AN:
I am so so so sorry for the delay - I have yet to exceed the week limit thought (more than at least once), and that I'm kind of proud of. But, here it is, longer than I would like - so I know it's longer than you would like - but better late than never.
I hope you guys like it! It delves a little more into the mystery - it's the big quasi-reveal! Quasi meaning the boys find out - but hey! I've figured out a big part of what Chase will be doing, how he'll be affecting everything and what not; and I'm kind of pumped for it. :D It's also a chapter with a kind of important development in one of the relationships!
Here it is!
Enjoy!
Special shout outs:
Randichele: I'm so glad you liked it! I hope everyone else's reactions don't disappoint - it'll probably go more in depth to what they feel individually as the chapters progress. :)
KelseyBl: Yes! New lover! :) I'm so glad that you find the characters enjoyable and unique in relation to each other. Nothing wrong with naivety. ;) Those are some good suggestions! I actually might have a few ideas to work with that! Thank you tremendously for your support and, again, I'm so glad you like it!
ImperfectApprentice: Yes! Mystery for you! I hope this doesn't disappoint, I know you were really pumped for the mystery stuff, and though it isn't much, it's something. :) Thanks for the offer, I'll definitely keep you in mind if I come up empty handed. :D
Guest 1: Thank you! I'm so glad you did! Gah! I can only say I'm only as good as my ideas and seriously, you're support means everything. :) Unfortunately, there isn't any Lace x Tyler action, but there will be some soon, promise! :D
Guest 2: :D :D Thank you for reading it! :)
To all my reviewers: you guys rock, thank you for the continued encouragement, and taking the time to review, it means a lot!
To all you non reviewers: you rock too, and I'm glad you're still reading!
Additionally: to you newest readers, and reviewers, awesome!
x
Avery's eyes found Reid's and held; they were all there, in the Caretaker's basement; all of the candles were lit, the damp walls were giving off an eerie chill, and each of the coven lines were present – each but the burned line anyways.
It was time for the hidden truth to come to light, and being the eldest – and the one with the longest running knowledge of what was coming – the responsibility to inform the boys fell upon Avery's shoulders.
The atmosphere was tense, Pogue, Tyler, and Caleb all wondering just why in the hell they had been summoned to a place they hadn't been since the Danvers' ascension months prior. The boys, realizing their sisters were each looking to Avery for guidance, turned their gazes to her as well.
Hence why Avery's gaze was locked with Reid's, because she drew strength from his unwavering blue eyes, and only parted her mouth to speak at Reid's supporting, affirming nod of silent encouragement; not noticing that her brother's expression darkened, his emotions raging inside of him at witnessing the exchange.
Caleb felt a quiet rage pulse beneath his skin, overpowering the small sliver of hurt that told him whatever was important to inspire a meeting in their ancestors hideaway, Avery had gone to Reid before coming to him…it was a silent testament to how far their relationship had fallen; and Caleb silently feared that it was because of him, because his lack of action, that their relationship had become what is was in that defining moment.
His dark eyes fell to where the other siblings stood, all touching each other in a silent display of comfort and support, whereas he and Avery stood side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder. They weren't holding hands, like Reid and Lace; she wasn't sitting between his knees, like Elizabeth was Tyler; and she wasn't gripping his shoulders, like Natalie was Pogue. The Danvers twins just stood together, and Caleb wondered when it was she stopped needing his support, wondered when they stopped drawing comfort from one another when, as children, they had been as inseparable as all twins were.
All his thoughts, though, were eviscerated by his sister's next words, "Chase is back."
The reaction was instant; Pogue exploding into an immediate outrage, Tyler's expression hardening until the darkest emotions Caleb had ever noted before twisted his usually calm features, Reid didn't outwardly react, though his jaw did harden, and Caleb, himself, felt within him a suddenly inexplicable fury – a dark rage that came with the remembered devastation Chase had wreaked the last time he had been in Salem.
"Pogue," Natalie's strained murmur fell upon her brother's ears, silencing his words immediately, though he couldn't as easily silence the fury of emotions within him; even though he knew that what Natalie must have been feeling from he and the others had to be nauseating.
"I'm sorry," He whispered, trying to reign in the animalistic intensity of his emotions as he placed a firm hand to her shoulder in a show of silent support, lending her as much of his strength as possible.
Her hand reached up, gripping his as she tried to fight of the sheer intensity of the multitude of feelings coming from the boys; processing the biting, building fear of her sister's emotions as well – until all of the fear tainting the cellar was gone, allowing Natalie to breathe even as it darkened Avery's eyes and lifted a few tones of color from her face.
"How long have you known?" Caleb was the one to break the weighted silence, his expression so dark, and his voice so powerful, that it made Natalie flinch; made Elizabeth's gaze flicker from gold to heterochromatic and back again.
"Months." Avery answered, bracing for the reaction that didn't disappoint.
A pulse of power before an explosion went off behind them, stone crumbling to the floor from the wall behind them; the roar of anger tumbling past her brother's throat a bouncing echo along the tension-filled room.
Avery's eyes slid close as she forced herself to remain under a tight leash of control, Caleb's fear – fear that he tried to shadow by rage – eating away at her body like corrosive acid to her organs; and if it weren't for the sudden bush of ghost lips to her shoulder, she wouldn't have been able to maintain her control.
