•Bombing•
Aphrena, Hayley and Eve are in their shack, where Eve is helping Hayley prepare for giving birth. Aphrena has already been through the preparations and knew what to do so she decided to stay and help Eve give comfort to her sister who was sorta freaking out.
"That's it. Inhale and release," Eve said softly.
"I guess this means no epidural, huh? You sure I can't do this thing in, say, a hospital? The place with the doctors and the drugs?"
"That's what I asked," Aphrena told Hayley with a shake of her head.
"Honey, the werewolves have been having babies out here since before either of you were born. Stop worrying."
"Okay. Then what, Eve? I don't even know what it's like to have a mother, let alone be one."
"Trust me, when the time comes, you'll know exactly what to do."
"Believe in your self," the doppelgänger said with an encouraging smile. "We're strong we can do it."
"I hope so. As fun as it is to image Klaus changing dirty diapers, I'm pretty sure that I'll be doing this alone."
"I somehow doubt that." Eve admitted.
"Pardon the interruption." Elijah says from the doorway. "I wonder if I might have a quick word with the conspirators of a supposed uprising."
•••
Elijah meets with Jackson and Oliver, along with Eve, Aphrena, and Hayley.
"You're making a grave mistake," the Original says.
"So, you're just worried about us. Is that it?"
"Look, Elijah." Jackson starts with a calm voice. "We know all about your brother's reputation, but if there is even a chance that these rings can help us take control of our curse -"
Oliver interrupts him not liking the way Jack talked about the wolf gene. "-Our gift -"
"-Then, honestly, we don't care what he's really after. Won't have to." The curly headed werewolf finishes.
"I see. There are those in the Quarter who will consider this a great provocation."
"Apparently, most of them see us breathing the same way." Even if she didn't like him she did agree with that.
Elijah looked to the twins with a pleading look. "You signed a pledge, and you looked me in the eye as you did so."
"We aren't trying to start a fight, Elijah. That's not what we want. We just want a better life."
"Allegiance with my brother will guarantee you anything but that." The oldest alive Original argued.
The sound of a motorbike approaching sounded and cut their argument short to go see who it is.
"What the hell?" Jackson asked confused.
Outside, a man on a motorbike rides into the encampment and stops as the group approach him.
"Which one of you is in charge?" The human asked glancing at all of them.
"Who's asking?" Jackson asked.
Elijah notices something off about the man, and reflexively tackles him, just as the motorbike explodes.
Everyone near the vicinity was thrown backwards in the blast.
Everyone cried out as they hit something.
Elijah picks himself up off the ground and looks down to see his clothes and skin are all singed and covered in ash. It takes a moment for Elijah's ears to heal enough to hear anything. He sees injured people all around him stumbling around, including Jackson, Oliver, Hayley, and Aphrena.
"Hayley, are you okay?" Aphrena asks her sister worriedly.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." Hayley gets up quickly and runs over to where everyone else is with her sister behind her.
Aphrena notices a little girl laying on the ground near a home and she rushes over. She listens for a heartbeat and when she hears one she sighs in relief and looks around before biting her wrist and using it to heal the girl faster. The girl starts coughing and Aphrena helps her sit up.
Aphrena pats the girls hair down and smiles down at her. The young blonde looked at her with wide eyes not knowing who she was. "Are you okay sweetheart?"
"My head hurts a little." The girl admitted. "Who are you?"
"Well my names Aphrena and I'm here to help. Now, do you think you can stand? Or do you want help?" She asked as she rubbed her thumb in circles on the girls back.
"Help." Aphrena scooted away and grabbed the girls hands to help hoist her up. Aphrena was going to let go when the young girl stumbled and fell into her arms.
Aphrena brought the girl closer and for the girl on her back. The blonde wrapped her arms around the doppelgängers neck as she grabbed onto her feet to help keep her up. "I got you."
She finds Jackson. "She's sleeping and I don't know who her parents are."
"I can take her." Jackson smiles at her and she turns around for Jackson to take the child off her.
Aphrena felt the tiny girl's hands slid from around her neck and her weight being lifted so she let go of her legs and turned around to see the girl now clutching onto Jackson's front. "Thanks Jack."
"No problem." Aphrena turned around when Jackson started to walk off and she eventually found her way back to see Oliver flip a trash can.
