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HALLOWEEN ON THE ISLE is truly something to behold. The most popular holiday celebrated on the Isle. The town really does it up and the tourists go nuts over it. This year, however, no Howards or Deanes were joining in the fun, being far too tense about a possible attack and keeping the locals and tourists safe instead. They'd mapped out and divvied up the Isle, and each of them was to pair off and keep watch tonight, just in case.
Just in case demons decided to attack innocent, unaware humans.
And if the demons had managed to get magical immunity? Unfortunately, it didn't matter, they needed to do their job regardless of the possible threats.
The countdown to the big change was fast approaching too. It was set for tomorrow night—the transformation to becoming Garudian. Rae had everything ready, only, she needed Mathew to assist her, and he'd been back and forth between the Isle and the Guardians researching his twin brother, Markus.
This morning, however, was as usual, all about coffee.
"Love birds leave the attic yet?" chirped Lizzy as she arrived in the kitchen. Charlie scrunched his features not wanting that picture in his mind. "Oh, please, like they don't have to deal with us too." She had a point. Still...
Annie was sipping on blood staring at a too quiet Courtney. She'd been like this for days now, ever since Stricker had finally given up his intel and they'd found out demons had killed her coven.
"Morning!" called out Lucas, arriving in the kitchen after letting himself in. He had a box from the Wicked Muddy Café in his hands.
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Lizzy's eyes popped wide. "Starving this morning. Sugar me, Babe."
Charlie happily obliged and dug into the box until he'd found her favorite and proceeded to hand feed his beautiful mate a creamy blueberry bismark.
"And we are the ones you're worried about." They looked up to see William smirking as Annie handed him a mug of blood.
"Vampire hearing..." Lizzy mumbled giving him a playful eyeroll.
"Riley and Rae joining us this morning?" asked Melinda as she followed behind William with a blush on her cheeks.
"No. Rae is teaching Riley some things, magic stuff. Prepping for the big change, I'd wager."
William poured Melinda a cup of coffee and handed it to her already made up with cream and sugar, just like she liked it. She grinned and thanked him with a kiss.
"My God. You've tamed the vampire and turned him human." Lizzy winked at the vampire. She still had the ability to egg him on and get his dander riled. But he merely lifted an eyebrow and agreed happily this morning. He was in a great mood seeing as he and Melinda had finished moving into their new attic retreat and had spent as many hours as possible there together.
"The big change," Charlie repeated after a minute. "Guess we'll all need to prepare for that soon."
"Very soon. One night from now, soon." Lizzy agreed with a gleam in her eyes. She pushed away the last bite of bismark, though, her skin going a bit pale. "Full. Can't eat another bite."
"You?" Charlie charged. "You can usually eat two, at least."
She shook her head. "Not today. Guess I've reached my sugar limit." She sucked in. "I need bacon."
"Thought you were too full to—" Charlie was cut off by Melinda.
"Me too, me too, me too! Start the frying pan, Lizzy, and I'll grab the slab."
And minutes later the kitchen was a raucous of pots and pans as a real full breakfast ensued. They called Emily and Michael and heard Emily shouting something along the lines, of, "Must have bacon," before the phone disconnected and minutes later they were at the door.
"Whatever my soon-to-be momma wants, she gets," Michael said with a laugh as he hung their coats and Emily vamoosed to the kitchen. "We're still trying to find everything in ours after unpacking, so this is—nice." And it was. And odd too, to feel like he was visiting his own home.
As everyone ate, Annie and William noticed Courtney pulling further into herself and Annie decided she'd get to the bottom of it and dragged the vampire out of the house under the guise of not liking the smell of bacon and thinking it was time to do some security checks. Courtney went through the motions with Annie but was not her snide, cynical self even a little.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Annie coaxed her.
