Chapter 50

Lauren woke up in her bed at home not knowing how she got there and for a moment she thought she was back in her nightmare of earlier, until Zach came rushing forward from his spot where he sat on the floor.

Everyone came forward then. They were all in her room, all of them including Xander, Liv was back too.

Marley had her arm around Liv apparently their fight of earlier was forgotten.

Lauren frowned when she realized that everyone was looking at her like she was a dying kitten, and she said,"What? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"OMG!" was it real!"

Lauren went to jump out of bed to check on her mother, but Zach held her back.

"Your mom's fine if that's what you're worried about. We just have something to tell you. And we've been debating how to do it for over an hour now."

"Wait how'd I get here?" Lauren asked.

"We called Xander and he and his Domovoi butler came to pick us up in his stretch limo."

"What's a domovoi?" Lauren asked.

"Apparently, it's a protective Slavic house spirit that hates kids." Zach chuckled.

"Yeah Brah he was none too please when we all piled into the car." Kyle added.

Lauren suddenly remembered the contact she went to meet.

"What happened to the revenant?

Quinn stepped forward and said, "Well he's still dead, but maybe a little deader than before," he finished with a shrug.

Shit, how was she going to find out about her brother now?

What about the bouncers, they weren't killed, were they?" All of sudden Lauren was counting heads to make sure the gang was all there.

She let out a huge sigh of relief when the count added up to all her friends.

"Nah," CJ said, "they were a little tied up, but otherwise aside from being extremely pissed they were perfectly fine.

"The vines," Lauren guessed.

"Who was that guy anyway and how'd he get so powerful?"

Everyone seemed to quail at the question.

Lauren's eyes narrowed and she gave a cold stare to all in attendance before asking:

"What are you guys not telling me?"

Zach sat on her bed then and took her cold hands in his, before clearing his throat.

"Enough! She growled impatiently, "Just tell me already!

"Lauren," Zach said, "That really powerful Fae is your brother."

"What!" No way that can't be right!"

She stood straight up in her bed pacing over her crumpled covers staring down at the faces of her friends, and they all stared back at her with pity in their eyes.

Then it hit her . . .

"Oh em effing Gee! it's true, isn't it?" She sputtered in utter disbelief.

Her friends all nodded solemnly.

"What are we going to do?" she said dejectedly; then she seemed to switch gears before saying.

"Never mind that -- How are we going to bring him back from this -- he's killed people? Innocent people!"

"But you all saw the vision." She pleaded.

"He's not right in the head. " She poked herself in her temple to demonstrate her point. "Whoever's in charge of their gang is taking advantage of his insanity. We need to stop him and get him help."

Her eyes were shining with manic tears by this point. They pooled on the bottom of her lashes.

Zach wrapped his arms protectively around her and started stroking her hair to comfort her, and only while standing on her bed were they nearly the same height.

He looked deep into her eyes then and yet still seemed to address everyone in attendance when he said, "we're going to help you get him back, right guys?"

Everyone agreed.

Lauren cried then, she couldn't help it. Sometimes when you realize that you lucked into the best friends in the world, it makes you cry.

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Everyone piled into her kitchen fixing sandwiches as the sun came up. She'd need to portal Zach and Quinn home in just a little while but in the meantime they could have some cold-cuts on rye. She offered some tomatoes and bean sprouts to Liv. Marley just ate the cuts.

Travis and Kyle were currently tearing through her cupboards looking for junkfood. When they found a bag of chips they started digging in like their lives depended on it.

Zach was buttering the bread when he suddenly stopped mid spread and said without looking at them, "We need to be more prepared next time."

Everyone stopped horsing around and stood in rapt silence.

"We need to get our hands on some weapons and we need to be better trained."

"Guys, he pleaded for understanding, "we nearly died out there tonight."

"That can't happen again." Zach said emphatically.

"How are we going to get our hands on weapons?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, we can't sneak them out of school they're spelled like the books." Quinn added.

"We could buy some at the Menagerie." Liv suggested.

"Yeah with what?" CJ asked incredulously, "I had to bum bus money from my Mum to get to the club last night."

"I could help," Travis stepped forward. "I can supply Troll bile. We can trade with that."

"No friggin' way Brah!" Kyle interjected.

