The Bellwood Breed

The Bellwood Breed-28

"Me? What do you mean me?" We were all still sitting around in Avery's living room as things began to fall into place. I was still shaken up by Emily's interrogation, but I was slowly regaining composure as we approached the subject of saving Lexi.

"Riley, you're part Darklighter." Ryder breath. He saw my face fall and he quickly added on, "At least for right now. And I don't mean that in a bad way, at least not right now, because it's what's going to help us get your sister back."

"I see it!" Avery exclaimed suddenly. "Riley can find the glamour and remove it because it was casted by a Darklighter!"

"Yes." Ryder nodded with a smile. "And then we can track them down, leading us right to this Alec person."

"They completely forgot to add her into the equation."

"Which works in our advantage." They were all becoming excited.

"Okay wait!" I stood up, putting a stop to it before they could all start shouting things at once. "Believe me when I say I am down for whatever you guys are brewing, but I don't even know how to cast a glamour, let alone know how to find one. I know next to nothing about any of this."

"She has a point." Pippa chirped.

"Then we'll teach her." Ryder said simply.

"Yes but, do we have time for that? It's been nearly a week since she went missing. What if time is running out?!" I pleaded.

"Don't base your life on what-ifs, that's firstly." Ryder started. "And secondly, it's all we've got, so we'll just have to make due." He turned to the rest of his friends. "The rest of us need to make it back to Riley's house. While we're helping her locate and extract the glamour, we need for you guys to start devising a way to handle Alec and his puppets before we locate him. We'll go in with the element of surprise because I'll bet he was going to use Lexi as a way to make Riley come to him blindly. He's stringing this out for a reason because he wants to have Riley at a breaking point. Which up until now, was working."

It was like a euphoria moment in my head as I realized what Ryder was saying, and it all made so much sense now.

"We need to be as stealth as we've ever been about anything because something in my gut tells me that Alec is seriously up to something. So we need to catch him by surprise and strike while the iron is hot. Am I understood?" They all nodded and he did the same in return. "Everyone go home and get cleaned up. Rest for a moment while you're at it...it's going to be a long night."

******

"I can't do this!" I yelled in aggravation.

"Riley just calm down, take a deep breath, it'll never work if you're unfocused." Avery said gently.

He rested a hand on my shoulder and I shook it off. "This is stupid, it's not going to work. I'm not like you guys, I don't have all of these stupid abilities." I bit. We had been at me "locating" this stupid glamour for the past hour almost. I saw no point in continuing to do so, this obviously wasn't going to work.

"Ri, just...calm down, and breath. Just relax for me, can you do that?" Ryder stood in front of me, holding my attention with those deep mysterious eyes of his.

I set my jaw and finally looked away. "No. No Ryder, I can't do this." I finally sighed.

Ryder frowned and looked as if he were about to say something when Avery stepped in. He took me in his arms and looked me directly in the eyes.

"Babe, remember what I said ok?" He traced my face with the very tips of his fingers, sending jolts of electricity all through me. "I trust you." He said quietly. "You have it in you, and I know you can do it." His eyes were soft and sympathetic before he brought his lips to mine, holding me as he kissed me gently.

My arms wrapped around his neck as I kissed him back, running my hands through his hair and relishing in its silkiness. Avery made me feel amazing. He may not have had a strong affect on me physically like Ryder did, but mentally and emotionally...he was right there.

Ryder cleared his throat as he cut his eyes. "Avery, you're not helping, you're being more of a distraction then anything else." He huffed.

I felt my cheeks go warm as he pulled away and gave me a reassuring smile. "You can do it." I nodded. "She just needed a little motivation." Avery said with a wink.

I took a deep breath and centered all of my attention back on the task at hand. I shut my eyes and opened up my senses to the unseen world around me.

I could feel the waves of energy streaming down from the lights over head, sense the dust motes that played with my nostrils and grazed my skin. I could hear the heater pulsating, working to keep our home warm.

I felt every imaginable sensation, sensing everything at once. I was bombarded with sensory details from everywhere and I found it hard to focus on just one thing. I couldn't grasp on to anything out of the ordinary like they had instructed; I didn't know what wasn't suppose to feel right.

Avery instructed to feel for anything that felt like an intrusion, something that wasn't natural. He said I would feel it if I scanned the area like they had always done. I would be able to recognize it simply because of the fact that I was part Darklighter. Even though it would be unfamiliar, I could detect it.

I tried not to allow my brain to wander to other things, but it was hard, I had too much to think about. I figured I was going to have to go about this a different way, or I would never find anything. So I decided to take a deep breath, and focused all my energy on finding my little sister.

I pictured her terrified face that night she was taken, sensing how scared she was. I subconsciously felt my feet move, but on its own accord.

I could hear my sister's screams of terror all over again, as if she were standing right here in the room with us. My heart jumped and my nostrils flared as I physically saw the scene, but my eyes were closed.

I saw her perp as he slit her wrist, blood instantly spilling to the floor. My fist balled as I had the urge to cry out all over again.

I watched as he swiped of some of the gash, making a crimson stain on my wall beside the window. He waived his hand over the mark and it disappeared, hiding its self as if it were never even there.

Something about the perp was highly familiar, but I only caught a slim glimpse of his face as he disappear out the window, taking Lexi with him. The replay ended and I had the urge to cry.

But I didn't, like they had said I would, I felt something that didn't belong. It wasn't like the dust motes floating around, or the pulsing beams of light, it was odd, and strange, and more importantly...dark. And it was emanating from by my window where Lexi's blood had been wiped.

I pulled on it, forcing it up and out of the way. It didn't belong, so it wasn't allowed to stay. I could almost feel it being lifted as it went, leaving a strange lightheaded feeling as it did. It was taking a lot of energy from me. Just when I felt my self slipping, something snapped, and I felt that it was gone.

I took a deep breath, falling to my hands and knees as I gasped for air. I felt weak and worn down, like I hadn't eaten in weeks.

Ryder and Avery rushed to my side. "Riley! What happened, are you okay?" Avery held on to me and I shook my head.

"I...the glamour..." I was out of breath.

"She must've tapped into her energy reserves. She could've burnt herself out." Ryder said knowingly as he knelt down in front of me.

Avery took my palm in his hands, flipping my hand over and rubbing his thumb over my wrist. "How does you feel? Feel better?" He asked gently.

It slowly made me feel like I was able to breath evenly again. I felt energized all over again. Taking a feel breath, I looked into his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I do." I breathed. "What did you just do?"

"He have you some of his energy." Ryder said simply.

"Energy? What?"

"There are limits to what every living thing can do, including us." Ryder started. "When doing something, such as you just did...you can drain yourself to quickly, and if you're not careful, you could kill yourself. Avery just offered you, quite literally, some of his life." Ryder said quietly.

"Avery-" I started.

"I-it's not a big deal. You would've gained it back in a few moments, I just sped up the process." His cheeks turned the slightest shade of pink.

I laced my fingers into his. "It is a big deal." I whispered. "Thank you." He have me a small smile, squeezing my hand a little.

"I hate to break up this moment," Ryder started with a huff. "But we have a more important task at hand." We both looked up in the direction he was pointing in.

Avery helped me to my feet as we went to examine the wall closer. There on it, like I had seen with my eyes closed, was a dark brown smudge. I knew exactly what it was, it was Lexi's blood.

"She did it." Avery breathed as if he couldn't believe it. "She removed the glamour."