I don't remember ever experiencing such a mix of rage and fear in my life.
These emotions were coursing through my veins as I raced through that maze of trees as a fox. All around me felt way too quiet, like the ominous feeling of doom had settled over the woods after hitting me. I could feel my back and the back of my head burning in pain, but ignored it. My mind was only set on getting to Lenore, hopefully in time to save her from whatever horror Missy's spirit had planned for her.
It felt like I'd been running forever, even if it was maybe ten minutes. Finally, the familiar sights of the woods around the old house began coming into view. I skidded to a stop, sniffing the air in a desperate attempt to pick up my Lenore's sweet smell. It always lingered on the air here, an inviting perfume calling me to her.
But as I picked it up, another smell lingered with it. My body tensed up, and I began feeling sick to my stomach. I knew that smell far too well.
It was blood.
My body moved forward slowly, my mind barely registering anything now. It felt like my eyes were in a haze as I headed towards that house. The smell of blood was getting stronger and stronger as I approached.
No, I thought desperately, not my Lenore. Please, not my Lenore.
I finally made it to the edge of the trees, my heart instantly dropping as I took in the sight of the house. It was very quiet there. Not even the birds were singing in the trees. All I could hear was the eerie rustling of the leaves as a slight breeze blew through them.
I stepped out cautiously, my eyes immediately falling to the grass about three feet in front of me. There was large, dark stains trailing to the side of the house from there. I froze as I saw them, not able to stop myself from shaking.
It was blood; a lot of blood.
The smell filled my nose as I stood there, practically overwhelming my senses. I didn't want to see anymore, yet I couldn't run away. If Lenore was still somehow alive, I couldn't abandon her.
"Sevee!"
I stiffened as I heard the familiar sound of my father's voice calling for me. I hadn't even realized that he'd followed me. Within seconds, his Fox form was bolting out of the woods, stopping beside me. Even as a Fox, it was easy to tell that he was alarmed by my sudden, dramatic actions.
"What's going on?! Why did you suddenly race out here?!" Sean demanded. But he stopped as he smelled and saw the blood, his body becoming as still as my own. The frightening reality of this didn't escape him either.
It took everything I had to muster any words to him.
"I... I think... she's killed her...Missy..."
I could now also hear the flapping of large wings, and looked up to see Raziel coming. He landed with us, immediately noticing the blood splattered on the grass.
"What the hell is this?! What happened here?!" he asked us.
"I'm not sure." Sean breathed. He lifted his head, sniffing the air around us, "They're still close. This way."
He moved forward, heading to the opposite side of the house with Raziel. I forced myself to follow, my heart aching as I did my best to prepare myself for what I was about to see. Yes, I was going to have a lot of explaining to do about Lenore, but that all took a massive backseat to the realization that she may now be dead.
Coming around the corner of that house felt like slow motion to me, like being in a horror movie or nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. As I feared, Lenore's body was lying there on the grass, her long hair covering her face and blood all over and around her. I couldn't move as I stared at her limp body. It was like I was frozen in place for all of the pain and horror within me.
I was too late. She'd gotten her. She had destroyed the happiness I'd found.
"Oh my God." I heard Raziel whisper. He hurried over to her, kneeling down and placing his fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse. He gasped and looked back at us, "She's got a weak heartbeat. She's still alive."
Sean hurried over, leaning down to listen beside her face.
"Her breathing is shallow as well. If we can get her back, there's a chance that Gabrielle can save her." he stated.
"You really... think she can?" I asked hopefully.
"It might be possible between her and my dad." Raziel told me.
"This girl's not human. Her scent certainly isn't, and she wouldn't be able to cling to life right now if she was. I'd say that it's all worked to her favor, but we won't know for sure until we can get her help." Sean added.
Raziel looked around us, "Guess we don't have a choice. I'll have to fly her back. It'll be the quickest way. I can get Anna to call for help as soon as we get there. Are you and Sevee gonna back come with me?" he asked him.
"We'll need to stop by the house to retrieve new clothes, but we'll be there as soon as we do so." Sean assured him.
"Good enough for me." Raziel agreed. He carefully picked up Lenore, making sure to hold her so that she was secure against him, "We've got to go now. We don't have much time."
I was still partially in a haze as he flew off, my mind trying to wrap around what had happened here. I knew Missy had done this. Her horrid scent was lingering on Lenore with the smell of blood. I didn't know for sure what she'd done to her, but it was definitely bad. I only prayed my Astarte could pull through.
Sean turned back to me as soon as Raziel left. I wasn't in such a state where I could miss the stern look in his eyes. While he worried for Lenore, he was also angry at me for what was occurring here. I obviously knew far too much about her for this all to be a coincidence.
"I'm not a fool Sevee. I know this is the friend you've been sneaking out to see. But now isn't the time for us to discuss this and all the issues it entails. Let's head back and do what we need to, and see if she manages to survive." he told me.
