For The Fairest- Part Nineteen by: Enemyoffun Trevor is from one of the wealthiest families in Ravencrest. His father is a distinguished man that everyone respects and fears but he's practically invisible to his peers. He enjoys his quiet non-existence but all of that changes on his 16th birthday when he discovers the family secret and nothing about his life is non-existent again.

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Author's Note: Ch.19, there's one more chapter of this story left after this. I'd like to thank djkauf for the editing and everyone else for loving my universe so much.

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Ch.19

I was frozen in utter shock. I stood there in the hall, Chris and Greg on either side of me. I’m not sure how much Chris knew about but he seemed to think that whatever it was we just heard was Just as shocking for him as it was for me. Dana Stiles---my friend, the girl I used to crush on---how did she know Damien Cross? A thousand scenarios starting running through my head but none of them made any sense. There was no way a scumbag like him could be associated with her. She was the nicest person I knew and he was by far the lowest of the low. Yet there it was, she knew him. Her words still rung through my head, she knew him enough to ask him what he was doing here. Which only meant she was possibly as close to him as I was to Carson.

A hand on my shoulder shook me from my shock. I jumped slightly, realizing it was only Chris.

“C’mon let’s head back to the party” he said with a bit of unease to his voice.

I didn’t want to go back to the party though. I wanted to know how and why she was talking to him. I shrugged off Chris’s hand. I started down the hall toward the room. I heard Chris follow me, calling to me in a harsh whisper. I ignored him. I crept along the hall slowly, moving closer and closer to where I thought her voice came from. There was a room up ahead actually, the door was shut but I could see light coming from underneath it. That had to be the room. I pressed against the door, turning my head so my ear was right up against it. Chris crouched down next to me. He tugged on my shoulder once or twice but knowing it was futile, he pressed his ear to the door, too.

At first there was nothing so I thought maybe we got the wrong room until I heard his voice:

“He can’t shut me out; I did this all for him.”

Dana groaned. “You’ve taken it too far this time. Dad’s absolutely furious about you attacking Tracy.”

Dad? Did she just say Dad? It wasn’t possible, there was no way. Damien Cross couldn’t be related to Dana because if they were then that meant Dana was a Were Cougar. I groaned, of course she was a Were Cougar. It all made sense now. There was just no way a no name family like the Cross’---who I’ve never heard of---could have been the Were Cougars. It had to be the Stiles. Dana gave away subtle hints to that, things I didn’t even notice. She smelled like jasmine for instance, I assumed it was her perfume and the day after my super puberty, she was the only one unaffected by my pheromones. Mary was unaffected because she was a witch but Dana had a natural immunity to it because she was another Were---I learned that little bit from Carson.

She also drove a Jaguar. That should have given it away. I’m sure there were a lot of other subtler things, too. I felt like an idiot for not noticing it though. She was right in front of me the whole time and she was the enemy. How could I have been so stupid? I guess at least I now knew who I was supposed to marry back when I was Trevor. Trevor would have loved that but knowing now what I know I’m not sure, I could live with the fact that my future bride was possibly involved with trying to frame my father for murder.

“Dad’s a fool and you’re a fool to follow him,” snapped Damien.

“The only fool around here is you.”

I heard a low growling sound, like a hiss. I recognized that sound. It was the same one I heard the night we found the body in the woods. I’d completely forgotten about it, I didn’t even tell the Inquisitor about it but here it was, coming out of Damien Cross’s mouth. I had no doubt in my mind now that Damien was responsible for everything.

“What was that?” whispered Greg from the other side of me but I ignored him.

There was a bit of commotion in the room. Dana gasped and then there was a thud against the wall. I jumped up, ready to rush into the room but Chris grabbed my arm. He pulled me back down and shook his head. Even though there was two of us, I think his meaning was clear. Wolves and Coyotes are strong but against two Cougars…neither one of us had Mason’s size. Besides, I was still a little bit sore from the earlier Cougar attack.

