The heat that hit me was as painful as the fall that killed me – my flesh felt as if it was melting off my body. The impact was indescribable; no words in the dictionary are able to describe the power. I held my ground; my hands trembled as I allowed the power to flow out, like a faucet of water flowing freely.

I looked up to the inferno of flames that soared above, already damaging the roof that was covered with smoke.

I had no idea whether I had contained the blaze – above no time to linger. I would not lose this battle, and fire wasn't going to stand by my side if I backed down now.

I glared at the flames that attempted to break the barrier of wind around myself and Risuki, gritting my teeth as anger coursed through me.

Did it not know who it was dealing with? Who I was? I was the leader, and it would obey my every command.

The flames pulled back, shooting up into the sky as those flames around us shot upwards – gathering into one large mass.

I continued my hard gaze; no fear in me as I waited for the final assault. The ball of energy shot down; the wind attempted to slow its descent towards us.

"Stand still wind." I whispered; the barrier dispersed as the scorching heat made it almost unbearable.

I knew if the flames wanted to kill me, the heat would have been strong enough to melt my flesh, but the intensity was enough to make my skin turn red but not blister.

The flames made their move – heading straight for us.

I continued to hold my ground – ready for the impact.

The flow of flames stopped inches away from my face, fluttering above but not hitting me.

I stared at the orange, red flickers with confidence.

"I won't let you down." I whispered.

I watched as the flames began to disperse; smoke rose upward. I closed my eyes, summoning the wind to purify the air.

It listened to my request; a gentle breeze flowed around us, carrying the remnants of smoke upward into the sky above.

I leaned forward, feeling weak as my adrenaline levels dropped. I felt firm hands stop me from falling.

"I got you." Risuki whispered. I wanted to thank him, to let him know how truly grateful I was for his presence and support. I would have never been able to tackle the flames without him, but I was fighting to stay conscious; the thought made me smile weakly.

I guess I should be called the fainting lady.

"You’re not a fainting lady. You're a warrior who just gave it their all on the battlefield and ended victorious. You deserve to rest. Your body needs it. And I know, Scarlet. You’re very welcome, and I'll never hesitate to stand by your side and watch you claim what is yours." He admitted.  

"SCARLET!"

I tried to lift my head at the frantic shrill that summoned me, but I wanted to sleep. The wind sung a soft tune, riding the calming breeze that surrounded us – a lullaby; my victory song.

It was a soothing melody; I couldn't resist its mission to ease my mind and allow me to rest.

"Scarlet?" Risuki whispered.

I felt my body laid straight on the cool surface; something soft pressed against my forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Visionary Elemental. May the Starlight Gods strengthen you and your team as you fight the coming darkness. In stars we trust."

I felt a shift in the air before something soft brushed against my face – soft like fur. I relaxed; the low sound of purring let my remaining worries fade.

"No."

"Scarlet, you’re gonna fucking lose weight now stop being a stubborn ass and eat."

"I'm not hungry. Whose idea was it to feed me every two hours? That's fucking inhumane."

"Winterlya's. Now, eat or I'll get Christian over here to seduce you into eating."

I crossed my arms, letting out a huff as I tried not to set the curtains on fire...again.

It had already been a week since Mc. Ryerson’s bombing – which was being advertised as a terrorist attack to the criminal investigator organization around the country – PINC included.

With the help of Risuki, I was able to tame the blaze - the impact stayed within the building. Christian had sounded the evacuation alarm in the building prior to the explosion; a round of gunshots towards the ceiling was enough to motivate the stubborn students and staff, who thought he was joking about a bomb threat.

Ethan and the others had rushed over to the campus when Christian found out the technician was one of Xerxes’ lackeys, but it was already far too late. The technicians had uploaded a virus – the infection spread and deleted PINC’s criminal files which had ignited a panicked frenzy throughout the paranormal community.

Kendrick was still trying to settle things down with the other higher-ups – the President of the United States had to make a general announcement about the hacking and assuring the public that the criminals would remain behind bars or on the wanted list till they figured out how to deal with this mess.

I was now in the Scar Only room of my apartment on bed rest thanks to Winterlya. I'd been unconscious the last five days, just waking up yesterday and was now forced to eat every two hours. Cece was my "nurse" to ensure I ate on schedule, and it was fucking annoying.

