I jumped up from where I was yelling back to Warkry.
“There after him, catch up with Nixie”
Warkry was already getting to his feet and pulling up Nixie.
I was racing to where the howling was coming from, trees were nothing but a brown blur in my vision, and the sound of feet started to fade into the distance and my mind was racing.
Damn it, Greyson be there, be okay
I spotted a smaller cliff and pushed hard with my legs, pushing me higher than I have ever jumped before, landing a bit loudly at the top, a smell caught my attention and it wasn’t one I wanted.
Blood
Running toward the smell brought me to a sunny spot that was covered in blood, thick pools of it were scattered everywhere but at the side near one of the trees was a slumped over dark blue jacket.
Its Greyson’s coat...No…no, this is his blood
“Greyson! Grey!” I just started screaming, my insides were twisting horribly, into mangled pieces, my world was crashing at my feet, and I grabbed his coat and pressed my face into it and began to sob
I’m so useless, I’m so completely useless
“Evy…” Warkry stood behind me and placed a hand on his shoulder and I looked up to see Nixie perched on his back
“It smells like blood” she said obliviously
“He’ll be okay, they will have taken him to where we are headed anyway, and he may have bought us the surprise I was hoping for.”
“Oh Warkry, this is my fault, twice he has been hurt because I couldn’t do anything, we have to find him.” I held his coat tightly to my chest; I wasn’t going to give it up to anyone, it smelt like him, and I needed him to be in it, but he wasn’t.
My heart was crying out to him, my brain was screaming at me, and I felt so angry and sad that it was giving me a stomach ache.
“We will find him but now we need to rest we will come to the packs headquarters later tonight, and we need a plan of attack” Warkry moved his hand from my shoulder and started back to where we had come from.
“Who cares where we stay now, we should travel now” I looked at him with such hate in my eyes, he was blurring under the tears, I had never felt more serious in my life. I knew what I was going to do; I was going to kill who ever touched him.
“She’s right Warkry, we can stay here, I am sure Grey convinced them he was alone, they were far from our scent” Nixie was gripping the pack’s shoulder straps, I am sure it was uneasy for her to be off the ground, the only sense of where she was.
“Alright, you two win, we can start a fire tonight since they won’t be looking for us.” Warkry started moving the pack and Nixie stayed perfectly still till it hit the ground and she placed a small foot on the ground and sat down.
I went and sat by her, with Greyson’s coat still tightly clenched.
Warkry was gathering some kindle to and then started picking up larger pieces of dead trees, but I could barely hear him moving, I was so distracted by my own thoughts and then a feeling of desperation was taking over, I felt completely useless.
“Evy, it’s not your fault, he went out on his own” Nixie was trying and I felt bad for her because she was going to get nowhere.
“Exactly, he went out on his own, I should have been there”
Warkry was busy trying to start the fire to bother with anything else, he was practically smashing two rocks together to make sparks along with some colorful wording when it wouldn’t spark in the right direction.
“You’re doing it wrong”
“Not my fault these stupid rocks won’t spark the right way” right as he said that, sparks went flying at him and parts of him started to smoke.
“Ah hell!” watching Warkry beat out the smoking areas of his clothes along with parts of his hair for some reason made me giggle, the man who knew everything about tracking and being outdoors couldn’t manage to make a fire, in broad daylight.
“Here, before you set yourself on fire” I took the rocks and with one clean strike the sparks flew onto the kindle and started to smoke and then a small flame grew in the belly of it.
“What smells like burning hair?” Nixie stated from her spot looking aimlessly for the smell, and I looked down but there was no trace of a spark in my hair but the trail of smoke coming from Warkry’s hair was another story.
“How did you get a spark to the back of your head?” I was completely mystified with this fact as he made every attempted to slap the back of his head, it was starting to look like he had come up with a new dance.
“Oh Warkry, come here” Nixie beckoned him closer to her and he crouched down to her left and she swiveled in her seat and reached her hand up toward the burning glowing ember.
“Nixie don’t you’ll…” my voice trailed off as I saw a small glow in the center of her palm and gurgling swirling water started to wrap her hand snuffing the ember out. The water surrounding her hand twisted and turned back into the small glow of her palm.
“That was amazing” I was in complete awe, I wasn’t sure what I thought she was capable of but not that, I was pretty honest with myself in thinking I had no idea what a water witch could do.
“Of course it was, you know people are like 90% water, I just learned how to harness that and use it when I need it. It’s kind of my thing” she smiled with pride because I am sure it helped us see her useful qualities, aside from her annoying qualities.
“I missed it what happened?” Warkry sat down beside Nixie; he looked more like a giant next to her than ever before.
“Evy is finally noticing how amazing I am.” I rolled my eyes at her little comment, I couldn’t deny it, and she was pretty amazing.
“What else can you do Nixie?” I decided to learn more about her power than concentrate on the empty feeling I had in my chest and stomach.
“I can create torrents of rain or waves, tidal waves, geysers, I can coax a small creek into a frenzy to wash out a whole town if I wanted to, which I don’t, but bigger things like that take a bit more concentration” while she spoke I tried to hang on every word learning all I could from her, for her size and the blindness she was quite powerful, and I could help but feel a stab of envy.
“What can you do Evy, I don’t know any werecats?” I know Nixie didn’t know I was the last of my kind but it stung to be reminded of that fact.
“I can scratch, bite and sometimes I even hiss, I don’t like water and I am much too curious” when I spoke it out loud, I sounded pathetic, but maybe explained why I didn’t have much tolerance for Nixie, water monster, and a cat. It’s like we were destined to hate each other like werewolves and werecats.
