The waves crashed against the shore. Over and over. Relentless and unforgiving. Julian found if both cruel and inspiring that the ocean kept going. It had seen so much, and yet it never changed. Yet, the ocean served as a constant reminder of Emma and for that it was cruel. Drew and Tavvy were sticking close to Julian in account of what had happened last time they were at the beach alone but the rest of the Blackthorne bunch ,except Ty who had stayed home, had run to splash around in the ocean. Christina and Emma had gone off on some mission and would be gone for the day. Diana hadn't shown up for lessons and she'd later messaged Julian to let him know they had the day off and that she would be at the Institute tomorrow. So Julian had packed up the kids for the day, given Kits breakfast to Kit as was now usual and gone to the beach.
"Can we make a sand castle?" Tavvy asked looking up at Julian.
"Sure, take this cup and get me some wet sand. Drew, why don't you go shell hunting?" Both Drew and Tavvy looked at Julien for a couple seconds and then they scampered to the water's edge with the others. Once they returned with their loot, Julien went to work working with Tavvy and Drew to make a masterpiece of a sandcastle. Just as they were artfully placing the seashells Drew had collected, Julian heard Liv yell something. Julien looked up and saw Ty and a boy walking towards them. Julien watched as they arrived but they didn't seem very threatening so he stayed where he was while the rest of the kids gathered behind him.
" Kit?" Julian asked, finally recognizing the boy walking with his brother. The boys shrugged in unison and sat down in the sand. Kit had changed somehow since the day his father had died but Julian supposed that was normal.
"These are perfect for skipping." Livvy said picking up some of the rocks Drew had brought with the seashells and just like that Livvy and Mark were skipping rocks, I went back to the sand castle and Kit and Ty were sitting next to each other in silence, looking at the horizon. We stayed like that for the day, we ate lunch on the beach and when everyone got hungry for dinner we packed up and headed back to the Institute. When we got there Christina was putting runes on Emma and there was blood stained clothes everywhere. So much for a day off.
…..
Emma didn't mean for things to go so badly. It was supposed to be just a routine day in the field. There had been unusual levels of demonic activity just a 30 minute drive away so she grabbed Christina and together they went to check it out. The car drive was pleasant enough, Christina drove and Emma hung her head out the window like a dog. Emma could sense that Christina was upset about something but when she started to ask Christina put her hand up to signal that she didn't want to talk about it and Emma didn't bring it up again. Their destination turned out to be a rather large house. There was a strong summer breeze in the air and the place seemed eerily silent. Christina pulled out her radar and nodded her head.
"This is the place," she said and then set off with Emma by her side with Cortana. After a few knocks, Emma got impatient so she backed up and then charged the door with a good round-house kick, knocking it open.
"Great Emma, now if there are any demons here we've lost any element of surprise. Where is your stealth?" Christina asked. Emma shrugged, unapologetic
"You were the one knocking," Emma said and Christina scoffed but continued into the house with her friend. The interior of the house had a rustic feel to it with the brick accent walls and a kitchen like the one in the Pioneer Woman TV cooking show. This was odd for a house just outside LA but not as odd as the bodies. There was one in a chair in the dining room, a white table in the middle of a room, 5 places set with delicate china and silverware and a middle aged man sitting lifeless in the seat at the head of the table. After a quick search of the house, Emma found a lifeless woman sitting in a large yellow chair in the corner of what Emma supposed was the bedroom. Both bodies had holes in their chests where it looked somebody had ripped out their hearts, right from their body. This was something some rogue werewolves would do during their transitions, often to their own family members. They wouldn't know how to control the overwhelming transition and they would tear people apart. Some would take a specific organ fro the body, in this case the heart. What didn't make sense was the demonic activity levels in the house.
"Tina-" Emma began but Christina cut her off.
"I know, it doesn't make any sense. These just look like normal people and why is there demonic activity here but no demons?"
"The followers looked like normal people," Emma said and Christina shook her head.
"The followers are gone, Emma and so is Malcolm."
"Not for sure, not if we haven't found his body. Not until there's proof can we be sure." Emma said even though the Clave had told her not to worry. That Malcolm was gone. That they were safe. Emma had heard that before, when the Clave had tried to pin her parent's deaths of Sebastian Christina called in the Clave and they portaled in. Silent Brothers went about their work and after giving their statement, Christina and Emma were released so they began the drive home. Emma decided to keep her head inside the car this time and instead she busied herself with adding runes onto her thigh.
