My writing world is blowing up. I hate my two assignments for my writing class. Remember the magic tree house books? Remember how they used to be amazing? Yeah, don't read one again or you'll wonder why little you was such a moron for enjoying it. I have to type one out word for word and I feel like crying. This is crap!

Lucky for you guys, this is my escape.

CHAPTER 10

Bo

I shut the door behind me as I walked out of the shack and towards the car. It was three in the morning and I was going to find Lauren, wherever she was. I left a note for Kenzi, explaining everything. I knew she'd be pissed when she woke up, most likely homicidal, but it was completely necessary.

She would want to come with me if I said I was going to find Lauren. She would want to make sure I was safe and stop me if I tried anything reckless. But recklessness might be my best bet at getting Lauren back.

And, as it turns out, the Morigan's newest body guards just so happen to be Amelia's children. All three of them. Each as ridiculously beautiful as the their mother. What the hell. Amelia looked like she couldn't be out of her twenties yet, and her children looked like they'd just reached their twenties…damn shifters…Anyway, they decided to stay in my house and visit with Amelia. I was supposed to be there hosting. Guess that didn't work out so well.

I digress.

I figured out where Tanner was by the address the caller ID gave me. Raven's Creek. It was a little town a week's drive away from the city. But, luckily, there was an airport just an hour from here that I could fly there in under four hours and grab a taxi into town to find Lauren's brother.

I shook my head

Lauren's brother.

Why hadn't she mentioned him to me? Did she think I might turn on her because her adoptive brother was a Shadow Person? Maybe it had been the fact that I myself was adopted into a human family and hadn't been exposed much to the facts of the fae world that I didn't care. Talking to him on the phone made him seem like any other little kid. He was polite, smart, and kind of adorable sounding. It was hard to imagine him doing something horrible even without having met him in person.

I looked at his photo I stole from Dyson when he'd been leaving, looked into his blue eyes and tried to remember every feature on his face. I couldn't be comparing every kid I saw to a photograph as I walked through town. My backpack hung from my left shoulder lazily. I'd only packed an extra change of clothes and all the money I had, along with a couple books on mythology I'd been reading up on. I'd been trying to figure out any way I could reverse or help suppress what was happening to Lauren. After everything, she might not have been able to go back to a normal life, but at least we could make that life a little bit easier. A little less scary.

I wanted that for her. For us. I wanted a peaceful life. I wanted to be able to come home and find her waiting for me or to see her face when she saw me when she came home. I wanted to fall asleep at in her arms, and wake up the same way.

But that could cause even more problems for the both of us.

Technically, Lauren was still human. Which meant that whole weird 'no human/fae mates' issue was active or something.

That was another rule I didn't quite understand either. I mean, I knew Fae weren't human, but it didn't mean that feelings couldn't grow between them.

But did that rule even affect me if I was unaligned?

I didn't have a clue.

The drive was long, almost unbearably so. I was exhausted. I couldn't sleep not knowing if Lauren was safe. I couldn't sleep while I was imagining her off somewhere, dead or lost or worse. Luckily, traffic was non-existent, so speeding was an option. I passed a couple police officers on the way, but they didn't bother to stop me, they probably had the same mentality I did.

It was too early to worry about ticketing bullshit.

+/+\+

The plane ride was short, or at least it felt short. I fell asleep as soon as we took off, only waking up when a flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder after we landed. I rubbed my eyes as I walked through the airport with my backpack over my shoulder.

I did crack one of those mythology books I brought along, looking up the name 'Calisto'. It hadn't occurred to me to look it up after I'd heard it on the recording. I was too upset over the actual message to notice she called me by a different name, but used it like a pet name.

Turns out, Callisto had been huntress in Greek legends. She had been Artemis' favourite. And, to honour her Goddess, Callisto took a vow of chastity.

At this point, I started to get confused. How would a chastity vowed huntress remind Lauren of me?