So all I could do was listen some more.

“Damien, you’re hurting my arm,” gasped Dana crying.

“I know what you’re thinking you little bitch. You want to run to Daddy and tell him everything. Go ahead, tell him and I’ll tell the Coven about you’re involvement. I’ll tell them all about you spying on that little freak Trevor and then how you made friends with Tracy just so you could keep an eye on her for me.”

I shook my head. It wasn’t true, it couldn’t be. Chris gently squeezed my shoulder.

“I don’t care anymore. I’m telling Dad everything” Dana was in full on panic mode. I could hear it in her voice.

I could also hear the fear too. I don’t think she did anything willingly, I could tell. Dana wasn’t that kind of person.

Then she gasped. “Why do you have a gun?”

That did it for me. I think it did for Chris too. We both got to our feet at the same time. I grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door violently open. I didn’t care if he had a gun, there was no way I could stand by and listen as he killed my friend. Chris thought the same because he rushed into the room first. Our sudden appearance startled both of them because the gun went off. The bullet whizzed by Dana’s head, the noise echoed throughout the tiny room. She slammed her hands to her ears and dropped to the floor. Damien stumbled back too, stunned. Chris rushed him, hoping to catch him off guard. It only half worked though. Damien recovered enough but not in time to bring the gun up. Chris kicked it away and then threw himself into Damien’s chest. The two of them went to the ground in a jumble of limbs. I took that opportunity to run to Dana. She was still clasping her ears, squirming on the ground. I got her attention and then pulled her to her feet.

“You ok?” I shouted, hoping she could hear me.

She nodded, tears in her eyes. Then she threw her arms around my neck.

“I’m sorry Trevor,” she said, sobbing. “I’m so sorry.”

It felt strange to hear that name again.

“Dude, did she just call you Trevor?” asked Greg, from the doorway.

Shit. I forgot about him.

I turned to say something to him when another shot went off. For a moment, I’d forgotten about the fight going on. Dana screaming though seemed to bring everything back into perspective. I snapped around to see Damien push Chris from off the top of him, the gun in his hand. He got to his feet, smirking. He had this fire in his eye, this evil malice. I’d never seen anyone quite look like that before. He waved the gun at all of us. I looked away for a moment at Chris. He was alive but clutching his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers. The son of a bitch just shot my ex-boyfriend.

“You fat ass, get into this room now!” snapped Damien, pointing the gun at Greg.

Greg quickly rushed into the room. He stood next to Dana and I. Then he did something completely unlike Greg, he pushed both of us behind him.

I was impressed.

“How normal human, but you’re fodder,” snapped Damien then he growled. When he did, he flashed a pair of yellow eyes at us.

There was no doubt about it now. Damien was definitely that thing I saw in the woods.

Greg tensed up. I grabbed his hand just to let him know that he wasn’t alone.

“Damien this is ridiculous,” said Dana, regaining some of her earlier composure. “You just shot one of the Harpers and you’ve got a Locke hostage. You think the Coven is going to give you anything now. You think the Council is going to let you run things.”

He smirked. “They’re all dinosaurs, fossils of a bygone era. It’s our time now. You’ll see when it’s all over, once all those old men are gone. You and Tracy and even this Coyote” He kicked Chris in the ribs, Chris winced.”When the dust settles and this is all over, you’ll see. You’ll all be thanking me for what I did.”

“You murdered four innocent people, tried to kill Tracy and you think we’re just going to go along with it,” snapped Dana.

“Of course you are” said Damien and his eyes flashed.

I knew what he was doing and I couldn’t help but smirk myself. The little red pendant hanging from my neck started to get a little hot. I looked down and saw it glow. Damien looked from it to me. For a moment, that smug look on his jackass face vanished. There was confusion and bit of fear. I think he realized in that moment that he couldn’t make me do what he wanted anymore. The moment only lasted for a second though; Damien apparently wasn’t the big idiot that I took him for. I caught onto his plan a second too late as he turned his attention to Greg.

