Chapter 21: Fear Fighters

EVE

~I was in complete darkness, my mind clouded by fear. It had manifested a foggy street in my psyche.~

~It looked like London, but the fog was too thick to be sure.~

~I walked down the street cautiously, not knowing exactly what was real or what was in my head.~

~Was this a dream?~

~Was it a memory?~

~I heard a blood-curdling scream.~

~“Push! Push harder!” a woman’s voice shouted. “She’s almost here! You can do this!”~

~“I can’t!” I heard another voice cry. This one I recognized as my own.~

~Then all I heard was a baby wailing. I whipped around to see a basin in the middle of the street.~

~All I wanted to do was comfort the child and stop her tears.~

~But as I approached the basin, it was empty.~

~The crying was now my own. “No, you can’t take her! Please, she’s my whole world!”~

~Barron von Logia’s voice suddenly boomed through the empty street. “You’ll get her back, but only if you do as I command.”~

~“I’ll do anything!” I pleaded, finding the words spilling out my actual mouth and not some voice in the ether.~

~“Then you must complete a task for me. Then you’ll have your daughter back.” This time it was Llinos von Logia’s voice.~

~They’d both used me as a fucking tool, bending me to their whims.~

~“Mama! Mama, I’m scared!” Snow’s voice suddenly cut through everything else.~

~“Snow! Where are you?” I screamed, frantically trying to see through the fog.~

~I started running down a dark alley, but my path was blocked by a pale looking man. He opened his mouth and smiled, revealing a set of fangs.~

~My scythe appeared and sliced his head off involuntarily. His eyes were wide with horror.~

~As I turned around, another vampire appeared, this one female. I stabbed her through the heart as she looked at me with pain in her eyes. “Wh-why?” she sputtered out as blood dribbled down her chin.~

~Two more vampires appeared. They were Killian’s parents. “Why did you do it Eve?” I sliced them in half, not able to stop myself.~

~Another vampire appeared.~

~And another.~

~And another.~

~I killed one after the other, tears streaming down my face. I couldn’t stop myself. Eventually I was standing on a mountain of vampire corpses.~

~Collectively, they all looked at me and asked the same question.~

~“Whhhhhhyyyyy?” they droned. The noise was like the buzzing of a thousand cicadas, and I clasped my hands to my ears, trying to drown it out.~

~“Stop! Stop! I’m sorry! I had to do it!”~

~“Eve!”~

~A new voice. A deep one. A familiar one.~

~Raphael…~

~“I need you to get control!”~

~“Focus on my voice!”~

~“You’re stronger than your fears!”~

~“Hell, you’re stronger than me!”~

~“Come back to me, Eve!”~

~“I need you!”~

~“Our daughter needs you!”~

~“EVE!”~

***

My wings retracted into my body. As I opened my eyes, I saw my mate hovering over me, his face filled with concern. He immediately dropped down to his knees and wrapped his arms around me.

“Dammit, Eve, don’t scare me like that!” he said, hugging me tightly. “We’ve got a Fear Creator causing enough scares as it is.”

~A Fear Creator. Of course. That’s why I felt like I was going mad.~

It was Raphael’s voice that had brought me back. It felt like there was a tether attached to me and my mate as he had reeled me in.

“Snow!” I shouted suddenly. “We have to find her!” I was furious at myself for letting my fear impede the search.

“Wherever she is, the Fear Creator is likely nearby. Its powers have clearly been boosted by the Haze. They’ll be drawn to each other like magnets,” Raphael said, helping me to my feet. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get Snow back safely.”

Without thinking, I leaned in and kissed him, passionately pressing my lips to his. I was rarely affectionate, but seeing Raphael so concerned for our daughter, embracing his role as a father—it made me love him even more.

He was my true strength. I knew I needed to be that same strength for everyone else that was out here searching for Snow.

I blocked everything else out and focused, creating a telepathic link with the rest of the group.