“You can’t transform?! You’re a terrible werecat” she began to laugh loudly like a little musical chime had somehow gotten out of tune and it sounded more evil then elegant.
I glared the small girl down when she opened her mouth to ask Warkry a question.
“What do you do half breed? Don’t tell me, you can make your hair puff up when you’re scared!” she kept laughing at her little jokes and I could feel my pulse quicken with anger.
“No, I am a tracker and I have mastered the fine art of crossbow” he crossed his arms and waited for her onslaught of comments but she just nodded her head.
“At least you’re worth something; being born an outcast probably pushed you to become the best”
“How did you know he was a half breed?” I was ignoring the remark to my uselessness because I am sure I would show her that my scratches were nothing to poke fun at.
“Evy, I knew what all of you were” she poked the tip of her nose making a little ‘boop’ noise, and I blinked and pulled my head back with a confused look.
“You both smell like cats, Greyson smelled sweet and a little like blood, and I know I smell like the sea if you would use your senses you would know that all too.” She spoke like everyone could do that right away.
“You creatures are so attached to your eyes, you forget you have some other senses, because I am blind I rely greatly on them, I have a great sense of smell, and sensitive hearing.” All of this made sense of course but none of it had occurred to me before she said it.
“You are an interesting little monster aren’t you, Nixie?” Warkry had given her a congratulatory smack on the back that pushed her a bit closer to the fire, his sights slowly started to stare into the glow.
“We need to talk about how we are going to get Grey back, now I think the best would be to cause a distraction, Nixie.” Warkry grabbed a stick and started to draw in the dirt drawing a large circle writing ‘den’ in the center of it, he drew a few tunnels coming from it along with a few land marks.
“This is the basic set up, now Nixie I know you can’t see it so we will bring you to the river that runs along the east wall of the den, I want you to get it as large and as crazy as you can, direct it toward the den. I need that place flooded, forcing most of the wolves out, so when we enter their numbers will be down.” Nixie nodded her head in agreement
“No problem, I can find safety in the water so don’t worry about me” Warkry placed a hand over hers and gave a small squeeze, the gesture seemed a bit off. I looked at her expression closely and it seemed she started to blush slightly. I shook the thought from my head deciding I would ask about this later when I was along with Warkry.
“Now Evy, both you and I will enter on the west side, Grey should be in one of the tunnels, near the end they are used for captives, we need to get to him before they do, they will realize quickly what we are there for and they could kill him without giving us the chance.” The calm demeanor of Warkry couldn’t keep the terrifying truth out of me, they wanted him because they wanted me, and they would kill him with no other thought, just thinking of him lying limp sent chills down my spine.
I wouldn’t let them do that.
“One problem, I can’t really fight.” I knew the issue would come up and I didn’t want it to be in the middle of the den.
“We will solve that now, Nixie, you sleep, Evy, you will be learning how to fight.”
I hopped up eager to learn something, I desperately wanted to help, and maybe after tonight I would be able to.
We only went a little ways from the fire; we could still see Nixie, leaning on Warkry’s pack and remember the moment they had made me want to ask even more than before.
“Warkry, what’s with you and Nixie?” his face flushed red which was not something I expected.
“She reminds me a lot of Mera. She is about the same size and has the same attitude; it’s hard for me to ignore, I suppose.” I started to smile but inside I knew I felt bad for Warkry, he found someone so much like the one he lost, I can’t imagine what kind of reminder that must be like.
“Let’s get to business Evy, your advantage even if you can’t transform will be your agility and speed, you can out run any of them, Grey told me about how you fought the wolf in the woods, and you have the right idea.” I felt like I was beaming, it was good to hear that maybe something right was kicking in.
“Now come at me” he stood in a defensive position
“What? No Warkry” I was stumped, he really wanted me to attack him.
“Evy, don’t be daft, what are you going to do?” he smiled and I almost felt a bit of taunting in his words and I knew he wouldn’t give up.
I studied him for a bit, he was much bigger, which means I should take him out at the legs, maybe even the playing field a bit. I shot forward as fast as I could; sliding down below the reach of his arms, and thrust my boot into his knee, making a horrible cracking noise. I curled up into a somersault and stood up breathing heavily, but Warkry turned on his good leg and caught me in the stomach, pushing all the air out of me with an open hand push. I collapsed to my knees coughing hard trying to catch my breath.
“Nice Evy! I think you popped it out of place, now most men it would take them out” he placed a hand on his thigh and under his calf, with one quick force, there was a loud pop and he was extending his leg swinging his knee.
“Damn it Warkry…” I started to cough as the sight I had just saw sunk in “You’re indestructible!”
He let out a laugh and put his hands on his hips like he was posing for a poster.
“Far from it but thank you, I am quite mighty.”
I was able to stand and was ready to try again.
Warkry was starting to crouch in a linebacker type stance and locked on to me.
“More likely they will be coming at you, get ready!”
My eyes felt like they were going to pop out, and Warkry started charging toward me.
Shit! I pushed hard in the air, my vertical jump had increased in the last few days and I was starting to notice, I twisted in the air, I pounded my fist down into the back of Warkry giving me enough momentum to land a few feet behind him. He toppled to the ground with a thud, sitting up he looked behind him seeing me with a leg extended and the other crouched up to my chest.
“Evy…You’re a natural! You certainly know how to evade someone, but I need you to start fighting and I am going to keep coming at you till either you collapse or I do.” And with a grin and started at me again.
The energy it took to keep my senses alert distracted me from the dismal thoughts of failure.
I pictured Greyson for the last time that night.
Don’t worry I am coming for you and nothing will stop me.