THIRTY-FOUR | FRACTURED

"Now, where were we?" Craven steps over Hale's lifeless body to reach me. I feel helpless, cold. I know I should move, try to fight, but my eyes stay frozen on the body of my teacher. My father. *He's dead*. I can't hear his heart beating, there's no sense of presence. Only a void of nothingness around him. *He's dead*. "This could have been avoided, cousin." Craven's cryptic voice is like a slap to the face.

"Why?" I breathe, finally able to look up at my insane cousin. I need to hear him say it. To confirm the theory that's been swirling around my head for the last few weeks. "Why does she want me so badly?" My vision's blurring, tears leaking down my cheeks. *This is all my fault*.

"Grandmother needs your life, dear cousin. Paris will be Alpha once you're dead." Craven sings, leaning down to grab my neck again, his grip oddly light. Tight enough to hold me still, but lax enough that I'm not in danger of blacking out. He's being oddly cooperative by telling me this. I half-expected him to ignore my question or beat me some more. The fact he's telling me this must mean it's been sanctioned. *But why?* "How I wish I could take your life myself." He sighs wistfully and pulls me up with him. I don't have the energy to fight him. "As it stands, Grandmother wants to do the honors of dispatching you herself."

Fear prickles along my spine, making my hands shake violently at my sides. That sounds just like her, almost like the voice of our elder is being spoken directly through Craven's mouth.

"Release her, Craven." A voice suddenly hisses from behind my cousin. I look over to see Hale rising from the ground, eyes burning bright, acidic green. His skin's ash-white, hair darker, darkness webbing out from around his eyes. Craven does as he's told, eyes widening and pure terror clearly written across his face. My cousin scrambles back, just about tripping over his own feet while watching Hale slowly advance.

I take my own staggering step back, mouth agape in horror as I try to comprehend what I'm seeing. Hale was dead. I saw Craven break his neck. There wasn't a heartbeat. No presence. No soul. *What the hell? Are vampires indestructible?*

The shift in his appearance doesn't just end with the coloring of his face and hair. His fingers have elongated into pointed tips, nails like talons, lips dimpled by not two but at least ten jagged teeth - bared - looking like shark's teeth more than vampire fangs. A new sense of dread shudders through me. A primal fear that comes from deep within.

The word *Revenant* pops into my head.

But it can't be. *Hale said - he said*- My head's spinning now, thoughts everywhere as I try to make sense of all this. I don't see the monster that was once my father baring down on my cousin until Craven screams.

The shock of hearing any sound of fear coming from my cousin's mouth grounds me.

Hale-the-Revenant has Craven pinned to the ground, razor-sharp teeth inches from my cousin's exposed throat-

"Wait-!" I scream, unable to stop myself. Hale's head flicks up, glowing eyes meeting mine and locking on my face. *Don't do it. Please don't*. My thoughts don't have the chance to make it past my lips as Hale shoves Craven to the ground, snarling at him.

"Th-this isn't over, cousin." Craven stammers, scrambling up and disappearing before Hale can lunge at him again. There's a beat of stillness, and I look around for my other cousins, trying to assess the damage from their attack. But they're gone. Only Blue, Yuri, Misha, and Cole remain-

Hale draws my attention as staggers back to me, the darkness fading from his skin. All other traces of the terrifying creature I could see him changing into slowly begin to fade. Once he's in front of me, he's back to his normal self, maybe a little tired looking for once, the dark circles remain around his eyes, a bluish tint to his lips.

"Some help is on the way." He taps his head when I give him a questioning look.

"Azure help?" I don't know if I can face Alpha Azure right now. Four of his family members were just brutally attacked. My stomach churns with anxiety just thinking about the shape Misha and Cole were in when I last checked.

"My Coven. The Azures are busy trying to track those cousins of yours." Hale tells me, running a hand over his face tiredly before looking over his shoulder at Yuri, Misha, Cole and Blue. Blue and Yuri are tending to the younger Azures, both bloody, but still moving. I swallow the lump in my throat, watching the younger Wolven as they lay still, breathing - but otherwise still. I fight the urge to go over and try to help tend to them. But I don't have much training in first aid and know my presence isn't going to help anything.

When I look back up, Hale is swaying on his feet, eyes losing focus. I move forward on instinct, but my entire body feels like lead moving through water, and I know I won't make it in time to catch him before he falls.

"Easy there, boss." Suddenly Mikyle is there, wrapping an arm around Hale's waist and pulling one of Hale's arms over his shoulder to support him. "C'mon, princess," He adds to me, moving quickly but slow enough for me to follow in the direction of the Azure's territory.

I look over to where Blue and the others were - only to find I'm alone.

- - -

We're all crammed into the infirmary this time. Doc Blythe, Ms. Jin, and a couple other Azure Pack members are busying themselves over the more severely injured of us.

Cole seems to have the more brutal wounds of us all, but at the rate he's healing, no one seems too worried about his condition. He was unconscious when we first arrived, not breathing regularly and bleeding so profusely his clothes were soaked red. But after Doc Blythe and Ms. Jin began treating him, he woke up and has been on the mend ever since.

But Misha's a different story. I have a new respect for the spunky Wolven. She sure can take a hit. Doc Blythe confirms the girl has a severe concussion, and massive swelling around her torso where Craven had sliced her open is taking some time to go down. But, like Cole, her healing ability seems to be working well and the outcome looks good. She'll have some scars for a few days, lots of swelling for the rest of the night at least, but she should be okay.

Yuri is growling to himself, literally cuffed to his cot's post 'cause he kept trying to fuss over his little sister when we were all brought in. He's been grudgingly cleaning the various wounds over his body. Nothing major, but there sure as shit are a lot of them. I'm guessing he was fighting Ryker, but I don't recall seeing either of them for longer than a few minutes at a time. Both are surprisingly fast, I realize.

