The Hybrid Queen Unedited
17

The news of Larson’s cell had Amilia and myself locked in silence. The only sound was the high hum of the jet and our steady breathing. I knew Collin would have presented Elijah with his replaceings and I knew, even in the short time I knew him, he would be enraged. He would be even more worried that I was not at home, safe and by his side. Guilt washed through me and I thought about calling him. Then I was reminded of how we tossed out phones out the window on the main stretch of the Manor.

We did not move again until I noticed that the sun was coming up, turning the sky a beautiful shade of pink. Amilia looked up when the pilot’s voice echoed over the inter com. He must be still too afraid to come out and face Amilia. He announced that we were about twenty minutes away from our decent. I suddenly felt all stressed out again. This was it. I was only hours away from seeing my old home. I wondered how bad it would look. Would the wilderness have taken its land back? Or would it still be standing. Had it been robbed and plundered?“Faye?” Amilia said my name as if she had been speaking to me the whole time. My mind was so confused right now. It was like I was trying to think of too many things at once. “Faye, did you hear what I said?” Amilia asked me. I shake my head. “Sorry,” I said, looking back out the window. We had landed and the plane was no longer moving. The pilot had still not come out from his cockpit. Would we be stuck looking for another way home?“Well, come one then,” Amilia said as she pulled me to my feet. I let her guide me to the waiting car by the jet. Once we set off down the road, I found myself in a state of peace. It was odd. My mind was like a freight train, going much too fast for comfort. Like a wild jungle. It was so confusing because I missed Elijah and I wanted to go back yet I wanted to be here. I needed to be here. And he had said so himself that he did not understand why I felt the need to go. I stopped on our way to the car. sure I was Marked but I was not Mated. If I really wanted to I could run for it. I really had no reason to. It was not like I was being held against my will. Amilia had saved me from The Wall. Elijah, not knowing I would have imprinted on him sooner had he let Amilia come get me as soon as I was caught, would be pissed if I did not return. He would more than likely come and get me himself. I sighed and closed my eyes. I needed to clear my mind. I needed to stop thinking, stop my mind from going around in circles. Taking a deep breath, I follow Amilia into the car and the driver takes off down the road. “Where are we headed Miss?” he asked. Amilia handed him a piece of paper. “To this address. And please hurry, it is ofimportance that he get there as soon as we can,” she said as she sat back. I looked up at her. “Elijah is coming?” I demanded. Amilia nodded. “Yes, He will be here by nightfall. We have time but we should spend it wisely. He will not be pleased when he catches up with us,” she said and handed me a bottle of water. I took it from her and looked out the window. we were already almost outside of the city. Soon, we were surrounded by trees and the memories came rushing back to me. As I watched the trees fly by, I could see myself, a much younger version of myself, and Kat. We were running through the woods. I was dressed in a small blue summer dress. Kat, her blond hair and ruby red dress bright in the sunlight. We were so much happier then. I watched as the memory of my childhood friend slowly vanished into the dark forest as we rounded a wide bend. This was it. The turn off would be here any moment. My heartbeat picked up and soon it was hammering away in my chest as we slowly pulled up to the house. I sat there, looking out the window, looking up at the old, now run down stone house. It was covered in vines, tree roots, dirt and the once beautiful driveway was now littered with leaves and dirt. I slowly got out of the car, looking around. Everything was just as I had last seen it out here. There was an old tire swing by the willow tree next to the small pond by the far east corner of the house, the flower beds my mother always used to tend to, were now overgrown with dead plants, weeds and wilted flowers, drooping over the stone edge. My father’s car, his once sleek Corvette was now a rusted chunk of metal. I walked over to it , slowly, and rubbed the grit from one of the windows. The inside was dusty but still nice looking. Oh how I wished I could take it back to the Manor with me. Amilia touched my arm. “Faye, remember, we are pressed for time,” she told me. I looked back at her and nodded. The house loomed up before us and it now seemed so much smaller then I could remember. Perhaps it was because I went from living in a kennel to Elijah’s Manor. I walked up to the house and tried the front door. I was not surprised it was locked. I sighed and began lifting up the garden gnomes by the flower bed. Once I found the key I hesitated. I knew I wanted to go inside, yet something was stopping me. Did I really want to see the blood bath? Did I really want to see what was left of my home? “I know I just said we are pressed for time, but take your time with this one, Faye. I can not even begin