The boys had to help with the chaos occurring at PINC, and the crime rate doubled since the announcement of destroyed records. I think it was a tad stupid, really.

Just because your past records were destroyed, didn’t mean that new ones couldn’t be made when you landed your ass in jail again. Then again, criminals weren’t always the sharpest tools in the shed.

I was on sick leave until approved to return back to the field. While I was unconscious, I was officially hired and added to Team Seven as the first female investigator in their group, with an additional raise and rank change for my bravery of containing the bomb that could have killed thousands of students, staff members, and other bystanders.

With a stone a part of my beating heart and my acceptance of the elements, I'd been having minor accidents - as in short-circuiting the tv three times, making the bath flood twice, and lighting the curtains up after Cece tried to feed me peaches. I hate peaches.

My eyes lowered to the brand new flat screen TV box on the floor, beneath the window that had a new set of curtains. Jaxson and Junho had come by; Jaxson with the new set of curtains and Junho with the spare TV, just in case I short-circuited the fourth one that was now playing Quantico, Season Four.

"I'm surprised you haven't short-circuited your Kindle yet."

I returned my gaze to Cece, who sat at the end of the bed. Her hair was tied in a messy bun as she sat in black shorts and a t-shirt. I frowned at the dark circles under her eyes. I couldn't complain about hers or any of the guys’ roughed up appearances.

Half of their worry and lack of sleep was because of me, some of the guys taking it harder than the others. I still needed a moment with Jaxson who looked the worst out of the bunch.

I'd only gotten to see him briefly when he brought the curtains, getting a soft kiss and nothing more. I'd have to confront him about it whether he liked it or not. All I needed was to get out of this stupid bed rest bullshit.

"I should. Maybe, I'll be allowed to get out of my bed for more than just bathing and pooping." I mumbled. I extended my hand; Cece passed the device to me.

I clicked the home button; A Demon's Blade popped up as the next book to read.

"Is that what you're going to read next?"

"Yup! I'm intrigued, and did you research the name? One of the authors has the exact same name as you. Well, minus the Alexandra."

"Shut up, really? Give it back."

She grabbed it back, opening it and scanning the copyright page.

"Holy shit! Oh god! You're reading this! Want me to read it to you? No, we should make this a group thing and let the boys act like a character in the book."

I laughed.

"I hope there's a bitchy role in there just for your ass."

"Oh, fuck you too. You love my ass for one, and I'm serious. Can we have a book club? Did you tell Marcus to get a Kindle for his girlfriend? I should text him to buy her this first so when they come down here we can discuss. We can call it Paranormal book club...hmm that doesn't sound very unique. Fuck, I'll figure something out."

I shook my head with a smile. That’s my best friend for ya.

“Why don’t we get back to your history lesson?” Cece clapped her hands.

“Ugh. I don’t want to study.”

“Meow.” Moonlight jumped onto the bed, sitting to stare at me. Cece crossed her arms over her chest. I groaned. Of course, you’d want me to learn.

“Meow meow.” Moonlight responded to my thought, curling up on my blanket.

“Fine. I did ask for you to explain to me everything about the realms. Let’s get SPIRIT 101- Introduction to the Shifter Race Lesson One over with.

“Excellent.” Cece smiled, sitting up straight as she cleared her throat.

“In the beginning…”

"So long story short. Latelia is basically what we call Pluto cause it's not a fucking planet anymore. Realms Two and Four I completely forgot, apart from Two cause that's where Winterlya's from. Feminara, of course, is our home, and my grandma’s still ruler. Minato is designated for some knight school or academy or whatever you call it. Earth is actually Earthala, which I have to comment was not creative at all. At least we could have deviated from our name a tad more. Instead, we just butchered it by taking the "ala" out of it. I forgot Seven, Nine, and Ten. OH, Seven has lion shifters, those are pretty cool. Eight was...AH, Heila and that's where all the cool shit is. Like how everyone loves New York City and has the best food and shops. That's the jist of it all."

Cece blinked; the book she held dropped out of her hand on the black and white bedsheets.