Eyes lifting, Avery caught darkened blue with a pinpoint of fire in pitch black, pulsing pupils. Ghost lips were accompanied by a ghost body, and the feel of his ghost self caused her to breathe out a soft sigh of relief, her shoulders relaxing even as she fought the urge to move across the room, to go to Reid so that she could feel him for real and not through use of his power. Avery could see it in the clinching of his free hand that Reid felt the same, the strain of his knuckles as his fingers curled tightly into a fist telling her that he wanted nothing more than to go to her; to pull her away from the volatility of Caleb Danvers' rage and fluctuating power.
"Why didn't you tell us as soon as you knew?" He demanded angrily, all semblance of control for him completely gone, his body near vibrating with the boiling fury of his blood, his powers, beneath his skin.
"Because we weren't sure." Avery answered, voice cool and controlled where her brother's wasn't – and her cool calmness only served to piss him off further, he was supposed to be the calm one, the one out of them all with the best handle on his temper, his self-control was supposed to be impeccable, not spiraling out of control faster than he could blink. "We weren't sure what, or who, it was until just recently; and we weren't going to worry you when there was nothing that could have been done."
Recently. They hadn't been positive until recently. Caleb silently pondered his sister's word, his temper easing to be replaced by suspicion; what could have happened recently to…
His line of thought cut off near violently as his dark, blazing eyes snapped to straining blue-hazel; and as if she knew where his line of thought had taken him, Natalie's gaze lifted to meet his. She didn't verbally offer a confirmation to his suspicions, didn't voluntarily mention her collapsing in her bathroom, but the weight of her gaze, the silent challenge daring him to mention it was confirmation enough.
With this new information, Caleb felt an even darker storm brewing inside of his chest, tainting his heart; with the knowledge that Chase had done to Natalie something that had completely stolen all of the strength from her, something that could have potentially caused her severe harm, something in Caleb snapped.
Before he could do something he would regret, before he could destroy the walls that suddenly felt as though they were closing in around him, he spun on his heel and left; taking the stairs leading out of the cellar three at a time – he needed fresh air, he needed space and he needed it fast.
On the heel of his abrupt departure, all of the girls – sans Lace – let out inaudible sighs of relief; Avery, Natalie and Elizabeth had all been breathlessly affected by Caleb's violent, emotional reaction to the news that wouldn't ever be easy to hear – no matter when it was heard.
The question was, who would go after him; because they had things that needed to be discussed, things that couldn't wait – the time for waiting had long since come and gone.
Giving him a five-minute head start, it was Natalie that finally moved, "I'll be back." No one objected, there wasn't any grounds to, because despite their at-your-throat relationship; it was because of their disputes that made Natalie the best person to pull Caleb's head out of his ass and get him under some semblance of control once more…it didn't hurt that she was an empath either.
It turned out, thankfully, that Natalie didn't have to look very far for the missing man; her search aided by the fact that, though she couldn't decipher the individual emotions that Caleb felt, she could feel the intensity of his indecipherable emotions; kind of like an imprint that marked Caleb's emotions as solely his. It was Caleb's, for lack of a better word, psychic, imprint that led her to the back of the Caretaker's house, towards the property line where grass gave way to trees.
She didn't announce her presence, knew he was more than aware that he was no longer alone. Natalie merely watched Caleb as he paced; his hands continuously curling and uncurling into and out of large, shaking fists, his jaw clenched into stone as he withheld the screams of rage she was sure were practically begging to be released.
It was as she watched Caleb, that she found herself looking longer and longer, more and more at him. It was because of her lingering gaze, her inability or lack of want to turn away and watch the house, or her surroundings, that had her silently cursing. Silently cursing because she knew, knew by the way her eyes watched his every movement – the flex of his tense shoulders, his contracting, prominent forearms, and his pulsing, irritated jaw – that it was time for her to break things off with Devon; because it wasn't fair to him that she was looking at someone else like she was currently looking at Caleb, even if Caleb was currently taken.
And in all honesty, Natalie was only holding Devon back from his full potential, holding him back from his chance at Mrs. Perfect and a happily-ever-after she knew he actually believed in – no matter how cynical he pretended to be. Devon deserved that chance to find something else, something more than what she and he were together – she didn't know anyone who deserved it more than he did.
Her mind thoroughly distracted by the conversation she needed to have, and soon, with a man she had spent many, many months of almost-perfection with; her mind briefly wandered to the petite girl in their art class, a girl, Natalie knew, that was absolutely enamored with Devon – she was also a girl, Natalie knew, that Devon enjoyed talking with.
Natalie was so caught up in her own thoughts of the girl she hoped would need little convincing to give Devon a chance, that she didn't realize Caleb was watching her from his peripheral. Didn't realize that as Caleb paced, as he watched her from the corner of his gaze, that he had come to a dangerous decision that would mean a world of things for all parties involved in the upcoming fiasco.
Caleb's decision?
That the next time Chase showed his face, Caleb didn't care where he was, who would bare witness, or what secrets would come to light; the other man was dead. Caleb wouldn't risk anyone else; they had come away lucky last time that the only life taken was his father's, and with two upcoming ascensions, he wasn't about to risk either the Parry's or the Garwin's – and if his suspicions were correct, it were the girls the Chase was attempting to destroy now, why, Caleb didn't know, but he did know that any risk to the girls was absolutely, irrevocably unacceptable.
All followers, favoriters, reviewers, non-reviewers, continuous guests, and first-timers: I hope you enjoyed!
Feel free to review or leave suggestions for future scenes!
Until next time,
x