Chapter 22

The Generation of Verity

Like three psychopaths we stood around the lifeless body of Kimiko staring at it. It was kind of incomprehensible for me to accept that she had twisted her head like that. Her spine was clearly broken and it just looked seriously messed up. I had seen a lot of disgusting things in my life, but this one probably took the cake.

"That's seriously messed up," Hugo said, making a face, voicing what we were all probably thinking.

Kostya nodded slowly, but then shook his head like he was realizing something and glared at me and Hugo. "Didn't I tell you guys to get out of here?"

I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "So you could get all the glory for capping the bitch? Nah ah."

"When did you get this powerful Kostyantyn?" Hugo asked, ignoring my quip.

Kostya sighed. "You weren't supposed to see it."

"When?" Hugo pressed.

"I've always been this powerful Hugo," Kostyantyn answered with a shrug. "I've just never shown it."

"Why?"

"Because I know what this much power means. I know what kind of threat it'll breed," the Succubus-slash-Mare-slash-wanna-be-one-fifth-part-of-a-boy-band said.

"Why aren't your parents using you?" Hugo wondered.

"Because they don't know. No one is going to know."

"You're dangerous," Hugo simply stated.

"I know. You keep telling me this all the time. Was I just dangerous before because I was stealing your girlfriend? Was the only thing you were seeing is no happily-ever-after for brooding-Hugo and that was all mean Kostyantyn's fault?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about."

Unfortunately, before I could start chanting to the two boys Sexual tension through the roof, MAKE OUT, MAKE OUT my cousin finally decided to make an appearance.

Pasha ran into the room and went straight towards me. "Oh my god Oksana, are you alright," he automatically wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. "Wait, is that a dead body?" he asked, backing up a bit from our embrace.

"Yep," I grinned.

My cousin narrowed his eyes at the three of us. "Who did this?"

"Technically, she did this to herself," Kostya said, pointing the corpse with his chin, "but let's say I did it."

"This is going to be fun to explain to people," Pasha groaned.

Kos-tiara grinned. "Your mess to clean up."

"Didn't you just say you're the one who did this?" my cousin whined.

"In the spirit of not cleaning up a mess, no, I didn't do it. She totally twisted her head herself. And I'm not being sarcastic, I'm a hundred percent serious. I might have pushed her a little bit towards it, but I didn't actually do it."

"Marvellous."

"Anyway, someone has to drive Oksana Matveyevna home while you guys play suprahuman cops," Kostya said.

"You'll still need to explain all of this later," Pasha replied, gesturing to the dead suprahuman on the ground.

"Aye aye Captain," Kostya said, saluting my cousin and then pushed my back with one fingertip, urging me to get out and go forward.

"Wait," I interjected, "Are we seriously going to just leave like that?"

"What? Did you want to keep on staring at the corpse all night long?"

I rolled my eyes. "Not particularly."

"There," he replied, did a stupid little bow and pushed my shoulder with one finger again, to turn me around and get me going.

I sighed. There was no point in arguing with him. And what exactly could I offer in the room aside from gagging sounds every time I looked at Kimiko's messed up head.

I suddenly thought about Yoan. He'd probably be devastated when he'd learn of her death. He totally had a crush on her. At school she never looked like the kind of creature that messed with people's head. She looked like a cute and fun girl.

How quickly that could change...

The party was still going on around us as we made our way outside. This kind of freaked me out. Were these people so used to stuff like this that a corpse in a bedroom wasn't important enough to stop partying? Or were they just that bored.

When we were finally outside of the house, under the starry sky I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder.

Unfortunately, there was also a voice in the back of my head that was still unsure whether all of this was real. Maybe Kimiko was still playing with my head. Maybe this was just an intricate game. It didn't feel like an illusion. It felt real. It was real. But I had been caught off guard earlier and I didn't want it to happen. I had to be ready for anything. Always. I'd been starting to let my guards down ever since I'd gotten here because my life was finally getting easy.

That was a mistake.

I had to assume that this could still be a trick.

"The illusions are really over. Kimiko's dead. I can even go back and stab her in the heart with a silver knife if that can comfort you," Kostyantyn said, bringing me out of my head.

I frowned. "Are you in my head?"

"Maybe just a little," he answered sheepishly. "Sorry, I sort of went in overdrive to find you. It should die down soon."

I let that pass and instead voiced something else that was bothering me while Kostyantyn unlocked the doors to his car and opened the passenger's door for me, "I thought I was fighting her all on my own. It sucks to think you were the one who saved my head."

"Oh, I just found you through your subconscious but I wasn't the one fighting her when she was playing mind tricks on you. I could sort of feel them but I didn't have any control over it. That was all you." He closed my door at that and walked around the car to the driver's side.

When he sat beside me I asked, "What?"

"All you," he told me with a grin and buckled his seatbelt.

"But... you told her that you had protected me."

"Well, I helped getting your head ready. I kicked her out from your dreams. I've shielded your head at night. But in that room, that was all you."

"Maybe I'm not that useless after all," I snorted. At the same time I was kind of giddy about that fact. I had actually been the one fighting her. I could hold up my own in this crazy suprahuman world. I wouldn't be just a dead weight dragging my family down.

Kostya looked at me, frowning. "I've never said you were useless."

I half smiled at him. "I know."

There never had been any kind of judgement coming from Kostyantyn. He was basically always there to support me. It was kind of strange. Speaking of strange..."How did you do it? Lifting her up without touching her? Do you have telekinesis powers?"

"I wasn't lifting her. She was lifting herself."

