"Blake." Cleo said, "Cleo I already packed the guns." I said, "I know, I have another weapon for you. Think of it as one last gift from your uncle." Cleo said as she handed me a ring shaped like a serpent with a strange green jewel in its mouth. "Cleo, what is this?" I asked, "That is a blade made of elven and fairy magics to form a blade. A blade that can kill almost anything; the Basilisk's Blade." Cleo said, "Now be warned this only has enough venom left in it for two maybe three uses before its nothing more than a big bone shaped like a sword." Cleo said, "Thank you, Cleo. This is amazing." I said as I put the ring in my pocket, "Alrighty then off we pop to Kansas." Terra mocked, "Terra my love, do not mock Mummy." Marie said, "Blake dearest how are you holding up?" Marie asked, "I'll be alright as soon as aunt Skyler is safe." I said. "Hey, Blake can I talk to you alone for a bit?" Terra asked, "Yeah sure." I said as we walked upstairs and into her room, "Blake baby maybe we should tell Mom and Cleo about us I mean we'll be stuck in a car with them for the next ten plus hours. It might make things just a bit awkward." Terra said as she wrapped her arms around my neck, "We will don't worry I promise we will, but now's not the best time." I said, "You're right I'm sorry." Terra said as she kissed me, "BUT you are so lucky you've got the greatest girlfriend in the entire world cause I found out what we're hunting. Come on I'll tell you what it is in the car." Terra said as we walked downstairs and out to the car, "We are hunting shapeshifters." Terra said as Cleo backed the car out onto the street, "How can you be certain?" I asked, "Well the MO is right. They kidnap and then rape their victims usually it's during their mating seasons." Terra said, "Ok but we're not going to kill anyone." I said, "Blake sweetheart shifters aren't like other monsters. They're hated by practically every other species. You see a very long time ago there was a treaty formed between the monster species a nonaggression pact written and signed in the blood of the representatives of each species. Every representative signed it apart from the shifters and the humans due to the lack of representation. The shifters had their chance and squandered it so if you have reason to kill a shifter there will always be someone to back you up and you will hardly ever face any serious punishment thanks in part to one of the representatives." Marie said, "Which representative?" I asked, "The demon's of course, but you may know him better as Lucifer, lovely bloke you really should meet him someday. And before you ask yes the devil does, in fact, wear Prada." Marie said.

<twelve hours later>

"Ok well, where do we start?" I asked, "We start by finding a hotel darling. It's three in the morning, we are all exhausted. Now I don't think that a few hours of us sleeping will do any harm." Marie said, "I guess you're right." I said, "Blake we get where you're coming from. Honestly, I'm surprised that you're handling this as well as you are." Cleo said, "Oh, believe me, I am freaking out, I've just gotten really good at hiding how I really feel." I said, "Well then we should talk about our rooming situation. Cleo and Terra you girls will share one room, and Blake and I will share another." Marie said as we pulled into a four-star hotel parking lot, "Mom no Blake deserves his own room." Terra said, "No Blake shouldn't be alone right now." Marie said, "It'll be fine Terra. It's just for one night." I said as we walked into the hotel, "Hello we would like two rooms, please." Marie said, "Alright that will be two hundred per night per room." The receptionist said as Marie handed her, her card, "Ok and we're all set! Oh looks like there's only one room with two beds and looks like the only other room we have available is the honeymoon suite. We'll give you both rooms for a hundred per night for both. We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience." The receptionist said as she handed us our room keys, "Well this is just great." I said, "Oh believe me darling tonight will be very educational for the both of us." Marie said as we walked to the elevator.

"So Blake darling would you be a doll and answer a few questions for Mummy?" Marie said, "Sure?" I said, "How long have you been dating my daughter?" Marie asked as she walked out of the bathroom in a semi-seethrough nightgown, "I uh um, I." I muttered, "Oh, they're just breasts darling nothing you haven't seen before. Now back on track." Marie said, "N-not long, w-we started dating around the same time we hooked up." I said, "Do you love her?" Marie asked, "Yeah, I mean it's still really early in the relationship but yeah. Terra's just the best I don't know how else to put it." I said, "That's good. You may sleep in the bed tonight." Marie said as she got into bed, "Come on darling It's late and we have a long day ahead of us and your poor poor aunt needs you at your best." Marie said, "Alright I'm coming." I said, "Oh and bake sweetheart be a dear and shut the lights off." Marie said as I shut off the lights and got into bed.

