Folks Of Fury (#1; Tales Of Elysia [COMPLETED])

five.

Would he kiss me here at the entrance the school for anyone to see?
Somehow I didn't care. I'm paralyzed with a strange unfamiliar need.
I'm staring at Ezra Khan's lips and mesmerised by the thought of feeling them on mine.
And he's motionless, looking down at me with hooded gaze, eyes darkening.
He breathed harder and I wondered if he feels the electrical tension in the air between us.
But Ezra took a deep breath and shut his eyes for a brief moment breaking eye contact.
The hell he does? Just because he implied I'm attractive doesn't mean he was attracted to me...he's straight.
When he looked at me again it's with clear steel resolve.
"What do you want to ask me?" I cleared my throat and asked.
"What did you mean earlier by it's safer at Rita's to eat than at home?"
Uh oh. I straightened and drew in a breath which he must have taken as hesitation.
"Be honest, Senoy." He husked out, dark hazel eyes penetrated hard and imploring, as if knowing I might lie.
"I just don't want you to feel bad for me or put Margot or the rest of the St. Ours in a bad light." And why do I care that he would see them differently?
"Just tell me." He all but snapped.
"I... I can't be sure, eating at home, if my food hasn't been poisoned with too much salt or iron. T-The last time... I convulsed for almost a week."
I shut my eyes at the memory of it, it was one of the many times I believed they'd finally decided to put an end to my misery.
I felt Ezra draw in a tight hiss that evolved to a guttural growl, both made me flinch.
"That's completely sick and fucked up." he breathed. "Your parents allow that to happen?"
I started to turn away. The subject was already pulling darker memories from the past to the forefront.
"Don't worry about it."
But he pulled me back by the arm and again closing the space between us as he remarked as sternly as possible.
"I can't even if I tried. The thought just sickens me... that they would do that to their own family."
I sighed, his concern as deep as a knife wound. "I don't want to talk about it, Ezra. I found ways to deal with it."
I could tell that what I had confided really bothered him but his jaw clenched with a tic and he squeezed his hold on me slightly and reassuringly.
"I want to ask you something." I began, wanting to dissolve the tense subject for good.
His lashes raised and revealed haunted hazel eyes that sparked somewhat with curiosity.
"I'm going to check out both the murder scenes tonight."
"What a Nancy Drew you're looking to be," He mused, his good humor returning.
I rolled my eyes but with a calm smile. "You said you want to solve them so I'm giving you a chance. So will you come or not?"
Perhaps I was giving myself a chance to spend more time with him.
Ezra stepped back and scratched the back of his head with a hand and the other placed on his hip.
"I'm not sure I'll be free tonight. Your parents are coming to my place for dinner."
For the courtship.
"Oh, ok." I took my arm out of his grip and made to go.
"Last periods almost started." I mumbled an excuse which it shouldn't have been.
He gave a stiff nod. "Yeah. See you around." I didn't meet his gaze as I bounded for the open doors of the hallway.

Going for the classes I had left was pointless.  I barely paid attention and it clearly had infuriated the teachers to give us a hefty dose of homework.
And as I meandered to my locker, I would notice a few stares following my movement.
It wasn't Ezra but they were Legion.
Two girls- a stunning blonde and a model slim dark haired one with skin of flawless mahogany.
Theirs had nothing hostile to the way they stared at me, the dark skinned girl even waved easily my way till her friend whispered something in her ear and turned away.
Toby and Eloise were no where to be found. Probably gone home since lunch so I was made my way to the quad alone.
The Legion Boys were in full attendance by their bikes and I hastily searched through their faces for the Four.
Chris was easy to spot with that wind tousled fair hair as he lounged over his bike like a model and grinned up at a girl in skimpy denim short shorts who was clearly into him.
Micah was laughing with Lionel and a huge brown haired boy.
"Looking for someone in particular?" I nearly jumped with a shriek at how close the voice had been.
"Jesus Christ!" I gritted under my breath instead.
Ezra grinned widely. "Nope, just me."
I steadied the speeding rant of my heart and turned to him fully.
"You're lucky I'm not as jumpy as I used to or you'd be riding that bike of yours with one leg."
His dark eyes were shining. "I really doubt that. Shouldn't you be on your way to your nighttime investigation?"
"Shouldn't you on your way to declaring yourself for my sister?"
His brows quirked as a derisive snort left him, Ezra pulled his bag up his shoulder and replied.
"I think I can manage a few minutes left before that." He didn't sound thrilled about it and I found it made me slightly...relieved.
"Do you need a ride? Is that why you were looking for me?"
I frowned. "Who said I was looking for you? Vain of yourself to think everything is about you."
He looked suddenly guttered as if my words really had struck something deep and raw inside him.
I wanted to apologise but then he remarked, readjusting his expression.
"Where are you going to start off your detective skills? The townsquare or the Bridge?" He'd shrugged off the jibe.
"In that order, it'd be better if I searched that way."
Ezra held a scrutinising gaze to me. "And you think you'd find something the police or the Legion didn't?"
I shrugged. "Don't want to brag but I have certain skills both of them don't."
He smirked. "I bet you do."
I couldn't help but smile back. I could see the anxiety in his eyes, he clearly wanted to be involved in the resolution of the murders.
It was a reckless anxiety the kind which had taken him into a Fey revel unguided and unprotected. Yet I found it alluring.
"You know you could always come. It's obvious you want to solve this as much."
It was a personal obligation for him. Some would say a vendetta.
But Ezra shook his head, his excitement dimmed from my abject offer.
"I can't. I've been putting off meeting your parents long enough that my father could eat my guts if I so it again."
I grimaced. Gruesome thoughts. "But you could tell me what you find, if there's anything... Tomorrow?"
Shrugging, I mounted my bicycle and pedalled out of the school campus, all the while thinking about how close I had come to kissing Ezra Khan.
I didn't want these feelings to resurface. Toby had been right in saying that I might as well be getting back into my Ezra-infatuated phase.
It was so easy to. Now more than ever because I was getting to know him and he was all mysterious and ensnaring.
But I had to be careful about him...everything really. It wouldn't do me any good if I got any closer to Ezra.
He's the son of Eleazar Khan, the feared and ruthless Knight of the Agnate who would certainly see me as a threat to the alliance he was building with the covens through Ezra and Margot's marriage.
Stop overthinking it! He's not interested in me like that for me to cause much trouble to the alliance.
And if I was, it was best to steer clear of him and let this growing desire for him to die a natural death as it did years ago.
I reached the Manor and chained my bike to the gated fence of the orchard and went through the back entrance.
The back door had doors leading to the store room, cellar and then the kitchen. The latter would take me into the house proper.
I made sure I seldomly use the front door to enter the Manor because I wouldn't know if there were guests being entertained or a meeting of the covens.
Either way, Johann and my aunts had explicitly stated and proved that my presence around such times would be a detriment to my peace of mind.
I walked into the kitchen and found Jean making out- it looked more like he was munching on her tongue- with Amarié Vistoire.
I remembered Amarié because she was the only one of coven children who wasn't explicitly horrid to me.
It doesn't really cover the little she did to stop her friends from antagonising me. Sometimes she just didn't interfere and would help heal some of the bruising hexes.
Which was why I was disappointed to see her taste in guys was profoundly wanting.
Amarié tore herself from Jean on my entrance and blushed, wide eyed before starting to leave the kitchen.
Jean glowered darkly at me as he redid his buttons, pink lip gloss smearing his lips.
"Nice going, half breed. What the fuck are you doing back early?"
"Go look for someone to stick your tongue down just not your second cousin." I retorted back and made my way to my room.

