Chapter 4

Loraine kept feeding off Zara. Suddenly, Loraine stopped. She reached over her back and pulled out a crossbow bolt. She turned around, still in Vamp mode, and saw Kyra standing there with a loaded crossbow. Loraine smirked. "You really thought it'd be that easy to slay me?"

Kyra shook her head. "No. I just thought it would hold you off while Ace came after you to chop your head off."

Before Loraine could respond, Ace came up behind her with the Sword drawn and moved to chop her head off. She blocked the Sword and pushed him off, then the fight started.

Kyra raced over to Zara while the fight went on. "Zara!" Zara just lied there, unresponsive. "Zara!" She whirled around to glare at Loraine and waved her hand.

A tiger jumped at them.

Ace saw this and moved out of the way.

Loraine laughed. "I knew you were too chicken to fight…" She then heard something and turned around in time to see the tiger coming after her. It pounced on her. She pushed it away, making Kyra un-summon it, and ran off.

Ace helped Zara up with Kyra's help and the 2 leaders took her off to the hideout.

20 minutes later…

Zara was lying on a bed in the medical wing. She slowly woke up. She slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred as she looked around, but it cleared up as she saw that she was in the medical wing. She put her hand on her neck and felt a bandage where the bite marks were. She groaned, remembering what had happened, and fell back against the pillow.

Gail walked in. "Zara?"

Zara looked at her. "Is everyone OK?"

"More or less. A few minor injuries. You got bit… Val killed a guy."

Zara sat bolt upright in the bed, her eyes widening. "What?" She grabbed her throat.

"Don't strain your voice like that. Tech says Loraine might have accidentally hit your larynx or something."

"Val killed someone?"

"It was an accident. But she's a little traumatized. She's gonna be fine though. As for you, Tech said that the bite was nothing to worry about. However, he did examine you and found some major brain damage."

Zara sighed. "I guess I'm gonna have to tell someone sooner or later." She told her the whole story about what had been going on with her powers.

Gail tried to process this. "Whoa. So there are times that you don't even have to voice your own wishes to grant them?"

"Right. But as far as I know, that only happens when I'm angry or if I'm concentrating hard enough. But when I was tapping in…it just…took me over. It started replaying my memories. I lost control. It started out with the good ones, those made me more powerful…but the bad ones started playing by themselves and they just paralyzed me."

"Sounds like you've been through some pretty bad stuff."

"You have no idea."

"Trust me, I do."

Zara looked at her.

"The reason I'm a Witch and Howie isn't a Warlock…I'm adopted."

Zara blinked. "What?"

"Long story." She sat down next to her. "See, the thing is…I don't know who my parents are. The night I was born, my mother died. My father died soon after. Eventually, I ended up in an orphanage and I was adopted by Howie's aunt and uncle. But then, out of nowhere, they just left. I don't where they are. And then Howie was orphaned. And then my so-called best friend, Felicia, just left and I haven't seen or heard from her since. Howie and I are alone, that's why I'm so protective of him."

"Gail, I'm sorry—"

"It's OK. Sounds like you've been through something similar. Lost your parents, got nowhere to live, only relation is a boy…at least you're not so distant from youe best friends."

"Yeah. I guess. But my parents were murdered. The way you describe it, it sounds like your mother died in child-birth and you dad got sick or something."

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Zara sighed.

"Just be thankful you got to know your parents before you lost them."

Zara smiled. "You know, Duck said that exact same thing."

Gail looked at her. "Duck's an orphan?"

"Yeah, you didn't know that?"

"No…" She sighed. "Do now."

Zara half-smiled.

"Why do I suddenly feel so close to you?"

"Well, we do have one thing in common…Zack."

Gail half-smiled.

Zara then slowly stopped smiling. "Zack…that's what's wrong with me and my powers. He's penetrating me."

Gail stopped smiling, too. "Are you sure?"

"What other explanation is there?"

"Well, Tech did find some irregular brain patterns scattered around you cerebral—"

"English, Gail."

"Right. Spent too much time with him. Basically, if I'm interpreting him right, he said that someone else is in your head."

Zara nodded. "It's Zack. I know it is. It has to be. Who else could break through to me?"

"Wake, maybe."

Zara sighed. "Then maybe Zack's getting a little too close to her."

