-Quan Leung-

I ached, and my entire body felt like it was being attacked by miniature stings and bites. It was annoying, but it was nothing that I couldn't handle. What I couldn't handle was the boredom which I faced for the next few hours whilst Cappi healed. They were out of bed and jumping around before four in the afternoon, which was a fact that made me rather jealous.

"You know, there is a way that you guys could help with this," I told the others, who had joined us at around eleven in the morning. "Luka especially."

Luka bounced up from where he was sitting on the cream settee. "I've been waiting for you to ask for the past seven hours." He had a boyish grin on his face, but there was anxiety dancing in his eyes.

"I don't think that you should try," Ruarc said hesitantly. He was still sitting on the floor beside me, but he hadn't been there all the time. He had paced, done several patrols around the hotel, went for food, had a shower, did a few hours of exercise, and still managed to be right beside me.

"Why not?" Aubrey asked from where she was lying on the settee, her head in Sara's lap. "Let him try at least. We're all sitting ducks, and we've gotten no further forward in our plans."

That was true. We now had all the information we needed to know about what happened at the caves, and I was able to describe some of my father's abilities to them. Cappi had been helpful in assuring us that we had no chance against Modu, the fairy is much older than Cappi, and far more mischievous. We would need to rely on other fairies to help us do that. I wasn't sure how we would get into contact with any of those who work in the fairy jail, which still needs a new name, but I figured that would be an issue for when we were all fit and healthy.

"Then why can't he help you out?" Ruarc asked with a pointed look. "You're not exactly in top shape either." Aubrey whined each time she moved, complaining about her arms and legs, which had been quite badly injured, and were covered in dark bruises. They were nothing more than aches and pains now, but they looked far worse earlier.

I hadn't been using my powers at all today, other than that little snippet when Ruarc was redressing my wounds. The world was as clear as I could make it, which still looked as though there were several layers of cling film over my eyes.

"You can have a go," I told Luka. "But please focus on the stab wound, the rest is nothing if I can't actually move and do things." The stab wound was the main reason why I was forced to lie on the settee all day. I didn't have any kind of magic to help this, which is highly frustrating. I wasn't exactly sure why healing wasn't a default strand of magic people learned, no matter their speciality.

Luka looked immensely excited at the permission which I granted. "Thank you." The fact that he looked like a child who had just been told that he could go on a rollercoaster, despite being too short, wasn't reassuring at all. But he still looked happy, an expression I hadn't seen in my time of knowing him.

"Besides, if it doesn't work, I want to try something anyway." I sat up and untied the knot in my hair. I ran my fingers through it a few times with a displeased expression, it wasn't as clean as I was used to, which made me very uncomfortable.

I was faintly aware of Ruarc's stare. He had once told me that he really liked my hair, but he hadn't actually told me his thoughts when my hair was completely down. I knew from previous experiences that it could be shocking, past experiences benign Jade and William's expressions when they came to visit me in the hospital after I hurt my stomach. Apparently, it made me look a lot more delicate, yet regal at the same time.

I rested my head on the arm of the settee and watched Luka's light blue eyes fill with uncertainty as he leaned over me.

"Luka, you can't exactly hurt me," I told him lightly. I took his wrists gently and placed his fingers on my temples. "The only possibility is that I wear myself out."

"I thought the point of this was not wearing yourself out?" Aubrey asked loudly with a small scoff. "What's the point?"

I ignored her, still looking up at the young angel above me.

"Okay," Luka said in a small voice. He closed his eyes and warmth came to my temples.

I could feel the light and energy stirring through my body, settling in my stomach like a pool of warm water. I focused on the feeling, consuming the energy and transforming it from a light gold to a dark purple.

I let my eyes shut and purple velvet consumed me. It wasn't the ideal time to do something like this, but there might not be a better time. I thought back to the single picture which I kept of my mother. She probably looked incredibly different now, which is bound to happen after nearly thirty years. I focused on her presence, her smile, the comfort which she gave me when I was a child.

