Chapter 6

Pain makes for a terribly efficient alarm clock. You cannot argue with pain, you can't turn it off or reset it and it has no snooze button. When pain says that it is time to wake up, it's goddamn time to wake up. Seraph woke up with every part of her body hurting. She lay on her side– sleeping on either her back or her front was no longer an option— in Gabe's bed. He had not wanted her sleeping on the couch while she was hurt, and being pleasantly stoned on Vicodin made it hard for Seraph to remember why she would have argued about it.

At least she wasn't in the hospital any more. With a dozen lacerations on her back and right forearm, a hand full of puncture wounds to her front, too many bruises to count, and a twisted knee to top things off, Seraph had spent a fun filled Friday night in the ER getting herself cleaned, stitched, and bandaged. An officer from Animal Control had questioned her at length about the unusual attack while scolding her about wandering off a trail alone at night. The officer was at a loss for why she was attacked, and Seraph was unwilling to recount the whole event. The working theory was that the bear must have been rabid, which prompted the call for a rabies vaccine.

Despite the obvious disapproval of the attending physician, Seraph had managed to avoid that fate. She was sure that of all of the things that might or might not have been wrong with the monster that attacked her, rabies was the least of her concerns.

She was kept over night for observations. All told, her injuries could have been a lot worse. She did not have any broken bones or a concussion, the puncture wounds had missed anything vital, and she had not needed a blood transfusion. So they simply patched her up and the next morning she was released.

A soft knock on the door brought Seraph back to the present. Slowly sitting up, she tugged her t-shirt down and called for the person to come in. She sat back then quickly forward as her body reminded her that her back did not want to be touched right now. By the time the door opened, she was already shaking pills into her hand. Gabe closed the door behind him and rolled over to the bed while Seraph downed a few capsules with water.

"Morning."

Seraph grunted a greeting and replaced the glass and pill bottle on the nightstand.

"How ya feelin' today, Sunshine?" Gabe asked, perkily.

His apparent good humor earned him a scowl. "Like crap."

"At least you feel like you look."

"At least I don't feel guilty about stealing your bed anymore. What's got you in a good mood?"

"Well, now that we know you're going to live, it's really funny."

"It is not funny."

"You got beat up by Smokey. You should've just promised to do your part to prevent forest fires."

"Yeah, well, like Mitch Hedburg said, Smokey's a lot more intense in person."

Gabe let out a bark of laughter before sobering. "Seriously though, do you feel up to talking?" he asked, the teasing gone from his voice.

"Yeah, sure." Seraph waved a hand. "No time like now, I guess."

Gabe looked down at the blanket covered object next to the bed. Seraph started. She had not realized it was so close. She must have been asleep when Gabe brought it in. Now that she saw it, she could almost feel it– drawing her to pick it up.

"I looked that thing up while you were out of it," Gabe said. "How much to do you know about fairies?"

Seraph stared, not quiet believing the question. "Fairies? Um, like Disney?"

"No, real fairies, historical ones. The fay."

"Not a whole hell of a lot. It's been a while since my last history class, but they up and disappeared didn't they? When Atlantis sunk?"

"Yeah. But there're a bunch of different theories on where they went. The generally accepted theory that schools teach in most places is that they all sunk with Atlantis, but there is one theory that all of 'em jumped ship and came over here."

"If they came here, where are they?" Seraph asked.

"Supposedly, once they got here they died of something else."

"Sucks to be them."

"Yeah, it's kinda silly. The idea comes from Leif Ericson's– he's the Viking guy who made it to America before Columbus– chronicles of his time in Newfoundland. He talks about meeting them and their disappearance."

"Does he say what happened to them?"

"Nope. Just 'poof' gone."

"Well, that's not helpful."

Gabe chuckled as he sat back in his chair. "Without any physical proof we don't know what happened. Either they magicked away, or they were never here to begin with."

Seraph looked down at the crown. Carefully she leaned down and picked it up. It was lighter than it looked, and warm in her hands. "So the Erlking is the fairy-king?"

"More or less, the two fay courts fought over the title a lot. Apparently it was all the fighting that sunk Atlantis in the first place."

Silence fell over the room as both were lost in their own thoughts. Seraph slowly reached over and picked up the crown. It was lighter than she remembered. She set the crown in her lap and ran her hands over it– studying it as she puzzled over why she was sent for such a potentially powerful artifact. It was still dirty but in the light of day she could make out the engravings that covered it. The intricate design was mesmerizing and Seraph found herself entranced by it. Pain forgotten, she lifted the crown up...

"What are you doing?"

"What? Nothing."

"Were you going to put that on?"

"No." Seraph was saved from any further interrogation by a knock on the bedroom door. Quickly, she dropped the crown back on the floor and pulled the blanket over it. "Come in!" she called.

Brad poked his head in. "Hey guys. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Gabe said. "Just talking."

