Lily couldn't feel anything. Her right arm was numb and her hands felt like television static. Lily's glowing eyes throbbed. She could only look at the scene she'd caused around her in horror, a soft grey glow dancing across the ground as she stared at what she'd done.
The graveyard was flattened - headstones were scattered like ashes. Puddles of rain littered the ground like Swiss cheese. The storm was gone, whatever she'd done had dispersed it out of the clearing. All that was left was dirt and broken rogues kneeling around her. Some cradled their shattered limbs, Lily spotted a few just sitting there paralysed in shock, but the ones that weren't moving worried her until she saw them breathing slowly. Unconscious, not dead.
What had she done? Lily pushed the question out of her mind when she looked down at her left hand, her exhaustion pulsing in her heart. Her bones began to weigh her down but she had the strength to lift her hand up and marvel at the sparks of lightning bouncing between the ice that had stuck to the hairs on her arm. Fatigue grated down her spine despite the joy sizzling in her stomach - she was harmless to lightning.
She was alive.
All she knew was fire and pain when that lighting strike hit her, that her eyes burned brighter than ever before and she couldn't stop herself from unleashing the power locked in her bones. Lily didn't want to recall what she'd done, not yet. She wasn't out of the woods.
She was still in rogue territory.
Lily took a step away from the pole, frowning at the shadow it caused when the moon finally lit up the clearing, free from the storm covering it. Turning, Lily swallowed when she saw the pole wasn't a pole anymore - instead a melted gnarled claw reaching for the sky, like it was trying to grasp the power of the lightning that forced it apart.
Lily lifted her left hand again, the sparks across her arm smaller now, noticing the pale ruby scars criss-crossing around her wrist - burn marks from where her mother's bracelets and zip ties had melted, already healed over. She knew she'd have a matching set around her ankles from where Kristofer had zip tied them together moments before the storm arrived.
She looked to her other arm and frowned when she realised it was still numb. With her jumper still in tatters around her waist thanks to Kristofer's knife work, her bare arm was in full view.
White scars raced down her arm, following the path of her veins. From the top of her shoulder to her knuckles, lines like lightning darted between her freckles. Lily gently stroked her new permanent markings, flinching when they were still tender to touch. White sparks also raced on her forearm, akin to the other, but her right arm now bore a permanent reminder of what happened.
Lily had read about lightning scars. She knew paralysis wasn't permanent, something that would heal over time, but Lily would forever be reminded of when she was kidnapped and almost killed.
Lily turned when she heard more rogues enter the clearing. Yuric stood at the treeline with the other fifty rogues, all halting when they saw their comrades fallen at their feet. Kristofer shifted when he saw his leader standing there frozen, hobbling as best as he could until he stood again. Yuric and his rogues were bruised heavily, some clutching their limbs in pain from where they'd fallen over with the quake from the superbolt.
No one moved. The rogues were frozen in place, and Yuric's dark gaze wondered from the warped metal pole shred by lightning, to Lily who carried it on her arms.
He trembled, large fists shaking. His lip curled up, eyes forming slits and flaring a feral gold, and he took a step forward, favouring his right leg.
Lily took a step back, her heel brushing the mound she had been tied to, and the lightning sparked off her arms and onto the ground around her. The rogues scampered away from the pools of water as quickly as they could with their bruised bodies and broken bones. They stood at the edges of the clearing, where fallen trees now rested, helpless as the ground turned into a deadly electric trap.
"You-" Yuric hissed, going to take a step forward before Kristofer held him back, his hand barely wrapping around his bruised arm.
"Yuric." Kristofer pointed to the treeline on their left. Lily turned her head, dreading to see more rogues surrounding her.
Andrew and his pack stepped into the clearing, metres from the first puddles of electrified water that surrounded Lily. The alpha's blue eyes were gone, replaced with the beastly black of his wolf. He stood tall with his pack, both shifted and human form, behind him showing his force. Ryan stood on his left. His eyes snapped to Lily and widened at the lightning stuck on her free arms.
Thanks unintentionally to Lily, the battle was now in favour to Andrew. His force of werewolves were unbroken, even though Lily spotted a few bruises amongst them. All the rogues couldn't lift a finger let alone fight. Though most of them could stand, if they were as loyal as they seemed, would be trying to get their kin away from the fight rather than charge into it.
The rogues were outnumbered - and Lily was absolutely certain of it when Jack stepped through the horde of wolves and in front of Andrew, much to his annoyance. The witch narrowed her eyes on the leveled graveyard, at Lily standing in the middle by a smoking mound and the rogues hiding in the treeline.
"Hi." Was all Lily could think to say, flabbergasted that her friends were here for her. She could see Jack's eyes roll at her words, a smirk lift on Ryan's face, before Jack stepped forward again.