Meanwhile, Jake was looking at Valerie, who sat alone on the couch in the main room of the hideout. He drifted his gaze over to Arra, who was patching up Lindy's sore wrist. He stared at her. She was beautiful to him. He looked back over at Valerie. She needed some company, Arra was fine. He went over and sat next to her. "Hey."

Valerie looked at him and half-smiled, obviously not cheering up. "Hey."

"How you doing?"

"Been better."

"Obviously."

Valerie half-smiled again, this time a little cheerier.

Arra stopped helping Lindy and smilingly turned to look at Jake…and her smile faded when she saw him with Valerie. She looked at her feet.

Valerie looked at Jake. "You know, the problem is…I think when I killed the guy…I like it."

Jake looked at her. "Val, that's…wow. I want to tell you off, but…I can't."

Valerie leaned forward in her seat. "Then you know we don't belong here. Zack went and switched sides…" She slowly started to smile. "Why don't we?"

Jake smiled evilly. "Yeah, why don't we?"

"Meet you there." Valerie fell through her seat…

…and reappeared in the Dark Side's building. She stumbled and finally regained her balance. "Gotta work on the long distance."

"Valerie," said Josephine.

Valerie looked at her. "Good to see you again."

"You thought you could just come in here and show your little goody-2-shoes face and expect us to not try to kill you?"

"Actually…I'm here to join you."

"Come again?"

Jake atomized into the room. "Val give you the low-down?"

"You 2 are both defecting?"

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

Wake came into the room. "I knew Zack wouldn't be the only one."

"That would've been useful info 3 months ago," said Deirdre.

"Zack is my successor. But he's not the only one who started on the wrong side."

Valerie looked around. "Where is Zack?"

Loraine smiled. "He's having a little fun with that sister of his…"

Zack was in his room on the bed. "Alright, Zara. Get ready for the ride of your life…"

Back at the hideout, the gang was searching for Jake and Valerie.

"Jake!" Arra called out.

"Val!" Willis cried out.

Kyra groaned, giving up. "Where are they?"

Gail ran up with Zara. "We've got a problem."

"You're telling me," said Trinity, "Jake and Val bailed!"

"What?"

"They just vanished."

"Well, that's no small feat for them."

"Yeah, I get that, but what I mean is that they haven't come back."

"You don't think they defected, do you?" asked Cassandra.

Zara blinked. "Unfortunately, I'm pretty certain that's the only logical answer."

Nathan sighed. "Great, now we…wait, how'd you know that?"

"Zack, he's…" Zara groaned and bent over in pain.

Zack groaned a little and pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Focus…if this is what I'm feeling, I wonder what's going on with Zara—" He fainted.

Zara fainted.

"Zara!" Gail knelt down and grabbed her. "What happened?"

Tech raced over. "I don't know. She's acting like she just kicked into a coma but her brain was functioning fine despite the neural backfire from the—"

"Tech!" Trinity cried, stopping his rant, "Let me just see if I can get her up." She took Zara's hand. "Nothing. It's like she's not even there. I can't influence her, I can't pull her from reality…"

"Because she's not in reality." Howie raced over and read her. "Her soul's not even in her body."

"That's not what I'm getting," said Sandra, "My senses only act up like this without full out shocking me when something's wrong. And I'm telling you something is wrong here."

"How wrong are we talking?" asked Duck.

"I'll let you know that." Arra moved Trinity and Howie out of the way and put her hand on Zara's head. She scanned her…and was knocked back by a surge of energy.

"Whoa!" Lindy looked back and forth between Arra and Zara. She raced over to Arra. "What happened?"

"I don't know. The first thing I got when I scanned her was…"

Zack stabbed Zara with Deirdre's dagger...

Arra blinked a few times. "It's Zack." Everyone looked at her. "Remember back when we ambushed the Dark Side? Zack was able to use his powers on Duck from a distance. He's not supposed to be able to do that. And Wake even said that he was 'tapping in' to his powers. You don't think he used his fear power and their twin bond to penetrate her, do you?"

"That's exactly what's going on, but it doesn't explain this!" Gail said. She looked at Zara. "Come on, Zara, where are you?"

Zara woke up in a dark place. She looked around. It lit up. It was the Dark Side's building…the one that was knocked over a couple weeks ago! She turned around and saw Zack looking at her. She jumped back and fell back on the floor.

Zack smirked. "Hey, Zar. Miss me?"

Zara wrestled a little as Gail started to help the others take her back to the medical wing.

Zack lay on the bed in his room in the Dark Side's building and smiled…