"I did not spend three hours teaching you Starlight history for you to tell me that's all you picked up."

"That's the basis of all the information you fed me. Just to be honest, I zoned out after the cool Realm One story, Feminara cause that’s my new homeland, and tuned back in at Minato and Heila seeing as they’re the only interesting Realms." I shrugged, petting Moonlight who was sleeping in my lap.

"How can you be a perfect Ace and have managed to get perfect grades your whole life with your attention span?"

"Kendrick bribes me with goodies and vacations if I get good grades." I stated, proudly.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to confront Kendrick about regaining my memories – remembering him as my biological father. It was comforting to know I had a dad in my life, especially now that I discovered it was Kendrick all along.

"I'm gonna change your Netflix password, that's what I'm gonna do." Cece threatened.

I gasped.

"Oh, hell no, you aren't! That's my lifeline. What else am I gonna do besides watching every season of Supernatural and read?" I whined, blinking my eyes.

"Don't go crying on me! It would be your fault for not paying fucking attention. Ugh, what am I gonna do with you?" Cece exclaimed, lying down on the bed, grabbing the book, and placing it on her face.

"I'm napping."

"Don't sleep yet."

"Yeah Cece, don't sleep yet. We got a guest, and Vinzent said to call him."

We turned our heads to see Junho at the door, followed by a tall, muscular male.

He was at least six-one, which was short compared to my group of men but tall for anyone shorter than five-six. He must have had long hair cause those caramel locks were tied up into the sexiest man bun I'd ever seen, putting the models to shame. Partnered with his tanned skin, ripped physique that was hidden beneath his fitted navy-blue shirt and ripped jeans, that man was in the running for Vogue modeling next to Christian.

His sapphire eyes landed on mine; a smile formed on his lips as he nodded a greeting.

"Sorry to interrupt your teaching lesson. I hate Starlight history so I'm honestly not sorry." The stranger announced; his alto voice and grin enough to make any high school girl squeal.

"Hah, hashtag sorry, not sorry. It's good you interrupted. Someone was blackmailing me." I tried shoving at Cece who sat up; my foot missed its target.

"You may be good at martial arts bestie, but I have faster agility."

"I question whether you have foresight too." I argued. I knew she did, but I liked to tease her about it. She shrugged.

"Maybe yes, maybe no, will Scarlet Sinclair ever find out? Hell to the fucking no." She sang, playing along.

Junho snickered as the new person laughed.

"Scarlet, this is Marcus Hunt, my buddy from Minato. Cece you already met Marcus." Junho introduced.

"Nice to meet you. What type of shifter are you? You’re probably a bear shifter." I suggested.

His expression altered between confusion and disappointment.

"Why does everyone think I'm a bear shifter?" He questioned.

"You're huge, with defined muscles and most likely hiding a six pack." I replied with a serious face. I turned to Cece.

"Didn't you say bear shifters looked like they weight trained for five-plus hours a day?"

"Some of them do but half of them are pretty lazy versus the other half that could win weightlifting competitions with ease."

"Ah." I replied, nodding.

"I think you and Makoto would get along." Marcus pointed out.

"Makoto?" I questioned, tilting my head.

Junho had a smirk on his face while Marcus blushed – a hunk like him turning completely red and looking away? Now this is interesting.

"His girlfriend." Junho stressed, moving back and missing Marcus elbow blow.

"We're not...ugh, whatever." Marcus argued, flustered. I grinned.

"You really like her." I could tell from the way he fidgeted in place, and his flushed expression told me he was smitten over this Makoto girl. I'd love to meet the woman who was able to wrap him around her finger like that.

Cece rose to her feet; Moonlight woke up and walked off my lap, jumping off the bed.

"Weren't you down here just two weeks ago? Why are you back so soon?" She questioned, crossing her arms and tilting her head.

His flustered face changed, turning into a frown as he sighed.

"We had a situation back in Minato. Everyone's okay now, but Mako’s on bed rest."

I gasped; all three pairs of eyes landed on me.

"Does she at least have Netflix? I can give her my username and password." The poor soul was stuck in bed like me. Finally, someone who'd understand my agony.

"Nope. We don't have Netflix where we are. That's an Earthala thing."

"The horror. Wait, so what has she been doing?"

