"But, Er, there's a possibility that Blair Balfour might still be in there and what if you just killed her too!" I yelled at my best friend out of frustration. I wasn't sure how I felt about him killing my mother especially since she was an evil sorceress who knew no bounds but an idiot as this might sound, she was still my mother. I wanted her to be punished severely for what she'd done, and perhaps it would take a lifetime to pay for it but at least she'd still be alive.
'It's done. She is finally here with us, inside you.'
'You have finally gotten our revenge.'
"What do you mean she's inside me?" Panic started creeping inside me. My mother's magic was inside me, there was her essence there. What if it would turn me into something like her? Something awful and evil?
'You took her power, now it's in you.'
"What about Blair?"
'Blair is long gone, my child. Gaia isn't stupid, she took Blair's soul out of her body the second she jumped into it.'
It actually made sense. If Blair's soul was still inside the body, there was still a chance that she might try to take over her body again. My mother would never allow it to happen. Then I recalled what Deidre had once said that our body wouldn't survive without our soul in it. That was why as soon as the soul was no longer in this world, the body would start decomposing.
"Wait, so my mother must have kept Blair's soul somewhere near, right? To make sure that the body would remain as it was." I looked at Eros and Ryker who were both staring at me. "I'm sorry. I'm talking to the voices in my head. I've never actually communicated with them before, just being a silent participant but they're actually very knowledgeable."
'Of course, we are. We've been living on this beloved Earth for hundreds of years and we would've still walked the Earth if it weren't because of Gaia Delvaux.' This voice was slightly older, sounded like this person had indeed lived hundred of years as she had claimed to be.
'I still can't believe we have a cruel great granddaughter such as her,' said an elderly male voice which I assumed was my mother's great grandfather.
'We've bred a monster, my apologies for that,' said a woman, her voice was nearly drowned by other voices. It was almost like a whisper.
"Are you my mother's mother?" I asked curiously. I just wanted to distinguish each of these voices and knew who they were. They were practically family that I'd never gotten the chance to meet.
'Yes. My name is Monique Delvaux.' There was a small pause before she spoke again. 'I'm your grandmother, I suppose. If you still wish to acknowledge me as one. I'm so sorry for what Gaia did to you. It seems that power has blinded her. She mingled with too much dark magic and her inquisitive mind would not allow any stone left unturned. She never did understand that some things are best to be left alone and there are things that we better not know.'
"What about Blair?" asked Ryker, putting his hand on my arm.
"I think my mother might have kept her soul somewhere. But with her body," I glanced at the headless body and closed my eyes. "With Blair's body like that, I don't know if we could revive her or if we even should return the soul to her body."
'The body is dead, my child. But you should return her soul still. At least that way, Blair could finally find peace. Or else her soul would still linger, wandering around and looking for her body,' said my great-grandmother wisely. 'After everything she has gone through, the darling girl deserves her peaceful rest.'
I twirled my wrist and used my power to bring Blair's head toward its body. Then I attempted to re-attach it as I would to an inanimate object.
'You should go to Blair's lair, Xyrra,' warned Monique. 'Gaia might have another object to store her magic. This fight, I know you're powerful and possess the Book of the Damned, but it seems rather too easy for me.'
'She's right,' said a male voice that I predicted was not older than thirty. 'Dear aunt always takes precautions in the past. That's how she always managed to escape death at dire times. If you wish to eliminate her once and for all, you need to search her lair.'
More voices agreed with my mother's cousin. I looked up at Ryker. "We need to go to her house. I was told that my mother might keep something, perhaps an object, that could store her power."
"Xy." All of a sudden, Ryker held my hand. "I think you need to do something with this." He lifted his hand and showed me the ring.
"Wait, did you guys get engaged?" asked Eros, blinking his eyes in surprise.
"Not exactly," I answered at the same time Ryker said, "Yeah, she proposed and I couldn't say no."
'Oh, your fiancé is a sweet boy,' said a young female voice that I didn't bother asking who she was.
I rolled my eyes. Now that I'd let the voices know that we could actually have a two way conversation, they wouldn't shut up. "I can infuse more healing charms to it."
Ryker nodded. "You better do it fast because I started to find your neck appetizing."
"If you guys started making out, I'm out of here," said Eros, putting both hands up.
That was when I noticed that he was still in that in-between state. "Why are you like that? Why haven't you shifted back to your human form?" It was a bit unnatural that he was not transformed properly to either wolf or human form.
