Becoming a Legend

  His hand calmed her a bit, but she still felt the panic out there. Someone was in trouble and needed help, but Arianna couldn’t tell if it were friend or foe with her new power. All she could tell was that there was pain and sorrow, and it came in waves.

  “Where’s Gabriel?” Arianna asked, looking past Andrew to the doorway. Could Gabriel be in trouble? The terror came back to her. It wasn’t her dream. It was real. She had felt something. In the doorway was a shadow, but the emotion wasn’t from him.

  “He’s still chasing Lucan,” Devin replied, remaining in the doorway. His eyes only stayed a second longer than normal on her hands wrapped in Andrew’s. His emotions, as always, stayed in check.

  Arianna looked back to Andrew and realized he was still in his baku form. He wasn’t letting his guard down. Was there danger? Arianna wanted to look around the room and then the house, but Andrew’s touch distracted her.

  “Gabriel has him cornered at the docks,” Andrew added. Devin entered the room and looked toward Andrew in a silent exchange. Somehow, during her nap, they seemed to have gotten on the same side. Arianna could remember only vague parts of their talk while she slept. The blush creeping into her cheeks from Andrew’s last words disappeared instantly as another wave of terror swept over her.

  “What’s wrong?” Devin asked. He didn’t need to be a baku to read her face. Something wasn’t right. Devin moved closer but didn’t touch her. He left her in Andrew’s arms for comfort.

  “I don’t know. I just feel as though something bad has happened.” Arianna paused and closed her eyes. Andrew let go of her hand to let her concentrate. She could sense Gabriel in the north. “Gabriel is that direction.” Arianna pointed northeast. He was fine. Nothing bad was going on. He wasn’t even out of breath. He was silently stalking his prey, actually seeming to be enjoying his hunt a bit.

  “And Lucan is slightly more north,” Andrew added. “They haven’t met up yet.”

  “Yet?” Arianna asked. She searched and found Lucan. He was also still fine. Nothing of terror from him, just a cold, calculating man hoping to outwit the older baku. He was busy forming a new plan, but even he didn’t have any hope behind it.

  “After the power bravado display, Lucan left and has been running all night from Gabriel. He’s now trapped, and it won’t be too much longer before Gabriel will find him. My uncle may be good at that game, but Gabriel is the leader for a reason.” Andrew seemed indifferent to the outcome of the night. Arianna looked over at him. He truly didn’t care about anything for the moment beyond Arianna. Devin had nothing to worry about with Andrew. He would be just as devoted as each of her other keepers, maybe even more so.

  “What direction is the bad feeling?” Devin asked, stepping closer, but keeping a bit of a distance from Andrew. His hand was loosely placed over the dagger in his belt, but Arianna knew that expression. Camaraderie and all, Devin was still not comfortable with a completely changed baku. Arianna thought to ask Andrew to change back to his day human, but it wasn’t that easy when you felt threatened. Andrew was in full protection mode.

  “South,” Arianna replied. Andrew closed his eyes and scanned the area. He shook his head no to Devin. Andrew couldn’t feel the same feeling of dread Arianna felt.

  “Maybe it was just in your dream,” Devin suggested, relaxing only a bit.

  Arianna shook her head no as well. “I know what I felt. It’s only faint now, but it’s still there.” Arianna reached over to Andrew and took his hand. She ignored the zings that shot through her arm at the touch of his skin. Andrew closed his eyes again and used her sight to scan to the south.

  Andrew felt the wave of panic hit. Someone was in trouble and terrified. Someone else was in great pain and maybe even dying. Voices crowded the background and their words jumbled together. They needed help, whoever they were.

  When Andrew opened his eyes, he turned back into his day human form and looked straight at Devin. The threat wasn’t at their place, but farther south. Arianna was safe, though someone else was not. “She’s right. There’s someone calling for help in that direction. It’s a night human in pain. I don’t know the voice, but it’s secondhand through Ari, so I’m not sure I’d recognize anyone that way.”

  “We will send someone to check it out,” Devin said as Molina entered behind him. Molina nodded and began talking into her microphone to Mori.