I only nodded, following him back into the woods and heading to our house. It didn't take us long to get there, and we immediately transformed back on the deck and hurried inside to put on some fresh clothes.
I cringed as I got to my room, the burning in my back and head still there and now even more prominent. Damn. I'd ripped some of these wounds open transforming like that. I could even feel a little bit of wetness on portions of my back from where I was bleeding.
But I ignored it, putting on a new shirt and hoping it would stop. I didn't have time to deal with those things right now. I had to get back there. I had to make sure Lenore got help and would survive.
Sean and I were leaving the house when Mia's car pulled up. She looked shocked to see us in such a rush as she and Seraphina got out.
"What's going on Sean? Did something happen?" she asked, sounding as worried as she looked.
"Yes, it's something major, but we don't have time to explain it right now. Let me drive and I'll tell you on the way to Raziel's." Sean answered as he took her keys from her. Both of us had forgotten until that moment that we'd left the Jeep at his house.
Mia didn't argue with him, only hurrying over to the passenger's seat. I got into the back with Seraphina, cringing at the pain in my back as I sat down.
"Sevee, your back's bleeding." Seraphina pointed out. She looked as worried as Mia had, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"I'll be fine." I breathed, "It's not that bad."
"What in the world's happened Sean? Is Raziel okay? Did something happen to Anna or Noah?" Mia pressed.
"They're okay. Raziel just helped us get a friend of Sevee's back to his place, and they're calling Gabrielle to try to help her. She was attacked and badly injured, and we're not sure if she'll make it right now." Sean explained.
Mia's eyes widened and she stifled a frightened gasp. Beside me, Seraphina's eyes had widened too, and she gave me a knowing glance. She knew it had to be Lenore. She just couldn't say anything because our parents were right there.
The next hour felt like a flurry of frantic activity. We'd gotten to Raziel's house as fast as we could, and it wasn't five minutes later when Gabrielle arrived. Raphael and Michael quickly showed up too. I guessed that she'd called them.
Of course, I'd had to come clean about what Lenore was when Gabrielle got there. If I wanted to help her, then they had to know what she was in order to do so. I didn't miss how my father stiffened when I said that she was an Astarte. Our talk was going to be that much worse now.
I remained sitting in the living room with Seraphina and Noah as this hour ticked by. Our mothers were in the nearby den room, while our fathers were upstairs with Gabrielle and our grandfathers. Everything was quiet now, almost too much so for me.
Noah was the one to finally break this silence, keeping his voice down as he spoke.
"I'm gonna guess this has been going on for a while."
"None of your business." I responded. It came out meeker than I wanted, but my mind felt shot.
"You're really gonna cop an attitude right now?" Noah scoffed.
"Come on Noah." Seraphina interrupted, "Our friend is really hurt. She might actually die. Please lay off of Sevee a little."
"Yeah, you've got a point." Noah relented.
Seraphina laid a gentle hand on my back, being careful not to touch my again healing wounds. Mia and Anna had patched me up too about half an hour before.
"What happened out there Sevee? Did you have a vision of what was going to happen to Lenore?" she asked me.
I shook my head, "No. I just suddenly felt it, and I knew she was going to try to kill her. I raced out there trying to stop her, but I was too late."
Noah looked at the stairs in the nearby foyer, "Hey, you said she's an Astarte, right?"
"Yes." Seraphina confirmed.
"I don't remember ever hearing about them, and Raphael's taught me about a lot of creatures over the years. What type of creature are they?" Noah asked us.
"We don't really know either. Sevee just met her by chance out there, and we don't know a lot about her yet." Seraphina lied.
Noah didn't buy it, "Oh come Sera. You gotta know more about this. You and Sevee don't hide anything from each other, and I know better than to think that he doesn't know more about her."
"Just let it go Noah. I don't want to talk about it right now." I grumbled.
"There's no need for the two of you to discuss any more about it." we heard Sean say.
I followed my sister and cousin's gaze to see him standing in the doorway of the foyer.
"Is she going to be okay Daddy?" Seraphina asked him, hope filling her voice.
"She is bad off, but Gabrielle believes that she'll be able to survive. We at least found her in time to treat her wounds and stop any more blood loss." Sean told us.
A wave of relief swept through me. Lenore wasn't going to die. I wasn't going to lose her.
Seraphina sighed in relief, "Oh, I'm so glad."
"That said," Sean continued as he looked squarely at me, "I think we should have a talk now Sevee. Outside."
My heart sunk as I heard him say that. I wasn't ready for this talk yet, but I also knew that I had no choice. Sean wasn't going to let this go any longer. His tone of voice told me that much.
"Fine." I breathed, slowly standing up from the couch, "I guess we should now anyway."
