ANEW ||

Blood and Water

Rain soaked her clothes. And if being completely and utterly drenched wasn't enough, it didn't help that today was the coldest weather she had endured in a long while.

Not that anyone could see her to offer another jacket or an umbrella around this miserable town. She made sure no one would notice her, turned her skin and organs around until they blended out of visible light. But no matter the time she spent invisible, the moment she returned to the land of the sight she was noticed. Noticed and watched. And not because of who Mari had made her become. Maybe it was the black hair or the black eyes she watched others with. Maybe it was the strange cut of her jaw and the hollows in her cheeks. Maybe it was the ghost that haunted her from just behind her shoulder. Blue eyes watching her decisions, fingers clutched in her hair. She was always glad she had never gotten to know him.

It was better if they never saw her face. 

She wasn't gifted in the manipulation of temperature like April who was currently scanning the streets from behind the window of their warm room. No, she was gifted with roots that could rip the world in half and the invisibility of its long-dead counterparts. But using the phantoms of a tree's root to rip apart people where they stood would do nothing about her chattering teeth.

April's gaze lingered on her back for a moment before turning back out onto the busy little street. She could feel them, hot and cold all at the same time. No doubt, Lexi thought, that April could see her chilled bones with that insufferable vision of hers.

A woman on a bike went right by her, splashing all over Lexi's damp clothes. 

That settled it then. This game of scouting was over. This was stupid and if she could, she would have flipped Mari and Alaric off for making them go on this fools run.

April just cringed as Lexi stomped through the door moments later. She tossed her damp coat onto the floor, muttering some foul words about Alaric and his stupid, stupid ideas. 

"Nothing huh?" April asked leaning back in her chair.

Lexi just flashed her a look.

April got up from her chair as Lexi flopped on to the bed and groaned. "You?" Lexi asked as her black eyes stared up at the ceiling.

"Maybe, I don't know for sure. Everything is just so different now," April said pressing her palms into her eyes.

Lexi sighed, knowing all too well how strange this was.

"I have an idea," April said quietly. Lexi groaned again, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

The next morning Lexi stumbled out onto the street again. The sky was mostly still dark, the sun not yet over the horizion. It had stopped raining through the night but that didn't stop the puddles on the streets from soaking her feet. And it was even colder than yesterday.

April's brilliant idea was to track someone. There had been a great number of houses empty yesterday during the day and not nearly enough of them got on the transports to the big city. There were people gathering somewhere, or at least, that was their guess. 

Lexi locked onto a jacket of a girl, not yet a woman. She was a tiny little thing, a loner from what she could tell. Perfect for tracking, or at least that's what Ranger told them.

They had called him the night before, and for the most part, he humored them and their strange questions. Mari made it clear no one was to know what exactly they were doing here, not even her own brother.

Mari's trust issues made her somewhat paranoid, and her trust only went as far as the people she chose to give it to. There was even a hierarchy in her head of who's opinions, company and lives she valued most. And Ranger? Might as well have been last on the list.

It wasn't technically his fault, but most of them had learned that family could be chosen. Mair's family had never been straight forward, much like Lexi's in that small way. The only actual blood family Mari cared for was Rayne, and Mari would end herself to keep her little sister alive for a single second longer if nessasary. 

But Ranger? Even Amara and Atticus her parents? Blood was not always thicker than water. 

The girl Lexi tagged was pretty, dark skin and long black hair that was curly and kinked up under a hood to fight off the cold. Her eyes weren't the normal color for her skin tone, more hazel than dark chocolate. Stunning for human standards. 

April kept pace out of sight on the roofs of the buildings, leaping from one to another, keeping her flames under her skin the best she could. The cold was not her friend.

Many people got into a transport on the edge of town that was headed into the closest city. But the girl didn't. She kept straight, heading further out of town.

Lexi followed from a distance, still not visible to the real world. April was forced to stay back, either on the tops of the buildings or back in their room. Either way, she would be warm.

Another fifteen minutes went by of walking and scuffling along before they entered the edge of a forests tree line. A sign stood off to the left, red paint chipping.

Protected Wilderness Area.

She scoffed. Of course, this was what the world had come to.

Lexi knelt, fingers brushing the ground. She could feel the feet pressing into the soil ahead, many pairs. Lexi pushed her fingers into the dirt, gripped some of it and stood. It had been packed down here, a path packed into the dark ground. It smelt of rubber and steal and people.

She would have to get closer.

She moved through the trees silently, still blended into the non-visible spectrum of light. There was a cluster of people gathered, mostly teens, maybe thirty? Maybe more. Laughter bounced off the trees, echoing like April's voice tended to do wherever she went. They were gather all around,a small fire burning in the middle.

And then she saw it. Or saw him.

A man stood near the center of the group, kneeling over the small fire of burning branches. It had been lit before, burned day after day. His skin dark, like the sky above and she couldn't see much of his face with the hood pulled over it. But she could see enough. 

He had his hand in it, the fire, rolling the flames through his fingers like they were wisps of hair.

She struggled to stay unseen, even as the magnitude of this situation shook her. There was no way he was Olympian. She couldn't smell it in his blood, or maybe she could. There were too many of them.

Mari and Alaric weren't going to like this.