I frowned, confused. "What?"

"In her head she thought she was being wrapped in vines. They grew thorns," he seemed proud of himself admitting that.

"How powerful are you really Kostyantyn?" I asked softly.

He let out a short breath. "Too powerful..."

"Why have you been hiding it?"

Kostyantyn cleared his throat, twitched a bit in his chair. "Because it's easier to strike when people underestimate you. When they assume they're going to easily win. If people knew the extent of my powers I'd have a lot more people trying to find ways to murder me in my sleep."

I didn't say anything for a few minutes after that. I was trying to make sense of my thought. I was trying to understand what Kostyantyn had said meant.

Suddenly I remembered something. "Why did she call me princess?"

"I think she was talking to Hugo," Kostya smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously!"

"I don't know," he answered with a shrug.

"Are we related?" And f it wasn't because I was his sister, was it because she figured we'd end up together and that by being with Kostya I gained the princess title? This annoyed me. I shook the thought away.

Kostyatyn scoffed. "Don't worry, you're not. I would feel it right away. I can sense my kin."

Sense my kin? What a weirdo. "You've kind of been getting a little bit scarier and scarier today."

"Sorry."

We were quiet again until we finally parked in the drive way in front of my house.

"Do you want to come in? Help me explain what happen?" I wouldn't have said no to someone who actually understood what the hell had just happened.

He smiled at me reassuringly. "You'll be fine on your own."

I smiled back at him and then said, "Thank you for saving me." I didn't know why exactly but it felt important to say this, for him to know that I was actually grateful, that I wasn't taking what he had done for granted.

He tilted his head a bit, smile still on his lips. I wasn't sure what that expression was supposed to mean. "I didn't do much."

I was about to step out of his car but then I stopped and looked back at him. "Do you have some kind of GPS on me now? Can you always pinpoint where I am?"

"I have a general idea. Back at the party I couldn't find you anymore so I just started to look in all the rooms."

"It was sloppy of her to keep me here," I said, as an afterthought.

"I don't think it was planned, it felt like a last minute ditch effort."

"It just doesn't add up. She was careful when she was messing with my head," I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Crazy isn't supposed to make sense."

"Still feels wrong," I trailed.

My head was throbbing. This whole ordeal had taken its toll on me. Kostyantyn could probably see it in my eyes. "Go in. Get some rest. Maybe we both can sleep soundly tonight."

I smiled at him for that and he smiled back.

I looked at his car driving away until he disappeared through the trees. It felt like Kostyantyn was still keeping something from me. Had he looked tired all week because he'd been protecting my head at night? That's what made the most sense. Why hadn't he told me then? That I was still in danger all week. That the previously unknown foe hadn't been done with me.

I probably wouldn't find my answers just standing there so I headed inside the house.

The second I walked through the door my entire family sort of pounced on me like cats on a laser beam.

"What happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"What was it?"

"What did you do to anger it?"

"Did you bring back booze?"

My grandfather was the only one I deemed worthy enough for an answer. "No, I did not in fact bring back any booze grandfather dearest."

"Looks like now you're on my shit list kid," he joked.

Matvei automatically said, "Dad."

Grandpa ignored him. Instead he told me, "Pasha's father went to help out the boys to deal with the body." Fun to know. I wondered what they would do with it. That was probably something I would have to learn one day. A day that was definitely not today.

"What's going to happen now?" I asked.

"We'll try to identify her, know if she's part of a clan or a pack. Were you guys able to identify what took you? Pasha was sort of in a rush when he called."

"It was a kit-shit-something. A fox. A stupid fox who killed her own self instead of suffering Kostya's wrath."

"Kitsune," Grandpa corrected, "I dated one a while back when I was travelling through Japan. That was a spacey few weeks," he added with a goofy grin.

"You landed a fox.?" I teased.

"Totally."

"Usually they feed off some poor misguided boy, charming them, hypnotising them," my father reminded his father with a smug grin. I pinched my lips not to laugh. What that implied amused me. "Their power is a bit similar to Succubus actually. They're under their rule."

"So the fact that she's dead shouldn't be a problem?" I wondered out loud.

"Probably not. Even if people don't believe she killed herself, her death would be considered a royal judgement." Oh right, his Royal Highness.

"So here we are, once again indebted to Kostyantyn Brahe. Are you going to spit in his face again?" I asked my father.

"I'll thank him," he replied.

"You better."

"You child have no idea what that attack means," Grandmother Dearest said. She stayed up on the first few stairs leading up to the second floor probably so she could look taller and more menacing. Throw in a fan so her hair could blow in the wind and we would have had a presentation worthy of a super villain, ladies and gentleman.

I indulged her little power trip. "What does it mean?"

"It was an attack aimed at you. It put Kostyantyn in arms way. He might not be in trouble, but you are. You put his life at risks."

"He decided to help me, I didn't force him," I informed her.

I had this sudden urge to just go to sleep. It felt like sleeping would solve all my problems. Even if I had slept reasonably well this week, I still felt drained.

I was just fed up with the constant conflict. It exhausted me.

"I hope for all of our sakes that his people don't see you as a threat to their throne," and with that, grandmother dearest just waltzed up the stairs and away from us.

The award to grandmother of the year goes to... NOT THIS BITCH!

"Grandfather dearest," I started to say, looking at him.

Semyon interrupted me. "For some reason, that sounds good for me, but bad for your grandmother."

"Because it's true," I chuckled. "Either way. Get that homemade booze of yours out. I have a party to make up for."

"To the boozemobile!"