chapter 1

The storm raged. Flashes of lighting lit up the sky and loud blood curdling crashes of thunder echoed around the valley. Flavius could see dots of light heading up the cliffs towards the valley. At first, he thought he was seeing things. Lights can’t move on their own. They sped up. He could see they were torches. Held up by men sprinting towards the village. Maybe they were other Diaelo, returning from an adventure, like the ones his father told him about…no… they were human…
As they entered the village, they fired missiles at the houses around them, shooting and killing the Diaelo that came out of them. Flavius’ father had also told him of the humans. They feared Diaelo. They had attacked many times before. Each time left few survivors.
“What ya lookin’ at Flavius?” asked the older of his two little sisters, Averlia.
Flavius swung around, swept Averlia off her feet, scooped his youngest sister Arneya from her cot and ran to tell his parents about the humans.
“Take your sisters up to the Mountain. You’ll be safe there,” his mother demanded.
Flavius obeyed. He told Averlia to hold on to Arneya and himself as tight as she could, and made sure Arneya was still asleep. He ran as fast as he could towards Crystal Mountain spread his wings and flew up. His mother had told him to go as high as possible. He neared the top and stopped by a large cave. He placed his sisters carefully down; looked at the village below them. He could see his house being burn to the ground. Usually, fire would be a good sign for the demonic Diaelo. They were fire demons. The human scientists specially created these flames. They would drain any demon of their powers on contact, so they could turn anything to ashes.
His friends were flying up to the caves lower down. He saw few adults.
Flavius closed his eyes. He could hear crying behind him, and turned around to see Averlia with tears streaming down her face and her hands over her right eye.
“Averlia, what’s wrong?”
She was so shocked she could barely breathe.
She lowered her hands and revealed a deep cut on her eye, which was pouring with blood. He ripped a piece of cloth from Arneya’s blanket and began mopping up the blood. Once most of it was mopped up, he was able to see any damage on her eyeball. The cut ran straight through it. A flicker of light caught his attention. He stared for a few seconds and saw a human in the cave. A woman… he knew this mountain was impossible to climb… how could she have gotten up?
“Who are you, human?”
The woman came out of the shadows; Flavius bent down and picked up his sisters, ready to run.
“I am no human. Not like that is of importance to you.”
“Did you do this to my sister?” he nodded towards Averlia and began to back away.
“So what if I did? You and those things you hold in you arms are mere children and are therefore of no use to the world around you.” Flavius put Averlia and Arneya down; he was ready to fight this human. It wouldn’t take much… just a small flame.
“Tell me your name. And if you aren’t human what are you?”
The woman laughed.
“I am a half breed. My name…Esparansa. You must really care for your sisters…”
“You know… if you did do that to my sister, you’ll regret it…” Flavius looked at Averlia. She was staring at her left hand, which was covered in blood.
Esparansa laughed again. “And exactly why is that? You are no more than… 9 years of age? Yes? And your sisters…1 and 3?” Flavius nodded.
“She may be only young, but there is something you should never underestimate…” Averlia began to shake. She looked up at Flavius and he nodded. She looked at Esparansa who was still laughing. She closed her eyes. Flavius had never seen this before. She had only shown it to their parents while practicing with it. Averlia had been born with something very special. It was called the Vay. It was a spirit of pure power, which lived inside her. He didn’t know very much about it. The blood on Averlia’s hand cleared and the mark of the Vay was exposed. It lit up and Averlia was covered in a black flame. When the fire faded, there stood a young woman who looked very much like his grandmother. Esparansa stopped laughing and drew a sword from her side.
“You don’t expect this trick to scare me?”
The woman that stood where Averlia had been opened her mouth, “this is no trick. What you have in store if far worse than death.”
Her voice echoed around the cave and sent a shiver down Flavius’ spine. By the look on Esparansa’s face, she was fearing what the Vay had in store for her.
It pointed towards her and she disappeared. The Vay turned around and looked at Flavius. She crouched down and smiled at him. Flavius suddenly felt a tear run down his face. She wiped away the tears and smiled at him.
“Be careful Flavius. I’m afraid your parents are dead. You can’t always depend on me. You must learn to defend yourself. Train hard and stick with Diaelo. Don’t depend on humans.” She kissed him on the forehead and was once again surrounded in flames.

---

chapter 2

[11 years later…]
“C’mon Zone, you’ve gotta do better than that to beat the Dan!”
“I don’t want to hurt you. But if you carry on, I will.” Sephen once again was being ‘teased’ by his classmates. It was after school and Daniel Grey had asked him to see him on the outdoors basketball court. He had said, “me ‘n’ me mates are gonna get you after school.”
Sephen had laughed in his face and accepted to the ‘challenge’. To him, this was all a game he was fated to win. It was so pathetic how they talked. “We’re gonna get you”. “Me and my mates”. Why couldn’t they do it them selves? Lazy sods. He loved how dumb these people where. Too dumb to rebound on his remarks.
Daniel threw a punch at Sephen, but he grabbed his fist without flinching and threw him backwards. He heard someone behind him. It really didn’t seem fair. There were at least twenty of them, and only one of him, ‘they’re gonna need at least fifty if they wanna hurt me’ he thought. He began to laugh, and kicked the boy behind him. The girls in the crowd giggled and Sephen winked at them. One of them he recognized from his classes. Ctrien Alaura. One of the other girls had told him she had a crush on him and that was why she never talked to him. He winked at her and she blushed.
Another five boys came towards him.
“You know. I actually feel sorry for you. So I’m gonna let you have a shot each.”
They looked at each other and nodded. All at once they came in and kicked him in the stomach. It winded him and for a moment he couldn’t breathe.
“You really aren’t as weak as I thought,” He gasped, “no matter,” he straightened up, stumbling slightly, and took a few breathes.
“Before I knock the stuffing outta these guys I would like the ladies to seek safer ground please… but I wouldn’t want you to miss anything so please can we move somewhere else?” the boys talked to each other for a while, and Sephen gave the girls flirtatious looks. Some giggled, some smiled but the friends of the boys gave him horrible stares.
They had agreed to move. ‘The Dan’ said, “of course, the girls shouldn’t miss out. I need them here to gossip about how I beat you into the ground.” They moved around onto the entrance. The girls were sitting on the bike shed and the boys, near the main entrance of the school. They knew the teachers were gone. They had checked the school was locked before Sephen had arrived.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s about to get hot in here” smirked Sephen. ‘The Dan’ came forward and raised his fists. Immediately, Sephen shape shifted into his Diaelo form and added his own special feature, his red spiked tail.
He then surrounded his hands in flames.
“I wouldn’t expect you pathetic humans to understand what real fighting is about”
Dan looked from his hands to his tail, to his face.
“W-what is t-this?”
Sephen grinned at him, “…payback”
[*]
Averlia sat on the grass in the field with Flavius, watching the other humans play football.
She began picking the daisies and making a chain.
Flavius was playing with his long brown hair, deep in thought.
“It really is funny.” He said taking Averlia by surprise, he had been quiet for so long.
“Whats really funny?” she asked him.
“There’s over a hundred human schools around this part of the country which inhabits mostly Diaelo. Yet there are no Diaelo schools anywhere!”
Averlia laughed, and smoothed her black hair over her right eye to make sure it was out of sight, “that is funny. Well, it amazes me that they can find enough human to fill them. Especially this one. I heard of a school on the other side of the valley. There’s only one Diaelo in it.”
“I heard of that place. I read in the newspaper there was a huge explosion last night at the entrance. Burnt fifteen human students but one guy got out unharmed. Must have been the Diaelo. Didn’t say his name…”
Averlia looked up. On of the humans had stopped playing football and was pointing at them, laughing. Another stopped and joined in the laughing. Another six copied and soon all of them had stopped and were pointing at where they were sitting. They put their arms down and started to walk in Flavius and Averlia’s direction.
“Uh-oh… here we go again. Come on…” he stood up and tried to pull Averlia up too. She wouldn’t budge.
“I’m staying here. They can’t make me move. We’re always running away from them. They’re just human’s what’re they gonna do?” a girl Flavius knew from the year above Averlia came forward and pushed her.
“This is our field it isn’t a place for freaks like you.” She said.
Averlia looked up at her (she was quite a lot taller than she was), then down at the floor. She lifted up one foot and looked at the grass below it. Then did the same with the other foot.
“Your field? It hasn’t got your name on it anywhere. Oh, and speaking of names, I have one. I’d rather you call me Averlia, instead of ‘freak’.”
The girl smirked and looked around at the students behind her. They all smirked too and some sniggered.
“I don’t care what your name is. Freaks like you should respect us” she raised her fist and hit Averlia in the face.
Averlia staggered backwards and heard the girl gasp.
“She burnt me!” Averlia straightened up and looked at her fist, which she was holding in the other hand. There was a huge red mark on the tops of her fingers and her knuckles. The bully looked at Averlia and gasped again.
“Err look at her eye!” as the rest of the bullies looked at Averlia too they all gasped. She quickly smoothed her hair back over her scarred eye. She looked at Flavius and shook her head. Flavius came forward and said “and you better respect her or your not gonna exist.”
Averlia rolled her eyes “Oh for god sake Flavius you can’t even beat me up without me letting you get in a few hundred shots.”
The girl laughed, “you really think you could take on me?!” she laughed again and her ‘followers’ sniggered again.
“just because I’m shorter and younger than you, you think I’m weaker than you? Ha! You have a lot to learn about our kind. Especially when this school is surrounded by us”
The girl stopped laughing and looked confused.
The school bell rang and the bullies ran off. Averlia collected her belongings and zoomed off to the school doors (beating the bullies by at least five minutes), waved at them and zoomed off to class.
when she sat down she took out her things and wrote in her notebook while she waited for the rest of the class to arrive.
When everyone had sat down their teacher entered the room sobbing.
“class we have some bad news. The government has decided to close down the school to build more houses. So effective immediately, you are all no longer students of this school.”
At first she just looked at the class as if expecting them to cry. There was utter silence for a few minutes until a boy sitting at the back said, “are you messin’ wi’ us?” she shook her head and most of the class cheered at the top of their voices, and ran out of the class room.
Averlia met up with Flavius and Arneya at the front of the school, and to her surprise they were crying.
“what is wrong with you two? We get to pick a different school! Or no school at all! Ooh Flavius we can go to that crystal valley college we were talking about! At there’s another Diaelo there! You never know it might be Tierri or even Reona!”
“oh whatever ‘Verlia” sobbed Arneya.
[*]
“err look at her hair”
“I told you she was a freak didn’t I!”
Once again Averlia was being bullied. But this time, at Crystal Valley College. She had been there a week and hadn’t made any friends, but had been picked on everyday since she started.
At first she was a little intimidated, but now it had become part of her day and she really didn’t care. Her teachers weren’t too strict and there wasn’t much homework. But the best thing by far was the optional uniform.
“I’m really not bothered if you think I’m a freak… but don’t make fun of my hair.”
“we can and will do what we like.” The taller of the two girls came forward and stood over her, trying to make her feel small.
“So can I but I’m choosing not to because that would be stooping to your level.” Averlia hissed.
She felt a sudden pain in her stomach and realized the bully had punched her.
“heh… so you really do want more,” Averlia heard a strong, and arrogant voice coming from above where she was standing, “I would expect something like this from Dan but not you girls. I’m quite disappointed”
Averlia tried to straighten up.
“This ain’t got anything to do with you, Sephen” said one girl.
The other giggled and said “wouldn’t have thought she’d be your type”
Averlia steadied herself against the wall and looked up to where the voice was coming from.
On top of the garages, stood a tall boy with long, red hair. One side was draped over one of his eyes, black highlights on the top and longer strands over his shoulders. He was wearing a long red leather coat and black jeans. To Averlia, he seemed like a poser, trying to show off to anyone who was willing to watch.
“you don’t know when to stop do you?” he jumped down from the garage, straightened up and walked towards the girls, “you be nice and go play with your followers. Oh, and if I see you anywhere near her,” he pointed towards Averlia, “there’ll be no more Mr. Cool guy.” He took a lighter out of his pocket and lit it, “got it?”
They both nodded, keeping their eyes fixed on the lighter in his hand, and slowly walked away without moving their heads until they were out of reach.
The boy snapped the lighter shut and placed it back in his pocket.
“you okay?” he said.
“um… yeah… thanks…”she was finding hard to speak she was so shocked.
“but I don’t need your help human.” she said rubbing where the girl had hit her.
“whoa babe, take it easy!” he stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m a Diaelo like you.”
Sephen showed his Diaelo form and his tail.
“how do I know that’s not fake? A poser like you could easily do a stunt like this to show off and make yourself look better than everyone else.” she asked angrily.
“yo! You do not, repeat do not, diss the tail!” he replied.
“whatever. I still don’t believe you” she turned her back and started to walk away.
He rushed after her, spun her around, and kissed her on the lips.
Averlia burst into flames with rage and they surrounded Sephen.
When he didn’t let go, Averlia kicked him in the groin and pushed him away, “isn’t there a different way to show you’re a Diaelo?”
“well… yes… there’s also a better way to show you want me to stop!”
He was kneeling on the floor, hunching over, holding himself, “couldn’t you have just… pushed me away?” he tried to stand up, “Well now you know I’m a Diaelo, do you wanna explain how I’ve never seen you before this week? You do live in the Valley don’t you?”
Averlia went over to help him up, “Yeah… I just live in the mountain itself. In the top cave.” She pulled him up and double checked his eyes were actually Diaelo eyes, “you know you probably just got me grounded. My brother says if he finds out I’ve been kissing anyone I’ll never see light of day again.”
“you still didn’t have to kick me. Hold on, your brother? Shouldn’t be like, your father? And how does your brother run your life?” he straightened up and looked a little confused.
“you know when the humans attacked the valley? Well, Flavius saved my sister and I from them but my parents were killed. So he’s raised us and he kinda of is my father.” As she finished, she heard the school bell sound in the distance. She turned to walk to the school.
Sephen grabbed her arm, spun her around and pulled her close to him,
“the humans don’t deserve your presence. Come with me, I know a fantastic place in the valley, its private and there’ll just be me and you... and a couple more guys but they won’t bother you.” Averlia thought about it for a second, it would be great to get out of school. she didn’t have any tests, and no one would notice she was gone… but could she trust him? she heard the Vay in the back of her mind. “…I can’t see anything bad. All good. Go on, he seems nice.” she looked back at Sephen and he smiled. She took his hand and he led her away quickly.
In seconds, Sephen had pulled her up , and was speeding away into the sky.

