-Boas perspective-
"That's every graveyard Osiris owns! Where else can we check!?" I yelled over to Nick, who was busy sniffing the air.
"He's definitely not here at all. Let's try Monster lane." He replied.
"Why would he be there!?"
"You got any better ideas?" He said and hurried off towards the woodline and I just hurried behind him.
We ran through the woods for a bit and my mind raced. Please, please be okay you little gremlin.
'He's my son after all! I wanna go too!' Salem's words kept scratching at the back of my mind. I hope she can forgive me for leaving without her. But I'm not letting her get hurt anymore.
"I smell him." Nick called out.
"What!? Seriously!?"
"Yeah, but I smell a lot of blood and sulfur too."
My heart sank as he said that. Soon we breached the border of the woods and I saw a mess through the treelines. Nick leaped through it and I followed behind. The first thing I saw was Aeseria zooming around in her hood, taking out scattered members of the horn. As I got deeper in, I found Nova straddling some gigantic horned lady. Who he was repeatedly bashing his fists into. Nick hit a B line toward a building, and for once wasn't fighting everything in his path. Which definitely ment whatever he was running toward was important. I skidded to a stop and slammed my palm into the ground.
"Lulu!" I yelled.
Suddenly the ground shook, rattling like an earthquake had come. Everyone in the area stopped and tried to focus on keeping their balance. That's when Lulu erupted from the ground below! My big Mongolian sandworm! She towered over everyone and bashed her way through the crowd. I took that time to run over to Nova, whose attention was fully taken by my beast.
"Nova! Where's Nyx!?"
He looked toward the building Nick was running too. "He's over there."
I held out my hand to him and whistled, summoning my other familiar.
"Grab on." I said and he grabbed my arm, and I immediately felt the warm blood smearing against my arm. Soon my bad swooped in and snagged my wrist, then sped off toward Nick. "What's going on exactly?"
"Casey's injured, and Nyx pissed off the Horn somehow!" He yelled back.
What? What did he do now? We soon came over to the building Nick was standing by, and I could hear the faint sound of jingle bells playing. As we landed my whole world seemed to freeze in place. Casey was on her back with a puddle of blood under her. Cupcake, Nyx and a strange boy with chocolate skin and a mohawk was sitting next to Casey. The boy with the mohawk was holding out his hand to Casey's side. Where a bright golden shine was coming off his hands.
"Boa! Is that huge worm thing running around yours!?" A voice came from behind, I turned and saw Aeseria in the door way.
"Yeaah, just trust Lulu." I said.
"I don't think I can sustain this wound. It's way too deep and she's already lost a ton of blood. Healing isn't my strong suit either." The guy with the mohawk said.
"So what do we do!" Nyx yelled. He turned back and once he laid eyes on me, he ran over. He immediately grabbed my shirt and dropped to his knees. He looked like a mess, he even had something black falling off his body. "Boa! Do something! Please! Please! She can't die! She can't!"
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. What could I say? Should I lie and just say everything is gonna be alright? Salem, what would you say? Suddenly a goblin girl pushed her way inside.
"Mancio! I called Orion! He said he could warp this building! Just seal the wound!"
That name sent chills down my spine. Orion? Did she just say Orion? There's no way she could mean the same one, right?
"Let's hurry then!" Nova yelled. "Casey is top priority."
"Wait where are we-" Aeseria started to ask, but she and everyone else suddenly dropped into the floor.
Everyone started to scream but we were quickly silenced as we slammed down into a hard floor. Above me I could see a swirling black hole, that slowly shrank until it was gone. Leaving behind the sight of a porcelain ceiling with gold trimming. Death Magnet, my bat, whined and quickly squirmed its way from under me. Taking off into our mysterious new environment. I grumbled and sat up, taking a moment to look around. We were in some kind of fancy library. The white bookshelves practically reached to the ceiling, and they all looked full of ancient, and new books. I even found a winding staircase at the other end of the room. What is this place?
I looked over toward the group and saw the mohawk guy running Casey over to a wooden table. Nyx and Nova rushed over to her.
"Where the hell did we go? All those books smell like different guardian domains." Nick mumbled and looked over to me.
"No idea…" Aeseria replied and pulled her hood down, however she groaned and pulled her hood back up. "How is this not artificial light?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Vampires skin is sensitive to the sun. But we're mostly okay with artificial lights. This, for some reason, burned, like it was the sun."
The sun, the books, the reference to magic. It can't really be him, can it?
"I may know who this is." I said.
As I spoke, the clanking of footsteps echoed off from the winding staircase. We all turned and watched a man rushing down.
"Are we in danger?" Nick asked but I didn't respond.
I just watched as he came more into view, and my heart started to skip a beat. His chiseled jaw that once held his clean baby face now held neatly trimmed facial hair. His once long white dreadlocks were now replaced with a shortcut that came out to a fade. I even saw new tattoos on his toned arms. However, what didn't change was the round glasses that rested gently on his face.
He walked down and moved past us with books and medical supplies in hand. His turquoise eyes glanced over at me for a moment, and every memory we shared flashed back into my head. Our nights gazing at the stars, our adventures stealing from the guardians, and the day we first kissed. The look only lasted a moment, but I knew it was Orion.
"Yo, earth to Boa!" Nick yelled, which made me jump.
