Chapter 53

The red haired Xaphan demon jumped through the flames and right at her heels the four others came through with her. The kids had remained together the entire night close to the Royals. Rightfully postulating that if anything were to happen it would happen nearest the targets of the night, and they were right.

It turned out that they were close enough to react when the Ice Elemental pounded his fist on the floor and lifted his other to the ceiling, while all along the floor formed a thick coat of ice. Thicker than any Arctic channel in existence. An ice enclsoure began to grow up from the floor to the ceiling essentially cutting off most of the guards, teachers, and Fae guests. Not that Lauren thought the Fae would get involved they were only here for the show.

And she was right.

Only a handful of guards made it through before the thick ice wall closed over completely. It was minutes away from the end of the night and the council's elite guard had pardon the pun let their guard down, but not the kids. After all Xander had said 'rumor has it' and that really meant 'I know for sure that it will be a reality'.

Still not everyone made it through before it closed.

Quinn had grabbed her and leapt through at the very last minute.

They landed rather inelegantly on the other side as the ice wall closed over. She took a quick look around to see who else had made it through.

She could see that Kyle and Trav had not made it, but that didn't stop Trav from using his stone fists to try and crack the ice, unfortunately it was too thick, and he was barely making a dent. Every time he formed a crack it would close over. As long as Ice guy was standing no one was making it through that wall.

First order of business make sure Ice guy wasn't standing.

The Dark elves tried to defend themselves, but were powerless to the pact they had made. They could not cast for love or money and everyone in attendance knew it.

They could mutter til the cows came home, but as long as their hands were tied there was nothing they could do.

Zach had made it through and was standing in front of the Royals fending off the ice shards that were now flying their way.

He had really gotten good over the last month and he was deflecting them with his sword faster than Whitey could conjure then and throw them in their direction.

Ray was keeping Red busy again but still in the tight space things were really heating up. She hoped he put her down soon, or they were all going to be baked alive.

The jackal was already in the fight of his life against Quinn, apparently Quinn had had his wheaties this morning and he wasn't getting past him.

Kelly and Donnie were fighting side by side like a well oiled machine. They had practiced their drills together for the last month and together they were an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. The little Asian girl didn't stand a chance. Until she started shifting surprisingly from a bat, hawk, eagle, boar, giant cat and dog. The constant changing made her an even harder target to hit while Kelly threw her daggers and Donnie thrust his expertly. They soared through the air just missing her time and again.

Then Lauren finally realized what magical creature she was. She was an Aswang. A shapeshifting, succubae, witch from the Philippines. They were creatures of incredible power that few could hope to defeat, but Lauren just had to have faith, they were some of the lucky few.

That left her, Marley, Connor Ryan, CJ, as the last possible combatants, all the others hadn't made it through.

Marley was taking her brother on head to head and even she was no match for his Fae speed and strength. She had a right hook that should have landed given the time it had taken to execute it, but it would miss every time. Lauren was dizzy just trying to follow who was trying to punch or kick whom. Marley was just barely escaping his blows. Lauren could see that her brother had dispensed of his human glamour all together – no doubt to allow him the extra power he needed for the fight. She considered doing the same, but no one had ever seen her in her Fae form and that was the way she wanted to keep it.

Olivia stepped in to help Marley after she watched her brother land a few spectacular blows to Marley's midriff, she cracked her whip, but it was too slow to land its mark; however, Lauren did notice something, every time it cracked, the Aswang would cringe and falter just for a fraction of a second.

Lauren yelled out to Liv, "Crack your whip at the Asian Girl! She's afraid of it!"

Liv was loath to leave Marley, but they knew the risks when they came here. Some of them might not make it out alive.

Connor was trying to get in close enough to touch Red, and Ray was trying to make that possible. It was stifling in the small space and all the fire was burning up the oxygen in the air.

Ryan moved in to the tight space Liv had vacated and started striking and then turning to smoke before her brother could strike back and finally the two were wearing him down. He was starting to tire.

CJ was using his telekinsis to throw pieces of the stage that he was slowly tearing apart at their enemies.

