Their Prophecy

Appointment

Early morning dew stuck to Ana's clothes and hair when her eyes opened and she realized, with great dread, why she'd slept so long.

Zechariah had joined her on the grass at some point during her slumber, tucking the small girl close to his side, probably searching for that false sense of comfort being linked was meant to cause. Carefully, she removed his hand from her back, sitting up slowly, watching his lips purse. Even in an unconscious state, he would sense her absence.

She was certain the nightmares would take hold once she left him.

But she couldn't stay.

She'd already overslept and she had an appointment to keep.

The sound of a soft huff made her head snap to the side.

Surrounded by animals of various sizes, all dozing from where they came to lie in the lush grass under the elder tree each night, she saw one that was especially familiar. It's large black feline head lifted from his perch upon a tree at the edge of the clearing and she could see his unblinking yellow gaze set upon her.

Kai.

Rising to her feet, she made her way into the thick wilderness, ignoring the cat that stretched before silently hopping to the ground next to the retreating girl, following dutifully behind her.

The rule was that the girl was never to be alone.

If it wasn't Zech, it was Kai, Daddy, Brentik, or Luca.

She frowned at the thought of Zio Luca, the only person she couldn't seem to get a good reaction out of. She'd jump scared every one at one time or another, consistently catching them off guard, shocking them with her lithe presence. They couldn't sense her, it seemed. None of them except Zio Luca.

He always ruined all of her fun with a quirked brow and light smile.

She'd once asked Uncle Xavier why Luca wasn't King.

By all rights, she was certain, he was superior to his younger brother.

Xavier had simply agreed, unbothered by the sentiment.

Her uncle was, unfortunately, unbothered by most things.

The only thing that could make him tick was a good scare.

Maintaining her fast pace, she felt the large cat keeping up, prowling just behind me. Stalking after her, really.

It would seem annoying but the girl had found that she preferred Kai's company, if only because he never asked questions, rarely even talked. He would have to shift to his human form to do that and he clearly didn't prefer it--and for obvious reasons. She'd stared at his solitary, animal soul enough times to know that he wasn't made properly, not for a shifter at least. The faerie wouldn't reveal what she'd done to the boy but she was certain it had to do with an essence pact. Only creatures with binding power from the God's could do such a thing.

A rumble sounded from the chest of her feline friend, catching her attention.

Hesitating, at the edge of the Rosario Estate clearing, she glanced back at him. A slight tilt of its big head, a pointed look--she followed his gaze down at the ground, noticing the sensor she'd nearly stepped through.

Oh, Uncle Xavier was good.

Lithely hopping over the sensor, she gave a slight smile, amused by his latest tactics. Between the chimes placed on the doors and the alarms lining his windows, her uncle had laid out various booby traps to stop her from her mission. Still, she had her way of getting around such things.

He'd only tripped her up three times so far and she visited nearly every morning now.

Climbing with ease up the side of the house, the girl noticed that the jaguar had remained at the edge of the woods, probably aware that Xavier would likely hear his big pawed approach. Ana knew she was light footed enough to get close without detection and walked across the balcony of the master bathroom unoncerned, noting that the bathroom light was on. Closing her eyes, she sense Xavier in his study, which meant--

As the door opened, a beautiful woman dressed in silk pajamas with a very noticeably rounded belly quirked her brow down at her. "You're late," she whispered, giving a slight giggle.

There were no charms on this door.

No alarms.

Emelie, Xaviers very pregnant bond, had no qualms with letting the little tyrant in to tease him.

It might be cheating but, as Uncle Xavier always said, all is fair in love and war.

And this was war.

Analise grinned, clambering forward to give the woman a gentle hug. Her arms couldn't even go all the way around her now, and with the girl's ear pressed close to the baby, she could hear the small, quickened heartbeat of the life inside of her.

Soon, she would have a baby cousin.

Soon, she thought, she wouldn't be the baby of the family anymore.

"He's in his study," Emelie whispered, conspiratorial.

