DAMIAN
I was on my third glass of champagne when Vincent came up beside me.
He leaned in and whispered. "We've found Caleb but he's not in the best condition right now."
"What do you mean?" I whispered back.
"He was hurt."
I didn't need it here any more. I pushed back my seat and muttered my apologies to Marilyn, promising her a better gift next time I visited.
While we were about to slip out of the hall, mother called behind me.
"And where do you think you're going?" She said, both hands on her hip.
"Somewhere." I said with a sigh.
"And this somewhere doesn't have a name? Hmm?" She asked. When I didn't reply, she turned to Vincent. "What about you, Vince? Where are you both going to that's more important than your cousin's wedding?"
"We're running out of time, ma'am. We'll tell you when we return." He said and I gave a nod of approval. He was using his senses after all.
We turned into the hall where we met Brynn and Valentine.
"My fairies found Caleb in an alley on the Fifth. He was —" she didn't complete that sentence. "Dominic's with him now."
"Where are they?" I demanded.
"The hotel. He couldn't take him to the human hospital. At least not to alert Caleb's mom anyways." Brynn replied.
I stopped dead in my tracks. So that's where Caleb was going to — his house. My fingers curled into fists at the thought. He was going to leave me!
"Do you want to see him?" Val asked, a worried look etched on her face.
"No," I turned to Brynn. "Have Ernest and your fairies take care of Caleb. Don't let him out of your sight."
"How can we help?" Vincent and Val asked at the same time.
Typical twins.
"We're going to find the fucker who hurt my Firefly."
Brynn gave us the coordinates to the scene of the crime. I refused to call it the place Caleb got hurt. I had enough fire in my veins to burn down an entire building. I didn't need more rage.
Brynn had insisted on a cab — something about keeping a low profile and not drawing any unnecessary attention. Well, that was fucking cute. I let her think she was in charge but the second she turned her back, I called the others. There was no point pretending we were something we weren't.
People like us didn't hide. We didn't travel around the city in yellow taxis, hoping not to be seen. We made noise. We were the reason people crossed the street without knowing why.
So when the time came, I didn't wait and I didn't ask. I flew.
The wind sliced past me like razors, cold and sharp, but I welcomed the sting. It was a constant reminder that tonight wasn't a dream I could wake up from.
We touched down in the alley on Fifth like ghosts who came to collect their debts.
Vincent and Valentine scammed the space while Brynn spoke via the comms. "My fairies said Caleb was here. This is where they found him."
Suddenly, a scent hit us before anything else. It was sharp, metallic and very unmistakenble — blood. And not just any blood. His.
I didn't think. I moved.
The rage flaring inside me was hot and alive, writhing beneath my skin like it had claws and nowhere to go.
Someone had hurt my Firefly!
I turned to the twins. "Look for clues. I want to know who the hell touched him!"
They didn't speak. They never did when I was like this. No one did.
Vincent stared towards the dumpsters while Valentine crouched low by the sidewalk. Her fingers swept through something I couldn't look at — Caleb's blood.
I didn't move. I couldn't.
Caleb…
He shouldn't have come here. If he hadn't, he would've been safe. Not hurt in an alley soaked with blood. Not on the edge of life and death while I was somewhere pretending I could protected him from afar.
I should've been there for him. Only, I wasn't and the guilt lodged itself within me like a needle breaking under my skin.
I've never hated myself like I do right now.
"Found something!" Valentine called out, her voice cutting through the silence.
She rushed to my side with the strange item and held it out and we all stared.
It was a Raven brooch — black and very familiar.
"This is from our school." Valentine grimaced.
"Silvermist Academy," I said already knowing the answer. "A vampire did this."
Of course.
"Damian..." Brynn interrupted.
I pressed my finger to my earpiece. "What is it?"
"You need to get back. Now."
"Why?"
A beat of silence followed. Then —
"Caleb's having a seizure. He…"
I blurred out the rest of her words because the next thing I knew, I was flying again.
In less than 10 minutes, I was in the hotel.
I didn't stop. Didn't slow.
Ernest and the other fairies called my name, asking questions I had no intention of answering but I ignored them all. My focus was only on the door at the end of the hallway.
Caleb was in there and no was stopping me from seeing him.
Well, not until someone did.
Dominic.
He stood in front of the room, his jaw set and arms crossed like a goddamn bouncer.
"Caleb's fine." He said, voice clipped.
I didn't care. "Move."
"No."
"Wrong answer." Steel slid into my voice as I growled at him.
"You don't get to act like you care now!" He snapped. "You weren't there when he needed you."
I heard the words. Felt them. Let them sit on my skin like acid but I didn't respond.
Dominic, on the other hand, didn't stop. "You think showing up now erases the fact that Caleb almost died because of you?!"
