Persephone Zoi
Everyone is asleep it's early in the morning probably an hour or two before sunrise. Well, everyone's asleep but Alcmene. She's sitting on the edge of the cave staring off into the distance. I feel almost guilty lying here wrapped in Matt's arms while her mate is dead. I still don't really get the whole mate thing, but I have a feeling they meant more to each other than me and Matt.
I didn't even try and help him. Eli saved Alcmene then came back for us, well he did it for her but semantics, then he fought an army to get us to her and I didn't do anything. Even Matt fought for a while, but I did nothing. I untangle myself from Matt and walk over to her.
"How are you holding up?" I ask lightly and I see her straighten and blink.
"He's gone." She whispered slightly sad and disbelieving but part just dazed as though in a dream.
"I'm sorry I should have helped him fight I didn't expect them to kill him." I say lowering my head.
She shakes her head. "No. He's not dead."
"Oh honey, you're in denial but he's gone."
"You're right and you are wrong. He is gone, where I still don't know. He just disappeared. But he's not dead. I would know, his predicament still confuses me but he's not dead." She tells me with strong certainty.
"Honey…"
"No, you don't understand the mate thing. A soul of a supernatural is split when born your soulmate is literally your other half of your soul. When you meet if you are both a supernatural you will feel a bond, each species has a different one. If you complete the bond with a bite while fucking you both become stronger, and you become connected.
One of the things that happens with that is your minds connect as you know which means we can talk into each other's heads." I nod along most of this making sense. "However, if one dies, we weaken and possibly our supernatural sides die if not us. Which never happened with me, but he is no longer in my head which is confusing my beasts. They are withdrawing trying to find him I am almost human."
That kind of hurts, until two days ago I was human, and she acts like that is a fate worse than death. It must show in my eyes because she explains.
"I wasn't ever human I was always a supernatural the caves woke it up, so if I go back to being a scavenger, I will be weak, bad senses, and I won't be able to care for the twins." She finishes with a whimper.
Then I understand she was always stronger than a human to be as weak as one to her will be new which causes her fear and after losing someone close to her it makes her more protective.
"We'll get him back, Mé." I tell her knowing it's the only thing to give her hope and relieve my guilt. The sun starts to rise, and I go back and lay into Matt. I fall back asleep.
…
Azazel Argent
I sleep late into the day the sun almost in the middle of the sky. I can see the sun I leave the cave and sit in the sunniest spot basking in its warmth. I love the sun, always have. That was the worst part of the caves for me no sun. I know it was worse for Alcmene and the others but for me it was just dark. I never got experimented on but sometimes I feel something powerful inside me stir. It is the same thing that coerces me to get into trouble, that and being an eleven-year-old boy.
Sometimes the power scares me but I always talk to Melisande and I remember it's just a part of me. I watch my big sister sometimes and she's badass, she handles her powers and life better than me. In the caves I was never afraid, I knew Alcmene would protect me and my Mel. She herself was strong and extremely powerful but she all also gained the favor of a guard. I don't really understand the mate thing, but I knew of them from the beginning, a brother all always knows. I can tell she is suffering even though she smiles for us and I vow to myself.
I will get Eli back for her.
Then my heart and hand glows a golden color before going back to normal and I feel my power shift and take hold.
Well, hello young mortal. You have committed yourself to that vow there will be consequences should you fail, and great rewards should you succeed. My name is Azazel, and we will have much fun.
Alcmene Argent
He's gone.
He's gone.
He's really gone.
This rings through my mind over and over until it's like a chant.
I can't believe it he's really gone.
My beasts have done everything to get him back or at least sense him. Nothing. I shake my head and walk back into the cave with a false smile.
"If you don't want to be miserable; be happy if you can't; pretend."
I repeat this quote over and over in my head. We talk and laugh in the cave and then plan. It scares us all to keep living on, everything has changed. Us and I know if we go back to where we were before we will be hunted.
I go out and kill something for dinner. I took a while because my wolf took a long time to shift. My beasts are pulling away and it scares me, soon I will not be able to hunt for everyone. Then on my way back I feel something a sting of pain on my back. I yelp and jump up and land in a crouch spinning around looking for my attacker. Then I realize it was in my head.
Elijah.
My beasts jump to attention and embrace that pain and push harder on that connection. They push all their power into the bond that had that pain and suddenly I'm chained in the caves again but then I realize I'm inside Eli's body.
'He's alive'
He's alive
He's alive
He's alive
He's alive
It rings through my head over and over again. Then feel his pain and it's the worst pain I've ever felt worse than losing him in the first place. I look around and memorize his surroundings before I hear footsteps and I land with a thud back in my body lying on the ground.
I look up dazed trying to calm my mind and emotions, but my wolf lets out a mournful howl. Only wolves howl but all my beasts chimed in making it a low rumbling howl with some ashes falling around me. I close my eyes and lie back for a second before standing up and rolling my neck and shoulders and grabbing the dead deer I killed for dinner.
I completed the rest of my journey back to our cave and during dinner we planned the next day. We were leaving the cave tonight but staying in the area for Eli. We all got some sleep for about an hour before cleaning up and leaving no trace, by sight or scent. Then we left I shifted to a wolf for the twins to climb onto and it was faster, and Matt shifted into a moose sized dragon for Persie. We walked and Matt flew for a while before stopping and making a safe space to sleep for the rest of the night in a tree.
I was exhausted but once everyone was asleep, I went out for a run as a hybrid. Once I got out far enough, I focused on Elijah my memories of him and our bond and I felt his physical pain and my emotional pain, and I let it out as a loud sorrowful howl that was a low and growly haunting howl but also a loud angry roar. I look up to the stars and shift back to a human. I stare at the stars and moon. Then I think I see a black spot over some stars, but I look again, and nothing must have just twinkled. I sigh and head back to our tree. I find the highest branch and fall asleep…