"Oh! Argh! Vampires. They don't even have the guts to do their own dirty work themselves. I mean, why bother when you can just compel some poor son-of-a-bitch to do it for you? I say we hit them back! Hard."
Hayley pushes him against a shack. "Stay here, Oliver. I need you to look after everyone until me and my sister get back."
"Where the hell are you two going?"
"If this was vampires, I'm pretty sure that I can guess who gave the order." Hayley glances back at her sister before saying, "I'm gonna go find Marcel."
She grabs a tree branch from the ground and breaks it into two stakes and throws one to her sister before the two headed out.
•••
Aphrena drives across the river, where Marcel is currently living, and calls Elijah to assure him that both her and Hayley were just fine.
"Aphrena."
"We have to take care of something. We'll be back as soon as we can."
"Where are you?"
Aphrena sighed softly at the sound of his worried voice. "Elijah, I'm fine. Just take care of the pack while we're gone, please?"
The doppelgänger hangs up on Elijah. As he shuts his phone off Elijah sees Jackson walking up to him.
"Are they okay?"
"Apparently, yes."
"It's a good thing that bomb went off where it did," Jackson said slightly relieved. "Could've been a lot worse. We all could've got killed."
The two walk where the entirety of the Bayou wolves have congregated after the explosion, tending to the wounded and dead. Elijah considers Jackson's words for a minute, and his eyes grow wide in panic as he realizes something.
"Unless..." He notices a bomb planted under an RV nearby. "Get everyone out of here! Now!" Eight different explosions go off from various points in the encampments, damaging numerous people.
Just as Elijah begins tending to the newly injured, another explosion, this one much larger, goes off right behind him, so he dives over a man to protect him.
•••
Aphrena and Hayley barge into the hideout where Diego and the other vampires have been hanging out.
"You done got some nerve coming up in here."
Aphrena knocks Diego flat on his back, and he jumps back up and growls at at the two girls. Aphrena pushes him up against a wall and shoves a stake into his chest, just missing his heart. Hayley stands back satisfied with the way Aphrena is handling him.
"Someone attacked my pack in the Bayou this morning," Aphrena grits out angrily. "And since I don't see any actual smart people around here... Why don't you just tell me where Marcel is, and we can both get on with our day, huh?"
Diego groans and fights against her but she is way angrier then him and doesn't budge. The image of that hurt girl flashes in her mind and she can't help but dig the stake a little deeper causing him to grunt in pain.
"You think I'm playing?" She snarls. "There were families out there. Small children. Children Diego!"
Diego looked saddened at hearing those words. He thought back to his family and felt guilty. "He used to keep a place. 1917 Patterson. If he's still around, he'll be there." She rips the stake out of his chest harshly before she leaves with her sister.
•••
Hayley calls Klaus as the twins walk over to where Marcel is staying.
"Klaus, where are you?"
"His wrath burns against you, demon." Kieran's voice was heard in the background.
"I'm in a bit of a situation here, love."
"Somebody sent a suicide bomber out to the Bayou this morning."
"What? Where are you and Aphrena?"
"We're in the city now. We are both fine. I figured an attack like that must have been Marcel. He's hated the wolves for years, and after that stunt he pulled with the witches... So, I tracked him down. Thought you might like to help kick his ass for trying to blow us to kingdom come."
"Would you get him out of here now, please?" Klaus asks Josh on the other end. "Make sure he remembers nothing." He then speaks to his soulmate. "Hey, listen. I assure you, once I am finished here, you will have my undivided attention. In the meantime, please stay out of trouble."
Hayley shared a look with Aphrena and the older twin could tell Hayley was pissed with Niklaus and his answer. "You don't have to worry. Elijah is with us."
•••
Aphrena and Hayley barges into Marcel's new apartment. Marcel seems to be expecting them.
"Come on in. Have a seat. I'd offer you guys a drink, but..." He gestures to their baby bump.
"Sweet pad," Hayley says looking around while Aphrena keeps a heated glare on him.
"Oh, it's just temporary. Friend hooked me up. Believe it or not, I still got a few of those kicking around. I need friends to keep me informed, to warn me when someone is coming looking to blame me for things that I didn't do." He smiles. "For the record, you didn't have to work Diego like that. We're are long overdue for a chat."
"You want to talk? Then talk."
