Author's note: Hey, just a note to say thank you so, so much for the reviews. Seriously, they make me so happy and I love reading them.
Also, as you might be aware, the only brothers I haven't wrote a story for in my series yet are: Will, Yves and Uriel. But each of their soulfinders get a little mention in this chapter, as well as one of them making a small appearance! :D
Oh and if you want a little spoiler for each of those future stories, read the Author's Note at the end of the chapter :)
11th October 2013
Keep going, keep going, keep going. Xav repeated the mantra to himself repeatedly to get the inner strength he needed to keep walking.
He was in a terrible state, him and Uriel both being hit in the van just so Hawk's men could have a little 'fun' as they dropped them off at home. They were both just glad that they had at least some morals and left Hazel alone though, so they didn't complain.
The hill leading up to the Benedict's house was a paved road and about a five minute walk, but it felt like much longer because of the amount of time it was taking and because they were so exhausted already. The two boys were both struggling and Hazel was walking alongside them, a hand cradling her bump.
"He's going to go after Persephone now," Hazel spoke in a tired, worried voice. It was the first time any of them had spoken since they'd been dumped out of the van. "He might kill her."
"I still don't regret telling him," Xav admitted, squeezing her arm in comfort. "I wasn't going to let him kill you or the babies. If Persephone really is as dangerous as everyone says she is, I'm sure that she'll be able to handle herself. Besides, I doubt it'll be easy for them to track her down, her parents have been pretty good at keeping her hidden all these years."
It took a thoughtful moment for Hazel to reply. "I hope you're right."
"HAZEL!" A booming shout interrupted them and all three looked up to see Victor charging down the hill towards them, Trace and Zed running not far behind him. It took just a few long seconds for him to reach them and his attention was focused solely on his fiancée as he grabbed her instantly.
"Vick," Hazel sobbed in relief. They clung onto each other in a loving, desperate embrace, and it was so sweet and passionate that it made Xav want to scream in frustration and lash out at somebody.
How dare they be so happy and practically rub it in his face? There was no chance of him having what they had, not anymore. So it wasn't fair that they got to be so in love and he had nothing. He couldn't wipe these envious, ugly thoughts from his mind even though he was fully aware that it wasn't their fault. But still, he couldn't stand the sight of two soulfinders so sickeningly and madly in love. He was just so angry.
Clouded by his anger, he couldn't focus on Hazel and Victor's conversation, although he did manage to see Uriel looking at the couple with a forlorn expression on his face. Of course, Xav thought to himself. It would be harder on Uriel seeing the two of them together. Of course. It hit him then that some of the Benedict boys were in trouble now: he with his murderer soulfinder that didn't want him; Uriel, still in love with Hazel even though he knew they could never be together; Will, who looked like his calm and relaxed self still, but whom everybody had realized was slipping and exhausting himself out by putting so much effort into his FBI training; and Yves, who was shutting himself off from the rest of the family and constantly going out without saying where to. Xav was just waiting for the moment they all exploded and inevitably caused a crack in the family's closeness.
As they walked back up to the house, him now leaning against Zed for support and Uriel against Trace, Xav thought of Ireland. What was she doing right now? Was she upset about their lack of a future, or was she truly glad of it? Was she moping around in unhappiness, or was she already with another guy? He knew nothing about her, had no idea what she liked to do in her spare time; nothing. Yet he couldn't stop thinking about her. It was so infuriating and he pushed her to the back of his mind, imagined her being locked in a room, and refused to let himself think of her again. Not yet, anyway.
The next half an hour or so seemed to pass in a blur to him, mostly because he was fighting unconsciousness. They got home and all the family were there. Gracie was awake and joined Karla in crying over how the two brothers looked. Karla and Georgie attempted to clean them up and get rid of some of the blood. Karla begged Xav to heal himself and Uriel, knowing full well that he couldn't heal himself and was too weak to heal his brother. Victor and Hazel curled up together on one of the living room chairs and seemed in their own world, Victor looking so relieved and tired. Blue kept running back and forth from the room and the kitchen, changing the buckets of bloody water to clean water. Will pressed the three that were kidnapped for any information, getting frustrated when none of them answered. Uriel demanded that his father call some girl called Vivienne, God knows why, before he passed out.
