Kin of the Damned

Chapter 24

I looked up to see my father with a gun in his hands. Tears began to cloud my vision and I ran up to him to clutch him in the tightest hug I could. "Father!"

"It's okay, Valerie, your safe now."

I shook my head, "Not yet, the war hasn't ended yet, has it?"

"No, but these monsters aren't your people. We can go home now and live as we used to."

"We can't father. You can go but I need to help these people, it wouldn't be right after all they did to help me and my friends and," I looked back at Alexios. "My friend's family is still in there, I won't let him do that alone."

"You're friends with a werewolf? They are very temperamental and dangerous beings, Valerie." He looked apprehensive.

"Father, Xios is not temperamental and dangerous, the only times he acts that way is when the person deserves it."

"Sti-" I cit him off.

"Anyway, there are more important things going on than this debate right now. There's a jeep on the road past the forest, drive it to Auntie." I push my phone and the keys into his hands.

"I'm not leaving you, I can be an mess of a father at times but I'm not shameless enough to leave my daughter to fight my battles."

"Father, please."

"No, if your going, we are going together." After a moment, I conceded.

"We should get going, they must need help." Alexios said and I nodded. We walked through the forest until there was finally a clearing and it looked horrible. Dead bodies—supernatural and human were strewn everywhere—everyone was fighting and fire was ravaging the once abundant areas of nature.

"It's too dangerous to just walk in, I'll make us invisible." It was still weird to think about how father has magic.

"You can do that?"

"Yes, now come close to me." Me and Alexios stepped as close to father as we could and we were transparent. "No one else but us can see us."

We started walking around, trying to find the base of the commanders. Suddenly, bombs full of vervain started raining down. One landed right next to me before it exploded it a large puff of purple. I looked at it, confused on what it was until it reached my skin—my eyes started watering and my skin burned like I rolled in a pit of fire.

"Val! What's going on?" A voice asked but I couldn't make it out before I fainted.

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Soft, was my first thought. This softness was much better than the cold hard ground of before. "Val? Val! Wake up!" My eyes slowly opened to the fluorescent lights, I closed them groaning and rolling to avoid it before a burning pain shot up my spine.

I screamed in pain, eyes opening to alexios holding me down. "It hurts." I cried.

"I know, calm down so I can get you some medicine." To spare myself the pain, I complied and Alexios returned with a jar of white cream. He sat down and started cutting at my clothes. It would have made me really sad but the pain I was experiencing was too much to feel all that bad. He pulled the covers to cover my nudity and started rubbing the cream into my burns.

"What happened?" I croaked.

"We were trying to find the commanders but then vervain bombs started raining down and you got burned. Luckily there was some nearby medical staff that could help." I wouldn't have pushed but his face seemed like he was hiding something.