Okay guys, I have finally decided that this is going to be the last official chapter that I'm going to post on this story, but there will be an epilogue. If I shocked anyone with the last chapter, then I am severely sorry if I made you sad or anything but I promise things will gradually get better for Kadea. Hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter, and I love you guys all immensely for sticking with me for this entire thing! Thank you so much!

Chapter songs:

There You'll Be by Faith Hill (Samantha mourns)

Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne (Kadea explains herself)

Yellow by Katherine Ho (the final deal/sacrifice)

Kadea:

"Hello?"

"Kadea?" It was Samantha. She was crying.

"Sammy? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

I heard her sob and when she spoke, I went completely numb and faintly felt the phone slip out of my hand.

"He's dead. Tiberio is dead."

A few days later...

Aelin:

I knew what had happened as soon as I had stepped into my room. A small child's handprint marked by still fresh blood was smeared across my wall, torn curtains that now lay thrown and crumpled on the floor, the overpowering metallic stench of powerful unfamiliar magic clinging to everything within its reach, a few splatters of fresh blood on the roof that dripped down and stained my carpet, and then there was the now gathered Thirteen. Encased within Manon's arms was a pisspoor scared human male - but it was pretty gods damned obvious why he was so scared. Manon's trademark blade Windcleaver had been placed across the male's throat with ease, another one of the Thirteen's dirks had the tip of its blade ready to be shoved into the gut of the man, and of course there was the fact that half the Thirteen was Shifted and baring their overly large iron fangs.

No wonder the human whelp smelt of his own shit, I thought to myseld with disgust. "What is he doing here?" I purred aloud to Manon.

"Tried to sneak in and snatch a Pup without anyone's noticing." Manon purred back, her iron teeth mere millimetres away from the man's neck.

I glaced slowly in the man's direction. He flinched away from my gaze, his scent telling me depths of his uncertainty about who I specifically was. "Oh? And for what reason?"

The male stayed quiet, but a quick snap of Manon's teeth even closer to his neck was enough to get him started talking. "M - my boss." He grunted out unhappily.

"Who?"

"T - the Queen." He was trembling now, no longer just afraid of us.

"Her name?"

The male's eyes widened with terror and began thrashing in Manon's arms, nearly screaming with his panic. "No! She'll find me - She'll know I told you! She'll kill me if She knew what I said!"

I right up to the human and Manon moved Windcleaver up a little so that I could grab the collar of this guy's shirt. "Who. Is. She." I snarled in his face. He scrunched up his face like he had eaten something sour, and shook his head side to side. Pisspoor bastard.

I looked at Manon and let my eyes become razor sharp. Take him downstairs and get the Whispers to get him talking. I ordered her. Come back up here after you delivered him.

Her sharp nod in return had the Thirteen prowl out of the room together, and Manon shoved the human forward to get him moving. I stood to the side as they walked past, and the human began kicking and screaming, thrashing around in Manon's cage-like grip. After kicking the door shut behind them, I walked into my walk-in wardrobe (which looked more like a mini armoury) and briskly stripped out of my dark training gear. I walked out again a minute and a half later in some comfy leather pants, dark boots and a sea-mist green silk shirt. A few blades were sheathed familiarly on my pants via my weapons belt, and I had finished adjusting the shoulder straps of my longsword's sheath when the Thirteen arrived again, this time coming into my room in an arrowhead formation.

"How did he get in?"

"Sparkies are on it now, checking for any security issues or electrical mishaps." Manon reported back, and I nodded.

"The Pup?"

"Safely back in the Maternal Ward. Suffered a little blood loss, but mainly received quite a shock." Said one of the twins.

The two placed in Kadea's pack, and with Kadea's help they had been disguised as two Wolves called 'Fannia' and 'Falisha'. It felt good to see them again as they should have looked - long, midnight-black hair, green eyes and sharp features instead of brown and grey hair with blue-grey eyes. They were back to using their true names - Faline and Fallon Blackbeak - as they usually did when the Thirteen gathered. The other members were split amongst the other local Packs, only the Alphas and Betas knowing who they really were, but overall they were their own miniature Pack split among Packs.

With another nod, I was about to ask another question but Manon stepped forward. "Aelin, we came to see you about another matter. One we've been thinking about since the War."

"And what was this matter?" I asked, mildly curious but a part of me sort of expected what Manon was going to say next.

"We want to split off from our 'Packs' and start our own."

"Your own Pack. Just the thirteen of you?"

"It will be our own Thirteen Pack. It will be open to any Blackbeak relative who seeks a safe haven, or wishes to be with their own blood relatives."

I was silent for a few moments to let it sink in. "You would be Alpha?"

"Correct."

"Your Beta?"

