1

Even though the whole college thing hadn’t worked out, Alice knew that her life with Cale would. She couldn’t handle being away from him, so he had brought her home. And they were moving to Colorado to get away from the memories. But for now, Alice Nichols was just waking up to experience her final day as a Nichols child.
She woke up smiling and rolled over to check her bedside clock. 7:00 AM it read in wide red script flashing across the blank face. She tossed back the covers and stood up, feet flat on the floor. Before anything else, she splashed warm water on her face, cleared out her sleepy eyes and put in her new contacts. She was pleased that she didn’t have to wear glasses anymore; now people could see her light grey eyes more clearly. As she got older, her eyes stopped appearing green and changed to an almost translucent grey colour instead.
A knock came at her bedroom door and she looked up, smile widening.
“Come in” she said, walking out of the bathroom and meeting her visitor.
It was her mother, looking happy and tired all at once. Annabelle, after all, had done much of the wedding preparation, while Alice hung out with Cassi and jokingly avoided Cale. She said that having him around for the wedding plans would be disastrous because he could never make up his mind. He was worse than any girl when it came her turn to be the bride.
Annabelle hugged her tightly to her and smiled, kissing her cheek.
“Honey, you’re only nineteen and already getting married, I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed, sighing to herself.
Alice laughed and patted her back.
“Believe it, Mom. ‘Cause it’s happening today” she said, blushing in spite of herself.
Annabelle saw it and laughed.
“All right, come on downstairs with your dressing gown on. Em’s already here to help to get you ready” she told her, pulling her daughter’s gown off the hook attached to the back of her bedroom door.
Alice obediently slipped it on and followed her mother downstairs. In the living room sat Cale’s mother, waiting to bestow her excited smile upon her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. She stood up and threw both arms around Alice’s neck, kissing her on both cheeks.
“Cale said to tell you that he loves you very much and is looking forward to seeing you at the altar” Emily said, smiling secretively.
Alice blushed a second time and nodded.
“Thank you, Emily” she murmured, sitting down at the kitchen table.
Her mother started to fuss around her, brushing her long hair out and experimenting with ways to do it up. Trying to also help, Emily knelt on a cushion in front of Alice and started on her wedding makeup.
“Can I have something to drink, please, someone?” Alice asked stiffly, her speech impeded slightly because she wasn’t allowed to really move her mouth.
Emily chuckled at her face and jumped up to pour her a glass of water from the tap. Returning it to Alice, her cell phone buzzed from where it sat in a clip at her waist. She picked it up and held it to her ear.
“Yes, this is Emily you’re speaking with” she said, then paused to listen.
She grinned and handed the glass to Alice.
“No, son, you cannot speak to her at this very moment. We are all rather busy doing her up to look beautiful for the day, all right? You’ll be able to see her and talk to her in a few hours, just be patient, boy. Goodbye, Cale!” she sang, hanging up the call.
Alice smiled and tipped the glass up to her mouth, allowing a thin trickle of water to slide down her throat. Her mouth left a lipstick mark on the rim of the glass, and she giggled nervously, only the second time in her life she’d ever actually giggled. Annabelle sighed and rolled her eyes, reaching out and taking the water out of her clumsy daughter’s hand.
“Be neater, darling” she murmured, patting her lightly on the knee.
Alice kicked her foot up in the air and laughed, seeing the look of utter adult exasperation on her mother’s face.
“Calm your farm, Mama. Please, I’m not going to die right here on the spot if some of my lipstick comes off. That’s what Emily is here for!” she exclaimed happily, grinning down at Emily.
She smiled back up at her and got to work on her toenail polish. The colour was a rich red, matching Alice’s practically scarlet hair. Alice wiggled slightly on her seat, before catching her mother’s eye and remaining completely still for the rest of her physical makeover.


Over at the big house down the long, winding lane, Cale had just woken up and dragged himself out of his warm bed. He stood in front of his full length mirror, commissioned by his mother when he was seven years old, and critically examined his reflection. His inky black hair was falling into his emerald eyes as usual, and he looked bone tired and world weary. He shrugged and let his mind work backwards through the events of the night before, watching with half closed eyes as his strong, wiry muscles flexed as he subconsciously relived what had happened in the forest nearby.
The glowing yellow eyes in the pitch shadows, the rustling leaves beneath his curling black claws, the growls tearing from his throat, snarling out from his clenched jaw.
Cale shook his head and blinked at the mirror, lazily scratching his head. Lifting his right arm, he froze, noticing only now the long, narrow scar showing all the way up the length of his forearm.
“Oh, crap” he muttered to himself, lightly tracing along the red line with one finger.
He sighed and tipped his head back, rocking on his heels. The wound he had sustained from an errant hooked claw he hadn’t been watching for would only remain like it had if it was deep enough when he received it. But he didn’t really remember any pain from the gash, and this was only the aftermath. Later on that night, he knew he would really get in trouble with Alice; she would be his wife by then. He knew she would see the scar and know at once that he’d been outside, in the middle of the night, gallivanting and preventing supernatural crime. As she called it, “being a wolfy, way furrier version of Superman.”And he knew she would be in her own right to say it, and then to complain about it. He had promised her that he wouldn’t put himself in danger in the months leading up to their wedding. But he couldn’t help it last night. The silver, waxy moon in the sky was full and gleaming, and the moon tides called his blood, pulling him and singing to him, calling him to the wilds.
Cale huffed out a hard puff of air and turned around to face his messy double bed. It was true, he had been waiting for this day since he was fourteen years old, but now there were hundreds of monarch butterflies storming in his stomach and he felt like he was going to throw up.
A knock on his door turned his head to seek the intrusive sound. He sighed again and walked over to pull it open. He wouldn’t be sick; he would stand tall, strong, and take it like a man.


Alice stared through the tinted glass of the limousine window, wary nerves building up inside her stomach. In her hands, she clutched her pretty bouquet of bright red roses, the long green stems jutting out of the bottom and poking her in the ribs. At last, she shook her head and grasped the door handle, pushing the door open by herself, ignoring the well meaning offer from her chauffeur. She smiled at him as he helped her out, and blushed as he gave her a small whistle. She laughed and thanked him, picking up her skirts and following her mother and Emily into the small white chapel.
They led her through into the small back room, where her father was waiting for them. Jared smiled down on his daughter and gently hugged her, being extremely careful not to smudge her makeup or damage her hair, swept into an elegant, princess-like updo. He kissed her cheek and took her hand, tugging it through the crook of his right arm.
They waited for Emily and Annabelle to hurry into the church, and then the wedding march began. Unknown to Alice, Cassi had already taken her place at the front of the chapel, led up there by Cale’s father. When she glimpsed her older sister gliding up the white aisle on their father’s arm, she stood up much straighter, a grin of pure, absolute delight vivid on her face. Alice gave her a tiny wave, which she returned, before glancing over at Cale. He turned around slowly, so that he now stood side on, his eyes firmly focused on Alice. The jewel green brightened even more and he winked at her as she came closer and closer to him. Jared handed her over to Cale in a fatherly gesture as old as time’s tradition, and stepped back. He looked into Cale’s face and seemed to be saying to him, I am trusting you now with my daughter. Don’t let her down; don’t let me down. Cale nodded and held Alice’s hand securely in his own.
So the pastor began and they could both feel the butterflies thrumming in their stomachs, but they ignored them and instead concentrated on each other. They had the rest of their lives to play with the butterflies.


2

Hours later, Alice Vreeland woke up in a hotel suite in Fiji. That was putting it loosely, but the view was great. She got clumsily out of bed and fumbled her way over to the low door. She pushed it open and wandered out through the open gap, letting it swing lightly closed behind her. Alice rubbed her tired eyes and walked down the beach to the water’s edge. The warm, shallow waves lapped at her feet and washed up over her ankles. Without thinking, she lowered herself down and sat on the wet sand, allowing the water to soak her up to the waist. She crossed her legs and stared at her toes, the nails still scarlet from her mother-in-law’s colourful ministrations more than a day and a half ago.
Alice shut her eyes and tipped her head back to the rays of the dawn sun, just peeking over the edge of the horizon. Her mind was partially blank, a simple white slate with nothing painted across its surface. She was bleeding, but no one was up this early in the morning to see the red evidence swirling away in the sea’s soft current. She’d forgotten he wasn’t really human, forgotten he was a supernatural creature. She hadn’t realised how bad the pain she was in would be. She felt like curling up in a ball and dying. Every muscle in her body was contracting horribly whenever she moved, and there were no relieving intervals. Everything hurt and she didn’t know what she could do to make it stop.


