The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 125

REMY

It had been a few weeks since Draven had his hands on me, and things with the pack were slowly returning to normal. School had returned to normal for most of the pack, too, but only because there were extra patrols and precautions in place. Alpha Reyland agreed to keep his warriors with us for as long as we needed. He spent as much time with us as he could, but he often had to split time between his pack and our own.

Caulder and I were given exceptions to returning to school, since we had more important matters to attend to. Between my vision, Caulder pissing off the Council of Magic, and Draven targeting me, my parents were convinced that war was just around the corner, and they needed as much of our help preparing for that as possible. Harper was unfortunately forced to finish off school in the actual building, since Beta Rie insisted that Harper didn't have a good enough reason to do homeschooling like us anymore. Graduation was only a few weeks away, and Caulder and I would be given a degree still, as long as we finished the bare minimum of the school work. Some days were harder to finish school work, especially with my mind so preoccupied with the future. However, our parents said we had to still graduate, since it would affect our future if we ever got a job outside of the pack. I had a hard time imagining that, but I wasn't about to argue with them.

It still felt menial, especially when Caulder and I were spending our time improving our magic to prepare for a potential war. Every day we used our magic to delve into the past to figure out more about the prophecy. We had hit a roadblock with that search, since we had only been able to dive into Cain's timeline, and his knowledge was limited. All we were able to find were various theories and other interpretations of the prophecy, but none of that gave us the information we needed. We were only able to speculate about the true meaning of the prophecy.

After a particularly unilluminating session, I lay on the floor and closed my eyes. "This isn't working anymore. It's easy to interpret the prophecy the way I want it to, but there's no definitive proof. There's not even anything that talks about breaking the prophecy." Caulder sat on the floor next to me. "Cain's timeline isn't working anymore. We have to find another source for the prophecy. We know how to get these visions of the past now, so we just need to find another person who knows about the prophecy."

"I don't even know where to begin with that. Beta Scythe and Percy are still looking into it, but no one seems to know anything. It's like werewolves had never heard about the prophecy until Mom, and even then, the knowledge is extremely limited." I pulled my hands down my face, stretching the skin and pulling at my lower eyelids. I felt like we had hit a wall that was impossible to climb.

"What if we looked into the timeline of the prophecy itself?" Caulder asked.

I turned my head to the side to look at him, but I kept my hands on my face, so I was sure I looked strange stretching my skin out. Caulder's chuckle confirmed that. "What do you mean?" I asked.

He braced himself with his hands and leaned back a little. "Well, we can look into the timeline of a person, as long as we have a specific event in mind, right?" "Right," I said slowly.

"What if we do the reverse? What if we follow a specific event to a person? Maybe we can find the person who originated the prophecy," Caulder suggested.

I flew forward so fast that I almost hit Caulder in the process. "You're a genius! Why didn't I think of that before?"

He inspected his fingertips closely, and his lips pulled into a smirk. "Guess you're not as smart as me."

I narrowed my eyes, debating if it was worth it to hit him. "You're lucky I'm tired right now, or you would regret that statement."

"You'd have to be stronger than me to make me regret it," Caulder teased.

I flung my foot forward without thinking and kicked Caulder in the thigh. He seemed unphased by the attack. He was too focused on laughing at my reaction. I knew he just wanted to get a rise out of me, and it worked every time. "What did you do to Remy this time?" Blade asked as he entered the room. He stopped and took a long sip of water, knowing it was best if he didn't try to get in between the two of us when we were bickering.

"He's making fun of me again," I complained. I held out my hand to Blade, and he quickly took it, helping me to my feet with ease. "How did training go?"

"The werewolves here are fast learners. They get better each day, and if Draven comes after us again, he won't have a chance at this rate." He smiled at the thought.

"I just wish he hadn't gotten away in the first place," Caulder said, and the mood in the room quickly shifted.

"We'll get him," I said, but I didn't feel confident. I knew a war with the vampires was just over the horizon, and I was pretty sure that the war was going to be led by Draven. I didn't know if that was the case for sure, though, because I hadn't had a vision since the dark creature attacked, and I didn't know what Draven looked like at the time. However, I would be shocked if Draven wasn't on the front line, gunning to kill every last one of us.

"I just wish he hadn't taken your blood," Blade said. He wrapped his arms around my waist and his fingers dug into my skin as if he was afraid to let me go.