“Greg don’t look,” I shouted but it was too late.

Greg’s body went stiff and his eyes glazed over.

“Fat ass; rip that fucking little thing from her neck.”

Greg turned on me faster than I could react. He grabbed at my neck, his fingers wrapping around my chain. He yanked, the chain tore into my neck. I wasn’t about to give up without a fight though. What I did I wasn’t proud of because he was my friend but I had no choice. I slammed my palm into his face, right into his nose. There was a crunch and a lot of blood but Greg didn’t even notice. He was still under the Gaze, completely oblivious to anything but Damien’s command. He pushed me against the wall, trying desperately to pull off the necklace. I kneed him in the balls but he didn’t even wince. Then I slammed my elbow into his back. That was the blow that shook him free. He let go of the necklace and dropped to the floor.

Damien screamed. “If I can’t have you, no one will.”

He snapped the gun up and pointed it at me. The whole room fell into slow motion and what happened next was one of those things I’m never really going to comprehend fully. I think it was Dana. One minute she was standing there and the next there was a cougar leaping through the air. Damien never saw it coming; all he was focused on was shooting me. She slammed into him hard, throwing him back toward the window. The impact with the glass was enough to shatter it and send the two of them tumbling out of it. The gun went off but I was pretty certain it was another stray shot.

I rushed to the window just in time to see them fall into bushes; thankfully, we were on the first floor. I didn’t see either of them roll out but it was pretty dark.

I needed to get out there to make sure but first I needed to make sure that Chris was ok.

I dropped down next to him. “You all right?” I asked as I helped him into a sitting position.

He moaned and nodded. “I’m good, go get that bastard.”

I snapped around toward Greg who was slowly coming to his senses. He cursed. “Who the hell punched me in the face?” he gasped in pain, clutching his nose.

I rushed over. “Greg run back to the party and find my cousin. Tell him what happened.”

“I’m not sure what happened actually.”

I ignored him. “Tell him Damien is here, he’ll understand.”

Greg regained some of his Gregness. “What about you?”

“I’m going after the bastard,” I said as I ran to the window and then jumped out.

Of course, they weren’t in the bushes anymore. As soon as I landed on the ground, I could tell that. I searched them nevertheless. All I found were some scraps of cloth and large cat-like footprints. Which meant that Damien must have transformed too and the two of them were long gone? I’m not sure if that was a good thing or not. On one hand, maybe Damien had finally got the hint and was halfway to the city limits but on the other hand he might have Dana with him. She might have been the enemy now but she helped us and that had to count for something. I was even willing to overlook all that just to make sure she was all right.

Damien on the other hand, he was a dead man.

I searched around the immediate area, following the footprints as far as I could. It looked like one set at first but then I realized one was running and the other was following. The follower had actually matched the runner’s footprints. Now though they started to separate meaning either the runner picked up speed or the follower decided it wasn’t worth the effort. It was worth my effort though. I started to follow the runner’s tracks, hoping it might lead me to something important. As I walked along, I couldn’t help but sniff the air. I knew Damien’s scent from earlier---a burnt apple like smell---and I was hoping to catch a whiff of it.

Unfortunately, there was no burnt apple smell. There was no jasmine smell either.

I could, however, smell chocolate.

It’s funny that I never really thought about people and their smells. I knew they kind of existed to me but I never really took the time to differentiate them. One person smelled this way and another that but I hadn’t really paid attention. Now that I knew, I could tell Weres apart from how they smelled, I was taking notice of the different smells people gave off. I thought Chris’s smell was his cologne and I could have sworn Dana smelled like jasmine long before I turned into a Wolf. There was one smell though that I knew wasn’t there before and that was chocolate. I didn’t really start noticing it until I concentrated on it. When I did, I realized that it was Mary. Somehow, my best friend smelled like chocolate. No two people seemed to smell alike either so if I was smelling chocolate now that meant that Mary was somewhere close by.