Then Lauren, who suddenly remember herself, realized she was doing more watching then helping, joined Zach on the slowly being dismantled dais.

She took out her invisible spelled steel fans and used her Fae speed to start blocking the ice chunks being thrust at them. That's when it happened her brother muttered a spell and suddenly there were three of him. Two of them broke off from the first and started making their way toward the dias.

At the same time he sucked every bit of shadow from the small space and a dozen shadowmen appear. They were horribly out number and she knew it.

Even when Kelly and Donnie started fighting back to back, taking on half a dozen shadow men as well as the witch. She saw it then the Asian caught Kelly in her stare and Kelly's life force was flowing from her into the giant bat. Donnie seeing that rammed into her, but not before being captured in her gaze too.

Kelly's form slumped to the ground while Donnie stood transfixed in front of the blue haired girl. If someone didn't stop her soon, Donnie would die. The shadow figures realizing that Kelly and Donnie were no longer a threat moved on to Ray and Connor.

Connor was using his bow and arrow to shoot them but the shadows were still coming. They looked like absurd pincushions and yet they continued to advance on them.

The two replicas of her brother were almost at what remained of the dais. Her and Zach could do nothing about it, because if either one of them stopped madly deflecting the ice shards they would come right through their defenses and kill the Royals.

They worked too hard to let that happened.

Then they finally caught a break, and she wanted to cry she was so happy. Connor had managed to break through Red's defenses and had touched her. Just with that simple touch she would be his slave granting his ever wish.

When he'd stroked her face with his bare palm she had looked up at him enraptured. He'd whispered in her ear then and she tore off after one of the replicas and in touching it turned it instantly to ash. Having done that, she pursued the other replica, as Lauren's brother screamed in frustration and uttered another incantation under his breath. She began to scream then clutching her heart as she writhed in pain.

That broke Whitey's concentration and Ryan was able to enter his body in his smoke form and take control. Ryan in Whiteys body started throwing ice shards and spears at her brother who was just able to move fast enough to dodge them, but he was getting tired, and he couldn't fight them all.

Her brother was a very busy guy dodging Marley, a super fast dhampir, and dodging the fire balls that were being cast at him from the quickly recovering Red. He raised his hand again and clutched his fist until both Red and Whitey went down like a sack of potatoes.

How was he doing this?

When Connor got close enough to touch the Asian girl, Lauren thought this must be it. There's no way he can fend off all of us, plus three powerful members of his own gang, but miraculously he was, he multiplied again and created even more shadowmen and they were losing.

Kelly and Donnie were down. Thank God Connor had touched the Asian girl before she killed them at least Lauren hoped so. Both Quinn and the jackal were gravely if not mortally injured, and her brother was still standing. Marley and Liv were fighting back to back against a dozen shadow figures.

She and Zach were trying to take down the five replicas that had made it to the stage. CJ was running out of things to throw and he wasn't fast enough or strong enough for hand to hand combat. So he was just trying his best to throw the shadow guys around and disrupt them enough to make a difference.

Connor and CJ were standing back using their distance weapons while everyone else was using melee attacks. Ray's attacks lessened now to just throwing his massive weight around because if he were to breathe fire any more in the already stifling space they would all succumb to oxygen deprivation.

And still they were getting nowhere.

Then she thought of it. Holy shit she couldn't believe none of them had thought of it. She yelled to Ryan in Whitey's body and said, "Make him bring down the wall. She could have cried when Ryan made Whitey shrug his shoulders at her to let her know he had no idea how to do that -- So much for a simple solution to a deadly problem.

She was getting tired everyone was, except for her brother. He was still producing shadow men and replicas faster than they could fend them off. A couple had nearly hit their mark. Two more of their numbers were down now. Marley and Liv had gone down together.

The guys had told her how the last head to head battle had ended with Zach hulking out and her brother running in terror.

She yelled to him, "You're going to have to do the same thing you did last time."

Zach yelled back through some grunts and groans, "I can't. I don't know how I did it last time."