"Asterin, however my Second wouldn't be formally known as Beta unless we were going to an Alpha Council."

"Starting up your own path of being a Wolfblood, huh?" I thought over it again briefly. "And the rest of the Alphas? Have they been addressed about this?"

"I was going to bring it up at the next Council."

"Where would your borders be? Your Pack house?"

"There are a few ideas that the Thirteen have put forward, but until we have officially been given the okay for making our own Pack then the decision isn't final."

"You seem to have everything already under control." With a smile, I nodded and straightened up. "You have my safe going. I will stand by you if the Council wants puts it down to a vote, as well as Rowan and Kadea would."

"Thank you Alpha." Manon bowed her head, and the rest of the Thirteen echoed her.

"What was your, shall we say, reason for this?"

Manon tilted her head to the side, thinking. "During the War, there were many Blackbeak Wolves that we saw amongst the battle who seemed unhappy with their own Packs. We want to help them, provide a place for all of the Blackbeak coven to feel safe when they declare their heritage. No one should have to hide who they truly are in order to feel some sort of pathetic security."

I smiled again. "Throwing a few of my own words back at me, Manon?"

"Maybe, maybe not." She replied with a smile of her own.

A chuckle escaped my lips as I strode forward and hugged the Blackbeak heir tightly. "I'm going to miss you not being in my Pack and knowing you have my back."

"Well, that was the other thing I wanted to ask you." Manon murmured in my ear before pulling back. "As a new Pack, we decided to request an alliance with you, Rowan and Kadea's Packs."

I blinked, the only sign of my surprise. "An alliance?"

"Uh, yeah - you do remember what that is exactly, right?"

I half-assed punched her shoulder and her laugh reverberated through me. "Of course I do, Blackbeak."

"Well? What do you say?"

A broad smile split over my face, so wide that it sort of hurt. "Of course. You'll have to meet Rowan and Kadea about it to see if they agree, but on behalf of them - for the moment - I say yes."

Together, we pulled out a small blade and slashed it across our wrists. As the blood welled up from the identical cuts, we pressed the cuts against each other's. Asterin came forward and bound our wrists tightly together with a piece of white silk with green thread as we swore the blood oath.

"I, Manon Blackbeak, heir of the Blackbeak Coven and Leader of the Thirteen, swear to Aelin Ashyver Galathynius, Alpha of the Fireblood Pack, Bearer of Brandon's Bastard Mark, a blood alliance. As your blood mixes with mine, our alliance shall never be broken - even if Death tears us apart." Manon swore.

I repeated the blood oath. "I, Aelin Ashyver Galathynius, Alpha of the Fireblood Pack, Bearer of Brandon's Bastard Mark, swear to Manon Blackbeak, heir of the Blackbeak Coven and Leader of the Thirteen, a blood alliance. As your blood mixes with mine, our alliance shall never be broken - even if Death tears us apart."

As Asterin unbound the silk, Manon and I silently looked each other dead in the eye, reminiscing on the endless days we had spent with each other in this Pack. Now it had come to the time where Manon was splitting off, but still keeping ties in the Pack. Granted, I was a little sad about losing the Wolves, but overriding that feeling was a sense of pride for the Thirteen. They deserved to have their own Pack, and provide a safe place for the rest of the Blackbeak Wolves out there to come and stay. It was like what Manon said - no one should have to hide who they really were to try and feel 'safe'.

Once the silk was taken away from our skin, we broke the contact with each other and smiled to each other. "Congratulations, Manon. You've got your whole life connected to me now." I winked at her with a laugh.

The Blackbeak heir rolled her eyes, becoming the sassy teenage Wolfblood she once was over a decade ago. "Shove it up your ass, Bastard. You're tied to me now."

I flipped her off, but a rumble from inside my head stopped me in my tracks. Aelin... It was Rowan.

Rowan? What's wrong?

It's Kadea. Something happened at the hospital to make her set half the forest around her Pack house ablaze, tear up nearly three quarters of the cell I had to confine her in, and she's stuck halfway through a Shift.

I raised an eyebrow and looked over my shoulder, out the window crowning the head of my bed. I could see faintly the rising black smoke of a forest fire. Ah. I'll be right there. Just hold five.

Manon gave me an exasperated look. "Just go. If something's happened to Kadea, then go. We can talk more later."

With a grateful nod to the Thirteen, I ran out of the room.

Rowan:

It took Aelin exactly three minutes and twenty-five seconds to get to the miniature block of cells that was underneath my Pack house, and after three seconds of her arriving, Kadea's wildfire increased dramatically further - heatwise, in height, and ferocity. A strangled sort of roar came from her throat when the younger sister laid eyes on Aelin, and the half-Shifted Kadea threw herself at the cell bars even more vigorously than before.

