Darkness Rising (fanfic) (4th book in Destiny series)

Chapter 10: Rebels

"Who do you want to go get first?" Drac asked.

"Hmmm, Comet is closer so we should go get him first." Ericka suggested.

Drac scowled, "I wish you said Poisontail." He grumbled.

"Oh lighten up," She said light-heartily, nudging him slightly, "this will be fun."

"And we should stop wasting moonlight." Atom said, looking through a nearby window.

"Yeah, give me a second." She said, teleporting to Nicholas's room. He was sitting on the floor with a few toy cars. "Hey sweetie." She said sweetly to him, sitting next to him.

"Did you come to play with me?" He asked, looking her in the eyes.

She felt bad for saying, "Sorry, but I can't."

"Why not?" He asked, crawling into her lap. She picked him up and put him on her chest,

"I-I have to go."

"But your never home!" He said, almost like he was crying, "you never spend time with me!"

"I'm spending time with you now!" She said.

"Because your about to leave again!" He said, weeping into her shoulder. She hugged him back and started to tear up again.

Downstairs, Drac was wondering what was taking so long, so he went up to check on her. He peeked through the door frame and saw them sobbing on the floor. He knelt down next to them and embraced them in his arms. "This isn't your fault." He whispered into Ericka's ear.

"I should of never looked at that eclipse!" She said in a painful voice.

"We'll get through this."He said softly, resting his head against hers. Nicholas eventually cried himself to sleep and they put him back to bed.

"He's right you know." She said as they left the room and shut the door.

"About what?" Drac asked. She sighed, "that we need to spend more time with him."

"I agree," He said, "but when?"

"He's our son," She said as they walked down the stairs, "we can find time." They went over to Atom who had his eyes closed.

"Jeez no need to be emotional." Atom said, opening his eyes.

Ericka scoffed, "What do you mean?"

Atom rolled his eyes, "We're linked so I can see through your eyes, hear through your ears and even see memories."

"We'll don't spy," She said, "that's rude."

"Alright, you win," Atom said, "but we should seriously get moving."

"Then get up so we can." Drac said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Alright, alright." Atom said, standing up and they walked out of the front door. "You know I don't feel safe out here anymore." Atom said, his gaze shifting from left to right. The others mumbled an agreement and entered the woods.

"WHY IS IT ALWAYS FOGGY WHEN WE'RE IN FORESTS?!" Ericka yelled angrily.

"Welcome to my world." Drac said dryly. They walked until they found the path that originally took on their way to see Atom. They heard something big moving around the in the forest around them.

"Comet is that you?" Ericka asked. Whatever it was, didn't respond and kept slowly advancing on them. They felt a dark presence swamp them from all sides. Then a Shadow Rider suddenly leaped out of the shadows. Ericka was closest to it and her first reaction was to sucker punch it in the face. She attempted to do it but it was just too big and slapped her into a nearby tree with full force. (Reminder that just the Shadow Rider's paw is literally as big as her waist to her head so that's pretty large.) She face-planted into the tree and lifelessly slid onto the ground. Three other Shadow Riders blocked their escape routes.