Enemy Among Us

chapter 19

Leilani

Anaiya's wound had clearly started bleeding again. I could tell from the small dark spot on her suit jacket along with the red stain on her hand. She glared back at me when she noticed me staring and sighed softly. Anaiya was always head strong, never one to ask for help but it always worried me more when she began to shut people out. I couldn't hear her thoughts anymore; one of the many abilities I gained from our mother. I knew she was purposefully blocking her thoughts from me because she knows I'll use it against her. "Nia?" She shook her head. "I'll be fine." She pushed my face away a bit so I left her be for the time being. She could normally heal herself but they hit her with something that caused it to keep reopening. "Eli, where's Johnny?" Eli looked down in shame as Gabby once again started crying. Johnny must have got caught by one of the things and Anaiya always told me that Gabby and Johnny were really close. "Take me to him, we have to at least bury him or place his body somewhere safe." Eli nodded as he began to lead the way.

After a couple minutes of walking suddenly he came to a stop. "Where is he?" I heard Gabby scream. Anaiya pushed her way through them as I followed. There was a small pool of blood and blood stained grass in the spot along with a word still in its sheath. Anaiya's face was unreadable just like her thoughts but I'm sure we were both thinking about the reason it was gone, aware of who took it. I crouched beside the spot. Upon further examination, I noticed an unusual change in the color of the blood. I frowned and whispered to Anaiya. "We need to get away from here, there's a good chance mother turned him into a changeling." She nodded before pulling Laney and Eli aside whispering to them, I still couldn't hear her thoughts nor could I heat what they were saying. I looked at the two girls who were clinging to each other, Gabby and Savannah. I met them when I was very little, pictures as proof to the many visions I've had about them. "Don't worry, Anaiya and I will put a stop to this and return your friend." I gave them a hopeful smile although I wasn't so hopeful. Savannah gave me a small smile as Gabby just nodded still in shock at the whole ordeal of losing Johnny.

Anaiya

I grabbed Eli and Laney by the arm, pulling them away from the others. "I'm sorry I just got here. I promise I'm not trying to help my mother. I had to get back to the office so I could get all the info on this case and a couple other connected cases. We can use this but we have to make sure she doesn't get her hands on a copy or on this. I already wiped the computers so now we just need to kill our boss." Eli's eyes widened before taking a side step away from me. "Why? She's done nothing to us." I shook my head and whispered aggressively to Eli. "She's the reason we ended up here.... The reason my mom found all of us. I made an effort to never be found but my mother bribed every agency with power so now she's being controlled by greed. My mother is controlling her body so our boss is no longer human." Laney nodded and looked up at Eli. "Eli, we know that you don't like taking the lives of others but her handprints were all over that stove that blew up. She's the only person who could have access to Anaiya's house." Eli grimaced, we knew it was hard for him that's why he never actually carried his gun but he knew what had to be done. He nodded reluctantly.

We headed back to the others. "We need to get moving, there's a good chance your friend is around here but he's no longer your friend." Gabby's face darkened as Savannah wrapped her arm around her and guided her. We started walking back towards where our offices were. I could tell everyone was getting tired, hungry and were probably hurting from everything. We were all mentally drained but we couldn't stop to rest, not with what is lurking in the woods. Leilani and I were still a bit energized but that was due to our demon side. My wound was healing slowly and it was draining most of that energy. As we walked, we killed many changlings and other demons who tried to attack us. We eventually came across the offices where Cerberus was lurking around the building. He began to get excited when he saw us but one look made him whimper but go back to lurking, as he moved to behind the building.