---

chapter 3

“can I help you miss?” asked the barman.
“just a glass of water please…”
Embria sat in an old dusty inn. She was tiered from her travelling and still had no progress on finding where she came from.
“here you go.” The barman arrived with her drink. She had been so deep in thought she hadn’t realized he was there until he tapped her hand.
“oh… I apologize… I’m in a world of my own… how much do I owe you?”
the man put out his hand, and shook his head, “it’s on me. You look like you’ve had a hard day.”
She quietly thanked him and took a sip of water.
She bent over the bar, hiding her face with her tall hat, and long flowing black hair.
She started to think again. Thinking about where she should go next… was there anywhere left to go? …how many years had she been travelling? Easily over a hundred…
‘lets see… four… five…six… wow seven hundred years…’ a slight shiver rippled down her spine, a glare… she looked up slightly. A man at the other side of the bar was watching her. He must have seen her looking because he smiled and stood up.
She took another sip of water and straightened up.
“well hello, beautiful… do you believe in love at first sight or shall I walk past again?” Embria looked around to see the young man who was watching her, sat down next to her, flirtatiously smiling.
His black fringe covered the familiar markings on his tanned face. Embria had similar markings on her face. She lifted her head to take a better look.
He saw her face and looked shocked. She raised a hand and moved his hair to take a closer look at the markings.
“do you remember any of your past?” she questioned.
“um… no… not much of it…” his smile had now completely faded and he began to fidget.
“excuse me for being forward and intruding… but… what do you remember?” she brushed her hair being her ear and pushed her hat up a little.
“hmmm I woke up… in an abandoned factory… I was in a… I don’t know what to call it… an… incubator you could say… that was about seven hundred and fifty years ago… on the plus side, I haven’t aged a bit!”
Embria smiled slightly, “I woke up on an open area of land. It looked like an explosion had taken place. Looking back I think I may have been involved in it and that’s I can’t remember anything…” she turned back to face the bar and took another mouthful of water.
She reached into her pocket and took out three coins and placed them next to the empty glass. She stood up and began to walk out of the bar.
“hey! Wait… you didn’t tell me your name!” the strange man followed her out of the inn, and held out his hand, “Lonek. Your name?”
Embria shook his hand, “my real name is unknown to me… call me Embria”
[*]
“so where exactly is this fantastic place?” Averlia asked.
“we’re actually nearly there. Its just over this rock” Sephen reached up and pulled himself onto a huge rock. He balanced himself and reached down for Averlia’s hand. She pushed it aside, “I appreciate you being a gentleman but I can take care of myself.” She bounced off a rock next to the one Sephen was standing on, onto another, jumped and landed next to Sephen. She straightened up and smirked at him. He had obviously underestimated her by the shocked look on his face. She looked away from Sephen and began to walk forwards; he stood up and walked after her, mumbling something about gymnastics under his breath. He over took her and stopped at a lake. Surrounding it were rocks, a small woods and a cliff with a cascading waterfall, which crashed onto the rocks below. Averlia gazed at this magnificent place. The sun made the water in the lake sparkle like stars in the night sky, and the waterfall looked like falling diamonds.
Sephen looked around at her and smiled. Then he spread his wings and glided across the lake. He landed on the side of the cliff. He jumped down onto a boulder and leaped behind the waterfall.
Averlia stood there watching him. when he disappeared behind the waterfall, she couldn’t help but think he was trying to show off by trying to look cool… the air twirl gave it away a little… and the back flip onto the boulder did a little too…He stuck his head out from behind the fall and signalled Averlia over. She rolled her eyes and gracefully glided over. She could see there were no rocks behind the water, so she flew straight through it. She landed and shook her wings to dry them out. Sephen walked over and took her hand. Averlia saw the cave led further into the cliff. When they had walked further into the cave, Averlia heard footsteps coming towards them.
“hey, Aiden is that you?” Sephen shouted into the darkness.
“the one only buddy. James told me you brought another babe.” Came a voice.
“yeah but this one’s gonna stay longer. I’m sure of it.”
The reply was laughter and a boy shorter than Sephen came into view. He had short brown hair, which was spiked up at the sides.
He reached his arm out to Averlia, “hi I’m Aiden. Let me guess… you just met Seph and think he’s a show off who has no taste?”
Averlia shook his hand and nodded in awe, “how did you know?” She saw Sephen’s head spin off his shoulders and look at her in shock, “Oh I’m Averlia.” She looked at Sephen who was still looking devastated. She giggled and Aiden led her further into the cave.
“honestly though… you guys don’t think I’m like that do you? I do have style right? Right? I mean… Joe and Alex likes my style!” Sephen was walking in front of them, backwards, looking really quite nervous.
Aiden looked around at him, “they’re your brothers and they look basically the same.”
Averlia laughed again, “Relax Sephy-poo you’re a cool guy.”
Sephen and Aiden stopped at a pair of dusty, crimson curtains. Behind them Averlia could hear deep voices, laughing.
Sephen gave Averlia a horrible look and drew the curtains.
The laughing stopped and some of the voices said, “sup Seph.”
However one of them said “hi babe” it was defiantly a boys voice…
Sephen took Averlia’s hand and led her into a room with old chairs and sofas scattered around. There was a large mattress in the center where five boys were sitting. One of them had smooth black hair and wore a pair of black jeans only. Two of them had long red hair a lot like Sephen’s, and the most bizarre of them all had long wavy purple hair, and wore a red halter-neck top with a black pants.
Sephen pulled Averlia in front of him and wrapped one arm around her chest.
“the guys. That one,” he pointed at the black haired boy, “that’s Vergil He likes to keep his top off…” Vergil waved, “those two,” he pointed at the two red haired boys, “Max and James, Max is the one with the huge nose and James is the one with the man boobs,” they waved and gave Sephen ‘death glares’ (that’s what Averlia would’ve called them…), “at last but not least, the dudette among dudes, Maddie,” he pointed at the purple haired one and he blew her a kiss. Sephen let go and Max stood up.
“I suggest you move out of the way…”
Averlia stepped to the right and the others stood up and attacked Sephen. At first, Averlia was a little worried… had Sephen introduced her to thugs?
But her worries faded when they all started laughing.
These boys seemed like the kind of people you never forget. The kinds who make good friends, and that Maddie seemed hilarious. Aiden struggled his way out of the fight and walked over to Averlia. He opened his arms and hugged her. She hugged him back and he whispered in her ear, “Your welcome here any time. It’ll be nice to have a fresh face around. If you don’t mind I have a match to win” he pulled himself away and turned around. She grabbed his arm and said, “your not gonna win this… I AM!” she pulled him to the side of her, shape shifted into a Flavius-like form and leaped towards them.
[*]
Lonek and Embria had been talking for quite a while now. They had talked about their travels. Lonek had been travelling a lot too…over the past hundred years… he said he was amazed they hadn’t seen each other before…
“hey… do you… have anywhere to stay tonight?” he asked. Embria slowly shook her head, she had a bit of an idea where this was going.
“do you wanna stay with me?”
Embria thought about it for a while. She thought she could trust Lonek. He seemed like a nice guy. But what if he was looking for more than a friend ship? She didn’t care for things like that. She kept her mind on her future only. Well… if he was looking for that, she could tell him how she felt, he’d understand.
“sure, I’d love to” she said. Lonek smiled and stood up.
“you don’t have to worry about any revolting room mates by the way, I live alone. Oh, and your gonna have to sleep on the sofa if you don’t want to sleep in my bed, even though its a double…” he stretched and looked at her out of one eye. She smiled to herself and stood up.
“oh I don’t mind. I’ll sleep anywhere. As long as it’s above water… or not in a volcano for that matter…”. Lonek put his hands down and laughed quietly.
“right. Lets go and you can tell me more about yourself… do you fight?…”
"I thought you'd never ask!!"

