Untold Truth

#8 Friend or Foe?

“Why would she be protecting her? It is really unlikely that Sapphire, the girl you had been working with would gain anyone’s pity, especially Skylar. She had made her life a misery since the start. She had never helped Skylar in any way.” Nick protested after looking into his mother’s crystal ball. He felt outraged about how Skylar was still able to find a little kindness in her heart to forgive Sapphire.

“As I had told you, she is different. She has even made her brothers have a change of heart since they’ve her. I have never seen anyone who is an inspiration for everyone around her until her. And despite having this curse against her, she still manages to change the people around her.” came a voice from the crystal ball. The crystal ball is the alternative communication device to communicate with the deceased to replace the hologram caller. In this case he was contacting his long deceased mother. “She is known all over the underworld as the lightbringer. She brings hope and light even to Larissa.”

“What is your motive in all this, Angelica? I understand that you had it out for every single one of your siblings and relatives after Kylie stabbed you in the back but why involve me in all this?”

“Oh my dear son, you know that I only mean well when I involve you in something. Wouldn’t want you to be left out, would we? It looks like you don’t even have much of a choice at this rate. Just look at your dear Gracie and you would know better than to cross me. Good-bye for now, Nick. Until our next talk.”

Nick threw his arms up. He knew that hadn’t much choice, especially with a current choice of whether he could ever see Gracie ever again, depended on whether he is willing to follow whatever his mother expected of him. He looked over at his girlfriend who was still fast asleep like The Sleeping Beauty. All he could wish for was to have her back in his arms.

“Master, don’t you have somewhere to be?”, said his little minion. Since he had made a deal with the devil, he had to bring his minion over from Hell to the human realm to remind him of his daily tasks. He knew that he had to get Gracie back by hook or by crook. The only deal he had to break was with his own mother. There was no loophole when it came to dealing with Angelica. That’s why he had to isolate himself from Cody for his own good. He knew that Cody was also communicating with his mother but as always, his mother has a way of twisting whatever she says to make the two of them think otherwise.

Time was never quite on his side, especially when he knew that Cody had made a deadly deal with Angelica. Lives may be taken but there was nothing he could do about it. If he even dare to try to warn Cody about his mother, Angelica would torture him with the rune that she had engraved on his arm. However, the twinning rune was also another way that Angelica had against him. Because his life was linked to Cody’s, she could just so easily torture him otherwise. He had his hands tied in this situation.

He went back to Damon’s place just to sulk about how he had so many responsibilities because he knew that Damon was always too drunk to even pay attention to whatever he had to say. Once he got to his place which was about a two hours drive away Alec’s place, Damon wasn’t home but instead he was raising his glass at a party in a club owned by one of the many tycoons of Louisiana. “I should have known that he would rather get wasted at a club than to listen to whatever I had to babble about.”, he said to himself after reading the note that Damon had left on the door.

That was when he bumped into a girl who was younger than he was. He thought, Why not have one last drink? Because she was luring him to the pub near Damon’s street. He wasn’t really paying attention due to his weakness towards females that he fell right into a trap. That girl wasn’t an ordinary mundane but instead someone who he had known for a very long time, but hasn’t seen in years.

Once he was alone with her, the girl immediately slapped him in the face, “How could you let any of this happen?” He recognized her by the strength and the precision of the slap.

He held on the side of his face that she had slapped, “Rowena?” He slowly gained his sight of who she really was under the strong glamour. “Owh, what was that for?” He could still feel the burn in the slap. He stripped off the glamour and saw her for what she really was - a ravened hair girl with eyes as green as the forest. She was wearing a body-fit tube dress which showed her curves. Her skin had an even tan and all over her arms were markings of tattoos.

“Oh, there’s a lot where that came from. How dare you involve my sisters in this mess that you created?” She was seated in front of him in the booth of the club with her arms crossed over her chest, waiting for an answer.

Outraged, Nick just explained everything that had occurred in the past 2 months, “I didn’t have a choice, even if I had a choice they wouldn’t even listen. You already know that Gracie is stubborn, especially when she wants things to go her way and Elyssa is just the same. You know what Angelica is like when she wants everything to go her way. She had Cody and Tyler placed under a prophecy and I just had to be her puppet because I didn’t have a choice.”

“I know that they can be a tat stubborn but you should’ve told them no from the start. Now Gracie’s in a coma and Elyssa is on a suicide mission to go up against the biggest psycho that ever lived. How do you think this makes me feel as their older sister?”

“Mad?” he said in a questionable tone. “I know that you and I had never gotten along but I really had no idea that Angelica was behind all this until right now. She wasn’t going to let me stop her either way.”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that you almost got Gracie killed by involving her. What are you even doing here?” She took a sip of the martini.

“I am actually here to look for your brother.” There was nothing but silence between the two of them for a bit because Rowena needed to process what he had just said. “Oh yeah. You had no idea about your brother because there was never a time that you really got to know him. At least, now, I know that you have been living under a rock. I am actually quite surprised that you aren’t surprised that Elyssa is back in the picture.”

