☼ Chapter XIX ☼

picture; Trent Codaihme

song; "Do I Wanna Know" by Arctic Monkeys

author's note; It has been a while since I updated, I know. This chapter ended up being just a bit longer than I expected so I'm gonna break it in half and do a double update! A lot of the next chapter is already written, so it is probably going to be uploaded faster than this last part.

We get a little more of Ankiel in this chapter and more Sawyer and information about the inner workings of the Unknown World. The next two chapters aren't super exciting, but the chapter after the next is going to be fun to write because we are finally introducing Eloize!

Comment + Vote, enjoy!

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Stone gray eyes clouded over and Ankiel reminded me suddenly of Lorelai. He was just as easy to read as his sister, and as I looked him over, Ankiel seemed to be thinking hard about what he was willing to say.

After a couple more beats of quiet, he came closer to the couch where I was sitting before taking a place beside me. Somehow, I could tell that his shoulders were aching under the weight of his own thoughts, and Trent's words from weeks ago slinked into my mind: Kel feels the need to babysit me, I guess... I guess him and Lori are similar in that way too.

My heart ached for Lorelai's company after the last few days that I'd been deep in my own world with Derik. It seemed like an eternity since we'd spent any time together.

I wanted to talk to her about so much, and now, unfortunately, I wasn't sure how she would feel when the majority of it surrounded her Mate Ever, who I definitely didn't want to trust at all. Ankiel began to speak, grounding me from my inner musing.

"Trent was really lost six years ago after his mum was killed. He found out that the person who had her killed was someone he trusted and was close to, and it really just... broke him. I know he seems like a really serious and distant person, but he wasn't like that growing up.

"I'd never pick such a stick in the mud to be friends with to be quite honest. But that betrayal, that loss. It made him pull a complete one-eighty.

"He was trying to work through it for a few months, and then... one night he had been out with some girl I think. Trent called me around four a.m., saying he was in trouble. He sounded weird, like he was hurt... or sick, I don't know.

"When I finally met up with him, Trent was rambling and panicked. He was saying he knew who killed his mum and that they were after him now. Specifically, Trent told me they'd 'sent Darkness after him'. Showed me the Mark, said he needed to leave.

"I knew what the Mark was and what it would do to him. I knew that if I let him leave alone, I might never see him again, or if I did, I'd be forced to eliminate him.

"I couldn't let him try to fight through that alone too. Trent never told me who it was that supposedly killed his mum, so I don't know if he just thought he knew or if he was really trying to keep it from me at this point."

Ankiel grumbled in exasperation, running a hand through his silky-looking chocolate coils. They seemed to have grown even longer since I'd first met him; the curly tendrils were now long enough to flop over his forehead and sat atop his head in an untamed but soft looking pile of huge ringlets. It made his face seem more angular and intense than it did before.

"Why did you decide to leave Lorelai behind? I still don't get it." Lorelai was only a year older than me, but that would've made her eighteen at the time that Ankiel and Trent left the Academy. They could've brought her along.

"She was excelling here at the Academy, and I knew that she wanted so badly to follow in the footsteps of our dad. She admired him more than anyone, even me, and she feels being a Protector will bring her closer to him. He's always gone because he's always working missions, you know.

"On top of that, Lorelai is strong, but she is my baby sister and my only sibling. Dark Marks can make people unpredictable, violent, bloodthirsty. Neither Trent or I wanted to put her in that kind of danger. Being outside of the protection of the Academy was another reason.

"We are Royal Ylisoves, and we could be targeted by terrorists. Lorelai doesn't know much about the political issues in the Unknown World because she chose to become a Protector, which means I most likely will go home to run the Nyx Luna Pack."

"You sound disappointed." I pointed out with a hidden smirk. "Isn't being an Alpha of a Nyx Luna Pack a great honor? Those Alpha Kings have a place in the Elders Courte, and they govern all the other Packs in the rest of the country."

"Being an Alpha is for rich playboys with no other ambition in life. All an Alpha has to do is dole out punishment when necessary and make sure pups stay in line. Being a Protector takes skill and you are actually doing something productive in the Unknown World."

"Being an Alpha takes skill too, though, right? Elders pick Alphas based on their strength and leadership skills. Also, Packs are a necessary part of the Unknown World. They help to organize and keep track of Lycans who might want to live a pretty normal life. Not everyone wants to be soldiers like us."

