14

Time moved on, and before we knew it, summer had finally come. After school let out, I ended up spending most of my time hanging out with Raziel and Anna, and at Jameson and the cemetery.

Those two places had become like second homes to me when I couldn't be with the others. The cemetery was more of a place that I went to in the evenings though. Along with exploring the historic headstones, I had taken up the hobby of stone rubbing, and there was plenty of old and unique stones there for it. Some of them in the older section even dated back to the Revolutionary War.

I had also begun tending to Noel's somewhat neglected grave while I was there. I was drawn to her mystery, even if I couldn't get myself to ask Michael about who she had been. She was my age when she had died, and maybe had never gotten her wings. As odd as it sounds, I kept thinking that I could start living a full life for her and it could honor her forgotten memory.

As for going to Jameson, that was for obvious reasons. I wanted to keep seeing Sean. With school out for the summer, he was working there with his mother. Since it didn't sit too well with me that I wouldn't be able to see him that much during the day, I began stopping by there and helping out whenever I could.

It wasn't like I didn't see him when I couldn't go by there though. By now, he'd also picked up the habit of visiting me in the middle of the night.

Like that first night that he'd shown up, he'd come to my window so I could let him in. Thankfully, he brought clothes with him, so the situation didn't feel as awkward as the first time. I looked forward to his visits, and most of the time, we'd sit and talk for hours.

But after falling asleep beside him, I'd always find him gone in the mornings without leaving any sign that he'd been there. That was a good thing too. Hopefully, my father would never know that he was there. Things just seemed less complicated that way.

Needless to say, it was easy for me to deepen my friendship with Sean during my time at night and at Jameson with him, and with my being there so often, I'd gotten the chance to get to know Sara too.

I don't think that I'd realized a lot of things about her when I'd first met her. For one, her age. While I'd heard Michael mention it in passing, it hadn't dawned on me until now that Sara was only thirty years old. When I did the math, the startling reality hit me that she'd had Sean when she was fourteen.

It was hard for me to wrap my mind around that one when she confirmed it. At fourteen, I was just beginning to understand a lot of things about my female body, and having a baby was the last thing I would've thought about. For her to fall in love with this spirit fox that would be Sean's father and have a child with him amazed me.

Sara was a small woman but strong willed woman. Like me, she wasn't very tall, maybe only around 5'1'. Sean inherited his green eyes and black hair from her. She had very long, beautiful hair that was the color of the darkest night, just like Sean. I imagined that she must have been gorgeous as a teen because she was still so pretty now.

Yet she really didn't speak that much about her past when it was brought up. I spoke to her a lot whenever I was at Jameson, and although she liked talking to me, she wouldn't say much about her past when I asked her. I was curious about how she'd met Sean's father and ended up having a child with him, along with what he'd been like. While Sara would concede at times and tell me that he was a strong and charming fox, she'd usually just leave it at that. It quickly became obvious that it still hurt her to talk about him because of how he'd died, and I respected that and wouldn't push the subject.

But I wasn't completely out of luck in learning more about him. Sean was willing to tell me about him one afternoon when the two of us were having lunch together.

According to Sean, his father's name had been Sage. Apparently, he'd been one of the most powerful foxes from the other side of the Veil. He was a nine tail, which meant that he was over nine thousand years old. He was also silver in color, having silver hair along with silver ears and tails in a more human form.

Sean claimed that this coloring had also made him a little more unusual among the foxes, considering that almost all of them only gained that once they reached the nine-thousand-year mark, which was apparently a huge achievement for them. Sage was an exception. He'd been born with that coloring.

"Is that supposed to be considered a sign of his greatness?" I'd wondered.

Sean smiled, "Always been my opinion."

I was reflecting on that conversation as I walked the trails in the woods near Madison that afternoon, along with the sad reality of how Sage had died. From what Sean told me, Sage had made many enemies in his thousands of years of life because of the things he'd get into. It seemed that foxes had bad habits of taking things that they thought they liked, and also of manipulating trouble between others. Sage was a master at both of these things, and often did them for fun or out of boredom. He'd always prided himself on being one step ahead, so he never worried about being caught.

But he'd crossed the wrong creature in his younger years, and his deeds came back to haunt him. While Sean wouldn't tell me a lot about this creature, including exactly what he was, he did say that he was now one of the most powerful in the realms on the other side, and when he figured out that it was Sage that had crossed him, he'd put a mark on his head. It had taken thousands of years, but this creature was eventually able to track him down, and to save his family from almost certain death by its hand, Sage had offered himself to be killed.

Now I understood why Sara didn't like talking a lot about Sage or what had happened to him. I couldn't imagine what that must have been like for her, knowing that the one she loved so dearly had died protecting her and their son.