Back at home in New Hampshire, Cassi woke up at a strange hour and tiptoes into her parents’ room, circling round the bed to her mother’s side. Annabelle instinctively heard her child’s heavy breathing and opened her eyes to find Cassi staring at her in the dark of the bedroom. She sat up and lifted her youngest daughter onto the bed with her, settling her on her lap.
“What is it, Cass?” she asked groggily, pushing her long hair out of the way.
Cassi snuggled backwards into her and held her mother’s hand.
“Something’s wrong with Alice” she whispered, turning her head in the dark so Annabelle could hear.
She stiffened and sat straighter, now wide awake. She clutched Cassi tighter against her, worry taking over all of her other senses.
“How do you know?” she demanded quietly, her words floating in the air past Cassi’s head.
She shrugged, blinking at the encroaching shadows.
“I just do, Mommy. Something is the matter. I feel it” she said plainly, her thoughts travelling to Cale.
She murmured his name and then felt Annabelle’s hold on her increase even more so.
“Cale is hurting Alice?” Annabelle hissed, not meaning to sound so angry with the little girl.
“I don’t think he meant to” Cassi whispered, wriggling out of her mother’s embrace and dropping to the carpet.
Annabelle tried to focus on her shape as she left the room, but the shadows were so inky and thick, she couldn’t see her own hand in front of her face anymore. An ominous feeling of concern lodged itself into her brain and refused to budge.


Cale woke and found that Alice, his wife, was not beside him. He pulled himself up on his elbows and glanced at the door. There was a ray of bright light seeping in through a slight crack between the door itself and the wall. He flung away the thin sheet and stood, his feet flat on the ground. The strong metallic scent of blood was rife in the small room and he could hardly detect anything else different.
Had he really not noticed it last night? He thought back briefly and tried to remember some time when Alice had shouted at him, which was what she had always done when she was in pain, ever since she was a little girl. Even when it hadn’t been his own fault but hers or somebody else’s, she had always pointed her finger at him and yelled until someone came and told him off. She loved him, but he was her source of blame, and probably always would be.
A sudden, cold thought gripped him. What if she fell pregnant and had an abortion? She had never wanted her own children, though he did. He shook it off, clearing his head. No, she wouldn’t do that. She didn’t have the strength in her to go through with an act of death and vengeance such as that. Her moral compass would point her due north each and every time.
Cale swung the door open and stepped out onto the sand, not feeling the soft, white pearls sifting beneath his feet. He spotted her immediately, her vibrant red hair standing out strikingly in stark comparison to the dark haired islanders out on the beach for an early view of the ocean. He tilted his head to the side; Alice was sitting right in the water and she was talking to someone. A young girl, maybe twelve or thirteen, was crouching next to her, a small hand on her shoulder. Cale quickly zeroed in on her face and noticed at once the odd discolouration in her eyes. They were quite obviously brown, but there was still a rather strange red film overlapping the brown. It didn’t appear to be scaring Alice, so he just stood, watched and waited. She was frowning slightly as the girl spoke to her, but she wasn’t ignoring her, as she normally would have done with random strangers.
After another few seconds, Cale couldn’t handle the waiting, and sharpened his hearing exponentially. The girl had a low sounding, resonant voice, bordering on the melodic. She was still talking to Alice, speaking in hurried sentences, her grasp of English exemplary.
“Alice, it’s dangerous what you are doing. See the blood? It’s a sign, you’re not meant to be doing this. I’m sorry, but you are not strong enough to do it. He will nearly kill you when it’s time for him to arrive. And he will arrive. It won’t take as long as a normal one, either, Alice. He will be here within the next four months or so. You may not have thought this could happen so quickly, but these things do happen, and they are happening to you. I knew it at once when I saw you arrive here yesterday night.”
Cale narrowed his eyes. Yes, he did remember seeing this girl around somewhere when he and Alice arrived the previous evening. He carried on listening.
“It is still your choice as to what you will do when it gets here, Alice. No one can take that from you, not even him watching us right now. No, don’t look. He can hear me, I know it. Be careful. Be very careful. Or you might die, Alice. Watch out for yourself” the girl murmured to her, then stood up and gathered her skirt.
She walked away, casting a look behind her at Cale. Her eyes met his, and held his gaze. She stared blank faced at him, the red in her eyes thicker and darker than it had appeared before.
“You’re going to kill her, Cale” she told him, her words a whisper carried to him on the wind. “And you can’t do anything to prevent that now. You have overstepped the line between the humans and us.”
Cale gazed back at her, his heart and pulse racing. He couldn’t kill Alice, could he? Did he have that in him? Would he ever have the capacity of hate in him to murder his own wife and lifelong best friend? What kind of circumstances would lead to that as the only available option open to him?
“Alice!” he called out, his voice rising and sounding more urgent than he wanted.
She turned round and saw him, scrambled up and trudged over the sand dune to where he stood. She smiled up at him, squidging the white sand between her toes.
“Hi, Cale” she said happily enough, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
“Good morning” he replied slightly warily, his eyes on the retreating figure of the island girl.
What did she mean by ‘the humans and us’? What was she? He had met plenty of vampires in his nineteen years, but never a creature like her.
“What was that girl talking to you about, Al?” he asked, attempting to sound as calm as possible.
Alice looked up at him, her face open and perfectly innocent. She blinked her big eyes at him and he just about melted right there on the spot.
“Who, Tutti? Nothing, Cale. Nothing you need to worry about” she said breezily, gently pushing past him to get back into their hired room.
Letting her past, Cale turned around and watched her exit from him. She had lied so fluently, so well, he could almost believe her. If he hadn’t just heard the girl, Tutti, tell Alice that she would nearly die, and then tell him that he would kill her himself. He followed Alice into the island suite and sat down cross legged in the middle of the bed, observing her quietly as she moved about and dressed. Never once did she lift her eyes to meet his. Instead, Alice studiously kept her head bowed and studied the floor. What Tutti had just told her couldn’t be ignored and left behind to rot in the dust. But what she had said would fester in her mind until she died, and so that was that.