So much happening in a such a short time, yet Xav could only describe it all as list and wouldn't have been able to provide anyone with certain details. He wanted to pass out like Uriel had, his entire body was drained of energy and aching with pain. But apparently, his stupid body had other ideas and kept him awake. And when Karla sat next to him and pulled his head to rest against her shoulder, cradling him and stroking his hair, telling him that he would be okay now and that she'd never let anyone hurt him again, he didn't pull away and claim he was too old for this. Because the truth was, he'd never be too old to be cuddled by his mum, especially when he was ill or injured.
He was almost asleep now, his mother's soothing words bringing a peacefulness to him that he hadn't felt for a long time, but jerked fully awake again when he heard a knock on the front door. For a second, he thought it might be Ireland... But then he figured that if for some reason she had come to the house, she'd break in most likely. She didn't come across as the type of girl to knock before entering somebody's home.
Saul went to answer the door and came back a moment later with a woman. She had fiery natural red hair and big green eyes, a pretty face with a timid expression, and a tall, slim body. Her hands clutched her wool coat and she looked around the room, observing the situation. "Uriel!" She gasped when she saw him, laid down on the sofa and still asleep. She rushed over and knelt down by his head, looking up at the rest of them, her eyes lingering on Xav and his injuries for a moment. "What happened to him?"
"I'm not quite sure how much you know about us, what we do... I don't know how much to tell you," Will answered her, which was unusual seeing as that was usually Victor's job. He looked to his older brother for assistance, but Victor shrugged and focused his attention back on his soulfinder. "What do you know?"
"Is that your not-so-sly way of asking if I know you're savants?" She smiled warmly at her, although her eyes still portrayed her worry. "Because I do. Know that, I mean. I'm a savant too."
"You're Vivienne, aren't you?" Karla asked, straightening up a little but continuing to stroke Xav's hair. "You work with Uriel, I remember him mentioning you. He never said that you were a savant though. So... How old are you?" She tried to sound casual, but they all knew that she was trying to find out if Vivienne might possibly be a soulfinder of one of her boys.
"Almost 24, like Uriel. And my birthday is in the same month as his too," Vivienne admitted, her cheeks blushing. This gave Xav the impression that she was a shy, reserved girl.
"Have you tried...? I mean, you might be-"
"We can't try telepathy," Vivienne said quickly. "I can't do telepathy, there's something wrong with my mind apparently. The net has had people try and fix it for me but... They've had no luck so far." She looked back at Uriel and Xav saw a fleeting look in her eyes. It was only there for a second and then it was gone, covered up, and Xav doubted anyone else in the room had looked closely enough to see the look, but he'd definitely seen it. It was longing. Longing and love. Xav deducted straight away what was going on: Vivienne had feelings for Uriel, feelings that she hid from him, and she probably wished she could see if they were soulfinders. It was a shame that Uriel was so hooked on Hazel and oblivious to the fact that he had a nice girl interested in him.
"Uri, Xav and Hazel were kidnapped," Will explained to Vivienne. "Let's just say that the people weren't exactly nice to the lads. Uriel told my dad to call you, I'm not sure why though."
"Probably because of this." She lifted a manicured hand and placed it flat on Uriel's chest, her eyelids fluttering closed. And that was all everybody else could see, but Xav... He could see what was really going on because he was familiar with it himself. Uriel's life energy, weak and grey, started to pulse around him as a gold sheen flowed from Vivienne's energy and into Uriel's. His energy began to regain its own bright, golden colour as the cuts and bruises on his body started to seal themselves together. It was a pure job, the wounds closing perfectly in a way that left no scar or infection.
"You're just like me," Xav exclaimed, the most he'd spoken since he'd got home. "You're a healer."
"Yes," she nodded and stood up, walking over to him. She held her hand out towards him. "May I?"