  “No,” Arianna replied, standing up. “I have to go. This is my home. If someone here is hurt, it’s my obligation to help them.” The night humans were her responsibility, and if she chose to ignore their calls, she wouldn’t be the leader she wanted to be.

  “No,” Devin answered back. “It’s not safe for you to be outside while Lucan is still loose.” Devin was firm in his opinion, but Arianna didn’t budge.

  “It doesn’t matter. Someone is hurt. I don’t know why, but I feel like it’s someone I know. I have to go,” Arianna added, moving forward and changing to her night human form. At that rate, Devin wouldn’t be able to stop her. She was too fast for day humans, and most night humans, to keep up with. Devin huffed and tried to find a response. Arianna wasn’t taking orders this time.

  Devin reached down and pinned a tracker on the belt of her dress. She moved too fast to keep accurate track of sometimes, and they needed to be able to follow as quick as they could. Devin reached up and touched her cheek with a sigh. He regretted that he couldn’t stop her.

  “I’ll be fine,” Arianna replied to Devin. Devin wanted more of a reassurance than her word, but that would have to do.

  “No matter who they might be, do not leave the Grace property,” Devin begged.

  “I’ll be right beside her,” Andrew reassured Devin. “And Thomas can keep up in the air.” Thomas nodded from the hallway. “We’ll keep her safe.” Andrew’s promise sounded more like a threat as they disappeared from the house in the direction of the cry for help.

  Wind whipped through Arianna’s hair as she ran, but she wasn’t afraid. Andrew kept up, right beside her. Easily she followed the voice resonating in her head. The call wasn’t far from the house after all, and nowhere near the edge of the Grace lands. It was safe ground, but whoever was calling was not safe. Arianna slowed down as she neared the cry for help. She immediately recognized the voice as that of her cousin Patrick, Gabriel’s son. He was nearby somewhere. She scanned the area for him and instantly found him. He was on the ground covered in blood. Arianna heard his pleas to his father screaming in her mind now that she was so near him.

  ‘Dad, you have to come quick. Ken is dying,’ Patrick called out. Gabriel didn’t respond.

  “Patrick,” Arianna approached carefully with Andrew right behind her. Thomas swooped down and stood to her other side. Patrick was concentrating so hard on trying to reach his father that he didn’t notice her approach. “Patrick,” she said again, a bit louder, but still trying not to startle the man. She wasn’t sure that he would recognize her. The gore on him was a mixture of blood from several people, and he was covered in it. “Are you alright?”

  Patrick finally looked up. Relief lit up his face at the sight of her. He tried to stand, but the moaning body he was holding kept him on the ground.

  “You’re covered in blood,” she said. “Yours?”

  “It’s mostly Ken’s,” Patrick indicated to the pile of clothes and blood in his hands. “We were attacked by outsider night humans not from around here. They were working together, though neither of them spoke. It was an ambush. I don’t have enough blood in me to help him. Please, save Ken.”

  Andrew reached down and took the limp body from Patrick’s arms. He meant to examine the tengu, but wasn’t sure where to start in the mess of blood and torn clothes. He gingerly turned the body over to find the source of the fresh blood that was still coming out. Startled, he turned back to Patrick.

  “Where are his wings?” Andrew asked.

  ‘Wings?’ Arianna looked at Ken, unsure if she ever could tell that he was really a tengu.

  ‘Thi
s is Patrick’s tengu,’ Andrew replied, carefully turning over the bloodied man. Thomas gasped at the long cuts down the man’s back where his wings should have been. Thomas knew personally what it meant to lose your wings, death.

  ‘Will a drop of blood be enough to heal this?’ Arianna looked at the men with her for an answer. Ken wasn’t dead yet, but even so, he wouldn’t live to see the next day with the blood slowly seeping out of him. Arianna felt that the life within him was growing fainter. She recognized the feeling as the terror she felt earlier.

  “You can’t heal a tengu once they have lost their wings,” Thomas said quietly.

  Patrick despaired over his dying friend. Andrew held onto Ken’s body, checking him over for other wounds. He had a few scratches that were minor but bleeding. The only major problem was the wings.