Anyway, Zeus admired Callisto for her beauty and her grace, and longed for her body. So, he disguised himself as Artemis, approached her when she was bathing and raped her.

What the hell?

When Artemis found out that Callisto had conceived a child, she banished the huntress into exile. Hera, Zeus' wife, took her anger out on Callisto by turning her into a bear after her son was born.

There was no clear ending or fate of Callisto or her son; her son either shot her with an arrow or Zeus did. But it was clear that, in the end, both mother and son, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, were placed among the stars together for the rest of eternity.

I didn't understand how that legend even made sense in relation to me and Kenzi. But, then again, Lauren hadn't made the connection to the legend when she talked about Kenzi being Ursa Minor…

I supposed I'd just have to ask her.

I checked my watch as I left the plane; Seven a.m.

It was winter, so still had plenty of time to get to town before the sun came up.

The automatic doors slid open and my arms flew around me. Jesus Christ! It was colder than it would be if hell froze over! Instantly, I regretted my idea of not bringing much of anything. I hadn't expected it to be sub zero temperatures!

My phone buzzed and I looked down at it. Thirteen messages from Kenzi, and that was only because my mailbox was full. I lifted the phone to my ear and pressed play

"Bo!" Her voice yelled at me through the receiver "have you lost your little succubus mind! You can't go after Lauren! Call me back!"

I pressed for the next message

"Pick up! You have no idea how pissed—"

Next message

"Goddamn it Bo! Pick up the phone! You just ditched me with several angry non-human liking dark fae—

Skipped past the next few until I got to the last one.

"You dumb whore! Get your sexy tail back here this second or I'll beat it with a baseball bat or one of those fancy things Trick's got a million of!"

I should've dumped it before I got on the plane.

I flagged down a taxi and gave the driver the address, promptly placing my cell in front of the back wheel. I smiled as a sharp crunch echoed through the car, though angry that I'd have to get a new one when I got back.

But, I relaxed in for the ride, arriving in town in just under forty-five minutes.

I walked into the basement of the coffee shop, where the woman running the place had told me she set up a temporary dwelling for him. It was lit by two small table lights, giving the room a warm glow. I looked around the room, noticing the small loveseat was made up as a bed, the blankets dishevelled and pillow on the ground. It looked like Tanner had got up in a hurry. Did whoever Lauren tell him to run from already find him? Did he get spooked and take off without waiting for me? Did he ever plan on waiting for me? "Tanner?" I called out to nothing, taking a shot in the dark.

A black shape appeared in the corner of my eye, but vanished when I turned. My heart took off, my palms got sweaty. I knew what it was, but it was still unnerving. "Tanner? Where are you?" Another wisp of shadow grabbed my attention and I turned the other way, but saw nothing again. The lights flickered and I dropped my backpack to the ground, fists clenching as I tried to not think of this like a horror movie. "Tanner, it's Bo!" the lights came back on.

"Bo?" a small voice asked from behind me. I turned around to see the blue eyes boy looking up at me, dressed in Batman PJs. His long hair was messy, pushed back from his face carelessly. His eyes were poofy looking, like he'd been asleep and just woke up. The boy rubbed at them lazily before looking up into mine.

"Yeah, we talked on the phone, remember?" I squatted down so I was eye level with him. He walked towards me slowly, carefully encase I was lying to him. His eyes narrowed in on the locket around my neck and he stopped. It was painfully still for a long while before he launched into me full force, knocking me back on my ass with the six year olds arms around my neck in a strangling hug.

Though dumbfounded, I hugged him back.

"Its okay, Tanner." I told him gently as he held onto me. "It's okay."

Kenzi

"The number you have dialled is not in service at this time—"

"Damn it, Bo!" I hung up the phone and slammed it down on the table angrily. I started pacing back and forth in the middle of a panicked storm of fae. Dyson, Hale and Trick were off in one corner trying to pin point the last place where Bo was before her cell signal dropped off the radar, Amelia was working some kind of voodoo on a piece of paper, and the darkling people were plotting the best route to find Lauren.