Realising that she was asking for permission, he nodded and sat up, no longer leaning into Karla. He closed his eyes as her hand pressed against his chest, relaxing in the feeling of his body being healed and his pain fading away. Before he fell asleep from the numbness in his body, his last thought was of Ireland.
She was so beautiful.
Hours later, in the evening of that same day, Xav sat on one end of the sofa. Zed was in the middle, Yves on the other side of Zed, and the three youngest brothers were watching one of the classic James Bond movies together. He was thankful for it to be honest, having been smothered with Karla's love and attention all day. Of course he liked having her attention and being close with his mum, but after three hours of it constantly, it became tiring.
"Okay. I've had enough," Zed suddenly said. "Yves, you've been on your phone for the past half hour and not only is it rude, but it's annoying. Who the hell are you texting?"
"Hey!" Yves shouted as Zed moved quickly and snatched the phone out of his brother's hand. "Zed, give it back!"
"One sec," Zed said, laughing and pushing Yves away from him as he tried to get his phone back. "Yves honey, you don't even have to ask! Of course you're not hotter than Jensen Ackles, nobody is. Winky-face." He read out in a mocking tone of voice, making Xav snicker. Teasing their brothers was always a favourite pass-time for all seven of them. As he handed the phone back to Yves, Zed asked, "does Yves the geek finally have a girlfriend? What's she called, then? Is she from school? Do I know her? And the most important question: is she hot?!" He laughed again, loudly.
"Like that matters to you when you have Blue," Yves snapped. "She's called Jess, that's all I'm telling you. It's none of your damn business."
"Ooh bitchy," Xav waggled his eyebrows.
"But there's like a thousand Jess' at school!" Zed replied, obviously exaggerating but his point being made clear. "Why are we only finding out about this now? When are you bringing her round to meet mum? 'Cause I wanna be there for that, it'll be hilarious."
"That's not going to happen! We've been dating a few months and I actually like this girl, I don't want to ruin things. Which is exactly why I'm not bringing her to the house or letting her get involved in our bat-shit crazy family," said Yves, frustration clear in his voice. He stood up and went to leave the room, turning back around before he left to say, "and don't you dare say a word about this to anyone. Either of you. I mean it."
Once he was gone, Zed looked at Xav and grinned. "Aw, baby brother's got his first girlfriend!" He put on a fake accent, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.
"You know he's older than you, right?" Xav pointed out.
"Well yeah, but only by a year. And I'm much more mature than he is."
"Yeah. Sure you are," Xav replied with heavy sarcasm.
As they turned back to watch the movie, Xav felt his phone vibrate in his pocket so he slid it out, frowning when he saw that he had a text from a blocked number. He wondered what the hell this was about as he clicked on 'read text'.
Hey, soulfinder. Bet you thought you'd heard the last of me, eh? We need to talk. Meet me tomorrow at 4pm, at the bar in the Ridge hotel. It's important. Come alone, otherwise I'll leave straight away. I'm not going to say please so don't expect me to. I know you'll be there. You won't let me down, right? - Ireland.
Author's note: Ok, so I guess this is following on from the AN above the chapter.
As you may have noticed, I get the titles for my stories from songs that can relate to the story and/or kind of tell the story a little.
This story's title is from the song Best Of You by Foo Fighters so if you listen to the song/lyrics of that song, I personally think it matches where this story is going to go.
So I've planned out the future stories and named them, so I'll tell you them. If you listen to the lyrics of these songs, it might give you some insight as to where that story is going to go. Or it might not. Whatever. At least it's some information about them haha. So I love all three songs but I mainly chose them for the lyrics and the story they tell.
- Uriel and Vivienne's story will be called Hits Your Soul and their song is Love Is Hard by James Morrison.
- Will and Persephone's story will be called Bring Me To Life and their song is Bring Me To Life by Evanescence.
- Yves and Jessamine's story will be called Before You Set Me Free and their song is Somebody's Me by Enrique Iglesias.
So yeah. Just thought I'd share that because I'm excited about them, haha.
Please remember to leave reviews for this chapter of TBOY :) xo