"No thoughts going on up here," Courtney lied as they arrived back at the gates of the mansion. She frowned right after as she remembered who she was saying it too. "Just because I have thoughts doesn't mean I want to share." But Annie's smirk only widened, which made Courtney scowl and cave. "Fine. I don't know what I'm supposed to do now."
"How do you mean?"
"Stricker's pretty much a dead Feyk walking now that all his dirty little secrets are out. My coven was killed by demons. I can't kill demons. So, my life basically comes down to, what do I do now? I guess I thought my revenge would take a lot longer. Like, years or something. And I can't even be a reporter anymore. So, what the heck am I other than a vampire minus a vendetta and a job."
Annie gave her a sympathetic simper. "A question for the ages. It's something every vampire has to figure out, eventually. Does it help? Knowing what really happened to your coven? To Bree?"
"Yes. And no. Having closure helps, sure. But it doesn't change anything. It's not like knowing what happened is going to bring them all back. Watching Stricker take his last breath might well make me feel like a million bucks, but it's not going to bring my coven back to me."
"True. It won't."
"I'm not sure what my purpose is now. What’s the point of my existence without this need to get revenge for my coven?"
"What was your purpose before you lost your coven?" asked Annie.
"We were good witches. I was a good witch. I wasn't Howard talented, in my abilities or plagued with constant supernatural trouble... but my coven, we helped people when we could. I liked that. And I enjoyed being a reporter too. But being a vampire and a reporter doesn't really mix. At least, not yet. I'm not ready."
"I think that's wise for you to admit. But, Courtney," Annie stepped up to look her straight in the eye. "You're always going to be a good witch, in here." She patted her heart. "Even if you're not one anymore, your desire to do good isn't going to die because you did. You still have a purpose. You might not have an exact path to follow yet, but you'll find it."
And for once, Courtney didn't snap a cynical comeback or storm away on edge from Annie being so close or offering up advice. She simply nodded, taking those words to heart and was grateful for them.
##
WITH BREAKFAST CLEANED up, the gang wasn't sure what to do with themselves. They were on a countdown to the big change, of becoming Garudian, and basically, waiting for a lot of other things and plans to fall into place.
Pop.
Golden light enveloped the kitchen.
"Mathew." Lucas darted over to his lover but stopped before embracing him. Mathew was a mess. He'd never seen him like this before. He looked—exhausted. "Take us home," Lucas told him gently, without making Mathew explain. And he didn't explain or argue, simply grabbed onto Lucas and popped them back to the manor leaving everyone else at the Howard Mansion befuddled.
At the manor, Mathew collapsed on Lucas' bed, inconsolable.
Lucas got his arms around him and brought him in close, so Mathew knew he wasn't alone and encouraged him to let out his frustrations.
It took a long while for Mathew's tears to ebb enough for him to speak. Being a Guardian wasn't so different from being human when it came to emotions.
"Markus," he finally sniffled out. "We searched and searched, every record we could find on my family. It showed my mother, and where she descended from, and me, of course, but not anything about my twin. And then it all started to make sense."
"What did?"
"My mother..."
Lucas sat them up a little and let Mathew gather himself. But a terrible dread was filling Lucas' mind with bad thoughts. Things that only now rattled his brain. He was still new to Mathew's world, but one fact hadn't dawned on him.
"Mathew—your mother, she was the Garudian in your bloodline, right?"
"Yes."
"Why haven't I met her?" he asked in painful slowness.
Mathew looked resigned to defeat. "Because she's not a Guardian." It was like his whole soul deflated at having to tell Lucas the truth. "My mother is a demon."
"Oh, wow, Mathew, that is—some heavy stuff." Lucas felt like an idiot for not putting this together sooner. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
"It's not your fault, Lucas. I don't speak about it much. Ever really. Having this whole thing with Markus forced me to relive things I'd put behind me long ago."
"What's your mother's name?"
"Amara."
"Wait, isn’t that the name of the demon helping Markus..." Lucas trailed off. It made much more sense now.