Blue's talking to one of the Pack members, an older woman, as she cleans up the worst of his wounds. Paris knows where to hit people, how hard to hit them, and how deep to go to make sure those wounds last a while - even for Wolven. I can only imagine how much pain he must be in, but he's got his poker-face on, not even flinching when the woman has to resort to stitching up some of the deeper wounds. His voice is steady as he relays the events of the fight to the woman.

She has a striking resemblance to Misha and Yuri, her hair is braided in a plat down her back, a dark brown with tinges of red. Her wide eyes are a somber sage-green with flecks of brown, but hold that same light Yuri and Misha's always seem to. I hear Blue call her Jannette, and briefly wonder if she's Misha and Yuri's mom. She's obviously Wolven, not an Alpha by nature, but maybe a Beta. Maybe *the* Beta.

Hale's been hovering over me since we arrived, though he seems a little shakier than normal, he's been ignoring my protests. I've given up at this point, letting him take my vitals and gently probe the few wounds I have. Mine are few, shallower - with the exception of a couple of bumps on the head, but they're not healing. At all.

My throat's still swollen after being manhandled by my cousin, and I refuse to take any vamp blood to speed up the healing. It's painful, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to kill me. My right arm and ribs are mottled with a few dark bruises, but I'm positive nothing's broken. At some point after Craven threw me against that building, I'd started bleeding, and only stopped after Hale started rubbing a funky salve into the wound on the back of my head.

I'm sore as all hell, but at least I'm still *me*. After what happened to Hale, I'm more terrified than ever about my vampiric side and have no desire to tempt my genes by having any extra vamp blood in me, than you very much.

"Wonder if this is what it's like to be human." I mumble to Hale as he gently scrubs at the dried blood over my jaw. He's being careful, but his touch still hurts. I just know I'm going to look like I got run over by the morning.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," He gives me a small, knowing smile. "After you Bloom, you'll heal much faster. Perhaps even faster than Cole." I'm sure he means his words to be comforting, but I can't help but cringe a little when he says them.

"If she can make it another month-and-a-half," I hear Cole growl under his breath after a second.

"Shut up, Cole." Blue spits at his cousin the same time Yuri speaks up.

"Hey, not cool, man." Yuri frowns at Cole, and then casts a worried glance at Blue. They say nothing for the next few minutes, but the tension in the air grows exponentially - so I know they must be having a mental Pack-kinda conversation in their heads.

"Guys, can you *please* not argue?" Misha whimpers, her voice raspy and tired as she rubs the side of her head.

"You two," Yuri growls at Cole and Blue. "Take it outside." His fierce words sound like more than a suggestion. Blue makes no move to leave, but Cole snaps his teeth at us and hops off his cot, pushing past Doc Blythe to limp out of the room. There's a heavy silence for a moment, then Blue lets out an annoyed huff and runs after his younger cousin.

The tension in the room immediately drains and Doc Blythe and Ms. Jin begin cleaning up the bloody mess of used gauze and bandages they used to stop the bleeding earlier.

It doesn't seem right. None of this. *They shouldn't be fighting. Packs stick together*. The irony of my thoughts isn't lost on me.

"How'd you guys even know where to find me?" I ask, directing my question at Hale. The man doesn't answer immediately, glancing over his shoulder to the still-open infirmary door.

"Z told us you were in trouble," Yuri sighs. "He didn't say you were being ambushed, just that you were in trouble. That's it." He sounds more frustrated that I've heard him express before. "Wish he'd filled us in more before we got there, though." He grumbles under his breath. I wince at that, wondering if he'd have come to help if Blue had said something about my crazy cousins.

"I'm sorry you guys were dragged into it-"

"That's not-" Yuri groans, rolling his eyes and grinding the heel of his free hand into his forehead. "We'd have come help you - even if you were surrounded. Even if we were outnumbered, we wouldn't have ignored it. That's not the problem."

"The issue," Misha pipes up, looking over at me sleepily. "Is that Z didn't explain."

"We're not a Pack that keeps secrets from each other. Especially not between our future Alpha and Beta." Hale finally speaks, sitting at the edge of my cot. "Zane ignored protocol."

"Protocol?" I repeat, frowning.

"Every Pack's different," Misha mutters, almost sounding like she's defending Blue.

"He should have told me before this shit went down-" Yuri's voice is colder, clipped and pissed as he turns to glare at his sister.

"I'm sure he has his reasons-" Misha insists, her face screwing up in a mask, but even I can see the doubt in her eyes.

"Not for this shit-!"Yuri gestures at his and Misha's bodies, his voice getting louder with every word. Suddenly the Beta is standing between the two, her eyes narrowed as she stares them down.

"I *will* kick you two out if you can't control yourselves." Jannette interrupts the siblings, grimacing between the two. "You shouldn't be telling an outsider all about the inner workings of the Pack without consent anyway."

"Yes, ma'am," Misha mumbles, visibly shrinking away from the scathing look she passes to them, but sneaking icy glares at her brother every so often.

"Scarlett's practically one of us, mom." Yuri backs down too, flopping back onto his cot wearily.

"*Practically* isn't enough. Not until the hybrid-princess is inducted." Jannette shakes her head, then turns to me. "No offense, Hale." I note she doesn't once look at me. Or talk to me.

"None taken." Hale doesn't correct the Beta, but a muscle under his eye twitches, exposing his annoyance. Or anger. I'm not sure what bothers me more: the blatant coldness from the Beta or my own father's passivity over it. Watching the less than warm exchange between the two, I begin to wonder if the Azure aren't so perfect after all.