A world materialises before me, starting with a figure of a woman with short brown hair wearing colourful clothes. She was holding a book and was surrounded by large squares. They were large, bigger than the woman, so I could only compare them as bookcases. It would make sense, given the fact that she was holding a book.

My mind was slow as I watched the woman's features develop on her face. First, her hair framed the shape of her face, letting her ears stick out the smallest amount. Then her nose and eyes formed. She was biting her lip, probably invested in the world of her story so much she could feel the anticipation or exhilaration within the pages.

This was my mother.

I cleared my throat, causing the woman to let out a short scream and to drop her book. I looked around the room more, the door was nowhere near me, nor were there any windows. I had seemingly teleported into the room.

"Who are you?" my mother asked.

The question nearly made me break connection and burst into either a fit of laughter or a fit of sobs. I hadn't seen this woman for years, of course she didn't know who I was. But the fact that she should know, tugged on my heartstrings.

"My name is Quan Leung," I said dramatically. I felt like a villain in a movie, ready to regurgitate an evil plan. That may also be due to the fact that I struggled to talk past the lump in my throat.

My mother didn't pick up her discarded book. She just stared at me with narrowed eyes. She stepped around it, stepping in front of me. Her eyes moved from my hair to my eyes, and then down to my stomach.

I looked down as well, I hadn't even tried to wear something different to the loose pair of jogging bottoms and the open pyjama top, which revealed my bandage-covered torso.

"Did he do that?" my mother asked. She gestured feebly towards my stomach.

"If by he, you mean my father." I nodded. I stopped focusing on making the room seem more real, I just wanted to have this conversation. "I have questions. Two very important ones, and I don't know how much time I have."

My mother nodded and sat in what looked like thin air. She sat with her hands on her lap and her feet flat on the floor.

"Did you make sure I had a soulmate, and did you know who it would be?" That wasn't the most important question, but it was the most important one to me.

My mother nodded again and sighed. "Yes, I wanted to make sure that you would have a soulmate so that you could be happy like I am." As a love witch, her emotions were open for everyone to see. She would be able to manipulate that, but I could tell she wasn't. She wanted to make up for what she couldn't give me. She wanted me to understand why she left, and why exactly I couldn't give in to my father's wishes. "But I didn't know who it would be."

"He's a vampire," I told her. I didn't care if I gave her reassurance or made her regret her decisions. I wanted her to know what she got me into. "His name is Ruarc, and he was assigned as my bodyguard."

"Why do you need a bodyguard?" she whispered. I wondered what thoughts were running through her head. Did she think my father hired him?

"I'm a police investigator, we're not liked." I shrugged. "My father attacked me because he found out that you were alive. How do I kill him?"

My mother ran a shaking hand down her face. "You couldn't get him arrested?"

I felt angry then, she ran away so that she didn't need to be with him. She left me to deal with his anger and abuse for years, but she only wanted to get him arrested? He was the reason she couldn't live with her son in peace. But I was also well aware that I wouldn't exist if my father wasn't so cruel.

"We tried that. He escaped a few weeks ago." It was probably closer to months. "How do I kill him?"

"Canta?" a voice called from outside of the room. "Love, who are you talking to?" It was a woman's voice. I didn't know who it was, but my connection was breaking.

"Mother, how do I get past this?" I asked urgently. "I need help, and he'll only come after you once he's got me."

My mother looked between the door and me and back again. "Use his ego against him. He can't continue like this."

The door opened; a dark-haired woman entered.

The connection broke.

I returned to my body with a jolt. My hand was clenched around something warm, something which ran soothing circles along the back of my hand, leaving a trail of ticklish skin and tingles of pleasure.

The world was dark, as though I was wearing sunglasses. This was a very strange perspective; one I hadn't experienced before. I must've really messed up my magical pathways to cause something like this. My mother didn't seem surprised when she saw someone suddenly appear in her home, or what I would assume was her home. I knew that she had done that before, as both my father and several maids had told me that she had the ability.

Why didn't she come visit me first?

If she was able to teleport her consciousness to my father's home, then why didn't she come and check up on me? Or maybe she did, I just wasn't there. I was in that building for long enough, if she cared enough, surely she would check up on me.

