AZA

Aza's neck killed.  In fact, her entire body ached horrendously.  Slowly, she came to realize that she was sitting up.  When did I fall asleep like this?  She thought drowsily.  Her eyes fluttered open, but it didn't really tell her where she was.  It was so dark.  There was a faint light in the corner of her eye.  Aza turned her head, which didn't help her stiff neck.  The light appeared to be coming from a small barred window.  What? Then the memory hit her like a sack of bricks.  Sophie!  Sophie and CJ betrayed us!

            Aza leapt to her feet, or at least tried to.  Her hands were chained behind her back, linking her to, she thought at first was the floor.  But when she tugged forward she heard someone grunt.  Aza fell back in surprise, feeling the other person's hands and back against her own.

            "Ow," said the voice.  "So, you're finally awake, I see."  They gave a sad chuckle.

            Aza tried to turn her head, which was still killing her.  "Kai?"  She gasped, barely making out the long silvery hair in the dim light.  She moved her head back.  "Where are we?  Where's everyone else?  Is everyone else alright?" 

            Kai sighed.  "Well, I would assume we are in a dungeon of sorts.  I have absolutely no idea where everyone else is, neither do I know if they are alright.  I'm sorry."

            Aza nodded, but then realized he couldn't see her.  "No, I get it."  She scanned the room, still trying to loosen her neck.  The pair of them were chained back to back in a small dark stone room.  "For some reason, though, I had thought dungeons had more bars."

            "Aza, are you alright?"  Kai asked softly.

            The skinny girl shrugged, making the chains jangle a bit.  "I'm not dead, which is pretty surprising to me."

            "Yes," Kai murmured.  "Aza, did Evabelle escape?"

            Aza closed her eyes, feeling a bit of tension slip away.  "Yeah, she made it out, though I think she's the only one."

            "That means we're probably bait."  Kai reasoned.  "But I doubt they're going to need all of us."

            Aza's eyes flashed open.  "If those things hurt any of my friends, I'll pound them to dust."  She began to tug at the chains again.

            "Ah," Kai winced. 

            Aza instantly stopped struggling.  "What's wrong?"

            "Oh, nothing really.  I think I just twisted my ankle."  He replied. 

            Aza doubted it was nothing.  She figured it had to be pretty tricky to really hurt a vampire.

            There was a long silence where the two of them sat.  Aza was mad, but she was also scared out of her mind.  Kai was hurt, and she had no idea where the others were.  Were they alive?  Were they being tortured?  She shivered.

            "I'm glad you see us as friends."  Kai cut in suddenly.

            Aza blinked.  "What?"

            "You're one of those people who has a hard time of trusting other people."  Kai replied.  "You do admittedly trust us with your life, but your heart is rather guarded.  To consider us friends, I'd say is a big step."

            Aza leaned back against Kai's back.  "Personally, I don't think I'm the only one who works that way."  She whispered.  "I am talking to the hermit."  She felt him shuffle uncomfortably.  "But you may be right." 

           There was another pause. "Aza, would it be alright if I asked you something a little personal?" Kai asked softly.

Aza was silent for a while, mulling over that simple question. Trust. That was something she had never had much of. And especially after she had just been betrayed by two people she had finally accepted, she really wasn't feeling it. Aza felt Kai shuffle again against her. Evabelle had said a long time ago, that she could never really get close to people unless she opened herself to them. But Evabelle had never pushed for any information, yet she was the one who had the most about Aza.

"You don't have to say yes." Kai suddenly spoke up again. "It's alright."

And it was those words that allowed Aza to reply. "You can as long as I get to ask something about you afterwards."

Kai had his own moment to consider it before he agreed. "Aza, when Calandra used the fovodroga on you during the training session, I didn't see how you were truly reacting. I did notice that you were acting odd, though. I thought you would be going at me full force, because that's just how you are, but you hesitated, you fell back. After Calandra told us what you did, you were angry and pale." Kai paused and shook his head. "My question is, what did you see? What did the mask turn into that had you so terrified?"

