Beastmora- The Golden Six

by Kayley Behler

  “Emalia come here,” Florence called, Emalia left Callan’s side and knelt beside their mom and examining the body, “Do you see what I see?”

  “By the Creator,” Emalia whispered, clearly understanding what her mother had seen and nodded to Florence as if to confirm, “This isn’t a demon.”

  “What is it then?” Xander asked, his brows drawn together in confusion. Emalia moved towards a different corpse looking it over, her face was etched with anxiety as she nodded to their mother again.

  “It is a halfling,” Florence responded, wiping the blood from her hands, “Only part of these things are demons, the rest are halflings.”

  “How is that even possible?” Callan said, moving to stand by Emalia protectively, “Halflings don’t just up and attack like this.”

  “They do if they’re being controlled,” Emalia added with a sigh exchanging a look Valeria couldn’t interpret with their mother, “This has Him written all over it. I wish I had seen the bomber, that would confirm it for sure.”

  “I saw him,” Valeria blurted out before she could stop herself. Everyone in the group turned to look at her, and she gulped before continuing, “The bomber I ran into him earlier and...I saw him headed towards you, Em but the bomb went off before I could warn you.”

  “For a second I thought you were talking about Him,” Florence said with a sigh of relief before standing from her place and helping Emalia to her feet, “We can’t discuss this here.”

  “Did you see a mark on him?” Emalia asked, ignoring their mom, her blue eyes blazing at her taking Valeria off guard. She’d never seen her sister so focused on something other than her art.

  “Yeah, the same one that’s on some of my roommates,” Valeria responded nervously before pausing. How did Emalia know about the marks?

  “I think that’s enough,” Callan said before her sister could say anything else, “Too many ears, Cheeks.”

  “You’re right, I’m sorry. Let’s get back to the Manor.”

  “A medic needs to check you over before we leave,” Derik spoke up, taking Henrik from Valeria’s arms. Florence’s eyes flickered over the room, sorting through the people to find a free Healer.

  “I don’t need a Healer! I am a Healer, I am perfectly capable of checking you all over” Emalia protested but closed her mouth at the look her parents were giving her.

  “We know you’re brilliant, Cheeks but you always ignore your own body. Besides I don’t think your mom was asking,” Callan said, running his hands down her arms which seemed to placate the other wolf.

  “I’ll grab a Healer,” Florence stated before parting from the group, a few moments passed before she returned with two Healers that were not occupied. They were all quickly looked over, much to Emalia’s annoyance. Once the Healer’s finished their inspection, Mamoru had come back over to the group and announced that their carriage was waiting to take them back to Grey Manor.

  “You are welcome to ride with us,” Derik offered to Xander and Ivan as they turned to leave.

  “No, we should get back to Nova,” Xander said with a shake of his head, “We will stop by tomorrow with Nova. I think Henrik could use a distraction.”

  “I need to see my little chick,” Ivan added on pulling impatiently on Xander’s left arm.

  “Till tomorrow night then,” Derik replied with a laugh, and the phoenix couple walked off arm in arm. He looked to Emalia who was leaning against Callan’s chest, “You two are coming home with us.”

  Callan opened his mouth to reply, but Florence cut him off, “Do you really want to test my patience right now?”

  “You wouldn’t do anything in front of you-” He trailed off as her mother gave him the Look, “Em, I think we should head back to Grey Manor with your parents.”

  “And they said you wouldn’t learn,” Florence said patting the wolf’s back. If they had been anywhere else Valeria might have laughed at the situation, but as they walked towards the carriage all she could think about was how she was going to tell them it was all her fault and where did her grandfather go when the bomb went off?

  * * *

  Chapter Fourteen

  Confessions & Consequences

  The ride back to Grey Manor was utterly silent. Everyone seemed to be trapped in their own thoughts. The only one at peace was Henrik who snored silently against Florence’s chest, their mother’s fingers running gently through his curls. Valeria envied her little brother for being able to sleep right now. Her mind was too plagued by her guilt for the ride to lull her to sleep. She couldn’t think of how she was going to tell them it was all her fault.

