The Divine Twelve (Urban-Fantasy)

Chapter fourteen: Sproutling

"What the hell happened to my house?" A woman said as she and a few others walked past the tree lines, noticing bodies littering the yard. "Reggie!"

The man let out a huff and looked at the woman, her curly hair sticking to her face. "Nyla, you're home early."

"Why are there werewolf and vampire corpses scattered in front of our house?!" Nyla stepped closer to the man, pointing her finger in his face.

"I- there was… um," Reggie said, avoiding her piercing stare.

"Where is Zuri?!" Nyla poked the man in his chest. Before Reggie could respond someone else spoke.

"Your daughter betrayed us and helped the enemy get Virgo back," Zavis said, walking up to the couple, Alice following closely behind. "To make matters even better, your husband couldn't even find the enemy when they retreated."

"Yeah, he proved to be utterly useless," Alice said, crossing her arms. She opened her mouth to continue but stopped as Zavis spoke.

"You're calling him useless but you weren't much help." Alice sucked her teeth, looking away. "You need to hone your psionic abilities that don't involve manipulating your hair."

"Now, I'm going to need something to be done about this. A zodiac's heart is key to breaking Andromin’s seal." Zavis looked at Nyla, her caramel colored skin tinged red.

"I apologize for the short-comings of my husband," Nyla said, glaring at Reggie. "It will not happen again."

"It better not or I will desiccate all the vampires and hybrids here before decapitating your werewolves." Zavis gritted through his teeth.

"Trust me," Nyla said, zipping behind Reggie, plunging her hand into his back. "You won't have to worry about any more failures." The woman then wrenched her arm backwards, yanking the man's heart out.

"Reggie!" Greg's voice ripped through the air as he watched his friend fall to his knees. Zavis smiled as Nyla licked the blood from her hand.

"I like her," Alice said, a smirk plastered across her face.

"I'm going to meet with the vamps on the other side of town." Nyla threw the heart in her hand to the ground at Greg's feet. "Get my damn house together before I return."

●●●●●●

Penelope trudged through the underbrush of the woods, holding a hand in front of her to push low branches out of her way.

"Where are we going?" Penelope sped up to catch up with Laura.

"Deeper into the woods." Laura said as she climbed over a fallen tree.

"We couldn't have drove?" Penelope grunted as she hopped off the dead tree.

"What's the fun in that?" Laura smiled, ducking behind a thick tree.

"Well, maybe not having tired feet, getting eaten alive by bugs, and not being tired as hell." Penelope brushed her arm, looking behind the tree she last saw the woman by.

"Laura?" Penelope called out, looking around.

"What's wrong?" She heard Laura's voice echo around her. "Can't find me?"

"Stop playing, aren't I supposed to be training?" Penelope dropped her bag by the base of the tree.

"You are. Find me" Laura's voice decreased to a hushed whisper.

"Whatever." Penelope muttered and sat down on her bag.

Penelope pulled out her phone and bagan dialing Laura's number, frowning as she noticed there was no service. She sighed and stood up, glancing up at the tree tops.