Chapter 17: Chapter 17

I rushed to his side as he laid on the floor with a gunshot in his body. He looked like he was in so much pain but what did I expect? He’d just been shot.

“Leon, we need to get you to the hospital, right now,” I said panicking as I had no idea what to do while he was stuck in that situation.

“No hospitals. Call Tobi now.”

I brought out my phone and thanked God that I had collected Tobias’s number from Leon or I would have been no help at all. I dialed his number but he wasn’t picking. I was a mess as I prayed to God that he wouldn’t fail me and make Tobias pick up his phone. It was like God was on my side because Tobias picked almost immediately after my prayer.

“…llo…”

“Tobias, it’s me, Paris. Your brother was just shot and he’s bleeding and…oh God, he said I should call you. I don’t know what to do and I’m pretty scared.”

“He shouldn’t be bleeding,” Tobias said and after a minute, he cursed. “Don’t let him out of your sight. I’m coming there immediately. Whatever you do, keep him talking. Don’t let him sleep. Help him fight. I don’t know, just anything to keep him awake.”

“Okay,” I muttered but he had already hung up.

I knew that it was a terrible situation since his brother was so shocked and I was so scared that if I even did as much as mess up, Leon would die.

He was bleeding heavily and I tried to stop the blood from coming out with my hands but it wasn’t working and I had to wait for Tobias to come over before I’d be able to do anything. I wished I had taken first aid classes while I was in school. The only thing I could do was start crying and I did a horrible job at that too.

“Holy shit, PB, don’t cry for me,” Octavian said and it made me cry even more that while he was bleeding and apparently dying, he was more concerned with the fact that I was crying. “Stop…Paris, I want to sleep.”

“No, you can’t sleep,” I said still crying. Maybe, even more when I remembered what Tobias had said.

“But I really want to.”

“If you do, you won’t wake up and I don’t want you to die.” “It’s a myth. I want to…”

“I’ll keep you awake.”

“I want to sleep,” he repeated.

I thought of what to do and I began to sing our song softly, stuttering along the way. “I-I-I tried t-to imagine y-y-your r-reaction, it d-didn’t scare m-me when the earthquake h- happened but it really g-g-got me…”

“You sing even worse than I remember,” he said with a faint chuckle and as much as I wanted to glare at him, the thought that he could die made me somber and continue singing. “Paris, you need to stop crying. I really need to sleep.”

He closed his eyes and I started talking to keep him awake. “I-I don’t want you to die, Leon, because if you do, I might just die with you.”

He opened his eyes and sighed. “My head hurts.”

I placed his head on my thighs as a cushion while the tears flowed even more uncontrollably. “I know it’s not comfortable but it’s the best…”

“It’s perfect.”

Leon was in so much pain and I guess that was the only reason why I let him hold my hand as tight as he wanted even when it was hurting me and it felt like a finger just broke.

“Where is he?’ I heard Tobias ask and I shouted to let him know that we were in the kitchen. He rushed inside almost immediately and his eyes glazed over the moment they landed on Leon’s figure. “Come on, Leon, I’m here. You’ll be fine.”

He picked up Leon in his arms effortlessly and I didn’t think that it was possible until then. It must have been part of their powers: superhuman strength. He turned to me and motioned for me to follow him. I didn’t even need him to ask before I ran all the way behind him to wherever he was taking Leon.

Leon wasn’t talking but at least, his eyes were still open and I was grateful for that. I was also grateful that he wasn’t human because if he had been, he would have been dead by that time. That may have been the only good thing that had come out of that little fact so far.

Tobias placed Leon carefully in the passenger’s seat and I got inside placing Leon’s head on my thighs, raking my hands through his hair. Tobias hurriedly got into the driver’s seat and the car sped off. I didn’t know how fast the car was moving but it had to be pretty fast. Hell, the force with which I was pushed back was unbelievable. I was relatively sure that it was going nothing less than 200mph.

After about five minutes or so, Tobias stopped the car and rushed down to get Leon out. When I looked, I saw that we were at a really old and creepy building. Those kinds of buildings that their parents warned their children to stay away from because it was a place children got in and never came out alive.

I glanced at Tobias to send him a worried look but he was already walking past the high rusty gates. I muttered a little prayer to God as we walked into the building. I couldn’t help the shivers that ran down my spine as I stared at the wooden signs that led to the main doors. It was almost like the person living there purposely wanted people steering clear of him/her.

Tobias asked me to ring the doorbell and I stared at him like he was crazy. The overgrown branches covered the door as if it was warning me off, but Tobias seemed so confident I should ring the doorbell so I did it anyway and the song that started playing was the Grinch and I chuckled. Definitely wanted to scare people away.

The door opened almost immediately I rang the doorbell and it made a creaking sound like an abandoned house did but there was no one there to show who opened it. Tobias walked inside and I followed behind him trying my best not to show how scared I was. The door slammed shut behind me and I began to chant in my mind, “It’s just the wind.”