"Good morning Blake." Cleo said as she handed me a cup of coffee, "Morning." I said, "How did you know how I take my coffee?" I asked, "Cause I made it baby." Terra said as she kissed my cheek, "I told Cleo last night sorry baby." Terra said, "Well don't feel too bad cause apparently your mom knew this entire time." I said, "Not the entire time, I had my suspicions after I learned that you two shagged but apart from that I was completely in the darl love." Marie said, "Now here's how we'll deal with the shifters, it's very simple actually." Marie said as she put two shotgun shells on the table, "One in the head, one in the heart." Marie said, "Anything other than that and they will regenerate." Marie said as she took a sip of her coffee, "Alright and how will I know if I see one?" I asked, "The eyes, they turn a milky white under certain light or when filtered through certain light filtering glasses." Terra said as she put on a pair of glasses, "I know I look amazing in these. But they're just for us Mom and Cleo don't need them since they can change the spectrum of light they can see." Terra said, "Yeah that might be true but damn does it come with some pretty annoying drawbacks!" Cleo complained, "Alternate light spectrum hangovers not fun." Terra whispered as she kissed my cheek, "Ok you two, tone down the PDA." Marie said, "Just because your secret's out doesn't mean you have to make us suffer through the honeymoon phase of your relationship." Cleo said, "You're just bitter because you're still single and your baby sister is happily in a relationship." Terra said, "Bite me." Cleo said, "I'll think about it." Terra said, "Alright girls that's enough. Now we shall split up, Cleo and I will pair up, and Blake and Terra you two will pair up. Now I want you two to stay together, do not under any circumstances split up." Marie said, "Yes Mom." Terra and I said sarcastically, "Good now off we pop." Marie said.

"You look good in glasses." Terra said, "Terra over there. I see a shifter." I said, "Ok well let's follow it back to their little hidey-hole and kill the entire infestation." Terra said, "We are so going to prison for this." I said, "No I'm confident we won't." Terra said as she gave me a quick peck on the cheek, "Now let's get something to eat I'm starving." Terra said, "As you wish." I said, "Mom made you watch Princess Bride didn't she?" Terra said, "It's a very good movie." I said, "Well I'm more than happy to be Buttercup so long as you're my Westley." Terra said as we walked to a nearby restaurant to get breakfast.

