Chapter Thirty

♦September's POV♦

"Ow!" I cry out as I trip over a fallen branch and fall to the ground.

Selena is quickly flashing to my side to help me up, she dusts off the twigs on my clothes and dirt on my palm.

We continue our journey with my hand firmly held in hers, soon we leave the dark canopy of normal trees and enter the part of the forest where the leaves are all white.

I unconsciously drop Selena's hand and look upwards with a small gasp, it was so pretty, especially under the moonlight so I tell Selena this.

"It's so pretty, it's like it's snowing without the cold and wet." I chatter to her when snowy white leaves all around me.

"I know." She says happily content to just watch me enjoy myself. "But we didn't come here to look at the trees, we came here for a unicorn, remember!" She reminds me and I pause my excited dancing to look at her.

"But you said that we would find the unicorn here." I say in a much quieter voice, starting to feel uneasy now, we've been gone for a really long time, what if mother finds out I'm gone, plus the forest was dark and it was just the two of us out here, what was I thinking?

"Don't think September." Selena walks up to me. "I promised we'll be fine right?"

I nod.

"Good! Now let's go find you a unicorn!" She exclaimes and we start off again.

She's right! Selena is always right because we don't walk for much longer before we see a glowing white unicorn, grazing in the distance.

It stood beside a tree, eating white leaves off a low hanging branch.

I freeze with my hands on my face, practically vibrating with how excited I am. "Ooh! Ooh! Elena! Look! Look! It's a unicorn!" I whisper excitedly, making a small spin. "It's so pretty!" I squish my cheeks.

Selena just watches me with a small smile, a knowing look on her face.

The Unicorn pauses it's meal to study us, it's pearly, single horn pointing straight at us.

"Can we… Can I touch it?" I ask in a feather soft voice, looking at Selena for approval, while still keeping my distance, a bit uncertain.

"Of course!" She agrees, taking my hand one more time to pull me closer to the still creature.

It's pure white mane glowed in the moonlight and even though it looked like some horses I'd seen, it was still very different.

"There's an old story that says that when you touch a Unicorn, it reflects who you are deep down on it's mane." She says seriously, as we get closer to the watching Unicorn.

"Ooh! That's so cool!" I titter, even more eager to touch it, now that Selena had told me that story.

"What color did you get?"

"Purple and gold." She shrugs like it's no big deal but I know it is.

Purple means regality and royalty and gold is a very rare color to be found as a reflection, Selena was always awesome.

The Unicorn tilts its head to acknowledge the two vampire children that came up to meet it and I reach forward tentatively to place my hand on its face.

The big face is much smoother and softer than I had expected and I find myself petting it with both hands.

The Unicorn nuzzles into my greeting and I'm too happy to remember that something is supposed to be happening.

"I-I don't understand." Selena says sadly, her young age showing through her voice for the first time all evening. "Nothing is happening." She mumbled, indicating the fact that the unicorn still remained the same shade.

I smile brightly at her, my arms still wrapped around the Unicorn even though my heart is breaking because if I'm sad it'll only make her sadder.

"It's fine! Maybe my color is a pretty white, just like the Unicorn!" I exclaim in a wobbly voice, closing my eyes so that the tears piling in my eyes wouldn't spill out.

"Ember…"

A loud rustle interrupts what she's about to say and we pause.

A louder crash now, startles the Unicorn and it dashes off to safety.

Quickly Selena grabs my hand and pulls me behind her to protect me, her small body tensing.

We remain quiet like this for a while, intently looking around for the intruder.

When nothing happens after a long while, I lean forward to whisper lowly to Selena. "Do you think we could run for it?"

Selena starts to nod in agreement but she doesn't get that far, something huge attacks us from the front and she barely has enough time to push me out of harm's way before the impact sends her flying, she slams into a tree and falls on the hard ground.

"Seeellllleeeeennnnnaaaaaa!!!!" I scream on a sob, running flat out to meet her.

What had attacked us was a huge Hellhound with flames in its eyes, only rogue Hellhounds had those types of eyes, we were in real danger.

I'm crying so hard that Selena's bloody face and arms are blurry. "I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry." I cry desperately, pulling her limp body closer to myself. 

If I hadn't asked her that question, she wouldn't have been distracted and would have been able to get the both of us out of the way in time.

"September?" She whispers, reaching out blindly to me.

I quickly grab onto her shaky hands. "I'm here Selena, I'm here."

"I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you." She says in a fading whisper and my torrent of tears begin afresh.

The Hellhound growls behind me and Selena passes out in my arms, I gently place her down and stand in-between her and the Hellhound who was greedily eyeing her, the oversized rabid dog wasn't getting anywhere near my sister.

"If you want her, you'll have to get past me!" I shout at the Hellhound but it doesn't even react, dead eyes staring at us with a predatory gaze.

It opens its mouth wide and starts to create a ball of fire at the back of its mouth, I freeze in terror. I'm neither fast nor strong enough to get myself and my twin out of the way so the only thing to do is protect her with my body.

I move closer to the Hellhound so that the heat getting to her wouldn't be much, with tears in my eyes and my arms outstretched, I wait patiently for the ball of fire that would end my life.

I just hope that when it fires this that it'll be bored and leave my sister alone, running was out of the option.

"I'm sorry Selena." I whisper under my breath as the fire comes at me.

I close my eyes as it gets closer and closer, of all the ways I've ever thought I would die…

The fire catches up to me and it's roaring is loud in my eyes, my eyes are still tightly shut and I'm too overwhelmed to realize that I'm not burning up.

When I do, I blink open my eyes to see myself holding the huge ball of fire in my outstretched hands, the wind is whipping around me and the light from it illuminates the entire forest.

I can't see the Hellhound because of the huge ball of fire floating in front of my face, it's bigger than me and it looks really dangerous, without thinking I send it back at the Hellhound, satisfied when the impact sends it flying back.

I rush to Selena and pull her back into my arms, I had to get her home, right now! 

She was still bleeding and she had vicious scratches all over her body, I'm pretty sure her right arm is broken too.

"What the fuck happened here?" An adult voice interrupts me as I plan the fastest way to get Selena back to the safety of the castle.

I pull Selena closer to me as a group of people gather around the fallen hound, praying hard that they don't notice us.

Too late…

"Hey look, there are kids over here." One of them points at us and they come over.

"Garrett was always a sadistic asshole, I'm not surprised that he went after children when he turned rogue." A man in the middle of the group says. "He obviously met his match with these two though, did you see him? Barbecued. That's the word."

The rest mumbled their agreements or chuckled lightly.

"Which one of you did that?" The man in the center says he had a child beside him, who was around my age.

I just keep quiet and watch them blankly, shock finally setting in.

"That's not important Jacque, these girls are torn up pretty bad, especially the unconscious one." Another white haired man spoke up. "They are maybe servant children from the castle, let's take them in."