Chapter 28

Decision at Dawn

"Raden was an abusive, hopeless romantic. Arden is a cowardly pimp. Both are arrogant and shrewd." Youko mused to himself, more than anyone else. "I say we just fight him. As far as I know, he is the last in that family's line; if he dies, we won't ever be bothered again."

"I don't want to fight, I don't want any more blood shed." Gabriel hugged her middle, leaning against the wall of the hideout. "If there is any way to do this peacefully…" she trailed off and sank to her knees tiredly.

"If Arden isn't bluffing about how strong he is, we don't have a choice."

"If that is the case, I still have the silver arrows."

Koronue paced back and forth between his vulpine friends. The clock on the wall read 1:30 a.m. "Did either of you see that look in his eyes? It's like he isn't himself anymore. He was a coward when Youko and I cornered him first. Something is different about him." The bat said.

"The look he gave me," the vixen shivered, "It was smug and lusty. I only ever saw that look from Raden."

"Hey," Youko straightened up. "How could Arden have known that Raden was dead? As far as I know, Raden never even spoke to his son before."

"So?" Koronue shrugged. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Maybe nothing, maybe everything…" the fox glanced over at Gabriel. Her eyes were wide, emotion less, expressionless. She sat very still with her arms drawn about her knees, as if watching someone. "Gabe?" She didn't answer, "Gabe," he tried again.

"Ubil magus potis."

"What did she say?" Youko looked baffled. Koronue shrugged.

"Dominium venire."

"I think that's Latin." Youko waved his hand in front of her face. The vixen blinked and shook her head, "Huh?"

"What happened? You spaced out."

"I don't know, it's like I was asleep for a minute."

"But your eyes were open, and you were speaking in a different language."

"What did I say? Did one of you write it down?" Koronue raised a piece of paper with her words scrawled on it hastily. 3:00 a.m. the trio dug an old dictionary out of a cranny in one of the basements and researched the words on the paper.

"Evil…magic…possess…power…come." Youko recited the notes.

"What does that mean, why did I say it?" the vixen wrung a lock of her hair idly.

"Remember your father said you might have inherited some shamanism powers?"

"You think I'm clairvoyant?"

"Exactly. We just have to figure out what you were talking about."

"You make that sound so easy."-.-

The group tried to piece together sentences and phrases with the five words, and had gotten nowhere in the span of four hours. Koronue had fallen asleep with a book opened on his chest. Youko was slowly nodding off in boredom. Gabriel had three sentences on her piece of paper.

Evil magic power possesses

Magic power, evil possession is coming

Come, evil magic power of possession.

All three sentences seemed to coax impending doom. Her thoughts wandered back to her more shady memories; when she had no hope. Raden was an evil, powerful, magician werewolf… 'Wait,' she scribbled quickly on her paper, directly translating the words again, "Evil…Magic…Possess…Power…Come."

"That's it," she whispered to her self, "Evil-magical possession. Someone powerful is coming…someone is being possessed by something evil. Raden is possessing Arden." She reached over and shook Youko, "Raden is in Arden!" she cried.

"What..?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Raden's ghost is inside Arden's body; he's using him to become more powerful."

"Are you sure?"

"No other person could look at me like that," she shuddered. "I don't want to fight him again," she whimpered, shaking her head and hugging her middle. "You won't fight him alone, we are going to fight together." The fox hugged her protectively. A beam of golden light streaked across their forms. The sun had risen; time was up.

They must fight.

Some of the words Gabe-chan says when she is in a trance are not Latin, please don't flame me telling me how wrong I am. I just looked in to the dictionary at the roots of words. Any wayz, have fun, I love you all!