“I was briefed that Gracie and Elyssa were in trouble, not my good for nothing brother. Not that I would even care. He left us. Just because he is the eldest doesn’t mean anything to us.”

“It didn’t seem that way when you suddenly went silent.”

“Shut it, Lopez. I get that you have really messed things up in the human realm. From manipulating humans to bend to your will to messing with people’s lives. But there isn’t a need for you to brag about it. Not everyone has the life of an only child who is trying to find his long lost brother.”

“Hey, how do you know about that?” Nick protested.

“All of Hell has been talking about your brother Noah who might just stand a chance to run against you as ruler of Hell if he wasn’t half mundane. It’s been the talk of the week actually.”

“Whatever, the real question is why are you here?”

“Apparently, Lucifer sent me as damage control but it seems like there is much more to deal with than I had expected.” Rowena sighed. “I guess I got my work cut out for me. - It is true what the demons have been talking about that being in the human world has really changed you. You are different somehow. Like you don’t get angry that easily. You seem more calm than when you were in Hell.”

“Guess living amongst humans can really change someone’s perspective on the world.” Nick let out a laugh. Just then Rowena received an alert from her phone about demonic activity in Crystal Cove. She knew she didn’t have much time to chit-chat with Nick because where there’s demonic activity, there’s trouble.

Skylar and Carson had been doing their research and they had tracked Kylie and Ralph’s location and had been observing their behaviour for a few days. They were definitely not happy that Cody and Tyler had safe proof the whole mansion with surveillance cameras to make sure that no one could get in or out of the mansion undetected. With Skylar’s new found powers, she was a much better spy as she had also gotten the powers of a nephilim who doesn’t require anything to use a rune due to her lineage of being related to nephilims.

One day, they decided to follow the couple to their hideout. Though it was a risky move so they switched vehicles with Tyler when following them. With the tinted helmet, there was no way that Kylie would recognize them. Skylar however wasn’t used to riding at the back of a motorbike so she shouted when Carson began to speed up. Carson didn’t have much of a choice but to just tolerate her shouting because it was the only way that they could actually keep up with them. Once they got to the abandoned house that Kylie and Ralph were hiding out in, Skylar was still holding on to her dear life as she was still hugging Carson’s chest, “We’re here. You can let go now.”, he said to her.

She opened her eyes and let go of Carson, “I’m sorry if I had squeezed you too hard.”, she apologized before Carson helped her down from the bike. Carson rolled the bike somewhere that Kylie and Ralph wouldn’t find out that they were there. “All we need to find is something that is close to an evidence so that we can gather some information for Tyler to analyse.”

They crept into the house and found dolls with their heads ripped off. It felt like a scene from a horror film. They followed the trail of doll heads to a room with a ‘K’ written on the room door. Carson checked whether there was anyone inside before telling Skylar that the course was clear. They headed in and searched the shelves. A book with a reddish brown cover caught her eye. The cover had been scratched off. She opened it to the first page and it showed a picture of two girls about the same age. She took a closer look and realized that the girl with her face doodled on was Sapphire. “Hey, Carson, come over here.”, said Skylar.

She passed the book to him and he too realized the resemblance. The two of them wondered what would cause Kylie to hate Sapphire so much to the point that she would want nothing to do with her at all. As they flipped through the pages, they realized why she would want to kill her. Though grudges may cause someone to do things out of the ordinary but this was a little too much to want to kill someone. She may be part demon but there might be some humanity left in her. Skylar thought to herself. The thing that was written in her diary was solid proof that she had attempted to murder Sapphire. Skylar quickly took out her phone. Just as she was about to take the picture of the diary, they heard the clicking of Kylie’s knee-high boots coming closer.

Skylar knew what she had to do, she quickly used her powers to slow down time to buy her some time to take the picture and get out of there before something bad happened. Slowly she managed to gain control of her powers which had not dared to use in a few days. Carson quickly did as she was about to do because he knew that it was impossible for her to do two things at once especially with her powers out of control. He took the picture and sent it to Tyler. While the time was still being slowed, the two of them got out of there before they were seen.

They got out at just the nick of time, and got on the bike before the time went back to the way it was supposed to run. As Carson sped up, he felt that Skylar was already losing her grip so he parked at the side of the road and got down. As he got down, he felt Skylar slip. He quickly turned around to catch her before her head hit the ground. He took off her helmet and realized the light that was previously in her eyes was already gone.

In the time to panic, he quickly called Cody. He knew that to bring her back to the mansion in one piece was impossible. When the line started to ring, he anxiously waited for Cody to pick up the phone. Once he picked up, Carson immediately explained without taking a moment to catch his breath, “Cody, Skylar’s unconscious, I can’t get her back to the mansion in her condition without-”

Before he could finish, Cody told him,“Calm down Carson. Where are you? Tell me exactly what happened.”, said Cody. He couldn’t hear a word of what he was saying. “I can't understand a single thing you are saying.”