Seraphina stood up too, "Um, maybe I can talk too."
"No, not now. I'll speak to you about this later. Right now, I want your brother alone." Sean ordered.
"It's fine Sera. Let me talk and you can be part of it later." I insisted.
"I guess..." Seraphina reluctantly agreed.
I walked over to my father, following him out of the front door. The two of us then headed to the side of the house, where we could talk alone. He crossed his arms as he stood there and regarded me sternly.
"Care to explain this one to me?"
"I don't think there's much to explain that you haven't already figured out." I responded, "You already knew that I had a friend who wasn't human, and now you know what she is."
"Don't even try to downplay this. I should've known that something was up when you asked me about Astartes. No humans would've known about them, even ones with a bit of knowledge about the Veil. They haven't existed for over a thousand years before now." Sean countered.
I drew in a long breath, doing my best to keep my composure, "I don't know what else you want me to say here. Am I supposed to be apologizing for not telling you and Mom about her?"
"That's not the big issue here Sevee, even if you did betray our trust with all of this." Sean responded, "My main issue is your involvement with her. I did my homework after you mentioned hearing about Astartes because I was worried about something like this. I know you too well. You jump into almost everything without thinking, and I'm sure you did with her too. She probably did tell you that another Fox created her, but I'm betting she didn't tell you why she was created."
"How would she know? That Fox didn't have to tell her either, and it wasn't like she got a choice in being created." I argued.
Sean didn't back off, "Then she was being foolish too. I spoke to Musket about them, and Astartes were originally created for a specific purpose by the Foxes. The first is that once a Fox claims them by sleeping with them, they exclusively become their lovers and connected to them. But the second reason is the most important to those Foxes. Astartes are also convenient breeders for them."
That one stunned me. No way. Lenore had never said a word about that second part to me. Did she even know about it, or did she lie to me?
"What do you mean Breeders?" I managed to ask him. I needed to confirm all of this now, especially for the fears rising within me about what may have unintentionally happened.
"Just what I said." Sean let out a frustrated sigh before continuing, "Foxes have always had issues when it comes to reproducing within the Veil. There aren't many females compared to the males, and the females usually only choose to breed with males that are considered Alphas. That was where the Astartes used to come in. The male Foxes that weren't Alphas and wanted litters of their own bypassed the females by using Astartes. Not only were they convenient lovers that they could connect to them, they also could easily conceive and give birth to however many young Foxes their masters wanted."
You had to be kidding me. The Astartes were made to help Foxes in the Veil breed? My mind flashed back to my times with Lenore, that sinking feeling growing within me. I'd slept with her a lot in the past two months, all under the impression that things were safe.
"You knew nothing about that, and I admit that I doubt she did either. I have the impression just by looking at her that she's quite young, both in who she was and now as an Astarte. She may have run away without ever understanding what her place was meant to be." Sean continued.
"Yeah." I sighed, "She said she hadn't been an Astarte for that long, and she'd escaped the Fox that created her because she didn't like him. She probably didn't listen to anything he tried to tell her, and thought it was safe for us to be together with what she is."
Sean's quiet anger was starting to explode now.
"What the hell were you thinking Sevee?! You're fifteen years old, and I know damn well that now that you've been sleeping with her! Do you even realize what might happen if that other Fox comes looking for her?! He'll be after you for claiming her in his place!"
"It wasn't like I knew any of that before! I just love her, and she's the one I want to be with!" I argued.
"And I'm the one who'll have to deal with the fallout from your ignorance!" Sean snapped back, "I'm sick of it Sevee! When are you going to realize that everything you do can carry consequences?! Do you even care what could happen to your mother and sister if that Fox comes after us?! I cannot protect all of you as only what I am!"
"Then let me go to the Veil! I hate it here anyway, and I want to stay with Lenore! If I'm such a damned burden on you, then let me leave and never come back!" I declared.
"Fine! If you think you can survive on your own, then by all means do it! I've given up enough to deal with your issues through the years as it is, and you're the one who'll pay dearly for it!"
That one cut like a knife, but at the same time, it felt like I couldn't back down. It was like my mind was in this vice that kept my anger towards him growing. A small part of me realized in horror what this might've been. We were caught in that darkness again, and it was about to rip me and my father apart forever with words we could never take back.
But just as I realized this, I heard running footsteps coming towards us. In an instant, Mia was between us, holding her arms out to keep us apart.
"What the hell are you two doing?! Do you even hear yourselves?!" she scolded us.
"Stay out of this Mia! It's time Sevee stops all this foolishness of his or goes!" Sean snapped.
"What the hell?! You just wanna get rid of me now?! What happened to standing by me?!" I argued.
"Don't you think I've done that enough?!" Sean countered.
"I said stop it!" Mia yelled.