---

chapter 4

“okay, okay, okay. Averlia’s turn. You must beat a score of thirty-five.”
Sephen, Averlia and James were having a burping competition. She loved being with these guys. At home, Flavius and Arneya would’ve called her names and walked out the room. But here, they just laughed with her.
Aiden, Max and Maddie were judging. Sephen was in the lead with thirty points and James was runner up with twenty-six. Averlia had only managed fifteen points so far.
“for this round, the drink is… Vodka!”
Sephen and James groaned. Averlia knew what they were thinking. They couldn’t take a big sip because of the strong taste…
“you know what, I’m gonna let you guys go first. I’m gonna beat you what ever score you get” she said. All of them sniggered.
Sephen grabbed the bottle from Aiden and took a small sip. He swallowed with difficulty and waited a while. Averlia sat watching with a grin on her face. Sephen opened his mouth and let out a small burp. He shook his head. He obviously knew that wasn’t his best.
James took the bottle and did the same. Again not a very big belch.
He passed the bottle to Averlia, not making eye contact.
“what I am about to do will not be very lady like. So, prepare to be disgusted.” With that she put the bottle to her lips and tipped the whole contents down her throat. She heard Maddie gasp, “You go, diva!”
She waited for a moment. Sephen and James still weren’t making eye contact, and now their hands were covering their faces.
Averlia opened her mouth and the longest loudest belch she had ever heard came out.
When she had finished she looked at the others. Sephen, James and Aiden where looking at her in complete awe. Max and Maddie where scribing on the notebooks they held in their hands.
Vergil, who was sitting across the room was looking over with a slight smile on his face.
“full marks Averlia wins!” Said Max.
Averlia smiled and laughed with the others.
Vergil stood up and entered a room she hadn’t noticed before yet she seemed to be the only one to notice him leaving.
“Averlia, you are the coolest girl I have EVER met!” said James, and Max nodded in agreement.
Averlia was still staring at the scarlet curtains Vergil had went through.
The guys started mimicking Averlia and laughing at each other. She stood up and walked through the scarlet curtains she had been staring at.
On the other side there was another tunnel, and she could see a flickering light at the end.
“Vergil? You descent?” she yelled.
“oh… yeah come on through” he replied sadly.
She jogged though the tunnel and saw Vergil lying on another, smaller mattress, with candles scattered around him. he was staring at the top of the cave (which, when Averlia looked, was covered in gems and crystals)
“you okay?” she asked.
He nodded and gestured her over. She slowly walked over and sat next to him.
“good come back on the hole competition thing” he said quietly.
“oh… thanks. You haven’t talked all night. Are you okay?”.
He looked at her then back at the ceiling.
“yeah… I s’pose… it’s just… I had nothing to say… I know your brother by the way.”
“Flavius? Well yeah I haven’t got any other brothers… wish I did… but I don’t” He smiled slightly. Averlia yawned and lay down.
“have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is?” he said.
Averlia thought for a while. Yes she had. She wondered about it every night. Flavius had always spent more time tending to and caring for Arneya. So Averlia felt neglected, and had a lot of alone time.
“yes. I was born with this,” she showed him the mark of the Vay, “I had to practice with her from a really young age to keep her from overcoming me. Firstly I thought my purpose was to control her because I can remember my mother saying people had been consumed and killed by her. But I talk to her at night. She tells me those others had chosen to die. They hated having her and wished to be normal. So now I kinda don’t know what my purpose could be.”
“I think about it all the time.” he sat up and stretched, “I wanna show you something” he stood up and helped her to her feet. He hesitated, and pulled her over to a strange painting on the wall.
When Averlia had saw it before, she thought nothing of it. But when she looked closer, she could see it was a symbol of honour towards the Vay.
She felt a throbbing on her hand, and raised it to see what was causing it.
“hey… look…” Vergil looked around, and stared at the mark of the Vay glowing red on the palm of her hand. Averlia closed her eyes…
Vergil watched closely as Averlia’s body was surrounded in black flames. He stepped back in horror and thought about calling one of the others for help. Then, they slowly began to fade. But standing there wasn’t Averlia, but an older woman, she opened her eyes and looked at Vergil.
“don’t be afraid…” her voice echoed around the room. She raised her hands and placed them on the wall, where the symbol was.
“Vergil?” he heard the others racing up the tunnel towards his room.
Sephen was the first to reach the end. He stopped and stared at the woman. As the others came into view they bumped into Sephen, nearly knocking him over. Vergil looked at them, shrugged then back at the strange woman.
She still had her hands on the wall, and now her eyes were closed. The others slowly walked towards where they were standing and Max pushed Sephen forward, “Averlia? Babe? W-what ya doing?” Vergil looked back at the woman, she had opened her eyes now and had pushed her hands into the wall, which was rippling like vertical waves. Soon, she was almost fully into the wall. Then, she disappeared completely…
[*]
It had been almost an hour now. They were all waiting in Vergil’s room; wondering where the woman had gone. Vergil had told the others what happened and how Averlia was containing the Vay.
“hey, Aiden. Time?” said James.
Aiden lifted his arm, and checked his watch, “holy hell it’s half past ten!”
Vergil, who had been thinking about what could’ve happened to Averlia, jerked his head up and immediately said, “What about her brother? He’ll be really worried wont he?” Sephen looked at him and his face turned as white as chalk, “sugar”
“I know where she lives, I can go tell him she’s with us. She’s gonna have to stay the night now. Its way too late” James stood up and began to walk out of the room. Max lay down, grabbed his ankle and he fell to the floor, “how do you know where she lives?” asked Sephen.
James turned over, and sat up. He bit his lip, “you know last year, when I had that secret girlfriend? It was… her little sister…” Maddie gasped, “oh my god! I can’t believe it. Jamie-Roo you minx!” James stood up and pointed at him, “don’t call me that!” and he ran out of the room. Vergil looked down again, and began to think. As soon as Averlia had shown him the mark of the Vay on her had he knew it had something to do with that symbol on the wall. He looked at it. The mark was right in the center, with swirling patterns around it.
It began to ripple again , “guys look” he said. The strange woman began to come out. When her full body had come into view, she looked at the boys, smiled and was engulfed in the same pitch-black flames as before. they all stood up and Aiden slowly walked forward and Sephen shoved him.
The flames cleared and Averlia fell to the floor.
Vergil rushed forward and turned her over. Sephen kicked him out of the way and kneeled down next to her, “Averlia? Averlia, are you okay? Can you hear me?”
He was really looking worried. a smirk appeared on his face. He put one arm behind her head and one under her legs; slowly lifted her up, looked around at the others and back at Averlia. She opened her eyes and punched him in the face, with such force, he dropped her and staggered backwards.
She stood up, brushed herself down, and looked at Sephen who had fallen over and was holing both hands over his nose.
“I have legs.” She said.
Sephen moved his hands, and half his face was covered in blood.
Vergil began to laugh, “You broke his nose”
Sephen sat up and tilted his head back, to try and stop the bleeding.
“okay that’s that done. Averlia back yet?” James entered the room, “oh! Hey!” he looked at Sephen, then at Vergil who was trying not to laugh, and back to Averlia, “Flavius said he’s glad you’re alright and wants you back at the cave tomorrow. Oh, and he doesn’t approve hanging out with boys you don’t know.”
Averlia rolled her eyes, “that’s so typical Flavius.”
Averlia ripped a small part of her skirt off and gave it to Sephen.
“sorry. I get carried away and angry when the Vay uses my body…”
Sephen shot her another death glare and carried on moping up the blood and keeping his head tilted back.
Averlia smiled at everyone, “so, I’m staying here tonight? Where do I sleep?”
They all looked at each other. Max was the first to speak, “Vergil is the only one with a double bed… but you’re really Sephen’s guest… but you’ll be safest from rape with Maddie… but James usually sleeps on the floor…but”
“oh for heavens sake shut UP!” Vergil yelled, “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor if you want to sleep in that bed” he pointed at his own bed, which was neatly made, and a double four-poster.
“oh… you don’t have to sleep on the floor…”
“that’s settled! You’ll be sleeping in Vergil’s bed with him!” said James.
Averlia smiled and nodded. She saw Max nudge Vergil with his elbow out of the corner of her eye, “Gonna get some action tonight, eh Vergie?” he sniggered and Vergil’s eye twitched. In the blink of an eye, he spun around and kicked Max across the room. Then, he straightened up, and folded his arms.
“fast.” Said Averlia quietly.
Maddie giggled in quite a girlish manner, “C’mon baby diva, you can borrow some of my nightwear” he linked himself onto her arm and led her out of the room.
Averlia looked around at the others and gave them the ‘what the?’ look. James sniggered.
When they were out of earshot of the others, Maddie sighed, “I don’t know why I hang out with these guys. They’re just so immature. Not like us babe’s. Averlia giggled. She was right; this guy was funny…
She saw the scarlet curtains and thought, trying to remember if she could remember any other holes or sets of curtains around the main room. Nope. They passed through the curtains and Averlia looked around the room again. Straight in front of them, was a pair of navy blue curtains; and to the right of them, an electric blue and a purple pair. Maddie led her to the purple curtains, and down a long winding tunnel.
When it ended, they were in a large circular room, with hot pink rugs and beanbags scattered on the floor. There was a small chest of draws next to a small mattress covered in pink, purple and red shawls.
He walked over to the draws and crouched down. He quickly opened each draw, looked in and closed it. He took a purple pile from the last one, and threw it at Averlia.
“there you go babe. That’ll be around your size.”
Averlia let most of the pile fall and saw it was a long nightgown with a rose embroided on the shoulder.
“thank you” she said, “where should I get changed?”
Maddie began to totter over to her.
“you get changed in here, and we’ll meet you in the living room.” He said, and he skipped out of the room.