"What's happened to her?" Aelin whispered as I tried once more in vain to control the blazing inferno with my wind. Even without looking at my mate, I could tell how deeply this pained Aelin.

"With casualties, damage or emotion?" I muttered back, flinching as a strong wave of heat was blasted my way. The metal bars had begun to weaken and melt before Aelin had even came, but now they were nearly halfway gone.

"You know what I mean, smartass. What made her like this?"

"I honestly don't have a single idea. I've sent one of my Wolves to bring Maelynn in, but when I first came upon Kadea in that forest, she..." I sighed, and my shoulders drooped a little as my voice broke a little. "Aelin, Kadea, s-she didn't recognise me when she saw me..."

"What did she do?" My mate's voice was horror stricken, and I pulled up my shirt to show her the burns, slashes, bites and gouges that now marred my chest. The selling of tears in her eyes as the flicked over the damage was enough to nearly break my heart, so I hastily pushed my shirt back down. "I'm going to murder her." A hauntingly familiar burning look filled my mates eyes as she spat those words.

"No. She wasn't herself, Aelin." I wrapped my arms around my mate as she attempted to walk into Kadea's quickly receding cell. "Don't do that to yourself. She was protecting herself because she felt like she didn't know me. Don't make things worse over a misunderstanding, Aelin."

"A misunderstanding?" Aelin basically shrieked. She tried to fight her way out of my arms, but I held her fast and didn't allow her to move. "My sister could have killed you!"

"Your sister didn't realise who Rowan was, because she was so overcome by grief."

Both of us spun around and found Maelynn standing there in the doorway beside an elderly human female, who had obviously been crying about something. A slightly familiar scent tickled my nostrils, and I tried to pinpoint where I knew that scent from. Kadea's beta saw what I was doing and looked Aelin and I dead in the eye.

"This is Samantha Aguliri, Tiberio's mother," dread began pooling in my stomach, making my breathing become ragged, "or 'Ty' which was what he was better known as."

"He's Kadea's boyfriend." Aelin murmured and Maelynn nodded sharply.

"Indeed. As you both know though, he was in a coma from the War a few months ago,"

"Wait, Maelynn, quick question." I interrupted the beta, and I let my eyes trail over to Tiberio's mother. "Does she -"

"She knows. Over the past few days, while Kadea took it upon herself to drown her grief through pretty unspeakable practices, I went and told Samantha everything. It was the least we could do for her."

"And you are okay with everything that was told to you, Mrs Aguliri?" I asked Samantha.

The human dipped her chin in a shallow nod. "When Maelynn told me everything, it made more sense then what I had been told originally. I understand why Kadea didn't tell me though - she was just trying to protect me, like she protects everyone she loves."

"You know her well." Aelin asked, though it didn't sound very much like a question.

"I do. Ever since she turned fourteen - well, that was the year my entire life changed I guess you could say."

Maelynn smiled tightly, though it looked more like a grimace. "Anyway, the reason why Kadea was being like, well, that," she nodded towards the quite literal fiery tornado inside the cell, "is because something happened with the coma. Something even Hafiza can't exactly understand."

"Tiberio died, didn't he?" Aelin stated emotionlessly. The sob that left Samantha's mouth was affirmation enough. Samantha nearly doubled over from the racking sobs, and I walked up the stairs to help her stand.

"Mrs Aguliri, I'm so sorry."

"No, no. Why should you be sorry?" Samantha weakly patted my shoulder even though I dwarfed her in size. "You didn't have a single clue what happened."

"Kadea is my cousin though. I should have seen if she was alright before today." I cursed myself mentally - how could I have been so stupid to not have noticed anything?

"It's fine, dear. It's not anyone's fault."

A dry, rasping chuckle came from the heart of Kadea's flames. "Oh, but that's where you are all wrong."

Samantha flinched. "Kadea?" She whispered.

The swirling flames parted to allow a now human Kadea stride out of the flames. No part of her was burnt, and a ghostly breeze made her hair flutter out behind her like a long, inky black cloak. The flames danced around behind her, and what looked like a crown made of smoke lounged on her head. A cruel, but evidently grief stricken smirk curled Kadea's lips up, making her look like a beautiful, dangerous fire queen. But her eyes - that was where the real danger was. The once turquoise and gold ringed eyes were now what humans may describe as 'the fiery pits of Hell'. Colours of flaming red, orange, gold and yellow swirled in those endless depths, making her almost look like a strange Vampire. There was nothing Kadea like about them - and that was the exact same as when I had found Kadea in the forest near her Pack house.

"Sammy. I'm slightly surprised that you even came into the wolf's lair." Kadea purred.