  “Behind my back,” Derik whispered all the sudden, his eyes going wide.

  “What?” Florence replied, looking to her husband, curiously.

  “You had a slither on me,” He said, and Valeria watched as her mom winced, “Behind. My. Back. Florence, we talked about this. I am a grown vampire, not some fledgling who needs the protection of your spies!”

  “Well...yes,” Florence replied, giving Derik a sweet smile, “I’m sorry?”

  “Typical,” Derik said with a scoff, “You suffer one injury and suddenly she thinks you can’t handle yourself. Behind my back.”

  “You actually suffered two injuries, my heart,” Florence answered, placing a hand on Derik’s leg which he proceeded to make disbelieving noises and put her hand back into her own lap. The carriage lapsed back into silence as she watched her father sit there in mock indignation and her mother not looking remorseful at all. Callan peered on in disgust, and Emalia giggled behind her hand, but Valeria couldn’t bring herself to laugh. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that the silence was broken again.

  “Damn this thing,” Callan said, breaking the silence as he smashed his hand into his communicator, “You pay all this money, and one little blast makes it trash.”

  “Callan, beating it up won’t make it work,” Emalia said with a sigh putting his hand over the broken communicator.

  “It works on beasts, why shouldn’t it work on this?” He replied, causing her sister to let out a small laugh as she shook her head at him.

  “What do you estimate the death toll is?” Valeria questioned, looking over at her mother. The smiles on everyone’s faces disappeared as they looked over at Florence.

  “A dozen, at least,” Florence responded, seeming to calculate things over in her head. “Almost everyone was injured, whether it be bruising or fatal.”

  “A lot of beasts around us were dead and from a look around at the wounded tonight,” Emalia spoke up but hesitated, looking at Valeria before continuing. “Quite a few won’t make it to dawn.”

  “I knew,” Valeria said suddenly, she couldn’t take it anymore. She needed to tell them everything, and she needed to right now.

  “What?” Florence asked, turning to look at Valeria. Her mom’s eyebrows were scrunched in confusion.

  “How could you have known the Demon King was going to blow up the party?” Callan scoffed looking at her in disbelief.

  “I didn’t, but I knew something was going to happen,” Valeria explained, her words spilling from her mouth, “When you asked Ziana and I if we saw anything in the halls that day in the Grey Academy. We lied. I heard two voices, planning to take action at the Anniversary party and they were demons, the Demon King, I think. We didn’t know it was a demon until we went to the museum and we heard the Demon Wolf speak.”

  “Oh, holy moonrise” Callan mumbled looking at Valeria in shock. Looking around the caravan, Valeria could see them all wearing the same expression except for Henrik who hadn’t stirred.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” questioned Florence, her tone was calm, but her eyes were lit in anger, and she noticed a matching expression on her father’s countenance. Valeria could only imagine what they were thinking at that moment. She quickly attempted to defend herself.

  “I didn’t know what the voices were talking about until later and we didn’t want them to know we were on to them-”
/>   “We?” Florence snapped, “You let yourself be peer pressured in-”

  “Florence,” Derik said, suddenly putting a hand on her mother’s thigh. Her father’s face was set into a controlled expression, “Emotions are running high right now. Let’s just get home and rest. We will discuss this at nightfall but don’t think that you are not in trouble, young lady because you most certainly are.”

  This preceded to be the most awkward, tension filled carriage ride of Valeria’s entire existence. It even trumped when Demetri pranked the Headmistress of the Bloodris Academy, and their parents chewed him out in front of the whole school. Nobody talked for the duration of their journey. When they got home, the silence continued even when Nebby and Thoren came forward to crawl up their companion’s legs.

  “Until dusk,” Derik mumbled to the group as he followed Florence and a sleeping Henrik up the staircase without looking at any of them. Valeria watched them go up wishing that the Creator would strike her down or the Destroyer would swallow her up from below.