Brad paused for a second, looking between Gabe and Seraph. "I mean, why is Seraph all messed up? Did ya get into a bar fight or something?"

"You think I look bad, you should see the other guy," Seraph said with a straight face.

"Did you really get into a bar fight?" Brad asked, incredulous.

"Nah," Seraph waved her hand. "I got mauled by a bear."

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, just say so. I was only asking because I was concerned," Brad said, glaring down at the floor. He turned to go.

"Brad, wait," Seraph called. "I really was attacked by a bear. Swear to God."

"She wandered off a trail sight-seeing and a bear took offense to it," Gabe added.

Brad stared at them, his expression slowly morphing from hurt to stunned disbelief when he saw they were being sincere. "Damn! Are you okay?"

Seraph smiled crookedly at the inane but always asked question. "Yeah, I'm fine now. The bear got bored and wandered off after I played dead."

"Shit."

Which, Seraph had to admit, was more or less how she felt about the whole situation herself.

"Sorry man," Gabe said. "I should have said something when we got home. Didn't mean to make you worry."

"Well," Brad said, affecting a magnanimous air. "I suppose I can forgive you just this once." He waved a scolding finger at them. "But next time someone gets attacked by irate wildlife I want to be the first to know."

A smile quirked Seraph's lips. Suddenly it hit her. She had been beat up by an irate magic man-bear, and it really was kinda funny. Seraph started to snicker, then laugh. Unfortunately, her revelry was cut short by a racking cough– reminding her that she had holes in her chest and that laughing was ill-advised at best.

"Oh hell, are you okay?" Brad exclaimed, stepping into the room.

Seraph waved Brad back as she tried to get a hold of herself. "I-" she coughed again. "I'll be fine. Don't make me laugh."

"I'm sorry!"

Seraph knew Brad would just keep apologizing if she let him and she felt far too wasted to put up with such a well–meaning annoyance. Besides, she still needed to talk to Gabe and she wasn't willing to take Brad into her confidence just yet. Perhaps the influence of the magic had infected her somehow, but she wanted to play her hand close to her chest.

"Don't worry about it. I'll live." Seraph slumped back onto the bed, careful to land on her side. "I just popped some pills so I'm kinda tired. I think I'm going to crash soon."

"Alright, well, if you need anything..."

"We will be sure to ask you," Gabe said reassuringly. Seraph smiled.

Brad ducked out of the room, leaving the siblings alone again. Seraph closed her eyes briefly, she really could feel the meds kicking in, but she needed to tell Gabe about what really happened. Seraph opened her eyes and looked at her brother.

"Gabe?"

"Yeah?" Gabe put his hands on his wheels, ready to move his chair. "Want me to leave you alone?"

"No." Seraph grudgingly sat back up. "I need to tell you about last night. I wasn't attacked by a bear."

"What? Jesus, what happened then?"

"Well it was and it wasn't." Seraph put her hand to her head and spoke slowly. "It was a shapeshifter."

"Holy hell, you were attacked by a werebear?"

"Yeah– what? Werebear?"

"You know, like a werewolf but a bear... You don't think you got infected do you?"

Seraph stared at him. "There are no such things at werewolves."

"Yeah, but..."

"I had sure as hell better not. I have enough shit to deal with right now." Seraph let out an aggravated breath. "I'm pretty sure he used magic. I don't know what magic, but it was some how tied to the medicine bag he had."

"Oh. How do you know the medicine bag had anything to do with it?"

"He turned back when I ripped it off."

"Wha-what? You ripped it off? From a bear?"

"He attacked me when he saw me with the crown. He wasn't going to fall for me playing dead. He wanted to kill me." Seraph looked down at her hands. "I got lucky."

Gabe sat quietly as he absorbed this revelation. Finally he cleared his throat. "Nothing quite like finding out about danger after its past, huh? All the anxiety and nothing you can do about it."

"I'm sorry," Seraph said. "Would you've rather I hadn't said anything?"

"No, I guess not." Gabe said, frowning in thought. "You said he attacked you after you took the crown? Do you think he is going to try and come for it?"

"I... don't know. I guess he might come if he knows where to find me. Let's hope he doesn't."

"That's very reassuring."

"That's all I got."

"I guess we will just have to burn that bridge when we get to it." Gabe sighed. "What now?"

"About the crown? I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"You know everything I know."

"But..." Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose. "You haven't... heard anything since you got the crown?"

"No." Seraph shrugged. "Maybe someone will come for it now that I stole it from the shapeshifter."

"That's even less reassuring."

"Christ, I just don't know right now." Seraph fell back onto the bed once more. "I'm tired, can we talk about this more tomorrow?"

"Sure, okay. We can't really do anything right now anyway. Get some rest then."

Seraph closed her eyes as Gabe left the room. She hoped whoever was sending the visions did show up to get the crown. Then maybe she could beat some answers out of them. For now she just wanted to not have to think about it anymore.

The next day, the visions started again.

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