"You mean not everyone wants to kill like us?" A jade gaze crashed into a storm-gray set at Ankiel's words, and I was sure that the emotion across my face was anything but shock or disgust. "Trust me, they do. They just don't have the balls to pass the training to do it legally."

"Interesting view you've got there." The smug grin from before gradually slithered onto my lips, and Ankiel watched the mannerism before he smiled slowly back, again reminding me of his younger sister.

"It's the truth. That urge to kill is in all of us. We were born with it. I bet humans were born with it too." Ankiel leaned back into the couch and kicked his sock-covered feet up onto the coffee table in front of us.

"How did you help Trent... with his Dark Mark?" Ankiel cocked a brow up at my question inquisitively, causing it to disappear underneath the wild coils obscuring his forehead. "I know there's Rituals to help protect against the effects... but if you went off on your own, how did you find a Sorcerer to help you place a seal?"

"We didn't have a protection Ritual or a rejection seal cast on it. You can learn to channel the effects into one thing, however. My mom's sister had been Marked when they were younger and she told me about how our grandparents helped her use training and hunting to satiate the urges." Ankiel seemed slightly uncomfortable to be saying this, and I was confused for a moment.

Derik's words from weeks ago entered my mind again: It skips by twos, usually. When he'd explained about the Dark Blood gene, he told me it travels between generations by twos.

So that means if Lorelai's aunt had been Marked, it's likely because she had Dark Blood. That means Lorelai's mom and Ankiel would've been skipped, and Lorelai would have the gene.

That is most likely the main reason they left her behind. Not that Trent could hurt her, or that she really wanted to be a Protector, or she would be targeted because she is a Ylisove Lycan. Lorelai has the Dark Blood gene like me and Darkness could target her.

"Does Lori have the Dark Blood gene?" The look on Ankiel's face was completely neutral. I couldn't tell if he was surprised I'd pieced that information together or if he was sad by the thought. He also didn't seem like he was going to confirm or deny my implication.

Why wouldn't he tell me? He'd just spewed Trent's darkest moment in his life, but he couldn't answer this simple question?

"Ankiel—" He looked at me silently, his eyes growing darker like a twilight sky with heavy overcast. A warning bell went off in my head and I braced  myself for a fight. Why was he acting so weird all of a sudden? He definitely didn't want to talk about this, and I was singed with curiosity. Lorelai and I had been friends for years, and she never once told me about this.

Did she not want me to know? Did she think I would think less of her if I knew she had the gene, something she couldn't control? Or... was it because she herself didn't know she had the Dark Blood gene. Was this being kept from her?

"Does Lorelai not know she has the Dark Blood gene? Are you keeping it from her?" A scowl settled onto my face as I pointedly watched Ankiel react to my question. "Having the gene is not that big of a deal. Why are you hiding the truth from her?"

"It is a big deal for Lycans. Having the Dark Blood gene and a Dark Mark makes the Shift far worse. If a Lycan who also has the Dark Blood gene were to be Marked, they could die when trying to go through the First Shift.

"All the symptoms are worse than normal just with Dark Blood, but if a Lycan is Marked by Darkness as well, they have to complete the Shift in twelve hours just to stay alive. Female Lycans usually complete the Shift in an average of thirteen to sixteen hours." Ankiel huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "It's amazing how little you know about the other supernaturals around you."

"Well sorry for being born in the human world and living most of my life as a human." Crossing my arms over my chest I rolled my eyes at his comment. It was pretty sad, though, that I claimed Lorelai as my best friend, but I knew next to nothing about Lycans. To be fair, however, I also knew next to nothing about Vampyres.

My grandmother Janice--Meredith's mother--tried to teach Cetilayn and I a little about the Unknown World and ourselves; that's how we knew about the Change and the fact our family was important in the Unknown World and would be protected if something serious ever happened.

My grandma always emphasized how proud I should be that I held the Reinove name, despite the fact that technically, my legal name I was born with was Sonya Gregory, after my father, not Reinove.

Of course after I accepted my place here at the Academy and donned the title of Princess, Gregory was dropped and swapped for Reinove. Not just to honor my mother, but also to separate from my father, like he'd separated from me.

There wasn't much beyond the Change and supposedly being an important family within the Unknown World that Cetilayn and I did know however.

I didn't know about the controversy of my mother marrying my father, the titles, the hierarchy, the Awakening, other supernaturals, customs and traditions. I came in ignorant as hell to half of my life, and it makes me feel stupid.

