Five reviews in the first chapter! WHOA!

Okay this is not as good because I have been with writer's block, but enjoy it.

Chapter one: Holding on by a thread


We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

When the boy woke from his dream he was frantic. His heart was hammering in his chest. Before his inner eye he saw the small slumped form from his dream. He would never forgive himself if he stayed there while Lea was hurting.

He was desperate. He needed to help Lea and he didn't know how. His heart was aching when he thought of the little girl in the clutches of the vile bullies, so small and so helpless... None of those were happy thoughts. They gave him a desperation he had never felt before. Probably that's why his father hadn't notice; he was locked in, desperate like always.

He didn't belong here... He had not committed any crime to be locked there, even if the oncoming war was ultimately his fault. And he had made a promise. A promise he wasn't keeping by sitting in the lair.

With desperation came determination. He would not be the reason Lea suffered. And if he had to do what would surely give him a painful lesson if discovered, he would. He would go out of this place and he would find Lea. Or he would die trying. Not because he didn't deserve to be here. But because he was needed somewhere else. Because Lea needed him.


Scanning the hallway of the school, two grey eyes narrowed in confusion. Where were them? Surely nothing could've happened to them, could it?

He looked everywhere, but couldn't find neither Matt nor Lea. Judging by the way that quite a lot students were whispering to each other, something was gravely wrong. As he approached to his friends, he caught their scents. No doubts now.

"What's up?" he asked

Judging by the looks of their faces, something bad had happened.

"Before I tell you, you might need to sit." Maia said.

And tell him she did. Apparently yesterday, Lea had been pushed down the stairs by Troy, giving her a concussion. Matt and his friends had found her, and Troy had been suspended for three days. At the moment, the whole family was in the hospital, since Lea had yet to wake up.


DARREN'S POV

I watch her every day... I look at her, I see how she withers, how the green fire in her eyes is going out. Little by little, she goes out. She wilts. She dies.

She's not dying, yet she is. Her hope is giving way to despair. And I can not let that happen, but what I can do?

I should have protected her. The thought that someone could hurt Lea was the straw that broke the camel.

"Okay…" I trailed off. "Someone will kill him, or shall I do it?"

They thought I spoke out of anger. How wrong they were.


NORMAL POV

'Know' and 'Can' aren't synonyms. But they could be. If you know how to do something, you can do it.

So that's why he wasn't heading towards his home when school was over. He didn't know where Troy lived, but Darren could still trace his scent. Did he know how to beat up a person? Yes. Would he do it? DEFINITELY YES.

He had to protect her; someone had to do it while Valentine wasn't available. The mere thought of his friend saddened him. Every day, he thought about the last talk they had had.

…was it even possible that his own words were the cause that he had left?

As a child, he thought of himself useless. Eventually, he became convinced, now he has no doubt. HE WAS GOOD FOR NOTHING.

He should have protected her, even if he knew no one would replace Vale. Lea still missed him with all her heart.

FLASHBACK

He knew Vale's absence affected Lea terribly, but he didn't know to what extent. So there they were, a few months after Vale had left, in one of the breaks of school, he, Matt, Lea, and one of Lea's friends, Kiara

"Besides, Santa Claus isn't magical or anything." Lea was saying matter-of-factly

"She says that because Santa hasn't brought her what she requested." Chipped up Kiara. "Maybe it was expensive, because Mom says that Santa doesn't bring expensive things, because he does magic, not miracles." Lea looked at her

"What I had asked doesn't cost money, I only asked for Vale to come home and that nothing had happened to him." Darren nearly choked and Matt stiffened

"I think that does not work that way, Le." said Matt sadly. For that day, Darren knew what Lea asked for every birthday, every Christmas, she only wanted her brother.

"You have to ask for two things, because if he does not bring you the first thing, he brings you the second." Kiara said, obviously trying to cheer her up. Lea was thoughtful for a moment

"Another thing..." she mused. "I do not want anything to happen to any of you. That is valid, right?"

"I don't want it either." Darren thought. "But if it happens, I'll do something about it."

END FLASHBACK

And that was exactly what he was doing.

The track led him up to what he supposed would be Troy's house. Still trailing the scent, he sidled round a house to the backyard, and hid behind a wall, where Troy with some boys. But then he heard it.

''Yeah, I hit the little shit and she fell like a ragged doll. She attacked me because she wanted this."

And then Darren saw a very familiar gem in Troy's hand. He had hurt an innocent person, a friend of his, and now he was mocking her. And, he had stolen the only thing Valentine had left her.

Of course, you can't do something perfectly with just 'know' and 'can'. There's also 'need'. Sometimes, necessity turns you incredibly powerful. He needed to avenge Lea.

There was no rational thought left in Darren's brain, only outrage and seething fury.


If he did it once, he could do it twice. That is, if he managed to survive whatever test his father had thought for him.

As he stepped in the sunlight, the boy walked towards the end of the cliff and closed his eyes, breathing slowly. He still tried to control the pain of his back, but on the other hand, he was also pleased.

"What are you doing?" came the impatient voice of his father.

"I missed this." He explained. "The air, the heat, the light..."

"If you don't want to go back to the shadows, move."

"Why do I ha…" he trailed off when he saw exactly what was waiting for him down the cliff.

"…Oh." He finished in a shaky voice. He didn't think he would be facing a Kaiju so soon. He took a step back at the same time he noticed the magic being used. He prepared himself for the pain, but it wasn't being used inside him. It was being used beneath him.

He opened his eyes wide as the ground under him cracked open, making him plummet towards what he knew would be his downfall.


Troy was watching his friends go, satisfied with the way he told the story, when there was suddenly a loud growl just behind him. He wiped around. In his backyard stood one of his classmates, one of the few that could put up a fight against him. But what made Troy's breath catch in his throat and his heart stop just for a moment, were Darren's furiously blazing eyes. They were the eyes of a murderer, a madman.

"Let's get this over with, shall we?" Darren hissed lowly, unable to resist any longer. Troy was surprised when the sprinklers started functioning all at once.

"So, would you rather have your black eye on the left or the right?" Darren smirked. This was gonna be fun.


Rîus was running as fast as he could. He knew he had reason to be worried. Just thinking what could have happened to Darren to not to come home, that he had not been there when he was supposed to be, filled him with icy fear.

Normally he trusted his nephew, and didn't mind him coming late, but these were dangerous times. Maybe Darren hadn't noticed, but he did. He had seen some guys' with glowing eyes, the first ones in years. And Rîus knew what they were, being one himself. The news were always of mysterious accidents, strange 'animal attacks' (Rîus had to resist the urge to growl at this one) to cut it short, murdering of any kind, people went missing, and some people had started to realize something weird was going on.

He didn't know why they were doing this, surely when the war take place they would be murdering people as well, wouldn't they? Was to spread collective hysteria, to have humans more concentrated for what happened inside their society? Rîus didn't know, but the fact that Darren was well-know because of being with the King three years ago, an Outsider, with all this surrounding him, made his protective uncle side come to life.

Trailing his nephew's scent, Rîus jumped to a backyard of a house. But what he saw was the complete opposite of what he expected to see.

"Hey Uncle." Darren greeted him with a smile. Behind him was a human boy lying motionless.


How do you think Rius will react to this?

That's...all for now. Okay, read, PM, review and spread the word.