Aza struggled to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. She did her best to clear it and speak without her voice shaking. "For starters, you should know that I've never had good family experiences. My mom was the only one that cared for me. She gave me the little charm in my hair." She glanced at the little braid and caught sight of the little metal flower. "But she was sick and she couldn't be there all the time. Then my uncle, my mom's brother that I went to after my parents died, when I was around eight, never gave me the time of day." Aza closed her eyes, her mouth getting dryer and dryer.

"To answer your question, I saw a monster." Aza pushed the words past her lips in a nearly inaudible whisper. "I saw the monster that had the gall to call himself my dad. He...he--" She thought of the scar that ran along the bottom of her jaw, and the bruises around her mother's cold, pale neck. The bile began to rise in her throat as her eyes stung. Her whole body began to shake. For a split second she was back, kneeling at her mother's side, staring at the blank, dead eyes. "Mom! Mom wake up! MOM! P-PLEASE!" The young child's voice rose into hysterics as she shook the limp woman. Then the large drunken man grabbed the small eight-year-old and thrust her against an old dresser, where she hit the bottom of her chin and it began to bleed. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP YOU DEVIL CHILD!"

"Aza. Aza!" Kai's hands closed around Aza's, and she pulled herself from the nightmare. "Aza,

you don't have to tell me."

The small blonde girl closed her eyes again. There were tears on her cheeks, that hadn't been there a moment before. "I'm trying to trust," She whispered, cursing at the quiver in her voice. "But it's just so hard when your family is either a monster or person who doesn't give a crap for you."

Kai stroked Aza's hand until it opened, allowing him to slip his into hers. "I'm sorry Aza. I'm truly glad that you are trying to trust again. I can only guess that would be the fault of Evabelle. But it sounds to me like you never really had a family in the first place. Evabelle and your mother were your family, but maybe if you let us, we could be a part of it too."

Aza's eyes opened. She leaned her head against his back. "That sounds...good." She whispered. Considering that none of them had a good chance of living through this, having a family even if it was disjointed and a little broken here and there, for just a short while sounded better than the one she had known in the past. "Wait are you including Del and Tru?" Aza asked suspiciously.

Kai laughed. "If they agree to it. I think we all come from a somewhat rough background. Maybe they would like to be a part of a family that cares."

Aza desperately wanted to know about their rough backgrounds and what sort of crap they had been through, but she ended up asking Kai about his. "So, I've said my bit about me. I gave you some trust. Now it's your turn. Why are you and Gem staying at Calandra's instead of back at the Elven Isles?"

Kai took a deep painful breath. "Yes, well vampires and elves are soul enemies. Vampires are banned from the Isles." Aza could hear the longing in his tone.

"So you were banished." She whispered. "Did you even get to talk to your family before that?"

Aza caught sight of Kai shaking his head. "No, I didn't go back after it happened. My becoming a vampire was my own fault, and I knew I should bear it alone."

"You didn't even talk to your parents or anything?" Aza exclaimed. "How did Gem end up with you then?"

Kai took another shaky breath. "No, I was too ashamed to face them. Gem knew that I left and managed to run away and find me. I told her to go home, but things happened and, well...." He choked up a bit. "She ended up going blind, and refusing to go back....and-a-and sh-she made me t-take her...blood." He finished and curled forward, tugging on the chains that linked them.

Now it was Aza's turn to squeeze his hand. "Well sounds like she did the right thing to me." Aza paused, but when Kai said nothing, she asked. "Were your parents not kind either? I mean if they were so cruel as to reject you as a son because you became a vampi--"
"No!" Kai sat up again. "No, my parents were wonderful, kind, good people. I just couldn't find it in myself to disgrace them with my blunder."

Aza squeezed his hand again, and smiled even though he couldn't see her. "I'm definitely no expert on good parental figures. My mom was good to me, but she was very sick and slept quite a bit, but I always imagined if she was well and if my dad was as I thought dad's were supposed to be, that my parents would accept me and love me more than what others saw of me. I wrote a paper on what I thought a good parent was once. I wrote that the love they were supposed to have was unconditional and could last through any screw-up you made, and that it would never waver. Kai if you have those parents then they wouldn't care. They would still love you. They would want to see you." And for a moment Aza felt a little jealous.

Kai returned the squeeze. "Maybe." He murmured.

