by TJ Hines
The truck revved its engine before turning off. Oh, this couldn’t be good. I was still bleeding from my head and honestly starting to get a little lightheaded.
“How the hell did they find us? This doesn’t make any sense,” Will said.
“What’s the plan boss?” Drew said cracking his knuckles like he was itching for a fight.
“When is the cavalry getting here?” Ella asked as four demons, from what I presumed, got out of the truck. They all looked normal until their eyes turned solid black. And you could tell they were so very deadly.
“They should be here by now.”
The demons started forward and we started backing up towards the parking deck elevator.
“You guys cannot be serious with this elevator as a portal,” I said when we reached the elevator with the out of order sign on it. Will and Drew, who had already pulled his shirt off, stayed in front of us. Ensley and Addison were closest to the elevator.
At the same time, I heard the elevator door open I saw the same man from my dream, or at least I think it was. It was hard to tell without all the smoke around him like in my dream. But my mind screamed at me that this man was very dangerous and absolutely evil. As soon as I said his name, Alec, aloud Ella pulled me into the elevator.
“You got to push a button to make it move,” I said trying to bring a little brevity to the situation. Will punched in a code on a touchscreen hand print system that shot out of where the buttons should have been. The next thing I knew it felt like we were spinning and then the door opened. I was pulled out by Drew and someone I had never seen before but looked exactly like Drew. Two Drews! Yep, I am definitely crazy because now I am seeing things. That’s when I heard the yelling between Will and someone else.
“What the Hell is wrong with you? You let her get hurt?”
“Where were you when we were almost attacked again?” Will asked, the hostility toward the stranger very evident in his clipped words.
“How do you think Jack is going to react to that better yet how do you think your mother will react?” the stranger yelled at Will. But the voice sounded so familiar…
“Caleb??” I asked dumbfounded.
“Hey kitten, how you doing?” Caleb asked, coming to sit next to me on the ground
My mind was on overload with all the information that I had learned in the past twelve hours. I wasn't sure what was going on but hearing Caleb’s voice was the last straw. My mind shut down and I blacked out. I prayed that when I regained consciousness everything would be back to normal.
“Kinsey…Kinsey, you got to wake up,” Caleb yelled at me while shaking my shoulders.
“Be careful with her dumb ass,” I heard Will yell.
“Get back both of you. I will wake her up,” the newest voice said.
“What the hell happened here? One of you answer me,” my brother said. So, if my brother was here then the person with their hands on my head right now was Emily. I peeked my eyes open to make sure I was correct. Yep, that was Emily doctoring my head wound. I smiled at her. She looked down at that moment and saw me awake and returned my smile.
The only thing that had changed since I saw her last was that her hair was a little shorter and she had blond highlights in her auburn hair. She still had a dash of freckles across her cheeks and the most beautiful emerald green eyes. That was one of the only things that Em and Caleb shared.
“All you men shut up. I’m taking her inside so she can rest, and I can properly take care of this wound,” Emily shouted while shoving all them out of the way as she took me inside my house.
My house? I saw the blue door and the beautiful fish scale siding and the wrap-around porch. And the double porch swings framing the door. Definitely my house. But how did I get here? The portal? If that was real, then everything else had to be real. Right?
“How did I get here? Tell me what is going on, please. Everyone is talking crazy and acting even crazier. You got to help me Em.”
“Jack will explain everything to you after you wake up. You need a nap and I need to clean this wound before it gets infected,” Emily said to me as she walked me through the foyer and living room.
“Where’s Addison? She was right behind me in the elevator.” Emily led me up the stairs to the right-wing of the house where my bedroom was. Everything, from what I could tell, looked the exact same as it did when I left for college two years ago.
“She’s fine Kinsey. Ensley brought her straight in when they stepped out from the portal. She’s resting in the guest room next to yours right now. Now lie down and get some rest please.”
“But I’m not tired…” I started before Emily touched my head and said Somnum.
I had a dreamless sleep for once. It was nice not having to overanalyze something as soon as I woke up. However, that was the last of the good news because sitting in one corner of my room was Will with a scowl on his face. The reason for the scowl was because of who was sitting on my bed…Caleb. My two best friends apparently detested each other. That was going to make things very interesting.
“Hey,” I said to no one in particular. I felt staying Switzerland in this war was the best way to go. “How long have I been out?”
“About fifteen hours, maybe more,” Caleb responded stretching like he had been sitting on my bed the entire time I had been asleep.
“Jack wants to talk to you so we will get out of here now,” Will stated before opening the door and waiting on Caleb to leave.
Once Caleb had left the room Will turned to me with the utmost sincerity in his eyes. “Kinz I am really glad you are awake. I need to talk to you soon about us but it’s not my place to answer the questions you must have. And I am sure you have a lot of them. Please try to keep an open mind and understand that Jack is just trying to keep you safe.” He left the door open as he walked out, and I could hear a lot of laughter coming from downstairs.