3

Cale watched Alice carefully during the remainder of their week long honeymoon. He observed the careful, dainty movements she made and heard with disbelief her excuses to get out of activities such as scuba diving and hiking around the island. She was never the type to back out of something like that; she was naturally fearless, but not in the normal way. She wouldn’t stand up in a fight, but she would try new things, no matter the danger entailed.
In turn, Alice watched Cale with growing wariness and fearful intensity. Was he planning to kill her? She often wondered this, but always shook off the thought. He didn’t have the courage to take a life that was so dear to him.
Her abdomen was protruding slightly now, and when she placed her palm over the bump, she could feel shifting movement under her hand. Cale never saw her sneak her hand beneath her shirt and touch the small bump of baby. Finally she was too sick of wondering how the werewolf mutation came about in Cale, and mustered up the courage to ask him.
“Cale, come here” Alice said absently, from where she sat on the sand at the top of the white beach.
He was walking silently up behind her, but her increased hearing and paranoia rendered her able to hear him whenever he approached her, no matter how slowly or quietly he was moving. She heard his sigh and then felt the shifting of sand granules as he sat down next to her, digging his feet into the sand. He shuffled sideways until he could look square at her and leaned forward, propping his chin on his hands.
“Yeah?” he replied lazily, blinking up at her through half closed eyes.
Alice barely glanced at him, fiddling with the wedding ring on her left hand. The ivory band slid round her finger as she gazed out into the silvery blue ocean.
“How are you a werewolf? Your dad isn’t, and I don’t understand where the gene came from. I have respected your privacy since we were sixteen and I found out about it, but now I want to know, because what is growing inside me right now is going to be just like you, and if he’s some sort of half breed hairy child freak, I won’t put up with it” she said coolly, her fingers falling away from her ring.
Cale raised his dark eyebrows at her and said nothing, clutching at the sand on either side of him and letting it drop between his fingers. He dropped his gaze and looked at Alice’s stomach, hidden effectively by her too big white t-shirt with Green Day on the front. He sighed again and took a deep breath in to release his story to her, the first person he’d ever told it to. Telling it to his dog didn’t count.
“I was eleven when I found out, okay? Some old woman found me wandering the streets in the middle of the night with my eyes shut. Don’t ask me what I was doing because I don’t know. All I remember was waking up, seeing the full moon hanging outside my bedroom window, and then leaving the house. The next thing I was aware of, this little old lady was smiling at me from under a street lamp. She had bright yellow eyes and sort of weathered, olivey skin. She took my hand and told me that I was one of the Decreed, a night creature. She said that we were the ones who are supposed to bring the end of the world, and that there was nothing we could do to remove that destiny from our lives. Ever since that night, I’ve been fighting it and killing the other Decreed that I meet, like that vampire a few years ago, and then his brother or whoever that other guy was. That girl you were talking to on our first full day here is something I haven’t seen before, a member of the Decreed who I haven’t come across. I kill those in the Decreed because I’m terrified of becoming just like them; I don’t want to destroy the world. I don’t want to rule it on a throne with minions sitting round my feet. I’ve been running from that old woman’s prophecy for the last eight years, Alice, and I don’t want it to come true. Nor do I want you to see that island girl again. We leave tomorrow morning, and you won’t talk to her between right now and then” Cale said in slow words, his eyes flickering from her face to the sand in his hands and back up again.
He finished on a low note and stopped talking, his hands resting in his lap and his shoulders rounded and hunched uncomfortably as he awaited her reply.
Alice at last lifted her head and ceased her long, unwavering stare at the sea. She looked instead at Cale, her pale eyes vaguely cold and unfeeling. She did believe him, no matter how extraordinarily strange and unbelievable the tale was. She had seen some strange things in her life, and Cale speaking honestly was the least of those events. He rarely told mistruths.
“I believe you” she said faintly, her hands lying still on her bent knees.
Cale waited again, sensing more was to come.
“But?” he finally prompted her, without looking at her face.
Alice sighed slightly and straightened her posture incrementally.
“I think I still need to talk to the girl. If she can give me any information I’m going to need about this child, I want to know it and I want to hear it from her. You have no extra knowledge, so you’ll be no help to me at all” she said tiredly.
She put both her hands on her belly and hauled herself to her feet. She didn’t expect Cale to rise up at the same time and grasp both her upper arms. He didn’t try to remove her hands from her tummy, but he did heave her up and toss her over his right shoulder. Alice screamed and beat his back and shoulders with her clenched fists, but he didn’t put her down. She caught a glimpse of the young island teen watching and staring at them from a few feet away. Alice fell quiet and hung limply against Cale’s back, staring back into the girl’s eyes. For the first time, she saw the red film and felt frightened of her. But she wasn’t as scared of her as she was of her husband right in that moment of time. The girl blinked twice, then turned her back on the both of them, her long white skirt flicking about her ankles.
“I told you so, Cale Vreeland. You are going to kill her one day soon. Right now, you don’t think you will, but you can’t stop it. No more than you can stop the Decreed getting what they want. Goodbye, Alice. Dream while you can, and live forever in the minds of those who love you” she murmured, the soft breeze again catching her words and sending them off.
Hearing them, Alice closed her eyes and held back her sobs. She held onto her stomach and didn’t reopen them even when Cale left her on the bed and returned to the door to keep watch and make sure she didn’t get up and try to leave.
Over the following hours before their flight back to America, he did not allow her to leave. Alice only slept, refraining from eating in the wild, vain hope that she could starve his baby out of her, kill it before it ever breathed in the air of the world.


When Alice and Cale arrived at the airport, Annabelle was there to meet them and take them home to the house that both sets of parents pitched in to help them buy. Immediately, she took hold of her daughter’s arm and steered her away toward the baggage claim area. She wanted to talk to her alone. Alice waited patiently, all her old impatience sucked out of her by Cale. She listened dutifully to her mother speak.
“Are you all right? Cassi woke up in the middle of the night on your first day away and told me that something was wrong with you. Did Cale hurt you? Are you sick or injured?” Annabelle demanded, her questions gushing forth from her in a tidal wave of aggravated parental concern.
Alice smiled benignly at her, her pulse slow and sluggish as Cale’s monster grew inside her and sapped all of her strength and free will.
“I’m fine, Mom. Just pregnant” she said softly, her eyes focused on her mother’s worried face.
Annabelle’s plucked eyebrows shot up.
“Already? How do you know so fast?” she asked, wonderment evident in her tone.
Alice just shrugged and kept walking over to where the baggage conveyor belt was. She waited, again patiently, for her suitcase to trundle by, and leaned forward to grab it. Annabelle got there first, fussing and saying that pregnant women shouldn’t lift or carry such heavy things. Alice didn’t object, merely nodded and allowed her mother to take over, which was what she did best. As she led the way out to her car, Alice kept perfect pace in time with her, as a means of being removed from Cale for at least a few blessed minutes.