Sara was a very kind person at heart, and she had admitted to me that Sage was everything to her, just like Sean. He had saved her, had loved her no matter what. Maybe the union between a fox and a human was strange, even unheard of, but it didn't matter to them. They'd been happy together, and those fifteen years had been perfect for them. It was a time that Sara swore she'd never allow herself to forget.

I stopped and listened to the birds sing as I thought about that. When it comes to the heart, I truly believe that nothing else matters but the love it feels. I could say that for the time I'd had with Zane, and now looking at the strange truth with my family and Sean's. Even though we were all so different, love remained the same.

It made me seriously consider how much of this unseen world intersected with the mortal one. Maybe there was a lot more to life than any of us had ever imagined.

It was a beautiful mid-summer afternoon, and I'd ended up out there because I couldn't see sitting inside. The heat wave had subsided, and the day wasn't as staggering as the last few had been.

I'd driven around for a while before coming to these trails and deciding that they were the perfect place to do some sketching. I'd been there before with Raziel, and I thought that I knew them pretty well. Normally, I would've been out there with him, but I hadn't been able to reach him that morning. I didn't see any harm in being alone though. Like I said, I knew these trails, and Madison had always been a safe place.

I smiled as I listening to the birds singing and saw the sunlight streaming down through the leaves of the high trees. This was beautiful. Even though my back was hurting a little, I didn't pay that much attention to it as I took in the tranquility of the nature around me. I had woken up with that slight back pain that morning, but didn't see anything different when I checked myself in my bathroom mirror.

I wondered if this was the beginning of me getting my wings, although I wasn't that worried. After all, once that happened, I'd be stuck inside until I learned how to control and hide them. It wasn't like it was coming right away either. May as well get out while I could.

I was so caught up in looking at the scenery that I didn't pay attention to how far I was walking. But all of a sudden, the realization dawned on me that I didn't recognize where I was. I stopped, taking a good look around me, and my eyes caught sight of something sticking out of the hill on my left side. They looked like stone stairs leading up it.

That's odd, I thought as I walked over to take a closer look.

The stairs looked very old, and parts of them were cracked from the vegetation growing through them. I pulled out my phone from my bag to see if maybe I could use it to find my location, but to my dismay, there was no signal there.

"Damn it," I muttered, shoving it into my pocket.

I thought about going back and trying to retrace my steps. I could probably figure out how to get back to my car if I did that.

But looking at the stairs, I reasoned that maybe I wouldn't have to. Maybe these stairs were part of this trail and led to another trail that I hadn't seen before. So, again being the stupid kid that I was, I decided to climb them and see what I could find.

The stairway was tall and narrow. I counted around fifty steps before I finally reached the top. As I'd suspected, there was another old trail up there, which I chose to follow.

As I walked, I started seeing some old bricks and other debris near the path. That was curious. I'd never seen anything like that on these trails before.

It wasn't until I came to a small stone structure sitting several feet to the right side of the trail that I realized something was up. It looked like a small, old building of some kind. I went over to take a closer look and saw that most of it was collapsed, but there was some of what might have been a cellar that sat open like a hole in the ground.

I felt a chill go through me as I peered into the darkness of that hole, taking a few steps back as I shivered and looking around me. The woods were very quiet now, and there was an eerie feeling hanging in the air like a fog.

Moving to the standing side of the building to see what I could find there, I peered into the grimy broken window, but there was nothing I could see that would tell me what it may have once been. Everything inside only looked like rubble.

I backed away and looked at the nearby trail, debating on what I should do.

Okay, I reasoned, maybe I should keep walking and see if this leads me to the road. Then I might get a signal and figure out how to get back.

With my mind made up, I continued to follow the trail away from that broken down place. I unconsciously picked up my pace too, wanting to put some distance between me and the eerie feelings from what I'd just seen.

After several more minutes of walking, I stopped as another strange structure loomed in front of me from the shadows of the surrounding trees. It looked like a giant cross that was mounted on a square stone. I shivered a little as I looked at it. The cross was so weathered from the elements that it looked black.

The sickening feeling dawned on me about where I must've been. This was a part of the ruins of St. Andrews. Raziel had told me more about it just the month before. He'd said that there was supposed to be a hidden trail that led to it, and that a large black cross marked the entrance to the ruins.

I wasn't sure of what I should do. I was hopelessly lost, and on top of that, my phone wasn't working. Not to mention I was now in a place that everyone had warned me very clearly to stay away from. Raphael and Michael had both said that this place was extremely dangerous.