Simba jumped up on my shoulder as I walked.

"Kenzi mad?" he asked and I shook my head, scratching between his ears.

"No, Kenzi not mad." I muttered "scared." After listening to me talk to him since he started living with us, Simba finally got the gist of the English language, though his grammar was pretty shitty.

"Why scared?"

"'cause Bo's a stupid head."

"oh." He murmured, stretching out across my shoulders, his tail pressing against my back to keep himself centred. "Lauren?" he asked quietly and I shook my head.

"We still don't know where Lauren is." his ears pressed against his head. "Don't worry buddy," I rubbed my cheek against his. "I'm sure she's fine."

"Kenzi! Did you call Bo again!" Dyson yelled and I looked at him.

"No, I was ordering pizza! Did you not just see me on the phone?"

"So she didn't pick up?"

"No. The phone's not in service." I sighed, covering my forehead with my hand. "You know, this is why I think shows like CSI or law shows should be cancelled! 'Cause it teaches people, like love crazed succubae how to evade detection by disabling their cell phones! This is why I never watch those stupid shows! Bo's obsessed with them though! And this is-"

"Relax, Kenzi." Amelia grumbled and I whirled around.

"You so did not just tell me to calm down when my bestie is out there somewhere off finding the crazy beast-doctor you created!" the gorgeous blonde stood up and walked over to me, hands on her hips, blue eyes staring down into mine. God she was beautiful, but I wasn't giving into her charm. Not today sister!

"So you blame me for this?"

"Kenzi—"

"No," Amelia said when Trick tried to chastise me. "let the human speak her mind."

"Could you so stop calling me a human? Would you feel great if I went around calling you a bitch all day long?" She crossed her arms over her chest, silencing the growls from the other three pups behind her.

Her triplets, all three of them, looked like Greek gods or something. The two guys were both six-foot-four with broad shoulders and chiseled jaws, bodies absolutely rippling with muscles, hair as black as night, while their sister, the eldest of the bunch by two hours, was beautifully blonde like her mother with an hour glass figure. All of them had the lightest violet colour in their eyes.

"No, but considering that I have the ability to transform into a wolf in less than a second and tear your limbs from your body, I'd say I'm one person you shouldn't mess with."

"All you've done since you got here was blow stuff all to hell!"

"How so?"

"First, you save Lauren which was great, don't get me wrong, but you turned her into some weird underfae-human thing that nearly killed Dyson on several occasions and killed the Ash-hat! But did you warn Lauren that you were going to do that? No. No you just thought you'd wait to see what happened! And now Doctor Jekyll ran off to try and protect Bo from Ms. Hyde and now that same Bo has run off to God knows where to find her! And now I'm freaking out that Dr. Crazy-Ass Hotpants will kill my little Succu-face and we'll never find her again! And it's your entire stupid fault you bone chewing flea bag!"

she was still for a long time, just staring at me. Honestly, I was kind of scared she'd go wolf and tear me to pieces right then and there. Everyone else did too, all quiet and either ready to help her tear me apart, or stop her. Instead, she smirked.

"Feel better?" I blinked, surprised that I actually did feel a little calmer.

"Well…yeah…"

"Good." She patted my cheek. I was still too stunned with realization. "Now, go lay your cute ass down and sleep. Lord knows you'll be doing us all a favour." Not sure why, but I did what she told me to and walked towards Bo's bedroom, crawling under her sheets and instantly felt exhausted. Getting that all out did make me feel better, if not a whole lot more tired. Simba curled up in the crook between my bent knees and my stomach, nuzzling his head under my hand.

I sighed heavily and let my body relax. As sleep crept into my mind, I had one last prayer pass through it.

Wherever you are, Bo, just please be safe.

What light through yonder window breaks? It is you, and your reviews are the sun…!