Lost Boy
Andre Harris is in for the surprise of his life when he learns that maybe his grandma isn't so crazy after all, and maybe, just maybe, he is something extraordinary. He's about to enter a world on the verge of a war, the world his best friends live in, and a world he will have to save or risk losing everyone.
Rated T
"We need to go now." Someone tugged on his arm, but Andre just couldn't tear his eyes away from the corpse. Its eyes wide open, the dopy grin on its face. He knew what that meant, how this fae had to have been killed, "Andre, move it!" Tori hissed, grabbing his upper arm and yanking hard.
"Tori…"
"I know! Keep moving." She hissed, giving a final pull that nearly yanked him off of his feet; he stumbled behind her down the alley, trying to ignore how skilled she was at avoiding the police and moving so undetected. Compared to her he was like a herd of cattle and she was a fox. By the time they made it back to Cat's place the image of the man had left his mind in favor of focusing on the strange sight he walked in on.
"Robbie asked me to teach him how to kiss." Cat giggled her eyes flickering briefly to Andre before she turned her attention back to Tori, "Said he's never kissed someone before and he didn't want to screw it up."
"So why is he in a dress that is too small for him?" Tori asked, holding her hand out in front of her face to avoid seeing anything hanging below the short hemline. Andre was flat out covering his eyes, wishing to un-see what he'd already seen.
"Because he agreed to be model if I taught him how to kiss." Cat grinned, "It's a bit short though, I can see his stuff." She glanced sideways at it and giggled, Robbie's face was as red as her hair. Andre groaned.
"Jade wouldn't do it." Robbie muttered, looking at the floor and then grimacing, reaching to cover himself, but Cat swatted at his arm.
"Damn right I won't." Andre and Tori's heads snapped to the left where Jade was sitting by the back door, "but she keeps stabbing him with the needle so it's worth sitting here while I work." She tapped her pen against her notebook before turning her eyes back to the page.
Tori rolled her eyes, walking into the kitchen while Andre turned and went up the stairs into his room, shutting and locking the door before sitting down at his piano. That was the second dead body he'd seen this month, both looking like they had been killed by an enthusiastic succubus. He was trying hard to ignore the faces trapped in his memory, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore.
Setting his hands carefully he started playing, the melody wrapping through his brain and wiping away the bad stuff, even if it was only temporary. He played until his fingers were sore and then flicked his music player, pulling his shirt off and tossing it into the hamper. Outside the sky was dark; the stars littered the sky like someone had poked holes in the dark blue blanket. A glance at the clock told him it was nearly one, which meant everyone was probably asleep by now, except for Jade who he could feel doing something downstairs.
Sighing he undid his jeans and kicked them off, followed by his boxers, tossing them into his hamper as he walked to his dresser and pulled out a pair of sweatpants which he dragged up and tied in place, softly padding across the floor to his bed, tossing back the sheets and grabbing his pillow from the floor, setting it near the headboard before he dropped into the bed.
It didn't take long for the music to lull him to sleep and he was a few seconds from snoring happily when someone screamed downstairs. Throwing back his sheets he ran for the door, unlocking it and racing down the stairs toward the scream. Cat was in the living room, the front door broken open, and a man was standing above her, his face elongated like he was half shifted. Another man stood behind him, focused on the half-wolf one.
Andre didn't even think before he whistled at his highest pitch, causing the man at the door to crumple to his knees and the wolf man to fully shift, turning and running back out the door, his clothes in a messy pile on the floor.
"Don't stop, Andre." Tori warned when she came down, she slowly edged toward the man, intent on securing him, but somehow the man managed to ignore the crippling whistle long enough to turn and duck out the door, disappearing into the night.
"Whoa there, careful Andre." Jade whispered as Andre swayed, sucking in a deep lung full of air as his head spun. Jade caught him before he could fall to the ground and helped him over to the couch, sitting down beside him so she could ease him into a laying position, "close your eyes." She whispered. He did as she said, breathing in and out slowly until the strange feeling of the world spinning subsided, by the time he could sit up everyone was in the living room.
"What happened?" Trina asked, she was standing by the stairs clutching her robe to her chest, Beck standing behind her in nothing but a pair of boxers. Cat's parents were at her side with Tori, and Robbie and his family were at the top of the stairs.
"A mesmer." Tori replied, "He was controlling the wolf, or as much as he could before he shifted, and then the guy ran out. We need to call dad and let him know." Trina nodded her head and picked up one of the house phones, dialing the number from memory.
"No answer." Trina whispered, putting the phone back on the cradle.
"But he needs to know." Tori said, "he could come back. Trina…" Tori begged.
Frowning Trina threw her hands up, "I'll run over there, you guys keep that door shut and locked." She stepped away from Beck and over to the front door, "If I die though, you'll pay for it." There was a shimmer around her body as she shifted, her robe falling to the ground.
"Only her robe." Tori glanced toward Beck accusingly, "really, my sister?"
"You're the one that said I should." Beck replied, walking over to the door and grabbing Trina's robe, watching as her large furry body disappeared into the night. He pushed the door shut and locked it before heading upstairs. Tori helped Cat up the stairs behind her parents and Robbie and his family disappeared as well, leaving Jade and Andre sitting on the couch while Andre felt the world spinning.
"You gonna be okay, Siren?" Jade asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Andre replied, standing up only to sway and fall back to the couch. Jade chuckled and stood up, heading into the kitchen. Andre hated the way his eyes followed her path, watching the way her hips sway and admiring the way her shorts curved over her ass. He managed to avert his gaze when she walked back, glass of water in her hand, and sat down next to him, passing the glass to him silently.
He took a few sips and sat back against the couch, closing his eyes again, "you know, you may be a siren with a cool whistle but you don't practice enough to do it for that long without breathing."
