© 2019 SilverStream22. All Rights Reserved. 

~

I'd trade my luck to know

Why he's caught in the crossfire

And I'm here wakin' up

To the sun and the sound of birds

~

LUX

I kicked back from the wall, driving my elbow into Tempest's sternum.

"You son of a bitch." I breathed out.

He rounded to face me, a palm soothing the new bruise on his chest. "That's no way to treat me, princess. Now hand over the knife. The quicker you comply, the easier it'll be for you."

"Are you possessed?" I made sure not to enter the circle again, keeping a watchful eye on Tempest's movements.

Despite my self-assurance, I knew that I didn't have a chance with Tempest right now, not with my powers going haywire if I tried to use them.

"No. Not possessed. I just know what I want." he bit out.

I noticed his movements became more slow and languid, almost predatory.

"Why are you doing this? Why does your mother want to kill all the Royals?"

He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "My lips are sealed. Now come here."

"No." I jutted my chin out. "Come and get me."

He lunged forward just as I curled my hand into a fist, pulling it down. Vines burst through the ceiling and ruptured from the wood floor beneath us, weaving a thick green wall that gave me enough time to run out before his wind cut through the vines. 

I snatched up his book before searching for an exit at the stairs. He would be expecting me to run out of the front door. My eyes searched for another escape route. Through the glass-stained window, I saw the roof of another building nearby. 

"Goddess help me," I swore under my breath, giving myself only a moment's pause before I threw myself off the railing at the top of the staircase. Brass metal cut into my hand from the chandelier as I swung through the window and made a barely acceptable roll onto the roof.

I broke the skin on my lip with my fangs as my werewolf traits caused the glass shards to eject from my body. 

I barely caught Tempest's furious gaze before I jumped down from the other side of the building. 

The fire escape groaned under my sharp weight. I wrapped an arm and leg around the pole next to the fire escape and slid down. It wasn't until I landed on my left leg that I realized I had a pretty big chunk of blue glass sticking out of my leg that refused to exit.

I hobbled into a convenience store, crashing my way into the bathroom. It was surprisingly cleaner than most, but not enough for me to feel no apprehension at pulling out a glass shard from my calf.

Nevertheless, I broke off the more extreme edge close the wound and yanked sharply. I muffled my scream into my arm before chucking the glass shard into the sink.

My brain wasn't processing anything right now. Everything was just a whole big shit show.

Stranded in France with the Royal Assassin and his Mother. 

Worser ways to celebrate being 21.

A sharp knock and frustrated groans from outside ushered me to hurry up. After rinsing my gray shirt with a shit ton of soap, I tied my hair up into a ponytail and swung the door open.

"What the hell, you took so long- have some consideration for others! And you can't use the restroom without purchasing something first!"

The man had spittle flying out his mouth, spraying on my cheek.

My eyes turned silver, and trait known to uniquely belong to my mother and I despite being werewolves. I wrapped my hand around his throat, lifting him up. "Close your goddamn mouth if you can't control your projectile salivation issue. Get me a candy bar and your cell phone."

The man's eyes bulged out. It reminded me of the goldfish in a restaurant Stark, Mom, and I went to on his birthday. My eyes followed the pulsing veins in his neck. The vampire side of me roused awake but I shoved the urge down- told myself that chocolate would suffice.

"Y-Yes, ok!" he choked out.

I set him down, letting him run off to the counter. I searched the convenience store for a first aid kit, thankful to be grabbing the last mini kit left.

As I walked to the exit, the man held out a Milkyway and his cellphone.

I snatched the Milkway, tearing open the packaging to stop myself from tearing at his man's throat. "Remove the password from your phone."

His hands shook as he tapped on the glowing screen.

He handed it over as I grabbed another Milkyway, then another just for safe measure. I snatched at a baseball cap with the Eiffel tower etched on the front. I needed a better disguise, but for now this would do. I blended into the street bustling with Parisians as much as a girl could in blood-soaked jeans.

I had to come up with a better plan than this. I had no place to stay, no money, no allies. The only ally I thought I had was the son of the person trying to kill me. 

New plan, new plan. My mind screamed over and over. 

But first I needed to make a call. I recalled the house number, punching the digits in with shaky hands. My heart dropped when the call went to voicemail. I tried Mom's personal phone, hoping that at least would work. 

"-you have reached the voicemail of Katya Anosova. Please leave a message after the beep."

"Mom! I'm in France, Tempest is trying to kill me, Kristos is missing, Kendra is breaking down at Kristos' house in Greece, and I'm pretty sure all of this is Auguste's fault."

I stepped I punched in the numbers, hoping to the Goddess that the number was still the same. 

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Castor!" I nearly yelled out. "I need your help, I can't reach Mom and Stark. There's something sinister going on that's bigger than all of us."

"Lux, what is going on? Your parents are going insane trying to find you. The Anosova Residence is secure now, come home!"

"I can't, Tempest's mom is behind all this. She's trying to kill all the Royals, using Auguste as a forefront. I called the house but no one answered-"

There was violent shuffling and Castor's sister got on the phone. 

"Where are you exactly, Lux?"

"Give me a second,"

I pulled up Google Maps, narrowing down my location and sending it directly to them. "I can't stay here for long. Tempest is around somewhere. He tried to do a binding spell on me, to make me a slave to him."

