Chapter Nine

I woke up in a dark room. The lights were dim. I sat up on what appeared to be a cot. I felt dizzy and sluggish, and really thirsty. There was a scratchy blanket draped over my legs. Beneath that I could feel the dirt that was stuck to my legs. I didn't remember going through any mud, but there were so many blind spots in my memory lately.

"Good you're awake" A deep voice said from the corner. I skidded back against the wall. The person it belonged to stepped forward under the dim lighting. He had a jagged scare that ran down the left side of his face from his eye to his jaw. I couldn't see much more because of the lightning, which only made him scarier.

"Where am I?" I asked. "Who are you?" I had meant to sound more threatening, but who was I kidding, I was in absolutely no way threatening.

"Agent Alaster" He said, crossing his arms and getting to the point. "What is your connection to Nolan?"

"To who? I don't know who that is." I said.

"I don't have time for games little girl. Tell me what you know or I will leave you here to rot." I didn't fully believe that. I was a child, even though I didn't like to admit it. As a minor, I had rights.

"I don't know anyone named Nolan" I said. Without a word he left the room. I sat in silence as tears rolled down my cheeks. My green dress had dirt towards the bottom of it that I tried to rub off. There was a tingly sensation that ran across my arms, almost like electricity. Then came the bad feeling from before. Pain raced through my head, my ears ringing. I clutched the sides of my head. The pain only lasted for a moment then subsided.

Everything appeared differently now. I could see extremely well for the low lighting, almost like I had night vision. I could hear sounds from outside the walls of this room. There were voice in what sounded like the next room.

"We have your friend Nolan" Agent Alaster was speaking. "You've been following her for a long time, but we've been following you longer."

"I don't know what your talking about." A male voice said. I assumed it was the guy named Nolan.

"Pretty little blond girl" Alaster said. "Ring any bells?"

"What have you done with her?" Nolan was furious, the rage pouring from his voice. There was a sound of metal clinking together. Handcuffs maybe?

"She is fine for now, as long as you tell me what I want to know." I could hear the smile in Alasters voice, like this was some game.

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know, just don't hurt her." Nolan said.

"We are looking for someone, Shane Taylor. He seems to be caught up in a group of scythians. One that we would very much like to put a stop to." Alaster said.

"I don't know anyone by that name." Nolan said. There was a moment of silence, then a scream of pain. A shiver went down my spine. There were some muffled noises from the next room.

"This Shane kid murdered a girl in broad daylight!" Alaster yelled. "Tell me where I can find him." Before I knew it I was on my feet. My hand rested on the door handle. It was locked. A quick yank and it broke free. I stepped into the hallway and dead silence. My whole body was vibrating. There was no sounds coming from the other room. Looking up and down the hallway I saw the closet door was over twenty feet away.

I made my way slowly towards the door. It sounded like a one sided fight on the other side. I could feel the anger radiated from someone in the room, from more than one person. I slammed my foot into the door. It flew off the hinges knocking over an agent on the other side. I stood there shocked at myself, not really sure what to do next.

"Well look who joined the party?" Alaster was standing off to the side, arms crossed, leaning on the wall. "So you two are alike then?" He motioned between me and Nolan. I got my first real glance at Nolan then. He didn't look like he was much taller than me. Short, dark brown hair laid just above his shoulders, as if he hadn't cut it in months. He also hadn't shaved in a week or so, covering his chiseled features. It wasn't a full beard but it was definitely more than stubble. Nolan's eyes caught my attention. Those pale green eyes stared back at me. The same eyes as my mother, as me. I looked back to Agent Alaster.

"I want to go home." I said as my flight or fight response kicked in, and there was no fight left. "Take me home now" I felt my voice shaking but thankfully didn't hear it.

"No she's not!" Nolan snapped, jerking forward. "Leave her alone!"

"I'm finding that hard to believe." Alaster stepped towards me. "Those doors are fairly solid. It would be extremely difficult for a little girl like you to get through. Even if you ate all your vegetables."