to imagine how hard this is for you,” she told me. All I could do is nod. I took a deep breath and turned the key in the lock, letting the door slowly swing open. Almost at once, a foul smell reached my nose and I took a step back. Amilia did the same thing a second later. “Ugh, what is that?” I demanded. Amilia shook her head. “I have an idea but I really hope I am wrong,” she said. We both walked into the house, looking around. “Here, take this.” Amilia handed me a flashlight. I took it and looked around a little. I tried my best to keep the horrors of that night away from my mind. I stopped when I reached the hallway to my father’s study. I wanted to go check it out, however I wanted to see my room first. As we walked, we found the source of the foul smell. It was a dead animal. A raccoon. It had only been dead a few weeks. I walked around it, looking at it closely. “It’s neck was broken,” I said. Amilia looked around, her eyes scanning the place, looking for whatever had killed the animal. But there was nothing to see, nothing to smell. Whoever or whatever had been here, had been here long before we had even thought of coming here. “Where do you want to start?” she asked me. “We should start from the top and work down,” I said. Amilia nodded. “Sounds good to me,” she said. She followed me up the dusty carpeted stairs. Everything had a fine layer of dust to it; the paintings on the walls, the tables, the railings. Everything. Once we reached the second floor, I headed straight for my room. When I opened my door, the first thing I noticed was a large pile of ashes by my door. That is where my mother had killed that Vamp and told me to run. I look down at my hand, still on the doorknob. This had been one of the last things she had touched. All I wanted to do was throw myself down on my bed and cry for a week. However, that was not an option right now. I forced the tears that wanted to break through back down as I spotted my dresser. On top was one of the things I had come for. I walked over quickly and snatched up the family photo and hugged it to my chest. Amilia stood where she was, giving me a moment to collect myself. Once I did, I pulled my drawers open and began pulling out some clothes. Amiliasnorted at me. “You have all you could need back at the Manor,” she reminded me. I nodded turning to face her but held up a small box. “Jewelry. My mother gave me the box,” I said. Amilia placed a hand over her mouth.“Sorry,” she said as I placed the framed picture and the box into my duffel bag. I took one more glance around, wondering if there was anything else I wanted to take. Nothing really came to mind so we headed back to the hallway. About half way down, I stopped again. The door to my right was wide open. My parents bedroom. I stood there a moment. There would have been plenty of things for me to grab in here.“Hold on,” I said to Amilia and walked into the room. I stopped at my mother’s dresser, pulling the middle drawer open. Inside was one of my mother’s shirts. Her scent hit me as soon as I pulled it open. I closed my eyes once more, trying not to cry. I pulled out one of her sweaters and held to my face. “I want to know who did this!” I mumble. Amilia turned to face me now. I could feel her eyes one me and now I was more angry then I was sad. “I want to know who destroyed my life!” I told her. “We can look into it, Faye, however there is not much to go on. Elijah did all he could before he had to drop your case. I was one of the people looking into your files and trying to replace out where the only child of Osiris had gone. Once I found you, the Hunter and Vamp activity in this area was way to high and-” I cut her off and nodded. “And Elijah had to keep his only sister safe. I know,“I told her. I help the sweater to my face for a moment longer, taking in her scent one more time. This would be the last time I would ever smell her. I knew that. I folded up the pink cashmere sweater and placed it back into the dresser, closing it softly. “Faye, did you want to take any of these?” Amilia asked. I turned to replace her at my mother’s vanity table. There were perfume bottles and makeup across the surface of the table and I smiled when I saw one I knew. I walked over to the table quickly and picked up the small blue bottle with the golden cap. I uncapped it and took a sniff. It was my mother. This was her favorite and she used it all the time. “My mother used this one all the time,” I said as I placed it into my bag. “I’d like to check my father’s study before we head out.”Amilia nodded and glanced at her watch. “Fine but sunset will be here in about an hour and we really need to go soon!” she pressed. I nodded. “OK. Let me just check the study and we can go,” I said. My father’s study was the only room I had never been allowed inside of. The house had a total of five rooms. My room, my father’s study, my mother’s art room, the living room and the bar room. My father had had more built onto the house after they had moved in and had his room and my mom’s room made as a separate, along with a small meeting room, Before the new Court System had been put into place by the Elders, my father had ruled as Alpha over his Pack. I wondered at that. It had only been a little over a year