"Reading. But with how fast she reads and nothing else to do she's gonna clear my friend's library in about...three hours. I came down here to buy her some books."

"Why not buy her a Kindle?" I leaned forward, grabbing the e-reader from where Cece left it, lifting it up to show him. He raised his eyebrow.

"That has books in it? The main gadgets I pay attention to are the ones with the apple sign."

"Yes, electronic books or eBooks for short. You go on the internet and can choose what books you want. If you buy one, Ethan could probably set it up for you with a whole bunch of books. He helped me set up mine."

Ethan was the electronic genius and had good taste in books. I didn’t read much, but give me a good book and you wouldn’t be able to get me to set it down.

He smiled walking forward. I passed him the device; his eyes inspected it and the red case.

"I'll get her one. Ethan at the office? I heard about the whole fiasco on the news. Terrorist huh." Marcus commented, returning my Kindle to me. I gave Junho and Cece a look, Junho gave me a sign with his finger – wiggling it left to right which was code for – go with the flow.

"Ya. We don't know what happened. I guess once everything calms down, we'll be able to narrow down who the culprits were. I'm stuck on sick leave though." I mumbled the last part.

"How long?"

"Till I get better which Winterlya said would take two to four weeks." I sighed.

"Well maybe if someone did what they were told and followed the healer's instructions you wouldn't be confined to a bed." Cece reminded. I glared at her. I hate you.

"You love me and that makes five times that you’ve thought out loud today. You’re making progress."

Marcus raised his eyebrow.

"You’re keeping count of how many times she thinks out loud?" He questioned.

"She's new to the whole shifter thing." Junho explained.

"Ah. Two spirits?”

"Yes." I replied. He nodded, smiling.

"Makoto has four."

We all turned to face him.

"WHAT?" We cried out.

"Yup. The guys and I try to keep tabs, but we'd been distracted lately. She was at sixty-seven before we had exams." Marcus confessed.

"Damn. Do people make fun of her?" I asked, feeling bad.

"Nope. Let's just say she wasn't privileged to enjoy a life of socialization. We're trying to make up for that." He whispered; his hurt filled expression made me wonder what this girl Makoto’s, background story was all about.

"You should bring her down here one day."

Marcus blinked out of his daze.

"We want to. I was going to ask if we could stay at Junho's place since it’s big enough to host an army."

"It's not that fucking big." Junho mumbled.

"Sure, future billionaire. Let me, the boys and Mako stay over."

"Fine. Whenever you're ready. Just make sure we're all off. With what you've told me about your lover, it would be good if she had more female friends. I can already see them being best buddies." Junho emphasized the best buddies part. I gave him a cocky smile.

"Hey, maybe she's a cool chick like me. Don't hate."

"Well, it was a pleasure Scarlet, and nice seeing you again Cece. I'll check in with Ethan about that Kindle, and Junho, I think I know the owner of the store you searched, for that stone you were talking about? I'll pass by there the next time I have a chance."

Junho patted his back.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it. With how shaken everything is and the whole file situation it will be a while till we can get back on track so no rush.”

I gulped at the exchange; my stomach flipped at the mentioning of the stone. I hadn't gotten the chance to tell everyone about the whole stone in my fucking heart dilemma; that situation was the last thing I wanted to think about right now. Junho continued.

"Tell the others I say hi and tell Daniel he should come visit Michael. I know those two are caught up with life, but I know how close they are. It would be nice to see them bond once in awhile."

"Wait Michael's brother is in your group too? Is he an angel like Michael?"

"Yup. Different type though."

"There're different types?" I was now intrigued as to what other angels there could be.

"Oh yes. When we come down I'll give you a history lesson. I'll make sure its an hour tops. Short and straight to the point. Had to make a compressed version cause Mako's attention span is like a goldfish.

"Wow. Better than Scarlet's." Cece pointed out.

"I don't get distracted. Don't make me look bad in front of the bear shifter." I grumbled.

"I'm not a bear shifter." Marcus defended.

"What are you?" I asked.

"When you figure out what Junho is, I'll tell you." He promised, winking at me with a pleased smile on his lips as he elbowed Junho who groaned; his cheeks flushed. I turned my scrutinizing gaze at him.

