The Others

Part 11: Shara

I'm tempted to see what she said. I respect her too much to do that though. Now where were we? ... Alright then.

The rest of that day was uneventful. Gave me a false sense of security. However the next day...

Well..

I awoke with a start.

Why?

Well, being ripped from dreams and from the arms of those you love is sadly a side effect of being kidnapped at the crack of dawn. I suppose it can't be helped. After struggling to get free from my captors and back into Xania's arms until I was shoved roughly into the trunk of a car, I calmed down as I realized my hands weren't tied.

My captor's fatal error.

Well... poor choice of words. I'm not killing my captor. In programming, a fatal error is a bug in the code that, when found, kills the program entirely. It causes the entire program to fail, simply due to the tiniest of errors. In this instance, the program is my kidnapping, and the error is not tying my hands.

I pop open the trunk by popping it open with the emergency bar, before taking a few moments to gather that familiar gut feeling in my hands and feet, feeling the familiar rush and gathering my courage, before I try something Mom once showed me. I push the trunk all the way up, and use my magic to blast fire from my hands and feet, which gave me just enough thrust to fly. Of course, I don't have much experience with this technique, but I guess it's a good thing I inherited Mom's pyrokinesis, because I have just enough talent to fly from the grey car and land.

It's only then that David notices. I see him running out the front door right as I'm attacked again.

The last thing I remember hearing before I pass out is a simple:

"Breath into the rag, hun." Their voice was soft, kind of velvety. And there was a Middle Eastern accent to it.

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I wake up slowly, in what appears to be a normal hotel room.

"Took your sweet time." That voice says again, from the bathroom. "Began to think I put to much chloroform in that rag. You okay?"

Am I okay?  That's rich, coming from the person who just kidnapped me.

"Not speaking, huh?" They walked out of the bathroom, a goth. Black leather jacket, black jeans, black makeup, the works. "Did I use to much chloroform? I hope I didn't hurt you."

I can't sense any malice in their voice. No vindictiveness, not even sarcasm. They sound sincere.

"Why do you care?" I say, pitifully weak. "You kidnapped me."

"No, I saved you. That human would've known you weren't and would've killed you." They say.

"Human? And what do you mean 'would have known I wasn't'? What aren't I?" I ask.

"The one who saw you fly. The ones you were with." My captor sighs. "They're human. You're not. You're a Shadahe."

"'The one who saw me fly', as you call him, just happens to be my twin brother. As for the rest, there's my mother, father, girlfriend, who happens to be a shapeshifter, and my girlfriend's brother, who also happens to be a shapeshifter." I cough, and then notice my hands, again, aren't tied. What is going on here? "So if I'm not human, neither are any of my family."

"In my defense, it was an honest mistake. I felt a surge of magic coming from that location and I haven't seen any magic since I showed up." They sigh. "I thought you were a recently awoken Shadahe. So if you didn't wake up your powers recently, then who did?"

"No one." I'm intrigued. "All of us have had our powers for our whole life. Only recently we've been training them."

"Then how in the world was that much power harnessed?" My captor, now sitting, slowly connects the dots. "Wait... could it be?- No, I thought they died out?"

I sit there, wondering if they are referring to Sybel's dragon thing.

"Is there a King or Queen or Ruler amongst you?" They look me dead in the eye, their eyes turning completely black.

"Why." I ask, a slight quiver of anxiety in my voice.

"Because then they're in danger." They take me by the hand, and they pull me up and over to the door. They make sure I'm holding onto them when they start pulling electricity from their hands, which then surrounds us and, through some indescribable force of nature, teleports us to my house. I let go and barf all over the ground. The trip placed a lot of pressure on my stomach and messed up my vestibular system.

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"My name as of right now is Alex. They/them. No hard feelings over accidentally on-purpose kidnapping you?"

"Shara. She/Her. And now that I know what I know, there's no point holding a grudge."

"David. He/him. Only some hard feelings about you kidnapping my sister." David chips in, as he walks into the room.

"Sybel. She/her, they/them. I'm in the middle about the kidnapping for a number of reasons." Sybel follows close behind.

"I'm Kiara, Shara's mother. I honestly am in too much awe that there's others." Mom says.

"So what did you mean, Sybel is in danger?" I say, after a moment of silence.

"A King, Ruler's, or Queen's blood is priceless on the black arts market. Mainly because there isn't any anymore." Alex adjusts their binder a bit and then continues. "If someone got ahold of just one drop of your blood, that could cure them of any ailment. A cup of it, and they add 100 years to their life. Your entire body's supply? They'd essentially become immortal. And that's just the productive side of the black arts possible with your blood. The destruction of this half of the country is possible with only a cup or so. That's why you don't age as fast as other people, and why you never get sick. Of course, the only way to get your blood is through the source. It has to be fresh to work in a blood rite. You don't have to be alive, but the blood has to be fresh. Meaning either they will take the careful approach and steal it while you sleep, or they will try to kill you. While you sleep. With the potency of the raw power in your blood, you have an unnatural magical ability to tap into the powers of the Originals. It'll take most of your magic energy pool, but you have the combined powers of the Shapeshifters, Vampires, Shadahe, and the exclusive powers of the Kings and Queens and Rulers."

Sybeliza stands, panicking. I know because David knows. He can tell.

Bro, Sybel is panicking, help her. I send a quick esp message to David.

I don't know how... she's afraid of herself. David looks into his hands, unsure how to help. This is new to him, and he hates the feeling of helplessness it brings him.

"Sybel. Go have a talk with David. He's not sure how to help, and I know that you two will figure it out." I dismiss them.

"Before you go, I do want to mention that Kings, Queens, and Rulers, they have an extraordinary amount of control over their powers as long as they're kept calm. So if you start to lose control, that's normal." Alex says.