I pulled out my cell and dialed her number. Just like before the phone rang but unlike before, I could actually hear it. Mary had this distinctive ring tone, one that drove me nuts. The sound was coming from somewhere in front of me. I sniffed the air again, picking up the chocolate scent again. I followed the scent as I continued to hit redial on my phone in hopes that it would lead me to my friend. Here I had thought she was blowing me off. But if she was somewhere nearby that meant she was somewhere on the grounds. I felt like an idiot. I was convinced that Mary roped me into all this crap---stuck me in a tiny dress---then bailed at the last minute. For all I knew she could be in trouble or worse.

I picked up the pace after that.

I kept hitting redial, listening as the ringing of Mary’s phone got louder and louder. I followed the sound to a bush until it was so loud that I knew I was on top of it. I bent down and started to dig through the foliage until I found it. I pulled out the phone, she had like twenty missed calls---I knew most of them were from me. I cursed. So I had her phone and she was nowhere in sight. That either meant she dropped it or someone took it and threw it. That last part didn’t bode very well for her at all. I cursed again. Why didn’t I press things more earlier? I should have been out looking for her instead of worrying about the stupid party. But no, I had to go all gooey over Chris.

I’m such a lousy friend.

I picked up the scent of chocolate again. Now that I didn’t have the phone I decided to completely rely on my senses but they weren’t working. No, they were working but I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I stopped trying and decided to do something different. I looked around, turning my attention to the building. I scanned all the windows, hoping that there were no little faces peering out at me. I didn’t want to be the freak girl who was undressing in the backyard. When I made sure no one was looking, I slipped out of my dress, boots and stockings. I took off the hat last, using it to cover myself just in case. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated.

It only took a few seconds and when I opened my eyes, the world was much bigger. Everything was much more vibrant though. When I sniffed the air, the chocolate smell exploded in my nostrils. I could see it dancing about with all the other smells too, glowing a vibrant red. I picked my dress up in my teeth and followed the waving red color.

The smell led away from the house. I followed it through a wall of hedges and right up to the pool. I was jealous. Their pool was twice the size of ours. It had these giant baseball stadium lights shining down on it too. Of course, no one in their right mind would go swimming in October unless...I looked around and saw a sign---the damn thing was heated. I officially hated Dana now. I could fume about the pool later though; I was on a mission right now. I turned my attention back to the smell; the red trail was leading to this little house at the edge of the pool.

Our pool had a pool house too. I was happy to report that ours was a lot bigger.

I ran to the house, the red was leading me right to it. The side of the little building had a sliding glass door. I peered inside and saw a figure tied up on the floor. The figure was glowing green, which was a good thing. I started pawing at the glass, trying to open it. It took me a few seconds to realize I was still in wolf form. It was hard to remember the little details. I closed my eyes and transformed back, spitting my dress out of my mouth as I did so. I quickly slipped it back on before trying to open the door but of course, it was locked. I ran around the house, looking for another door. I found it but it was locked too. A well placed kick put an end to that though.

I rushed into the room and found Mary lying there. She started to squirm, inching like a worm away from me. I sighed in relief, glad that she was conscious. I rushed over to her, turning her head in my hands as soon as I bent down to her. I saw the look of relief in her eyes, followed a few seconds later by tears. Her mouth was covered in duct tape, which I quickly pulled off.

“Took you long enough,” she said as I helped her into a seated position.

“You ok?” I asked she nodded. “I’m so sorry”

I sobbed as I wrapped her in a hug. She rested her head on my shoulder. We sat like that for a moment or two before I realized the situation we were in.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, trying to tug free the massive knot that held her hands. Whoever tied it was a pro though.

“It was that ass Damien,” she said as if reading my mind. Then she added. “He’s Dana’s…”

“Brother” I finished with a nod.