But it wasn't like I had a lot of options here. I needed to find a way out, and I was sure that there had to be a highway somewhere near here, so I decided to continue on and be extra cautious.

I pulled out my phone and kept it in my hand, glancing at it every few minutes to see if I could get a signal. But I was still too far out. Nothing was coming through. I was on my own.

The path beyond the cross that led up to the ruins of St. Andrews was pretty well worn and was not covered with grass and leaves. I didn't have to walk far before I was standing in front of an old, crumbling grey building. I admit that I felt a little intrigued as I took it in.

The place sat like a grey ghost, to put it in a poetic sense. Cracked and broken windows lined the first and second floors, and a set of old oak double doors led inside. I could feel curiosity getting the better of me. What was left inside of there?

I glanced at my watch and saw that there was plenty of daylight left. It was only three in the afternoon. I could look around just a little bit. All I had to do was keep being extra careful.

It took me a bit of effort to pry one of the double door open enough to slip inside. I was rewarded with an open foyer that was very dank and smelled strongly of must and mold. The floors were littered with debris, and there were large holes in the walls that didn't look like they'd come from the building aging. They looked like someone or something very strong had punched through the walls.

I gathered my courage and walked as quietly as I could down the hallway that stretched in front of me, being careful about where I stepped for the debris on the floor. Even walking as light as I could, I still could hear my footsteps echo with each step. The walls around me were very moldy and dark looking, and I could see what looked like the remnants of old papers littering the floor in some of the debris.

Stopping to peek into one of the rooms on the left side, I could see old desks in there that were covered in a thick layer of dust. I slipped inside to have a closer look.

I noticed that some of the desks were broken once I was able to get a closer look at them. There was an old chalkboard at the front of the room. It was cracked and stained, but I could still make out very ugly, almost violent looking writing on it. It was faded and looked like it had been done decades before.

All good girls must listen.

That really creeped me out. Could this have been the crazed nun that the legend talked about?

I suddenly got the distinct feeling that I was being watched. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a dark shape sitting at one of the desks. I spun around, but there was nothing there. I slipped over to the desk that I thought I'd seen it sitting at. It didn't look much different from the others; old and covered in a thick layer of dust.

But looking closer, I could now make out that something had been etched into the wood under that dust. I used the bottom of my shirt to wipe the dust away, and when I saw what it was, I gasped and reeled back. Etched into the wood in dark, dried blood were two words.

Help Me.

That was enough for me. I hurried out of that room, running down the hallway in an attempt to find door to get out. The stories kept racing through my mind as I did. The place seemed to get darker and nastier looking too, like the entire atmosphere was changing right before me.

I finally found a door at the end of the hallway and pulled on it until I managed to get it open and slipped through it, hoping that it led to outside.

But unfortunately for me, it didn't. I realized that I was now in another darkened room. I pulled out my phone as I leaned on the wall, checking the reception again, and I felt my heart start beating harder. I actually had a bar!

The first person I tried to call was Raziel. He knew some stuff about this place, so he might have known how to guide me out. Well, at least he'd claimed that he knew about it. I doubted that he'd ever actually been there. Either way, I was hoping he could help me, or at least get one of our dads there to save me.

"Please pick up." I whispered as I listened to it ring.

Something near me suddenly splashed. I looked ahead of me through the darkness and could see that the dim light seeping through the cracked ceiling illuminated a large, dark pool of water. That water looked dark and nasty.

I kept the phone up to my ear as I walked over and looked at it. How deep was this big hole that the water had pooled in?

My call was finally answered.

"Hey, where are you? I've been trying to reach you for an hour." Raziel complained.

"And you didn't answer your phone all morning!" I snapped back, "Look, I need help. I'm lost."

"Lost? How'd you end up doing that?" Raziel asked, sounding surprised.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be lost, would I?" I huffed, "Anyway, I was walking the trails we took last summer, and I somehow got lost, and I think I'm at St. Andrews."

"Wait a minute. St. Andrews? Are you sure?"

I heard a screeching sound like he'd bolted up and pushed a chair back hard on the wooden floor.

"Yes. St. Andrews. I'm in what looks like an old school, and I passed a big black looking cross when I came up here." I confirmed.

"No, no, no. That's not good at all. You need to get out of there right now!" Raziel declared.

"Raziel?"

I didn't understand why he was suddenly this upset. He'd spoke pretty lightly about this place before.

"Listen to me Mia. St. Andrews is a very, very dangerous place. You need to get out of there as fast as you can." Raziel went on.

But before he could say anymore, I felt something cold clamp tightly around my ankle. I screamed, trying to jump away. My phone fell out of my hand, but I barely noticed. I was staring in horror at the soggy, pale hand that was now clamped around my ankle. I managed to kick it off and get back on my feet to run.

