Ch. 90: Soul Eaters

CHAPTER NINETY:
Kyle~
This morning, I had thought that the hardest thing about today would be how Rachel would take the news about magic and all things supernatural. Fae Goddess above, was I wrong.
“Can you check again?” Ally asked from the bench next to me where she held Rachel up.
It had been about ten minutes since ‘the big bad wolves’ left us. Ally’s mom was now with us, waiting for any progress. I couldn’t quite describe the state she was in, but I could feel in my bones how dangerous it would be to try to pull her out of wherever she was.
“Sure,” I said, lifting my hand to reach for hers.
I let some of my magic flow to her, testing the connection, and then I tried pulling it (and more) back into me. This time was different.
“I think it’s time,” I said aloud, focusing on slowly taking away these layers of unconsciousness.
One by one they came undone and I felt her starting to wake. Before going all the way I stopped, giving her time to get out of the last one on her own.
Her eyes fluttered and she woke up leaning against Ally, her eyes squinting.
“What- where…” She looked around at Ally, her mom, and me.
“Hey lady,” Ally said warmly. “Do you remember what happened?”
“Lord, where do I start?” she chuckled. “Uh, you guys told me magic stuff, Sean walked me home, and then something jabbed my arm out of nowhere. Oh and don’t get me started on my dream about angels…”
Ally’s mom looked at me in confusion but I just shrugged. That’s weird.
“Honey, you were attacked, but Ally, Kyle, Jake, Nick and Evan saved you. Vance was trying to put you in the trunk of a car,” Ally’s mom said, crouching down to be eye level with Rachel.
I really valued Ally’s mom’s ability to be upfront with people, to have hard conversations. She didn’t believe in protecting people from things they should deal with. I knew she would be having that kind of conversation with me soon…
“Vance?” she asked. “And wait - who?”
“Yeah. But you really don’t need to worry about him anymore…” I said, rolling my shoulders.
“Uh - yeah. Jake and the guys, they - well…” Ally started.
“-Killed him,” Ally’s mom finished for her.
“Holy- are you for real?” Rachel said looking at the three of us, totally stunned.
“Yeah, we’ll leave you blissfully ignorant of his gory demise,” I added, standing up and brushing off the dirt from the back of my pants.
I looked up to see displeasure on Ally’s face. “What?” I asked, and she just rolled her eyes.

We took some time getting Rachel up to speed and making sure she was mostly okay. It became clear that she had somehow re-forgotten all about Jake. Rather than push it at this moment, we let it go, the three of us giving each other meaningful looks that silently said ‘we need to look into this later.’ I also really needed to know how the hel Sean got here - how had he walked her home? It didn’t make sense.
I went down to the car while Ally and her mom walked Rachel to her door. Leaning against the door, I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths.
One thing at a time, Kyle.
I could nearly hear my grandma telling me, ‘When you’re feeling crazy, breathe. And then pick something you can do something about. One thing at a time. No one can do it all, all at once.’
My heart ached for her, and for a moment I felt like I could see her. See her in the kitchen, working on one thing another. But the kitchen was where-
No. Stop. I shook my head and took some new breaths. I couldn’t get lost in myself right now, we couldn’t afford it.
While I waited for them to come down, my phone rang. I looked down to see Olivia’s number. I let out a forceful breath and answered.
“Hey Kylie,” she said. Kylie, only she could get away with that nickname.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked, not wanting her to ask me how I was doing.
“Listen, I got some disturbing news from my cousin. Are you able to talk?” she began, her tone drenched in worry.
“Yes - what is it?” I asked, grabbing on the car for support.
“The investigation squadron - they weren’t sure at first but it’s now been confirmed. Those poor werewolves, they were killed by demons. And not just any demons - these things, these ‘Anima edundts’, ‘Soul Eaters.’ They were thought to all have gone extinct in the Dark Ages. The fae council is meeting in the next week to discuss the implications of this. I’m not sure how involved they’re planning to get with the local covens, but you need to be careful. I know you’re nearly a grown Fae but your grandma would want me to caution you. I want to tell you to stay the hel away from this. I want to. Just know I’m here. There’s always a place for you here,” she added, like she hadn’t just dropped the biggest bomb of this already insane day.
I swallowed, spotting Ally walking my way. “Thanks Olivia. For everything.”
After a second more of heavy silence between us she said, “May the gods bless you boy. Go with our goddess in your heart.”
The most sincere goodbye our kind could say. It punctuated again how intense this information was.
Ally stopped dead in her tracks looking at my face. “What is it?”
“We have a problem,” I said.
“Another one?” Ally’s mom asked, keys in her hand.
“Yeah, it’s so, so much worse,” I said, pulling at the hair on my head like the feeling would help me focus. Son of a -