“You ran into him?” I nodded again. “Fucking prick.”

“He shot Chris and made me break Greg’s nose?”

“Are they ok?”

I nodded as I continued to struggle with the ropes. I was now pretty mad that I didn’t take Constance up on the offer to enroll me in boy scouts when I was younger. I would have probably learned knot tying and possibly how to untie them. As it was now, I was a lost cause.

“What are you doing here anyway?”

“I got to thinking about Cross, it bothered me about what he told you…the whole marrying his sister thing. I knew there were no Cross’ in our grade at school so it was bugging me. Then I remembered something from a few years ago. Grams and her friends were talking about a Molly Cross and how they were amazed at how far she fell after her divorce with Vernon Stiles. I wasn’t sure but I had a hunch. I wanted to ask Dana about it so I went straight to her house after leaving yours. I never got that far though; the stupid bastard jumped me outside. I only came to about an hour or so ago.”

I wrapped her in another hug. For a moment, I didn’t want to let her go. When I finally did, it was to help her to her feet.

I quickly filled her in on the night’s events as I tried again and again to untie her hands. My recap only took a few minutes, the knot untying felt like it was going to forever.

“Ok, so we’re going to need something to cut these ropes.”

“Maybe a knife” said a voice from, behind us.

A chill ran up my spine as I cursed. I’d been so busy trying to get the ropes untied that I forgot to look and see if we were being watched. It made sense I suppose, someone leaving her all tied up in here, alone. Of course, it was some kind of trap. I cursed and slowly turned around, ready to go wolf at any moment. The figure standing in the doorway of the house was tall and bald. Though he was dressed like a zombie, I could make out Vernon Stiles well enough. He always kind of freaked me out when I was a kid because the man never smiled. Seeing him standing there now, dressed like he was and holding a knife, I was freaked three times more.

I pushed Mary behind me. “I’ve had enough of your family for the night.”

“Tracy Locke” he said but there was no surprise in his tone.

“You’ve been a bit of a thorn in my family’s side as of late.”

“I’m not the thorn, it’s your son.”

He nodded. “So my daughter seems to have told me.”

He took a step into the room but I growled. “I said stay back.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I know how this looks but I assure you, I had nothing to do with my son’s little mess. Dana told me a lot of things, unsettling but true things. I’m just as surprised as you are. This wasn’t supposed to be a night of pain and suffering but it is. I fear this whole thing is my fault but I assure you I’ll make up for it.”

I’m not sure if I believed him or not but he sounded sincere. I nodded. “You can show a bit of good faith by throwing me the knife.”

I think he considered it for a moment before finally tossing me the knife. It would have been cool if I caught it but alas, I didn’t. It slipped through my fingers and to the carpet below. It was when I was bending over to pick it up that I smelled burnt apples. I snapped up quickly, bringing the knife up in front of me. Mr. Stiles gave me a strange look until he must have smelled it too. He was turning when the gun went off. One shot and the bullet went clean through the man’s head. I was in total shock; I think Mary might have even screamed.

Vernon Stiles lifeless body dropped to the ground.

It happened so fast. One minute he was standing here talking to me and the next. The shock wore off in time for Damien to walk into the room. He kicked his father’s body to make sure the man was in fact dead. Then he stepped around him, keeping the gun trained on me. I looked down at Dana’s father for a moment, blood pooling around his head. I’d seen dead bodies but I never actually saw anyone die in front of me. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever seen in my life.
But it didn’t stop me from moving quickly. I slipped the knife behind my back, pushing the handle into Mary’s chest. She turned slightly and got it.

“I’ve been waiting for 20 years for someone to do that,” he said with a smirk, wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his arm.

“What kind of sick bastard kills his own father?” I said, unable to stop myself.

“He deserved it. He was dragging our family down, kowtowing to all those fools in the Council. He lacked the balls to lead our family so he had to go.”