"What are you, Junho? You can walk on water." I pointed out.

"Not saying. Marcus, go find Ethan."

The door opened – Ethan looked surprised.

"Uh, who needs me? And I didn't know we were having a gathering in Scar's room. I would have brought some wine." He entered with Jaxson, Michael and Christian.

"Oh snap, Marcus. What are you doing here?" Michael walked over to give him a hug. Jaxson, Christian, and Ethan took turns greeting him.

"Need some stuff for my uh...girlfriend." He revealed.

"Look at you. You're smitten." Ethan nudged him. He growled.

"I'll be back. I need to pass by PINK and the Nike store." He headed for the door.

"PINK? Aww, are you going to buy her clothes too? Now, I have to meet her. Tell Eli to come too. We need a play date. Elias can't come." Cece winked; Marcus nodded.

Eli and Elias huh? Guess they’re brother and sister.

"Will do. Ethan text me when you’re free." Marcus waved goodbye, leaving us alone. The boys all turned to face me.

"How are you doing Scar baby?" Jaxson questioned.

"I'm dying from being forced to lay in these sheets." I replied, earnestly. The others sighed; Christian chuckled.

"You seriously can't stay still." He announced.

"Unless it's for an exam, mission or a tv show, I like moving." I admitted.

"We wanted to give you an update on what’s going on." Michael stated.

"What’s going on? How bad is everything?" Christian sighed.

"Everything from our department was wiped clean. You see how we send it to our other storages. Those technicians, which were Xerxes’ lackeys, sent a virus through our system as a fake case file. It infected the entire database."

"So, no one has a backup? Like no one ever thought of having like an extra hidden, secret database somewhere in, I don't know, Switzerland?" I questioned.

I noticed Ethan's lips turn up into a big grin.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"You’re hiding something." I pointed to him. The others turned to Ethan, who crossed his arms.

"When I first joined PINC and they informed me of their spiderweb system I told them that it wasn't virus proof. Anyone can easily hack into the database and infect all departments connected to it. Like, we see it happen in hacking movies all the time. Kendrick is the only one who supported it but the other higher ups didn't want to take the pay cut to update the system. So, they denied my proposal."

My mind caught on; Ethan’s playful grin giving it away.

"Let me guess. You said fuck them and did it yourself?"

"Yup."

"Wait, what!" The others yelled.

"Ethan, that's against the law." Junho reminded.

"It's only against the law if I do it illegally." He replied.

"But you did." Jaxson pointed out. Ethan walked over to the chair next to my bed, turning it to face him before sitting; his arms rested on it as his eyes grew serious – the mature Ethan we rarely got to see made an appearance.

"Kendrick and I took our proposal to someone who would understand. Arthur Heart, King of Heila. He agreed that our department could be potentially targeted and wanted a place where only myself, Kendrick and the President of the United States could access. The shifter race affects the galaxies and even though shit only happens here, if people like Xerxes get freed after the years spent catching them we'd have an epidemic."

"So, you have copies? Of just our department?"

"Everything. Every file created since the creation of PINC. Now it's just the matter of when Kendrick wants to reveal them to the others. They're purposely not saying anything to weed out the corruption in the system. All these politicians care about are their paychecks. Their kids go to Switzerland for schooling, while we have homeless shifters and our kind is being kidnapped and used for experiments at banned facilities. It's about time we started taking charge and getting rid of people who want nothing good for anyone else but themselves."

We stood there in complete silence. Cece was the first to speak.

"Shit Ethan. I know we love to tease you, but damn. That's the smartest thing you've ever thought of." She whispered. The others nodded, still speechless. The discussion triggered my memory which caused me to flinch. I looked at Cece.

"Oh shit. Cece! The files!"

"Files?" Junho questioned.

I turned to face them.

"Uh. I kinda did something I wasn't supposed to. Well, I kinda forced Cece into it. Don't get mad till you hear me out."

They exchanged worried looks but nodded.

"You know how my gut kinda warns me about stuff? Well, my gut instincts were telling me that something like this may happen, especially with the system being down. With Xerxes and his usual spotless crimes; the bridge incident is key evidence. I didn't want us to lose the evidence, so I told Cece to make a backup copy." I confessed.