Winry scoffed. "Unbelievable. Who is Tempest again?"

"Stark assigned him as a bodyguard for me at my ceremony." I looked over my shoulder, hoping that speaking of the devil wouldn't bring him around. 

I found an internet cafe that said Open 24 hours further down the street. "Call me in an hour. Keep Mom and Stark updated on me, tell them I'm safe, okay?"

"Wait, Lux-"

I hung up just as a perfect victim passed by. Slamming shoulders with the man, I slipped my hand into his pocket to pull out his wallet. 

"So sorry," I blurted out.

The man narrowed his eyes at me, shaking his head with obvious disdain before making his way down the street to his car. 

I blended back into the shadows underneath the overhead store coverings to inspect the wallet. The man wasn't loaded, but that was a plus. Those who were typically were more keen on keep track of their money.

I crossed the street into the internet cafe, and sat down in a booth with a cap I snatched from an unsuspecting teen. I plugged in the money and slammed the door shut. The whole day caught up to me. Less than 24 hours ago, I was comforting Tempest after my mom blew his top off with the mention of his mother. Now I was running away from the same male.

This was some shit. Some really, shitty shit.

I yanked the cap on my head, my wolf nose wrinkling at the smell of Doritos, before drifting off into a supposed quick nap.

I dreamt of the weirdest things. Yet again, I was little, this time I was watching from as distance as little me interacted with my parents. I was sitting in Mom's lap with strawberry granola parfait while she leaned against Stark in his wolf form. His gentle huffs of breath as he napped flipped up the edge of the picnic blanket up and down again.

But then there was something different- a change in the air like the charged thickness of the miasma near the demon creature. I looked up as a shadow loomed over the picnic blanket. The usually bright Sicilian sky had turned cloudy and gray. 

A scream ripped my gaze from the sky and horror tore through me. A harmless dream had turned into a malevolent nightmare. Stark's wolf was in silver chains, a giant collar around his neck and a muzzle that was clearly singeing his skin. I followed my ears to scream's origin coming from my mother. Demons crowded her. She threw her soul grabbing punch, but when she reached through there was no soul to grab. Her own vines were used against her as the sack demons deflected the attack and used the vines to stab her, over and over and over-

I squeezed my eyes shut. Just a dream. Just a dream!

A cold, bony hand wrapped around my shoulder as a cool whisper ghosted the shell of my ear. Open your eyes anata, you're missing the show!

I kept my eyes shut even when my mother's screams died down and the crunching of bone had me sob. Even when the sorrowful howl of my father ended with a whimper.

Open. The voice whispered, sounding rather miffed. It is done.

No sounds, no scents. I opened slowly, starting at the ground and working up. My mother was chewed through, like a rag doll torn up. Her face was still intact. My father had crawled his way to her still in wolf form and wrapped himself around her in death. I didn't realize what they had done to him until I saw his eyes were missing.

My own eyes burned, remembering what Mom once told me about Stark's abusiver father rubbing salt into his eyes until he went blind.

Revenge. Revenge is what you want, yes? For your loss? I too lost a family member. My son.

I kept silent, my eyes locked on my mother whose shredded arm with flesh eaten to the bone still managed to touch my father's silver muzzle even though it burned her exposed muscle and tissue.

The image was burned into my eyes. I could not forget it.

Turn. See who did this to your family. Who sent the hounds of hell.

I shouldn't have turned. A creepy woman telling you to turn wasn't something you did. But the rage, the helplessness from hearing, but not seeing, my family die. It was like 12 year old me in my parent's bedroom all over again. 

I turned-

No one.

I looked around scanning the area. My eyes came back to the original spot, this time a Japanese woman in a black yukata. 

My son. She lifted a bony figure to point to me. My son lost his life. I lost my legacy. And now all the Royals will lose theirs. Heed this warning now. If you don't surrender yourself and the other Royals to the Storm Prince, there will be a price to pay far greater than what I am taking.

The Japanese women vanished, and a weight lifted in my chest. The air seemed to clear more. Breathing out a sigh of relief I turned around- only to have my neck snapped by vampire me.

I lurched out of the dream, scrambling for purchase as I fell out of the gaming chair.

My hands were shaking. I looked down to see my claws growing and regrowing. Danger, reality, danger, reality.

I couldn't close my eyes and wish the image away. Instead, I gave myself a good bitch slap and yanked out my phone to call Castor. 

As horrible as the dream was, there was a new take away- another player was on the table besides Tempest's mom. And I have a pretty good idea on who it was.

"Hello-"

"Speed over to Paris, I know you're in Sicily helping everyone get moved to Kristos' place, but I need to get out of this place before Tempest finds me."

I threw off the cap and slipped the wallet into my pocket as I walked out of the cafe.

"Ask Kendra about premonition dreams. Wait, check on Kendra first. She's at Kristos'. Speaking of, is Kristos back?" my brain was going a mile a minute.

"Lux, you're breaking up-"

I glanced down at the phone to see only two bars. But that wasn't the source of my alarm. Battery level 4%.

I nearly smacked my head with the phone. "Castor, listen to me very carefully. I just had a dream about the person killing all the Royals. She's going after the youngest because her own son died. In the dream, she killed Mom and Stark. There's only one son I know that died because of my parents- Uncle Mikhail."

Castor's sucked in a breath. "You think that this could be-"

"Anya. It has to be Anya."