by E. S Night
“You’re welcome.” I nodded.
Abruptly, the tree moved, lifting gradually in the air, it was Joseph. We could see that Leopold had survived, clutching one of the branches on the ground with another man who hadn’t made it. Conan was barely hanging on; his neck was pumping out blood.
“Miss me?” Joseph said sarcastically throwing the huge tree backwards further into the garden. All at once, Joseph generated a mammoth fire separating us from them. He pulled the two members of the counsel into the fire using his power and impeding us so we couldn’t help them, we could only sit and watch them burn.
“No! Please don’t!” Rafe begged him to stop. Joseph ignored our appeals for mercy and laughed at our misery. I cried, hearing their haunting screams as I covered my brother’s and Ella’s eyes from the horror.
“Who’s next? Perhaps that little brat!” Joseph pointed to Ella. Before, I could do anything; Logan jumped in front of her and was thrown high into the air being hurled directly at the house wall. Colton quickly changed back into his wolf form and jumped to my brothers’ rescue, catching one of Logan’s legs with his teeth. Logan fell to the floor with Colton below him preventing any serious injury to my brother’s head. Colt distorted back into his human self and picked up Logan, bringing him to me, Colton’s hands were covered in blood.
“Thank you, Colt!” I spoke, repeating those words a thousand times. “Wait! Why is there so much blood?” I shouted hysterically.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen to him, I –” Joseph muttered quietly, shocked by Logan’s gallantry to save Ella.
“Abi, I think my leg’s hurt.” Logan murmured before falling unconscious. In a fright, I looked down to check my brother’s leg, he was losing so
much blood. Logan had a severe bite mark from where Colton had caught him; I needed to get him to the hospital.
“I’m so sorry Abigail; it was the only way I could get to him in time.” Colton proclaimed out of guilt, holding pressure on Logan’s leg.
I stood, carefully passing my brother over to Colton as he kneeled. I darted over to the fire in a rage. “You bastard! If he dies you’re dead, do you hear me you are dead! I will kill you myself!” I yelled viciously as Grayson picked me up from the waist, dragging me back from the fire.
“Stay away from him Abigail!” Leopold yelled, giving me that strange look again as though he was protecting me.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen to your brother, you shouldn’t even be here Abigail. I’m under strict instructions not to harm you or Logan but at the moment with you talking to me like this you’re making it extremely difficult for me to keep that promise.” Joseph spoke.
“Orders from who? What are you talking about?” I screamed at Joseph, frantically wanting some answers.
“Father, enough!” Leopold interrupted, causing Joseph’s head to turn around. “Do you
even care that your son is dying here, we have to go!” Joseph hesitantly nodded to Leopold and then directed his attention back to us.
“I guess it’s your lucky day mutts, I trust this won’t be the last time we see each other, and my brother hasn’t even played with you all yet.” Joseph muttered, chilling my bones with every word. Suddenly, they were all gone leaving only a cloud of smoke trailing off into the sky. I couldn’t believe how powerful they were, and that there had only been six of them.
I couldn’t help but think it was only by fluke we had survived.
“I need to get Logan to the hospital now!” I said, fearing for my brother’s life.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Unexpected
“We can take the car! It’ll be quicker than waiting for an ambulance.” Kaleb shouted, rushing up the decking stairs towards the house.
Anna came back through the forest yelling at the top of her voice. “I couldn’t find the little bitch, she lost me.” She quickly realised that my brother was injured. “Oh no, Logan!”
“One of us needs to take him! We can get there faster!” Isaac screamed in panic.
Immediately Grayson picked up my brother from the ground and raced through the back garden heading straight into the woods without saying a word to any of us. I’d seen nothing like it before; he shot off like a bullet, so fast I barely saw him leave.
“Grayson!” I yelled after him, feeling Kaleb’s hand on my shoulder. Maria sprang up, proving that her injuries for the most part had healed.
“It’s okay Abigail, he will get him to the hospital faster than we ever could in a car, I promise, please don’t worry.” Maria assured me as I gazed off into the forest. “Right! Everyone to
Kaleb’s car, it’ll fit us all in. Abigail, ring your mum and dad on the way.” She instructed whilst pressing my back, edging me away from the garden.
“What happened?” Anna asked me, reaching for my hand.
“Colton saved him from Joseph but he accidentally bit his leg, he was bleeding so badly.” I explained bursting out into tears leading Anna and Aidan to console me.
The ride over to the hospital felt like a nightmare, mum had trusted me to look after Logan and then I bring him into this mess. I should have kept him away from the Hales!
Hell, I should have stayed away from the Hales, what was I even thinking, getting involved with these people, knowing what they were capable of. I sat there in the car for five minutes staring at my phone, feeling Maria’s beady eyes watching me from the passenger mirror, the truth was - I really didn’t want to ring my family. I had no idea on how to explain what had just happened to my brother. Ella rested her head on my shoulder, weeping softly beside me. She reminded me of Logan, nothing else mattered but him. I found the courage to dial my mum’s
number and impatiently waited for her to answer.
“Mum! There’s been an accident, it's Logan, he’s been bitten! I’m on the way to the hospital with the Hales to meet him now!” I yelled down the phone to her.