  “Ari, can you give him a drop of blood?” Andrew asked. Arianna was hopeful that meant Andrew thought he could be healed. “It won’t keep him from dying, but it will give him a few more minutes. We need to know more about what happened.” Andrew nodded to Patrick, who was visibly lost. Arianna heard Patrick’s plea to his father, who wouldn’t be responding until he caught Lucan. Patrick was no longer listening to them while he called for help. Arianna pricked her finger and dropped a drop of blood into Ken’s mouth. Wounds across his body started to pull together. Andrew pushed Ken’s bloody and sweat-drenched hair out of his face.

  “See, my blood heals,” Arianna replied hopefully.

  “You can heal wounds, but this is much more,” Thomas replied, looking down at the broken man. The worst fate for a tengu was to lose their wings. It was a painful and agonizing death. “The wings of a tengu make them a night human, just as the fur Turner grows. It contains the essence of what we are in one vulnerable spot. Without them, we cease to exist.”

  “Ken,” Andrew asked quietly, not wanting to jar the pained man from his acceptance of death. “Can you hear us?”

  “Yes,” he responded in a barely audible croak. His raspy voice broke Patrick’s concentration, and he immediately appeared at his friend’s side. Patrick and Ken were childhood friends and partners in the night world since they were children. They had done everything together growing up, from their first school dance to graduating from college. Ken was the brother Patrick always wanted.

  “We need to know who did this,” Andrew replied.

  Molina and Devin approached, finally arriving to the same location. Devin went directly to Arianna’s side while Molina moved to Patrick, checking him over.

  “A girl and a guy,” Ken replied. Patrick nodded and just held his dying friends hand. “They were night human but a different type than us. Something was strange with them. I couldn’t figure it out. I was caught trying to understand them when they attacked.”

  “Do you know what they were?” Devin asked, kneeling beside Andrew and joining the conversation.

  “I don’t understand,” Arianna said, quietly backing up to talk more to Thomas. They stood a few feet away and ignored the details Devin and Andrew were getting from Ken. She couldn’t just stand by and watch Ken die. “He’s almost completely healed from the fight. My blood can do that. I don’t smell any fresh blood on him. He’s healing, yet still dying.”

  “You can heal the superficial wounds, but you can’t heal what makes him a night human once his wings are broken from his body. His night human essence is gone,” Thomas explained to her. Devin and Molina joined Andrew, who was sitting on the ground with Ken. Ken was trying to give as many details as he could in the time he had left. All three intently listened and asked questions while Patrick held onto his friend.

  “But why can’t I just use my blood to glue back on his wings? If my blood can make his skin heal, why not his wings?” Arianna was still confused. The wounds on his body healed. Ken was already getting better. She just needed more blood to finish it up.

  “The wings don’t work the same way. Trust me, many have tried. No one wants to see their loved ones die this way.” Thomas looked down at the man. He was dying a horribly painful death.

  “But he’s alive and talking,” Arianna looked down at the man with yellowing skin. He was alive, but not by much. She could tell he was dying, but she just didn’t want to admit it.

  Devin stood as Ken stopped talking. “Take samples,” he directed Andrew. “We can get them back to Mori to analyze.” He turned to Arianna. “You don’t need to stay around for this. Please take her to the car,” he told Thomas.

  “And Turner?” Thomas asked about the missing companion.

  “He’s out tracking their scent,” Devin explained, turning to Andrew and handing him the supplies from Molina.

  Thomas pulled Arianna towards the car. “I knew the dog would be good for something,” Thomas joked, trying to lighten the mood. Arianna could barely smile and not find a laugh. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the car. Thomas tried his best to shield her from the situation. Arianna was always too kind to be living in the night human world. Looking at her like his little sister, Thomas only wanted to keep that innocence alive as long as he could. As they neared the open door, Arianna stopped.

  “I have to at least try,” she said, shrugging off his arm and running back to the barley-breathing, injured man.

  Andrew stood, handing tubes to Devin from the samples he collected. “It was mostly his blood, but there’s something else mixed in it. Hopefully we got a bit of them so that we can figure this out. It could mean war.”