"What do you think he'll do with it?" Caulder asked. He stood up, so he was eye-level with us.

"There's too many things he could do with it," Blade said. I could feel his body tensing under my grip. "Vampires don't exactly have magic-not like what you and Remy have. However, over the centuries, vampires have perfected an art we like to call blood magic. It requires the sacrifice of blood to perform, and there are a lot more restrictions to it than the kind of magic you two use."

I loosened my grip on Blade, so I could lean back and look up at him. "What kind of things can vampires do with blood magic?"

Blade hummed, thinking about the answer. "I'm not sure exactly. It's not something I have personally practiced. Most vampires don't practice it, because blood is considered to be too necessary for consumption to waste on blood rituals. I do know that Draven was using blood magic to try to break that creature free. I've heard rumors of possessions before, but I haven't seen that one with my own eyes. There are some more basic things, like creating locks that require specific blood to unlock. That one is a little more common and less harmful, since it doesn't require someone else's blood-only the blood of the vampire creating the lock."

The description made me wonder how many innocent humans died at the hands of Draven. Blade had explained before that most vampires drank human blood. There was a varying degree of how those vampires went about it, from draining a person dry every time to finding a source of blood bags. Some chose to go the route of drinking animal blood, avoiding the morally gray grounds of drinking human blood all together, but that was a rare occurrence, since human blood gave vampires strength. Draven seemed like the type of vampire that wouldn't care about the life of a human and kill them every time he fed. That idea made me sick.

"So Draven could use Remy's blood to break that creature completely free?" Caulder asked.

Blade nodded, and I could feel him grow more solemn at the idea. "It's possible. I don't know how that process works exactly. I was never able to get close enough to determine that. It's something we should prepare for, just in case."

The front door slammed shut, and Caulder's entire mood perked. I was sure Harper was about to walk through the door and join us. Caulder's mood only shifted that dramatically when Harper was around. Sure enough, a moment later, she dragged her feet into the room. She tossed her backpack to the side, looking completely defeated.

"You are all so lucky you still don't have to go to school," Harper said.

Caulder held out his arms for her, and she instantly fell into his embrace. "Rough day?"

"The worst. The rumors spreading at school are worse than a wildfire, and everyone keeps asking me what happened to Julie and to give them details about the k********g. I thought after two weeks everyone would have relaxed about all of this." Harper buried her face in Caulder's chest, and her body visibly relaxed.

"High schoolers will always be high schoolers. They thrive off drama, because there's not much else to thrive off of," I said. It was part of the reason I had never felt like I belonged with the other kids my age. I didn't like being involved in that kind of drama. Harper turned around in Caulder's arms, so her back was flushed with his torso. She scrunched her nose and said, "You say that like you aren't high schoolers, too."

"At this point, I'm basically not," I chuckled. I had felt more like an adult in the past few months than I ever had in my entire life.

"That's what happens when you are the child of the alpha and luna," Caulder added. "We are forced to grow up faster than other children."

"You're still a child," I teased.

Caulder squinted at me, and if it weren't for Harper being in his arms, I was sure his retort would have been more intense. "Yeah, well, if I'm a child, then so are you." "Now, now, children, no need to fight," Blade said. His voice was light, and the thick atmosphere had lifted since Harper arrived.

"Like you're much better," I laughed.

As if to prove my point, Blade's hands slid down my side and started tickling me. I yelped, trying to pull away from him, but he held me tightly.

"Okay! Fine. You're the most mature one here," I lied to get him to stop.

"Thank you. It comes with being immortal," Blade said. He pulled me closer to him and he nuzzled his face into my hair.

My heart started racing at his comment. It was easy to forget that vampires were immortal. Blade was stuck at this age for the rest of his life, but werewolves still continued to age. I hadn't thought about that in the context of our relationship before, but his gentle reminder made my head spin. How would our relationship work when the age difference became more than just a number? "Hey, I have an idea," Caulder said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Maybe we could all go down to the lake and just relax this weekend? Now that things have calmed down, I'm sure we could convince our dad to let us go with some escorts."

"A day at the lake sounds amazing," Harper agreed.

"I'm in if Blade is," I said, looking up at him. I caught a brief glance of turmoil on his face, but it was gone in a flicker, making me question if I had just imagined it.

"That sounds like a much needed break," Blade agreed with a smile.