“Caleb said you were awake. So, I guess it’s time to tell you the truth about some things,” Jack said as he shut the door to my room and my soon to be former world behind.
CHAPTER FOUR
“What are some questions you have, and I’ll see if I can answer them. I’ve never had to explain our world to anyone before so please be understanding.”
“How about you start at the beginning because I am majorly confused about everything that is going on, especially with what is going on with your face?”
Jack had changed a lot since the last time I saw him. He had cut his hair short, yet he was way hairier due to the beard he was growing. It suited him though. He seemed more grown-up and serious with it. But I wasn’t about to tell him that. I was going to give him as much hell as possible just like he did me when I decided that I should dye my hair pink in the 8th grade. He called me bubble gum and Pepto for a year after that tragic decision.
“Okay, let’s start with our parents. Ben and Melaine were not your biological parents…,” Jack started.
He went on to tell me that my real parents were Dominique and Patrick Adams. They went missing on my 2nd birthday. Patrick’s brother, Ben, and his wife Melaine raised me as their own to keep me safe from the Equitum and their legions. Equitum is Latin for horsemen. That’s right, apparently, the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are trying to take me as their own…well, three horsemen because my mom, Dominique was the fourth. I am one of four rightful heirs to Hell’s crown should something happen to Lucifer. A Princess of Hell.
Dominique was born to Lucifer and Lilith as one of a set of quadruplets. She along with her siblings, Alec, Baelin, and Carrow, would one day rule the world and bring chaos to the human realm, eventually destroying it. Once they came into their powers on their 21st birthday they could finally force the walls between the realms to thin, allowing them safe passage into the human realm and finally fulfilling their destiny. Dominique, however, never enjoyed the idea of dominating and enslaving humanity while obliterating the Protectors from the planet as her brothers did. True there was no love lost between her and t
he Protectors seeing how they killed her mother, but Dominique felt that the humans didn’t deserve what her family had in store for them.
Dominique had a secret that the rest of her siblings and her father did not know. She could cross over during a new moon anytime she wanted, and she had been studying the mortal realm since she was 16. She would go to Central Park in New York City and watch people live their normal lives. Humans weren’t terrible like her father had said. She watched them take care of one another and show affection for each other. That was more than what she had experienced since she was born. She didn’t know what real love was or what it was like to be a part of a normal family. Her family was always out for number one. Her siblings were always trying to one-up each other and trying to get their father to love them the most. It was sad that they had not figured it out yet. Their father didn’t love them. He tolerated them until their destiny could be fulfilled.
Dominique met Patrick when she was 18. He had been hunting a rogue demon who was targeting small children when he stumbled into her. Literally. They had an immediate connection and once he told her who he was and what he was doing she did the exact opposite of what she had been trained to do. She started hunting rogue demons with him whenever she could. They fell in love quickly and wanted to be together forever. They knew that the Council would never accept their relationship and would send hunters for Dominique. They also knew that the Demon realm would send rogues to capture her and bring her back so she could fulfill her destiny. So, they did the only thing they could to remain together. They went into hiding, constantly on the run. But they didn’t care because they were together.
And then I happened. My mother gave birth to me on her 20th birthday. She and my father were over the moon in love with me but also extremely scared because they weren’t sure how they were going to keep me safe. It was hard enough keeping two adults hidden and safe; now they had a little, fragile, adorable baby to keep hidden and safe. They managed it though, somehow, my strong parents kept us all safe for almost two years.
The summer before my second birthday we were attacked by some rogue demons. My parents made the toughest decision they had ever made at that point. They had to keep me safe at all costs even if that meant never seeing me again.
Patrick and Dominique convinced my Aunt Melaine and Uncle Ben to take me in as their own and give me the kind of life that I could never have if I stayed anywhere close to them. To keep me hidden, my mom sacrificed part of her powers and put a special ward around me until I reached my 21st birthday and came into my own powers. My parents disappeared after that and haven’t made any contact with anyone since then.
Ben and Melaine moved a few states away from the Council and tried to keep the secret of who I was to themselves and their son Jack. It was all working perfectly until my 5th birthday camping trip. Jack said he was hungry for some fish so we went fishing and we were having a contest to see who could catch the most when it happened. Apparently, I touched the water and said the first word that popped into my mind and a bunch of fish died near my hand. I thought it was awesome. So did Jack. Uncle Ben and Aunt Melaine not so much. They realized they were in over the heads with me, so they had to alert the council and hope for the best. The Council decided to send Protectors to guard me every moment of every day until further notice. That’s how we came to be friends with Caleb’s family. They were all my protectors including Jack and my mom and dad. Uncle Ben put another binding spell on my magic and a memory spell so that I would forget what happened on that day. My magic stayed hidden from that day on. And I became oblivious to the world around me.
I got a new set of Protectors when I went to college and I would get another set after graduation or before depending on how my transition goes. And apparently, these Protectors were everyone I knew. Will, Drew, Ella, Ensley, Emily, Jack, and even Caleb, according to Jack. The only person currently under the roof who was not trying to protect me was Addison. The only person who had not lied to me for my entire life was Addison. This was just too much. Too crazy.