~“Everyone, listen to me carefully. There’s a Haze-induced Fear Creator out here trying to dredge up our deepest, darkest fears and insecurities and use them against us. Don’t give in! We’re stronger than any of our collective fears. Fight back!”~

I kept the telepathic link open but turned to Raphael.

“Let’s get our daughter back…together.”

JED

Eve’s voice echoed in my head, keeping me strong. It would’ve been easy to slip back into fear’s grasp, but between Killian and Eve, I managed to stay in control.

I partially shifted, and the first thing I did was track Reyna’s scent. I wanted to know that she was okay.

“Maybe we should meet up with the others,” I suggested. “We’re stronger in a pack, right?”

“Theoretically,” Killian responded. “But we’ll cover more ground if we’re split up. And Snow is still out here somewhere.”

He was right, but it was killing me not knowing how Reyna was faring against the Fear Creator. If she had gone to the same dark place that I had…

I wouldn’t have wished that on my worst enemy…and Reyna was my closest friend.

“Reyna isn’t far. Maybe we should just go see if she’s good?” I said, unable to let it go.

Killian gave me a questioning look. “We have Eve connecting all of us, so I don’t think that’s the best use of our time. Plus, she’s with her boyfriend. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“He’s not her boyfriend,” I said bitterly. “He’s just…”

I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. But I knew I sounded jealous as hell.

“What exactly is going on between you two?” Killian asked suspiciously as we moved deeper into the woods.

“Me and Reyna? Nothing! We’re just friends!” I blurted out.

Killian wasn’t buying it. “Where did your mind go when the fear took hold of you?” he asked.

I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

One of my deepest fears was that I wouldn’t be enough for Reyna. That she would never want me the way that I…

That I…

…wanted her.

~Fuck.~

~I want her.~

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

My relationship with Reyna meant more to me than just a platonic friendship.

But I had no idea if it was one-sided…

Or if she felt the same way too…

REYNA

Derek and I walked silently through the woods, both unable to find the right words to say to one another.

A lot of our issues came out when we had let the fear take over…

Issues that neither of us were ready to face.

We needed to talk it out before the tension built up any further, but talking seemed like the hardest thing in the world right now.

I just hoped the damage to our relationship was still fixable.

Suddenly, Derek grabbed my hand. He didn’t speak, but that tiny gesture let me know that it would be okay.

He stopped abruptly, his hands growing rough, and his ears pointy as he partially shifted.

“Do you hear that?” he asked, his ears perking up.

At first, I couldn’t hear anything, not possessing heightened senses like a werewolf, but then I heard it…

A faint crying in the distance.

We looked at each other and shouted in unison, “Snow!”

Derek fully shifted into his wolf, and I climbed onto his back as he hurtled toward the crying sound, his feet thumping through the dense forest.

We entered a clearing, where Snow sat huddled up on the ground, holding her knees. I jumped off Derek’s back and ran to her.

“Snow! Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re okay!” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders.

As her tear-stained face looked up at me, I was overcome by a sense of dread.

Snow didn’t just look scared…

She looked ~terrified.~

She tried to mouth something to me, but no words came out. She raised a shaky finger, pointing behind me.

I slowly turned around to see a shadow materializing into a human figure.

“The Fear Creator,” I rasped, my breath catching in my throat.

Derek tried to lunge at it, but he passed through the figure like it was made out of smoke.

“Hello, Reyna,” the Fear Creator said, an unsettling smile forming on his indistinct face. He looked like the Cheshire Cat. “How can I scare you today?”

“Leave us the fuck alone!” I shouted, pulling Snow close.

“I think I know ~just~ the thing,” he said evilly as I felt the fear begin to seep in.

The woods grew dark and hazy. Snow disappeared, and so did everything else. I was disoriented.

There was someone standing a few feet away—a girl, but she was obscured by the fog.

“Snow!” I called out, running to her. I grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

I screamed as I saw who was looking back at me.

My ~deepest~ fear.

The girl smiled back, baring her fangs.

It was ~me~.

And I had fully become a vampire.