Fate's Path
Bound By Blood

I got inside and collapsed on the couch by my brother. He looked down at me. “You okay?” I barely opened my eyes to give him a tired smile.

“Honestly? I’m just tired of everyone babying me. I am a badass vampire-demon-magic-user. I can take care of myself!” I pump my fist in the air to emphasize my point. “So, the plan is to still get this asshole right? He messed with you, and that ain’t gonna slide. Besides, he seems to not be very fond of me.” I push myself up so I can sit with my back against the couch.

“Of course we are still going to get him! The only question is how?” He taps his chin, deep thought. I take this opportunity to pinch my arm. Chris jolts and covers his arm in the exactly same place I had pinched mine. “What the fuck?”

I burst out into laughter. “So he was right. We are bound.” I elbowed Chris. I felt myself being elbowed and jumped. “Jesus Christ!”

It was his turn to laugh. “Poor life choices, Fangsy.” I scoffed.

“Whatever, Rainbow Eyes.”

“Vampire.”

“Demon.”

“Red Eyes.”

“Jerk-face.”

Kiera walked into the room. “Apple!” We both looked at her with raised eyebrows. “What? I thought we were just saying random words.” Chris and I exchanged a look of amusement. We seemed to have the same idea.

“Hey, Kiera! Come here!” I beckoned her over and she slowly walked towards us. “Pixie!” I exclaimed, grabbing her wrists and pulling her down between us. We tickled her relentlessly and it wasn’t before long that she was out of breath from laughing too hard.

Connor walked in, he froze and stared at the writhing form of a girl, before speaking. “Chris? Could you assist me with something please?”

Chris stopped tickling Kiera. “Sure.” Then he jogged out of the room after Connor.

We watched them go then look at each other and shrugged. “What now?” I ask.

“I dunno. Do you want to go makes potions with Responsum? He might be able to tell you how to make Repellere.” She answered, my eyes widened.

“Why would I want to do that?” I tried to pull away as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards the door.

“If you smell all the ingredients as he makes it you can sense it if anyone tries to use it on you again.” At that I straightened and nodded, a low growl forming in my throat as I thought of the last two times I had been near the stuff. I was definitely still wary, but I followed her without further complaint. The scent was strong when I entered the room and I had to bite my tongue to stop from wrinkling my nose. Responsum looked up, tossing some leaf-looking things into a pot broiling over a fire.

“I see you finally got her,” He said to Kiera with a smile.

“Finally got her?” I asked and they both turned to look at me.

“Indeed. I sent Kiera to fetch you. Connor told me you tried to use your magic.” Before I could interject, he continued. “He also asked Kiera and I to help you in anyway we can. I have been teaching Kiera the ways of potion making.”

I cross my arms across my chest. “Okay? And in what ways are you planning to help me?” My voice had a skeptical edge to it. I have to remind myself that he is Connor’s father and he just wants to make Connor happy, and this managed to relieve some of the tension.

“First, since it is quicker, I can show you what smell to always be aware of. Never let anything that smells like this near you.” He holds up an apple looking fruit. “It’s blood apple. Apples that evolved to somehow be filled with dead man’s blood.” I leaned forward, unable to stop my nose from wrinkling. The smell was potent enough to already make my nose burn. It smelled of a graveyard if all the bodies were dug up, stacked in a pile and rotting. It was disgusting. Hell has truly the worst things ever. He pulled the apple away and I took a gasp of fresh air. “The next thing we will do is try to make a potion to dampen the spell on your magic.”

For an hour we helped him, as he explained every ingredient and its main purpose and origin. In the end, we had a brew of too many ingredients to name. I dipped a spoon in, and brought it to my lips. After I swallowed, I gagged. “It definitely won’t be winning any awards for best tasting potion.” Responsum waves my comment away then started to inquire me on how I was feeling. “Disgusted, Responsum. I feel disgusted and like I should wash my mouth out with soap.” I snapped and he blinked. “Ugh, whatever. I want to go on a walk in the woods with my friends. Okay? A calm walk.” I zoomed out of the room and up the stairs before they could stop me. Kiera quickly followed. Hell might not have literal fresh air, but it does have portals that go into the human world. The human world has fresh air and beautiful forests. Connor turned to me when I burst into his room. Chris looked up from a book he was reading.

“Yes?” Connor stood, Chris doing the same and setting his book on a shelf.

“I was just going to ask if you guys would like to go on a walk with us. In the woods by the school like old times. Have a normal walk before we kill Max.” I slammed my fist into my palm and they nod. Responsum stops us at the front door, his arms blocking our way.

“Wait, promise to tell me if anything with your magic changes. Also, you may or may not meet new people that are good. I think my magic tracked three. Beware, you will know them when you meet them, and you will need them.” Responsum stepped to the side and I watched as he darted out of the room again. I snatched the key off the hook by the door, taking a moment to run my fingers softly over the new layer of golden paint. Some flaked off and I pressed the glimmering paint between my fingers.

“Piper! You comin’?” Connor called and I ran out to meet them. Connor leaned down to whisper in my ear, “Are you okay?”

“Just thinking. I need to get out of Hell. It is screwing with my head.” I pushed the hair out of my face.

“Remember, just think of the school.”

I smiled at Kiera. “Click your heels together and say ‘there’s no place like home’.” She beamed and her smile grew as I clicked my heels together and stepped through the portal, key tightly clutched in my hand.

