River of Blood

Chapter Ten

Aquila sits on the couch next to Sarafine, rubbing her arm. Sarafine is staring at nothing in particular, still taking in the shock of having been shot it would seem. Annalise is talking heatedly with the warlock boy, Zelda is hovering with Judi who suddenly collapsed earlier because of the bullet wound in her leg, Lynn is nowhere to be found, and Evangeline still hasn't come back from wherever she's gone.

Sarafine suddenly jerks, her eyes landing on Aquila's. "Are they gone?" She whispers, her voice breaking on the end of her question.

"They're gone." Aquila rubs the redhead's back, still feeling the shock wearing off of herself. She couldn't believe what had just happened. The hunters...the blood...everything just seemed to happen so fast. She couldn't catch her breath.

Sarafine shakes lightly, her head landing on Aquila's shoulder. Aquila runs her fingers through the redhead's soft curls as Annalise turns quickly and lets out a soft huff of frustration. She crosses the room quickly, sitting down next to Sarafine on the soft couch. The warlock turns on his heel and heads back upstairs quickly. Aquila looks at the frail girl, seeing the outline of tears on her cheeks. Aquila reaches out with one hand and takes Annalise's hand, her eyes shining. "It's going to be okay, you know?"

"That's just it." Annalise's gaze reaches Aquila's with sadness overlaying in their depths. "Nothing is ever going to be okay again."

Silence descends on the room as Judi sits up on the floor. She shakes out her hair, letting out a sound of pain. "That bullet..." She trails off as Evangeline wanders into the room. Her eyes look absolutely haunted as she looks at Judi. Judi's eyes widen. "Was it laced?"

"Wolfs bane." Evangeline grounds out.

"Where did you go?" Annalise asks, her eyes lighting up with curiosity.

Evangeline sighs deeply before sitting down on the couch opposite of the one Aquila is sitting in. "Had to fix something."

No one speaks for a couple minutes as Zelda sits down next to Evangeline. Judi sits down next to Zelda, and eventually Lynn floats in from outside. The silence is deafening to Aquila's ears as her thoughts come to the forefront of her mind.

What would her parents want her to do in this situation? They'd want her to fight back. Granted, she didn't know how to fight per se but Evangeline did. And Annalise seemed to know how to fend for herself, at least for a little while. Her mother once told her that she had the ability to control the ocean if she allowed herself to. With her father being the current kind of the mermen and Aquila being the oldest, she would inherit the throne when she went back. Aquila didn't want to control the ocean. She didn't want to be Queen when she went back. But now...now she needs to learn how to take care of herself from the one person who actually knows how to.

"Evangeline." Her voice is melodic, but it has no effect on the vampire sitting before her. "You once defeated them before."

Evangeline's violet eyes take on a red tint, obviously struggling with some memory she has buried deep in her mind. Her black hair covers her face in the next moment as she regains control of herself before she looks back up. All of the red is gone. "The hunters are more powerful than they were back then-"

"Oh come on!" Zelda bursts, her eyes wild. "Teach us how to fight."

A murmur goes through the group of girls, some agreeing, others wondering how they could ever be prepared for such a fight. Aquila stares at Evangeline from across the table, the girl wincing at everyone's shouts.