4

The following day, Alice woke up to horror. She naturally slept with her hands on her stomach, and now her abdomen was more swollen than it had been the day before. Her grey eyes widened and she stared at her stomach.
“Oh no, no, no” she moaned unhappily, able to feel the swift kicks from within.
Cale sat up beside her and she screamed and fell over the side of the bed. Her weakened limbs quivered as he leaned over the edge and looked down at her. The wedding band was already loose on her finger; the baby was sucking everything out of her. She didn’t feel sick, but her own weakness disgusted her and she wanted to run away forever.
“What’s wrong with you?” Cale asked her, his tone not unkind.
Alice stared up at him, a dark expression on her face and storms in her eyes.
“Don’t you come near me” Alice spat, her words whipping him in the face.
She covered herself as best she could with her arms and shuffled away from him on the floor. Her back painfully struck the hard, sharp edge of their giant mahogany dresser. Alice stopped moving and remembered what sat on top of the chest of drawers. Her mirror, bought when she turned thirteen and her mother deemed it appropriate for her to have one in her room. And now it sat atop that chest. Slowly, her eyes on Cale, Alice stood up, inching her way backward up the front of the dresser. She could feel his green eyes burning into her back as she turned round and grabbed the mirror. She weighted it in her hands for a second before hefting it high and throwing it straight at Cale’s face. Alice didn’t wait to see what happened, instead choosing to wrench the bedroom door open and sprint as fast as she could in her terminally weakened state out of the room and down the stairs.
In a panic, her frazzled brain barely functioning, Alice headed for the front door and wrestled with the lock until she could get outside. She slammed the door shut behind her and ran as best she could down their front path, the hard cold shale cutting into the unprotected soles of her bare feet. She suppressed the slight whimpers by pressing her fists against her trembling mouth, and just kept running. She veered away from the comforting arms of the forest, knowing that it was Cale’s element. Instead, Alice began the run a mile long to her parents’ house.
Panting hard, an agonising stitch piercing her left side, Alice arrived on her parents’ doorstep and tried the door handle. It was locked. She pounded as hard as she could on the door and shouted, her tears leaking into the notes of her voice.
“Alice?”
She almost collapsed on the stoop in relief and pain at the concerned sound of her mother’s voice.
“Mommy, I need help” she cried, her arms locked tight around her abdomen.
Annabelle threw open the front door and knelt down in front of Alice. She urgently grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly.
“Honey?” she asked worriedly, glancing over her shoulder at Jared when he appeared behind her in the hallway.
He dropped down beside her and stared in shock at Alice.
“Ally?” he said softly, placing a hand on the back of her neck.
Alice raised her head and lurched forward, throwing herself into Annabelle’s arms. She rocked back on her heels, but managed to hold the girl upright and stroke her long hair.
“What’s the matter, Alice?” she asked quietly, pulling back slightly to try look her in the eyes.
Alice shuddered and struggled to stand up on her own two feet, leaving streaks of her blood on the concrete doorstep. Jared looked at the blood and stood up with her, his wife next to him. He leaned forward and lifted her over the threshold and into the house. He carried her into their lounge and lay her down on the couch, settling a puffy cushion under her head. Alice wrapped her arms over her stomach again and retreated to the very back of the sofa, facing out.
She knew that her parents were gazing at her protruding tummy, their eyes wide and completely disbelieving.
“Alice, is that…” Annabelle asked, her eyebrows raised and voice wavering.
Alice choked and nodded. Tears streamed down her pallid cheeks, flooding from the corners of her tightly closed eyes. The sobs racked her body, sending harsh spasms rocking through her shoulders.
Together, her parents watched her silently, unable to help her and not knowing what was going on. Annabelle’s eyes suddenly opened wider in horror and revulsion as she noticed movement in Alice’s body. The span of a tiny hand pressed up against her taut skin and Annabelle shrieked quietly, her hands covering her mouth. Alice groaned where she lay and pushed the hand away, back where it had never belonged.
“What is it, honey?” Annabelle finally got the courage to ask.
Alice grimaced and opened her eyes, at long last looking back at them. She swallowed hard before opening her mouth.
Both man and woman jumped back at least a foot when the thick, viscous torrent of blood and something black spilt from Alice’s open mouth. Annabelle screamed again, this time a lot louder, and Cassi ran into the room. She took one look at her sister, and hurried out at once. Alice couldn’t sit up, and so the bloody gush kept coming out of her, because she couldn’t stop it. She clawed at her stomach, trying to tear the ugly thing out of her body. She crying and gulping, trying hard to breathe and cry at the same time and failing. Finally, she sighed softly and drifted sideways down onto the sofa she was on, sinking even deeper into the cushions.
Annabelle and Jared stared incredulously at the dark bloody patch soaking their snow white carpeting, purple black globs sticking to the carpet fibers. Annabelle gagged and Jared patted her back, looking away from the mess on the floor. They could smell it now, overpoweringly metallic and sour, filling their noses until theere was no way they could smell anything else but that scent of death and decay. A slight trickle of blood lined Alice’s lips and her eyes flickered occasionally, visible beneath her eyelids.
“Oh, that’s disgusting” Annabelle whispered, turning her pale face into Jared’s chest.
“Shh” he murmured, stroking her hair and hugging her to him. “Don’t say that, Anna. She’s our baby.”
“Look at what she’s got inside of her! Whatever it is, it is not a baby!” Annabelle almost yelled, stricken.
Jared sighed and pulled her down with him to sit on the other couch. They glanced over at Alice, then away once again. Cassi didn’t come back in.
Then there was a loud knock on their door. Alice heard it and sat bolt upright, fear taking up all the room in her eyes.
“No, don’t let him in!” she cried urgently, blood bubbling over her lips and sliding down her chin.
She choked again and looked worriedly at her parents.
Annabelle wouldn’t meet her eye, and she and Jared walked to the door together. Cale was standing on the other side, a neutral expression upon his handsome face.
“Is Alice here, by any chance?” he asked politely, his eyebrows raised.
“Yes, she is. Come on in” Annabelle said stiffly, her eyes set on his face.
Cale nodded and stepped past them both efficiently, heading straight for their lounge. When he saw Alice lying on the sofa, his expression changed instantly. His mouth twisted and his eyes were full of pain and frustration.
“So this is what happens when I tell you everything you want to know, wife. Well, anywho, I’ve come to take you back home. Where you’re needed” he said coolly.
Cassi raced back into the room then, and glared up at him, her eyes darkened and feral.
“She is needed here, you demon! I need her! And I love her! Why don’t you leave us all alone?” she screamed at him, her hands clenched into small fists by her sides.
Cale calmly observed her, then bent and lifted Alice up. She couldn’t fight any longer; the bleeding had worn her out and she could feel the thing growing inside her at a more rapid pace; he was going to kill her, she was sure of it.
Cassi ran after them and threw stones at Cale’s back, but he didn’t flinch nor turn around.


5

That night, Alice rolled over in her sleep and suddenly woke up. Cale wasn’t there; his side of the bed was empty and the sheet was cold. She sat up, wondering if this could possibly be her moment to escape. But no, she lay back on the bed and gazed up at the ceiling. There was no point in trying to run again. No one was going to help her; her own parents had let him take her back. Only Cassi, her tiny six year old sister was willing to stand up to him. And there was no way, under highest Heaven, that Alice was going to allow her baby sister to risk her short life to save her.
She pulled the covers off her and looked back down at her stomach. Her eyes were dry as dust, but the feeling of sick horror still spread throughout her being. It was growing quickly. Alice sat up again and stood up, planting her feet plat on the carpet. She made her way slowly over to Cale’s full length mirror, shrouded by darkness. The glass shone faintly in the lack of light, and she ignored the sheen coming off it. She refused to believe for one second that there was anything good, and light, remaining in Cale. She stared at her dim reflection in the mirror and then turned side on. Her abdomen stuck out farther than ever before and she could see the monster wriggling around beneath her skin. She shuddered and listened to her heart beating, rythmically thumping in her chest. She was thinner than she’d ever been, all of her natural body fat removed from her by the scary baby moving inside her.
Alice sat down on the floor and stared at herself some more, blinking very slowly, thinking. She had to do something about it. She wasn’t suicidal, so she wasn’t going to take her own life to get rid of this thing. And anyway, suppose it didn’t die after she did? Suppose it was already strong enough and it could continue to live without her, its unwilling host? Its mother…
Alice slowly got up and moved back to the double bed. She perched on the end of the mattress and propped her chin in her hands. She had to do it when Cale wasn’t there to stop her from going through with it…but she couldn’t allow his child to enter the real world and stay alive, breathing the humans’ air. He might be the one to end it all one day in the future, no matter what Cale said. His son would be one of the Decreed undoubtedly. And he would know, of course he would. It was true that Cale had once been true and good; he had twice saved her life and she’d saved his. But now he was wrong, and she had to fix the wrongness in her life. Life wouldn’t go on like this forever. There had to be a way out. She no longer wanted to be the wife and mate of a werewolf, and she no longer wanted to be Cale’s lifetime plaything. She wouldn’t stand for it. She would run, and learn to protect herself. Perhaps there were others like her? Those wives and mothers of freaks who would be willing to help her in her horrific plight? It was just like something out of a horror flick…


Cale came home in the early hours of the morning to find Alice not in bed, but downstairs in the kitchen, her head and shoulders buried in one of their numerous cupboards.
“What are you doing, Al?” he asked, coming up behind her.
She didn’t jump. She’d heard him enter and steeled herself not to move.
“Looking for ingredients. I want to bake today and I can’t find anything” she pretended to complain, knowing that he would offer to help her out.
“I’ll do it. Go sit down at the table” Cale told her, giving her a half smile and gently nudging her out of the way.
He lightly touched her stomach, but she didn’t wince or dodge away from him as he thought she would. Instead, Alice smiled blindingly at him and wandered over to sit down in her usual place at the dining room table. She leaned forward and rested her skinny elbows on the shiny polished wood surface and looked blankly down at her lap. But when Cale came to stand by her side, she instantly smiled again, turning up the power wattage. She knew she had stunned him, and felt no guilt in doing so. She was getting out of here, and she wasn’t going to allow him to sway her.
“Everything’s out on the bench for you” Cale said quietly, helping her out of her chair.
Alice nodded, forced herself to kiss him on the cheek, and then sashayed back into her kitchen. She went about the process of baking chocolate fudge brownies; they were Cale’s favourite.
From where he now sat at the table, Cale could smell the strong, mouth watering scent of the baking brownies, even when they weren’t yet in the oven.
Alice smiled to herself and mentally patted herself on the back. Hopefully, he won’t want to use the computer anytime too soon. Her search results would still be available in the History folder. If he knew what to look for, he could easily find her discoveries. She had spent the hours he was gone goodness knows where to look up other women like her on every possible search engine she could think of. And, to her great surprise and immense relief, she found them. They had their own website, difficult to find and even harder to access. The website had a rigged system; whenever someone attempted to access the site and its information, a secret camera flicked on and searched on the person’s body for evidence of supernatural workings, such as a strangely pregnant form. And Alice had gotten in; her form was misshaped and ugly to the human eye, and those on the other end of the hidden camera knew just what they were looking at. So they let Alice in to their secret haven for wives of the supernatural.
In the time Cale had been out of the house, she had written and sent a letter to the private address they gave her. And if the letter was intercepted, and possibly opened, it would appear uninteresting and mundane. Now all she had to do was wait for the answer. She needed to leave, and if they could get her out, it would all be organised. And once she’d done her deed, she would be able to leave, and if necessary, she would never stop running.