I showered and changed my clothes, clinking the leather brown weapons belt around the waist of dark jeans.
I went to the closet, where I slashed all the Fey artefacts I had and dispelling the binding and cloaking geas on it.
I didn't need to select from the variety of weapons because there was only one I truly needed and always had with me.
It was a longsword; winged hilt of dark gold with dragon head pommel.
The blade itself was as long as my arm, made of a night black metal almost as glassine as obsidian and across it were engraved runes.
The sword was ancient and its notoriety legendary. Angurvadal, the runes told its name and it had never failed me in a fight.
It was getting to sunset when I was ready to leave. I climbed out my window and watched for a brief minute as Tromos and Apelpi circled overhead in wait.
I joined them in flight, taking the form as a brightly coloured falcon and soaring for the first of the murder scenes.
The townsquare. When the bodies had been found in that ominous state, the Agnate had simply dismissed it as a mundane tragedy.
Because the victims were human and the initial reports had revealed normal cause of death.
When more information trickled in that pointed to the supernatural, they considered the involvement of human cultists who liked to play with forces they couldn't understand. 
The townsquare was still active with passing locals and open stores across the road. Maybe I should've come later.
I landed behind a tree and transformed back, placing a second layer of glamour to make myself invisible.
It would definitely be odd for everyone to see a teenager carrying a sword, walking about and investigating the exact spot the bodies had been found.
Unseen by the humans, I reached out with my magic through the energies of the area. It was like a beacon of light spreading through dimness, revealing and absorbing.
I felt the usual confluence of the Agnate presence, made heavy probably by the residences of the powerful like Eleazar and Aunt Hetta.
I was mildly surprised at that, I didn't know my great aunt still interfered in Agnate business not since she was ousted on basis of her dementia destabiling her powers.
I dug deeper still and it was effortless, much to my surprise, my magic surging and brightening like a struck flare stick.
The wind began to push stronger and rustling through the square, swinging shutters of shops and rocking the cars slightly.
I had to soft through the network or influences by other Agnate who investigated and left traces of their essence lying about, days ago till I reached what I was sure was the essence of the murders.
It leapt like a geyser unleashed, shooting forth and attacking at my conscious power and the shock of its sentience staggered me a fee steps.
But I regained composure and increased my own effort to leash and subdue this feral and cold magic.
As I did, lifting some restraints I'd unconsciously placed on the wells of my magic, it was like stretching out unused limbs- exhilarating and relieving.
I heard startled gasps from passers-by who felt the heat of my magic like the desert sun yet couldn't see where it sourced from.
Lashing onto this cold and dead essence and pressed down heavily, I easily took control.
I reached down, to the swirling mass of energies that coursed through the veins of my consciousness like blood through my veins.
I stifled a gasp of surprise at what I found. Instead of the usual cascading fountain of Faery essence mixed through with the dribbles of blue black which was minuscule signs of my coven heritage, I was thrust into the endless volcanic hearth.
I knew my abilities weren't this unfathomable, I'd always felt some limits to what I could do with my Fey powers.
Yet it seemed as if that my perception of that had changed unknowingly but not without reason.
Somehow I was more familiar to this destructive yet malleable force of my magic than the complacence of the prior.
I turned my attention from this new awareness of myself, though still ecstatic, back to the death essences.
It was mild but chaotic, dark yet pristine. And it was neither of witchcraft nor Fey origins. Or perhaps I was too inexperienced to categorise such magic.
But all I could feel from it was a lulling compulsion that plied the tendrils of my magic to heed it.
I permitted it and felt the alien magic turn towards the east, like rivulets of a river retaking old paths back to its centre.
East. The magic split and flared into a multitude of bands snaking farther, humming and vibrating through the ground.
I pulled back, dropping the invisibility glamour and instantly taking the form of a hawk in a burst of molten red light, following the streams of death magic and already having an idea where it was leading to.