---

chapter 5

Averlia woke up from the most restful sleep she had had in a long time.
She smiled to herself and yawned. She felt something move beneath her head, and opened her eyes.
Max, James and Maddie were staring at her, with huge grins spread across their faces.
“good morning,” they said in a ‘cheeky’ whisper.
“eh.” Answered Averlia. Shutting her eyes she tried to get up. There was something around her waist stopping her. She opened her eyes again and looked. A hand. She followed the arm attached to it. It went behind her. She looked at the other side of her and gasped.
Vergil, who was still asleep, had his arm around her and she had been resting on his bare chest.
She looked back at the other three, who were fighting back giggles.
“shut up. I may have been a little tipsy last night but I would’ve remembered anything happening.” She moved his hand from her waist and he woke up instantly. He raised his head, looked at Max, James and Maddie, then at Averlia, then at his arm lying behind her. He screwed up his face and lay back on the bed.
Averlia got up and walked out the room.
She came to the living room and Sephen was sitting on the only non-battered chair, drinking out of a carton of orange juice.
“morning.” He snarled.
Averlia walked slowly over to him, “what? Why you so mad?”
He took another mouthful of juice, but didn’t move his head from facing forward, “’m not mad”.
Averlia sat down on the floor in front of him, but he still didn’t make eye contact.
“is it ‘cause I burst your nose?” she asked.
He merely sipped the juice and swallowed, no eye contact.
She heard laughing coming from the tunnel which led to Vergil’s room.
She looked at the scarlet curtains and Maddie and Max came out, closely followed by James and Vergil. Maddie, Max and James were laughing like hyenas, but Vergil had a scowl on his face; his arms folded and his hair still a mess. Sephen turned his head slightly to take a better look at them. They sat down on the large mattress, and grabbed the other cartons of juice next to Sephen’s chair. Vergil lay down and put his hands behind his head.
James, who was having trouble breathing he was laughing so much, nudged Vergil with his foot.
“lighten up Vergil it was just a joke!” said Max, he opened his carton and took a mouthful.
“well, are these two always so touchy?” Averlia asked, pointing to Sephen and Vergil.
“I’m not a sour as Sephen when I’m in a mood.” Said Vergil.
Sephen kicked him and slouched in the chair.
Averlia sighed, “okay. Whats wrong with you?”
“well… Max made a joke about you and Vergil getting it on last night and Vergil kicked him across the room again. I don’t know what’s wrong with Seph.” Explained James.
Vergil sat up and looked at Sephen, who looked straight back. An ear-to-ear grin spread across his face, “he believes Maximum cheese flavour and is jealous!” he laughed. Averlia felt herself blush. She looked over at Sephen, he was blushing too. He looked at her and turned white.
“I… I… um… I’m… gonna… get dressed…” she jumped up and ran into Vergil’s room. She collected up her clothes quickly, and began getting dressed. She heard footsteps and covered herself up with the quilt.
“Averlia, can I come in?” came Sephen’s voice.
“um… yeah” she wrapped the quilt all the way around her and nodded when Sephen entered.
“I… erm… I… Vergil doesn’t know what he’s talking about… I’m not… you know…” he said. Averlia nodded again. Sephen was as white as the sheets on the bed next to him. He was standing with one arm behind his head and was beginning to sweat, “I…um…” Averlia put one hand up to stop him, “nothing happened last night. I just woke up and I was lying like that. I think it might be because my brother, sister and I all have to sleep in the same bed. It’s only a double so we have to kind of stay close together to stay warm… and not fall off the end…” He laughed and put his arm down. Averlia crouched down and quickly got changed behind the bed. She stood back up, walked around to where Sephen was and gave him a hug, “thanks. Its not very often I have a good time with anyone. It’s even better when it’s with guys as nice as you.” He hugged her back and kissed her on the forehead.
Averlia felt herself blush again and walked out of the room.
“hey! Babe!”
[*]
“Hey. Do you like come around here often?”
Aleira looked him up and down, “meh.” She said.
“listen, do you wanna see a movie tonight? Because-”
“I’m not interested” she turned her back on him and began to walk away.
“c’mon baby. You know you wanna”
“get lost. I don’t” she grabbed her skateboard and headed towards the half pipe.
“c’mon babe, you haven’t lived until”
“HAAHHH!” Aleira spun around and kicked him in the chest, winding him. He fell backwards and she skated down the half pipe, but was stopped by her friend Sierra.
“Aleira! He was like really into you!”
Aleira performed a lip-trick and balanced carefully, “the dude wouldn’t take no for an answer. Plus he was majorly creepy. He’s been talking dirty to me all day.” She jumped down and skated off. She knew that Sierra would want to talk about this for ages. It would be impossible to skate while she was talking.
“Aleira, why do you always go for guys who aren’t interested in you? Any one who flirts with you at all, you seriously hurt!” Sierra followed her to a picnic table covered in graffiti.
“boys who aren’t interested in me are therefore out of reach, which means they are totally hot! Ask anyone. Non-attainable boys are the smexiest! Plus, all the guys who are actually interested, are so desperate to have a date and or good time, are so creepy.” She lifted her skateboard onto the table, and took her spray-cans out of her bag.
“trust me, when Tri started flirting with me he was totally creepy. But look at us now! Were super happy!” she rested on one hand and began staring into space. Aleira sprayed her skateboard to cover the patches, which had been scraped off.
“yeah. You also go out and do it every night. You are a slut. Look at me! Eighteen, single, and choosing celibacy before marriage. I refuse to give my body to a boy who thinks ‘lets do it’ is a romantic chat up line. I want a boy who loves me for my personality as well as my looks and treats me like I’m the best thing that ever happened to him.”
Sierra stared at her. This was when she would stop talking, say whatever (meaning ‘I know you right I’m just too stubborn to admit it’) then walk off and talk to Tri, her new boyfriend, and let him feel her up, then they’ll go back to his place watch a movie and the rest tells itself. And once more tomorrow, Aleira will never hear the end of it.
“whatever…” ‘and off to Tri we go!’
Aleira finished with her board and headed back to the pools and half pipes.
“hey!” Aleira turned around to see a tall thin girl with short red hair, standing quarter of a foot away from her.
“dude, personal space!”
“are you Aleira?” she spat.
“say it don’t spray it, dude... Yes I am. Why?” she looked up at the girl and saw she was a human as she had suspected.
“I am Porsha Andrea. People have been telling me you’re the best skater in Europe. I beg to differ. I challenge you to a contest.”
She stepped closer to Aleira and looked down at her.
Aleira laughed, “well okay, nube… your gonna loose… who’s judging?”
Porsha pointed to four people Aleira didn’t know, Tri standing second off the end, frantically waving at her. They were lined up by the side of the largest skate pool. Porsha had obviously told a lot of people about the challenge, as a crowd had gathered.
She walked over and shook hands with the judges, Aleira followed her and did the same. ‘ooh that judge is kinda cute…’ she thought. One of the other judges stood up, “Porsha Andrea is to go first.” Porsha stepped forward, and began her run. She was good, but Aleira could tell she was a rookie. There were a few more complicated tricks she tried and failed. Aleira noted which ones they were. She would perform these to show her up… like she always did in a contest.
Porsha finished and waited for the results.
Five, five, six, four, three. Twenty-three… easy to beat.
Porsha walked past her and smirked as if to say, ‘beat that loser!’
Aleira waved and got ready. She jumped off the side, and began…
[*]
She finished with a Wall ride, then an Ollie, then a kick flip, before landing on the side of the half pipe.
She straightened up and smiled at Porsha, who was standing next to the judges.
‘Ten, ten, ten, ten, no way… the cute guy?’ (he had wrote a different score on the other side of the card) ‘eleven!’
‘The look on Porsha’s face… priceless…’
“a total of fifty one for Aleira… um… what’s your last name?”
Aleira shook her head, “no parents, no idea. I was knocked out when I was younger and don’t remember anything.
“ALEIRA! LOOK BEHIND YOU!” Came Sierra’s voice.
Aleira turned around. Her three long tails had fallen out the bottom of her backpack.
“uh-oh…”
The judges looked at her. Porsha looked at her. The crowd stared at her. All horror struck.
“oh come on! There just tails! Honestly humans really don’t know anything about the world around them, do you?!”
She looked back at the judges. All but one were still staring in horror. The cute guy. He was walking forward. Now everyone’s eyes were on him.
when he reached her he whispered in her ear, “your right, they just don’t understand, lets go”
he grabbed her hand and led her out of the park.
When they were clear of everyone, Aleira thanked ‘cute guy’ and jumped on her skateboard.
“hey! Wait!” he shouted after her. She stopped, and turned around.
“I… um… was wondering… err… great moves!” he started shuffling his feet and playing with the zip on his jacket.
“thanks. Maybe one day you can show me some of yours? Gimme your hand.” He held out his hand, curiously.
She reached into her bag, and pulled out a pen. She held out his hand and began writing on it, “my names Aleira. Here’s my mobile number. Call me.” He seemed shocked. But when she finished he stared at his hand and smiled, “thanks!… I… mean… heh… I’m Aiden by the way. I’m a Diaelo… I hate hanging out with humans but all the good skate parks are full o’ them…”
She laughed, “Yeah you’re right. I’m Velreman… sadly the only one I know…”
“hey Aleira!” her heart sank. Sierra was running straight towards them, “wait up!”
Aleira grabbed Aiden’s hand, and ran as fast as she could, “stupid human! I’m sick of you controlling my life! Aiden, jump on your board.” As he did, she copied and crouched down on it to go faster.
[*]
Lonek stretched and sat up in his bed. Embria was sitting at the end, with her back turned to him. She was hunching over, probably putting her boots on…
“good morning” she said.
“hey, you going already? Even after last night?”
“last night was a mistake. You put vodka in that water you gave me… I was foolish enough not to see what you were up to.” She hissed. She stood up and began walking out of the room. She picked up her staff on the way out.
Lonek stopped her with his telekinesis.
“aww… you don’t mean that… personally I was surprised you didn’t taste it” he spun her around, and let her go.
She fell to the floor and picked up her staff, “and I told you about my non-existent taste buds. And I will not be kept. I have places to go. I want to figure out my past.”
Lonek kneeled down next to her on the floor, “I understand. And I apologize for seeming a little desperate… and for controlling you. Stay for a little. You literally have all the time in the world.”
She still didn’t smile. But closed her eyes, sighed and stood up.
“Lonek, you are a nice person...sometimes…. I have a lot to figure out. Even though I may be immortal, there is bound to be something that can kill me. I want to figure out who I am so I can be careful of those things.”
She turned around and walked out the bedroom door.
“Embria! Just do what I do!” he shouted after her.
“oh? And what might that be?” she answered.
Lonek poked his head around the door, “just stay away from kryptonite!”
Embria bowed her head, Lonek read her mind, he had made her laugh… she was going to miss him… score! She walked out the door and slammed it behind her. ‘I’ll be seeing her again… I know it… heh heh’ he thought.

