Nova

“Julius! Julius, get him some water!”

Nova paced back and forth in front of her father’s bed. He was coughing up a dark substance again. It wasn’t blood; it had a more metallic look to it, and it was as black as oil. For days he had been like this, and no one could figure out why. It just didn’t make any sense.

Her father Marcus’s health had always been uncommonly good. He hardly looked any older than when they’d left Crescent Valley nearly twenty years ago. Sure, she and her twin brother had aged somewhat, but he didn’t look a day older. He went on daily runs with other members of their wolf pack and he still caught most of his own food. Even Nova didn’t do that, and she was considered the feisty one of the group. But now she was staring at a frail old man who clearly had very little time left on this earth. And without her father, she knew that she would be lost. Not to mention that she would have to handle Julius all on her own.

“Finally,” she said as she took the glass of water from her twin brother as he entered the bedroom. He was the spitting image of her, except where she had long blonde hair, his was cut short to his scalp. But they were both tall with light features and sparkling blue eyes. They took after their mother, God rest her soul. Marcus, on the other hand, looked like most of the other wolves, with dark features and salt-and-pepper hair. His skin always seemed like he’d just come in from the sun, and just recently, it suddenly looked as though it was weathered and wrinkled.

“He’s coughing again?” Julius asked, looking horrified at the black tar coming out of her father’s lungs.

“It’s been like this all morning. Julius, what are we going to do? We can’t just let him die like this.”

Julius grabbed her hand and pulled her from the bedroom.

“Guard, go sit with him. Call for one of the nurses to clean him up.”

The mountain of a man that was dressed in all black standing outside of Marcus’s bedroom gave a singular nod before walking into the room and pulling out his cell phone. Julius dragged Nova halfway down the hallway before finally stopping and turning around to face her.

“We need to talk.”

“You think I don’t know that? We need to figure out what the hell is going on here, Julius. Father has been getting worse for the past couple weeks, and this came out of nowhere. Every shifter doctor that I know of has been here to see him and can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. He’s only a hundred and ten, Julius, most wolves still have another hundred years after that. And even then, they’re not spewing up some sort of darkness out of their lungs.”

Julius rolled his eyes. “You’re being dramatic, calling it darkness? What are you, a seer?”

“You know I’m not. And I’m allowed to be a little dramatic, Julius, in case you forgot, we already have one dead parent. I’d rather not make it two.”

Julius sighed, defeated. “You’re right, I know you’re right. So I’ve been doing some research, looking into our past, trying to figure out where this could come from.”

“What, like our genetics? This isn’t cancer.” She knew it wasn’t, it was something deeper, darker.

“I didn’t say it was, Nova, but it’s certainly something. And you’re right about the dark part.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think our father has been cursed. I think there’s a reason that he’s never really aged and suddenly it’s all catching up with him. Sure, years have passed, but you can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed that our father has looked the exact same since we left Crescent Valley. And now suddenly, out of nowhere, he looks like he’s aged twenty years in the past two weeks. That’s not normal.”

Nova crossed her arms. Julius was being so cryptic, it was such bullshit. “We’re shifters, remember? None of this is normal. But a curse? Julius, you can’t be serious. There haven’t been phantoms in nearly fifty years. Besides, why would they curse our father? Even if they are around, which I’m not saying they are, we’ve had no interaction with them. They would have no freaking reason to come after him.” Nova thought about the last time she even heard someone mention phantoms, a witch like supernatural that used magic. It had been years since she even heard the term, and then it was a story her mother told her as a child back in Crescent Valley. It was a fairytale, Nova wasn’t even sure they were real.

“I don’t think they’re coming after him. I read about the spell that possibly may have affected our entire family.”

“You mean the whole pack?”

“No, just the three of us. Our bloodline. And then any children we may have, I guess.”

“Well, you and I both know that you’re clearly not having any kids anytime soon, and I don’t have a mate or any children, so I don’t get where this is going.” Julius was a bit of a player and Nova was standoffish when it came to her feelings. They weren’t exactly the commitment type and she wasn’t afraid to admit that. People who weren’t tied down had more fun.

“There was a coven of phantoms back in Crescent Valley nearly sixty ago who were into some pretty dark shit. And if our father got messed up with them at all, they could’ve cursed us with immortality. But here’s the thing, one of the three of us has to die in order to seal the spell. I think someone is trying to make that happen.”

“But why? Why would you and I want to be immortal?”

She watched as a flicker of emotion crossed her brother’s eyes for just a second. She wasn’t even sure if it was really there.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if that’s what’s really happening, but the only way to find out is that one of us needs to go back to Crescent Valley.”

“You’re crazy. We can’t go back there.”

“Why? Because of Dax?” he added in a singsong voice.

“Shut up. Dax and I were a very long time ago. That’s not the reason we can’t go back and you know it. The winery has been run by humans for decades, and we left because of Father and the treaty. He wasn’t aging and people were going to start to notice. If we go back and suddenly shake things up, we could disrupt the business. And you know that’s the only reason that we get to live here, in a nice house on the beach where Father wants to be.” Nova knew she was making excuses, but she wasn’t even sure of the rules of the treaty with the Bradwicks, a local bear shifter clan that nearly owned Crescent Valley. When they left they were practically run out by the bears after a fight with some of their pack. Wolves had the tendency to be hot heads, and her father wasn’t immune.

“That’s a bullshit reason. We need to figure out what’s going on with Father, so one of us needs to go back to Crescent Valley. And with how he is, I can’t go, Nova. If something happens to him, I’m the next alpha. It’s my responsibility to stay here with him.”

“So I have to go back. Wonderful, exactly what I don’t want to do, Julius. And I don’t want to be away from Father either. What the hell happens if he…” She couldn’t even bring herself to say it. She never imagined the world without Marcus in it, but if he died while she was gone she would never forgive herself.

“Nova,” he said, pulling her into him and wrapping his arms around her, “this might be the only way to save him. You have to do this.”

She took a deep breath and nodded into his shoulder. “Fine. But I do it on my own terms. What the hell happens if I do find a phantom?”

“You find out why they’re trying to kill us. Why they’re trying to make us live forever. Either way, you end them and the spell and we save our father’s life.”

She sighed. “Ugh, you make me crazy. Fine, I’ll do it.” It wasn’t the first time she’d killed for the pack, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. “But Julius, what about the treaty? With the Bradwicks?”

“Talk to Dax, see if he’ll give you a pass. We haven’t feuded with the bears in twenty years.”

“Yeah, because last time we did, someone died, Julius.”

“And this time you’re there to save someone. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Fine.” She didn’t believe him, but she didn’t see another way. She had to go back. Her father’s life was hanging by a thread.