Nightfall

Chapter 8

 "This is all your fault, bitch!" Rachel cried, firing an arrow at Tessa, who easily evaded it. "I only did what was best," Tessa said, raising her eyebrows at her half-sister. "Now what did I do wrong?" she asked sarcastically.

"Sage was the key to finding Ember, and now she's probably half-dead!" Rachel screeched, aiming another arrow at Tessa's head. Again, she missed, as Tessa dropped to the ground before the arrow pierced her skull. "Well at least she's useful now!" Tessa exclaimed, throwing a knife at Rachel. "If it weren't for me, she'd be dead by now due to a lack of food and your daily beatings!"

Using her crossbow to block the approaching knife, Rachel jumped off the table. "Well, we can now add "raising Tessa" to my aunt's list of achievements, along with being my father's former fuck buddy!"

"You're such an asshole!" Tessa screamed, slapping Rachel.

"Slut!"

"Whore!"

As the two siblings argued, two guards stood outside the tall steel door. The first guard rolled her eyes as the whooshing sound of an arrow reached her ears, and the second guard sighed as the clang of a knife was heard.

"Does this always happen?" the first guard asked, pulling her curly blonde hair into a ponytail.

"The noises were worse when Nathan was alive, Mackenzie," said the second guard. "Try imagining them mixed in with screams and yells."

Mackenzie shuddered. "So who is this woman Rachel is fighting with, Kendall?"

Kendall chuckled softly, her bright hazel eyes sparkling with delight. "That's Rachel's half-sister, Tessa."

Mackenzie's eyes widened. "Rachel's half-sister?!" she whispered loudly. "Rachel's only sister is Katie, and she's dead. How can Rachel have a half-sibling when Nathan wasn't with anyone before, during, nor after his marriage, and how do you know this?"

"Once you work here for at least a year," Kendall said, "you know the whole family's secrets. Especially the dead ones, considering that in this family, no one is dead until proven otherwise."

As the fighting and shouting continued, the first guard, Mackenzie, walked down the hallway with the second named Kendall, who was recounting the story of Tessa and her mother.

"Tessa's mother was a beautiful woman named Kathryn, and she was the sister of Rachel's mother, Daphne. These two sisters were twins, and they were skilled hunters, vicious and deadly. It was almost impossible to not tell them apart. One day, Nathan, Daphne, and Kathryn went on a hunt because they received word that there was a small werewolf clan near them, so they went to kill it. While in the forest, Nathan mistook Kathryn for Daphne, and we all know what happened after that."

"Wait...so he just...and he didn't know?!" Mackenzie was surprised. "Couldn't he tell them apart?!"

"Of course he could," Kendall explained. "It was pretty obvious that they were having an affair."

So what happened to Daphne? How did she react?" Mackenzie was curious, her blue eyes sparkling with interest.

"Daphne witnessed the whole thing, and she was furious beyond words. After the hunt, while Kathryn was treated for a werewolf bite on her arm, Daphne cornered Nathan, and she gave him an ultimatum: either Kathryn was killed, or Daphne would leave, and take the five year-old Katie with her. Nathan was devastated, but he knew what had to be done."

"So Kathryn was killed?" Mackenzie asked.

"Hush," said Kendall. "Nathan only acted as though he killed Kathryn, but everyone knew that she was merely sent away, for Nathan loved her too much. Well, that and he knew that she was carrying a child. Over the years, Nathan had been sending money to Kathryn, and Daphne didn't find out about that, or her niece until Tessa was three years-old, and by that time, Rachel was born. When Daphne found out, she was so shocked and enraged that she slit her own throat. Nathan said that she died of childbirth, but she really killed herself."

"Wow." Mackenzie was shocked.

"In order to start conflict about Nathan and Kathryn, people gossiped that Kathryn was bitten by no ordinary werewolf at that hunt. It was said that those werewolves could manipulate the mind, and it explained why Nathan was unable to kill Kathryn. Now that Tessa has arrived unexpectedly, people are starting up possible lies that she has inherited this gene, and that she's back for revenge on her family. In reality, no one really knows her motive."

"So do we know if Kathryn passed the wolf gene onto Tessa?"

Before Kendall could answer, the door opened, and Tessa walked out, a long red cut on her forearm and a bruise on her forehead. "Well I can answer that question for you," she said, her eyes flashing an emerald green and her cut healing up within seconds. "Yes."

"Tessa..." Kendall said, backing away very slowly. "We didn't know you could hear us."

"I can hear many things, smartass," Tessa growled.

"Wait...didn't Kathryn get treated for a werewolf bite after the hunt?" Mackenzie asked.

"She did," Tessa said, twirling her long, dark brown hair around her finger. "The only twist is...no one knew that she had another bite on her thigh. She covered it up pretty well."

"So what are you going to do to us now? Kill us?" Kendall asked, nervously glancing at the dark-haired woman.

"Well..." Tessa thought, twirling her knife around, "I'm not a predator, so I'll let you go."

The two guards looked at each other, and nodded. "Thank you, Tessa," they said, before walking back to their posts.

"However, predators play with their prey before they kill it, so it's a shame that you two won't be alive to tell anyone."

In one swift motion, Tessa threw two knifes at the guards' heads, their brains splattering the walls.

Calm and serene, Tessa called out, "Rachel! There's two dead people outside your door."

"TESSA!" Rachel screamed, walking outside to see her half-sister standing over a pool of blood and two bodies.

"You'll thank me later."

"What did you do?!"

"What I had to, seeing that those two were traitors anyway," Tessa responded, walking away.