I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath and quickly breathed in. Right! Casey’s hurt! And Nyx is safe, I need to tell sis. I took out my phone and immediately noticed I had no service here.
"Yo, old lady. What's the deal with you and him? Your souls freaking out. Is this that guy? The one you told me about?"
I stood up and bit my lip. "Don't worry about it. Just know he's a good guy."
With that, I hurried off to the table. I watched as Orion took over for the mohawk kid, a turquoise glow came from his hands and I watched Casey's wounds start to mend together. However, she groaned and tried to fight against his arm. Nyx grabbed her right and Nova grabbed her left, keeping her down. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing could come out. Why did things have to end up like this? Why am I such a bad aunt?
'Just focus on the here and now. Let this Boa face the past Boa. Because you're not the same person anymore.' Nick's words came into mind. Right, if I'm gonna be different. I can't keep looking at the past. I'm here right now, so right now, I need to be a good aunt to my kiddos.
"Orion, how is she? Is everything okay?" I asked.
He glanced over at me for a moment, then focused back on Casey.
"She'll be okay. Granted, I don't think her left eye will be functional anymore and she needs a blood transfusion. I have O negative, so once I'm finished mending the internal damage, Mancio will help me."
"Why don't you let me help? I'd imagine my friends are confused and want answers. So he can do that while we finish. It'll be just like the good old days."
He chuckled a bit. "I figured that was you, oh great Medusa."
"Master, you know her?" Mancio asked.
"Focus on the task at hand. You're sealing is the only thing keeping her from bleeding out right now." Orion said and the boy focused forward again.
I walked over to Nyx and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"It's all gonna be okay."
"Shut up, you're just lying to me. I heard what he said about her eye! This isn't going to be okay!"
"Nyx I-?" I started to talk, but Orion hastily shot up.
"Alright quickly Boa." Orion said. "Boys, I'm sorry but you need to move away from her.”
"No way!" Nyx yelled.
"Nyx you can-"
Before I could finish, Nova came around and punched Nyx in the stomach. He dropped to his knees and Nova grabbed the collar of his shirt.
"Do what you gotta do. As soon as we can come back, you say something. Besides, zombie boy owes us some explanations."
I nodded. "Alright, take care of him Nova."
He nodded and dragged Nyx off.
…
Orion and I sat back in silence for a while. Getting the needle in and taking the blood out. And now we were taking our time getting blood into her. Mancio left once the putting in process started. Leaving us, pretty much alone.
"So, who is she to you?" Orion asked.
I glanced over at him and the heat rushed to my cheeks. Oh my gosh it was impossible to not just stare at him. He got so hot with the years!
"S-she's basically my niece."
"Ah, I see. One of Salem's then? Was that boy with the missing cheek Nyx?"
I nodded.
"Yup! This is his best friend."
He smiled.
"I'm glad to hear you're back. I heard you'd been on tour for a long time from Salem. They really missed you."
I smirked.
"Well of course, everyone could use some more Boa in their life."
"Yeah, I think I've been happy to not come home to seeing questionable animal droppings on my books. And having to wonder if it was you, or one of your familiars."
"Oh shut up!" I laughed. "You know you miss me."
He smiled slightly and glanced back at me, then back to Casey.
"So, I take it you found the fountain of youth? You still look like you're in your twenties."
"I wish, it's just a technique I learned when merging with my sweet Origin."
"Oh! How big is he now?"
"Big enough." I said. "By the way, I'm surprised you were able to heal her. Did you manage to find some spells for healing?"
"No, not really. I'm still piecing together fragments. I managed to make a small regenerative spell from what I could fathom. But it's nothing that can help with extremely fatal wounds. I'm actually getting my doctorate in medicine right now. Seeing if I understand the human body better, then maybe I can create healing spells."
I took a heavy breath.
"So there's really nothing you can do about Casey's eye?"
"I'm not entirely sure yet. We may be able to replace it with a prosthetic. Mancio is a specialist in enchantment magic and technology. He might come up with something."
I nodded, and after a bit. There was nothing left to give Casey. I took the needles out and walked over to her, running my hand along her cheek. Seeing her chest move up and down calmed my nerves a bit.
I sighed. "Thanks a bunch Orion. We're seriously lucky it was you who found us."
"Yeah, it seems like stars align just right to get us to see each other again."
He turned toward me, his eyes staring deep into my own.
"Yeah, the years were good to you. You look like a total dilf now." My cheeks flushed red and I immediately clasped my hand over my mouth.
Oh my gosh that didn't just come out of my mouth! He smirked and chuckled.
"I'm surprised you like my hair short like this." He said.
You looked like a Greek god. Stop kidding yourself! Plus you've got new tattoos! My mind raced a bit, but I managed to pull myself together. However, I had to look away from him.
"Well, I think it makes you look sophisticated." I cleared my throat and turned around. "Anyways! I should get going! I'm sure my nephew and his friends need me right now."
"Right, go ahead. I'll check over your niece a bit more. Once she's good to take home, or if she wakes. I'll let you know."
"Yup! Sounds great!" I said and marched forward.
Wow, he really hasn't changed a bit. So kind, smart, capable, calm, hopeful. Man, he ages like wine, only getting better. And to think, I was the one who chose to rip his heart in two.