She had heard from the guys that Zach had been trying to save her when it happened.

She just needed to recreate the moment. So she started to make her way down the stairs fighting off the shadow figures as she moved closer and closer to her brother, she actually had to use an extra fast Fae move to make it past Ray's madly swishing tail.

She turned back to Zach then and locked eyes with him and said. "I trust you will be able to save me."

She was surprised he could hear her over the clash of metal and the loud thuds of bodies being struck, but apparently he did.

He yelled:

"LAUREN NOOOOOOOO!"

Before she walked right into her brothers arms.

Her brother laughed maniacally then and thrust his hand to her throat and said, "Nobody move or I snap her pretty little neck."

Everyone stopped including the replicas and the shadow men.

One of the shadow men ripped one of Kelly's blades right out of her hand and handed it to his master.

Now Liam had a knife at her jugular and he was pressing it painfully against her skin.

"Hand over the Royals or she dies" her brother intoned.

She could feel the rumble of his words in his hard as rock chest and the beat of his heart, but he was a cold as ice.

She had made a very grave mistake.

There was no way even if Zach did his thing that he could possible get to her before her brother made good on his promise to separate her head from her neck.

She had ruined it all. She had given up their only advantage. All on a silly whim. And now they all might die. She wanted to cry.

Tears streamed down her face as she began to try and talk sense to her brother, "Liam it's me Lauren your twin sister. You remember me, right? We love each other. You were my best friend, and I died inside when you died."

"But I didn't die dear sister." He said coldly.

"I know that now, but I didn't know that then. If I had, I never would have stopped looking for you." She was blubbering like an idiot now.

In that moment, she did the only thing she could think to do. She had to show her brother her true face. She had to remind him what they were. Not only siblings, but twins. They had shared everything not only a likeness for each other, but a mother, and a life.

In a flash of warm light she let go of her constant spell the one that hid her true form, and she heard Zach gasp from his place on the dais.

She twisted in her brother's grasp so he could see her face. See her blue crystalline eyes so much like his own, her black as night complexion and he gleaming silver-white hair. They were alike in every manner aside from the three angry red scars that crisscrossed her brother's beautiful face.

"Please Liam," she pleaded, "don't do this. I love you."

He just returned her look of adoration with a stone cold stare.

That's when she realized, it wasn't only his face that had been horribly scarred. She shuddered when she realized she meant nothing to him. This wasn't her brother standing before her. This was the husk of the boy he'd been. Her brother had truly died years ago.

He didn't need to tell her he didn't care with his words, because the knife that bit into her flesh was a white hot reminder of that. Each drop of blood that trickled down her neck and to the front of her gown spoke volumes.

In that moment two things happened -- simultaneously and miraculously. Zach raged out. He let out the primal roar the guys had told her about, but when he did her brother drove the knife home.

She was gasping and clutching at the gaping wound at her neck, making choking sounds, she couldn't breathe she couldn't talk, she couldn't even cry out in pain and anguish, because her brother had severed her vocal cords and her jugular killing her in the process.

He let her go then like a useless piece of garbage, she had served her purpose, and she was falling. That's when she saw it. Zach was flying through the air with his ethereal wings and he was eating up the distance between them, but he still wasn't going to make it in time.

She fell in a heap on the cold floor and watched her life's blood rush from her to turn the icy floor to a sickly red snow cone pink.

From the corner of the room she heard CJ scream "STOOOOOOOP!"

Then everything did stop . . . except for him. Time stood still. Everyone was literally frozen in space. She could see a drop of her blood floating in mid air. She could take it all in, but she could do nothing to stop it.

And suddenly he was beside her and he had the troll bile clutched furiously in his hand. He ripped the cap off and poured it down her frozen throat.

She could taste it. It mingled with her blood as her jugular started to itch and a searing pain enveloped her throat. The bile was knitting her skin back together and it hurt so much she wanted to scream but her vocal chords where still not recovered so she just lay there in suspended agony.

Then time started again and Zach's massive body and wings made contact with her brother and they both went crashing through the ice wall behind them. Much to the surprise of everyone that was still trying to get in.