“What! Was it a wolf? Why aren’t you with him now?” She asked frantically.
“Mum, I’ll explain everything to you when we get to the hospital, I can’t right now.” I screamed, still in shock.
“Okay, I’ll grab Konrad, your dad and I will meet you down there!” Mum spoke, hanging up the phone.
“I’m dead! How could I let this happen?” I muttered under my breath. I was shaking, I couldn't stop shaking.
“You couldn’t know Abigail.” Ella said kindly, trying to make me feel better, she only made me feel worse.
I did know this was going to happen, as soon as Grayson told me about the Lasair, I had a choice to make and I chose to only care about myself and what I wanted. As I sat there silently reflecting on the decisions that had led me to this point, I suddenly realised that things weren’t quite adding up. I glanced back at my phone; I’d
saved the symbol of the three rays of light as my screen-saver, hoping that it would stick in my mind so I could figure out what it meant. My thumb scrolled the screen sideways, making the symbol clearer. My eyes were drawn to the small word in the corner of the image, ‘The Awen’.
How could I have missed that? Grayson kept on calling it the three rays of light, it never dawned on me it could have also been called something else. Everything sank in. The Lasair were after me even before I had met Grayson, that first night I was alone with my brother, the intruder in my house was sent by the witches, but why? Something Joseph had said kept eating away at me. “I’m under strict instructions not to harm you or Logan.” Instructions from who? Snapshots of what had happened flashed quickly in my mind, the note that had been left on the windowsill, mum’s car that had been completely sabotaged, the writing on the mirror and all that stuff with Jackson! I finally knew who was doing all of this, how could I not have seen it?
“Oh, my God!” I screamed in the car. “Get me there faster – Logan’s in danger!”
“What?” Isaac looked back at me.
I needed to put pressure on Kaleb. “We need to go faster!”
&n
bsp; “What’s wrong Abigail?” I was worrying Maria.
I cried deeply into my hand, wiping my tears away with the sleeve of my cardigan, praying to God that I was wrong about my suspicions.
“I think I know who’s been doing everything; I just hope it’s not true.” I sat sobbing in the back seat so hard I was struggling to breathe. A few minutes later we arrived at the hospital, I raced inside and located the reception desk. “I’m looking for my brother; he should have just been brought in by my boyfriend, Logan James Lawson.”
“Let me just find his name – one minute.” The receptionist said searching through her records on the computer. “Yes, I’ve found it. I’m sorry but your brother is in intensive care now. Just wait here and I’ll get a doctor to come and see you.”
The words intensive care kept on playing round and round in my head like lyrics to a song that wouldn't go away. Everyone knows intensive care means critically ill. My sweet younger brother who has nothing to do with any of this. I pictured Logan in my mind needing constant medical attention just to keep his body
functioning. He already had a bad heart, anything like this could bring on a heart attack or something else just as bad. He’s probably frightened, wondering where we are. I couldn’t stop thinking about him lying on his bed, struggling to breathe and fighting for his life. I didn’t understand why he had to be intensive care and not surgery; he should be having surgery right now!
I stood there with the Hales for what must have been only a few minutes but it felt like a lifetime. I saw my mum and dad walking in through the automatic doors, my uncle Konrad trailing not far behind them. I glanced at my parents' faces filled with sadness and fear. I couldn’t look at them any longer as they approached us. My eyes however remained fixated on my uncle as he walked through the doors.
Konrad noticed the Hale clan stood at the side of me, he stopped dead in his tracks. My uncle had done so well up to now at keeping his distance, it suddenly hit me in the car that Konrad had never been in the same room as any of the Hales. He had never even met Grayson; he’d always make some excuse to leave like he
did when he dropped Logan off at home, Konrad dashed off back into the house as I was going outside to greet them. In the hospital, he made sure, he visited me when the Hales weren't there. He had planned it all perfectly; I had to give it to him.
My uncle had always talked about them, offering what I thought at the time was his protective opinion over my welfare but really, he was manoeuvring me around like a chess piece. Konrad was the person Joseph kept talking about, the real leader of the Lasair.
The intruder at my house was obviously a warning of the things to come; he was trying to plant a seed that very first night so I’d link it to the arrival of the Hales the next day. It would have worked if I hadn't had the dream about Grayson for a month prior to his appearance. The driftwood covered in blood that was conjured up as I was having my first real meeting with Grayson. Konrad must have wrecked my mum’s car too, pretending he couldn’t fix it, I knew it was odd because my uncle has always had a way of ‘magically’ fixing things.
He’s the one that left the note on my windowsill and my mirror, although I’m sure, he
never meant for me to slip and fall in the bathroom. I wonder why he didn’t see that in his stupid crystal ball! Even though my stint in hospital must have worked out well for him considering I was out-of-the-way for a while or maybe he thought he’d taken it too far when I’d got hurt. After all, the threats stopped as soon as I got home from the hospital, perhaps he still cared about us in his own way, despite everything. I should have seen it earlier.