As I squeezed out of the pried open door, I glanced back to see what looked like a girl crawling out of that water towards me. Her long, dark hair was matted and dirty, and her skin was a soggy looking blue in the dim lights. I could see nasty open gashes on her shoulders and in her tattered, dark stained dress.

I was beyond terrified. I raced down that long hallway towards how I'd gotten in. To my horror, I could see other figures coming out of the doorways and reaching through the holes in the walls. The ones reaching through the holes were screaming like they were in terrible pain.

I finally made it to the main double doors and managed to squeeze myself out, making sure not to slow down. But as I ran through the rusted gates, I had to stop to catch my breath.

That was when I heard a loud thud on the ground behind me. I stood very still, too frightened to even breath. The feeling of fear was overwhelming, even more than when Sean had been stalking me after I'd first started living with my father.

"You wish to leave so soon?" a female voice hissed.

A hard shove sent me tumbling to the ground. I managed to turn and look up, my eyes widening in horror as I saw the thing looming in front of me.

It looked like a woman, yet clearly wasn't. She had a very long, narrow face with wide white eyes and sharp, shark like teeth. Both of her arms were folded sickles, like one would see on a praying mantis, and they looked extremely sharp. She was definitely anything but human.

I knew now that this was what Raphael had been trying to warn me about just a month earlier. She was the thing that was stalking St. Andrews.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed as I tried to back away from her. I could feel the sharp rocks on the ground cutting into my hands as I did.

The thing hissed at me, raising one of her sickle arms to strike. I closed my eyes, bracing myself. This was it. She was going to kill me. I should've turned around. I never should've come to this place.

But before the strike could happen, I suddenly heard a loud growl and there was a gust of air in front of me. The thing screeched loudly. I opened my eyes and realized that there was now something very large standing in front of me.

The creature was several feet away, where she'd apparently jumped to. Her one sickle arm was bleeding. Looking at the familiar silver coat of the animal in front of me, I almost couldn't believe it.

"Sean?"

"Get away from her Mantis. I won't let you have this one." I heard him say through his growls.

"Sean?" I repeated.

I was in complete shock. He'd come to rescue me? How in the world had he even found me so quickly?

He glanced back at me, "I told you not to come here. It's a very dangerous place for anyone to be. Run away. I'll keep her away from you until you get out of here." he ordered.

"But what about you?" I asked him.

"I'll be fine. I can handle her. Just get yourself out of here!"

I scrambled to my feet. As I did, I could see the thing coming back towards us. Only then did I realize that she was walking on six legs and had the back end of a huge bug.

"You've escaped me before Fox! You will not this time!" she hissed.

"Run away!" Sean yelled. He bent down and bared his teeth, ready to fight.

I was somehow able to make myself turn and run. I was scared stupid and worried sick for Sean, but I knew that this was my only chance. If I didn't run away, that thing would kill me, and Sean wouldn't have any help coming.

But as I was about to pass the giant cross, figures suddenly appeared straight ahead of me.

Oh God, I thought as I skidded to a stop, almost falling.

It was the same girls that I'd seen in the school building! Torn and nasty looking, they were lurching towards me without making a sound. I looked around frantically, not sure of what to do or where to run. They were surrounding me now.

As I stood there in terror, Sean suddenly jumped in front of me. He growled at the dead girls around us, causing them to back up a few steps.

"You sure know how to call them out, don't you?" he grunted.

"It's not like I wanted to!" I cried.

My back was aching badly now. I fell to my knees and held my shoulders because of it. It felt like my back was getting ready to split open.

"Mia, come on! You have to get out of here! If you can get past that cross, then you'll be out!" Sean insisted, nudging my right shoulder with his nose.

"I can't. It hurts too much!" I cried.

I felt him move back in front of me quickly. That thing was coming back. The girls began screaming and backed up as she landed a few feet in front of us. I managed to look up as Sean stood there, growling a warning at her.

"Guess I have no choice with this." he muttered under his breath.

He then went after her. I didn't realize until then that as a fox, Sean was incredibly fast and fought just like one. He had a lot of strength to him, but that thing was quick too, and was able to dodge him fairly well.

I closed my eyes, praying for us. If Sean died, then I would probably die too. That thing would kill us both.

"Please," I whispered, "someone please help us..."

I suddenly felt a warmth surround me. It was comforting and helped me to keep calm as the pain ripped through my back. Then there was a soft weight there. I felt like I couldn't move, my eyes unable to focus on anything but the feeling of warmth of protection.