They rolled across the gym floor coming to a stop at the feet of half a dozen guards.

Lauren was just starting to recover. Enough to lift her head on her useless neck. Then her brother struck a charm bracelet on his wrist against the floor of the gym and all his crew were gone in the blink of an eye.

Everyone converged on her, crowding around her body asking her if she was alright.

She was still not able to speak, but she was able to cry, when she came to the realization that her brother had essentially killed her.

How could she save him now?

He was too far gone.

The crowd parted then and she saw Zach striding purposefully towards her his massive wings spread out behind him. When he finally made it to her crumpled form, he bent down and scooped her up gently before bunching his legs and taking off through the roof and into the night.

She recovered as they soared through the night sky across the city of San Francisco; until he landed on the ledge around the little window to her room.

He opened it up and stepped inside without ever needing to put her down. Never mind she thought I'll marvel at how he'd managed to do that later.

She still hadn't spoken. She was afraid to try her vocal chords, but she wanted to say something to allay his worries.

When he placed her on her bed she looked up and she croaked out, "I'm alright," which started a fit of coughing.

Zach's face took on a panicked appearance, so much for allaying his concerns.

He lay down beside her his wings stretched in a protective blanket around her. Even though they were transparent she could actually feel there silky softness. When he had scooped her up and flown her home she had felt the powerful pull of his wings with the down draft of air he created. Magic was a wondrous thing.

She was so deliciously warm lying next to him under the protection of his wing that she started to drift off, after all it had been a very trying night, and she just might have nearly lost all six quarts of her blood.

"Don't speak," he cautioned,"Just rest. I won't let anything happen to you."

He reached out to dry her eyes with the pad of his thumb and that was when she realized she was still crying for the brother she had lost all over again.

When his hand lingered on her face tracing the outline of her cheek and jaw, she looked up to be captured by an azure gaze and it broke her heart to see such anguish in there depths. She opened her mouth to try and comfort him, but he silenced her with his thumb.

When he started to trace his digit against her petal soft lips she could not help the shudder that ran through her.

His voice cracked when he said, "I almost lost you tonight. Oh Lauren, can you ever forgive me?" He groaned, "I've been such an idiot. I thought if I pushed you away I could keep you safe, but when you fell and I watched as you lay dying I realized that you were going to die thinking I hate you. I don't hate you. "

Lauren watched as a single tear escaped his dark lashes and coursed down his cheek. She wanted more than anything to talk to him, but she couldn't keep her eyes open. She tried to fight it, but it was no use.

Zach recognized her exhaustion and asked before she drifted off, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

She whispered hoarsely, "You can help me save my brother and you can talk to Helsing --"

Try as she may, her eyes started to flutter closed; she just couldn't finish her request or stay conscious any longer.

In the inky blackness of her half conscious state she felt Zach stir beside her.

For a moment it felt like one of Zach's feathers must have fallen across her mouth, it was silky and warm, and if she had been fully conscious she would have known it wasn't his wing that caressed her lips, but his own firm mouth that pressed a feather soft kiss to hers.

And as luck would have it Lauren drifted off before she could hear Zach whisper:

"As you wish."

THE END.

Lauren and Liam's Fae Form

Author's Note:

I want to thank all my readers for coming along on this journey with me. It has been one of the best experiences of my life to have finally drummed up the courage to follow my dreams and finish what I have started. If this story has made you laugh, made you cry, shocked you, or made you think, huh I never knew that, or even if it made you so mad at a few characters that you wanted them to be real just so that you could smack them, and you've silently read up until this point.

Please now is the time to show your feelings.

Give the final chapter a comment and a vote. Tell me what you hated or loved about the book. It would make this author exceedingly happy to hear from you and perhaps your comment will help shape the books to come.

I've decided to continue the next book as another installment of this one. So as of tomorrow you will be able to read the first chapter of Addicted Haven High Book Two right after this chapter. Tune in to find out what happens next.

The gang's adventure isn't over yet,

not by a long shot.