Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 52

May 7, 2019

Eisa was the only one who remained unchanged after five years.

Being put to sleep was unfortunately a lot like being daggered. There were moments of consciousness where she remembered that she was asleep, only able to listen to the world passing her by. Most times, she could hear nothing. Other times, there was a buzzing, and some unintelligible words being spoken to her.

Sometimes, there was a bit of light, which always gave her hope and made her think it was time to awaken. But the dim circle never grew, and always faded before she could think to reach for it.

Conjuring up images was the hardest. But when she strained herself to do so, to bring up a memory that would comfort her, it would make her happy, before she drifted back into unconsciousness to rest for another long while.

The buzzing sound had been magnified in her ears, just moments before she actually woke up. The light glowed brighter, and there was a sensation of pain in her shoulder before her eyes opened, causing her to cringe at the feeling of sunlight. She was no longer used to it, and it made her want to recoil.

"Easy does it," came Freya's voice, helping her sister out of the coffin she'd been placed in. "How do you feel, Sister?"

"Exhausted," replied Eisa, rubbing her eyes. "How long has it been? Am I healed?"

Freya smiled. "That you are. We've been waiting for you to wake."

After blinking several times, Eisa was able to make sense of her surroundings. She was in an unfamiliar attic, which smelled musty, and was unfortunately covered in cobwebs. Aside from a few pieces of broken furniture and boxes that radiated a bit of familiarity, it had no semblance of home, which led her to suggest she was not, in fact, in the attic of the Compound.

"Where are we?" she asked, seeing no one else was there.

"An abandoned house I had put under my name," said Freya, pulling her into a hug. "It wasn't wise, keeping you in New Orleans. Not that any of us stayed there."

"Freya, I reiterate, how long has it been?"

"Five years."

Five years of a tiny light. Five years of buzzing. Five years of struggling to look at memories that would make the wait easier. Five years of sleeping dreamlessly, unable to truly rest.

Eisa nodded slowly. "Alright. Well, you can fill me in on everything on our way to... wherever everyone else is."

"Just drink this first," said Freya, handing her a blood bag. Eisa snatched it away from her unintentionally, bringing it to her lips and groaning as she devoured it. She hadn't realized just how much she missed blood. She reached for another bag, which Freya gladly handed to her.

"You were starting to desiccate," said Freya. "I apologize... it had been awhile since I came to drip a bit of blood in your mouth."

"Couldn't feel that, honestly, so it's alright. Now... tell me all of it."

Freya had a lot to talk about.

After Eisa had been put to sleep, the family had had a very serious (though not at all peaceful) talk about what to do next. They had Lucien's venom, his blood, and several notebooks where he'd outlined just how and where he'd found the wolves from different Packs. It seemed easy, tracing his steps and getting the different strains of venom.

It definitely wasn't easy.

He'd cleaned up after himself quite well. Each Kingmaker Land Development facility had housed wolves of a different kind. The one Hayley and Klaus had gone to had mostly Paxon and BasRoq wolves. The others would be harder to locate. Lucien had done his job, exterminating as many as he could, which had not only made the wolves retreat deep into unknown territory, but had also made several of them change their identities, and renounce their status as part of their Packs. Random wolves were scattered everywhere, and many had no idea which original Pack they were even descended from.