"Kadea, what are you doing?" Samantha pushed weakly at my arms, but I held her back delicately. I was half afraid I would break Tiberio's mother in half if I put much more pressure into my arms. "Get out of the fire now; you'll burn yourself!"

Kadea chuckled again. "The flames won't hurt me. They belong to me."

"How -"

"Does it matter?" Kadea snarled. "Tiberio is dead - my boyfriend died minutes after I left him."

"That doesn't mean you killed him -" Aelin stepped forward, but a wave of fire stopped her in her tracks. Aelin - a fire user herself - staggered back from the burst of flame, her eyes wide with shock.

"No one here knows, aside from me, knows what I had to do to get out of Calex's shithole."

"How does that have anything to do with you apparently killing Tiberio?" Aelin growled.

"Aelin -" I warned, but she made a silencing motion with her hand. Kadea smiled.

"Listen to your mate, sister. That temper of yours hasn't done much in the past for you, so why would it now?" Aelin flinched away from her younger sister as if she had threatened to stab her. Kadea's eyes now turned to me. "Rowan. Have you ever heard of demons possessing human or animal bodies?"

"Yes. Thousands of years ago, there are reports of people apparently being possessed in stories, but they're are just stories."

"The name Azazel sound familiar?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"What do you know about him?"

"Originally, Azazel was one of heaven's angels, a gloriously beautiful man with wings on his back. When he sympathized with Satan, he was cast down to earth and became one of the "fallen angels." Presumably, the evil that he spread as a fallen angel corrupted his beauty as well. By the time he became a major character in Jewish and Christian texts, he had taken on a demonic appearance.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls describe Azazel as a demon while the Apocalypse of Abraham describes him as a carrion bird, a serpent, and as a demon with 'hands and feet like a man's and on his back six wings on the right and six on the left'. From the start, Azazel was one of heaven's most powerful and clever angels. When God created man, Azazel revealed that he had a rebellious streak too, as he refused to bow to man.

"In response to this defiance, God cast Azazel and many other angels down to earth. The punishment didn't stop Azazel's rebellion. He became a leader of the Grigori, a group of angels who married mortal women and produced a line of monstrous children. Then, he began teaching evil to humans. He taught men the art of warfare and of weapon-making, and he taught women "the art of deception," which involved making and wearing cosmetics. Finally, he began teaching humans about witchcraft."

A strange, sort of serpentine grin spread across Kadea's face. "A serpent, hey?"

"Uh, yeah... why do you -" I began but I paused as a thought popped up suddenly. "The python. You told me a few years back that Calex had a python."

"And that python's name is Azazel." Kadea finalised. A shiver passed over my skin despite the overwhelming heat in the room. "Minutes before the cave exploded, Azazel came and found me in a secret room beneath the cave that only Calex knew about. He offered me a deal - to get me out of the room in exchange of something from me. I wouldn't know what the price of my decision would entirely be until Azazel decided it was time to play his cards."

"What were the choices he gave you?" Samantha asked.

"Wait, can I ask how he gave you those choices?" Maelynn pointed out.

"He has some sort of demonic version of our mind-link."

"Oh, well that may have been something to have told us before you too went all out modern Sherlock Holmes on us." Aelin sneered. I cut her a scathing look to make her shut up.

"Option one: Determine my heart's greatest desire, and he would help take me the first few steps. Option two: he would help me be freed from down here and in doing that, I would have saved some – but perhaps not all – of the people I treasure most. Option three: ensuring that this is at least a battle Wolfbloods would have survived with minimal losses."

"And what option did you choose?" Maelynn asked

"Option two."

"So that's why you think you killed your boyfriend? Because some deal you made with a talking demon snake?" Aelin scoffed.

"He spoke to me after I left the hospital room, outside in the little bush area." Kadea told us, and I noticed faintly that Kadea's flames were slowly lowering.

"And he said?" Samantha breathed.

"That I don't have to do anything else other than sit back and watch the cards be dealt, by which I'm guessing that's his sick way of saying 'I am about to go kill your boyfriend, hope you enjoy your sad lonely mate-less life now!'"

"Dude, that's a messed up snake." Maelynn murmured. Kadea cracked a half smile at that.

"Still, I don't get how you specifically killed Tiberio. Azazel was the one who technically killed him, so... you can't exactly blame yourself about anything." Aelin muttered to her sister, and Kadea turned once again blazing eyes on her.

"What part about what you just said, didn't you get?"

"You theoretically didn't kill him. Azazel did. You chose to sign up for something that you had no idea what the consequences would be - which is pretty drop-ass stupid if you ask me - but then again you also had no choice. You didn't know that the snake would target Ty, so it really wasn't your fault." The elder sister crossed her arms. "Get where I'm coming from?"