At around midnight Terra, Cleo, and I all met up at some old cabin out in the middle of nowhere, "Are you two ready?" Cleo asked, "As we'll ever be." I said, "Wait where's Mom?!" Terra asked, "I don't know. She refused to come anywhere near here." Cleo said, suddenly a woman began screaming from inside, "AUNT SKYLER!" I shouted as I burst into the cabin only to find myself inside an enormous cavern, "No wonder Mom didn't want to come here, this is one of the seals and a very powerful one at that!" Cleo said, "Which means I was wrong, this isn't for mating. They're going to break the seal!" Terra said, "Wait are you saying they're going to sacrifice my aunt?!" I said, "No not just your aunt, hundreds of other women as well." Cleo said as she shone a light into a nearby corner revealing several skeletons, "They must have been doing this for a century at least! It takes thousands of souls to break a seal without the key." Terra said, "Key?" I said, "It's an item made from the seal when it was created. The keys were scattered all over the world, it's rare to find one and even rarer to find the one for a specific seal." Terra said, "But I don't get it, why would they want your aunt? It takes a very specific type of soul to break any seal." Cleo said, "Oh yeah and what might that be?" I asked, "The soul of a virgin." Cleo said, "I'm ending this!" I said as I ran out and shot one of the shifters in the head, "B-Blake?!" Aunt Skyler said in shock, "WELL! Who's next?" I said, suddenly several shifters ran at me only to be shot in the head or in the heart. I eventually made it over to the wall Aunt Skyler was chained to, "Blake what are you doing here?!" Aunt Skyler asked in shock, "Saving you!" I said as Cleo and Terra joined me, "Just go! There's no reason for you all to die here!" Aunt Skyler said as Terra shot the last shifter, "Alright, well let's get you down." I said as I unchained my aunt, "Hi, I'm Terra I'm kinda your nephew's girlfriend." Terra said as she helped me support Aunt Skyler, "Blake, good job. I knew you'd find a good one." Aunt Skyler said, suddenly as we were leaving the seal broke and the wall opened and a woman walked out, she had long blonde hair, a slender figure, and silver eyes. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was a supermodel or something. "What the Hell?" I said, "Hello my dear sweet Blake." The woman said as Cleo took my place supporting Aunt Skyler, "Terra, you and Cleo get Aunt Skyler out of here. I can handle this." I said as I put on the ring Cleo gave me suddenly it transformed into a silver sword with a large green jewel in the center replacing the guard. "Blake please be careful." Terra said before they left, "Alright, who are you?" I said, "And may I say it's that you have clothes on, unlike the last one of you generals I fought." I said, "Oh so I'm not the first then, interesting." The woman said, "Oh put that away I'm not going to fight you." The woman said as the cavern transformed into a large outdoor open-air gazebo, the sky was blue and it appeared to be almost noon or early morning. There was a crystal clear lake off in the distance, "Come have a seat, my dear." The woman said, I returned sword into its ring form and put it back into my pocket, "We're not in Kansas anymore are we?" I said, "We are, tell me, Blake, how familiar are you with the laws of reality?" The woman asked, "Oh so it's magic got it." I said, "To put it rather bluntly yes it's magic." The woman said as a table with a tray of small cakes and two cups of tea appeared between us, "Oh I'm sorry I never introduced myself did I. How terribly rude of me, my name is Oberon." Oberon said as she took a sip of her tea, "Feel free to eat whatever you wish." Oberon said, "How do I know it's not poisoned?" I said, "Because you're more valuable to me alive my dear." Oberon said, "How do you know who I am?" I asked, "Oh I know many things thanks to my seal being weakened for a moment three centuries ago, and in that moment I cast a simple yet effective observation spell. I could see and hear everything and might I say I am very disappointed." Oberon said, "I'm disappointed in humanity as a whole, but you Blake Grey you, you're different. You could have easily killed Ilia but you didn't and for that I thank you. Ilia was a dear friend of mine. You've peeked my interests multiple times in the past so I decided to watch you and see what kind of man you would become. I am proud to say that you have exceeded my expectations up to this point." Oberon said, "Thanks?" I said in confusion, "Oh my dear sweet Blake there's nothing to be confused about. To put it bluntly, I like you. When I look at you I see a scared little child." Oberon said, "What is it with you and Marie thinking of me as a kid?!" I said, "Ah yes Marie, the woman who married a demon and adopted two children. She cares for you as if you were her own child, I would not take that lightly if I were you. While she is still young she is very strong." Oberon said, "As for me I do see you as a child because compared to me practically everything is still a child. But I will admit I do feel that I must protect you like how a mother protects her child." Oberon said, "And it is because of these feelings that I have decided to give you two gifts." Oberon said as she stood up and walked around the table over to me, "Now I must warn you this will hurt." Oberon said as she put her hands on my chest and the back of my head, suddenly my entire body felt like it was burning. With each passing second, the sensation became more and more intense until it stopped. "There all done." Oberon said, "W-what did you do to me?!" I asked as I struggled to catch my breath, "You should be honored, you are the only person in this or any word who has received my crest. That very crest has been engraved upon your soul." Oberon said, "This means that I have not only accepted you as a part of my house but as my equal. Now just because I've accepted you don't assume that I will always be there to save you. Oh and this will also allow you to use the magic of fairies that are close to you." Oberon said, "Now for my second gift." Oberon said as she sat a strange dagger on the table as she took her seat, "This is the key to a prison containing a very powerful monster, however, I am unaware as to which monster it is." Oberon said, "Where's the prison?" I asked, "Egypt. Now it's time for you to go, Skyler's beginning to worry and Terra thinks you're cheating." Oberon said, "I trust you'll be a good boy and won't make mommy do too much work now will you?" Oberon said, "So does this mean we're allies?" I asked, "No we are not allies, we are family now." Oberon said, "Alright, but before I go what's this thing made of?" I asked as I held up the dagger, "It is made from magic born of darkness. I know what you're thinking and sadly it is impossible to replicate a key, believe me, I've tried." Oberon said, "Now good luck on your journey Blake." Oberon said as she snapped her fingers sending me away. "Blake?!" Terra said in shock, "Hey uh I'm back I guess." I said, "Where have you been?! It's been three days!" Terra said, "I was with Oberon." I said, "Wait, the king of the fairies that Oberon?!" Terra said, "Queen, but yeah she was the woman we set free in the cavern." I said, "Well we should go get some lunch. Later tonight Cleo and I are going to go visit Skyler." Terra said.