The witch lifted her head to Yuric, a smirk planted on her face. "You must be Yuric! News flash; you lost, idiot! Give Lily back!" She shouted.
Lily's mouth turned up hearing Jack's voice. Yuric snarled at her words, struggling in Kristofer's tight grip, desperately wanting to rip out the witch's throat. "You dare to speak to me! I am an Alpha! I am-"
"The loser, yes we already know," Jack interrupted, "now give Lily back!"
Yuric raised his arm and the rogues crouched ready to spring into war, but Lily saw the unease on their faces. They weren't fit to fight, they'd lose, and when Kristofer's grip tightened on Yuric's arm, the rogue leader realised it too.
They were in a stale mate, each pack of werewolves waiting for the other to move. So Lily moved first, taking a step towards her friends. Yuric's eyes narrowed on the sight, itching to leap for her, but one misstep and he'd be seizing face down in a pool of charged water.
With each slow step Lily took towards her friends, Yuric trembled further with rage. There was nothing he could do but watch helplessly as Lily walked away. She'd leveled the field and only she could walk through it. They could only watch as their chance for freedom from power leave.
Jack stepped back, seeing her friend walk towards them without resistance. "Well, apparently we're not needed! Shall we head off? That place next to the ice cream parlor does twenty-four hour pancakes."
Lily's fatigue had a firm hand around her neck. Her right arm was still not moving, but she didn't need it to walk back to her friends. She swayed on her feet as exhaustion clawed at her body, begging her to lie down.
Ryan went to step forward before Andrew grasped his shoulder. "You can't touch the water." His eyes narrowed on the puddles that littered the ground.
"But Lily's-"
"I'm not going to lose you to a puddle." Andrew snapped, watching Lily slowly stumble towards them, unafraid of the electrified water. "She's coming to us."
Ryan watched helpless as Lily made her way over. There were still metres to go, minutes before she'd reach them thanks to how large the graveyard was. Her feet wobbled as she accidentally stood on a crumbled headstone, her balance skewering for a heartbeat before she righted herself and carried on.
Yuric wrenched his arm out of Kristofer's grip and leaped into the clearing, landing on his good leg for a second between two sunken grave puddles, before lunging for Lily. He roared, eyes flaring gold as Lily turned with wide eyes, knowing instantly she was too exhausted to lift her good arm to defend herself from his sharpening claws. Even if they could cross the electric mine field, she was too far away for her friends to help her.
"No!" Jack screamed, throwing up her hand and unleashing the built up anger swirling in her gut. The magic already dancing around her fingers sharpened and launched itself as a spear towards Yuric, piercing his shoulder as his claws brushed Lily's left shoulder, shredding her skin apart like wet paper.
They both screamed. Lily fell to her knees as Yuric was flown away with the force of Jack's magic. The rogue landed miraculously away from the charged puddles but his scream grated on the ears of his kin, watching horrified as their leader rocked himself to his knees, clutching his arm tightly.
"What did you do to me?!" Yuric bellowed, unable to move his left arm. "What did you do!"
Jack blinked, her hand frozen in the air, as Yuric screamed again. Lily struggled to get to her feet, pain and exhaustion tying her down so similarly to only moments ago when she was stuck to that cold, metal pole. Her blood poured over her left arm - Yuric's claws had ripped through muscle.
Jack couldn't move, staring at Yuric, wondering what on earth she had done. She'd reacted on instinct, defending her friend, and she'd left the biggest, baddest shark in the ocean of rogues writhing like a toddler. She wasn't violent, she mouthed off a lot about harming and pranking people, but she'd never paralysed someone before. She lowered her shaking arm, watching her magic seep back into her rings.
Andrew stared at Jack in shock, as did the other werewolves, but Ryan reacted first. He turned back towards his pack and searched for the curly-haired blonde and the dark-haired Asian who always stuck by her side. He couldn't remember their names, but when he saw her he waved her down, shouting at her to hurry.
When Claire and Karen reached the front of Andrew's pack, seeing Lily bleeding on the ground and Yuric screaming helplessly, Karen gagged at the sight of such violence and Claire paled.
Ryan gripped Karen's shoulders, Claire immediately scowling at the contact. "I need you to go and get Lily." He pleaded. "You're a vamp, you're the only vampire around at the moment, and you're the fastest out of us."
Claire ripped Ryan's hand of Karen's trembling shoulders. "I don't know if I can do that, there's so much b-blood and I just, oh my goodness-"
"Karen, babe, listen to me." Claire gently grabbed her clammy hands. "You can do this. It's like when we had gymnastics as kids, remember? In Year 7? Jack fell off the beam and landed on her face, I crawled along like a snail, but you walked on your tip toes."