Before Kadea could launch into a huge lecture about why she was to blame, Maelynn stepped in. "Kadea, I need to speak to you outside. Can you just, y'know, cool down a little please?"

The fire queen let out a long breath, and the flames lowered with her breath until there was nothing left of her fury but the puddles of molten metal on the ground. Without a glance at the rest of us, she strode past Aelin and I and followed Maelynn. Samantha tapped my arm softly, and I allowed her to follow the two women out of the basement. After the three of them had left, I glanced at my mate warily out of the corner of my eye. She sighed, and walked out of the room without looking at me. I trailed after her, trying to get her to stop but when I walked out the front door, there was no trace of my mate. She'd left completely, without a word.

Maelynn:

"Hey, what happened in there? You completely lost it."

Kadea avoided my gaze, kicking at a rock on Rowan's back deck before sighing and looking up. "I dunno, Mae. Something just over took me, and I couldn't control it. It just like something inside me snapped, and nothing could put it back to what it was before."

I thought over it briefly. "Maybe that's what happens when mates lose their mate. I mean, majority of Wolves barely make it through a day once their significant other has gone with their sanity. So it's highly possible that when they're gone, then it changes something in the remaining half of the mated bond."

My best friend sighed again, her eyes fluttering closed. "I should have stayed there with him, Mae. If I had stayed for a few more minutes -"

" - then Azazel would have still taken the same path he took. Don't focus on what 'you should have done'. Would Ty want you to do that?"

"I don't know, Mae. I don't know what he would want me to do in this position. I don't know what he would want me to do in a lot of things. I don't... ugh, I don't even know what I'm saying right now!"

I placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. Without a moment of hesitation, Kadea returned the hug clinging to me like a bat on a tree. I stroked her hair in the way she secretly loved, and she chuckled quietly.

"Thank you, Mae. F-for everything you've done."

"You know I've got your back no matter what, Ka. I've always had it." She laughed again at that, and a polite little cough made her jerk away from me like a startled animal.

Samantha stepped out of the shadows, and a slim masculine figure detached itself from the shadows beside her. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Kadea, this man here said he can help us."

My best friend transformed before my eyes - changing from a weak, grief ridden girl into a strong, brave, leading figure - and levelled a cool gaze upon the male figure. I caught a whiff of off blood, and I resisted the urge to curl my lip at the Vampire. Milk white eyes shone in the moonlight, setting off his curly, chin length pale blonde hair. A shaggy red flannelette shirt hung off his body comfortably, a worn pair of jeans covered his long legs and scuffed tradie boots completed the look of a human builder. A little bulge in his right leg pocket showed a small case of some sort - probably contact lenses.

"Vampire. May I ask your reason for being here?" Kadea asked formally.

"Wolfblood, I am here on personal business - both yours and mine. You see, I was friends with Tiberio myself, and I want to help you get him back."

"Unfortunately, Tiberio isn't alive at the moment, Vampire, so you're a little late to offer assistance."

"Oh, you misunderstand me. Vampires are already dead, correct? Well, there are some special Vampires - gifted, I guess you could call them - that have special abilities. I, in fact, am one such Vampire."

"What is your, ability, shall we say?"

"Being able to give life to the unliving."

Everyone was silent at that, but surprisingly Samantha broke it first. "Um, mister Vampire -"

"Oh, my apologies. My name is Taran."

" - okay. Taran, I don't mean to offend, but don't you Vampires already give dead people lives once you eat them?"

The blind Vampire smiled kindly at Samantha. "We usually drink their blood and then place some of their blood we swallowed back into their bloodstream. It may sound disgusting, or an easy way to pass disease perhaps, but once the blood has been mixed with our saliva, Vampire DNA inserts itself into the blood cells to cleanse the blood of anything nasty. After the now Vampire DNA infused blood is replaced into the human, it then multiplies and changes the rest of the persons blood cells, making them a Vampire."

"So, the victims are alive when you do this?"

"Yes, almost all the time. Some people occasionally die during the process because their systems can't handle it, and there is nothing we can do about it. Unless you're me."

"So what do you do? What makes you so special?" I asked sceptically.

"I can, in human terms, 'bring back the dead'." Taran said, using his fingers as quotation marks.

"Wait, you can do that Vampire creation thingy on dead people?"

"Yes."

"Can you make them just normally come back as they were?" Kadea breathed, her eyes beginning to light up with an idea.

Taran stroked his jawline in thought. "I haven't exactly tried it on a Wolfblood, if you're suggesting me to experiment on Tiberio, but I know for certain that I can bring him back to life."

"As a Vampire?" Samantha asked.

"That is correct."

"But you can overall guarantee that he will entirely come back? Even after days of being dead?" I asked, still slightly uncertain about this guy.