My reaction to seeing the school was less than impressive. I had spent five years here and had only been gone maybe a week. A tear fell. Then another. They were silent tears and filled with nowhere near the emotion of when I had saved Chris. Think of him and he shall appear, Chris’ hand landed on my shoulder and I breathed out a long gust of air I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“Let’s go for that walk.” Kiera linked arms with me, tearing my gaze from the school. I saw Connor and Chris chuckling to themselves. The further into the woods, the more I started to feel something was off. The fresh air was nice, it blew against my skin and made me feel content. The leaves ruffled and various birds chirp. The feeling in my gut didn’t go away. My connection to my friends and my need to protect them was strong. Something tugged at me and I barely had enough time to scream, “Watch out!” In one swift move, I knocked Kiera and Chris out of the way. Connor was too far away as wolves bounded past. Connor knocked several of them off their feet, and I followed suit, but they kept coming. Kiera flashed her golden light and shrunk into her fairy form. A tiny glowing dot using more force than she could in her human form. Chris punched wolves left and right.

I was knocked off my feet, a small black wolf with more strength than you could imagine. She snarled and a voice spoke, “Piper Kuro. We meet at last.” Her eyes were bright green and there was anger in them. I struggled with her, but she was strong, and I screamed.

Suddenly, she was knocked off me. I flinched, expecting them to come after me but instead a shadow fell over me. They helped me up, and their hand lingered for longer than was possibly necessary. I was instantly captivated by his bright green eyes and black, wind-tossed hair. He wore a gray hoodie and baggy jeans. I felt strangely happy by just seeing this stranger. He must be one of the good people Responsum said we would need. The moment ended too soon as a girl’s voice yelled, “Logan, on your left!” He groaned, letting go of my hand almost reluctantly to join the fight. I shook away my shock fast when I heard Kiera’s gut-curling scream.

I turned towards her, but a brown haired girl was already there. She had several bright streaks of blue and red within her brown curls. I saw a glimpse of her glowing green eyes just before vines and branches shot from the ground around her. They knocked out many wolves, but not a single one actually killed or stabbed at a wolf. Soon the wolf I had been struggling with was up, barking retreat orders at her comrades. Several went rogue and at least four attacked each of us. I dodged and kicked and punched. Wolves flew into trees and boulders. Trees were knocked down and blood was shed. I heard a girl’s cry.

“Hex, sorry!” The boy called Logan shouted as a girl fell right out of a tree. The brown haired girl threw her arms toward her and a platform of vines engulfed the falling girl. She dusted herself off and walked toward us.

“It’s all good, besties,” She said in a smooth, silky voice. “You must be-" I expected her to greet me as most people constantly have but she shoved me out of the way to get to Connor, “-Connor!” Her brown eyes are full of curiosity. Her shoulder-length auburn hair glistened in the sun like an amber jade. She was wearing a purple sports bra, jean shorts, high knee black heels, and a darker purple medieval trench coat. Her auburn hair had one streak of purple that matched the rest of her ensemble perfectly. “My name is Hex Spell Caster. This is Jamie Jin Genevieve-“ Jamie turned to me first and I saw her eyes were different. Before they were green, now they are a soft blue. Her outfit consists of a light green tank top and a forest green jean jacket, leggings and army boots. “And that is Logan Emerald Greene.” She seemed to only be speaking to Connor and that only frustrated me more. And what kind of a name is Hex Spell Caster? The second I had said it in my head I realized. She’s a magic user, and a pretty confident one at that.

“Okay.” I pushed myself between Connor and Hex. “So, I assume there is a reason you saved us?” I glared at her but she only smiled.

“There is, we want to help you. We each have an issue with Max and his twin, Maxine.” Her soft voice now held a snarl. She grabbed my arm and her fingernails bit into my skin. I winced and she let go. “I apologize. We got a tip that you guys are looking for help. Clearly our tip was real. What person can’t protect their friends?”

I could practically feel the jab and we both moved at the same time. Grabbing each other’s hair and shoulders. We were shrieking threats to one another but only stopped when we were pulled apart. “Dammit! Let go!” I was still glaring at Hex as we were dragged further and further apart. My eye caught on Logan and he seemed to be silently pleading for me to stop. To my shock, I did. I hissed and yanked my arms away from Chris and Connor. “I’m done. I’m done.” Hex and I glared daggers at each other but neither of us moved. It was Logan and Jamie who walked up to us.

He smiled at me and I couldn’t help returning the gesture. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you. To finally meet all of you.” Logan seemed to almost be glaring at Hex with his words.

Jamie laughed and pushed him aside, staring right at me, “You must know that we have been looking forward to meeting all of you. We all have our favorite, though.” At that her gaze slipped to my brother before returning to me. Her eyes darted from Logan to me, then Hex to Connor. She shrugged when I made a face of realization.

“Well, you guys can come with us. Maybe we can share stories about why we want Max dead!” Kiera grinned, stepping in and linking arms with Jamie. I froze at the simple memory and Chris slid his hand into mine.

“Piper, our lives are never going to be normal again but we can’t dwell on the past. We are gonna kill Max and that is all that matters.” He whispered and I looked up at him. At the scar we shared on the cheek, the various almost healed bruises, the other cuts left from being tortured.

“All that matters is making him pay. No matter who we need to help us.” I agreed and he grinned. I watched at He let go of my hand and ran off to go talk to Jamie and Kiera. I turned to see Hex being helped off the ground by Logan, who was barely taller than her. Ugh, why do I care? “Guys! Gather around. I have to be the last to go through the portal because I have the key!”

Logan, Jamie, and Hex had to go through with someone and I took an extra deep breath of fresh air. The sap from the trees, the dirt on the ground, and then it was gone and so was I.