For the longest time yet, the two of them leaned against each other in the cold dark room, their hands still clasped within the other's. A family. A real family. Aza wondered if she would have just said the stuff she had if they weren't about to die. Evabelle. Since the two of them had become friends, Evabelle had been Aza's family. Evabelle had her mom and her brother that had in many ways had become a part of Aza's family too. Now there was Kai, Gem, Lucis, Calandra, and even in some ways Del and Tru too. Ever since her mother's death, her blood relatives had been no more than people that existed in her life. Her father, a creature that could burn in Hell for all she cared, and her uncle who was always too busy to care for his poor traumatized niece.

Aza closed her eyes against Kai back, and thought that it was all rather sad. But at least in these last moments she wasn't alone.       

EVABELLE

It had been a long, painfully awkward car ride.  Evabelle sat in the passenger's seat of the nice new truck that had been disguised to look older as better to blend in and not gain attention.  Next to her, Calandra stared determinedly ahead, her hands tight on the wheel. 

The mage had kept true to her promise and learned to drive.  It was a wonder how she had learned so fast.  It wouldn't surprise Evabelle in the slightest if Calandra had picked up the driving manual, read through it in one night, and had become a total expert with no experience required.  It just sounded like something Calandra would do.

As Evabelle had suspected, the mage had previously just used portals to get from place to place, but she did learn that Calandra went out into town more often then Evabelle would have thought. The beautiful sorceress bought food at grocery stores and clothes at Rue Twenty One just like any other woman. 

This car also happened to be magic like the busted suburban, but it was more well done.  Calandra had put some trick on it to make it jump over traffic without notice, as well as leap over the water separating the Sanctuary from the coast. 

The whole thing had rather stunned Evabelle, especially now that Calandra, no longer in her mage rob, but in a very stylish, human outfit, was driving to a place that Evabelle had begun to wonder if she would ever see again.

The trip was a lot shorter than it should have been, but it was still a rather silent one.  Evabelle hadn't known what to say after she had disclosed her plan.  So Etheldreda's your sister, huh?  It just didn't seem to be the most appropriate question to the already angry mage.

Finally they pulled up to the structure, and Evabelle found herself feeling a little clammy.  She stared up at the somewhat run-down apartment building, and struggled to swallow.  "Okay,"  She said slowly.  "Is it clear?"

Calandra peered through her leopard spotted sunglasses.  "It's mostly empty.  There are a few people on the upper floors, but the bottom two are mostly vacant." 

Evabelle closed her eyes.  "What about room 203?"

"Empty.  There's no one in there?"  Calandra replied.

Evabelle nodded.  Her mom would still be at work, and Chi would be staying at someone else's place most likely.  She opened her eyes and turned to look at Calandra.  "Do you really think this is going to work?"

Calandra removed her sunglass and shook her head, the long ruby hair cascading down in perfect waves.  "Don't start questioning yourself.  If your plan is going to work, you're going to have to sell it.  You have to be confident, so I suggest you start behaving like that now."

Evabelle nodded and forced herself out of the car.  Calandra stayed in the vehicle.  It was just a quick in and out that Evabelle could definitely handle.  If she couldn't, then they were most certainly screwed. 

Evabelle opened the door of the old McCarthy building and entered.  Instantly her eyes were drawn to the staircase leading up to the place she had recognized as her home since she could remember.  But she wrenched her gaze away and began to pad down the hallway leading to an old brown door.  The thing was as creaky as ever.  She leapt down the few steps into the hallway of storage rooms.  On the fourth door down, she stopped and pulled out a paper clip. 

Evabelle was not as good at picking locks as Aza, but her crazy friend had taught her the trick.  It took her a minute or two, but Evabelle heard the click and pushed open the door.  She flipped the switch and the creepy yellow light flickered to life shining on a room that looked as though it had been ransacked.

Evabelle stared.  The last time she had been in here, the room had been messy and a little all over the place with stuff, but now one of the tables had been knocked over, its contents were everywhere.  Many of the papers that had been pinned to the wall were now ripped to shreds along the floor as well. What had happened?