Four days later, she received their reply. It arrived in the letter box in the early morning, care of a strange, previously unseen postman. Alice smiled and hurried outside into the fallen leaves. Cale was still gone for the moment, and that moment was all she would need to get this letter and find out what she needed most.
Dearest Alice V,
We will help. You did the right thing by coming to seek us out and ask our assistance in this matter. As you most likely already know, all of us here in the Lost Society have been through what you are going through right now. Some of us, though, were not as brave as you are. We know your plan and think it is dangerous, but courageous. We will support you and get you out as soon as you have done what you know you have to do. Many of us have never done what you are going to do. We think you will be doing this in roughly one week’s time, considering what we have seen and what you told us in your previous letter. Trust us, a small team of us will be there to get you away from his house as soon as the act is complete. Complete your task and leave; we will be waiting for you at the edge of the forest. We know where you live; have no fear. We can save you.
.-.Sisters of the Lost Society

Alice stared at the sheet of paper in her shaking hand and clasped it to her throat. She was going to escape. They were going to help her out of this place. Away from Cale. All she had to do was…no, she didn’t dare even think the words. She would burn the letter.
She walked quietly over to the tall fire place and tossed the letter onto the dancing orange flames. They burned as bright as her hair, as hot as her decision. This day would change her life and shift it in a direction she never imagined she could walk in. And yet, the path was here, right in front of her now. Alice took a deep breath and sat down in front of the fire to wait.


6

Jared and Annabelle woke up very early in the morning exactly a week later, to find Cassi standing at the foot of their bed, her arms at her sides and her head cocked to the side. Annabelle had to suppress a scream of shock when she saw her youngest’s glowing eyes. The pale, pretty blue colour was now a bright electric sapphire hue, and the irises were catlike, slanted sideways instead of being round and human. Nothing about the little girl had changed except for the strange eyes.
Annabelle extended her hand toward her, fingers trembling slightly. Cassi slowly shook her head, her dark blonde hair swinging loosely around her small pale face. She had never known what she was until she recognised similar characteristics in Cale. She was lighter than him; she was no Child of the Decreed. There was no serious darkness in her, and at least she was like a cat, not some huge hairy wolf dog.
She watched as her parents both stared at her, unable to take their eyes away from hers. She grinned and then turned to leave the room. She paused when she heard her mother’s shaky voice.
“What are you?”
Cassi sighed and turned her head a fraction. Her eyes glowed violet for a flash and then changed back to bright blue. She shrugged.
“A Changeling. Now which of you gave me a feline gene?” she asked cheekily, widening her eyes at them to emphasise her slitted eyes.
Annabelle flinched and huddled closer to Jared.
Cassi frowned.
“I’m not going to hurt you. Not even after you let Cale take Alice away. Just because you’re scared of what’s inside her. You know it’ll be living near you for a long time, so you better get used to it pretty fast” she said coolly, her childish voice bordering on harsh tones.
Her mother blinked and Jared wrapped an arm around her shoulders. But even he looked as if he was sick of the whole scared debacle, sick of his wife’s silly behaviour, unfitting for an adult.
Cassi showed him a small smile and then turned and left the room, her glowing eyes leaving a luminescent trail of light in the air all around her. Annabelle turned her face into her husband’s chest and he hugged her closer.
“Both my children are evil creatures. Or, at least, one of them is going to give birth to one” she murmured to him.
Jared sighed, suddenly aggravated, and pushed her away from him. She looked up at him, surprised, but he just turned away and clambered over the side of the bed. He stood up and paced away from his wife.
“The girls are not evil, Anna. Give it up, would you” he said bluntly; it wasn’t a question.
Annabelle fell silent at once. Jared sighed in relief and walked out of their room.


Alice woke up about an hour later, lying in a damp pool of her own blood. She didn’t try to scream, there being no point. Cale was gone again, she still had no idea where he went in the middle of the night, never returning until the small hours of the morning.
She sat up and gazed down at her lower half, watching with morbid fascination as the baby inside her wriggled and tried to get itself out. She wasn’t sure if he could do it all by himself. There was no tugging in her abdomen, no signs that she needed to push down at all. The pain was barely there, pulled back into the dark, murky recesses of her shadowy mind. Alice simply looked on in mere surprise as the thing that had been growing so rapidly, and moving around within the confines of her body, struggled to drag itself out of her.
And then the pain truly arrived. Strong waves of it shocked her, spasming up her legs and ending deep inside her head, where she couldn’t escape it. She leaned back against her pillow and screamed as loudly as she could, completely unaware that the baby monster was screaming too, as it tried to claw its way into the outer.
Sweat poured down her face as the blood flowed out of her. But after a long while, she became calmer and instead watched as her stomach steadily got flatter and flatter, all of the pain disappearing as the reason for the pain emerged into the world.
Just as she was about to lean forward to view the newest member of the Decreed, Alice caught sight of a flash of bright colour in the doorway to the bedroom. She glanced up and saw Cassi, leaning round the door jamb and staring in at her. She wasn’t looking at the end of the bed, where Alice knew the baby was lying, struggling for breath and bloody as a crime scene.
“Cass, what are you doing over here? It’s too dangerous for you here. Go back home” she said, panting for breath, just like her baby.
She looked more closely at her little sister, and for the first time noticed the frightening glowing eyes. She didn’t flinch away, or scream in terror. She merely sighed and beckoned her near.
Cassi walked further into the room and Alice grabbed her chin gently in her right hand, turning her face up to the light from the sun.
“So, Cale’s not the only one around here. What are you, exactly, little sis?” she asked calmly.
Cassi backed up again, standing right back by the door.
“Changeling. I’m not bad like him, Al” she whispered, risking a swift glance at the baby.
Alice sighed again and nodded wearily.
“Yeah, I know what he is now, Cass. Now please go home. No matter what, stay away from Cale and from this baby. I have to go away; I can’t stay here any longer” she said quietly, eyeing her sister to make sure she knew and understood.
Cassi nodded, darted forward to kiss Alice on the forehead, and then ran out. They were never going to see each other again.
Now that there was nobody watching, Alice drew her knees up underneath her and crawled slightly down the bed to get a good look at the tired baby she’d just given life to. She sucked in her breath and blinked away the sudden onslaught of tears. One glance at him and she knew that she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill this child of hers, no matter what he might eventually turn out to be in his life after she left him forever.
Alice knew that the team from the Lost Society would be waiting for her out in the woods somewhere on the fringe, and she also knew she didn’t have much time left to her before Cale came back home.
She climbed down off the bed and limped over to the dresser, ripping open one of the drawers, in which she kept a stack of plain white writing paper and a bunch of pens tied together with a rubber band. She hurriedly extricated one from the bunch and write a name on a torn off bit of paper. Then she placed the one word note next to the tiny boy lying on his back on the bed. Her new mother instincts briefly kicking in, Alice stopped to clean him off and cover him with a small, warm blanket. She didn’t feed him; she couldn’t bear to do that for fear of becoming too attached and choosing the worst thing possible: staying behind. She bent to kiss his downy black hair and then went about dressing herself. She chose nondescript clothing items: a black long sleeved t-shirt, black jeans, a long black trench coat and plain black combat boots.
Alice took a deep breath in once more and turned around to face the open door. To her immense relief, there was no one standing within its frame. She risked one last glance at her son, and then she ran: downstairs, down the hall and out the front door. She caught a glimpse of a small group of women waiting for her to her left, where they said they’d be waiting for her.
They welcomed her and enveloped her into their circle of the Lost.
“We’ll hide you and keep you safe forever, don’t you worry, Alice V” the young Italian woman told her, smiling openly.
Alice smiled nervously back at her and managed to nod. They asked for no answers, she gave no questions.