"Mmhmm."

"Lets do it." Kadea said at the same time Samantha breathed "Do it.".

"Wait, you're serious?" I near shouted. "We don't even know who this guy is, let alone if he can even do it. For all we know, Taran could be lying."

"Mae," Kadea turned pleading eyes on me, "please. You would do this for me, or either of your parents."

I sighed, and threw my hands up. "Fine. Just show us you can do it first."

"That won't be a problem." Taran turned around and beckoned someone forward. "You may find, however, it's not just people I can bring back."

Kadea gasped behind me, and slumped to her knees when a familiar face padded forward. "Aztec!" Ka's once dead Rottweiler bolted forward and tackled her owner to the ground in a whimpering and licking frenzy. I smiled down at the beginnings of a wrestling match, and looked at Taran in wonder.

"How?"

"I was born this way." He shrugged. "When I was human, my parents always said I would be a person who would grow up to help people, something like a doctor or a paramedic, only I would be able to do so much better."

I shook my head in wonder, and turned back to face the now full scale wrestling match going on between the Rottweiler and Alpha of a Wolfblood pack. "Your parents would be proud of you, Taran."

Without even looking at him, I could feel his sad smile. "Thanks, Maelynn."

I smiled and cleared my throat pointedly at Kadea. "Ka, let's go."

Her head popped up, and she jumped up after it. "Okay, let's go. Sammy, lead the way to Ty."

Kadea:

It was about a half an hour drive from Rowan's place to get to Sammy's place, or a ten minute run for two Wolfbloods and a Vampire carrying a human woman. You could see which one was more convenient. Out the front, Taran cradled Samantha in his arms like she was a precious glass doll while Mae and I flanked him, keeping up with the two of them easily. I occasionally called out directions to Taran, but Sammy was pretty good at knowing her surroundings, so I wasn't really having to help too much. When we arrived at the childhood home of the Argari family, I had to momentarily pause to take in the familiar building.

Tiberio's own house had been designed to look like the house he had grown up in, so the large, three storey coffee coloured brick house, the handful of smooth rock steps leading to the almost medieval type front door was almost as familiar as the back of my hand. The massive garden that surrounded the entire house like a large circle could basically be considered a meadow, with weeping willows rimming the perimeter, and ranges of various plants and flowers within the beautiful, sprawling grounds. Ever Spring, Sammy liked to call it. Going around the outer side of the willows, tall, stained wooden gates spiralled around each other in intricate patterns and formations. I'd heard hundreds of stories about Ty trying - and managing - to cause all sorts of mischief with those gates.

At the thought of Ty, I had to grit my teeth together and then powered on forward past Taran, Sammy and Mae. I didn't need Sammy to tell me where Tiberio was now that I was here - the achingly familiar scent of him lead a direct path to a small grave that sat underneath one of the larger weeping willows. After a quick curious glance into the branches, I found what I had suspected and averted my quickly gaze. This was the tree that Ty and I had spent endless hours climbing, lifting, hauling, cutting, hammering, all to build a treehouse - just for the two of us. His older siblings and parents hadn't said anything when they saw us come in at the end of each day, covered in sawdust, paint and scratches - only smiled and handed us a cloth.

You couldn't see the treehouse from the ground - Ty and I had build it high and deep enough in the tree, so that no one would have been able to see it. Unless of course, they knew where to look. But as I stepped further through the leaves, my eyes fell upon something else. A polished steel coffin sat underneath the swaying leaves, the setting sun making the metal glint occasionally through the leaves. My breath got caught in my throat when I saw the coffin, and I had to take another few breaths to clear it.

"He would have wanted to be here." Sammy said behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I brought a hand up and placed it on top of hers. "He deserved to be buried somewhere he loves."

"We won't have to worry about burying him now at least, I guess." She tried to smile weakly, and I smiled at her.

"Yeah, I guess we don't."

Taran coughed politely behind us, and lightly touched my arm. "Do you mind if I have a word?"

"Oh, yeah sure. Of course."

Taran walked calmly back through the leaves, passing Mae on the way in. She looked at me with a crease between her eyebrows, and I shook my head. I'm fine. Stay with Sammy.

If you want. Just give me a yell if he does something.

With a smile over my shoulder, I continued following Taran until he broke through the leaves and stopped. I pulled up short behind him, and he turned to face me.

"Kadea, I just wanted to talk to about something quickly if that's alright."

"Of course it's fine with me. Is everything okay?"

Taran sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I wasn't being entirely honest before, when I said he would return completely."

"So, what are you saying? Part of him physically won't come back?" I crossed my arms in confused thought.

"No, not physically - well, it actually it really varies with each time I bring someone back."