"Lizzy remembered my mother's name," Mathew said with a sniffle. "I wasn't ready to face the truth that she was responsible for what was happening. That she was capable of stealing witches' blood, and murder."
"And stealing a brother you never even knew existed." Lucas wrapped his hand around Mathew's head and kissed him softly.
"Based on what we've gleaned from our history and from what happened in the attack that supposedly claimed my mother's life, our best guess is that she took Markus with her. I was a baby, so I can't confirm exactly what happened, but according to the records, my family was attacked by demons, my mother and twin killed, and my father and I fled. Ending up on The Demon Isle."
"Was it a set up?" Lucas almost didn't even want to voice the possibility. "I mean, did your mother plan it?"
"I don't know. I have few memories of my mother. My father never really spoke of her. I don't even know if she actually died that day. I've been imagining the worst scenarios, Lucas. So many different possible nightmares. Maybe she wasn't evil, and they forced her to turn evil in order to keep Markus with her. Maybe she was evil and planned the kidnapping. Whatever way it happened, my twin had no chance. He had no path to the light. He's only ever been in darkness."
"That is difficult to comprehend. Even with my family's history." The Deane's had a sordid history of their own, but in the end, none of them were responsible for the actions of others, only their own.
"Being a Guardian is the best thing that ever happened to me. I'd wish this outcome on anyone who deserved it. But we're not perfect, Lucas. Our humanity doesn't leave us just because death finds us, it stays with us, which means even though we are powerful and knowledgeable, and willing to fight evil, we forever keep some of those human frailties with us. demons were human once too. I don't understand evil. But I seriously do not understand how that humanity doesn’t eat at them, or give them pause, or..."
His body slumped into Lucas, who found no words worthy enough to warrant use. He simply held onto the man he loved with all his might until words began a natural flow out of him.
"That humanity is what makes me love you," Lucas whispered. "It makes me eager for the future. I think it makes you better, not weaker. And I think evil has a way of scraping away those layers and leaving behind only the bad stuff. Being a demon is to leave behind all humanity. Being a Guardian is to embrace it, and help it thrive. Perhaps, with time and the right conditions, a demon could be brought back into the light and have some of that humanity restored."
"Oh, Lucas. I hope you're right. Because I'm going to try to save him. My elders are unsure, but are willing to try based on the fact he was never given a choice as he should have been."
"And I'll help you, too."
"The most likely scenario," accepted Mathew, "is that my mother faked the whole attack. Maybe even being in love with my father. It was probably just a ploy to have a child and she ended up with two. But to strike my brother's existence from the Garudian records, that would require some powerful magic. I mean, magic like we've never seen before. Magic, like Rae, mysterious and powerful and unknown to us. Probably from the darkest corners of magic. My elders have tracked their bloodline down through the ages—we've never missed a Garudian birth, ever."
Lucas caught on to his lovers' unspoken fears.
"You're all wondering if you might have missed more." Lucas blew out a ragged breath in horror of that possibility.
"What if the demons have greater numbers than we know of? What if their army isn't something we can match? And now, they're working on an immunity to magic? They've been lying in wait, for the perfect time to strike. They may have been patiently building an army and putting all these plans into action, in secret, stealing others like they did my brother."
"They did not expect Rae," Lucas reminded. Although, one woman, demon killer or not, against an army of unknown size... it was a good thing the transformations were being done the next night. Time was of utmost importance, now more than ever.
Rae would need help to control the demon problem.
Lucas held Mathew against his chest and encouraged him to rest for a minute.
"Just for a few minutes," he agreed, soaking up the comfort of Lucas' arms. "I need to speak to Rae—I have her potion ready for the transformation. And I need to tell the others what we fear."
"Demon baby stealers..." Lucas growled out. The time to fight was now. The time to strengthen the Garudian bloodline was now. Even if the demons did have an unexpected army, Guardian's would soon have one of their own too.