"You really should let me of Julian do that, you know," Christina said, glancing away from the road to observe Emma start an agility rune directly on her knee cap. Emma rolled her eyes and continued her work.
"Keep your eyes on the road Tina," Emma said playfully but then there was motion in the rear- view mirror and then they were airborne and spinning and Emma was screaming and Christina was screaming and then it all stopped. Emma was being held upside down by her seatbelt and Christina was unconscious. There was blood on her forehead and Emma kept screaming at Christina to wake up. The car wouldn't hold upside down for too long, they had to get out of there immediately. Emma undid her seatbelt and fell onto the roof of the car. There wasn't enough room to take out Cortana in the small space so Emma left it on her back and unbuckled Christina.
"Christina! You need to wake up-NOW," Emma pleaded. She couldn't get both of them out of there without Christina's help. Christina groaned but stayed unconscious. In one fluent motion, Emma kicked the already partly smashed window the rest of the way open on Christina's side. Then, she pushed Christina over the broken glass and out of the car while she wormed out herself. Once Christina was completely out of the car and so was Emma, except for her right leg that was stuck inside of Christina's seat belt. The car began to cave under it's own weight and it collapsed as Emma attempted to free her leg of the tangles seat belt. Emma shrieked in pain but managed to free her leg before it was completely crushed. The wound was on her thigh, right where she had been ruining in the car. Tenderly, Emma got to her feet. She used one of Christina's butterfly knives to cut the hem of her shirt and tie the fabric around her leg above the wound to stop the bleeding. Considering she had lost her stele somewhere, Emma figured there would be no healing runes until she got...where? She couldn't leave Christina, that wouldn't be an option, so it was the Institute or the house they'd just left where the Clave would still be. Emma was sweating and the temperature felt like 200 degrees. Tenderly, Emma tested her leg. It hurt like hell but she had taken a whipping from Faeries once, she could handle this. With a weak leg and a body heat of about 1,000 degrees, Emma couldn't imagine carrying Christina to the Institute, and she really didn't want to go back to that house. So she took Christina by the arm and pulled her arm over her own shoulders. Once standing, Emma grunted in pain every step but she carried Christina and fell into a rhythm that soon made the pain numb. Emma began a chant in her head. Left foot, right foot, Christina, Left foot, Right foot, Christina. And maybe 5 hours had gone by or 30 minutes but Emma got Christina back to the Institute. Then she took Christina's gear off leaving her with the tank top and shorts she had underneath. After cleaning Christina's forehead wound and the blood from her hair, Emma stripped herself of gear and ruined herself and Christina with a stele she found in the emergency drawer in the kitchen. Then, too weary to go up the steps, Emma placed herself and Christina on the couch and she passed out alongside her friend. When she awoke some time later, Christina was very disoriented and frowning at Emma. Emma explained the general idea of what had happened and Christina insisted on adding more runes to Emma's skin and redressing Emma's right leg that still hurt really bad, like insanely bad. That was when Julian, Drew, Tavvy, Liv, Mark, Ty, and Kit got home.
"Hey guys," Emma chirped upon noticing their arrival and seeing their stares of horror, "We're all good here, just a fender bender."
"What happened?" Julian asked and the concern in his voice made Emma's heart ache more than her leg.
"We were in an accident." Christina said, voice calm. She was on the phone with the Clave for the second time in one day, explaining what had happened and how we would be needing a new car.
"I can see that, but what happened?" Julian looked between Christina and Emma as he spoke but his gaze landed on Emma.
"Kit?" Emma asked, looking at the young boy in astonishment. "Let's fill everyone in over dinner, I'm starved," Emma continued "But I would like to clean up first. How about a reconvene in ten?" Everybody nodded along and reluctantly. Julian agreed too.
"Okay, everybody change out of your beach clothes and into pj's. Everyone's had a long day so after dinner, I'm calling a lights out." Julian said and everyone obliged because that was the way it was. Julian making dinner, deciding bedtime and what to do when they had a day off. Julian looked up to find Emma's eyes on him and he held them until he turned into the kitchen to get started on dinner.