"I know." She gave a small, grateful, "Thanks auntie," before carefully exiting the bathroom, stealthily moving down the hall to the door which was cracked open just a bit.

Xavier called his study the "war room", if only because that was all he did in there: Plan. Laid out across his large desk was papers of all kinds, his favorite red pen in his hand as he mumbled aloud to himself as he read, marking important words, scribbling important messages in the margins. Everything he did was coded, often written in the ancient language. He'd taught her how to decode things, how to figure out how to read the things that others would fail to.

It was good practice, he'd once told her. If she ever had to go into hiding, he would send coded messages. Keep her informed.

The way he spoke to her, brisk and unfiltered, was one of the reasons she'd taken such a liking to spending time with Xavier. He was younger than her other teachers and offered very little opinion unlike the others. She'd ask questions about different topics, topics her parents would never approve of, and he'd answer them without any hesitation, willing to leave the gory details in, often guiding her toward books that would help answer, sometimes even fuel, her curiosity.

The Circle of Kings.

The Great Desecration.

The inner workings of the slave trade.

Despite providing the statistics and research material, Xavier never stated what he believed in. What he thought.

Instead he asked questions.

"What do you think about that?"

"Why do you think that is?"

"Who do you think is to blame?"

Ana, marveling at the odd politics of the world she'd been born into, held no qualms about telling him her thoughts. She often spoke of how confusing human motivation was. How strangely the emotions of certain creatures--humans, shifters, elves--seemed to muddy their logic, their capability to make rational decisions.

She'd even found herself asking what purpose vampires had to serve.

Brentik had discussed the God's, the creatures they'd built, their purposes.

Vampires, she'd noticed, weren't provided one.

Humans too, the original form, seemed only capable of destroying things and feeding or reproducing for the vampires.

Why are they here?

Xavier had handed her different bibles, some for humans, one written in ancient language about an apocalypse, another written with vivid pictures of creatures made of the elements. There were red markings throughout every book he gave her, notations often left in the margins, all in the ancient language, all meant for her she began to realize.

It made reading easier, words that seemed foreign to her clearly defined in the margins.

When she came to visit, Ana began to understand that he wanted to discuss her views with her.

He wanted to know the inner workings of her mind better.

He wanted to teach her, not just his own views, but how to form her own.

There was no topic he wouldn't discuss with her. Nothing was off limits.

Except Kai.

He'd handed her the research he'd found about the alpha gene, the numbers they'd gathered, the curiosity surrounding it. There was even old, vague descriptions of animal pacts with faeries but nothing further to explain why Kai had one soul. Nobody else seemed to realize he was abnormal, they couldn't see what Ana could. "This is all I know," was what he'd stated after having been asked the same reel of questions he couldn't seem to answer. "Don't ask again."

It was the first time he'd limited her speech, if only because he clearly couldn't provide an answer.

But for all else, he had answers.

He had patience.

Carefully moving the door an inch further, she let her small body slide through the opening, eying her target who seemed incredibly absorbed with what he was reading.

Glancing between what looked like one of his conference notations and a map he had splayed over the table, he kept moving from one, to the other, marking specific places on the map, grumbling to himself.

It helped that the grumbled to himself.

That noise was a perfect cover for her approach.

Moving behind him, careful to stay out of his peripherals as he busily flipped through pages, clearly searching for something.

She could see the tension in his shoulders, the scrunch of his brow.

Leaning over his shoulder, she yelled, "Unc!"

With a loud tsk, Xavier had pressed down too hard on his marker, leaving an ugly red splotch on the map.

Beaming, she knew this had been an absolute success. "Hello."

Pulling the marker back, she heard him release a soft sigh. "I'm impressed with you, Ana."

She hummed, taking a step back, clearly proud of her accomplishment.

Leaning back in his chair, frowning up at her in disdain, she noticed the gleam in his dark eyes. He was never angry with her, not really. He looked more amused than anything else as he asked his first question of the day: "How did you manage to get in this time?"