since the Court System had gone into effect. What had happened to all the pups of all the alpha’s? I was just one of a few hundred. I knew our numbers were dwindling and that we could be wiped out any day now. Vamps and Hunters outnumbered us one hundred to one on both sides. Once we reached my father’s study, I found the door had been broken. The lock had been forced open and the wood was splintered. I glance at Amilia. “Do you think anyone could have come up here after the attack?” I asked her.Amilia shrugged. “I mean, I guess it could be possible. It could have been mortals, looking for a place to party,” she said as I pushed the door open. My father’s study had always been a place of order. He was a good man, for the most part. yet there had been times where he had truly frightened me. If something did not go the way he wanted to, it would always be someone else’s fault. I sighed and took a step inside. I felt like I was breaking the rules. I had never been allowed in here. The room was round shaped, the green wallpaper gleamed with a faint silver light. In the middle of the room, was a large desk and an even larger leather chair. It was funny he had needed such a large chair; he had been an average sized man, standing at six feet even. I walked around the room, my hand skimming along the leather chair. Something did not feel right. I looked out the window when I heard something coming down the driveway. Amilia rushed to my side. We both waited, however no car came into sight. Amilia sighed and grabbed my arm. “We need to go!” she urged me. I nodded, looking around the room once more. I did not want to go. I take one last glance around the room and my eyes land on the laptop sitting on the desk. “Wait!” I hissed at her, pushing the laptop open. Nothing happened. “Dead!” I grabbed it and shoved it onto my duffel bag. As I did so, something clattered to the ground. At the same time Amilia growled, low and deep in her chest. I bent and found that a USB stick had fallen from the laptop. “Faye,” Amilia hissed at me. I looked up at her just in time to see the double doors burst completely off the hinges and suddenly we had flashlights in our faces. “Get down! On the ground!” a man screamed at us. The first thing that came to mind was the Mortal cops had followed us here. Then I remembered how there was a Pound about a mile away from here. My heart dropped. I would not go back there. I had made that promise to myself. I knew Elijah would understand. He knew now how bad it was there. He knew what it had done to me. “Amilia.” I looked over to see her being pushed to the ground. “Shut you face, bitch!” the man barked at me. Amilia pushed back up onto her knees. “In the name of the King, I am ordering you to release us,” she said, glaring at the man. The light was harsh and I could not make out his details. All I knew was that he had black hair and he was tall.I shook my head in Amilia’s direction. Could she not see that these were not wolves? Not Vamps either. “The King can kiss my ass! I do not take orders from him! I am with the Prophet!” he said. Amilia’s face went blank. “The Prophet?” she asked him, confused. The man nodded. “Yes. Prophet Tamit!” he said, rolling his eyes like she was insane for not knowing who he was speaking of. “And he will be most interested in how it was you kidnapped his daughter! He has been looking for her for over a year!”His last words rang in my ears. So I had seen my father that night. I had seen him. He was alive. Suddenly hard hands were gripping the back of my neck and shoulders. The man lifted me to my feet and turned me to face him. “She seems unharmed. Let The Prophet know we have located his daughter and we will be bringing her in as soon as we leave here,” he said to someone in the hallway. There was a shuffle of steps and then quite. He nodded to someone else and then to Amilia. “Take care of that one. Kill her and send Yansa her head. Let him know that Reid is coming from him,” he said. I felt the blood leave my face. He was going to kill her? “No!” I screamed. I closed my eyes and brought up the dark silk like fog from within me. Before I knew it, I shadow jumped across the room where Amilia was standing and grabbed her. Seeing my front door before me, I closed my eyes once more and then jumped. When I landed, we were outside, in the dark, by the back door. “You are getting really good at this!” Amilia exclaimed. I smiled and we both took off into the woods. “How did they replace us?” Amilia asked. I shake my head. “What I want to know is how my father is alive?” I demanded. “I am pretty sure he is dead, Faye!” she said. I reached for her hand, not speaking. “The creek is coming up just ahead. I can get us across!” I said. Amilia took my hand and I called on the dark silk smoke again and jumped. I heard Amilia scream and there was a splash. Then I crashed into the forest floor, tumbling and turning, feeling the forest floor bruise and cut me as I tumbled to a stop. When I opened my eyes, I was alone. “Amilia?” I yelled, my voice echoing across the dead forest. Something was not right. I jumped when I felt movement beside me. I turned and looked to see what I was unable to sense . I felt my jaw drop at the sight and I was sure I was dreaming now.