Eight sickening scars carved into the back of a young girl, along with a single crescent mark in her hairline. It meant only one thing; someone powerful was back in town, after three hundred odd years, they were back.
"Nina, we have to go. All the children are weak, we have to get them out." Rogan's voice was soft, but it pulled my focus from Tamzin's back. The tips of his fingers grazed the small of my back, sending shock waves up my spine. "Bring the girl; we'll sort out her situation out once everything is settled." His fingers slowly trailed to the inside of my forearm and down to my palm, where he then entwined them with mine.
The shoreline was lined with young; some were standing, others kneeling, and a few were sobbing. All of them were shaking.
On doing a head count, we discovered 10 extra people; two witches, four vampires and four wolves.
The four young wolves, stood with the three from Rogan's pack, ranged in age; the oldest being 14, and the youngest, only 6.
Though one of the four truly stuck out; a boy. I looked away; saw Damion talking to the four vampires no one had seen before, saw Arabella dealing with the two witches not her coven.
Rogan lightly squeezed my hand, I looked up at his face and smiled.
"I'm going to take Lyra, Gemma and Nikita to their families. Could you talk to the other four? Try to work out where they're from." I nodded as he let go of my hand and kissed my cheek.
I moved towards the group of children. The youngest of them looked up at me with big green eyes
"Are you going to look after us now?"
I crouched down and looked right into that little girl's face.
"What's your name?"
"That's Tilly." I looked up to the young man who had spoken. "She's six, then there's Violet, she's eight." He placed a hand on the little blonde's head. "And then there's Keilantra and I, we're fourteen."
"Well, Tilly," I turned back to the youngest, "I think it's best we find your mummy and daddy." Her little face fell.
"Kyllian, why did you tell a stranger about us?"
I stood up and looked from one twin to the other.
Something about Keilantra was different to any other teenage wolf I'd ever met, and there was a sense of fear radiating from her.
"You can sense it, can't you? The difference between my brother and I." I nodded, slowly. "You can't tell my Alpha. He'll kill me."
She closed her pewter eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were piercing blue. Slowly she began to change. There was a cracking of bones and a whimper of pain, and then, there it stood; a magnificent panther, with fur as black as the night sky without a moon.
My father had once told me a story, when I was very young, of a man he had met. A man that was neither wolf nor vampire, but a man who had the power to turn into a panther, with the ability to change at will; a rare creature indeed.
He told me that this rare phenomenon was caused by what was in the heart of the person.
I looked straight into those blue eyes.
"Dear child. So much fear and uncertainty; far too much for a child of your age."
The creature closed its eyes, and again, the sounds of cracking and agony filled the air, until a girl stood before me once more.
"Who would kill such magnificent specimen? What Alpha, in their right mind, would end the life of such a crucial member of their pack?"
The young teenager looked at me in silence.
