April's POV
I slammed my locker shut, groaning at the prospect of another day of school again. We'd come back from Antonio's on Sunday and I spent the entire night catching up on school work, resulting in some heavy looking bags under my eyes.
I slipped into the classroom quickly before the lesson started and caught sight of Kayla from the corner of my eye – she was sitting on the opposite side of the classroom, mirror and lipstick in hand. She caught me staring and gave me an odd look before slamming her mirror shut and turning away. Operation 'save Kayla' has begun.
Lately, I found her eyes looking brighter than ever, but her smile never seemed to reach her eyes anymore. Me, Nina and a rather unwilling Emma had a talk before school – we figured making small talk with Kayla wouldn't work anymore. We had to have an intervention in order to get her to talk with us, especially when Noah wasn't around.
The rest of the day was spent in a miserable silence, me and Nina pondering over solutions. The only good thing was of course seeing Aiden actually smile in the school corridors, although most of the time, I just saw him leaning against lockers rather than in actual lessons. I'm surprised he hasn't been kicked out yet.
At the end of the school day, I glanced up at my reflection and took a deep breath – if Aiden or any of the gang found out about what we were doing, they wouldn't let us go anywhere near Kayla, especially because of Noah. I plugged in my headphones and prepared for the journey home; the rest of them had somewhere to go for 'business' meaning a lift wasn't even an option and Nina had to stay behind for another detention.
"Hey, April!" A familiar voice called from somewhere behind me. I spun around on my heel. My eyes automatically narrowed at the caller - Noah.
"Noah." Icaught movement inside the car he was sitting in and saw Kayla in the passenger seat, avoiding my hard gaze.
"Want to talk?"
"Talk? Seriously?" My voice was incredulous – why would they want to talk? I thought they were all anti-April?
"Yeah – I guess it's time we sort this out like adults. Where's Aiden?" His voice turned cold, as though a switch had been flipped in him.
"He's busy - I can call him?" I offered. He nodded in response and pulled the car door open roughly. This is strange. Noah and Kayla wanting to talk to me? To Aiden? This isn't right.
"Meet us Richmond point at 5 instead – we'll have plenty of time to talk then." Noah called from the car, the engine already roaring. I was about to reply but they had already screeched out of the car park, leaving me in the approaching darkness of the school car park.
Great.
1 hour later
"April, why the fuck did you agree to meet with them?" Aiden glared down at me.
I glared back at him. "He wanted to meet! This is an improvement from them hating us - well, you mainly."
He rolled his eyes and mumbled something to himself. "Did he even tell you where we had to meet?"
"Yes. Some place called Richmond Point at 5."
"Great work little A," Beau said, resting his arm on my shoulder lightly. I grumbled at him – currently, we'd been walking around in circles because no-one knew where to go – and they were all blaming me for it.
"How long have you lived here again?" Daniel's voice drifted from behind me with the wind.
"I don't know where every single place is, Daniel." Aiden slung his arm around my other shoulder tiredly; I flinched at first at the sudden contact, but then relaxed and leaned into him, savouring his body warmth.
"Wait! I found it." Nina yelled from ahead, spinning around and waving her tiny, lit up phone screen. I squinted in the approaching darkness and felt something being thrust into my gloved hand. I glanced down in surprise and found my glasses in my hand – I looked towards Aiden, a small smile on my face.
"You forgot them and you look clueless without them." He explained, smirking attractively.
Immediately, the nice gesture slipped from my mind and I only seemed to pick up on the insult. "Hey! I don't look clueless without them – in fact, I think that they make me look sexy."
He raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly before turning away. "Nina, where do we go?" Aiden called, cupping two hands around his mouth.
"It's not too far from here – follow us." She called back. We made a quick U turn, following the two dark figures ahead. I huddled closer to Aiden, not even feeling peculiar about the gesture anymore. You've kissed him April – get over it.
After ten solid minutes of walking and occasional arguing, mostly with Daniel and Beau, we reached our destination. A large huddle of figures were already there, visible in the dim lights of street lamps overhead. Aiden's Adam's apple bobbed uncertainly as he swallowed.
"I don't think this is right." Nina said in a low voice, just loud enough for me and Diego to hear.
"Why?" I asked back, quietly, glancing over my shoulder at Aiden, Carlos, Daniel, Beau and a few other people from their 'pack,' who was now talking with the other group. "What's going on?"
"Well, it's certainly not an old friends meeting again kind of thing, don't you think April?" Nina scowled. I grimaced at her tone and saw Diego drift away from us to join the growing huddle.
"Come on, let's go." I whispered, tugging at Nina's sleeve towards them.
"No. They're werewolves Ap, and what are we? Humans!"
"Look, we have just as much right to be there as they do – Kayla is there!"
"Screw Kayla! We're not friends anymore Ap, just accept that!" Her wide, brown eyes looked dewy in the light.
"What about the deal? You know, 'save Kayla' and all?" My tone had hardened.
She sighed, biting her lip as though debating what to say. "I know what we said we were going to do. But this isn't a game. Kayla is too far gone and sometimes you just can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped."
I held my breath, pausing before replying. "Okay... I won't have any high hopes for this." I chose my words carefully.
"Good," she said, straightening up. Looping her arm into my rather reluctant own, we strode over to the waiting group. As soon as we reached them, I felt the hairs rising on my neck at the tension clouding the air. Noah stood on one side, his eyes hard as he stared at Aiden, a cigarette dangling from his lower lip.