"But what about Aztec? Nothing seemed wrong with her when I saw her."

"Beneath her back right paw, there's a hole under the skin. Feel it next time you're with her. It doesn't hurt her, or cause her any discomfort, or change anything about her - it's just, a small price that I have to pay when I use my ability."

"Are you ever able to tell once the revival has been complete?"

Taran smiled beneath his curly hair. "Once the 'revival' has been finished, then usually that is when I can tell what was taken from the original person. Sometimes I can tell halfway through the process. It's like what gets taken - I don't know when it happens until it happens."

"So, what you're saying is pretty much that you can definitely guarantee that Tiberio will come back alive, but there will be something missing, you don't know whether it will be physical, mental, emotional, or anything else like that but you don't know when it goes." I gave him a long look. "Correct?"

"That is correct." Taran murmured, looking down and shuffling his feet awkwardly.

"You aren't telling me something." I looked closer at him, and he moved back a step. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Well, I can uh, guess sometimes what the price may be." I opened my mouth, but he kept going quickly. "I don't know if the price is something you want to hear though - it sort of will change a few things between you two..."

I felt my eyes being to get the burning feeling behind them - the same feeling I had when I saw Rowan flinch away from when he saw my eyes before. "Tell me. Now."

"Kadea -"

"Tell me."

"You." Taran whispered, and despite how distressed he sounded I flinched away from him. "He won't remember your emotions towards one another specifically, but he'll know you at least. He just... won't be able to feel the same about you anymore."

It honestly felt like I was repeatedly being stabbed in the heart, while the world was falling away piece by piece in front of me. "Why? H-how can that be possible? What makes you think that -"

"Something happened to him before he was killed. Something killed him, and it wasn't anything natural I can tell you that instantly. But just before he was killed, Ty's killed stole his memories and feelings about you."

"How do you know that?"

"I can sense it. The smell of him at the moment..." Taran shook his head. "It's nothing like the other people I've brought back. I'm sorry Kadea, for not telling you this beforehand. I should have, but I couldn't bare to in front of the other two..."

I let out a breath slowly. "I'm not mad, or angered by you holding both parts back before. I'm a little upset about it -obviously - but I'm just glad that you told me in the end. So thank you Taran, for telling me."

The blind Vampire smiled at me from underneath his hair. "Call me Matt, if you want. That's who I was before I was Turned."

"Wait, Matt as in Matt from Ty's childhood Matt?" I gaped.

"Mmhmm." He showed me his wrist, and I found a familiar wristband that another friend of their group had made for them all. I'd noticed Ty wearing it all the time, and I had asked him about it a few times. He'd told me the story, and the story has just stuck in my memory.

"You still wear it?" I whispered, a hand going subconsciously to my heart.

"Of course," Matt whispered back, "I never take it off."

Tears prickled in my eyes and I hugged the Vampire. "Go. Go and bring him back, Matt. I don't care if he doesn't remember me, or feel nothing towards me anymore - just bring him back, and make sure he stays with you."

"I will. I'll keep him safe for you, Kadea."

"Thank you, Matt." I broke the hug, and ushered him into the willow tree. "I'll join you guys after - I just need some time alone right now..."

Matt nodded and silently parted the leaves, walking through them until they seemed to swallow him entirely. With a deep breath, I turned away from the tree and walked over to the stone steps of the house. A sensor light flickered to light when I came into it's range, and a shuffling behind the front doors faintly snagged my attention. I knew who it was before I saw them, but when the door opened, I still got a small shock.

Sort of a mix between the colour of a blood orange's skin and a bit of bronze, Tiberio's twenty one year old sister Eila stood at six foot one. Currently, she had her hair done in a loose pull through braid which made her shoulder blade length hair seem longer, as well as drawing attention to her hazel-grey eyes. Dressed in a dark leather jacket, a grey singlet top, a black mid thigh skirt and knee high stiletto boots, it not only made her look sophisticated and sexy but also pretty and mature. Natural makeup seemed to be casually on her face, but I knew secretly that it had taken hours for Ty's sister and her artsy best friend Tatiana to carefully choose.

"Hey Alexandria - wait, your different now, aren't you?."

"Yeah, I'm and Ashyver Galathynius now." I smiled up at Eila when she used my last name. She knew my first name, but old habits die hard I guess. "Where's your partner in crime?"

"Holy gods that's a mouthful and a half. Anyways, Titanium's inside talking on the phone to her mum. How come you aren't with mum, your friend and that other guy?" Titanium was a nickname that we'd both given Tatiana after we heard her singing that song once at the school we all used to go to.

"I'm just taking a little break - for the past few days I've been nonstop." I sat down on the slightly warm steps, and Ty's sister sat down beside me. She knew about me being a Wolfblood since Ty had told her in the phone one afternoon apparently, so I didn't exactly need to hide anything from her now.