Thirty minutes after Alice was gone, Cale arrived back at the house. He knew at once something was out of kilter with the way things were in his already too complicated existence. The house felt empty. He ran up the stairs two at a time and ended up in his bedroom, coming to realise that it was where the emptiness emanated from.
He walked slowly in, at first not noticing the bundle in the center of the double bed. Then he did, his eyes roaming all around the room. They finally lit on the blanket and the shred of paper lying beside the bundle. He came closer and picked up the note. He read it. Aron. Cale gazed around him again, and then removed the blanket from whatever lay beneath the covering. He closed his emerald eyes very briefly before forcing himself to open them once again.
This was his son. And Alice had named him Aron. So he was Aron Vreeland, missing a middle name. Cale knew right then and there that the boy would never own a middle name. He also knew for certain he would never see Alice Nichols, his best friend, ever again in his life. And it would be a long one.
He sighed heavily and picked up his child. Aron then suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a bold, unflinching grey gaze. Cale smiled very faintly down at the boy.
“You’ll do” he whispered softly. “You’re all I’ve got left of her.”
Aron appeared to frown and his eyes turned cold. Cale shivered and turned his face away. The boy would just have to do. There was nobody else to replace him. And she had gone.
Again. But this time, she wasn’t waiting for him to rescue her from the jaws of the wolf. Because he was the wolf.


7

Alice woke up in an unfamiliar place, her hand pressed to the small, perfectly circular hole in the side of her neck. She tried to remember what had happened. The women had drugged her so she wouldn’t know where she was going. They’d said it made it so much harder for anyone who wanted to, to follow them and track her down.
She struggled to a sitting position and appraised her surroundings. The bedroom walls were painted a stark white and there were blank photo frames hanging haphazardly a few feet away from each other on all four walls. What photos was she supposed to put into those frames? She had no photos left; she felt a sudden pang of regret for leaving behind her collection of photos of Cale she took back when they were just kids together, and bore no heavy responsibilities on their young shoulders.
Alice slid out of bed and immediately felt the lightness in her. There was no longer a dark thing inside her womb and her stomach was once again flat. There were no stretch marks in sight. Alice walked cautiously over to a mirror standing up against one of the white walls, and stood in front of it, twisting and turning her body to see each angle. Nothing. She sighed and took a few steps back again. She felt strangely regretful, the notion that she left something precious behind swelling up inside her chest. Then she forced it out of her. They had told her that this was bound to occur: an inner battle that she would never be able to win if she let it begin. So she didn’t.
Alice turned in a circle where she stood and silently surveyed the single bed with its narrow gilt frame, the blank photo frames, the plain wood door shut tight, the empty bedside cabinet and the large, towering chest of drawers. There was no wardrobe, but the Lost Society women had commissioned for her an entirely new range of clothes, all in fairly blasé colours so that she would not catch anyone’s particular notice.
She sighed and pulled open the top, left hand drawer. She began to dress, excuses for her recent behaviour forming in her head as she began a new life all on her own.


Cale tried to leave in the middle of the next night, but as soon as he set foot on the grass outside the house, he heard the baby’s cries. He sighed sorrowfully, stole one final glance at the still dark forest, and walked resignedly back inside.
Aron’s baby nursery was plainly painted in palest blue, bordering on the colour of his beautifully strange eyes. He opened those eyes and gazed up at his father with a stare far too knowing and intelligent, too clear for a normal newborn. He watched as Cale leaned over the crib railing and observed him calmly, blinking every once in a while. Cale, too, watched his child in turn. He tilted his head to the right, and listened acutely to the whistling sound coming from Aron. A slow smile eventually unfurled across his handsome face and he nodded, satisfied.
“You’re a Storm Child” he murmured quietly. “Aren’t you?”
Aron, of course, made no reply, but his eyes seemed to confirm Cale’s realisation, the grey depths swirling around the black pupil. Cale’s own green eyes widened and for a moment or two, he was unable to think straight; he couldn’t control his own mind. He shook his head hard, refocusing himself. He stared down at little Aron, his and Alice’s son, and knew just what else he was as well. A Control. This tiny baby had the potential to be incredibly dangerous, and very volatile if he couldn’t learn to keep his temper under control. And his temper would be tested many times as he grew up. He had no mother to teach him such things as patience and sharing. Cale knew instinctively that he would raise the boy without any real morals; he would never be taught how to share or play nicely with others his own age, or those who were younger than he. But he would teach him two rather important things to carry with him throughout his lifetime: don’t miss anything, and always remember to pick on those your own size.
Cale smiled to himself and held out his hand toward the somber looking baby. Aron stuck out a hand and grabbed his index finger, forcefully pulling the digit into his mouth and sucking hard. Cale’s eyes widened yet again when he felt the tiny milk teeth digging into his flesh. Aron had been born with teeth. He shuddered. The boy was no destined to Turn into a werewolf later on, but he would possess a terrible strength that no one had ever held before him. If he ever fell in love, like Cale, he would surely drive out the one he loved. Kill her or force her away by his own hand.
He took his hand back and met Aron’s serious stare. The grey eyes began to swirl inwards again, so he turned away at once and walked back towards the bedroom door. He thought it strange that the child had no need of food. He had been existing in the world for a day and yet had seemed to need no form of sustenance at all. Oh, well. Cale shrugged and walked out, closing the door behind him. All would be figured out in good time.