Ally~
Kyle got us up to speed and the whole thing made me want to vomit. My hand reached out in the car as my mom drove us all home, and I realized I was unconsciously feeling for Nick. Nick.
I need to tell him. I sent a text to Evan as we pulled into our driveway, asking for Nick to call me when he could. It didn’t surprise me that my phone started ringing not a minute later. I’d never had a reason to have his number before. Nick. My mate.
Oh my - with everything going on, I hadn’t even been able to tell my mom.
I answered the call while stepping out of the car, and knew I was grinning like an idiot already and he hadn’t even said anything.
“Ally - are you okay?” he asked, a panic rising.
“I’m okay,” I said, reassuring him. My mom glanced at me and I looked away. I knew it was too late, my cheeks must be blazing. And all because I heard him say my name.
“Oh snap, I’ve got to fill you in on some STUFF,” Kyle said following my mom up the stairs.
“I have some really concerning news from Kyle’s fae contacts,” I went straight for it before I got distracted by the need to run to him. No matter that he was likely a city or more away.
I shared the information Kyle had given us.
“Thank you for letting me know - that’s just… Ally, I know this goes without saying, but whatever you’re going to do from here on out, please be careful. I know I have my pack here, and my responsibilities, but I will drop it all if you need me, okay? I know you well enough to know you’re not going to stay out of this. But please get me if you’re planning on doing anything. I’ll be there to protect you. Always,” he said in a low tone.
As if my pulse could handle any more.
“Promise me you’ll be careful, and that you’ll loop me in. Please,” he pleaded to my silence.
“Only if you do the same,” I said back. No way am I letting him run toward this kind of danger without me.
“That sounds fair, but my wolf is really unhappy at that. We don’t want you in any danger…” he said, thinking aloud.
“We’re in this together Nick, you’re not sidelining me. I couldn’t handle that,” I spoke honestly.
“Okay,” he breathed. “We promise.”
“Pinky promise?” I asked.
“Pinky promise,” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Me too,” I agreed. Then after a moment I felt the need to tell him more about what I knew. “Nick? I have some other things to loop you on in that case…”
I then went on to tell him about what I had fully seen in my visions of Jake’s parents. Both the time in the cave, and the burning cabin. I told him about Vance being a Succubus, and Rachel’s story of what had happened between the two of them.
“Well,” Nick sighed. I could picture him running his hand through hair, not even knowing where to start.
“Oh-” I needed to add something I hadn’t even done a thing about yet. “One of Rachel’s friends at Pacific… She's a black magic witch. I saw her in a vision with that Callum guy I was telling you about.”
“Well I feel like I’m two minutes away from Jake killing someone else with his bare hands…” he said, making me wince. Jake had done that with his hands?
“And I’ve been meaning to ask - have there been any attacks by black magic witches at big houses - packhouses- near the coast? In a vision I saw her and some other women attacking a packhouse by the coast, I could nearly see the water…” I thought hard trying to remember any other details.
“We did have an attack at a nearby pack - can you describe the packhouse? Or anything in particular you saw?” he asked.
“It was night, the attackers used fire for the most part… Uh - oh, wait. There was a flag of some kind, way up on top of this tower or something, way at the top of the house,” I said, still looking back trying to remember anything else.
“Flag on a tower? That… that sounds like our packhouse, Ally.”