Phoenix Rising

Chapter 4

Marcel Gerard.

He was standing there in shock the second I turned around. Right now, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I didn’t know what was going through his mind either. Was he planning on turning me over to my cousins? Did he believe it was me?

“Amara?” His tone is soft now. Curiosity, shock, relief, and so many different emotions were obvious in his voice, “H-How is this possible?”

“Hey.” My voice shook in fear and I was on the verge of crying, “I’m here.” Silence came over me for a few seconds before I could manage to continue, “I’ve missed all of you so much, there’s not enough words for me to explain how much. Please tell me the others are here?!”

“They headed to ShalderTown for the week to help Greymark.” Marcel quickly realized he couldn’t say ‘Alpha’. Looking over to Pyre, he asked, “Who’s this?”

“Pyre, meet Marcel. Marcel, meet Pyre.” I introduced the two of them to each other. This is where I knew I’d have to tell her about everything, “Pyre, there’s actually something I have talk to you about. You can’t freak out though.”

“Your cousins live in a freaking mansion, and you’re telling me not to freak out?!” Pyre immediately looked back to me. She didn’t have any idea what I was about to say would blow her mind.

The look on Marcel’s face changed to shock and a slight relief, “She’s human… Damn, you’re lucky I found you instead of someone else.”

“Human?” Her voice held confusion again, “What does he mean by that?”

“Uhm…” I hesitated to answer. How was I supposed to tell my best friend I wasn’t human?! “I’m not human. Neither is he.” Marcel saw I was struggling to answer her question so he decided to take matters into his own hands and turned. Meaning his eyes went red, veins drouped down and vangs were visible to us. Shocked by what he did, I smacked his chest, “Really?! Not helping!” Looking back at Pyre, I couldn’t tell whether she was terrified or not, “We won’t hurt you.”

“This… This explains everything!” Pyre exclaimed, “You just always seemed different from everyone. Hell, you survived that snowstorm we had last year!”

“You’re not freaking out?” I found myself asking in shock. Not what I was expecting.

“No! It’s awesome!” Pyre said in excitement, “We should leave for ShalderTown, especially if that’s where you’re cousins are. I’m guess Marcel here is one of those people you said you considered as family but technically isn’t?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I nodded my head.

“Not what I was expecting from a human to be honest…” Marcel kind of chuckled, “But, we can head over to ShalderTown, if you want?”

I began to remember more about the others, “Wait, what about Rue, Jay, and all them? Did they manage to bring Erin back to life?”

“Someone died? Then they were brought back to life?” Pyre’s tone seemed shocked, “Damn, your life must’ve been pretty damn amazing before I met you.”

Marcel turned to face me, “She doesn’t know, does she?”

“Nope.” I shook my head in defeat. Of course, I never told her I ‘died’ and then came back to life, “I couldn’t figure out a way to tell her.”

“I don’t know what? Did something worse happen?!” Pyre questioned with clear concern in her voice.

“I died. Then came back alive.” I answered, “In fact, I spent three years in some darkness. The year your parents found me is when I came out of the darkness.”

“Holy s**t!” She said in shock.

Marcel chuckled and said, “Okay. Enough chitchat. ShalderTown is waiting and so is everyone else… Can’t wait for this reunion.” Seeing the look of fear on my face, he continued, “Don’t worry too much. I believed it was you and so will everyone else… It’s kind of obvious by the way you act too.”

From there, neither of us waited another second to get back in the car. Instead, we took Marcel’s car because he thought it’d be easier to surprise everyone. Within an hour, we were arriving just outside the camp. Even though to me, it looked a lot different than the last time I was here.

“The pack wasn’t the same after everything…” Marcel stated, “That’s why Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, Freya, and even Klaus would try to take a trip up here every two months. Everyone knew you’d want them to be happy. So, your cousins made sure they were.”

“Everyone’s okay? Even Erin?” I found myself repeated again.

He nodded his head, “It took a lot out of everyone losing you and bringing him back to life but, their all doing better. Kai, on the other hand, he wasn’t doing good for a long time. It’s the main reason why Freya and Rebekah convinced the others to go with them to visit…” Marcel saw the fear on my face, “He’s okay now. Still struggles with it quite a bit but he’s okay.”

I felt a sudden relief wash over my body once I heard him say this.

“Who’s Kai?” Pyre broke the silence.

“Someone Amara cared deeply for. She never got the chance to tell him how she felt though.” Marcel looked over at me, a slight smirk on his face. I playfully smacked him in the head, “Ouch! What was that for? It’s not like what I said was a lie!”

“Maybe because you’re dumb… He isn’t wrong.” I said back to Pyre then went back to looking out the window.

“We have about five minutes before we’ll be pulling into the camp.” Marcel said to prepare me for what was about to happen.

By now, I began to recognize exactly where we were. My heart raced as we pulled up to the front gate. I was nervous for how everyone would act when they saw me. Everything looked different; more housing for people instead of just tents, trees, flowers, and many other plants bloomed all around the camp.

“Here we are.” Marcel said as the gates open. There I saw him. Alpha Greymark, “I want this to be a surprise but if you feel the need to say something to him right away, do it.”

Grabbing a hold of Pyre’s hand, I quickly muttered, “Invisique.”

It was the only spell I could think of to keep of hidden from Alpha Greymark and anyone else who may be near us.

“Marcel? What are you doing here?” I could hear the confusion in Alpha Greymark’s voice once he realized who was in the car, “Klaus and the others said you would be coming here this week.”

“It got lonely back in New Orleans, and I wanted to see how everything’s coming along here.” Marcel made up a lie, “Is that okay? If not, I can head back.”

“Actually, it’s perfect you’re here. We’re going to be doing another ceremony for Amara today. Come on in.” Alpha Greymark took a step back, “You already know where to park. Meet over by the Town Hall once you’re done.”

“Wait. Could you possibly meet me over by the parking lot. There’s something I have to show you before we meet back up with the others.” Marcel said, somehow sensing I’d want to talk to Alpha Greymark before everyone else.

“Okay. Give me a few minutes to let Erin know to set up a bonfire then I will meet you there.” He smiled back, not really suspicious of anything yet.

From there, Marcel drove past multiple buildings I didn’t recognize until he got a little parking lot. It was kind of shocking to see everything but in a way, it made me feel a lot better. Only four years and yet they’ve expanded the camp so much.

“It’s… It’s so different.” I said in a low voice, now stepping out of the car, “The camp wasn’t like this last time I was here.”

“Erin’s the one who came up with all the ideas to expand the camp.” Marcel chuckled and looked around the camp. In the distance, we could see Alpha Greymark walking towards us, “Here he comes. You ready for this?”

Not answering the question, I looked at Pyre and noticed she went silent, “Are you okay?”

“It’s a lot to take in.” Pyre stepped out of the car in shock, “But, I understand why you never talked much about yourself… Is it even okay for me to be here? Considering I’m human.”

“You’ll be fine. I’ll make sure nobody harms you.” I tried to reassure her. Turning back towards Marcel, I finally answered his question, “It’s now or never.”

Alpha Greymark got close enough to us to realize who was with Marcel. The second his eyes landed on me, he immediately stopped in his tracks.

“Amara?” Tears swelled in his eyes as he said my name.