It was like something shattered within me at that moment, and I got the distinct sense that it had happened to my father too. The vice grip on my mind released, shattering like black glass within me. Without even realizing it, my mother had just destroyed it.
I held my head, the weight of all of this settling on me. What the hell was I doing? The last thing I should've been doing right now was fighting with my dad. I should've been begging him to forgive me and help me with the situation I was now in, along with apologizing for getting us into it.
"That's enough Sevee! We've got enough going on, so stop the stupidity and act like you've got common sense for once!" Mia scolded me. She then turned to my father, "And you! What in the world is wrong with you?! You know you'd never just throw Sevee into the Veil and leave him! How could you even say that?!"
"No," Sean breathed, holding his head as he looked down, "no, I'd never do such a thing. I'd never abandoned either of my children, no matter what's happening."
He really did look shocked and hurt over all of this. I'd never seen him like this before. It was like this argument had ripped a piece of his heart out, even if he kept himself pulled together.
Mia drew in a long breath, trying to calm herself down too, "Listen, I don't know what's gotten into you two, but you've got to stop this. You know better than to say things you can't take back. All you'll do is regret it."
"I know." Sean agreed quietly. He drew in another deep breath, "I'm sorry Mia. I need to step away for a while and get my head on straight."
We didn't stop him as he quickly turned and walked away. I remained where I was, looking down and feeling guilty. No, I shouldn't have said those things, and neither should he. We'd never mean them. Something had almost destroyed the close relationship we'd always had.
My attention was brought back to reality by the sound of my mother sniffling. I looked up to see her unsuccessfully wiping her eyes.
"I don't understand." she whimpered, "What's happening to our family? We've never been like this before."
It was gut wrenching to see my mother like that. Mia was always such a strong woman. She handled almost everything easily and gracefully. To think and we'd made her feel so insecure that she'd started to cry was too much for me.
"Hey, Mom, it's okay." I said softly as I hugged her. She seemed so small as she hugged me back, not able to stop her tears now, "We didn't mean that. We just... I don't know... I guess we just let it all get to us and exploded. I'm really sorry."
I became aware of soft footsteps behind us as I held her.
"Mom? What's going on?" I heard Seraphina ask.
I looked over my shoulder to see her standing near us, looking very worried. Yeah, she'd never really seen Mia get upset like this either.
"It's alright. Me and Dad made her cry, and I'm making up for it." I told her.
"Sevee..." Seraphina started.
"It's okay Sera." Mia spoke up. She pulled back from me a little, now able to pull herself together, "It's nobody's fault. All of this has been hard on all of us, and it just scared me to think that we were starting to break apart from it."
"We'll be okay now Mom. I didn't mean the things I said, and I know Dad didn't mean them either. Whatever that was, it wasn't us, and you helped us get free of it. I think Dad just needs a little more time to pull himself together." I insisted to her.
"Oh Sevee." Mia sighed, "If I wasn't so upset already, I might have come out here and slapped you for all of this. I don't think I've been so upset with you before about anything."
"I'm gonna guess you're talking about the stuff with Lenore." I reasoned, not really able to face her now.
"Honestly, what in the world were you thinking Sevee? You know how risky it can be with ones from the other side, and you've been sleeping with her on top of all of those risks. You know better than to take chances like this." Mia continued.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry too Mom." Seraphina spoke up. She looked down with her hands behind her back, and I could tell she was fidgeting nervously, "I knew he was seeing her too. I went with him last week and met her. I just... I didn't think I should tell you because I promised to keep her a secret and I didn't think she'd ever hurt him or cause any trouble. She was so sweet, and Sevee was so happy with her."
"I get where you wanted to protect your brother and see him happy, but this is serious Seraphina. Neither of you knew much of anything about her, and on top of that, she has another Fox that created her. We could have a very serious problem on top of everything else if he shows up here." Mia reasoned.
"Like I said, I'm really sorry about all of this. I didn't think it through and now I've dragged you and dad and Sera into it. But whatever happens, I'll take my responsibly for it, and I'll do whatever I need to so that I can help solve it." I told her.
"You'd better." Mia huffed. She looked at Seraphina, "Sera, can you do me a favor and check with your grandfather to see how Lenore is? We'll be inside in just a few minutes."
"Sure, as long as you're okay." Seraphina responded.
Mia gave her a painful smile, "I'll be fine. I promise."
That smile faded as Seraphina went back inside. I turned back to Mia as I saw that, knowing that there was something else behind her sudden request to my sister. She wanted to say something that she didn't want Seraphina to hear.
"Something else is up here, isn't it?" I guessed.
I was expecting her to tell me that this other Fox was going to be after me now; that Sean had gotten warned about him right before Lenore had been attacked. But what she told me sent shockwaves through my world, and would change it forever.
"It is." Mia responded quietly, "That Astarte is pregnant."