---

Chapter 6

“When do you think Averlia will be back?”
“oh for god sake Flavius, if I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, ‘I-don’t-care!’. We’ll be lucky if we never see her again”
“Arneya, your grounded. Averlia is your sister and like it or not, we’re going to look for her!”
“no need, I’m here.” Averlia swooped onto the cave and grabbed Arneya’s hair on the way past.
“ouch!”
“you little brat I heard every word of what you said!” She shouted at her.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Don’t kill me!” she kneeled down on the floor and put her hands over her head.
“dude… you’re fast…”
Flavius looked towards the entrance to the cave. A hand was on the edge… then another one… a young-ish boy pulled himself into view, his wings slamming at the air.
“heh heh heh… never underestimate The Averlia, Seph…” she walked over to him and grabbed his arm, “need a hand, tough guy?” she mocked.
Sephen held onto her and let her pull him up. He lay at the entrance, panting.
“Averlia, where have you been? James told me you were with him but you can’t have stayed with him for five days! And you’ve missed three days of school!” Flavius yelled.
Averlia turned around and sighed, “I’ve been in the Valley. I haven’t missed any important tests, or lessons and, oh yeah, I don’t care”.
Arneya had hid behind the sofa and was peeking over the edge. Averlia waved at her and she ducked.
“you… have… a strange… life… Aver…lia” panted Sephen. He tried to sit up but Averlia pushed him back down, “down boy.” Sephen barked almost sarcastically. Averlia smiled at him, “good doggy” and she bent down and patted him on the head.
“Averlia who is this guy?” asked Flavius
She smiled at Sephen again, “he’s my new puppy! I’m gonna call him Sephy-poo!”
Sephen looked up at her and scowled, “what’s with the whole puppy thing? I mean come on. Is it cause of my puppy dog eyes or what?” he held his hand up to Flavius, “I’m Sephen Zunae. I’m the guy who blew up the school.” Flavius shook his hand.
Arneya peeped out from behind the sofa. This time she was looking at Sephen. He stood up, brushed himself down, thrust his wings out and retracted them again, to stretch them. He checked his hair and turned to Averlia, “Seriously, I’m not a dog… but if I was I’d be a wolf…”
Averlia giggled and Arneya flew out from behind her hiding place and grabbed Sephen’s hand, “hi I’m Arneya! Wow you really do have puppy dog eyes. I love puppies myself!” Sephen seemed quite shocked. He blushed and began stuttering, “I… um… well… I… never… erm… pleased to meet you…?”
Averlia had to hold her breath to stop herself from laughing at the look on Sephen’s face.
“do you want a drink? Anything to eat? After all that flying your strong wings must be tired. They are very impressive by the way, much more manly than my brothers. But enough about him, lets talk about you!”
Sephen blushed even more. Arneya seemed to refuse to let go of his hand and she was shaking it so much, Averlia was surprised it hadn’t flew off.
“um… actually… I’m… I’m not that tiered… I… uh…n…need my hand back…” he pulled his hand away from Arneya and rubbed it. Averlia heard Flavius giggling behind her.
“um… Averlia… I need you to go get us some food” he said. Averlia forced herself to stop laughing and turned to him, “now? Okay.” She turned to Sephen, “do you wanna stay for lunch? He may not look like much but Flavius is a pretty good cook.” Immediately, Arneya’s face lit up. She reached for Sephen’s hand again but he pulled it away.
“oh you should defiantly stay. If fact you can stay here while Averlia goes for the food! We can listen to some music!” she said.
Sephen looked at Averlia. Arneya looked at her. Flavius looked at her.
Averlia looked at Flavius, “why don’t you show Seph your bike?” Sephen looked at him with such a begging look. He looked just about ready to get down on his knees and beg Flavius so he didn’t have to be with Arneya.
“yeah! Great idea! Come on its in here.” He led him further into the cave.
Sephen whispered something to Flavius and they began to run.
Averlia looked at her sister. She was looking into the darkness of the cave where the boys had disappeared.
“dude! Its gorgeous!” came Sephen’s voice from the darkness.
Arneya turned and began to walk towards them, wide eyed.
Averlia grabbed her arm, “oh no, your coming to help me. Plus, you’re being too obvious again”
they both jumped out the entrance of the cave, and swooped up into the sky.
“do you think he likes me?” she asked
“erm… well… do you want the truth, the hole truth and nothing but the truth?”
Arneya thought, then nodded.
“well I think he thinks you were a little clingy, and you were coming on too strong. In fact I agree. I could help you know. We’ve been talking loads. He told me his description of the perfect girl. And if that doesn’t work, you have your real form.”
Arneya sighed, “my real form! Why didn’t I think of that first?!”
Averlia swooped underneath her and flipped over to face her, “aww… its cause your dumb sweetie… okay, we’re here.”
Averlia flipped over again and dived down.
Arneya followed.
[*]
“okay, they’ve gone.”
“you sure? Arneya’s not there?”
“no Averlia would’ve taken her with her.”
“thank god…” Sephen peeped out from the shadows, looked around and stepped out.
“wow… is she always like that with visiting dudes?”
Flavius lay down on the floor, “we don’t really get very many visitors. And all the ‘dudes’ she hangs with are ugly perverted humans. So… nope. Just you.”
Sephen collapsed onto the floor and stretched out.
“if she ever talks about someone called Daniel Grey or ‘the Dan’ let me know. It’ll give me a good reason to hurt him… heh heh…”
“by any chance… are you… interested… in Averlia?” Flavius sat up a little to get a better look at Sephen, so he could tell if he was telling the truth or not.
“… well… she’s really cool… really funny…” he stared at the roof of the cave, he seemed to be daydreaming, “she’s… kind… independent… sensitive.. yet tough… pretty… beautiful… great kisser”
“WHAT!” Flavius stood up and stared at Sephen.
“oops…”
“a great kisser?! You kissed her?! How? When? Where? Why?”
Sephen sat up and faced Flavius, “you missed out ‘who’”
Flavius was red with anger. Sephen swore he could see steam coming out of his ears.
“answer me!”
“well… it was on Friday. Some girls were teasing her and one of them punched her, so I stuck up for her. When she thanked me, she saw I was Diaelo because of my eyes. But later on she had doubts because I was in a human form. I showed her my tail and she thought it was fake. So I grabbed her… and… um… kissed her- let me finish! She burst into flames, saw I was who I was, and kicked me where it hurts…”
“we’re back!” Averlia showed up at the mouth of the cave with a tank in her hand and something moving around in it.
“where’s Arneya?” asked Flavius.
Sephen shape shifted into a mouse and ran into a corner.
“she’s coming. She ran into Cindy and she stopped to talk”.
Flavius shot Sephen a death glare as he shape shifted back to his normal self.
“what’ve I missed?” Averlia looked between them. Flavius opened his mouth to speak but closed it again when Sephen came forward and took Averlia’s hand.
He led her into a different part of the cave, and put up a flame wall.
Flavius heard Arneya flying towards where he was standing. She appeared at the entrance with a flurry of feathers.
“you know just because you’ve got feathered wings and we haven’t, doesn’t mean that you should throw them all over the place whenever you feel like it.” Said Flavius, “what happened to you?!”
When Arneya folded back her wings, he saw she looked different than how she had when she left.
Her hair had gone from white-blonde to dark red, she wore dark purple make-up, and red clothes with long silver chains.
“do you think Sephen’ll like it? Or do you think I should use my real form?”
Flavius hugged her and whispered in her ear, “let it go. He likes Averlia.” Arneya gasped in disgust and stormed off to her room.
Flavius picked up the tank and began burning the contents.
He could hear muttering behind Sephen’s flame wall, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
[*]
“I just wanna say you’re really a great babe-”
“don’t call me babe. I really hate it. Baby too. Carry on”.
He looked up at her, “sorry… anyway, I was wondering if you fancied staying at the hang out a few more nights. The guys seem to enjoy your company… especially Vergil apparently… there’s another tunnel leading off from my room. We can put up some curtains and you can move in like the rest of us! How ‘bout it?”
“well firstly I told you that there was nothing going on between me and Vergil. Just because we wake up in each others arms doesn’t mean… I can see where you coming from though… secondly…” she went up on her tip-toes,
“if you don’t take me away from these two I swear I will permanently split your difference”
Sephen picked up on it straight away, “okay…” he put out the flame wall and walked out to see Flavius, eating the contents of the tank.
“Whats in there anyway?” asked Sephen. Averlia walked over and took out two things. She went back over to Sephen, “two of the only things I eat,” she opened her hands and showed Sephen what she held in them. A burnt scorpion, and a burnt tarantula. Sephen jumped backwards, “you eat arachnids? Dude that’s disturbing…”
Averlia looked at the creatures in her hands. She threw the tarantula to Flavius, he caught it and ate it. She began breaking up the scorpion in her hand, “at least try it before you say it. I’ll give you a non poisonous bit… there.” She held out a piece and smiled at Sephen.
“Averlia, you are fine! But you’re crazy. You don’t think I’m gonna put that in my mouth do you?”
“try it and I’ll snog you” he snatched it out of her hand and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed, and swallowed.
She waited for his response.
“actually its not that bad… now gimme a kiss”
Averlia laughed, “heh heh sucker!” and she ran off down the cave.
“hey! You can’t do that it’s cheating!” He ran after her, shouting.
She reached her room at the bottom of the cave and ran in. Sephen followed her, “you have to! It like, the rules of dudeness!”
Averlia pulled out a few boxes from under her bed and started packing her stuff, “help me and I’ll think about it.”
Sephen thought. Help her, chance of getting a kiss. Don’t help, no kiss.
‘ wow… look at me. Desperate for a kiss from a girl who called me a sucker. What have I become?’ he thought.
“yo! Help!” she threw a box at Sephen. He missed it and it hit him on the head. Thirty seconds later, he rubbed his head and picked up the box.
“put my desk stuff in it. Including my laptop and C-D player. I had to hug a guy I hate to get that. I stabbed him in the back afterwards though… still didn’t work… damn…”
Sephen started packing away the various things on her desk. There were sketchbooks, files filled with paper, picture frames, photo albums, C-D’s, and pencil cases.
“you know, for a chick with no family, you do pretty well. Where’d you get the money for this stuff?” he asked packing the laptop and mouse into the box under his arm.
“well… for a while, I sang in a human club. After that I bribed money outta my brothers creepy friend, Jacob. That’s the guy I had to hug that I hate. I hate him mostly because he has a crush on me and constantly asking me out.”
She stuffed her quilt and pillows into a box and put it down next to the others.
Flavius walked in and looked around at the empty room and piled boxes,
“you know this is the biggest room in the cave and your not knocking through mine and Arneya’s rooms.”
Averlia rolled her eyes, “I’m moving in with Sephen and the guys.” She said.
“I’ll think you’ll find your staying here.”
“ya wanna try and make me?”
“too easy.”
“HA! Bring it on wimp!”
“I don’t wanna hurt you. Your my baby sister.”
Averlia approached Flavius, “more like you don’t want me to hurt you.”
Flavius raised a hand and thrust it at Averlia. She caught it and flipped him over onto his back. Sephen was impressed by the speed she used.
He tried to get up but she pushed him back down with her foot.
“Seph, grab my stuff, lets go.”
Sephen obeyed and followed Averlia out of her room.
When they reached the entrance, Arneya was sitting on the floor in her new look and with popcorn on her knee.
When Sephen walked past he felt a little sorry for her. She obviously liked him, and he liked her big sister.
“Hey, Arneya! Looking good, babe” he smiled and winked at her. She blushed and smiled.
Averlia jumped out of the entrance and Sephen followed. They flew off into the sky, on their way back to the ‘hang out’.