Some colour returned to Karen's cheeks when Ryan removed his other hand from her shoulder and she stared at Claire's vibrant green eyes, so confident in her abilities. "It's just like a balancing beam. Walking across on your toes, picking up the ball without stepping off the beam, and coming back, okay? Just like gymnastics. You can do this Karen."
Karen began nodding slowly. "Just like gymnastics." She repeated. "Just like gymnastics." The vampire slowly began to walk forward, toes barely sinking into the soil, and when she stared to remember her years on the balancing beam, Karen walked faster. "On you toes, on your toes..." She muttered as she started to run to her bleeding friend, now barely moving in the middle of the clearing.
Karen leapt between the charged puddles with the grace of a swan, her vampire senses flooding her bloodstream as she ran faster. She was a blur to the eyes of the wolves. Karen never faltered, only halting when she reached Lily.
Her hands shook as she saw just how badly injured her friend was. Her shoulder was soaked heavily with blood and Karen couldn't see where her wound ended and began. Lily's left hand was raised slightly, the cool breeze kissing her fingers; the numbness was beginning to subside and pain now throbbed in her veins.
Karen flickered her gaze up to Yuric who was still trying to move his left arm. The rogue had tears pouring down his scarred face as he tried to move his fingers, but it was useless. The mouthy witch had paralysed his arm completely, her magic freezing his shoulder like stone.
Karen hesitated, a part of her always wanting to help people in need, but she tended to Lily. Lily needed Claire to heal her, she was losing too much blood, and who knows what happened to her before they got here. Was she thrown back from the storm like they were? Was she injured elsewhere?
As Karen bent down to pick her up, the scent of Lily's blood plunged into her nose. She flinched as the crisp smell seeped down her throat, Karen's eyes fluttering closed as she pushed aside the instinct to taste it. She'd never scented blood like Lily's before - one that screamed of life, so clear and sweet and thriving with power.
Karen hauled Lily up to her feet, muttering that it was going to be okay, for both of their benefits as she began to walk back between the puddles and towards Claire and the others. She lifted her on her right side, not going anywhere near her bloodied shoulder, not giving into the temptation to taste. "It's going to be okay, I've got you Lily." Karen smiled to her friend, who's eyes were beginning to close. "You'll be home soon. Your aunt is worried sick, and she doesn't know how much more of Freida Slater's tea she can drink waiting for you get home, so you have to stay with me."
Lily couldn't muster the energy to smile even if she wanted to. She gripped Karen as tight as she dared while she walked them out of the clearing. Her head swayed, jolting as Karen stopped when the rogues behind them began to leave.
"No!" Yuric bellowed through his pain as Kristofer waved for the rogues to leave, fear in all of their eyes. "No! Save me you cowards!"
Kristofer gave one last look at his leader while the rogues picked up their broken and hauled them back into the comfort of the forest, knowing Andrew's pack couldn't follow unless they wanted to walk through an electrocuted graveyard. As he watched his chosen alpha writhe and scream at his kin, Kristofer made a vow to him that he would complete what he started - that Lily would burn, and any others that were like her or stood in his way.
Yuric screamed, clutching his useless arm as he watched his rogues vanish into the shadows, leaving him alone in the field of the dead. Karen carried on, remembering Jack's words about her seeing the good in people when they didn't deserve it. Yuric might not have deserved her sadness but Lily deserved to be home, so Karen quickly ran as fast as she could back to the pack, Lily hobbling along beside her.
As soon as they reached the end of the clearing, when Lily stepped away from the puddles, the electric current died in the water. Claire quickly rushed forward and hugged Karen tightly, whispering how proud she was of her into her ear before they gently laid Lily on the ground. Lily was quickly surrounded by Ryan and Jack, still wide-eyed and horrified at what she'd done to Yuric with a single wave of her hand.
Andrew turned to his pack. All the werewolves saw the electric current die and hissed as the rogues immediately began to flee into the forest. The pack was hungry for justice still, for the chase of their enemies who murdered their previous alpha, and Andrew ordered them to bring Yuric tot he pack cells for trial - and run the rest of the rogues down.
When the wolves howled and began their hunt, Andrew crouched between Jack and Ryan as they watched Claire use her magic.
As the fairy's eyes glowed a startling violet, her hands hovering over Lily's body, she remembered about her friend's unique curse. "My magic's not going to work on her." Claire croaked, watching Lily's shoulder darken further with her blood. "She needs a hospital."
Claire looked at Jack, waiting for the remark about how it would be a brilliant idea to bring a supernatural creature to a hospital with humans, but the witch for once was silent watching her friend bleed. Ryan stared at Lily's closed eyes, panic stuttering his heart. "Her aunt's a nurse." He remembered. "She's at Jack's mum's house, right? We'll take her there."