"You." Noah spat the words like they were poison.
"Yes me, who did you expect?"
"I see you bought part of your pack," Noah growled. I saw Kayla squeezing his arm slightly. Her eyes told me everything. She was worried – scared. Her eyes were brimmed with so much emotion, it startled me. This was the most alive I'd seen Kayla in weeks.
"So did you." Aiden commented was dry. What the hell are you doing Aiden? This is not called peace-making!
"Don't try and be smart, Knight," Kayla jumped and held him back tightly by the shoulder, her eyes flashing with fear.
"Cut to the chase – why did you want to meet us?" Aiden snapped back, unfazed by Noah's growing agitation.
"You fucking killed my brother!" There was silence after that statement.
My breathing momentarily stopped - I knew Aiden had killed someone. I knew it. But Noah's brother? I saw Aiden glance in my direction, remorse momentarily flashing across his eyes, almost as though to say I'm sorry.
"He tried to attack me on our territory. What did you expect me to do?" Aiden threw up his hands in exasperation.
"You made the decision to snap his neck!" His eyes had narrowed into slits, making his iris barely visible. He didn't look human at all, he looked demonic.
"He tried to kill him first Noah. Brandon tried to attack us on our own territory, it was no-one's fault but his own. You know that Brandon was hot-headed and way too reckless - you've also killed some of our own, remember." Diego spoke solemnly, stepping forward so he was level with Aiden. At the last bit, I saw Kayla wince in shock.
"I don't care. That was my brother you bastard. My brother! You fucking killed my brother! He's dead, you hear me? Dead!" His cries had turned into screams and he was now sobbing as he yelled. He looked so broken and vulnerable at that moment, I wanted nothing more than to rush towards him.
"I'm sorry." I barely heard Aiden's apology. My head whipped towards him as soon as the words left his mouth; they didn't hold any of his usual mordancy but sounded raw - as though he meant it. Despite what he'd done I should have felt anger and disgust towards him. But I didn't. And that sickened me to the stomach – I still felt... I still felt love towards him. I couldn't feel angry or judgmental towards him – he meant his apology; pain and grief were evident on his face although to others, it looked like a facade. But I knew better than that.
Noah's angry sobs echoed in the night air. "It should have been you. All you are is a no good son of a bitch alcoholic who doesn't deserve to live. You gave up your life a long time ago Knight – you're dead inside. You died with your mother." I saw Aiden flinch slightly and I flinched with him but he said nothing. Kayla's eyes met mine for a moment and they filled with sorrow as though she wanted to tell me something but I looked away, feeling sick.
"Just end this feud Noah. This feud between packs has been going on longer than we know – I'm sick of it." His expression was blank; his eyes empty as though Noah's words hadn't shot at him at all.
"No. I can't. One for one - that was always the way it worked. You killed one of ours so I kill one of yours." Noah's tone had deadened, his sobs halted to silence.
He repeated his words. "One for one."
1 hour later
I'd decided to go back alone with Nina. We both sat in the car in a shell-shocked silence, the dull drone of the radio buzzing in the air.
"Apr-"
"Don't. Please, just don't." I pleaded, turning away from Nina. I saw her hand come out from the corner of my eye, but she drew it back at the last minute and tapped on the steering wheel instead. Woods rose from either side of us and the Roslyn Bridge was approaching from ahead, the dark water gleaming below.
The gang had understood that we needed to be alone and Nina had offered to take me home – Aiden had disappeared with Diego and Carlos leaving Daniel, Beau and a few others to accompany us in an awkward silence to our car. My mind still played back that scene like a broken record, the words puncturing my heart every time they rung through my head.
Aiden killed Noah's brother – but... But I still loved Aiden. I loved him. The words sounded foreign in my mouth and mind but it felt right. Like something had finally clicked.
"Nina, I love him." My voice was a faint whisper as though I was saying it aloud to myself.
Her head snapped towards me. "What?"
"I love him. I love Aiden." My voice came out strongly now, more confident like my words had come to life – this was the surest I'd ever been of anything I'd ever said. I could forgive Aiden - I would help him – I couldn't find it in myself to hate him.
"April..." Nina broke off, her eyes filling up as she reached out to hug me with one arm.
"Hey, eyes on the road," I joked, pushing her away slightly.
We laughed out loud, the tension lifting from the car immediately. But we didn't see it coming. We didn't see the fox that had come into the road like the creeping shadow of *Erebus himself.
It happened in slow motion, the slow turning of Nina's head as she saw the creature in the road. The painstakingly slow moment her shriek pierced the air a heartbeat later. The moment her eyes widened as she jerked the steering wheel left to avoid colliding with the fox like creature that had paused, staring at us with its glinting eyes before dashing off in the road.
The car crashed into the side of the Roslyn Bridge, the dark water opening up as though to swallow us. The sensation of hitting the dashboard head first, the blinding white shock of pain through my body, the blood-curdling scream leaving my mouth as we hurled down to the endless expanse of water.
I didn't feel the icy shock of the water fast approaching us heads on or feel the pain shooting through my body or hear Nina's frantic pounding or cries. Then, I felt nothing. Silence and darkness only.
A/N: Will edit, fix up and add things later - I will inform you when I have made those changes, but this is the last chapter to be uploaded before New Year's, please no update please messages. Thank you.
*Santa Muerte – Mexican deity of death 'Saint Death' or 'Holy Death.'
*Erebus - The god of darkness and shadows