"Tough girls. You're a lot like your dad in that way." Aphrena and Hayley look at each other with slight surprised expressions before looking back at him. "Oh, yeah. I knew him. I knew your whole family. In fact, if you knew them like I did, you'd know just how many enemies they have. Back in the nineties, it was the Crescent wolves who took over the city. Or, tried to. They lived to throw down, and they were good at it, too. They didn't care who they killed as long as they got more power."
"So the Crescent curse was your way of stopping them? How heroic." Hayley says sarcastically.
"It was either that or kill them all, and I'm not big on indiscriminate slaughter. See, I have this thing about kids."
"So I've heard," Hayley says.
Marcel smirks. "Oh, you did more than hear about it, Andréa And Aleah Labonair. You both are living proof."
"How long have you known who I am?" Aphrena asked with a a certain look. It was look that said she was hurt he never said anything to her, mad he never said anything about wolves, sad she could have gotten to know them a lot sooner.
"Listen. I didn't know what pack you belonged to so that is why I didn't say anything but then Hayley showed up and I saw how interested you both were in those Crescents. After your little family reunion out at the old plantation house, I started to put two and two together."
"Tell me something, Marcel," Hayley said. "Did you kill our parents?"
"There was in-fighting among the wolves. Your folks were laying low. Somebody turned on them. I honestly don't know who. I got there afterwards, found you clutching each other in your cribs."
"Give me one good reason why I should believe anything that you have to say."
"Believe whatever you want, but you two were the last Labonairs. I mean, could've been a lot of leverage for our side, but instead, I helped your mother Christine get away with you two."
Marcel pulls out a duffle bag and hands it to Aphrena.
"What's that?" Hayley asked eyeing the bag in her sisters hands.
"Money, mostly. Stuff you need to start over someplace safe. Whatever happened in the Bayou, I'm not your guy." Marcel tells the two. "But, the way things are going? Eventually, I might have to be."
"So this is your grand plan?" Aphrena asked looking up at Marcel. "Get us out of town, and Klaus and Elijah follow closely behind?"
"I can't say that wouldn't be a positive side effect." Marcel admits.
"So why don't you leave?" Hayley asked. "Follow your own advice?"
"I was born here." He answered.
"So were we," Aphrena said defiantly.
Aphrena and Hayley get up and goes to leave but before they can walk out the door, Marcel stops them.
"Guy on the bike?" He asks. "The bomber? Word is, he had a gambling problem. Owed money to the casinos--more importantly, to the humans who run them. And Aphrena? When things get bad, remember, I tried to get you both clear of it again."
•••
Outside, a bonfire burns as Oliver is passionately trying to convince everyone to fight back against the vampires, using his manufactured stunt. Elijah watches him speak as Aphrena and Hayley join at his side.
"They are counting on our doubts," Oliver said to the crowd. "That's right! Yeah! They are counting on our fears! That's right! Right!"
"You stayed." Aphrena smiles at her mate and subtly linked her hands with his which caused his lip to twitch upwards.
"Come morning, they will know that we are not cowards." Oliver announces.
Hayley looks at Elijah with a confused expression. "What's going on? What is he doing?"
"We are not afraid!" He calls out to the crowd.
"He's making a move for power in the wake of tragedy. He's not alone. There was another attack after you both left." Elijah informs the two and Aphrena felt like her heart dropped.
"What?" Aphrena asked as her mouth drops slightly and she clutches into his hand tighter which he doesn't mind and squeezes her hand back.
Hayley rushes into the shack and Aphrena lets go of Elijah's hand to follow. She enters and sees Jackson is sitting with Eve's dead body, devastated.
"Your friend Jackson will need your help. They will want vengeance. Blood for blood. And, unfortunately, in troubled times, people do not look for the best. But rather the loudest."
"Hey! Hey!" Oliver shouts out to the crowd.
As Hayley gets up from Eve's side Aphrena replaces her and sheds a tear. She brushes it away and tries to be strong. Eve grew on her and it was devastating to see her dead. But she looked painless, she looked peaceful, the wolf hoped she found peace wherever she was. She kissed Eve's forehead before glancing at Jackson giving him a sad smile.
"Good night Aphrena," Jackson said as she started to walk out.
Aphrena paused at the door before muttering a, "goodnight Jack."
"Look, I know where I'm going. If any of you want to follow, hey, that's up to you. That's up to you!"
I'm sooooo very sorry for not updating. But here it is.
And I have a book. Wolf Queen. It is better written and I hope you can check that one out as well.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top