Free Runner (House of Night Fanfic)

Chapter 17

Chris

He was picking at his fingernails with his little pocket knife, keeping an ear on Ryan and Leo who were still bickering at each other even after Vic and Kai left. Suddenly, a feeling wafted through his spirit, like there was a moment of uncalled for happiness. A violet aura flickered on the edges of Chris' vision. A message from Kai.

I'm sorry.

She calls to you...

A frown contorted his face, then a flash of surprise when the other two silence. They got the message, too.

Folding my pocket knife and stuffing it in my jeans pocket, I strode to the door and raced out, sending commands to earth to search for Kai. A thread of silver materialized that pointed towards the great big Willow Tree at the other side of the court yard. Using the strength of the Bear inside of him, Chris barreled to the Weeping Willow, only to stop short at what he was too afraid to see coming alive before him. Ryan and Leo weren't too far behind him, but they stopped on either side of him, flanking mode.

Vic was sitting, his back facing the three of them. He was bent over something, or rather, someone. A different pair of legs stuck out away from Vic, black sneakers with black jeans.

"Badge?"

He turned his head to the side by a fraction, barely bothering to look at his three other companions.

"She's gone. I killed her." Vic's voice never sounded so broken before. Just the distress in it sent chills down Chris' spine. Vic never lost his cool, at least not in front of the guys.

"You. What?" Ryan's voice was an octave above a snarl, but that didn't make it any less threatening.

Vic didn't get a chance to repeat himself, because Ryan threw himself at the aboriginal, knocking them away from the body, letting Chris and Leo see for themselves the heart-gripping sight. Ryan pinned Vic to the ground, swinging punch after punch to his face. The heartbreaking thing was, Vic didn't even fight back, didn't bother to defend himself. Just let himself get hammered in the face and body. Nothing could be more devastating to himself than what his body was forced to do .

Chris ripped his gaze from the "fight" to look at the damage that was done. Kai's black eyes were closed, mouth slightly agape to show the blood that stained her once glimmering teeth. Her black hair with the single red streak was fanned out on the ground, face set in a frozen smile. Chris' heart stopped. She was gone.

The steps that Chris took were the only ones that his legs allowed before they buckled from beneath his body and he fell to his knees in front of his fallen comrade. No, she was more than that. She was everything that kept him and the group going as a real team.

"Stop it! Quit it, you two," Leo yelled as he ran to the Cat and the Raven. His viper speed carried him to the fight, where he struggled to get a grip on Ryan's right hook which was now stained red with Vic's blood. Like his right hand, Vic's entire face was covered in his own blood, oozing from a cut on his lip, his cheek, and his nose.

Chris looked over, silent. Using one last burst of strength his heart allowed, he got up, wrenched Ryan away from Vic, and threw him away, closer to Kai's body. Instead of crawling back to finish what he started, Ryan simply crumpled on the ground and began to wail in anguish, tears falling like a dam has been lifted from his tear ducts.

"Air, please join this circle." Chris didn't notice it before, but Zoey Redbird and her circle have come to see what the commotion was, and were now standing in a circle around him and his three brothers and fallen sister.

"Fire, can you please join this circle."

"For shit's sake. Water, join this circle."

"Earth, please join this circle."

Zoey walked closer to Kai's body. "Spirit, please join this circle."

The same silver thread that led Chris to the scene surrounded him in a barrier.

Damien laid a hand on a now sitting Vic, who looked more broken than Chris felt. "Air, please aid your animal spirit form. Blow away some of the pain from this scene." Vic took a sharp intake of breath before lowering his head. He mumbled something before his body collapsed, a yellow raven emerging from his chest.

"Fire, burn away a little of the sadness from your spirit animal form. Goddess knows he needs it." Ryan stopped wailing like a girl, mumbled something similar to what Vic might have said, and closed his eyes. A red tinged large cat leaped out of his chest.

"Water, wash away a little bit of the sadness from your spirit form." Leo didn't even say anything before, he too, collapsed and a blue ribbon rippled from his body, forming the blue serpent that was who he really was.

"Earth, be there to support your spirit form. He needs it more than you think." The Okie Twang that spoke those words branded into his brain, and his soul knew what to do. With a sigh, Chris closed his eyes and let his body go limp. He opened his eyes to see that his body still lay on the ground, his spirit nearly free.

"And spirit, please let the companions of your spirit form know that your soul is now free so that they may find closure in the scene of tonight."

A purple aura flowed out of Kai's body, the faint figure of a wolf fading in and out of the smoke. A howl was heard, though it sounded so far away that it was more of an echo. Suddenly, there was a real figure of a wolf, made up of nothing but purple smoke. It was Kai's soul.

"Red?" Vic's voice was barely a whisper, but the wolf's head looked in his direction anyway. She nodded, bowing her head before evaporating.

When there was nothing but silence for what seemed like a long time, Stevie Rae was the one to break the silence. "That was weird. She didn't go into Nyx's Otherworld."

Leo was the most composed, so he changed back into his human body, tears still streaming down his cheeks. "What do you mean?"

"Normally when someone dies, witnesses can see their spirit move into Nyx's world. But that didn't happen. She just evaporated."

"Which means what?" Chris also moved back into his human body and was now standing.

"Is there hope?" Ryan was by Leo's side, a brotherly arm laid on his shoulder.

"Stevie Rae, you mean that you have a chance at bringing her back?"