After a few seconds, I heard another ripping sound fill the air. Then there was gurgling. My eyes finally focused, and I could barely believe what I saw. Sean was standing over the thing that had been chasing us, and was still clamped down on its bloody throat. But the thing was obviously dead. The ghostly girls that had been around us disappeared too.

Sean finally let go and limped over to me, slowly resting his head in my lap.

"I'd ask if you're okay, but I'm feeling a little bit humbled right now." he admitted.

I let out a sigh. Though my back was aching, I felt some comfort in knowing that he was okay for the most part. He wasn't bleeding too badly, although he did have a large open wound on his left shoulder.

"Are you going to be all right?" I asked him.

"I'll survive. This isn't too terrible." Sean replied. He closed his eyes as I gently stroked his head, "What in the world were you thinking, coming up here like this? I'm certain that if your father knew, he would have warned you to stay away."

I wasn't sure of what to say. My father did know about me knowing of this place, and I'd known better then to continue in there like I had. But I'd done it anyway, and I'd nearly gotten both of us killed.

"I'm so sorry. This was all my fault." I whispered, putting my head down.

"Now, now." Sean comforted me as he gently nuzzling my face, "Everything will be all right. It's all over now and we are safe. Besides, your father is also coming, so he'll help us out of here."

I could now hear what sounded like the flapping of large wings. Looking up through the leaves and branches of the trees, I could see a figure flying down towards us. It was Michael. I wondered how Sean had been able to tell that it was him just by that sound, but I reasoned that perhaps he could smell him on the slight breeze that was blowing. That, or he just knew that my dad was going to come rescue me once he figured out that I was there.

Michael looked shocked to see what he did. I didn't put it together at that time, but the biggest shock for him was seeing my wings out. I'd sprouted them very quickly, probably more quickly than I should have. But my life had been in danger, and in the end, it seemed like my body had sensed and reacted to it.

Michael hurried over to us as he landed.

"Mia, what in the world are you doing out here? I told you that this place was very dangerous!" he said. He should have been scolding me, but it was coming out more as being shocked.

"I'm sorry." I apologized in a whisper, "I didn't mean to come here."

Sean stood up, "She came here by accident. I followed her scent when I came to the trails and noticed that she seemed lost. By the time I was able to catch up to her, the Mantis had already found her. My apologies. I should have been quicker in this." he explained.

"It's all right. You protected her, and that's all that matters. Although this may be a big of a problem." Michael sighed, holding me close and looking at my new wings.

"You didn't come alone. I can't imagine the others would allow it." Sean reasoned, laying down beside us. It seemed like it was hurting him to keep standing.

"No. They're all coming, but it looks like you've been hurt as well." Michael noted as he looked at him.

"I'll survive. Right now, it's better for you to look after Mia." Sean replied.

By then, we could hear the sound of more wings flapping. Raphael and Gabrielle landed near us, and Raziel landed near Sean. As usual, he was more than ready to blame Sean for all of this.

"You just had to tell her about this place, didn't you? You stupid fox." he spat.

"That's enough Raziel. What's done is done. We've already discussed that. Besides, we have enough to deal with at this time." Raphael ordered. He walked over and nudged the dead thing with his foot, "I'm impressed. For a fox, you've proven quite tough against a naturally stronger enemy."

"I had something worth fighting for. But I'm a bit worse for the ware now." Sean admitted.

Gabrielle shook her head, walking over to Michael and me. He'd been helping me to stand.

"What do we do Michael? We can get Mia home, but I don't think it would be a good idea to have Sean transform back out here. In that form, the injury won't be as severe as the human one." she reasoned.

"You're not leaving him here Dad." I spoke up.

I wasn't about to let that one happen, and I knew that Michael would listen to me. If anyone could talk him into just about anything, it would be me.

Michael thought it over, "We can't just leave him." he agreed. He sounded a little put out, although he'd probably never admit it out loud. He looked back at my uncle, "Raphael, do you think that you could find a way to get him back without him being seen?"

"I believe I can, but it's going to take us a bit longer. It may be better if you got Mia home first." Raphael answered.

"All right then. Come on Mia. We need to get you out of here and see that your back is taken care of." Michael told me.

I looked up at him as we began walking.

"He will help Sean, right?" I confirmed.

"Of course." Michael assured me, "We can't very well leave him like that, especially when he saved your life. But right now, we need to get you home and take care of you. You've been through a lot of trauma."

I sighed in defeat, forcing myself to drop the subject. I kept feeling like this was all my fault. If I hadn't been so curious, then Sean wouldn't have been hurt.

That was all that I could think as I was led back to a secluded place where my father had parked his car, and getting in there, I didn't think that I'd ever felt so miserable in my life.