Chapter 25 - Lena

"Can someone please start explaining what the fuck I have just walked into?" Sarah is using her commanding sheriff voice, and I see a twitch in Cyrus's jaw.

"You'll get answers, just give us a minute," he sighs, exhausted and wincing as he shifts under me on the couch a bit. "Lena, what happened? Where'd Tom go?"

Orion comes in from the kitchen and hands me a cup of tea that I take gratefully with shaking hands dropping the weird blood-covered key into my lap with disgust. Sarah's eyes are following him, and she's got her handgun out and pointed at him.

"Sarah, put that away," I chatter before I take a sip of the tea. The warmth is helping along with the body heat I'm stealing from Cyrus, but the shivers keep hitting me in little waves, "They aren't going to hurt anyone. Well, the guys won't. Amie is a whole other question."

Cyrus attempts to hide a smirk and I'm satisfied that he at least hasn't entirely lost his sense of humor. My eyes scan the room and I'm grateful to see everyone more or less intact.

"Lena." He gives me a small squeeze, and I realize he was asking me something.

"Right, right," I mutter taking another sip of tea, "He was a snake."

Sarah scoffs and shakes her head as she holsters the gun. I don't know what I'm expecting of her since I straight passed out when I was faced with them shifting in front of me for the first time, but her disbelief at someone being a snake has me scrunching my face up.

"Well yeah," Sarah sighs, "We knew he was creepy that last time he confronted you at the shop."

"No, I mean he was actually a snake, like his whole bottom half of his body. It wasn't like you guys," I explain, turning to look at Cyrus, "He said he wasn't Eclipse, but something worse. Something they're scared of."

"He's Naga," Orion spits as if it's an insult, before continuing animatedly, "It makes so much more sense why I couldn't track him now. Fucking turns to fog and runs and hides. Coward. I don't understand how you got away to be honest! No offense, he should have easily been able to subdue you down there without having to worry about someone seeing anything. They have a lot more magic accessible to them than we could ever dream of. Makes Milo and Cyrus look like they do parlor tricks."

I blink at Orion in shock.

"I think that's the most I've ever heard him say," I scoff as I take another long sip of tea, "I honestly don't know, Orion. He came at me as soon as the sigil broke and the key was in my hand. I just reacted and... I stabbed him with it. I didn't know what else to do. That's where all this blood came from."

Cyrus squeezes me with a wince, and I look at him a little more closely starting to calm down.

"It was weird, he started to kind of collapse in on himself while he was bleeding all over me, and then he finally just disappeared," I explain narrowing my eyes as I study Cyrus's face. Something is wrong other than just the weird Creepy Tom escape story. I'm trying to place it when Evander crosses over from the fireplace and reaches out with a nod towards my lap.

"Can I see the key?"

I hand it to him and my weight shifting causes another wince from Cyrus.

"What's wrong?" I snap as I hand the key over to Evander and level Cyrus with a serious stare. "Why are you making that face?"

Cyrus tries to wave my concern off, but even moving his arm causes another flinch.

"Oh, for fucks sake, what did you do to yourself?" I shove up off him and the blankets fall off us as I stand, and I realize belatedly that he's still very much naked. Shit. I fling a blanket back over him and instantly regret leaving the warmth myself as I shiver again, hard.

"Milo, will you please deal with your stubborn brother who is acting like he's Mr. Invincible over there," I plead as I pull another blanket around myself and move closer to the fireplace. Rosie comes over and curls herself around me, her eyes wide. Amelie barks out a laugh as Milo jumps up from sitting next to her to inspect Cyrus's arm and shoulder.

"It's nothing," Cyrus frowns trying to shoo Milo away, but is met with a sharp jab to the shoulder blade that causes him to wince again, "I just felt weird when we were running out of the mine. Was trying not to fall on top of you."

Milo shakes his head, placing his hands awkwardly around Cyrus's shoulder and gives it a sharp twist and there's an audible snap. He shakes his head and pats Cyrus's other shoulder with a sigh.

"Just the tendon, but I'm pretty sure if you keep trying to hide stuff like that, you'll lose your wings, man. Next time just let me check it when we get back."

"I had other things on my mind," Cyrus sighs meeting my eyes with a pointed nod.

"What does this all mean? What was that attack and what does a Naga have to do with it all."

"Well, the rest of the attack was definitely Eclipse," Amelie shrugs, "The six dead bodies all have the markings, so that much is clear. They could very well still be here looking for that key just like Tom was, or are just ramping up to try and finish what they and the other clans started back at our home."

"One of them was William," Cyrus offers as if that's some sort of explanation, "So the likelihood that they're back for a while is low."

"Who's William?" I ask as a lighter shiver rolls through my body.

"He was their alpha. That's the one I was fighting when I came down from the window. Sneaky, ink colored one who tried to bite me from the back. With him dead there will be some infighting until a new Alpha wins."

"Hold up," Sarah interrupts, "You killed him? And there are multiple dead people? Can we go back around to what the fuck? I'm still trying to deal with Red and his bare ass having turned from Dragon-man to well-endowed naked-man. Snake men. And now you're telling me there's been murders?"

"Glad to know you appreciated my lucky charms, Sheriff," Rufus quips with a wink as I dissolve into laughter. "And technically, is it really murder if it's self-defense? More like manslaughter. Or… more appropriately shifter-slaughter."