Beyond Heroes: August Part One

Memory Lane

Adrianna went straight to Constance after killing Valura. She casted a spell on him and he snapped out of his trance. She did the same thing with Andrew next. Lastly was Regina who Adrianna hesitated with for a moment.

"Hey Constance," Andrew said abruptly. "There's a thing I want to show you."

"Right now?" Constance asked not understanding Andrew's motives. Andrew forcibly grabbed Constance by the collar of his shirt and dragged him deeper into the freshly made clearing.

I grabbed Valentine by the elbow and drug him away as well. "What was that for?" Valentine asked just as confused as Constance. Once I was sure that we were out of ear shot, I stopped pulling Valentine away.

"Regina and Adrianna are going to need some alone time dummy." I explained to Valentine as if it were obvious.

Valentine oddly spent the time that we weren't talking staring at Andrew and my brother. He had stared at them intently which was weird. He was watching their every movement. If Andrew laughed Valentine's eyes were fixated on him. If Constance so much as moved a muscle Valentine caught it. Valentine was a predator watching his prey.

"Valentine what are you doing?" I asked curiously, Valentine didn't answer. "Valentine!" I said a little louder. He snapped out of his hunting gaze and looked at me.

"Sorry." He apologized while smiling.

"What were you doing?"

"Staring at Constance and Andrew." Valentine answered honestly.

"I know that but why?"

"I think I ship them." Valentine glued his eyes onto Andrew and my brother.

"You ship them? What's that mean?"

Valentine instantly fixed his sights on me. His jaw hit the ground and his eye were suddenly filled with terror. He reacted to my question as if I were a gun and my words were bullets that shot clean through him. Valentine was more surprised that I asked what he meant by he "shipped" them more than the fact I didn't know what he meant by it. After Valentine regained his composure, he looked at me uncharacteristically seriously. "It's a Tumblr thing, you wouldn't understand."

Before I could even comprehend what Valentine had said, Andrew called us over. He and Constance were standing next to Regina. Adrianna was gone. Regina explained that after they had their talk Adrianna continued on ahead and that Adrianna to walk straight ahead and we would find Andromache's prison.

Andrew, Constance, and Regina walked side by side in front of me and Valentine. The ten minutes it took to get to Andromache's tree was spent by me listening to Valentine rambling about his first encounter with Caleon because I asked him to tell me. Once he took his first breath, we were standing in front of Andro- mache's tree. Just like in my first memory, his tree was placed in a small clearing between a groupings of trees. A way smaller clearing than the one Andrew created.

We stood a few feet from the tree. Before I could take a step towards the door it flung itself open. Andromache revealed himself in the door way. Seeing him in his actual form took me a little off guard. I wasn't used to seeing him in solid form. Actually that wasn't caught me off guard. It was his clothes.

Besides Andromache, I had only seen four demons as far as I knew. I thought that formal three piece suit was common amongst all demons but apparently Andromache was an exception. He wore a plain black t-shirt with a matching Victorian-style Pelerine Edwardian jacket with the ends extending to just above his knee caps. His Sweeny pants and high laced ankle boots matched his outfit perfectly. Andromache looked like he was plucked straight from a Victorian vampire movie.