"Hey, you're back?" Ruarc whispered, his voice incredibly close to my ear.

I muttered a confirmation. I couldn't feel the pain in my stomach anymore, but the aches and pains in my limbs were still present.

"Thank you," I told Luka, who was lying on the bed a bit further away from us, where Cappi had been lying before.

I couldn't see his response, but I felt his emotions move towards me. It was something angels could do to soothe people, or to unnerve people. They're able to make others feel comforted, warm, and safe. Those were the emotions which he was sending me.

"Are you feeling better?" Aubrey asked, surprisingly. I hadn't expected her to actually care. "That was the reason for all this, wasn't it? Can we finally do something?" And there it was.

"I'm feeling better, yes." I nodded and sat up, allowing my legs to fall over the side of the settee, right next to Ruarc. "I still don't know what we're going to do."

The room was still and full of tension, I had a feeling that I was out of it for a long while, and they had plenty of time to make the atmosphere incredibly awkward.

"Who's here?" I asked quietly. I didn't really like the fact I had to ask, but my mind wasn't completely with me, it felt like I had forgotten some of my brain with my mother and I would need to go back and collect it.

"Well, there's me, Cappi, Luka, Sara, and Aubrey," Ruarc listed. I wondered where the others were, but I didn't need to ask. "Candice summoned Kenji, apparently something strange happened last night, and she had to pull out all the stocks. Of course, she specifically instructed me not to let you set a foot into the office, even before I called to tell her that you were staying off."

That was peculiar. Even when someone had broken into the police station, she sought me out. She wanted me to get all the information I could out of the building. What could've possibly happened last night to cause this?

"Why does it feel like this is just one thing after the other with no way out?" Sara asked with dread.

"Because it is," I answered and stretched my arms over my head. I was surprised how easy it was, despite a few popping of bones. "You know, one thing which confuses me? The fact that my father was alone, with only one fairy."

"Only one fairy?" Cappi repeated, almost sounding offended. "We are worth at least a hundred humans."

Whilst I agreed, none of my father's workers were human. "It's nothing in comparison to what he used to have. The following he used to have. He had mansions and hundreds of workers. Where did that all go?"

"Actually, I've been thinking about that." Ruarc stood, causing his hand to escape from mine. His footsteps moved away from me, and he picked something up from the bedside table. The light, which I assume came from a phone, lit up his face, making it look both evil and angelic. It was as though my father's fire lit up his face and caused every scar to stand out. It also looked like the darkness was the night sky, and the light was moonlight.

"I've been searching for information about your father-" Ruarc continued, but I interrupted him.

"Wait, there's information about my father on the internet?" I asked. It was one of the most peculiar things I had ever heard. "My father wasn't really a public kind of person, surely?" I didn't think that the human world would be too integrated in the supernatural world in China, particularly where I grew up. I hadn't met a single human until we moved to England.

"Yeah, there's websites," Aubrey asked vaguely. "Carry on." She gestured for Ruarc to continue.

"Anyway, apparently something happened around thirteen or so-" Ruarc was interrupted again, this time by Sara.

"It was fifteen years ago," she said quietly.

"Yes, fifteen, thank you." Ruarc didn't sound at all grateful. "It happened fifteen years ago, in the southern part of China, somewhere." He waved his hand dismissively. "Nobody could actually agree on where it was, because your house was hidden. Anyway, there was a magical outburst, which caused hundreds of workers to die."

This made no sense to me. I would've been there at the time, surely, I would remember if something like that had happened to my own house. I couldn't imagine anything which could cause that much pain or destruction either, certainly not originating from any witch.

"That's definitely my father's place?" I asked, sounding very unconvinced. It wasn't that I didn't trust Ruarc, it was more to do with the fact that I couldn't imagine anything like that happening or remember anything like that. But there must have been a reason why we left China, maybe that was it?

"I can't say for sure, but it correlates with what the fairies are saying." Ruarc then turned to Cappi. "I'll let them explain that part of it." He gestured for Cappi to take the stage before sitting back down next to me and grasping my hand again.