They looked to Jack and she blinked, realising they wanted her to confirm Ollie's whereabouts. "Yeah." She swallowed her shock, looking back south to where their town was. "It's hours away though."
Ryan looked to Karen. "You can run her there, you're the fastest."
"I can't run for hours-" Karen panicked, knowing she couldn't resist Lily's blood for that long.
"You have to help her!" He yelled, Claire glaring at Ryan before Andrew placed a hand on him.
"Ryan, calm down." Andrew ordered.
"Andrew, it's Lily, I-"
"I know, but you need to focus. We need to think about how we can get her help and fast." Andrew tried reasoning with him, to ease the panic in his eyes.
Claire's eyes were glowing violet again as she instructed Jack to lay the unconscious Lily on the wet soil, her hand hovering and waving down her body as her healing magic ghosted her skin. "I can see what's wrong, but it's like my magic's washing over her. Her body's not listening to me." Claire frowned, Karen shivered, stepping away from them both to put some distance between her and Lily's blood.
"What's wrong with Lily?" Jack cleared her throat and spoke, pushing Yuric's screams out of her mind. She had to be there for her friend.
"Her left shoulder's in tatters, Yuric got through muscle but her bone's intact." Claire recited. "Her right arm looks like it's been electrocuted, and she's exhausted, the blood loss didn't help."
Ryan frowned. "She's been electrocuted?"
Claire nodded, and they all turned to the clearing, where the wolves were dragging Yuric back into the forest - all that was left in the old graveyard was a gnarled metal pole, warped from the heat of the lightning strike.
Jack realised what happened before the others, seeing the new red scars around Lily's wrists like shackles. "What matters is we help Lily now." She ordered, stopping them from thinking on it further, and motioned to Claire's scarf. "Gimme that."
"This is my mother's scarf!" Claire stammered. "It's designer, my mother would-"
"We need to stop Lily's bleeding!"
"Use Andrew's shirt." Claire teased but Jack wasn't in the mood.
"You can get another scarf." Jack glared, and Claire hesitantly handed it over. Jack ripped it from her hands and shoved the wet fabric under Lily's bleeding shoulder. Her blood ran clear as the water squeezed from the scarf into her wound while Jack wrapped it tightly. Karen quickly removed her thick, warm jacket and handed it to Jack, who wrapped it around Lily to stop the cold from chilling her further.
"Now, we all move her, and make sure she doesn't bleed out." Jack said, flinching when Yuric screamed again. "I'll call my mother and she'll get Ollie prepared, we'll get Lily there in time to help her."
"But it's hours away, Jack." Karen said. They all got up anyway and lifted Lily between them, Jack holding one arm and Claire the other, keeping a healing hand on Lily's bleeding shoulder even though she couldn't do anything.
"And we'll get there." Jack said determined. "We're not leaving Lily in this wet forest. We're getting back to her aunt, we're patching her up, and then we're going to that twenty-four hour pancake place and eating a stack each."
The girls began to move but Andrew held Ryan back for a moment. "Lily brought a hundred rogues to their knees." Andrew stared Ryan down. "Without even trying."
Ryan finally let the realisation hit him. "I know."
"And Jack swatted Yuric aside like a fly and has made him scream like a baby."
"I know."
Andrew's eyes flashed black for a second. "They're more powerful than us."
Ryan sighed, watching the three girls walk south, bickering about pancake toppings. A sharp gust of wind from the north pierced their backs, sealing the wet scarf and jacket around Lily's bloody shoulder, and they all halted for a moment. "I know."
Andrew frowned when Lily suddenly dug her heels into the dirt. The two of them ran over to see she was awake, her eyes wide, but she stared at them all lucid.
"You came for me." Lily whispered, a half-smile on her face. Ryan's heart skipped again, relief flooding his bones at the sight of that smile, even with Andrew's words replaying in his ear.
Jack grinned at her. "Well, we saw your Bat Signal, and we ran as fast as we could."
Claire unwrapped her ruined scarf from Lily's shoulder to glimpse the wound underneath, the wet fabric peeling off like an onion. Claire's jaw dropped when she saw her wet, trembling skin already healed where the scarf had been, mended before Claire's eyes. That random gust of wind had sealed the scarf against the wound, water soaking into her flesh. It puzzled Claire and she wrapped the scarf back up before the others noticed.
Lily sagged against her friends, who kept her upright, and Jack forced a grin, ecstatic to see her upright and smiling at them all, but still haunted by Yuric's roaring behind them as Andrew's pack hauled him back to their cells.
"Come on, there are pancakes calling our names." Jack looked south. "Let's go home."
They all began to walk but Claire turned, staring north where the spontaneous wind had come. The lone mountain stood only an hour or two away, and Claire didn't see the white-haired guy lower his arms, releasing his reigns on the wind, calming the gusts and letting the night settle once again.