“You actually expect me to believe in this story you are telling me. You want me to believe my parents weren’t really my parents. That I somehow have magical abilities. That all of you are some type of Protection squad for me. That everyone has lied to me my whole life, that everything in my life is a lie. I mean do I really go to college or is that some elaborate ruse too,” I hysterically said to Jack. I know my voice was getting louder because all of the laughter on the other side of the door had stopped.
“Kinsey, listen,” Jack began before I interrupted him.
“No, you listen, Jack. This is all crazy. You need help. You all need help if you actually believe all of this. Magic, demons, all of this is make-believe. End of story.”
“Really? Watch.”
And that was my tipping point. I watched my brother make a fireball out of nothing just like Ensley had. Except Jack was juggling that one and a ball made of water and one made of ice.
“I can’t do this. I just can’t. Take care of Addison. I have to get out of here.”
“Kinsey you can’t…,” Jack started while trying to grab my arm.
“Don’t touch me,” I screamed at him before opening the door and running down the hall right into the open arms of Caleb.
“Caleb, get me out of here.”
“Whoa Whoa. What’s wrong?” Caleb asked while holding my arms.
“I just can’t right now. I need out of here. Now. Either take me or give me your keys.”
Caleb looked like he was debating what to do and finally said, “I already know I’m in trouble at this point. It’s really go big or go home. So, let’s go big.” He grabbed my hand and ran down the stairs and through the front door with me trailing behind.
CHAPTER FIVE
Caleb has always been my crazy. He’s my other half. I am the more calculated, risk assessor and he is more of the spontaneous risk-taker. If I said hey let’s go to Mexico for a week, he would have us packed and halfway there before sunrise. He’s always been like that. In 7th grade, we were supposed to dissect frogs and I refused to kill in the name of science so to show solidarity Caleb refused too and refused for everyone else. He rescued all the frogs and put them on the brand-new renovated football field. It was perfect. Coach Kellum and his staff on the field trying to catch a thousand frogs who kept hopping away. We sat on the bleachers and laughed forever. Caleb was suspended for three days and I stayed home with him to show my appreciation.
Caleb dragged me to his truck and lifted me up into it. It was a gigantic black F-150; I would have had to jump into it without help from him. I couldn’t help but notice how easily he picked me up now. Caleb has always been strong but now it seemed like he was a super-soldier. He even looked like a soldier in his black cargo pants, black combat boots, and military haircut. About the only thing that looked the same was his beautiful emerald green eyes and the bad-boy smirk he carried with him everywhere he went.
Caleb started the truck just as Will and the gang figured out we had left the house and ran out after us. Caleb hung his head out the window. “We are getting some air, Jack. I promise to have her back before morning.” And with that, we were off. He was so crazy. He probably was in serious trouble for rescuing me from that insane asylum.
“I don’t want to get you in trouble Caleb so take me back,” I said dejectedly. It was my fault so when we got back to the house, I would tell Jack that I made him take me so that way he wouldn't be in too much trouble.
“I am always in trouble for something. It’s no big Kinz. I got you.”
Caleb drove us to our old hangout place a few miles from my house. It was an old abandoned skate park that we made our very own. We taught ourselves how to skate through watching videos in the internet and trial and error. We still weren’t great at it, but it gave us something to do. It had started raining while we were driving so, we stayed in the truck. I told Caleb everything Jack had told me about how my parents weren't actually my parents and
how my biological mom was the fourth Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I told him how crazy I thought everyone was. I also told him about all the weird stuff that had happened at school the last few days. I could tell Caleb didn’t care for the parts where I was almost hurt. I am sure he would have something to say to Will for that.
“I am going to need the addresses of those two douchebags, Tyler and Mike. I think I am going to have to pay them a visit soon.”
“I’m okay Caleb. Really. Well physically I am, mentally I am so messed up with now. I mean this can’t be real. Demons. Magic. It just can’t be real. Because if this is real than I am different, and I can’t handle that. I am supposed to be a normal college co-ed. I can’t handle being a freak.”
“Kinsey this is real. This is your new world. Monsters are real. The supernatural is real. We have been real all along; you just didn’t know it. Now you do and you are going to have to accept it because we have to keep you safe and we can’t do that if you are always trying to escape from us. Being different isn’t always so bad. I’ve been different my whole life.”
“What do you mean you’ve been different your whole life?”
“I’m part shapeshifter. My mom is too. Dad and Em are both magic users.”
“What?? You are so funny!” I laughed.
“Watch Kinsey.” Caleb got out of the truck and walked in front of the headlights so I could see him. He was soaked by this point. Next thing I knew I was staring at a massive white wolf. A. Freaking. Wolf. In the middle of the skate park. Where Caleb once stood. I jumped out of the truck and started backing away. The wolf jumped in front of me and transformed right back into Caleb. I passed out at that point and woke back up in Caleb’s truck.