She gave me a small nudge in the side with her elbow. "Is that a Hamilton reference I hear?"

"Nah, only really the truth - unless you want it to be." I winked at her playfully.

We both laughed, and started trading a bunch of musical quotes that we both loved. Seemed like we both had a bit in common with musicals too. Tatiana came out a few minutes later in an amazing baby pink spaghetti strap dress and silver kitten heels. Her dirty blonde hair done in beautiful waterfall braids, while pearl earrings and a cute pearl necklace made the outfit even better. Tatiana was smaller than Eila by about two inches, but the size didn't matter when the two were together. I loved them both heaps after spending years with them in different activitied, and I knew that if I ever needed an extra friend or two to back me up, these two would be the first to volunteer.

"So where are you guys headed off to, all dressed up like that?" I asked after a few more quotes.

"A party at Sam Yan's place - he texted all our old year the other night and invited us to a reunion party of sorts, so we thought we would go catch up with everyone again." Tatiana said.

"Oh nice!" I pretended to look suspiciously at Eila. "Make sure Trav doesn't go all out again, as funny as it is."

We all cracked up again at the mention of another one of our friends, before the two older girls said their goodbyes and went to the party. Soon enough, the moon was shining brightly in the night, surrounded by the twinkling stars. To past some more of my alone time, I tried to find the constellations in the sky. After finding the Southern Cross pretty quickly, I found the Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius, Libra, Virgo and Cancer constellations. Sam Yan had taught me how to find them during one of the camps we had gone on together. It had been one of the best nights of my life, staying up side by side until three in the morning, covered by a blanket of seemingly never ending stars.

The fond memory was broken by a twig snapping beneath someone's foot, and I jumped up from the steps. A male figure was coming towards me, outlined slightly by the obvious silhouette of a human figure. The male's walk was as familiar as the back on my hand, but the male's scent coming towards me threw me off entirely. I couldn't quite put my finger on who it was. The rest of the male's appearance was covered by a long denim hoodie and dirty grey jeans. Something about this guy was making my head ache, and making my instincts scream at me to get the hand gauntlets I wore around ready.

"Who goes there?" I called out to the male. He paused at my voice, something underneath his hood flaring - his nostrils - slightly in familiarity. "Identify yourself."

"Wolf, you do not need to harm me." Oh gods, that voice. It was him. "I am a friend. I was told by Taran to come and find you."

"Matt - Taran told you to come find me?"

"Yeah, I just said that."

I paused for a moment, and tested something out quickly. "Come closer." I whispered as quietly as I can.

Without a moments hesitation, the male walked forward, stopping short of the sensor lights range. He paused for a moment, confused surprise making his eyebrows furrow. "I - I know you from somewhere..."

I choked in my breath. "You do."

"Where though? I recognise you, but don't at the same time." Those blue eyes flickered momentarily. "Sorry if that's confusing as hell."

I smiled through my tears. "Don't worry, I promise you it's not."

Even though he didn't move from his position in the shadows, I could easily see Tiberio looking at me with an awkward, crooked smile. "What's your name?" He asked softly.

"You don't remember?"

"I only remember your face, I'm sorry."

"I-it's fine, Ty."

He blinked in shock. "You know that nickname?"

I nodded with a helpless shrug. "I knew you really well before..."

"Before I died?"

"You remember that?"

It was his turn to shrug. "Bits and pieces. I know I was in a coma before it, and there was a ghostly feeling of snakeskin or something that ran across my body just before I went under."

"Azazel." I breathed. "You felt him?"

"The demon guy? Why would he be a snake, let alone slither across me?"

I waved a hand, dismissing it. I knew the old Ty hated it when I did that, and I saw a muscle twitch in his cheek to my amusement. "It doesn't matter, it's a long story anyway. Perhaps I can tell you it another time."

"Yeah, perhaps."

We faded into a comfortable silence, just observing each other. I couldn't tell what he was thinking - usually I could tell what the slightest signs he made meant, but something had changed about him. He tilted his head to the side like a puppy - oh gods, that was such a Ty thing to do, it hurt so badly that I stumbled back slightly. Ty stepped forward with concern, but I regained my balance quickly.

"Ka." He said, the concern shining through in his voice.

I froze. My voice cracked under the overwhelming emotion. "You remember that too?"

Ty blinked, mystified. "I-I don't know where that came from. Is that - is that your name?"

"My name is Kadea. Ka is a nickname and or an abbreviation."

A shy smile tugged at his mouth. "Can I call you that? Ka?"

"Of course. You can always call me that." I said with a smile. Maybe the Ty I had known before hadn't completely disappeared, I thought.