I snorted, “That was hardly enough time when one is crying! Why don’t providers think about that?” I made a note to work on that some other time and called back. I told her, “I sent your present with T. There’s an extra present if you could deliver it for me. All those projects I was working on are under my bed. I was going to surprise everyone, and I’ll just never get to.” I broke off crying.
All the jewelry I’d been working on. I had them all under my bed. I was going to surprise them. I’d tried to perfect the multiple element piece, but it was tricky. My parents would be proud of me. I just wanted to show my Xander. I wanted him to know I was protecting both our families.
I asked, “Why can’t I be there for you? Why can’t I meet my Xander? He promised me we’d meet one day. Why can’t that day be today? I wanted it to be today so bad…” Xander had promisedwe would meet when I texted him about Charline. His mom called her Charlooney. It was the best nickname ever.
My Xander believed in me at least. I knew his promise meant that we would meet one day, but I wanted it to be today. I wanted to be there for Elise. Why couldn’t I have that? I couldn’t stop my tears.
Suddenly, I heard something being knocked over downstairs.
Oh gosh… I wasn’t supposed to be here the last time people broke in. Did they target the pack because they knew everyone would be at Black Mountain? That would make this the logical time to attack. I looked at my phone noting the time.
Elise and EJ would be on their run. I whispered, “What the heck was that?” Then realized I was still talking to her voicemail and hung up my phone. I slowly opened my door. My eyes widened at what I saw. There were two Warriors down.
Protectiveness hummed in me. They may be liars about me crossing the border, but they were MY pack members. I was a Beta blood, and this was the current Beta’s home. No one had a right to hurt anyone in this house.
I saw the man leading the group and nearly gasped. He was a Hunter. They specifically hunted Werewolves, but they didn’t enter pack lands. I personally speculated that maybe they were supposed to hunt rogues and got confused on their purpose. Because they were Supernatural’s themselves. It didn’t make sense their purpose would be to kill us for existing when they did.
I frowned realizing he was with a few coven members. I wasn’t familiar with the coven from the mark on their necks, which meant they weren’t from around here. I still couldn’t believe a Hunter was working with Witches.
They hated all other Supernatural’s and claimed they weren’t supernatural themselves. They hated themselves and anything that proved Supernatural’s existed. So, what were they doing?The Witches were chanting over the Warriors and dragging them out of the house. Why would they do that?
I turned back and burned the man’s face into my memory. He was tall with dark hair. He had a scar in the shape of a crescent moon on his face. He rolled up his sleeves and I saw that he had chosen to have two Hunters marks on each arm. That was a weird choice.
He had some injuries, along with the Witches, that indicated the Warriors clearly fought them. The living room was a mess. I went into my closet and brought a bat out. I had decided to learn how to play baseball one day and kept it as a weapon in case Robert and his friends tried to come into my room like they threatened to.
I turned off the lights and hid in the corner. I’d catch them as they came through the door. Hunters nor Witches had the eyesight like wolves to see in the dark. I’d use that to my advantage. I knocked the first one out easily. The second gave me more of a fight.
The man called out, “SLADE! HELP!” So, the Hunter was Slade. I slammed the bat into the guy’s face ending the fight. I had to make it to the stairs. I ran out of my room and pushed Slade, who had been waiting outside the door, over the banister. He was groaning, so he wasn’t dead.
I ran down the stairs and a mist surrounded me. What was that? It had to be a spell, right? When it cleared, I looked around. I saw Slade grinning victoriously with a gun pointed at my head. How did he get off the floor? Standing I was an easy target, but if I moved that made it harder for him to hit me. I just had to decide which way to go.
Tristan yelled, “MELANIE, NO!” My focused shifted and the gun went off. I had to move, but I’d picked the wrong way. I hit my knees as the pain seared through me. What was Tristandoing home already? I curled onto the landing and whispered, “Xander… save me Xander.” I coughed up blood.
Another shot rang out, but I didn’t feel pain. Horror filled me as Tristan dropped to the floor beside me. I screamed, “T, NO! HELP SOMEONE HELP ME! HELP US!” I tried to link the pack, “WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! HELP US!” I felt that it was stagnant in the link. I jolted realizing they were working with Earth Fairies too. Why?
I couldn’t focus on that because my brother was gasping for air. I took my shirt off and put pressure on his wound. I cried, “T, don’t leave me please!” Tristan gasped, “I love you, Ladybug.” I cried, “What are you even doing here? You’re supposed to be with Elise. It’s safe there. Why aren’t you there?!” He gurgled and his chest stopped moving.
I screamed, “NO! HELP! SOMEONE HELP US PLEASE!” I heard my mom scream, “TRISTAN! MELANIE! OH MY GOD! MY BABIES!” Something prickled in my mind, that that was a very human way to refer to us. She’d usually say pups.
I turned to see her get shot in the head and all thoughts of her word choice left my mind. Her brain matter spattered onto my face. I shrieked so loud they should’ve heard it all the way in Black Mountain. I ran over to her.
I cried, “Mommy! NO! I’m so sorry mommy! I didn’t mean it! I’ll stay here. Please come back. Please! I don’t care about the mom monster cookies. I’ll make them for you to eat… just come back.” I tried to find the pieces of her skull… they looked like a jigsaw puzzle, but I was good at those. I could put her back together.
I heard an angry howl and saw my dad. I frowned knowing that was wrong too. He should’ve done two howls. The mate bond dying howl and protecting his pup’s howl. Pepper sounded weird too. What was going on?
He attacked several people in the room. Where did they come from? How wasn’t he down from pain with my mom dying? Where was everyone else? He reached me and I was about to ask when he was shot in the chest. It was getting hard to breathe. I wasted time thinking about my dumb questions and now he was dying.
I crawled between my parents. I cried as I hugged my dad. I said, “Daddy… please don’t go daddy… don’t leave me.” He whispered, “I love you, Ladybug.” He shuddered his last breath. I looked around the living room seeing that Tristan and my mom weren’t breathing either. My last conscious thought was, “Thank god Jase isn’t here to die with us.”
I heard a river running. I slowly opened my eyes. I frowned, “You’re not the Moon Goddess. Where’s my family?” He was in all white. From what I’d read I was thinking he might be Life. In the books Jared lent me from Faerie I knew that Life and Death were brothers. Two sides of the same coin and I was certain I should be seeing the other brother given what just happened to me.
He smiled sadly at me saying, “I can’t keep you long. All I can tell you is not everything is as it seems. Please just think about that. You had good questions you should ponder.” He faded. Ok, so he was definitely cryptic, like the writings of Life and Death were.
Death was more the rule breaker and direct. Which wasn’t surprising. He still skirting the balance of power when he appeared unless he had a loophole. Which was why the Fairies found the brothers so fascinating.
What questions? Did anything matter anymore? The answer was a resounding no. I’d yelled at Warriors, that were probably dead now. I’d yelled at my parents, and they were definitely dead. Even Tristan.
What if those cookies got him killed? He was going to look into them for me and now everyone was dead. Maybe it was just a bad dream. A really bad dream. Nightmare level, really. I heard a beeping sound. That didn’t seem like something that should be in the afterlife. It was very annoying.