  “That’s one thing I’m hoping to avoid at all costs. We don’t need any more uninvited visitors around,” Devin replied, taking the samples and placing them in the open bag Molina was holding.

  “I want to help,” Arianna said from behind the two men, catching their attention as she kneeled at Ken’s side. “Let me try. You’ve said so yourself. My blood is different. I’m different. Please let me try.” Devin wanted to protest, but he saw the desperation in her eyes. Ken was past the ability to reject her offer, barely staying awake through the pain. “If it’s my job to heal everyone and protect them, I have to try,” she reasserted, growing in confidence.

  “It will take more than a drop to heal this,” Devin said. Arianna was not deterred. Devin nodded. It wasn’t worth fighting about. He pulled a second blade out of his belt and handed it to her.

  “What do I do?” she asked, looking from the blade to Ken. She didn’t really think Devin would let her try. Now that she was getting her way, she didn’t know what exactly to do.

  “A cut across your palms will bleed enough to use,” Devin replied.

  Thomas returned with the wings. Patrick stood and desperately moved to the head of his friend. Andrew rolled Ken over, exposing the gaping holes in his back where his wings should have been attached. Thomas shuddered slightly at the sight, even though his wings were tucked back already and not near any harm. Arianna kneeled near Ken and looked at the knife. Thomas placed the wings down onto the hole, and Ken flinched at the pain.

  “Hold him still,” Andrew ordered Patrick. Patrick grasped his friend’s shoulders and pinned him to the ground. Arianna still stared at the wounded wings, unsure if she could actually cut herself. Andrew looked up to Devin, and he nodded. They were back into their own silent conversation and only using gestures.

  “This is her choice,” Devin replied. He didn’t want her to try and be disappointed when it failed. Thomas was right. Others had tried and failed many times. Arianna was only setting herself up for disappointment.

  “Ari,” Andrew said softly. “You need to do it now, or let him die in peace.” Arianna nodded. Andrew was only stating what she already knew.

  “I want to, but,” she held up the knife. The thought of actually cutting herself scared her. A prick of the finger was fine, but a cut was scary. “Can you?” She held the knife out to Andrew and her palm up.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. ‘You trust me?’ he added in his mind.

  ‘Completely,’ Arianna replied.


  Andrew took the knife and sliced down the palm of her hand. Arianna didn’t think about the momentary pain as she pressed her bleeding hand onto the back of the injured tengu. Ken screamed in pain as her blood made contact. Arianna held her hand there as she felt the wound pull at the blood within her. She closed her eyes and concentrated, needing to feel the pull of the skin together and the wings mending. Arianna started to weaken. She didn’t have enough strength to fix the broken wings. Andrew reached over and placed his hands on hers. She felt a knick on his finger, connecting his blood to her. The warmth of his strength filtered through her. After minutes of pressing that seemed like hours, Thomas let out an audible gasp. Arianna opened her eyes and saw a slight twitch in the wings.

  “This isn’t possible,” he said to no one in particular.

  “She’s not possible,” Devin reminded him.

  FOURTEEN

  Arianna woke in her bed at the Randolph manor. Devin was sitting beside her, reading as usual. He continued to read when he didn’t hear her wake. His normally short blond hair was starting to curl around his ears and at the base of his neck. Taking care of himself never seemed too high on his list of things to do. There was even a bit of fuzz on his face. Arianna wanted to reach over and run her hands through his hair, but didn’t want to disturb his reading.

  Arianna had technically taken over for her grandfather after he was murdered last year, although Devin was really the one running the Randolph estate. Arianna tried to help, but he really took care of everything for her. He looked after day-to-day business, and had a never-ending pile of papers from the lords. On the side, he was also intent on watching over Arianna, so he in reality he never had a moment’s rest. He read a little bit more before talking.

  “How long this time?” she asked, finally breaking the silence. Devin reached over and cupped her face in his hands. He looked into her eyes and stared until he was satisfied.

  “You were out for two days at your aunt’s place before we came here last night.” Devin set down the papers. “Do you feel like anything is off? You used up almost all of your energy healing Ken.”