---

chapter 7

It had been ten months since Averlia had moved in with Sephen and the guys. They occasionally went to school and had parties at weekends and on Friday nights they visited the cinema to celebrate the end of the school week. They had all said it was better having Averlia there. She had gotten so much closer to them all. They were all like brothers. And she loved being with them.
“hey guys… I love you!” Averlia raised her arms and gestured them over,
“hug me now or loose me forever!”
Maddie, James, Max and Aiden came over straight away and hugged her, “we love you too!”
Sephen laughed maliciously and Vergil sighed, “You five are way too soppy. Have some dignity!” Averlia let go, they all backed off and sat back down.
“aww… guys…” she stood up and walked over to Vergil. He looked terrified and tried to move away. But Averlia wrapped her arms around him before he had a chance, “Vergil, don’t deny it you love me too. Otherwise you wouldn’t have let me sleep in your bed when Seph got that sleep walking problem, and kept waking me up to snog me”
“hey! Why do you always have to bring that up! I had to pay half my college fund to get that treatment!”
Averlia let go of Vergil, leaped over to Sephen and wrapped her arms around him.
“I still love you. You love me too. Or you wouldn’t have invited me to live here in the first place!”
“Averlia, I’m not saying I love you, but you’re not a bad roommate.” Said Vergil, scowling at Averlia. It had obviously took a lot of effort to say that to her.
She merely smiled at him, “heh you love me.”
She let go of Sephen and went to her room.
Sephen lay back with a huge smile on his face.
“Man, you have to tell her sometime.” Said Vergil.
Sephen stayed silent. He thought about how he could tell her if he was going to at all. It came to him, “hey… would you guys mind doing something for me?”…
[*]
“did you see that? Aww it’s so sweet…” Averlia hissed in Sephen’s ear. They were at the cinema. All the others were doing something else… they didn’t say what… they were just busy. She and Sephen had gone to see a film called ‘a love once lost’. It was a romantic action film. Averlia hadn’t wanted to see it they had already seen the others at least twice.
Strangely, Sephen jumped at the chance to sit at the very back, “we can get a better view” he had said.
For the one who had suggested the movie, he didn’t really
seem very interested. He had his arm around her and seemed more interested in stealing her wine gums.
After the film, they went back to the deserted hang out.
“hey! Looks like someone left us some drink!” he pointed towards three bottles of wine on the floor next to the reclining chair.
“ooh…. Alcohol…” she dived at the chair and started pulling at the cork.
When she got it out, she poured it down her throat.
‘okay… time for the rest of the plan to begin.’
He set his watch alarm for seven thirty p.m., and sat down next to Averlia.
“Save some for me!” he said
“I though you hated wine.”
“… no… I love it…” Sephen took the bottle from Averlia and took a sip, “…yummy…”.
As the night rolled on, they talked, drank, and told jokes. Sephen had never felt so close to her. There were plenty of moments where he could’ve easily told her, but he was saving it for the next part of his plan.
Later on they went to bed. Sephen had stopped Averlia from drinking too much, he wanted her to fully remember the night.
[*]
Sephen was tossing and turning. He felt like he had forgotten something.
He sat up in his bed and threw the cover off him. he wandered into the front room and sat down. The guys weren’t back yet. He had told them he wanted to be alone with Averlia so he could tell her.
He sighed, and looked at his watch. Eleven forty-five. Hold on… his plan was supposed to start at seven thirty! His watch alarm hadn’t gone off!
He ripped it off his wrist and threw it at the wall angrily, “stupid watch! You ruined my date!”.
He ran back into his room, and then into Averlia’s.
She looked so beautiful… her hair was gently lain over her right eye, and she was tucked up in the quilt…
he leant over her and gently kissed her cheek.
“Averlia… wake up…”
she stirred and opened her eyes.
“huh… its Saturday… I don’t wanna go to school…”
“no ‘Verlia…it’s still Friday… c’mon get up… get dressed… I’ve got something to show you…”
“Kay…” she stretched and Sephen left the room. He grabbed some clothes off the floor and pulled them on. Then he walked into the hallway, and waited for Averlia.
After a few minutes, she came in with a long skirt and low-neck wrap-around. She was frantically brushing her hair, and looking worried.
“What is it?”
Sephen smiled, took her hand, led her quickly out of the hang out, and into the sky. He didn’t say a word until they landed on a cliff by the sea. He let go of her hand, and slowly walked towards the edge. She followed him.
he sat down and looked out towards the sea, “come sit. I was going to come out here for the sunset… but the alarm on my watch didn’t go off…”
Averlia sat down beside him. she thought for a second and then looked at him. he was still looking out towards the sea.
“Seph… why… what did you want to show me?”.
He looked at her, closed his eyes and sighed.
“I… wanted you to see how beautiful you are in my eyes…”.
Something inside Averlia welled up. If felt as if every emotion she had ever felt was groping at her heart. A tear ran down her cheek and she stood up. She heard the Vay in her head. What she said filled her with happiness. She knew what she had to do. She began walking away.
Sephen jumped up, and raced after her, “Averlia! Wait! I”
he reached for her shoulder but before he grabbed it, she spun around and kissed him on the lips. At first he seemed shocked. But then he wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her back…
[*]
Sephen woke up with a huge smile on his face. Averlia was lying next to him, resting on his shoulder. He gently pulled away from her, and put a pillow under her head, so she didn’t wake up.
He kissed her forehead, and left the room. On his way out he met Aiden on his way towards him.
“Dude!” he hissed he grabbed his arm and led him out of the way,
“Dude… I told her!”
“Really? What’d she say? C’mon, man, gimme the details!”
Sephen led Aiden into the front room. Vergil and Max were sitting on the mattress, talking. When they saw Sephen, they stopped and smiled cheekily at him.
“Shut up, he’s just about to spill the details”. Aiden went and sat down next to them. He turned around, and looked at Sephen.
Sephen leaped towards them and lay on the floor.
“… I so scored…”
They all laughed and gave him a high five.
“Don’t be like that… we missed the sunset… so we watched the sea instead. She’s still asleep. Woke up with her on my shoulder.”
Maddie came trotting over, “I heard that Seph. You can’t do that to her. You’re both underage!”
“Mad, you have such a dirty mind. We didn’t do it… I wanted to… but didn’t” Max sniggered “we just… made out… dude… she’s a fantastic kisser…”
“Thanks Seph. I didn’t think you’d be the type who’d kiss and tell… but I’ll forgive you this time…”. Averlia floated over in a dressing gown.
The guys sniggered and she slapped them all, gently.
She bent down to Sephen and kissed him on the cheek, “morning”.
“Morning.”
All the boys made ‘ooh’ing noises and smiled cheekily.
Sephen sat up, “hey… I talked to my mum and brothers last week. They wanna meet you today.”
“Today?! But… I…”
“will be the best thing they ever laid eyes on.”
“…okay… when?”
Sephen looked at his wrist, then remembered he’d thrown his watch across the room.
“uh… get dressed… we’ll go now.”
“well… okay…” she kissed him on the cheek again and stood up.
As she left the room, Sephen lay back, and smiled.
“Yup. I’ve got a pretty good wife… I mean life…”
the guys all sniggered and he heard Maddie say he was obsessed. He didn’t care.
He was with a girl he really liked and it seemed she really liked him too. Unless she just wanted a boyfriend… The smile faded from Sephen’s face. What if she hadn’t really liked him… what if she pretended so she’d get invited to live in the hang out to get closer to the others… no… she wasn’t that sort of girl… but the Vay might be controlling her… he jumped up and rushed towards his room.
When he got there, Averlia was getting changed.
“sorry!”
He turned around and walked around the corner.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m decent.” Came her voice. Sephen moved back into the room. And walked towards her.
He sat down, and looked at her.
“you… like me… don’t you?” he asked.
Averlia straightened up and looked at his as if he’d gone insane.
“are you joking? You really think I would’ve done all this if I didn’t? You stood up for me against bullies, you introduced me to some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, you were the only person to remember my birthday, you took me out to see a great movie, and made out with me! Anyone else would agree you’re a pretty cool guy!”
Sephen laughed, “so that’s a ‘yes’ then?.”
“correct.”
She continued getting dressed. Sephen lay back and put his hands behind his head.
“make-up?” Sephen looked back at her. She was holding up a small black box.
“eww… no way… you’ll start looking like slutty Katie Buckle.” He said. She giggled and put the box down, “I’m ready then.”
Sephen stood up, “lets go, then.”
[*]
When they got to Sephen’s house, four boys rushed down the stairs and leaped at Sephen. After a few seconds wrestling, they got off him, and turned to Averlia.
“dude! A girl? You?!” one of them said.
Averlia held out a hand, “I’m Averlia. You guys fight like babies!”
another one came forward, “this coming from a girl who probably has no experience in that area.”
Sephen stood up, “Actually, she’s pretty tough for her size… and yours Eddie!”
The tallest of them looked at Sephen shocked, “show me!”
Averlia shrugged, “I don’t wanna hurt you… but if you insist…”
she leaped towards him and knocked him to the ground with ease.
He tried to roll her over, but she pinned his arms to the floor and he couldn’t move.
“best savour this moment. By the looks of you, it’s gonna be the only time your gonna have a woman on top of you.”
She jumped off him and Sephen smiled at her.
“so, your names are?” she asked.
“Joe.” said a tall, short, black haired boy who looked a lot like Sephen.
“Eddie.” said the one on the floor.
He had longer ginger hair.
“Alex.” the shorter of them all, but still taller than Averlia.
“Ian.” He was as tall as Sephen but had slightly shorter hair. He had more of a square jaw.
“dude, where’s mum?” Sephen asked Joe.
“she’s in the garden. She’s got a new boyfriend now… we hate him so much, he treats us like five year old girls.”
Sephen sniggered, “What about Jesse? He out with that sluttish girl of his again?”
Joe nodded.
Alex sighed, “you know what he’s like. Anti social dirty sod with terrible taste in girls. Not like you eh Stephanie?” he looked at Averlia, “hey beautiful.” He smiled and winked. Sephen hit him across the face and led Averlia through the house into the garden.
It was huge! There was a long path up the middle and a swing at the bottom, where two people were sitting. As Sephen led her down the path, Averlia saw a variety of exotic plants and lots of garden gnomes and statues.
“hey mum.”
“SEPHEN! Aww my baby!” a short thin woman with a kind face rushed over to Sephen and threw her arms around him.
“mum… not in front of Averlia…” he groaned. The woman let go of Sephen and looked at Averlia. She smiled and held out her hand, “nice to meet you, dear. Sephen doesn’t visit very much so we hardly ever see him. I hear you and he are quite the couple.”
“oh… did you…” she looked at Sephen who was blushing, “well… we do get along very well… and we had a wonderful time last night…”
the man sitting on the swing caught Averlia’s eye. He was giving Sephen the ‘evil eye’.
His mother turned back to him and kissed his cheek (she was so small, he had to bend down) then she turned to the man on the swing.
“Sephen darling, this is Anthony. He’s my new boyfriend. Well… we’ve been going out for about a month now actually.”
Sephen stepped forward and held out his hand, “pleased to meet you, dude.”
Anthony looked at Sephen’s hand and shook it without making eye contact, “pleasure.”
“…yeah… hey mum, I’m gonna take Averlia back in the house…” he said.
His mother looked back to Averlia, “pleased to meet you dear. Maybe one day you and your parents can come over for a meal?”
Averlia blushed and awkwardly scratched her arm, “uh… actually my parents are… dead… we- my brother sister and I- were only young so we don’t remember much of them…”
“oh I’m sorry. Well Sephen and Edward never knew their fathers but I suppose it’s not the same when you’ve lost both is it?”
Sephen grabbed Averlia’s hand, “see ya, mum” and he led her back into the house. Once they were out of earshot, Sephen pulled Averlia closer to him and whispered in her ear, “wow. There’s an uptight old git for you, eh?”
Averlia giggled and kissed his cheek, “he’s human too.”
“What?!”
“yup. The Vay was telling me. She read his mind and he’s human.”
Sephen grabbed her hand and started jabbing the mark on it, “yo! Evil dudette! Give him brain damage for me!”
Sephen felt a strange sensation in his mind. He let go of Averlia’s hand and became quiet. They reached the house and Sephen heard a echoing voice in his head, “he is human. He will be punished. Typhoid should do the trick… take care of Averlia. And stay clear of Arneya’s real form. It can cause you trouble. Thank you.” The echo carried on for a few seconds and stopped.
“heh heh heh… I like that so-called ‘evil spirit’ of yours.” Averlia smiled and hugged him.
Later on, they said their good-byes and left.
“okay. Here’s the hard part… I think we should tell Flavius…” Said Averlia.
“what? Why?”
“well I think he has a right to know what his little sister is getting up to. Plus, I wanna see the look on Arneya’s face… I did it again! Without even trying!”
Sephen looked at her, blankly, “ya wanna fill me in here?”
Averlia was rubbing her hands together, and had a grin spread across her face, “Arneya’s first and second crushes, both fancied me. So they asked me out. Usually they’d be younger than me so I’d turn them down. After that she’d use her real form to get them. She’s extremely beautiful really. But Flavius forbid her to use it because it had a kind of Siren effect. So she could only use it when Flavius wasn’t there. Most of the time, it didn’t work and they still liked me, so I’d try and get them to ask me out so I could turn them down and kill Arneya’s spirits…”
She began laughing, and Sephen got a little scared, “you’re a lovely sister you are…” he said.
She didn’t seem to hear him, “but this time! I got you first! And I actually liked you! MY first crush pulled through! ha to you my ‘darling’ little sister!”
she started laughing maliciously, and he stepped away slowly.
She stopped, “don’t you walk away from me!”
He walked back over and put his arm around her, “you’re scary when you’re happy…”
She giggled and kissed him on the cheek.