Ethan’s eyes grew wide.

"You have a copy? I didn't get to upload it into my database and it was lost in the wipe."

Moonlight jumped onto the bed – my old phone in it’s Chanel perfume case hung out of his mouth by the gold chain. He dropped it onto my lap, before sitting patiently on the bed.

"Meow." I picked him up, planting a kiss on his forehead; placing him in my lap, my free hand grabbed onto my old phone.

"Thank you, Moonlight." I whispered, petting him. He purred in response, curling up in my lap. I returned my gaze to the others, presenting my phone.

"I had Cece send everything to my phone. Before my confrontation with Xerxes, I watched him...kill Rebecca. He used the same method he did with Amelia, using that Nephilim drug and injecting her. I got the images and video to prove it. I sent it to my phone just in case...just in case I didn't make it, or my phone got damaged." I revealed.

I noticed Jaxson's change in expression – a flicker of distress in his eyes when I struggled to finish my explanation. The others also looked more concerned about my pause, then the reality of having hardcore evidence of Xerxes in the act.

I gave them a reassured smile.

"I'm fine. All I need to do is charge this up and we have everything we need to put an arrest warrant on Xerxes for killing Amelia, Rebecca and attempting to kill me twice. If I can get an item of Naomi's from the car I could see how exactly she died and draw it out. If we present it to the higher ups, it would be more than enough to validate our accusations."

"Scar. You're a fucking genius!" Ethan cried out, shooting out of his chair. The others had relief in their expressions as they nodded in agreement.

"Totally against the rules but seeing as we're about to put a man who's contributed to the deaths of hundreds of shifters over the years behind bars, you’re forgiven Agent Sinclair." Jaxson approved, giving me a heart-filled smile; his praise made me beyond happy.

"Behind bars? Please, we're gonna fight for his ass to get fucking sent to Lucifer himself. Maybe he'll enslave his soul and bind him into years of solitude as a slave or tortured for the rest of eternity." Michael exclaimed.

I heard a phone vibrate; Cece jumped before scrambling for her phone. She looked at the screen; her eyes grew wide for a moment before anger took over – the lines in her face scrunched up in disgust, and her eyes narrowed at whatever was displayed on her screen. It was something I didn't see from my best friend unless she was seriously pissed off.

"Cece? What’s wrong?"

"For Starlight’s fucking sake. You have got to be kidding me."

We all exchanged worried glances, returning our attention to the furious blonde.

She looked up to us, gripping her phone so tightly I thought it would break into pieces.

"We can't kill Xerxes."

"What? Why not?" Jaxson questioned; anger laced his voice.

"The blood results came back."

"Blood results?" I asked, confused. Christian turned his gaze to me.

"When we found you, we noticed that your glove was stained in blood. You didn't have any major cuts on your hands, so we knew it wasn't yours, but Xerxes’. We were able to contract enough of a sample to do a test. It matched the glass you found from Sakikku's place.”

"But what does that have to do with us not killing him?"

Cece took a deep breath, pinching her nose.

"Starlight law."

"Starlight law? You mean the one you just taught me about. Which law does he fall under?"

"Thou cannot kill a Royal." Cece announced.

"Mother fucker; he's not a royal!" Jaxson yelled.

"Impossible." Michael announced, looking just as pissed.

The others were about to contribute when Cece raised her hand; her eyes flickered. We all remained silent.

"Vinzent requested to do another background check. After adding the new blood sample and requested a vampire to do a background check of any family members, relatives, the whole family fucking tree. Vin just texted me back the results. He's related to a royal making him untouchable."

"A vampire..." I mumbled.

"I'll explain later." Christian reassured me.

"Okay. If he's related to a royal who can it possibly be?"

Cece was quiet for a moment, poking at her phone before turning it to face us.

The boys began swearing under their breath; my eyes narrowed on the image.

"Wait a minute. The red eyes...wait, isn't that..." I trailed off, not wanting to be the first to say the name. Cece had just went through this topic – the story still lingered in the back of my mind.

"Yes. Xerxes’ surname is Aspen. His brother is Blair Aspen. King of Realm One."

*Silence*

FUCK....