Valentine stepped forward. "Dom, stop!"
"Don't blame Damian!" Vincent cut in.
"Yeah. Vince's right," Brynn said. "You don't know what the hell happened."
Even Ernest and the Fairies spoke but he wasn't listening. None of it mattered to me anyways. I wasn't going to argue with him. Wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"I'll find out who did this to Caleb," I said, breaking through the argument. "And when I did, they won't get the chance to hurt anyone else."
Dominic thought hard for a second before stepping up. "I'm coming with you."
"No. We're done here."
"I need to find who did this to Caleb and so do you. Two heads are better than one."
"Fine," I agreed. "But after this, we're finished."
"Same goes." He said.
We didn't shake on it.
We didn't need to.
Back at the alley, I walked Dominic through what we found.
"A vampire from school." I said.
Dominic frowned. "Aren't you sure it's one of your people?"
Before I could give a harsh retort, a faint sound interrupted me.
When we both turned, a shadow dashed down the street in warp speed.
They were heading for a pawn shop.
"Dominic!" I called out.
Without a word, Dominic moved first. Water flooded the street in a wave that turned to ice. It wrapped around the figure's legs, trapping them just before they could disappear.
"Good job." I said, leaping forward to reach them but they shattered through the ice and vanished into the shop.
I followed, fast.
Dominic melted the ice with a flick of his hand and stepped in after me.
A man stood behind the counter looking as if we hadn't just chased someone through someone through the damn door.
"Did you see anyone come in?" Dominic asked.
The middle-aged blonde blinked. "No. Are you here to pawn something?"
"No," I said taking a step forward. "Unless you pawn lives."
He blinked. "What?"
I didn't answer. I shoved him against the wall, hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs.
"Damian!" Dominic hissed.
"Show your true form!" I said to the man, ignoring him.
Dominic's confusion was palpable, but I didn't owe him an explanation.
The man… laughed.
"So, you're one of them." He said.
"I'm not here to talk about me," I tightened my grip around his throat. "Show your true form."
The man shifted. Light bent and shimmered and then he wasn't a man anymore.
He was a Fairy.
Dominic scoffed. "What the hell…"
"You ran when you saw us in the alley," I said to the Fairy. "Why?"
"I thought you saw me. I panicked." He smiled.
"Liar." I hissed. "Dominic!"
Dominic raised a hand and pulled water from a nearby glass, hardening it into a jagged blade of ice that hovered near the Fairy's throat.
The Fairy tensed. "Didn't think I'd ever seen a vampire and a mermaid working together."
"Talk!" Dominic barked.
"Hard to do with the vampire choking me."
I released him. Just enough.
"Talk." Dominic repeated.
He coughed, catching his breath, then said. "The cameras. My security cams caught what happened in the alley."
My jaw clenched. "Show us. No more games. No more lies. Or I'll kill you."
"Fine. I'll show you."
The footage flickered to life with a sharp click of keys. It was grainy and dark but just enough to see the shape of him. Of Caleb shoved against the alley wall, hard enough that the impact echoed even through the low-quality audio.
He cried out.
I didn't move, but I felt everything. Felt every goddamn hit as if it landed on my own skin. My fingers curled into fists so tight, my nails bit through flesh. I welcomed the pain. It was the only thing keeping me from snapping the monitor in two.
The shadow — the fucking bastard — kicked Caleb over and over and Caleb… he couldn't even fight back.
Dominic's fists clenched beside me. I heard it, the creak of bone under pressure. He was angry too. I could feel it in the subtle shift in his breathing.
"Zoom in," he said suddenly, pointing at the screen.
The image shifted, but it was still too damn blurry.
"Zoom in more!" I snapped.
The fairy hesistated. "I can't. That's the clearest it gets —"
"Then I'll find Sharon and Lilly," I said, eyes locking on his. "and kill them both."
He froze, fear flickering across his face. "How do you know the names of my wife and daughter?"
"You don't ask the questions here," I said simply. "Zoom. It. In."
His lips pressed into a line, and he worked the keyboard again, fingers trembling again.
The image sharpened slightly. It wasn't much but it was enough.
"Play it again." I ordered.
He did and this time, we caught it.
The back of the attacker's head — closed shaved, a buzzcut that gleamed faintly under the streetlight.
Dominic leaned forward, squinting. "That could be any vampire."
Not quite.
He didn't know their faces like I did.
But I remembered.
A flash of pink hair. Caleb talking in the class last week, seated between a girl with candy-striped hair and another boy with a buzzcut.
My jaw locked.
And then I stood.
"I know where to find the fucker."
"Who?" Dominic turned to me.
I didn't hesistate. "James Reverend."