"I swear she's not!" Nolan was yelling now. "Test her, you'll see I'm not lying."

"Test me?" I asked, not sure I liked the sound of that. What if I failed?

"Pick up the pen" Agent Alaster motioned to a pen sitting on the table. I looked at him dumbfound. "Humor me" I reached for it, slowly curling my fingers around it. I half expected it to bite me. At first it felt cold, but something was off, like it was getting warmer.

"See she didn't react." Nolan said. "I'll tell you what you want to know. Just leave her alone, she doesn't belong here." There was something about him. He was confident but terrified all at the same time. A swirl of emotions floated across my mind, making me dizzy.

"Very well" Agent Alaster took the pen from me. There was a tingling sensation in my hand where it had been and a slight red mark. "Tell me about the boy."

"He works for his dad. I don't know where they are or how many they are. I swear that's all I know. He's just a kid" Nolan said.

Agent Alaster huffed and walked out, frustrated more when he couldn't slam the door behind him. The other agent in the room walked over to the table and opened a small box. He lifted a large syringe and turned towards me. I backed into the wall, realizing I had nowhere to go.

"It's okay" Nolan said. "You're gonna be fine." There was a sharp pain as the needle went into my arm. Everything went dark. again.

There was a pounding sensation in my head. My mouth was dry. It hurt when I blinked my eyes open, like waking up from a deep sleep. The lights were dim but I knew where I was. I was in my own bed, at home. Still in my green dress full of dirt, I crawled out from under the covers. Dumping my dress in the hamper, I pulled on a set of pajamas. I wasn't fully aware if it was day or night but that didn't matter. I ran a brush through my hair and put it a ponytail.

There was noise coming from somewhere in the house. I grabbed the bat I kept behind my door and crept towards the living room. There were lights on in the kitchen. And noise, like someone was cooking.I assumed it wasn't dad. He rarely cooked unless I asked him too. I peaked around the corner. Nolan was in my kitchen cooking.

"What are you doing here?" I said, shocked, stepping into the doorway, bat in hand.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." He said pushing bacon around a frying pan. He sounded censer, but I was skeptical.

"How did you know where I live?" I asked, deeply inhaling the smell of the bacon, one of my favorites. My stomach was empty and unhappy. "Are you spying on me?"

"Avery there is some things you need to know." Nolan moved the bacon to a plate and headed for the dining table. I noticed a stack of waffles already on the table. "Avery?" Nolan was watching me, almost studying me.

"Nothing, it's just something my mom used to do.." I leaned the bat against the wall and sat down. It was like I was a kid again. Having had a bad day in kindergarten, I came home and told my mom. I was so upset that she made me waffles and said they could cure any bad day. To this day, I still made waffles when things weren't going well.

"She used to make you waffles when you had a bad day?" He said sitting across from me. "Cammy did the same thing for me." It had been a long time since anyone had said my mom's name. It was odd, it almost didn't sound right.

"Who are you?" I asked grabbing a piece of bacon and nibbling on it.

"My name is Nolan Lindsey. I am your mother's little brother, your uncle." He said. I nearly choked on the bacon. He waited patiently through my coughing fit. I grabbed the glass of milk and drank.

"My mom had a brother?" I asked. Dad told me that mom didn't have any family. The whole idea was just ridiculous. That meant someone had lied to me. I didn't like that.

"Yes" Nolan said. "Avery there is a lot of things that you don't know. Things that will impact your life in ways that you can't even imagine."

"It really can't be worse than it is." I mumbled taking a sip of milk. "People already hate me and want me dead. I've only been here a month."

"Who's trying to kill you?" Nolan asked.

"I shouldn't say trying, he already did once." I said. "Shane did. The guy that agent what-his-face was asking about. Why did he kidnap me? Why did they have you?"

"How is that even possible?" He asked, ignoring my questions. "You look very much alive to me."

"A few years ago he drowned me in a lake. Doctors saved me and brought me back." I hated reliving that memory but it seemed to come up a lot lately.