---

chapter 8

“Seph you can stop that now… she gets the idea”
“I’m never gonna stop! I’m so happy!”
Sephen was kneeing in front of Averlia, repeatedly kissing the palm of her hand.
Averlia tried to pull it away from him but he wouldn’t budge.
“Seph, you know she’s gonna- ouch!”
He looked up but didn’t let go of her hand, “what?”
“she’s taking it out on me! Stop now or I’ll hurt you.”
“oh… sorry…” he stood up and hugged her tightly; thinking about the wonderful news.
“you know its actually kinda mean considering how happy you are. You find out your mothers boyfriend is dead and you act like you’ve won the lottery!”
Vergil came through the crimson curtains leading to the entrance of the cave, closely followed by Aiden.
He stopped, and Aiden slumped down onto the chair behind Sephen.
For a few moments, Vergil stared at Averlia as if they had just met.
“Averlia… can I talk to you for a minute?” he said.
“uh… yeah, sure…” She pinched Sephen and he let go.
Vergil beckoned her over into a corner, and she curiously obeyed.
“can you remember who baby sat you when Flavius was hunting… I mean when you were younger?” he said, putting one hand on her shoulder.
Averlia thought back. She couldn’t remember very much about her past before her second encounter with the demon hunter, Esparansa.
“he was really tall… only about ten or eleven… I was about nine when he started coming over… before that it was an old lady who smelt like cat food… we got on really well… I mean with the boy… Arneya used to say she really liked him and wanted to marry him…”
Vergil smiled slightly, “it was me.”
Averlia looked up at him. something about him did seem to be familiar… something she hadn’t noticed before now…
She hit him across the face, “why didn’t you say so sooner!?”
“I was hoping you’d just remember! And that hurt!”
“well I have a lot of memory problems so how could I remember. Flavius makes me do the hunting now, even though I don’t live with them anymore. And I thought you were my age.”
“I am. I was just thought very mature for my age… I babysat a lot. And got lots of money!” he rubbed his hands together and grinned.
“oh, and as your former carer, I don’t think Sephen is a appropriate boyfriend for you. I’ve known him for going on ten years now, and he’s not very dependable.”
Averlia looked at him stunned, “my choice in boyfriends is up to no-one but me. And whoever is confident to not only to tell me how he feels, but strong enough to defeat me in battle, in my opinion, is worth dating. I think you will agree Sephen fits this description?”
he sighed, hung his head and nodded.
“If you don’t mind, I have some things to do.” She said, and walked off to join Sephen, who immediately flung his arms around her. She giggled into his chest and pulled herself away, “I need to take you somewhere. And we need to go to tell Flavius about us… heh heh, and Arneya…” she began sniggering again, and Sephen kissed her. She stopped and smiled.
Later on, they decided to spend about an hour or so with Flavius and Arneya, before going to the ‘best place on earth’, as Averlia described it.
They arrived at the top cave of Crystal Mountain, to find both of the occupants lying on the cave floor, passing a tennis ball between them. When they saw Averlia, they waved lazily and continued with their game.
“Give us a go!” she demanded. Flavius tossed the ball to her and she threw it out of the entrance, “Its rude to ignore guests.”
Flavius stood up and groaned, “Two things. One, that was dad’s ball. The only thing we had to remember them by. Two, your here so much you can’t be guests.” Averlia shrugged, “its still rude to ignore people, and who cares about remembering our parents. For all you know we all could’ve been adopted. We’re nothing alike. Anyway, I have something to tell you, the I’m off. I was gonna stay for a while, but you’re in a mood do I don’t want to anymore. Sephen and I have become a couple. I thought you might like to know.”
Flavius looked at Sephen in such a way, he immediately thought, ‘wow, if looks could kill!’
“I knew you’d be trouble.” He spat, “how dare you date my baby sister without my approval.”
At this point, Averlia sighed and hit Flavius in the back of the head.
He stumbled forward and rubbed his head slowly. Averlia grabbed the bottom of his long hair and pulled him backwards, “I’m not your baby sister, and my approval is all he needs… and power… but that’s not the point.” Arneya came over to Sephen next and closed her eyes. Sephen looked at Averlia, who had Flavius in a headlock, and wasn’t paying the slightest attention to either of them.
In a flick of hair, Arneya disappeared, and in her place stood a taller, slimmer figure, with long blonde hair covering her face. Was this Arneya’s real form? Should he- she flicked back the silvery curtain of hair and revealed the most beautiful face Sephen had ever seen. She had striking midday-sky-blue eyes, a small, cute nose and rose pink, full lips. Her skin glowed like the sun. He gawked at her in shock and she smiled, “Sephen…” she held up a hand a stroked his cheek. An amazing sensation ran through his whole body at the sound of her voice and the softness of her skin.
‘Averlia’s not looking…’ he thought, ‘ surely a little flirting… a peck on those gorgeous lips won’t hurt…’
He smirked cheekily at her and pulled her towards him, “Lay one on me, babe” just as he was about to kiss her, Flavius and Averlia pulled them apart.
Averlia spun Sephen around and punched him across the face with all the strength she could muster, “how dare you! My sister?! Oh my god, my SISTER?!”
Sephen rubbed his nose and realized she’d burst it… again, “you honestly think I can resist that? I’m only sane! You burst my nose!” he held his head back and heard Arneya and Flavius having a row behind them.
“I don’t care if I burst your nose, you were gonna kiss my sister!”
He sighed and took an old piece of cloth out of his pocket, and held it to his nose.
“Ver’, I’ve heard Joe say this loads: its not when I look, but when I stop looking when you’ve got to worry. Because I’m either dead, or I’ve gone gay.”
“That’s true but the Vay told you-” suddenly all sound faded and Sephen felt the borders of his mind being breached again.
The same echoing voice he’d heard before sounded, ‘ I told you to stay away from Arneya’s real form. I don’t appreciate people taking my warnings lightly!’ Sephen found himself shouting, “You saw what happened! Its not my fault!”
‘Yes I saw. Because Averlia seems to like you, I will let you go with a light punishment. Arneya is mostly to blame, however. She will be punished more severely…’ Behind him, Sephen heard Arneya screaming with pain. He turned around, but thought it best not to make things worse. Instead, he turned back to Averlia, and kissed her. She pushed him away, “don’t think you can just kiss your way out of my kill list. Well anyway, we better get going. Flavius’ll probably kick us out soon…”
She took his hand and led him outside again. Sephen didn’t dare look back. He let go of Averlia’s hand and spread his own wings.
She beckoned him down towards a forest and swooped into the mass of foliage.
There was hundreds maybe thousands of trees, but Averlia seemed to know exactly where she was going. She stopped at a tree, examined it quickly, and moved to the next. When Sephen flew past, he noticed there were symbols carved into the bark. Taking no further interest, he kept following her.
She stopped again at a much older, thicker tree and turned to him.
“This is it,” and she placed both hands on the trunk, and covered her hands in a bright yellow flame.
He merely watched in amazement as the yellow flames expanded and carried on towards the branches at the very top of the tree without harming the bark at all.
She turned around again and smiled at him, then zoomed upwards towards what looked like a wooden platform.
When they landed on it, Sephen wasn’t very impressed, “this is the best place ever?” They were standing in front of what looked like a child’s tree house. No windows, and a small wooden door with a flowerpot nailed to one side.
Averlia tutted and began to search for something in the empty flowerpot.
“It might not be much at first, but once I find my key, you’ll love it.”
She pulled out a small silver key and opened the door.
He stepped in and looked around. In front of him was a large marble staircase leading up to a second floor. How could this have happened? The staircase alone was two times bigger than the wooden frame outside. On either side of the staircase, were two redwood doors with gold numbers painted on: 1, and 2.
“RIPPER!!! Mummy’s home!”
Sephen turned to Averlia startled. She was standing less than a foot away from him, smiling towards the top of the stairs.
“Averlia, who are you-” a low growl echoed around the room.
“I’m downstairs baby! Come give mummy a hug!”
Sephen looked around. The growling had stopped but Averlia was still smiling at the top of the stairs. When he looked, he saw a large cat-like beast flying towards him, having just pounced. It knocked him to the floor and was just about to bite him when Averlia shouted, “Ripper, get off him!” the leopard growled at him baring brilliant white teeth, breathing on Sephen heavily looking at him dead in the eye with piercing yellow eyes.
Averlia came over and grabbed it around the neck.
“Oh for goodness sake. Stop it you know fine well you’re not supposed to be so rude.”
Sephen stood up and she looked at him while the leopard circled her legs rubbing against them every now and then, purring softly.
“Ripper, this is my boyfriend Sephen. Be nice to him or you can expect another bath session.”
Sephen still stayed perfectly still even when Averlia let go of Ripper. He began to circle Sephen like he had just been doing to Averlia, without the purring.
“Uh… hey… Ripper…” He held his hand out and stroked the leopards back. His fur was soft and smooth.
Ripper stopped and sat in front of him. He tilted his head to one side, surveying him. Then the other side. He yawned and lay down between them.
Averlia giggled, “He says you smell funny.”
Sephen looked shocked, “you got that from a yawn? And come on I had a shower just this morning!”
“He’s probably just not used to your soap or shower gel or whatever you use. He’s used to being with girls all the time.”
“Well he’s obviously an intelligent moggy as well as well groomed.” He crouched down and stroked Rippers head gently.
Ripper closed his eyes, and purred lazily.
“Wow he’s taken to you really well. Usually he’d have you pinned on the floor if you tried to touch you.” She stared star struck at how calm Sephen had made her man-killing pet.
Sephen scratched Ripper behind the ears and shrugged, “I guess… we’re on the same wave length. I wouldn’t wanna share you either.”
Averlia smiled and blushed. ‘Score’, Sephen thought.
“So… you uh… want something to drink?” she began playing with her ankle length hair awkwardly.
Sephen nodded and stood up. As he did, Ripper did the same and rested his front paws on Sephen’s shoulders.
“Whoa… he’s heavier than he looks. But then again so are most people.” Averlia came over and pulled Ripper away, “all the rooms are upstairs. Come on.” Keeping tight a hold of Ripper’s collar, she led Sephen upstairs.
When they got onto the landing, Sephen could see a long corridor, dimly lit by candles on the walls, and five doors on each side. They began to walk forward and Averlia began to name the rooms.
“The first two, main bedroom,” she pointed to the left, “and bathroom number 1.” To the right, “the next two, P.R and Kitchen. Oh, PR stands for padded room. You see why in a minute… third pair,
The two smaller bedrooms… fourth pair, Ripper’s room” she pointed to a door on the left of her. It was a dark, camouflage green with the word’s ‘Ripper’s room’ painted in messy childish gold handwriting, “and another bathroom and the fifth pair is just a swimming pool and wash room, but they still aren’t fully decorated so I’d rather not take you inside.” She turned around and began to lead him back up the corridor. She opened the door to Ripper’s room and led him inside.
“Uh… Verl… why’re we going in here? As he peeked through the doorframe, he could see nothing. Total darkness. Averlia let go of Ripper and he strutted in proudly.
“Yeah, well the kitchen is in the middle of being decorated too… and Ripper needs to be fed, so you can help if you like.”
She made a small flame at the tip of her finger and lit some candles on the wall behind her, then walked around the room lighting more and more of them. As the room became brighter, Sephen could see how much it suited its occupant. For one, it was huge! At least the size of a tennis-court, maybe bigger. There was a small (you could’ve called it a) lake in the far corner with small ferns and bushes scattered around. It basically looked like a rainforest scene. The only thing that made it look more like a bedroom was the king size mattress on the floor, which Ripper was now lying on.
“He absolutely insisted on having a mattress. I told him it would ruin the whole rainforest theme but he’d have none of it.” She shook her head and walked over to one of the ferns. When Sephen took a closer look, he saw it wasn’t real like the rest of them, but fake. Averlia moved it aside and Sephen saw a small ridge. She opened it and took out a very large steak.
“ Heh, you think that’s big, you should’ve seen the size of the steak Jesse ate when we went to Spain last year. I swear it was like half a cow!”
Averlia laughed and gestured him over to where she was standing, now at Ripper’s side. Sephen strolled over quickly.
“He’s very well trained you know.” She told him, cutting a small chunk of the steak off, “look” she crouched down to his level and let him smell the meat.
“Ripper, give me your paw.” She held out the other hand and hid the meat behind her back. Ripper sat up and placed a paw (which was the size of a large saucer) on her hand. Then did the same with the other.
“Good boy.” Averlia stoked him, gave him the meat, and looked up at Sephen, “you wanna try?”
He stared at her for a second, “I… uh… I wouldn’t… know how?”
She smiled and grabbed his hand, “C’mon I’ll show you.” He nodded and crouched down next to her. As soon as he did so, Ripper stood up, pounced at him, knocking him back and began licking his face. His tongue was extremely coarse so this was quite painful.
Averlia sat down and looked at them, “are you just going to lie there letting him hurt you or are you gonna do something?”
Sephen thought for a second or two then remembered how his cousins had got their dog to stop.
“Ripper, settle!
Immediately, Ripper stopped and climbed off him, “wow… I can’t believe that actually worked…”
Averlia smiled at him and gave him the rest of the steak; “He’ll probably wanna wrestle you with it now so just give him the whole thing.”
Sephen sat back up in front of Ripper who was now sitting calmly. “Give me your paw.”
[*]
“So, let me get some alcohol, and you can get comfortable.” They had moved into the padded room. It had been so called because the floor and all four walls were mattresses. It was so homey and the huge cushions and pillows made everything so warm and comfortable. It would’ve been impossible for Sephen to become any more comfortable.
She smiled and left. He lay back and sighed dreamily.
The thought that had immediately come to mind was how much he hated alcohol. He only drank it to keep Averlia from forcing it on him. It had no affect on him so he didn’t mind.
He remembered the first time he’d saw her drink any kind of alcohol. It was the belching competition in the hangout. He laughed as an image of her drinking most of the contents if the bottle of vodka and burping like a man. So un-lady-like but still, it made him love her even more. She was so imperfect, yet so perfect. So irresponsible yet so irresistible.
She came back into the room with two bottles of wine under each arm and a bottle of cider in each hand.
“This enough?” she asked as he sat up.
Sephen laughed at her and stood up to help her with the bottles, “I think we’ll be okay with just this.”
Averlia blushed and smiled at him, “I doubt it’ll be enough for the both of us to get completely drunk… but I guess that’s a good thing in a way.”
Sephen sat back down and took a penknife out of his pocket. She sat down opposite him and watched as he opened the first bottle of wine with the knife alone. He pushed the knife through the cork at the top then pulled it out, the cork still attached to it.
She opened the cider by herself. The metal cap was easy to remove with her hand.
“Bottoms up” she said holding up the bottle, smiling.
Sephen looked up and held the wine up, “To our future and families”
She frowned, “Uk, not my family. To our future alone”
Sephen nodded and they clinked the bottles together and drank…

---

chapter 9

Sephen woke up smiling once more. He felt something on his arm, so he snuggled up to it.
When he looked to greet Averlia good morning, he saw she was not herself but a large pillow.
He rolled back over onto his back, “Verl?” he looked around the room and she wasn’t there.
He got up and walked out of the door. He looked up and down the corridor. Then he felt something hit him hard in back and knock him down.
“Ripper!!!! You big soft shit, get off me!!”
Ripper began to lick his face taking no notice of the commands Sephen was shouting at him; “Settle, sit, lie down, GET OFF!”
He finally managed to push him off when he morphed into a form, much like his demon form, but not as strong.
When he stood up, he stroked Rippers head and whipped the saliva of his face with the back of his hand, “good morning to you too.”
Then he heard singing from the kitchen. He patted Ripper one last time then went to see who was singing.

