Discovering Fae

Ben

Fae looked intimidating. I never would have thought I would ever say that about her, but she really was intimidating to look at. The markings swirled on her skin, chasing itself from dark red to crystal blue did plenty before, but now that she had massive wings that made her look almost too small to carry them, if I didn’t know her, just looking at her would make me run in the opposite direction.

But she was the farthest thing from intimidating. I had a younger sister, but demon families aren’t exactly known for being close. Foxes have large families, and the adults look out for the kids, but that was about as far it goes. Unless you bring trouble, we kind of just left each other alone.

I wasn’t a kid anymore and it had already been made clear that I was to be leaving my parents' house as soon as possible. That was our way. The females stayed with their parents longer, but males? We got the boot as soon as we could take care of ourselves and not have the law on our backs. I knew it. I expected it. But that news came on the back of losing Nando, nearly losing Fae, losing Zane.

I wasn’t going to admit it out loud, but I had been feeling like I was drifting. All I had left were tricks that always disappeared. I thought that I would be angry that Fae said what she did to Naz a few days ago, but I just felt... Relieved.

She might not have had friends or a family, growing up, but she knew what it meant to have them. She knew what friends were to each other and she knew what a family meant. It made this whole search make sense. It was still a lost cause. I had no doubt about that, just like I knew Blaine had no doubt about it, but I finally understood why we were doing it.

Blaine was doing it to give his twin a final mercy.

Mal knew that, as much as this plan was never going to end well, Fae needed it.

Fae was fighting for her family; the only one she had ever known. That’s who she was at the center of her being. She fought for the things she cared about.

I didn’t have a clue why I was going along with this until that night after we had settled in. I needed this, too. I failed Nando. We all did. Now, I was going to do everything I could not to let another one of my family down. Hunting him down for a merciful end or salvation, I wanted to do right by my brother.

My eyes went to Blaine and that feeling of impending doom tightened in my stomach. His Fury was getting out of control, and he wasn’t doing anything to stop it. I knew Fae wouldn’t be able to kill him and Mal, for all of his fighting skills, couldn’t beat a hound. Naz would try to claim him. I’d likely end up getting used as a chew toy, but my tricks could maybe give me enough of an edge to do what I needed to do, if it came to it.

Mercy or salvation, whatever needed to be done.

Blaine

I could feel them. The eyes. Watching. Waiting. Planning.

It was only a matter of time before my Fury was unleashed, and that was what I was planning on. Fae kept rubbing at the back of her neck, like she could feel the eyes on us as well, though I’m sure she kept brushing it off as her anxiety.

The anxiety she had because we all let her down. Because she was tortured. Then starved. And now, all of this. She seemed more at peace than she did three weeks ago, though. She and Mal and made a choice about their future after we found what used to be my brother. They hadn’t said what, but I could guess.

Fae wanted peace. She wanted calm in her life after not having it for so long, first with Gary, then with us. I didn’t blame her. I’d probably go looking for it, too, after...

It was for the best that she and Mal leave us. Once we found Zane, and Fae saw how there really was no saving him, once I helped my brother one last time, she’d never want to see me again. I wouldn’t want to see myself again, if I had that choice. Ben understood, to a degree, the way this worked. We were demons, after all. Well, he was a demon. I was something else, but no less dark and twisted.

We left the grassland behind us and entered the crags. Here, the unfortunate Morphi we were hunting would leave no prints, not that it mattered. My focus wasn’t on the hyena Morphi that we had tracked here. It was on the eyes that were beginning to feel like more than just watchers.

I’ve never let my Fury get this close before, but it was like I could feel the breaths of the ones that followed us on the back of my neck. I could hear the pounding of their hearts in their chests. And I knew, once they got closer, I would see the black on their souls, see the debts they owed, know how far they had fallen. The darker they were, the more delicious they were.

I’d never hunted a soul before, but I could taste them in the air around me.

I shook my head and stopped, looking around us. They would try something here. It was the perfect place.

“Something’s wrong,” Fae said, looking back the way we had come.

Mal drew the sword from his back, between his wings and Ben’s hands danced with fox fire. Naz shifted only slightly, but the end of his tail shook, like a snake’s, in anticipation. They could all feel it now.

“They’ve been following us for days,” I nodded licking my lips. “There are a lot of them, and they taste tainted with innocent blood.”

“Blaine? Are you good?” Ben asked, eyeing me.

“No, brother,” I grinned as I let the Fury rage higher. “I’m wonderful.”

“Please, don’t do that, Blaine,” I heard Fae choke out.

“It’s too late. I waited long enough,” I said, feeling the change coming. “Run.”

Fae

“Run.”

“Ben! Shift!” Mal shouted. “Fae, grab him and fly!”

“Damn it, Blaine!” Ben cursed as he sprouted orange fur, and I grabbed him around the middle and lifted my wings.

'Wait.'

I paused, suddenly feeling like I needed to do... something. I didn’t know what, but it was important. It was annoying, too. Like I had forgotten something really big.

“Fae, what are you doing?! Go!” Mal shouted running and taking flight, grabbing Naz’s hand as he held it up.

In my arms, Ben wiggled and chirped, and I shook my head, bringing my wings down and taking to the air as Blaine was replaced by a hellhound with fires blazing in his eyes that spoke of all things evil.

“Hell Fury,” Naz shouted to me as I hovered. “The fires of Hell burn in the hounds, Fae. The Fury is the fire demanding sacrifice.”

I looked from where Mal was flying him towards a high crag, back down to Blaine as hundreds of beings flooded the crevasse, we had just been in.

“Oh, my gods,” I whispered and heard Ben chirp in my arms. “He knew. He knew they were there and out numbered! He planned this!”

Ben growled and I flew over to where Mal and Naz were waiting and put Ben down. I didn’t wait. I grabbed Mal’s sword from his back and jumped back into the air.

'Wait.'

I did. I waited, watching as Blaine took the souls of those sent to attack us. I hovered, waiting as the hundreds dwindled quickly. Even the ones that tried to flee were consumed as Blaine called to their souls, ripping them from their bodies before snapping his jaws around them.

The fires in his eyes grew brighter with every soul taken and Blaine grew more powerful as he used his teeth and claws to pin his victims and destroy them. The last one fell to the Fury, his soul joining the others and I gripped Mal’s sword tighter.

′Wait.′

I gritted my teeth as he threw his head back and howled, making my soul quiver in fear at the call of a hunting hound. His blazing eyes turned to the others far above him and he licked his lips, bunched his muscles and leapt.

′Now!′

I dove, dropping like a stone with the added weight of my wings, before I twisted, and threw them open just as Blaine reached me. I used the thick primary arm to knock him out of the air, sending him back to the ground with a heavy thud before diving again to land, making sure I angled the downdraft to hit him and keep him off his feet.

“Fae!” Mal shouted

“Stop!”

I have never sounded that way before. I’ve heard others sound like that, but even they fell short of the authority that one word from my mouth sounded. And it worked. Mal and Ben stopped, Naz, froze, and even Blaine paused to look at me.

“You’ve had enough, hound,” I said. “Submit.”

Blaine growled, the rattling sound like death in his chest, but he slowly laid down and lowered his head before rolling it sideways, exposing his neck.

The fires in his eyes puffed out and I felt a burn deep in my being before Blaine whined and returned to us.

“Pants!” I shouted, slapping my hand over my eyes and turning around.

There was some quiet movement before Blaine cleared his throat. I looked at him and he took a shaking breath before letting it out, puffing his cheeks.

“That was entertaining!” Naz cheered, sitting on an outcropping of stone just above us.