Cautiously, she entered feeling her stomach writhe with anxiety.  She glanced over at the wall she had last seen them.  Luckily, it appeared they had not been touched.  Evabelle went to them and once again traced her fingers along the cool metal.  "Does your uncle have some obsession with giant birds?"   It was so long ago, and yet it had been that very night that everything changed.  Evabelle shook her head.  How had she not realized it sooner?  Her eyes fell back down to the book with the scribbles.  She didn't even try to decipher what it said this time.  She knew exactly what it said.

A sharp inhale of breath sounded behind her, that normally would have made Evabelle jump, but for some reason it didn't faze her.  She looked up and turned to the doorway.  There he was.  The man that never turned up to any of Aza's performances when she had tried out the school play or when she had attempted choir.  The man that never even tried to come to her basketball games when she had been on the team.  The man that made Aza wait in the detention center until morning, when she tried to steal one of the teacher's cars, just to try and get the man to notice her.  The man with messy, fly-away hair and crooked glasses.  Matthew Kendall.

"Evabelle?"  He gasped.  "What are you doing here?"

Evabelle blinked at him.  "It was you.  It was you who told the Anahalians where to find me."

Mr. Kendall licked his lips.  "Ah, yes that was me."

Evabelle had never liked this man.  She had never hated him either.  But for so many years he had ignored his own family.  She didn't know whether she should be angry now that she knew for certain that he had told them.  "All this time you knew what I was, but you never told me."

Mr. Kendall swallowed.  "Well, I only found out for sure rather recently."

Evabelle shook her head, realizing that she didn't care about that, nor did she care that he had told the Anahalians where she was.  "I can't believe this is what was more important than Aza."

Mr. Kendall struggled to speak for a moment, his lips forming words, but there was no sound.  "No, she was importa--"

"No."  Evabelle cut him off.  "She is important.  She has always been important, but you never showed her that.  You never gave her the time of day.  All you cared about was all this."  She gestured around the raided room.  "You made all this more important than her and that's wrong."

The distracted man closed his eyes.  "When one discovers magic, one longs to learn more.  When I learned that all the fairytales were real, I just had to find out more."

Evabelle shook her head.  "You didn't have to.  You chose to.  You chose this over your own blood."

Mr. Kendall's eyes flashed open.  "But I was trying to be rid of it!  I realized what dangerous things I was getting myself into!  That's why I told them!  After you were gone, I thought, perhaps, I could live with Aza in peace, but she went with you.  She didn't stay."

Evabelle almost laughed.  "Of course she didn't stay.  That would mean being invisible, and no one deserves that.  Aza went with me because I've always been there.  I've always noticed her.  I never ignored her.  I'm always there."  For some reason her own words hit her.  I'm always there.

Her friend's uncle nodded.  "You're right."  He whispered.  "You're absolutely right."

Evabelle shook herself and turned back to the metal wings hanging on the wall.  She reached up and removed them from their hooks.  They were a little heavier than she expected, but she managed to fold them up and tuck them awkwardly under her arm.  Then she turned back to Mr. Kendall.  "Now, if you will excuse me, Sir, I've got to go be there for my friend." 

Mr. Kendall opened his mouth to say something, but once again he couldn't speak.  Finally he moved aside and allowed Evabelle to pass.

Evabelle hefted the wings into the back part of the truck, where Calandra sat.  "Will these do?"  She asked the mage.

Calandra glanced over them, spreading them out.  She arched an eyebrow.  "You were right.  That man did his homework.  These are almost perfect replicas."  Then the mage began to chant putting spells on the frame.

Evabelle sat in silence for a while.  Finally she asked.  "You turned the car invisible right?  If someone comes they won't be able to see us?"

Calandra nodded, and finished the one spell she was on.  "No one can see us."  She confirmed.  Then she glanced up at Evabelle.  "I never asked you.  There was a man that showed up, I saw.  I couldn't warn you.  What happened?"

Evabelle shook her head.  "Nothing important.  We don't need to worry."  She felt herself almost smile.

Calandra put her hands on her hips, shrewdly taking in Evabelle's out of place expression..  "Well, I wouldn't say nothing.  What happened?"

Evabelle blinked up at her, the afternoon sun shone on her like a spotlight.  "It's just...well, I realized something."  And for one insane moment Evabelle felt like she might be able to do this.  "I realized that I'm not useless."