When we got to aunt Skyler's house it was just after nine-thirty, something didn't feel right. The air was stagnant and heavy, "Aunt Skyler?" I said, "B-Blake, run." Aunt Skyler said as I opened the door, "Well well well look who it is. Little Blakey boy." A man said from behind aunt Skyler, "D-Dad?" I said in shock, "Oh yeah that's right you hate your father, not that I blame you in the slightest after all he was a real son of a bitch." Dad said, suddenly his eyes turned a deep ominous black, "Maybe I should change into something a bit more, familiar. A bit more close to home perhaps." Dad said as his eyes returned to normal, suddenly his body turned completely black and then he changed. "Ah much better!" It said, "M-Mom?!" I said in shock and disbelief, "That's right! Here's Mommy!" It said, "Blake just run that's not your mother! Forget about me and save yourself!" Aunt Skyler said, "Quiet you." It said as aunt Skyler's shadow crawled up her legs and up to her mouth covering her mouth, "Now don't listen to her Blake. I am your mother, I can prove it to you if you want." It said, "Fine I'll bite prove it." I said, "When you were three you found a stray cat, it was black with white patches of fur on her chest, on the tips of her ears, on her back left paw, and on the tip of her tail. She had two different color eyes, the right eye was blue and the left was green. You called her Mittens, I fully intended on letting you keep her that is until she attacked you. She scratched your face and right arm, deep scratches. You still have a scar under your right arm." It said, "I also know that you wet the bed till you were six and refused to tell me when you had an accident. You would always blame it on dad. I pretended to believe you to spare your feelings, but one time it really was your father." It said, "And I know that on the night that I "died" you tried to run. You never made it out that front door. You saw my decapitated head and my heart only when the windigo tossed them on the floor in front of you in the kitchen. The police never found either of them. They also didn't find your father's body for another week. They never thought to look in the basement at the time." It said, "What are you getting at!" I said, "Oh I am fully taking credit for murdering him. When he came home the front door was wide open then when I started screaming he ran, he ran and hid in the basement fully prepared to let us both die. Sometimes I need to be reminded about what, who I am. And that means I need to be killed and watch my own death. the more brutal and gruesome the better." It said, "Oh yeah and who are you?" I asked, "Oh honey you wouldn't believe me if I told you." It said, "No really go on tell me I need a good laugh." I said, "I am the Darkness. If you don't believe me, please look for my birth records you won't find any. Amelia Rose Clover doesn't exist." It said, "T-the Darkness?! N-no you're not real!" Cleo said in shock, Terra just looked scared, "You there, the pretty blonde one, come here." It said as it beckoned for Terra to come over to it. Terra didn't take a step to walk to it, but somehow she was dragged over to it's side, "Hm you are just gorgeous! I mean that." It said, "YOU LEAVE HER ALONE!" I shouted as I put my ring on and my sword formed in my hands, "Blake." Terra said in fear, "Oh oh OH! You two aren't." It said I just looked at Terra, I could see the fear in her eyes, "YOU ARE!" It said excitedly as it forced Terra's shadow to wrap itself around her, "My baby landed himself a fine piece of ass!" It said as it slapped Terra's butt, "So what are you going to make me choose who lives and who dies?!" I asked, "What! Honey when has that ever worked for anyone? No, no choices. See if I'd give you a choice that would mean that I actually saw you as a threat. That I saw any of you as a threat. No, I'll do what I always do and do whatever I want." It said, "Now I didn't want to hurt anyone at first, then Skyler tried to kill me. Not that it would've done anything but it the principal of the thing ya know." It said as it walked in front of aunt Skyler and plunged its hand into her stomach. Aunt Skyler tried to cry out in pain but all she could do was cry as the monster pulled its hand out of her and removed the shadow from her mouth, "I really did love you Sky, you were my big sister, I looked up to you, idolized you! Well at the time I did whole-heartedly believe I was human." It said, "Blake baby say goodbye to your little girlfriend." It said, "Blake, do not give it what it wants! I love you, baby." Terra said before the Darkness snapped its fingers and Terra's shadow completely swallowed her and then she was gone, "TERRA!" Cleo cried, "YOU BITCH!" I yelled as I stabbed the Darkness through the heart, "Oh honey, did you really think that would work?" It said as I pulled my blade out of it, "Now I'm not going to hold that against you. I mean with all that's going on." It said as it put its hand on my cheek, "Now let me make something clear alright." It said as it grabbed my chin, "That little twig of yours can't kill me got it. I've been here since before the dawn of time, God himself tried to kill me by creating light and he failed and then I killed him well as much as I could. So next time you want to try and kill Mommy think again." It said suddenly there was an immensely bright light and the Darkness vanished. "Blake are you alright?" Oberon asked as she caught me before I could fall, "B-Blake." Aunt Skyler said weakly, "I-I need you to listen to me, ok honey." Aunt Skyler said as she coughed up blood, "I-I need you to find Marie Sinclare, s-she's my half-sister and your new legal guardian." Aunt Skyler said, "I-I love you." Aunt Skyler said as her final breath escaped her, "No. No no no no no NO!" I said as I scrambled to her side, "O-Oberon y-you, you can do something, you can bring her back can't you?" I said, "I can't I'm sorry Blake, but I can't. I'm so sorry." Oberon said as she hugged me from behind as I began to cry silently, "I'm so terribly sorry it would appear that there were multiple hives I thought the woman you saved might have been a shifter." Marie said, "Where the Hell have you been!" I said angrily as I turned to face her, "Blake darling what...happened." Marie began to say until she saw the body, "Darling I am so so sorry." Marie said as she tried to hug me, "No, you should just give him some space." Oberon said as she stopped Marie, "I'm going to get her back. I'm going to save Terra." I said as I continued to cry, "Blake." Cleo said as she crawled over to me and hugged me as she cried.