  “Try and get some rest, V,” Emalia said hugging Valeria briefly before grabbing Callan’s hand and leading him up the stairs who was suspiciously silent. Usually, he wouldn’t have a problem making his opinion known, but she appreciated his silence.

  Valeria sighed as she walked through the empty hall and up to her room. She quickly got cleaned up and put on a fresh pair of pajamas before falling into bed. Valeria was asleep before her head touched the pillow.

  ◆◆◆

  Valeria woke from her sleep with a gasping breath, the explosion still fresh behind her eyelids. She ran her hands through her tangled hair, taking deep breaths in the way her mom taught her when she was younger. She quickly pushed down the urge to go into her parent’s room, wishing her mom could hold her and tell her everything would be alright but she couldn’t. Valeria wasn’t ready to face the disappointed looks on her parents faces just yet. Instead, she wrapped a blanket around herself and made her way down the stairs, her goal was the kitchen, but she stopped, seeing her sister sketching in front of the fireplace. The wolf was wearing a soft blue sweater and loose pants that had meat skewers printed on them. There was a bottle and two glasses in front of her, but Emalia was alone.

  “Emalia?” Valeria called, moving closer to where her sister sat in front of the fire, “You’re still up?”

  “Couldn’t sleep,” She answered with a shrug turning back to her sketchbook, “And you? Why are you out of bed, V?”

  “Nightmares,” Valeria mumbled flopping down next to the wolf. Up close, she could see that her sister was drawing the explosion. She hurriedly pushed down her memories of the previous night with an awkward cough, “That’s a bit morbid.”

  “I’m cleansing my mind of bad things, you should try it. Keeps the nightmare at bay,” Emalia stated as she picked up one of the glasses and took a sip.

  “I suck at that,” answered Valeria as she picked at a string on her shirt, her eyes drifted to the second glass, “Whose glass is that?”

  “Moms, she left not too long ago. Callan was here too, but he went for a run a while back,” Valeria winced at the mention of her mom as Emalia put the sketchbook down and grabbed the second half empty glass, “Want some?”

  “I’m underage, though.”

  “So you will omit the truth from our parents, but you won’t take a sip of wine?” Her sister laughed, not unkindly, just in amusement, “It’s okay, V. It is not actually wine, just warmed cider. I’m not supposed to drink right now.”

  “Thanks,” She mumbled, taking a sip of the sweet liquid. Her sister was telling the truth it was just warm cider. The warmth of the drink settled into her stomach and made her feel full despite the lack of nutrients it provided her body, “Why can’t you drink though?”

  Her sister froze at the question before shaking her head with a nervous laugh, “It is the middle of the day.”

  Valeria shrugged and put the glass back down on the table before asking the question that was truly bothering her, “How mad do you think Mom and Dad are?”

  Emalia pondered the question for a second before responding with a wry grin, “I wouldn’t count on leaving the Manor anytime soon.”

  “Are you angry with me?” Valeria asked, watching her sister downing the rest of her cider with a contented sigh.

  “No. You’re still a fledgling despite how much you say you’re an adult,” Emalia said, putting her glass down to look Valeria in the eye, “Mistakes are part of growing up. You just made a bigger one than most do. What’s important from here on out is how you grow from this. Besides, the Demon King was bound to strike, with or without your interference.”

  Hearing the Demon Kings name made Valeria think back to the aftermath, Emalia had known about the mark, “Em, how did you know about him? I thought you weren’t involved in the cases.”

  “Because I was one of his victims,” She said simply holding Valeria’s gaze.

  “What?” Valeria gasped out, unable to imagine anyone ever hurting her sister. Also, shocked that she had known nothing about it, “Why didn’t you or Mom and Dad say anything?”

  “We never talked about how I ended up living with Mom and Dad,” Emalia explained looking away from Valeria, “They wanted me to choose when to tell you and our other siblings but I’ve put it off for so long. I have spent my entire life terrified that if I told anyone he would come back for me. I know that sounds stupid, I’m the most protected beast in Beastmora. How could he find me, but when fear comes to play, that’s when people become the most illogical.”