Meredith had been more concerned educating us on being black women in America and the importance of date rape drugs than anything else.

Even though my mom completely ignored half of our heritage and culture--the Vampyre part--I couldn't hold resentment towards her for it. My mother wanted to raise my sister and me as humans for a reason, and I would be lying if I said it wasn't a much easier life than being a Royal in the Unknown World.

"You know, you can only use that excuse for so long, mate." Ankiel was smirking once again, but his tone didn't imply that he was teasing.

"Excuse?" I cocked a brow up doubtfully at him. Part of me was offended, but part of me sort of understood what he was saying. I was friends with Lorelai when she went through the First Shift. She went home for a week in the spring to prepare for it right after her twenty-first birthday three years ago.

I kept in contact with her for the first part of it, but she just kept telling me she was fine and didn't really give much more detail. Lorelai was really sad that Ankiel wasn't around during that time to help support her through the First Shift, so even though I wanted to talk to her about it, I didn't bring it up.

I also knew that she was safe back home with her mom and the extended family she grew up with that was the Nyx Luna Pack in England.

Some part of me believed her mom and the other Lycans there could help her handle the First Shift much better than I did, so I let her go silent, and when she came back, I didn't bring it up because I didn't think she'd want to reminisce about it.

Lorelai seemed fine when she returned to the Academy, too. She took me out to the woods and showed me her fully Shifted form. Even as a huge eight-foot-tall monstrous beast, under the ethereal moonlight and the shimmying shadows of the pine trees, she still looked so beautiful.

Her eyes glowed the normal orange-red every Lycan's did in that form, and the hulking creature that was Lorelai still held a feminine shape somehow, but even then you could tell she was rippling with muscle. She could probably tear the flesh from my body as easily as you could a chicken leg that had been boiled so long the meat was falling off the bone.

"You've lived in our world for six years, Sonya. Considering how embarrassed you always seem to be to not know a lot of shit about the inner workings of the Unknown World or even the other supernaturals around you, you'd think you'd be asking more questions, or maybe getting some tutoring from Sawyer.

"At this point, it's an excuse. I know you're accustomed to the traditions and rules you have to follow as a Royal, so why haven't you put in the effort to learn about anything else?"

I was slightly taken aback by Ankiel's boldness, and I was beginning to realize that he didn't take any bullshit. Ankiel was honest and didn't sugarcoat anything.

I actually liked that a bit about him. Lorelai had said that Ankiel was a jokester and goofy, but so far I'd only really seen this serious side of him. A few lighthearted insults and some childish bickering was the full extent of his playful personality that I'd witnessed.

"You're right I guess. To be completely honest, when I was forced here to the Academy, I didn't care about really living in the Unknown World and accepting my title as the Final Child or any of that. I just wanted to use the Academy to train so I could become a skilled killer so I could avenge my mom.

"Honestly, I don't even know if once I do kill Rene if I'm going to remain here in the Unknown World. I liked my human life." Shrugging, I turned my eyes down to my thumb that was picking the wine colored polish off my index finger.

"How do you plan to leave now that you've found your Mate? The Seilyars are a pretty dedicated line of Royals." Ankiel's words were neutral but his face had gone sour, and I remembered once again how Sawyer had told me that Lorelai and Ankiel's father had issues with Genevieve, and I wondered if that distaste between the Ylisoves spread to all the Seilyars.

"I haven't really talked about it with Derik yet. I also haven't made my decision yet either. There might not even be anything left for me back in Arizona, but I know that if I were to stay here, I could never see my old friends again." A resigned sigh was born from my lips and I closed my eyes for a second.

"It's still months before I even go out on a field mission and then more time between that and graduation. Only then can I even try to search for Rene. I still have a lot of time to think about it."

"Listen, if you end up going through the Change by the time you do find the Olicidove Lycan, you may not want to go back to the human world. And... I know Lorelai would miss you." Ankiel seemed like he wanted to say something else, but I didn't probe him.

"Maybe." I agreed, though I doubted it. This life as a Royal was too restricting. If I did decide to have a family with Derik, I don't know if I would want to raise them here. "What kind of training and hunting did you and Trent do together?" If Ankiel was confused or shocked by my sudden question, he definitely didn't show it.

"I could show you sometime." His face morphed into an implicative smirk, and I narrowed my eyes as I worked to keep the grin off my own mouth.

Sucking my teeth, I made it look as if I were considering his offer, pressing my hand to my chin thoughtfully for good measure. "Deal."

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