There was a brisk tapping knock on the front door. Alice turned in a hurry, her eyes going wide and panic stirring in her stomach. She walked extra slowly down the hall to answer the door, after peering through the diamond side panes and seeing one of the women from the night before standing on the WELCOME doormat. Relief surging through her, Alice pulled the door open and smiled fleetingly at the young woman standing before her. She was the Italian woman who had spoken to her.
“Hello. I’m really sorry, but I don’t know if they told me your name” she said sheepishly, holding out her right hand.
The other woman took it, laughing, and then released it again.
“That’s fine. When we rescue those who are in dire need of our help, we don’t give our names until we know exactly who will be set to live near them. You will know no names except for mine, because I live down the street. You are now in Mobile, Alabama, and nobody else knows where you live except for us in the Lost Society. You’ll be safe here, and your husband won’t be able to find you. May I come in, please?”
Alice nodded and stepped aside to let her pass. She walked down the hall ahead of her and into the pristine white tiled kitchen. She hopped up onto a chair at the counter and smiled at Alice as she, too, chose a seat and swivelled to face her.
“My name is Isadora and I was born in Colorado. I fell in love with a Storm Child when I was fifteen years old…” the Italian woman told her, suddenly stopping when she saw Alice’s face.
She quirked an eyebrow and Alice blushed profusely.
“I’m sorry. But…Storm Child?” she asked, strongly perplexed.
Isadora laughed again.
“He wasn’t a child at the time, Alice. That is just what they’re called. That is their supernatural title, but they grow at a relatively normal pace, mostly just like anybody else. Except…except they aren’t just like anybody else. Storm Children can manipulate weather and can create natural disasters in the blink of an eye. And I’m not kidding. I once saw Danjou call up a tornado like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It went on for days and wrecked entire cities. I’d never seen him so angry in the years I’d known him” she continued, then paused, knowing Alice would ask the same question everyone else always asked her.
“Why was he so mad?” Alice asked predictably, her voice smaller than usual.
Isadora smiled wistfully, her gaze turning inward and vanishing somewhere into the past. She folded her hands together in her lap and straightened her shoulders.
“He was twenty, I was eighteen, and I had just told him I was carrying his baby. He was thrown into a temper the likes of which you nor I have ever seen. I haven’t seen anything like it since that morning five years ago” she replied calmly.
Alice glanced down and saw that Isadora’s fingernails were digging into her hands, leaving half moon imprints pressed into her flesh.
“You don’t have to answer me, but I can’t help asking. What happened to your baby?” she asked, speaking softly.
Isadora shook her head slowly, her eyes now closed.
“It’s okay, I understand that. My little Starre lives with her father in France, and I haven’t seen her since the day she was born. Danjou organised the Lost Society to come and get me. I did not want to go. He thought I would be safer without him, but he would not give me my baby Starre. He forced me to go without either one of them and whisked our daughter away to Paris. She undoubtedly speaks only French” she said, ending in a mere whisper.
Alice reached out and lightly laid a hand on her arm.
“I am sorry, Isadora. What is your daughter? Do you know? Did Danjou tell you?” she asked.
Isadora nodded again.
“Yes. Starre is a Phoenix. She can create and manipulate fire and flame. I don’t even know what she looks like now!” she exclaimed, starting to weep.
Alice frowned faintly at her, trying to come to terms with her next decision.
“Can I tell you something truly secret?” she asked cautiously.
Isadora nodded and choked out a semblance of an answer through her tears.
Alice breathed in deeply and opened her mouth again.
“I didn’t kill my baby. I couldn’t do it, in the end. His name is Aron and he is beautiful” she said, beginning to feel emotional herself.
But all that was swept away when Isadora lifted her head and stared at her, her tears suddenly gone. Alice all of a sudden felt very cold. Isadora stared at her with hardened dark brown eyes.
“You didn’t kill him?” she repeated, her voice getting steadily louder.
Alice shook her head, confused.
“No, I just said that. I couldn’t murder him, I just couldn’t do it!” she exclaimed, starting to panic at the fierce look on her companion’s face.
“He will be the end of us then. You were meant to kill him, Alice. That was your duty, to rid the world of poison. Now everyone will die” Isadora said darkly, her eyes focused firmly on Alice.
Alice stood up, eyes flashing as a feeling of protective authority rushed through her.
“You didn’t kill your daughter! How could anyone expect me to kill my own son?” she demanded loudly.
Isadora jumped to her feet, too. She pressed a finger to her lips, eyes wide.
“Shh! You can’t tell anyone!” she hissed urgently.
Alice folded her arms across her chest and glared defiantly at the taller woman, four years older than she.
“I’d like you to leave now, please. Even though I cannot be there physically for my son, I will still protect him if and when I can” she retorted staunchly.
Isadora smirked slightly at her and headed for the door. Once she reached it, she turned back to face Alice where she stood still in the kitchen area.
“He doesn’t need your protection, Alice V. You’re going to need his if you want to survive the War” Isadora called out.
She opened the door and slipped outside, shutting it quietly behind her.
Alice sank down onto the floor where she was and stared with blank eyes at the solid door several feet away from her, down the other end of the white corridor. Everything in this damn house was white.
What on earth had she done? Her son was the earth’s poison and she had no power to do anything about it.
Maybe, maybe…
She could still hope.


8

Later that afternoon, just after Alice had found the strength to lift herself up off the floor, the doorbell rang, the sound of the bell trilling all throughout the little house. She dragged herself back down to the door and slowly twisted the door knob to open it. The entire team of Lost Society women stood on her doorstep, firm expressions on their faces.
“What do you want?” she demanded flatly.
Her eyes were dark grey now, signifying just how angry she truly was. The clearness was all gone and her pale cheeks held hectic spots of ruby red.
Isadora pushed her way to the front of the small crowd to stand right in front of her.
“You are endangering us all by leaving your son alive. You have to go back and kill him to save the rest of the world from sure destruction” she said defiantly.
Alice crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, her bright red hair trailing over her shoulders.
“No, you’ll just have to fend for yourself, won’t you?” she retorted sharply, thinking of her baby son so far away from her.
The women advanced on her, forcing her to retreat inside the hallway.
“No matter what you do to me, I am not going to kill my son” Alice said stoically, dropping her arms and letting them hang loose at her sides.
Isadora smiled at her and shook her head.
“It might even be too late by now for you to kill him. Each Child is different, and nobody knows how fast he’ll grow. We’ll kill him” she said, tilting her head to one side and observing Alice’s face carefully.
“And how are you gonna do that?” Alice snapped back. “I’m still here.”
Isadora shook her head.
“You won’t be for long. You just wait” she replied, bringing her hand up.
Reflexively, Alice glanced down, just in time to see the needle and syringe in Isadora’s left hand. She had no time to react as the silvered, sharp tip of the needle bit into the side of her neck and the contents of the syringe plunged into her bloodstream.
Almost immediately, Alice swayed on her feet, her eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to stay awake. But then she closed her eyes involuntarily and slumped onto the floor, her knees crumpling underneath her.


When she eventually reopened her eyes, there was a shallow slice opening up her forehead across the middle, and someone was cleaning the dried, congealed blood off. Alice groaned and groggily searched the face floating above her own. The woman was in her early thirties, with cropped blonde hair and concerned brown eyes.
“You were shanked on the way in here. Don’t worry about it, they do it to us all, to mark us. You’ll heal up just fine. My name’s Mandy. I’ve been here for the past fourteen years” she told her, trying to smile.
Alice sat up slowly, her head pounding viciously.
“Where’s here, Mandy? And I’m Alice” she murmured.
Mandy shrugged.
“No one knows, Alice. The Lost Society bring those of us who don’t do what they want and lock us up for who knows how long. Maybe until we die. What’s your story?” she asked patiently.
Alice sighed heavily.
“I am married to a werewolf. My son is something that I don’t know what. They want me to kill him, but I can’t and now they’re going to find him and kill Aron themselves! What’s your tale?” she said quietly, sniffing and wiping away her brand new tears.
Mandy patted her back.
“When I was sixteen, I was a victim of a vampire attack. I never knew his name, but he raped me and two weeks later, I gave birth to a little boy with black eyes and a hunger for blood. I raised him on my own for one year and then left with the Lost Society team. And try not to worry too much about your Aron. They said the same thing with my boy Taylor, and they did find him, but not until he was fifteen. They tried to kill him, but by that stage, he was too strong for them. Trust me, Alice, by the time they get to Aron, he’ll be able to slaughter all of them, top to toe. No matter what he is” she answered, smiling properly for the first time.
Alice blinked up at her, past the veil of tears.
“Why do they take so long? Don’t they learn?” demanded, flicking a curl behind her ear.
Mandy grinned wryly at her.
“Nope. Apparently not. They think they know everything, but they know next to nothing. They don’t really know what the kids are capable of, even when they’re babies. I mean, when I had my baby, I couldn’t feed him properly because he sucked blood. Your baby might be even worse than that, but nobody knows for sure. He’s not a werewolf, like his father?” she checked, finishing up cleaning Alice’s cut.
Alice shook her head.
“No. He has my eyes, he’s not a werewolf” she said definitively.
Mandy raised her eyebrows.
“All right then” she muttered, turning away and sitting down.
Without saying anything else, Alice gingerly felt the number carved into her forehead. She paled further when she traced the number ‘112’. The singular digits were all linked together, to form one long sloping laceration. There were more than a hundred of them in the institution, and none of them had ever gotten out.