He motioned for me to switch on the lights and when I did, I realized that the house was much cozier inside than outside. It looked nothing like the exteriors tried to paint it. The rooms were expansive but quite adequately lit.

The walls were painted in hospital-ish green-beige and the floor was an intricate design of ceramic tiles. The windows were oversized and divided into many parts like the compound eyes of a fly as the curtains, drape like and springtime green, blew in the abrupt wind that followed our arrival. Soft perfume wafted through the air and created a dizzying feeling in me.

“Amara,” Tobias called, “I need your help.”

“What do you want?” a strong feminine voice came through and I turned to see who the voice belonged to. It was Kosara’s sister. “You?”

“Hi,” I squeaked.

“What are you doing here?” she asked with a raised brow but didn’t give me time to answer before her eyes landed on Leon’s figure and widened. “What happened to him?”

“The bullet was laced in an Alke’s blood. I’m sure of that,” Tobias replied with a sigh. “I don’t know who did it but it’s already lasted too long in his body.”

Amara’s eyes widened as she looked between Tobias and I. “Up to an hour?” “I think so.”

Amara walked up to him and placed her right hand on Leon’s forehead as her eyes closed then she opened them almost immediately and shook her head. “I might not be able to save him. You’re right. It has been too long. I’m surprised he stayed alive long enough.”

“You can try, Amara. You are the strongest healer I know. Do something. Anything,” Tobias pleaded.

“Give him to me. I’ll try my best but there’s little I can do,” she said with a sigh and Tobias placed Leon in her arms. She carried him up effortlessly. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t touch anything while I’m away.”

She walked out of the room with Leon in her arms and I looked to Tobias to see him in tears. I guess I didn’t realize how bad a situation it was until I saw Tobias crying. His emotions were all over the place and as much as I wanted to cry, the tears refused to flow. It was one of those moments when you had no idea how to cry anymore.

“He’s going to make it, right?” I asked with a sigh as I watched Tobias sit himself on one of the couches. “Tell me he is.”

He ran his hands over his face and huffed. “I-I don’t know.”

It was then I couldn’t hold it in and let the tears flow. “So, it’s possible Leon can die right now? Like I’ll never see him again?” He looked at me and the look in his eyes told me enough. “Do you know who did this?”

“I have a guess but I can’t figure out why she would try to hurt him.” “Who?”

“Avyanna.”

My eyes widened and I rushed to his side immediately. I guess I did that because I simply thought I didn’t hear him well. “What did you just say?”

“It has to be her. No other family has access to that kind of power except hers and she’s the only one alive in her family.”

“What kind of power?”

“One that is able to kill our kind.” He looked at me and saw my confused look so he sighed. “We are the strongest among shifters and it was believed that one day, we could turn against the world and try to hurt them. Xanthos, one of the oldest Lords, decided to create a weakness for us since we had none.”

“Why would you have no weakness?”

“We come from a bloodline of terrifying monsters so it’s safe to say our kind is as dangerous as they come.”

“Okay, continue.”

“Xanthos created a spell that caused werealkes to have magic in their blood that whenever placed on any weapon could kill us. It was all fine and good, at first, until their family began to think that they could change the world by ridding it of our kind.”

“There was a war.”

“Exactly,” he said with a slight nod. “The werealkes became extinct because of that. They were no match for us even as our population was smaller than theirs.”

“Then how is Avyanna alive?”

“They couldn’t kill the children so they let them live but eventually, we don’t know why until now, they died. All except Avyanna.”

“So, there’s no other person we can suspect?” I asked with a sigh because as much as I knew she was demented, I refused to believe that she was that crazy.

“Unless there’s someone else out there with werealke blood that we aren’t aware of, no.”

I remembered that Milo had told me Hiro was Avyanna’s cousin but I didn’t want to say it because I knew she couldn’t have done it. She was a guardian after all. That made her a good person in my books.

“Oh, what will you do about her?”

“I just have to wait and see what happens to Leon. If he dies, her blood will be on my hands,” he said and there was this murderous look in his eyes that told me he wasn’t joking.

“He won’t die,” I said firmly. “He can’t.” he only grunted. “What about Amara? Who is she, really? I mean, I used to think her brother was human and now, I’m not so sure what they are.”

“They are humans. They are what we call diviners and out of all her family members, Amara was the only one that inherited the actual powers from her grandfather. He used to be one of the greatest healers that ever lived.”

I nodded and it was at that moment that Amara decided to show her face and Tobias and I rushed to our feet immediately. I felt my heart pounding in my chest but I wasn’t ready to ask her anything because I feared what her reply would be. Tobias, on the other hand, wasn’t so frightened.

“Well, how is he?” he asked but she didn’t answer immediately. “How is my brother?” “You have to calm down,” she said with an exhausted sigh.

“I am calm enough to want to know how my brother is doing. Tell me what the report is. Is he alive?”

She muttered something that sounded like, “Griffins and their temper” then said the words I wish she didn’t even think of saying. The very words that crashed my world into pieces and made me lose myself instantly.