"Yeah, there was a lot of talk about that. Cappi pointed towards the phone, I think. Where Cappi was made them look like they were a part of the shadow, or just a figment of my imagination. "Which is what made me tell Ruarc to look it up. Nobody knew what really happened there, but Chang was found guilty of whatever it was. Of course, it was a few years later when they decided this."

I nodded, that would've been when I actually got him arrested for what he was doing. I didn't know the extent of his actions, but I knew most of it wasn't legal. I knew that I could get him locked up for child abuse, but I wasn't sure if I had any other dirt on him at the time. I didn't know what exactly the fairies locked people up for, but I took a gamble at the time.

"How do you even get into contact with them? The fairies?" Sara asked quietly.

"That's actually a wonderful question," Cappi complimented. "Half of the society we live in don't believe in the fairies. It's honestly quite insulting, if you ask me."

"I think one of the maids told me about fairies when I was younger," I told them, uncertainty thick in my voice. "She used to be friends with my mother, but my father always hated her. She was the only one who could really get me to be obedient, besides my father. It was different though; Luella was sweet and kind. She was like an aunt or something like that." I sighed and wondered what happened to her.

"So, she told you about the fairies, but how did you get in touch with the jailers?" Aubrey asked. She sounded about as annoyed as she usually did when talking to me.

"I did some illegal things," I stated simply.

Everyone in the room gasped. Some of the gasps were incredibly sarcastic, whilst others were genuinely shocked that I would do anything illegal.

The only person whose opinion I cared about was Ruarc, who looked up at me with a surprised expression, I think. From where I was, his features were incredibly dark. It was as though I was looking at a skull, with dark shadows around his eyes and the dark shadow under his nose.

"Yeah, it wasn't much at all. But fairies don't like it when you create money with magic, or search for the fairies."

Cappi burst into a small fit of laughter. "So, you found fairies by searching for fairies and then the fairies didn't like the fact you were looking for them, so they came to you?" Cappi's words were a bit confusing, but I think I could follow them.

"Sounds a bit backwards, but yeah." I nodded. "But it shouldn't be too difficult to get in touch with the fairies from the jail, especially with you."

Cappi laughed a little, sounding a lot more sarcastic. "Well, they hate me. I think that I would be able to annoy them a lot easier than you could." They were incredibly confident. "Speaking of annoying the fairies, I should probably get on that." They clapped their hands once and got to their feet. "I'll be back in about as much time as it takes me to annoy the fairies so much that I get to bring one home."

I was about to tell them that they were a fairy themself, but I figured that I should keep my mouth shut and let them go on their way.

Cappi's figure began to lighten, literally. Their skin became almost luminous, like there were fireflies within them. Then the light turned into a ball, all limbs melting away. It wasn't long before the light vanished.

"Getting fairies to come out here?" I asked. I felt like I was being a bit slow, but my mind wasn't letting me process too much now. I was far too tired. I felt a lot better, but now I felt sleepy. "What for?"

"To see if they could lock up your father again," Ruarc answered, squeezing my hand. "They'll probably also ask about Modu and what to do with them." He gave a heavy sigh. "I don't want to get the fairies involved in this."

"Bit late for that," Aubrey muttered. "I didn't want to get the police involved in this."

I was almost speechless. "Hey, I'm one of the people who was kidnapped. I don't even know if everything's related." I couldn't understand how the crimes could be connected to me. But, related or not, I would've been involved in this situation somehow, I hoped. "Do you think that Candice has something to do with this?" I asked Ruarc.

I didn't miss the strange aura which seemed to take over the atmosphere. Everyone tensed, as though I had sworn out of the blue. Seems that Candice was a very popular, or unpopular, person amongst those here.

"Yeah, of course she is," Ruarc answered. "I feel like it's us, as a family." He glanced towards the others; his expression had become a lot clearer over the past few minutes. "Versus your father. He wasn't in charge of any gangs or anything, was he?" His tone was joking, but the suggestion made me dizzy.

"I wouldn't know," I answered plainly, but the suggestion was already trying to fit into several different scenarios and explanations.