Back home in New Hampshire, Vale answered the doorbell, carrying Aron in his arms. Annabelle and Jared were there in front of him, the former rocking back and forth nervously on her heels. They both stared at the baby.
“Is that…?” Annabelle asked shakily.
Cale nodded.
“Yeah, this is Aron. He’s your grandson” he told them.
He shifted Aron off of his shoulder and turned him round to face them. At the sound of words being spoken, he had opened his eyes, and now he was staring, wide eyed, at his grandparents. Jared gazed back at the boy, then all of a sudden his pupils dilated and shifted. Annabelle’s soon followed suit. Quickly, Cale turned Aron back to him and placed his hand firmly against the back of his head. He gently stroked the soft black hair and smiled benignly at his parents-in-law.
“So, what brought you over here?” he asked pleasantly.
Jared blinked and shook his head, as if to rid it of some terrifying, uncomfortable memory.
“We came to see Alice. We didn’t know what to expect with the baby” he said, sounding vaguely disoriented.
Cale arched an eyebrow.
“Alice isn’t here. Were you expecting something much different to what you see before you now?” he replied, his tone slightly acidic.
Annabelle shot him a falsely bright smile and shrugged her delicate shoulders.
“I wasn’t really sure, to be honest, Cale. I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what the child would look like. He looks quite normal” she said, staring fixedly at the back of Aron’s head.
She pulled her hand out from behind her back, and in it glinted a tiny silver pistol. She carefully cocked it and pointed the muzzle at Aron’s skull.
Cale looked right into Jared’s eyes and saw the anger and fear warring behind his gaze. Very slowly, he grasped Aron and moved him back and away again, to face the adults.
Aron’s irises, grey as storm clouds, began to rotate around the dark pupils and one of his tiny hands gripped his father’s finger. Cale concentrated, scowling faintly.
“You are not going to shoot Aron. You will leave right now and you will not ever come back” he ordered, his voice blank but forceful.
Slowly and out of her own control, Annabelle lowered the little gun and turned her back on the house. Jared followed her and as soon as they were both out of his sight, Cale took his son back inside the house. He shut the door.


Epilogue

Fifteen years later, Alice again woke up, opening her eyes and meeting an equally familiar and unfamiliar gaze. That was the only unusual part of her morning. The room was still dimly lit, the high windows letting in only thin slats of dawn light.
Alice glanced over to her right and saw Mandy, now forty six, hunched up in a corner, her brown eyes wide with absolute fear. She sat up properly in her bed, then swung her legs over the edge of the mattress. Mandy was mouthing unintelligibly at her and shaking her head, but she was too preoccupied with the boy standing before her, taller than she’d thought he would be.
The boy wore black jeans, a tight black t-shirt without a jacket even though the temperature in the room was freezing, and heavy looking black combat boots. He had his father’s black hair, but it was curly like his mother’s, and his mother’s translucent grey eyes. His mouth was set in a semi permanent smirk, his eyebrows arched.
Alice had to suppress a sigh. He was even more perfect than his father, and she had dreamed of what he looked like for years. She took a deep breath in.
“Aron” she breathed it out.
He looked suspiciously at her, oddly intrigued by the tone in her voice. He reached a hand up and ran it backwards through his thick hair. It was the colour of spilt ink; his eyes looked foggy by comparison.
“Hey, Mom” he said casually, his voice deep and rough sounding.
“Happy birthday” Alice whispered clearly, smiling faintly up at him.
She stood and moved to stand in front of him, her head reaching only to his chest.
Aron laughed derisively and rolled his eyes.
“Thanks” he muttered, staring back at her.
Alice cocked her head to one side and gazed into his face, drinking in the sight of him, after fifteen years apart. Her son turned fifteen today, and he had come to find her. She reached out for him and he stayed stock still, letting her gently touch his face and jaw. She had never been able to touch him, to hug her boy. There was something showing in his eyes that she couldn’t quite identify. She lay her palm against his cheek, and he absently leant his face into her hand, closing his eyes for a few moments.
“What can you do, baby? What are you?” Alice asked quietly, forgetting all about Mandy and their imprisonment.
Aron smiled then, a cold expression, and took a step back.
“Because you are my mother, I won’t show you my Control. I Control minds, Mom. But I am a Storm Child. See these eyes? That’s your doing. Storm Children only ever have grey eyes. I have none of Dad’s werewolf gene. I found you easily enough though, I must admit. They didn’t hide you very well” he said easily, his natural arrogance shining through.
Alice took her hand away from his face and narrowed her eyes at him instead.
“Did they come for you?” she asked cautiously.
Aron nodded and shrugged.
“Not to much effect, though. You needn’t worry for me, Mom. I can take care of myself. They’re all dead. Every single one of those conniving, interfering women. All dead” he said, looking and sounding as if it were nothing abnormal to him to have murdered so many.
Alice raised her eyebrows at him. He was colder than she’d thought he’d be.
“How…how is your father?” she asked, losing all control and holding out hope for Cale’s life.
Aron shrugged again, inspecting his nails with careless scrutiny.
“He’s dead, too, Mom. Don’t worry about him. I dealt with him for what he did to you almost as soon as I could talk. I love you, you see. I couldn’t let him carry on after what he did, even if what he did resulted in me” he replied cavalierly.
Alice choked and fell backward onto her bed. She looked back at Mandy, who stared at her with horror.
“Alice, he has to leave. He has to get out of here! He’ll be the end of everyone and everything! I understand them now! I understand it all! He’s evil! Destruction personified! You should have killed him when you had the chance!” Mandy shrieked.
She was cut off instantly after Aron casually lifted a hand and snapped his fingers at her. Alice was temporarily blinded when a flaming golden white lightning bolt spiked down through the ceiling above their heads and burnt Mandy where she sat, still huddled up in her corner. When her vision returned, she gaped in terror at the blackened, charred remains of her one and only friend. Then she looked up at her son.
Aron looked less than shocked. His irises started to spin and instinctively, she glanced away towards the farthest wall. Aron chuckled coldly at her reaction. He walked round to stand in front of her again and tipped her head up with two fingers beneath her chin.
“No, you shouldn’t have killed me, Mom, and I’m glad you didn’t. I’m glad that you loved me too much to end my life before it had even begun. And for that, I’m going to reward you. I’ll let you live, even when I’ve killed everybody else on the planet” he told her, his voice calm and even kind.
Alice slowly backed up from him, but he just walked after her, unwilling to let her leave him a second time. Not after he found her again.
Aron lunged for her and caught her, spun on his heel and pulled her after him into the spinning gold vortex thundering in the now obliterated centre of the bedroom.


Less than a day after Alice met her son again, they stood together, utterly alone, on the edge of the destruction Aron left in his wake, wherever he went. He protected her, but he cared about no one else in the world, so he had no doubts about destroying all of it, country by country.
Right now, they stood in the middle of Scotland, burning debris scattered all about them. Alice stared in frightened wonderment at the disaster surrounding her on all sides. She clung tight to Aron’s left hand, the one he didn’t necessarily need to work his magic. He turned to look down at her and grinned, his grey eyes flashing with power.
“So how’s about it, Mom? Like it?” he asked naughtily, fifteen year old immature glee showing on his handsome, cold face.
Alice slowly shook her head, as he knew she would. Instead of getting angry, he merely shrugged and pulled her with him yet again.
He paused, though, when a slight figure materialised in the smoky distance. He waited for the figure to come closer and then started to spin a tornado with a flick of his wrist. A clear, girlish laugh came from behind the dusty haze and Aron stopped, his eyes widening as a burst of pure heated flame appeared in front of his face, the end of the flame attached to a young woman’s hand like a leash. She was small and slender, with long midnight black hair slicing past her high cheekbones like a raven’s wing. Her ruby red eyes glowed as the fire leapt from her palm and encircled her like an embrace.
“Hello, Aron. I’ve been waiting for you for a long, long time. What took you so long?” she asked, her voice melodic and piercing to the untrained ear.
Aron didn’t flinch.
“Who are you?” he demanded, his own voice strong and unbending in its authority.
She laughed again.
“Starre. Now come with me” she replied, ordering him.
Aron didn’t like that. No one instructed him. No one.
He raised his right hand in the air and threw a bolt of fiery lightning towards her perfect face. Starre giggled and flicked it away from her, not even bothering to watch as it dissipated into nothingness. Aron raised one eyebrow and stepped toward her. She watched and smiled, before reaching out to him and gripping his arm tight. With a yell, Aron was torn away from his mother and into Starre’s fire. Alice reached for him, but to no avail. She couldn’t survive in this dead world without him, and he was trapped with that girl.
Aron turned back with an agonised expression on his face, hands outstretched.
“Mommy!” he yelled, his man’s voice breaking in half.
Alice lit up at the sound of that undeserved title, so heartbreakingly thrown at her. She lifted her hand to wave to her baby, love in her heart even as he ruined life. The very last things she ever saw before she, too, died, were Aron’s anguished face and Starre’s triumphant smile.
So Aron lived.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 25.05.2011

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