"I know I just didn't know what else to do, that wolf guy was going to kill Cat."
"I doubt it. She is pretty dangerous, that scream was her 'I'm about to kill you back off' scream, but even so, you did a good job. It was smart to go after the mesmer and not the wolf guy."
"He just seemed like he was the one that was more dangerous."
"Good conclusion. Mesmer's can control people-which is why the wolf guy was only partially shifted, once he's full wolf the mesmer can't control him." Jade pushed her fingers through her hair and leaned against the table, "there are only a small handful left alive now, because of how dangerous they are, and most of them are dark fae."
"They can control anyone?" Andre's voice faltered.
"Yes." Jade whispered, "easiest on humans, and then under fae, and lower fae, like a Nymph, and then sirens which is tricky because if they whistle first it basically debilitates a mesmer unless they're strong, and like super old, which is about the only kind you'll find cause they all got killed, and then they get to shifters and succubi, since the shifters aren't fully people they're harder to control if they manage to shift, and succubi are stronger because they have a similar ability to control people, and are stronger minded.
Tori would be almost impossible to control, given that she's got shifter in her blood, too. There's also this weird thing called a Siracon that is made of unicorn horn or something that can block them, and any other fae from corrupting the wearer, but that thing hasn't been seen in years." Jade's eyes drooped slightly.
"How do you know all of this stuff?" Andre asked, amazed that Jade of all people knew so much and could teach him so much about a world she shouldn't even be a part of.
"I'm stuck in a weird world with things I don't understand, I had to learn what I could so I wouldn't die." Jade replied, "But I recently found out I'm not as out of place in this world as I thought I was."
"Really?"
Jade nodded her head, tucking her hand into the front of her tank top and pulling a chain out, she held the pedant in the palm of her hand, "this was my mothers. She was a witch, and I am too." Jade told him, "that weird thing you all felt the other night was me waking my powers."
"So that is you doing weird things at night that I feel."
"Yes." Jade replied, rubbing the pendant between her fingers slowly, her eyes focusing on a point behind Andre's head, then she blinked and grabbed his hand in hers, lacing her fingers between his and closing her eyes. Andre watched confused as Jade sat there, speaking under her breath, and then his hand began to tingle and when he looked down their linked hands were glowing a strange pale yellow color and the dizziness in his head faded away until it was gone.
Jade unlaced their fingers and opened her eyes, "better?"
"Yeah, thanks." Jade nodded and smiled, standing up, holding out her hand to him and pulling him off the couch when he took it. She walked into her room with a wave goodnight before she shut the door and he went upstairs. He found Cat sitting outside his door, staring at the wall oddly calm for her, with her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin on her knees.
"Hey little Red." He greeted, hand hovering over the door handle, "you okay?"
"No." she mumbled, "that guy was really freaky."
"He was." Andre sighed and sunk down onto the floor next to her, resting his forearms on his knees, "he didn't hurt you, did he?"
"He wanted to." Cat replied, "Tried to get in my head. But Mesmer's can't control others from the Mesmer bloodline."
"You've Mesmer?"
"Part. On my moms side. I can't control people, can't even control myself. But it's there, giving me immunity to the Mesmer's control. But he tried really hard." Cat sounded terrified, and through out all of this it was a tone he'd never heard before. Gently he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her body into his side, his hand rubbing her shoulder as they sat and stared at the wall until she was sound asleep beside him.
Carefully he lifted her body from the floor and carried her down to her room, tucking her into her bright pink bed sheets and heading toward the door, "thank you, Andre." She whispered, her voice tired and barely there.
"Anytime, Little Red." He smiled and pulled her door shut except for a tiny crack that let the light in the hall shine into her room. He then padded up the stairs and crawled into his own bed, sinking into the pillows heavily, sighing, and letting his eyelids flutter closed until he slipped into the welcoming darkness of sleep.
In his dreams he was running through a strange building, it was tall and dark, like the buildings in those zombie movies and games, run down like a million people had died fighting inside, burned like it had been set on fire in various places. Broken furniture scattered the halls and rooms, a terrifying laughter echoed across the halls and he kept running toward the laughter, toward a shadow that almost wasn't there.
He ran past Tori, who was holding her stomach on the ground, blood pumping between her fingers as she was slowly sucked into the shadows on the wall. Jade who was lying on the ground with her stormy eyes staring at a wall, unblinking, as she was dragged into the floor by a million shadow hands. Beck and Robbie were crouched behind a table, Robbie's back covered in blood and Beck's thigh bleeding profusely as the shadows crashed over them like a tidal wave, but Andre didn't stop for them, he just kept running until he entered a larger room, finally catching up with the laughter, where the owner of that laugh was circling Cat.
She looked terrifying, her solidly black, like coal, and her red hair whipping around her face as her feet fluttered off the ground, a pair of terrifying wings holding her off of the ground, and angry growl showing off her pointed teeth as she wielded a large sword, swinging it at the shadow viciously, causing it to howl in pain as it crawled up the walls and down, trying to avoid the light and scratch at her wings, unsuccessfully. But the shadow thing wasn't alone; there were many shadow things, all of them still trying to get to the red head.
And one finally raked its claws across her wings, she screamed and crashed to the ground, sword clattering away from her and the light in the room fading, the shadows got closer to her and he couldn't move, he couldn't yell and he couldn't do anything to help her, and soon her light would fade and she'd be dragged into the shadows.
But first, he would be. The shadow hands started reaching for him, claws tearing his jeans and his jacket, slicing his arms and his back, wrapping tightly around his mouth and dragging him down into their grasp, his heart was in his throat, their claws marks burned like they'd lit him on fire and the light was getting harder and harder to see.