
It was nice.
But felt wrong like the spark we previously had was gone, or was there something else in the way? He pulled away and studied my face.
"It's him isn't it?" He asked, sitting down again.
"Him who?"
"That Darren guy? You're clearly in love with him." He replied smiling.
"Absolutely not!" I exclaimed.
"I've had an Alex kiss. I know what it feels like when there's passion and love, you're in love with him even if you don't want to admit it."
"Okay 'Dr Phil', I think I'm going to call it a night." I said walking to my room.
But his words echoed in my head on repeat.
Was I in love with Darren?
I got into bed and put all Darren thoughts aside. I fell asleep almost immediately, for once I didn't dream of anything. Which was a welcome change.