  “Oh, Em, I’m so sorry. I had no idea,” Valeria said regretting asking her sister about it at all. The wolf waved her off before letting out a shaky breath and continuing, her fingers fiddling with a blue string hanging off her sweater.

  “When I was around Henrik’s age, my sister, Tatiana-”

  “Wait! Tatiana as in Mom’s Tatiana,” Valeria interrupted her mind working a mile a minute trying to put together the two images in her head.

  “Yes, I was born Eirian Belikov. Anyway, during the Demon War, Tatiana took me away from our parents. They weren’t the best people and didn’t take care of me the way they should have. Tatiana had hatched a plan with Mom to get us away from the war. On our way to her, the Demon King found us and killed Tatiana. She put up a brave fight to save me, but he tore Tatiana apart then came after me. When he caught me, he marked my ribs,” She pulled up her shirt to show the same mark branded into Edith and Ziana, carved viciously into her skin taking over the majority of Emalia’s ribs. In the moment, she realized she had never seen her sister without her shirt off. Why would she have? Vampires don’t swim, and Emalia was fifty cycles older than her, so as children they never bathed or anything like that together, “After that he just left. In an act of survival, I had my first transformation, and I ran and ran until I bumped into Dad, who was camped by the barrier blocking the Dark Forest. He took care of me, and when the war was over, Mom and Dad took me home and adopted me. The rest is history.”

  “Em,” Valeria whispered her heartbreaking for the wolf. How she had no idea about any of this baffled her. Suddenly she remembered the picture on her mother’s desk, the wolf in the photo looked like Emalia because she is Tatiana’s sister. Why didn’t she connect it then?

  “Do not pity me, I am not some wounded creature that needs sympathy,” Emalia said grinning at her, “I had a rough start but no more so than some. I was fortunate to be adopted by such wonderful beasts. I’ve had a good life, one that I treasure very much.”

  Valeria smiled softly at her sister, not really sure what to say. She felt like this story was missing something, but she was too much of a coward to ask her sister any more about her biological family. Could Tatiana have had that bad of luck to run into the Demon King during the war? She watched her sister staring distractedly into the fire as if she was remembering something. Valeria figured it about Tatiana or something along those lines. Before she could find the courage to ask, the front door s
wung open, causing Valeria to jump in surprise.

  “It’s just Callan,” Emalia laughed, her eyes alight in amusement, “He went out for a run because he couldn’t sleep, remember?”

  “Yeah and I’m still not tired,” Callan said coming into the room patting his face with a towel, “Joining the insomniacs club, V?”

  “I guess,” She replied and wondered if Callan knew who Emalia really was. He probably did, and she had to admit it stung that he knew before she did. Although Valeria couldn’t fault them. They were mates after all. Shaking her head, she turned to look at Callan, “So Emalia draws, and you run. Any advice for getting rid of my nightmares?”

  “I don’t know kid, what do you like besides causing trouble?” He asked before falling onto the couch with a groan, his head laying in Emalia’s lap who immediately began taking his hair out of its bun. They spent the remainder of the day talking until they all drifted off to sleep. No nightmares plagued her the rest of the day.

  ◆◆◆

  The first thing Valeria saw when she opened her eyes the next night was Henrik sitting on the coffee table with a cup of blood in his hands. Thoren was seated beside him, lazily watching Henrik’s feet swing.

  “Good evening, V,” The fledgling said, swinging his feet happily, “Mommy said you were in trouble.”

  Valeria groaned as she sat up, her back was aching from sleeping on the couch and the reminder of what today was to hold for her, made her want to crawl back into bed preferably in her actual bed and not the couch, “Hey Henrik. Where are Mom and Dad?”

  “Mommy is outside talking to Uncle Xander, and Daddy is talking to the Grey Academy beasts,” Henrik responded, “They said to wait here for you guys to wake up.”

  “But their communicators are broken,” Valeria responded with a yawn.