"You're stuck, aren't you?" Ryker moved toward Eros and regarded him curiously. "I've heard about it before. When a werewolf couldn't shift properly thus he finds himself stuck in between his human form and his wolf form."
"I wasn't always like this." Eros clenched his jaw and gave Ryker an annoyed look. It seemed that his pride was wounded to have another werewolf see him like this. "Anyway, go and fix him before he goes mad and kills us all."
I hovered my hand on top of the Book of The Damned and it flipped through the pages to the one page that I wanted. After doing some incantations and putting more magic into Ryker's ring, I stared at him warily. "How're you feeling?" There was no telling whether he would feel better or would aim at my jugular.
"Better," he finally said, sending relief through my body. "Do you —" he stopped himself and shook his head. "Never mind."
"I hate when people do that," commented Eros. "Just say what you want to say, mate. It's frustrating and irritating to say something and then stop midway."
"He's right," I agreed.
"I just don't think it's the right time and place." Ryker ran both hands through his hair and heaved a sigh. "I was just wondering if you could compartmentalize the Mad Wolf disease inside my head, just like Blair or your mother did to your dad. I mean, at this point, we know there's no cure."
"There might be a cure," said Eros, shifting his gaze to me and Ryker. "We can ask the Night Walkers."
"That's insane." I shook my head. "They won't help. They were the ones who intentionally struck Ryker with the dagger to make sure Ryker would get infected by Mad Wolf. Why would they want to help us undo what they did?"
"Because now we have the knowledge of what truly happened," said Eros, trying to reason with my logic. "Look, Night Walkers' current Alpha, Alpha Damien Sinclair is not a crazy person, okay? He's vengeful, yes, but it's only because he's grieving for his older brother. Once he learns that it was all your mother's doing, I'm sure he'll be sorry for what he did to Ryker."
"That's a slight chance," commented Ryker, frowning. "But I've met him before during alphas' meeting. He's not exactly a bad person. He actually told me that I should offer an olive branch to the Erebus. Perhaps he can be reasoned with." His hand that was holding me tightened its hold. "But you still need to contain this disease until we figure out how to truly cure it, Xy. My consciousness is slipping. The dark thoughts are slowly moving in and I know your healing charms help put them at bay but it keeps getting weak every passing second."
"But that's the thing." I shook my head out of frustration and turned around. He let go of my hand. I started pacing the room, then glancing at Eros and Ryker. "I don't know how." I closed my eyes and decided to seek wisdom from my relatives. "Do any of you guys know how to do it?"
No one said a damn thing for a minute. Then my great grandmother finally spoke for everyone. 'I'm afraid none of us know how to do it. When Blair did it, we weren't present. She put up some sort of shield for her and your father when she performed the magic. Maybe because she couldn't actually cure it and she didn't want your mother, Gaia, to know about it. Or perhaps it was a bargaining power for her, at least if she was the only person who knew how to supposedly cure Mad Wolf, your mother wouldn't go for her. Because as we said earlier, your mother has a very inquisitive mind. She wouldn't kill Blair without knowing how to do it.'
'Evidently, it didn't stop Gaia,' said the male cousin with a grunt.
'Yes, but it's possible that Gaia might find out how to do the spell, then killed Blair. She was in Blair's body, it is possible that she managed to find out.' It was the young female voice that I had no idea who.
"Xy." I opened my eyes and saw Eros standing before me, his hands were on my shoulders. "You can try asking Alpha Damien for forgiveness. His pack might know how to cure it, the Night Walkers are all about mythical ancient stuff. Unlike the Ethereal, or even the Erebus. That's the only way we can truly find the cure." He let out a long, deep sigh. "I didn't know why it didn't occur to me before."
I shifted my gaze from him to Ryker who was standing a few feet away behind Eros and he gave me a nod. "It's worth a try," he agreed.
"Okay," I said with a small sigh. This whole thing with Blair or my mother had drained my energy. I would kill for a proper meal and long rest right now. "I guess we're going back home then."
'Once you find Blair's soul. Don't forget about that,' said my male cousin.
"Yes, my dearest cousin, there is no way I forget an important thing such as that." I rolled my eyes.
I heard him let out a small chuckle. 'Oh, and you can call me Devon if that's better.'
Eros lifted one eyebrow. "Well, I guess I just have to figure out when you're actually talking to us and when you're actually talking to them."