Averlia turned around and saw Sephen standing at the door. He looked so handsome. Leaning on the frame in his shorts, smiling at her. She stopped singing and smiled back. If only she knew why he was smiling like that. What had the done last night? She had been so drunk, that she couldn’t remember anything that they had done. A horrible thought came to mind. Had they… went all the way? She stopped smiling and spun back around to face the counter. She heard him coming towards her.
"morning beautiful. was that you singing or do you have some kind of radio in here?" he said. his voice made her knees weak and she immediatly branded herself a worthless, petty tart who needed men for survival.
"uh... yeah, it was me..."
"you're pretty good." she felt his hand on her waist, then her other waist. he wrapped his arms around her middle and began kissing her neck softly.
"hey seph?" she asked, "did we... do it last night?"
"what?!" he stopped and let go, "no of course we didn't. i'd never do that yet!"                    She blushed again, "oh, sorry, i couldn't remember because of all the alcohol... but i'm glad nothing happened."
"we made out."
"WHAT?!" she spun around again so fast, she fell onto the floor.
he rushed to help her up, "whoa chill. its not like it hasn't happened before. i mean i thought you were okay with it, if you weren't then i guess its my fault i should apologise so i'm really sorry, don't dump me i love you!"
Averlia's face when as white as the sheet covering the floor below her, "... huh...?"
Sephen froze and Vay appeared behind him.
Averlia looked between the both of them and remembered their first night. she smiled at him and kissed him.
When they parted, Sephen seemed shocked.
"i love you too." she stroked his face and brushed his hair behind his ear.
Sephen looked down at her, !... sweet." then kissed her again.
[*]
Ripper entered the room, clambered up onto the bed next to Sephen and lay over him, resting his head on Averlia's lap. She stroked him lovingly and snuggles up to Sephen.
"but i'm serious you know. You could bring Ripper with you so he doesn't get lonely." Sephen said. they had been talking in the last half hour about the future. Sephen had said that when he moves perminatly out of his mothers house, he was going to get a place of his own. and Averlia would be living with him. She had accepted of course.
"but you're not just saying that to shut me up are you? you really are gonna come live with me right?" he asked her nervously.
"yes sephen." she laughed, "i love you, i don't wanna be with anyone else. especially not Jacob!... jacob..." she stared into space with that crazy stare, her eye twitching maliciously, "kill... jacob..."
Sephen was quite afraid of what was going to happen next... but he did it any way. "uh... verl?"
she snapped out of it and snuggled up to him once more.
Ripper purred loudly as she lay there absent mindly stroking him.
sephen sighed, "i'm gonna have to move now. 'cause he is crushing my legs."
Averlia laughed and told ripper to come over to her side. he did as he was told (stepping on Sephen's manhood on the way) and lay back down onto Averlia's lap.
"but you're not just saying that to shut me up are you? you really are gonna come live with me right?" he asked her nervously.
"yes sephen." she laughed, "i love you, i don't wanna be with anyone else. especially not Jacob!... jacob..." she stared into space with that crazy stare, her eye twitching maliciously, "kill... jacob..."
Sephen was quite afraid of what was going to happen next... but he did it any way. "uh... verl?"
she snapped out of it and snuggled up to him once more.
Sephen looked down at her, and smiled. She was so wonderfully weird…
She started to giggle and prod his stomach.
“what you doing?”
“heh, I found your flab!”
Sephen hit her gently, “its not flab its muscle!”
She moved up to his chest, “Seph, you’ve got bigger boobs than I have!”
“HEY!” he sat up straight and began tickling her, “its muscle!”

---

chapter 10

Vergil sat thinking. He’d been there for almost three hours and he still wasn’t sure what he was thinking about.
the bartender came over.
"i think you should lay off the booze a little sir, you look kinda pale"
Vergil looked down upon the glass he held in his hand. he couldn't even remember drinking anything... whats more, he was underage...
He pushed the glass towards the man, and looked at him, "don't give me any more, i'll puke."
As he stood up to leave, and the man walked away, Vergil bumped into to someone taller than he was. The man shoved him out of the way, “move midget!”
Vergil spun around and faced him, “hey don’t push me!”
The tall man turned back to face Vergil. He had a square jaw, and piggy narrow eyes. He had two quite smeller men by his side and it immediatly reminded him of a school bully.
"What did you say to me?" he grunted.
Vergil stared at him dead in the eye, "i said, don't push me!"
the man looked down upon him with anger, then smirked and said the to two men standing beside him, "look at this little whimp, he thinks he's a tough guy! look how scrawny and pathetic his little arms are!"
this was it. Vergil despised it when anyone called him pathetic. he ripped of the baggy t-shirt he was wearing and revealed his hidden muscles, "pathetic am i? I bet i could make you run away screaming like a toddler"
the man raised his fists and the barman cried, "outside! no fighting in my bar!"
Vergil smirked, not taking his eyes off the seven foot body builder in front of him, "ladies first"
the man picked vergil up and threw him out of the door. he landed safely on his feet but was quite taken aback. as the man came out after him, Vergil put a hand up, "i just need your name first. so i can tell the ambulance when it gets here to pick up your remains"
the man smirked, "Darren. and yours whimp?"
"Vergil" at that second, vergil realised he was fighting a human. he couldn't help but laugh. Darren looked confused, "what 'chu laughing at?"
Vergil tried to breath and stand up straight, "you... you're a human!!" he colapsed onto the floor his sides were hurting so much.
darren still looked confused. the two men at his side were slowly peicing it all together. the one on his left widened his eyes and yelled, "he's one o' them demon things!!"
Vergil stopped laughing and lay on his back looking up at them, "took ya long enough!"
Then he covered his hands in fire and threw three fire balls at them.
they dodged them barely and darren stared at him wide-eyed, "that ain't fair!! you gotta use your muscle not your magic!"
Vergil stood up and faced them, "fine. You're still gonna lose"
Darren lundged forward, his fist aimed at Vergil's chest. he charged with such speed and rage that a few of the on lookers tht had come out from the bar had started muttering frantically.
Vergil mearly grabbed his hand and held it. because Darren was charging so much, his wrist broke on the impact. he yelled in pain as vergil grabbed his bicep and flung him into his back with ease.
Darren scoweled up at him, "that was just a fluke!"  Vergil smirked down, "well i'm just warming up."
[*]

"hey guys, where'd Vergil go this after noon? he was gonna help me with my magic" Averlia said exiting the tunnel which lead into vergil's room.
Aiden wa the only one in the main room. he was lying on his stomach on the matress, playng a game of solitare, "he went out to a bar at about one 'o' clack-ish. he'll be home drunk tonight probably."

Averlia nodded and sat next to him. "what time d'ya think?"
Aiden looked at her and shrugged,"its always really late."            
before Aiden had finished speaking, Vergil came through the tunnel and smiled at them, "sup?"
She stared at him, "wow... he's actually smiling"
Aiden looked at him, "and not drunk... AND its only six p.m"
Vergil walked over and sat down, "human thought he could beat me. showed him what i was made of. no big deal."
"do we know him?"
"don't think so. his name was something like... dale or ...daryl or something... i think he geos to your gym Aid. oh so thats where i'd seen him!!"
Aiden was no looking worried, "tell me you didn't get into a huge fight again"
Vergil grinned "okay, i won't tell you."then he got up and walked off to his room.
Averlia shouted after him but he merely waved a hand at her.
Averlia looked at aiden who looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"what?"
he looked away from vergil's entrance to her, "theres only one guy in my gym who's name begins with 'd'. his names darren, he's a human tank!"
Averlia stared at him then her gaze shot back to the entrance to Vergil's room.
"you mean... Vergil got into a fight with a human tank?"
"yeah... seriously though, this guy is like seven foot tall! his shoulders are huge! no wonder he was smiling!!"
She stood up and walked to vergil's room.
"heya... can i com in?"
a 'whoop' was her reply. she smiled and entered, "so darren the human tank?? you must be very proud"
"hell yeah! i am only sixteen ya know!"
Averlia smiled at him again, "well done vergil. But what i don't understand, is how you can fight someone that big, by yourself. was he dumb, did you use speed?"
he burst out laughing. it was the first time she had ever seen him laugh since she met him
She giggled at the sight of him clutching his sides, rolling around laughing his head off, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"so? i'm listening!"
he stopped laughing and sat up still grinning widely, "he was the dumbest human you havce ever met..."
[*]

The next morning, Averlia was the first up. She was up and dressed before the sun rose.
On her way out of her room, passing through sephen's room, she woke him up. He followed her, curious to know where she was going.
"babe? whats wrong, why are you up so early"
she didn't turn around at all, she just froze, "uh... no where... just go back to bed"
he walked towards her, "c'mon... you know you can tell me anything"
he reached out for her shoulder and spun her around. she kept her head down and hugged him, "i'll be back... i promise"
he hugged her back, "why this early and why are you so secretive and... shy all of a sudden"
she let go and rushed to the exit, "i'll explain when i get back, bye!"
he stood there for a bit, then rushed after her, but she had already passed beyond the water fall, he couldn't see her...
[*]
Sephen waited for the others to wake up, then told them about what Averlia had said.
Vergil was the first to answer, "think it has anything to do with the Vay?"
sephen shrugged and sighed, "i hope she's okay..."
before anyone had time to respond, they heard two girls voices echoed in the entrance tunnel.
"i can't for you to meet them"
"i can't wait to meet them!"
"Ripper no!"
sephen turned around and ducked just in time to avoid being pounced on. He turned around and yelled "SETTLE!"
Ripper sat down and looked up at him.
sephen turned to the entrance and looked at Averlia and another girl, who looked exactly like her, except she had a different hairstyle.
Vergil looked at her and stood up, "uh... explaination... p-please"
The girl blushed when she looked at him.
Averlia called ripper to her and said, " this is my sister kathinlia... she's been... away for a few years"
Vergil rushed forward, tripping over the matress on the way, "such a beautiful name..." he grabed her hand and kissed it, "...for such a beautiful girl.."
Kathinlia blushed bright red and smiled shyly, "th...thanks..."
vergil didn't seem to want to take his eyes off her. and by the look on her face, neither did she.

sephen jumped up and ran to averlia, "you never told me you had two sisters!"
Averlia shruged, "...well i haven't seen her in a really long time..."
"why not?"
she stopped smiling, " i can't tell you... the vay forbids it... "
she looked down at her feet shyly. he lifted her head back up, "i respect that. you can tell me when she trusts me enough to allow me to know." he smiled and she hugged him tighly.

---

chapter 11

"Holy crap its 5am!!" Said Aiden after spitting his drink all over James.
They had been chatting so much, they had lost track of time.
Sephen and Averlia had been making out most of the night, Max and James had been arguing about cheese again and Aiden had realised he was infact petrified of Ripper.

Ripper was now asleep on Vergil's lap. Purring silently as he absend mindly stroked his fur. Vergil wasn't paying attention to anything around him now. He had his arm around Kathinlia and resembeled a proud tiger as he sat with her head on his shoulder. 
He looked quite content.

"should we all go to bed now then?" Asked Averlia.
Vergil's ears pricked up and he immediatly tried to push Ripper off his lap.
Kathinlia lifted her head, stood up and walked over to Averlia, "do you think they've noticed i'm gona yet?"
Averlia shushed her quickly and whispered something that Sephen couldn't hear.
They both stood up and walked to Averlia's room. Sephen crawled over to Vergil and sat down, "i think somethings wrong"
Vergil was still struggling with Ripper, his face slowly turning red, "your bloody right somethings wrong! This cat is cemented to my legs!"
Sephen rolled his eyes and stroked Ripper's back softly. Ripper yawned, stood up, slumped off to the sofa, jumped onto it then curled up and went back to sleep.
Vergil looked from Ripper to Sephen, "...how... how?"
Sephen smirked, "not the first time i've been with him"
[*]
The next morning, Averlia again was the first up. When Vergil came into the main room, she was lying on the couch resting her head on Ripper and stroking his paws lightly.