Daybreak, BK 4 of the Lightwalkers

XXXIII - Seth

Bryson told me stories all morning until the threat of an afternoon storm drove us inside. After that, time passed slowly. Sam was kind enough to make us lunch before taking a portion up to Remi, who was still looking after Jay.

There was this aimlessness to the day that bothered me. I wasn't sure what to do with my time or what to focus on now that we'd gotten Jon back. I felt better about the future with Bryson joining us on our trip to the Court, but I still needed to figure out what to do with my life next. Too bad there wasn't a career guidance center for the supernatural.

Climbing the stairs up to the second floor, I tried to stop the circle of thought from racing around my head.

"Hey."

I looked up and found Jon leaning against the wall next to my door.

"Hey," I said and stepped past him. Then, opening the way into my room, I left the door open as I walked in.

He hovered near the entrance, as pale and quiet as a ghost. It wasn't like he had a deep tan before, but now his skin was almost translucent. What was I supposed to say now? I felt like the universe had shifted. Everything had changed.

"Some birthday, uh?" Jon said softly, looking over at me with a weak smile.

Staring at him, it took me a moment to figure out that he was talking about my birthday and the camping trip that had started all of this.

"Yeah," I said with a half-hearted chuckle. "It certainly was."

I parked it on the edge of the massive bed and struggled to find the words I needed to say.

"Jon, I am so sorry."

His eyes shot over to me, confused. "Sorry? For what?"

"I should have been able to protect us. I should have stopped them from taking you. I should have found you before...." My words trailed off, along with the last of my energy. I hadn't been able to sleep at all the night before, and now, going on night three with little-to-no sleep. I was starting to feel delirious. And maybe a little extra vulnerable.

"That wasn't your fault. You don't have to say sorry for that."

"Yeah, I do."

"No, you don't." Jon finally came into the room, planting himself in front of me. "We had no idea what was out in those woods that night. You couldn't have stopped them any more than me. I think we're both lucky to still be alive - well, sort of alive in my case, but still. It was just horrible luck."

Shutting my eyes against the headache growing behind them, I wondered how much of it was bad luck and how much was it only a matter of time. Dad had been the leader of Orion's Order. He'd been a part of the supernatural world since the day he'd been born. And he'd tried to give us a chance at escaping it.

Except, we hadn't made it. Had we?

"It wasn't bad luck," I said, focusing on my brother. His hair was longer, his eyes had a different glow to them, but his voice was the same.

"What?"

"Even if we hadn't been attacked by the vampires that night, it would have been something else, at some other point, eventually. It's in our blood."

I told him then about Dad and the Order. About what I'd seen when Bryson and I had visited. I told Jon everything, about my powers, about my search for him.

At some point, he'd taken a seat next to me on the bed, mirroring my posture as I stretched out.

"You've found some good people to help you," Jon said finally, after a long moment of quiet had passed when I'd stopped talking.

"I think you found one too," I said, thinking back to how protective Carrie had been.

Jon flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "What are you going to do now? Will you come with us to Court?"

"I think so. It's the after that part that I haven't figured out, or you know, what to do with the rest of my life." I let myself fall back, stretching out on the bed next to my brother.

"You don't have to figure that out right away," Jon said. He covered a yawn and scrubbed at his face.

"Uh, yeah, I kinda do. I don't know about you, but I still need to eat, and I still need money to take care of the house, pay the bills that I'm sure are starting to pile up in the mailbox."

Jon rolled to his side. "Nick said that I get a stipend or something, like an allowance. I won't know how much exactly until we get to Court, but I'm sure it'll be enough to cover basics and some of what we need to pay." He yawned again.

I hadn't thought about that, but it was something to consider. And who knows, maybe there would be some sort of job or something that would come up at Court. There seemed like there were endless possibilities in front of me now.

"Thanks, Jon."

I glanced at him when he didn't respond and found that he'd fallen asleep. A jolt of fear shot through me before I glanced over at the windows and reminded myself that Kain wouldn't make an appearance until nightfall.

The mid-afternoon sun was still high in the sky. I eased back, stretching out some of my stiff muscles, and decided to let Jon sleep.

Staring up at the ceiling, I tried to think of what it was that I actually wanted. Before my birthday, I'd been so concerned about making ends meet, trying to take care of Jon, myself, and the house, I wasn't really focused on what I wanted, but what would get us through another month. There hadn't been time for hobbies or college or anything that I'd wanted to do.

In a roundabout way, it now felt like I was the one who was lost.