“He’s your father,” I said, unbelievably.

I sounded like a hypocrite. Slamming him for killing his father when I feared I might do the same to mine.

“He’s never been my father” Damien was getting more agitated by the minute.

It was clear that I shouldn’t be pushing him any further.

“Maybe we can work this out” I said, trying a soothing tone. “Why don’t you put the gun down and let Mary go then you and I can talk. You said something about marriage?”

She shook his head. “It’s too late for that. You scorned me, you little bitch, and I can’t have that. I wanted an obedient little wife and you, you’re far from that.”

He pointed the gun at me, I winced. I was waiting for it to fire but it didn’t. I didn’t even realize I had my eyes closed until I opened them. When I did, I saw Damien standing there, his arm outstretched. He should have been shooting but he wasn’t. Instead, he was struggling, struggling to move his arm. I turned to Mary and saw that her hands were free. She had one of her hands pointed at him. I realized what was going on; she’d used the restriction spell on him. I couldn’t help but smile.

Damien groaned. “Let me go you little witch bitch!”

“Not on your life” said Mary, taking a step forward.

When she did that Damien smirked. For a second I thought he was being an ass until he dangled something in his hand, the red pendant. My hand instinctively went to my neck before I realized it wasn’t mine. I cursed. He must have taken it off Mary when she was unconscious. Shit. I saw his eyes flash and I knew what happened. AS soon as they did, my pendant got hot and nothing happened to me. Mary on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. Without the pendant protecting her, she wasn’t immune to his powers.

“Lower your arm and release the spell,” commanded Damien.

Mary was his puppet now. She did as he told her. He flexed his arm, waving the hand with the gun about. Then he ushered Mary forward, she walked to him like a tin soldier. As soon as she got close enough, he pistol whipped her in the side of the head. Mary dropped like a ton of bricks. It happened so fast. Damien started laughing, me I felt an overwhelming rage. I promised her grandmother that nothing would happen to her when she was with me. Then Damien nearly had us in his grasp, Mrs. Crawford hadn’t been too happy about that either. I had to swear that I wouldn’t lead her granddaughter into any more danger after that. Now it happened again and Mary was hurt badly. I could see a spot of blood where he hit her and a bruise was already starting to form.

My best friend was lying on the ground, not moving.

This was the third time he put her life in danger and I wasn’t going to let there be another one.

Something happened to me. I could feel it starting in my toes as a tingling then it slowly spread through my body. The tingling intensified until it got stronger and stronger. It stopped being a tingling after a moment and turned into a gut wrenching pain. That pain tore through my whole body, like it was on fire. It felt like my bones were cracking and rearranging themselves. I dropped to the ground, screaming out in intense pain. I saw Damien’s laughter die away then he stumbled backwards. I watched, as the pain got worse and worse. I could barely see straight. I raised my arms to look at them and watched in horror as my fingers grew, my nails turning into sharp talons and my hand started to cover in white fur.

How was that possible? It looked nothing like my wolf form and yet it was happened.

I doubled over, my dress burst from my body as the pain got worse. When it got to my face, ---a stretching and pulling---, I threw my head back and let out a loud howl. It was so loud that every glass surface in the room shattered. Damien screamed, clutching his ears. When I turned to him, the pain stopped and all I saw was red. All I wanted to do was kill. I wanted to grab him and rip open his chest. His entire body was glowing; I could see his tiny heart beating inside of his body, thumping for me.

I wanted that heart. I needed that heart.

I moved toward him. HeE raised the gun and several stings hit me but they didn’t hurt. Damien kept firing but I didn’t feel a thing. He fired until the gun was empty then threw it at me, hitting me in the chest. But that didn’t stop me. I wanted him and I was going to get him. I lurched forward, my jaws going for his arm.

The last thing I heard before I lost myself was his blood-curdling scream.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

Picture Credit: Actress Jane Levy