The biggest clue of all was that bloody symbol he used on the note to sign his name. I found myself seeing one of my earlier memories as a child. I was about fourteen and because Logan was ill at the time, he was understandably always getting the attention. My uncle took me out along the beach, to get away from it all. We spotted these little craft stalls selling trinkets and souvenirs for the tourists. On one of the stalls, there was a woman claiming to be a psychic. I begged my uncle to let me have my cards read, he was reluctant to let it happen, but eventually he gave in. The fortune-teller was stating the obvious until she got to the part about me loving to sing. I remember smiling back at Konrad thinking she was the real deal, she told me I was
an Awen, that I was someone’s big inspiration, a girl born to do something very special with her life. She never showed me a symbol, and I never thought to look it up afterwards. My uncle told me I was his inspiration; we were always closer after that, I suppose that’s why he used it. I had forgotten all about that memory until now.
My uncle was trying to keep us safe ordering the Lasair not to touch me or my brother in the fight with the Hales, but still – I hated him, how could he do this to our family, to my mum for God’s sake and how could I not have seen it sooner. Konrad sent a fleeting look my way, seeing my tear soaked eyes left in the wake of his actions. For a second I saw the Uncle that had always been there for me; the one person I could always depend on. In an instant, all of that faded away revealing a monster that had been hiding underneath my bed, all along, without me realising it.
He realised I knew who he really was. Konrad looked at me one last time; his eyes were unchanging. I half expected him to transform somehow, but he didn’t, he still looked like the same man I had trusted from the first day I was brought into this world. A few people were
entering the building, blocking Konrad from my view. By the time, they had rushed through the doors, my uncle had already disappeared.
"Dad, is that?" Colton trembled.
I knew they all recognised him. “That was my uncle Konrad; he was the one doing everything all along.”
“He’s your uncle? How is that even possible?” Maria spoke.
“His real name is William, Abigail, and he was never your uncle, you’re not Lasair. You can’t even be related. Your grandparents will have adopted him.” Rafe answered, troubling me even more. Konrad had never even been my real uncle; I wonder if mum knew he was adopted.
“William was hiding with you, right under our noses.” Kaleb felt defeated. My mum and dad stopped our conversation as they reached us at the reception desk.
My mum was hysterical. “Where’s Logan?”
“I was just about to come and get you all, everyone can come upstairs to the intensive care unit but only family can see him for now, the rest of you should sit in the waiting room.” The doctor instructed. None of us spoke to each other all the way to the second floor, most likely
out of respect for the doctor escorting us. Mum probably wanted to tell me off in the waiting room alone, away from the polite staff that were helping her son. Instead, she grabbed my hand, holding it tightly for the entire ride in the elevator. She must have been worried; mum hadn’t even noticed that Uncle Konrad was no longer with her.
The elevator doors opened, revealing Grayson pacing through the floor of the waiting room. “Grayson, how is he?” My mum asked, coming out of the lift.
“They’re not telling me anything because I’m not family, he was just covered in blood, and he wouldn’t wake up.” Grayson was in a daze, holding his hands to his head.
“Please wait here.” The doctor said, rushing through to intensive care.
“What happened to my son?” Dad asked, fearful of what we would tell him.
“He was bitten by a wolf.” Colton tried his best to give them a fraction of the truth.
“I don’t understand, how?” Mum wiped away the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.
“We were eating in the garden, Ella and
Logan were playing near the back of the house where our garden leads onto the woods and it came out of nowhere. We got it off him really quickly, but it had already bitten his leg.” Maria described, showing how good a liar she was. If I didn’t dislike her as much as I do, I would have been impressed.
“In the garden? It's freezing out! Oh! Never mind it's my own fault; I sho
uld never have let him go.” Mum cried into dad’s chest.
“It’s not your fault, it’s not anyone’s fault, the only one to blame is that damn wolf.” Dad muttered, causing Colton to sit down. Guilt was lying heavily on his heart. I could see that he was hurting badly as I caught his eyes with mine; I smiled back at him softly hopefully assuring him I didn’t blame him, not one bit.
The same doctor, as before headed back towards us, seeming concerned. “Okay, so here’s what’s happened so far. When Logan first came in, his bite injury was our priority, it hadn’t hit an artery despite all the blood you were seeing so we could stitch that up. However, we are aware of his medical history and unfortunately, when Logan went into shock it put a tremendous amount of pressure on his heart
which caused a blood clot to form. Now the clot isn’t big enough to block the blood flow completely through his coronary artery. Currently we are giving him thrombolytic medicines, called clot busters to hopefully dissolve the clot. We have given him a light sedative to help his body relax and prevent him from more stress. This means he will be unable to talk to you right now, but you are more than welcome to talk to him as he can hear your voices, I’m sure he would like that – please just family though.” The doctor explained.
I’m normally not any good with all the technical mumbo jumbo that medical professionals come out with, it usually seems like they try to confuse you so you don’t understand what’s going on. This doctor was different; he was trying to be as clear as he possibly could. I knew then my brother was in good hands.
Mum and dad hurried into Logan’s ward, I moved towards Grayson as he stood up and gave me a hug knowing this was the worst thing I’d ever had to do in my life. I smiled at his family before walking to the ward behind mum and dad; I knew the Hales could probably hear what we