There was a sudden shift in his mood. Something that had gone terribly wrong. Nolan turned a shade of white that didn't look healthy. Guilt radiated off of his, seeping into the air around us. "I don't think it was the doctors" He mumbled to himself, then spoke louder. "Avery you need to know something about Shane and why he did what he did."

"I know what he is and he told me why he did it." I said. "I probably know more than you think."

"You know about what we are?"

"What we are? No, but I know about everything else. The vampires and werewolves that hate each other apparently. The witches who fall who knows where. Oh, and the scythians that want to ruin everyone's day."

"There are a few you are missing." Nolan said biting into his waffles. "There are guardians, nephalems, and of course, the gods."

"Gods?" I asked. "Like Nyx?"

"You know who Nyxus is?"

"I sort of died the other night, I guess, and meet her in a place called.." I scrambled to remember what she had called it. Something lands? "Shadowlands I think"

"Never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it's not real." He was quiet as he pondered that.

"So what are we?" I asked, waiting patiently.

"You and I are Nemphalems, nemphs for short. I'll explain it the way your mom explained it to me. Guardians have a protective mode where all of their senses and abilities are heightened. They are stronger than the werewolves and vampires. However, their protective mode only turns on when there is someone to protect. If they are by themselves, they are out of luck."

"They can't protect themselves?" I asked, stuffing bites of waffle in my mouth.

"No" Nolan continued. "Scythians have those abilities all the time because they gave into the 'demon' as they call it. Both species are one in the same. They are a child breed between a god and a demon, only one side can win. Then there is a very, very rare species that is what we like to call the best of both sides."

"So I'm a scythian too?" I asked.

"Sort of, in terms of having their abilities. Our bloodline is directly descended from Nyxus. The battle between good and bad has already been won for us. We are all good at heart. Though we are often confused for scythians because when we tap into those abilities we gain their physical characteristics."

"Cold skin and silver eyes?"

"Mhmm, which can be concealed with practice."

"So what about the different colors I see?" I asked, looking down towards the light in the middle of his chest. He followed my gaze and pointed directly at it.

"This is a starburst. It is how we tell the species apart at a glance. Guardians and Scythians have the same ability. Werewolves are green, witches are red, vampires are blue, guardians are white, and scythians are black. Humans don't have one, because well they're human. We also have a white one, but it does turn black when we access our scythian abilities."

"What about the other colors?" I asked, watching the bigger circle whisp around him.

"What other colors?" He glances around, but not have seen anything.

"All around you" I waved a hand through the air. "There are different colors. There is some pink and blue and orange, all mixed together."

"Hmm…" he thought about it for a moment. "Let's try something. I want you to focus on those colors and let me know if they change." I watched as they swirled a little and flashed red. It was so unexpected I jumped a little. "Did it change?"

I nodded. "There was a big flash of red." I felt a bit crazy talking about this. Was it possible that I was still dreaming? Either way I was getting answers, real or not.

"That is wonderful" He clasped his hands together. "You are an empath!"

"A what?" I asked dumbfound, a feeling I had a lot lately.

"An empath can see emotions, auras as they are called. Just now you saw red when I thought of something that angers me. Many guardians, scythians, and nemphalems have a special ability that sets us aside from the rest. I am a melder. I can enter the mind of an animal and control them.

"Seriously? That is so cool!" I said. Nolan smiled and closed his eyes. A few seconds later I heard Dakotas nails scratch across the kitchen floors and she walk over to me. I patted her on the head, noticing her pale green eyes. That wasn't right, she had brown eyes. Dakota blink and her eyes changed colors.

"See? The only part that gives me away is the eyes." Nolan said.

"That was awesome" I said. Then someone knock on the patio door. I jumped in my seat. I felt, oh heck I didn't know what I was feeling anymore. My emotions were fried for the night. Something inside me told me that I didn't need to be scared, but that was a similar feeling I got when it came to Shane.