“Come on, we can try and hide in the bush,” Luciana urges me. “We can figure out what to do next.”
I don’t have the heart to tell her that it’s pointless. If Dane is here, then the group of Supernaturals that captured him are here, too. Even now they would be hiding, and it’s difficult to ignore the possibility that I’m being corralled into a trap.
But I don’t say anything. Luciana is already running, expecting me to follow her, so I run too. I can hear the animals snuffling in the barn, and the bizarre thought that no one would have fed them dinner yet enters my mind. If we get out of this alive, it will have to be the first thing I do.
A gleam of metal catches my eye, and I turn my head enough to see a black car parked out on the street. I can’t tell if it’s empty or not, but the Supernaturals are here.
“He’s catching up!” Luciana suddenly cries.
I look behind us. Dane has always been the faster of the two of us, and it doesn’t surprise me with how quickly he’s gaining on us, especially since I have to be keeping an eye out on what’s around me, too. Dane loves running and the feeling of the wind whipping through his hair, but his expression is still completely devoid of anything, as though he’s a robot that’s simply been programmed to pursue.
“Luciana, I don’t think we’re going to get away,” I say tersely.
“Then what do we do?” she demands.
I skid to a halt. She makes it several more steps before she realises that I’ve stopped, and turns with wide eyes.
“I’ll have to fight,” I say. “It’s the only way. Keep an eye out; the Supernaturals are here, and they’ll be waiting to make their move.”
She looks terrified. I don’t blame her. This is an unwelcome reminder of the dangers of my world, and I wonder what she’ll say about it if we come out the other end of it all in one piece. My heart sinks as I wonder if I’ll lose her; even for her, who was a doctor that was deployed in war torn countries, this might be too much.
Dane stops too, a foot away, and stands, watching me. It makes me sick to see him, and to know that something was done to him in the few hours he was gone. Is he even still in there? Is it even possible to save him on the off chance that I’ll win?
Or is this it? Is he gone for good?
“Dane, I don’t want to fight you,” I call, searching his face for some sign, anything, that will tell me he’ll be okay. “Alright? We’re brothers, remember? We’ve been together for ages. You can’t want to do this.”
There’s no reaction at all.
“Dane, please,” I try again. “Can’t you hear me?”
There! It was minimal, but his shoulders tensed ever so slightly for a second, so quick that I might have missed it if I wasn’t watching so closely. He’s there, somewhere. He can hear me. I can save him.
I pull my shirt off and my wings flare out, free and golden in the waning evening sun. Fear no longer thrums through me. Instead, I’m determined. My little brother is still with me in some way. Even if it has never been done before, I will find some way to help him.
“Warwick!” Luciana shouts.
I glance to the side. Four people are making their slow way toward us, unconcerned because they believe they have me. There’s no point in hiding now. They’re here. They know what I am. Part of me burns to know how they figured us out, but the rest of me doesn’t want to hear that it was my fault.
They seem relaxed, and I doubt they’re going to make a move, just now. They sent Dane in, first, to subdue me. Only when I’m down will they move in, to try and bring me under their control.
I smile grimly and look away. I don’t plan on allowing that to happen. I’ll either win this fight, or I’ll die trying, I decide as I look at Dane’s unsheathed talons.
I make the first move. I can feel my own talons shifting under my skin, my primary offense, but I shove them back. I will not use them on my brother. I have other ways to fight, after all. Dane might have been the fastest between us, but I’ve always been the strongest and the most interested in various martial arts. Dane on a good day isn’t able to keep up with me, and even less so now that he isn’t in his right mind.
I know I’m right as Dane takes a swing at my approach, his moves sluggish and slow. It’s child’s play to duck under him and swerve around him. He turns sharply, kicking out with a clawed foot, and I leap over it, turning and hitting him full on with one of my wings and making him tumble to the ground.
His body obviously remembers its lessons, however, because he drops into a proper roll and springs to his feet some distance away, obviously wary now. Perhaps the Supernaturals thought that I wouldn’t fight my own brother. But they have no idea what lengths I’ll go to in order to protect him.
I glance at Luciana. She’s hovering at the edge of the field, looking frustrated as she clenches and unclenches her fists. She and I both know that there’s nothing she can do here. This is a fight among creatures, and she has no way of helping out, not without getting hurt. She’s human, and so much more fragile than either myself or Dane. We’ll survive, as long as we don’t get poisoned. She will not.
It’s then that the thought hits me. It leaves me breathless for a moment as the magnitude of what I’m considering. I don’t know how to get through to Dane, but there’s one way I know that will purify him of all injuries and outside influences.
Death.
We were told, many years ago, that death for phoenixes was not always the end. It was a purification process, meant to wipe our bodies of all evil and return us to a state before we were harmed. Scars that had failed to heal, bruising, problems within our bodies… it was all wiped clean to start over again.
And that’s what should work here. If Dane dies and is reborn, the effects that the Supernaturals have over him should be wiped from him. But I can’t help but hesitate. Am I really about to consider killing my own brother? Even though I know it will only be temporary, I really don’t want to even think about it.
But what if it’s the only way to save him?
I avoid looking at Luciana as I ready myself. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. If I do fatally injure Dane, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look either he or Luciana in the eye again. It will be a stain that’s forever on my conscience. If only there was some other way to prompt him into a blazing inferno.
But I’m unsure. Many of the secrets of our people were lost when our family was killed, and Dane and I are still learning things about ourselves that we never had the opportunity to be told. We document each thing that we witness, but it still means that our knowledge of our own bodies is worryingly small.
“Warwick, watch out!”
On Luciana’s cry, I look up and jerk to the side when I see Dane rushing at me. I expect him to skid to a halt and turn around, but he doesn’t. He keeps running, missing me by a wide margin, and I frown, wondering where he’s going.
A second later I curse myself for being an idiot. He’s heading straight for Luciana.
I don’t stop to think about it. There isn’t time any more. Luciana is now in danger, dragged into a fight I should have never introduced her to. The Supernaturals are watching impassively, though I can see them tensing as they see a human in danger, or perhaps in anticipation of what they know must happen next, and Dane is nearing Luciana, one talon raised in threat. It doesn’t matter that the poison won’t really harm her. The talon is sharp enough to do considerable harm.