“We’re somewhere on the West Coast. We’ve already sent the picture of the evidence to Tyler. Skylar used her powers to slow down the time because Kylie was already coming in and now she’s unconscious.”

Cody took the words right out of Carson’s mouth and said, “Alright, listen carefully. Leave the bike there, Tyler will be able to locate it. Fly her home, it’s the only solution at the moment.” and he continued to put down the phone.

He prepared to fly but he was restrained down by a tranquilizer dart.

Cody paced around the room, worried because it wouldn’t have taken them that long to come back. He kept looking around the room to see if they were coming back yet but to his dismay, there was no sign of them. He looked over at the mess that Kylie and Ralph had made that was impossible to clean up and then he faced Sapphire who was still unconscious on his bed. He wondered, how would it have been different if someone had been there, but he couldn’t think of anything that was positive at that moment especially when there was nothing that was good to think about. Just as he thought, what else could possibly go wrong, he was instantly met with yet another bad news.

Tyler bursted in, saying, “I can’t find Carson and Skylar on the radar. It’s like they didn’t even get to fly home. I sent Viper and Tez to look for them but they had left the bike but there was no one there. What they did find is some of the feathers from Carson’s wings. So here’s the thing, they asked me where there would be a bird that big so I told them the truth.”

“You did what?”, Cody exclaimed. “You know that it isn’t even supposed to come out that you were a demon but they found out about that, and now you jeopardise Carson’s secret too?”

“No, it was only the part that his family is of pure angel blood. But they didn’t ask anymore questions, I swear.” Tyler put his arms up like he was surrendering. Cody started to calm down but he also had to explain to him that Carson and Skylar might be in trouble. “Here’s the thing. I think that the only reason why they aren’t back yet is because they might have been captured by demons or Kylie and Ralph.”

Cody left the room without a moment of hesitation after hearing that. He knew that he had almost lost the two of them before but this was really a big issue. If Ralph was to find out about their family’s truth, this may be the end of the road for him. If a mundane was to find out about the Frost coming from a line of demons, it would mean that Hell may just break loose to the human world and wipe the human world clean. Humans would just cower before their name. He also managed to pull Tyler out with him. He drove while Tyler navigated.

Despite Cody’s reckless driving, they got to the location within the time that was predicted. And just as Cody had expected, other than the feathers, there was also some blood which meant that someone had definitely kidn*pped them. The coordinates were too far from Kylie’s mystery hideout so it was impossible that it could be them who had kidn*pped the two of them. “Too bad Alison isn’t here or she could help us sniff out where they could have gone to.”, said Tyler.

“Isn’t she somewhere hunting in these woods with her brother?”, said Cody. “Can’t you just call her? She is your girlfriend after all.”

“Yeah, I know but she needs her own time. She can’t always be clinging to us like how Skylar had clinged to you through you guys’ relationship. She is a free spirit. Plus it would be such a burden for her to have to come all this way.”

“Too late, I’ve already called her. Why are you so worried anyways? She’s a werewolf and she’s used to having to run through the woods.” Cody gave Tyler a pat on his shoulder. Luckily Cody and tracked her location before calling her otherwise she would have to bring her brother on a suicide mission.

Within a few minutes, they heard the sound of something running towards them. A wolf with elegant blue streaks of fur that lined its dark brown body and emerald-colored eyes that shined like a predator’s, headed towards the bushes. There were blaring sounds followed by shimmery blue traces of magic. As the brightness of blue dimmed down, a dark-brown maned girl’s head popped out of the bushes.

Tyler headed to the car to get her some of his spare clothes because he knew why she couldn’t come out. He passed the set of clothes to her and she slipped the oversized shirt over her head and put on jeans that were rather baggy on her. The shirt was until above her knees but she was quite used to wearing his clothes since ever she transformed she had to tear through her clothes. She came out and asked them, “So what was the urgent call for?” She turned to face Cody trying to avoid Tyler for being a brat to everyone since that incident.

“Skylar’s missing. We need your help to track her. I...We think that with your sense of smell you can track down who kidn*pped her and Carson.”

“All I smell right now is demons.”, said Alison. Cody and Tyler exchanged looks because they were the only demons present.

“Can you be more specific?”, asked Cody.

Alison continued to try to sniff the demon out, “Give me a sec, I haven’t been asked to sniff things out before. - I’m getting the scent of despair in the air but it’s been mixed with many other scents of a Victoria Secret perfume together with the smell of sweat.” She opened her eyes and said, “It can’t be...”

“What is it?” Cody began to get anxious.

“It smells familiar but I just can’t get the correct scent. Do you know anyone else who knows about Carson being part angel? Because I’m definitely picking up a feminine scent but I had never met this girl before. I smell a Gucci handbag together with the mixture of all the other scents.”

Cody thought to himself for a bit, Victoria Secret Perfume, Gucci, who could have wanted to kidnap Carson for revenge. Then it struck him, he remembered that one of Carson’s ex-girlfriends who is also a psycho for his love was devastated after he had dumped her. Before saying anything, he told them to get in the car in a rush because he already had an idea of where they could be.