"Besides it's illegal," Brenna reminded them, "how would we even begin to know how to extract it anyway."

"Cameron would know how, right Cam?" Meg asked.

Cameron looked put on the spot, but he nodded his head in the affirmative without saying anything.

"That settles it then," Trav said.

"Ya'll are forgetting something. How are ya'll going to know who to trade it with. Besides if we got caught, we'll be wiped for sure?"

"Il mio angloe è giusto," Donnie said, "it is too dangerous."

Lauren was just thinking since when did Kelly become the voice of reason, when the usually mute Connor added, "What other choice do we have?"

Xander chuckled in the chair he straddled. All eyes turned to him when he flashed a black credit card and announce, "Mommy dearest used to gripe about my spending, until I made my first mill."

"Will they even accept that at the Menagerie," Marley asked?

Xander just said in his cultured southern California accent, "Honey they'd accept this in hell if I went for a visit."

"Besides we're going to need the weapons for the Yule Ball. Rumor has it they're planning to attack the royals again. The council has decided that in a show of strength the Nordic elves are going to tie the knot at our little shindig."

Everyone was dumbstruck.

They knew what rumor has it meant when it came out of Xander's mouth. It meant it was one hundred percent true. That's how he'd made his millions after all. He was the world's greatest authority on Hollywood gossip and gamer rumors. As the Halfblood son of Ozweina the Slavic Goddess of echo, gossip, fame and glory – emphasis on the gossip part – he was never wrong.

"That means we have until the Yule Ball on December 21st to get weapons and get good." Zach informed them.

"Who's up for a visit to the Menagerie today," Lauren asked not wanting to waste another moment."

They all tiredly agreed before finishing their sandwiches and parting company. They'd get a few hours sleep and meet at Coit Tower this afternoon.

Lauren portalled Zach and Quinn home; then flopped into her unmade bed. Sleep wouldn't come though. Until she gathered up her blanket and pillow and padded over to her mother's door. She lay down in the hall on the floor and whispered, "I'm going to bring him back mom; I'm going to bring him back to us. I promise."

Then sleep finally came.

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They converged on the market that afternoon all seventeen of them. They each visited the weapons tables and asked millions of questions before making their choices.

Kelly chose throwing knives because as the halfblood descendent of the Norse Goddess of War and Death she couldn't miss. She purchased a leather belt, arm and leg holsters too. She had a dagger on her every limb and she was deadly already, imaging her now.

Donnie chose Italian dueling daggers, and he similarly equipped himself with a belt and holsters.

CJ couldn't resist purchasing a set of Nunchuks and a back holster to hold them in.

Connor was a crack shot with a bow and arrow. So he purchased a long bow for range and a short bow for accuracy and a quiver that was spelled to never run out of arrows. That one had been expensive.

Still Xander went about his business presenting the black card to stall owns that had dollars signs in their eyes.

And it wasn't long before merchants were coming to them.

With this potion, that charm, to coincide with this purchase or that purchase.

Speaking of potions, Cameron had a lengthy discussion with the merchants to figure out the best way he could devise potion grenades. He needed a long range weapon, because he had pointed out to everyone, as a selkie, he was not much help in a fight on land.

It wasn't long before he was pulling around a cart filled to the brim with supplies that would make up a makeshift alchemy lab in his basement at home.

Megan similarly picked a distance weapon that had seemed to have been built just for her. It was a self cocking cross bow. All she would have to do is load the bolt and pull the trigger. She could do that easily enough while still managing to stay upright on her crutches.

Brenna refrained from picking anything she said her staff functions as a perfectly good bow staff.

Kyle chose a sling shot. That was spelled to never miss it's target.

But Travis still adamantly refused to pick up a weapon and when they started to argue with him he made a fist and punched a hole in the floor to shut them up.

Lauren fell in love with a set of beautiful steel fans and as a practitioner of Wushu she was well aware of how deadly they could be as well.

Marley chose a simple pair of brass knuckled and steel toed boots with knives that popped out if she tapped them the right way.

Ollie was back and he chose a whip that coiled around his waist like a belt until needed then it was spelled to become whatever length he or she needed.

Ray chose a Katana and its much shorter Ko-wakizashi and a shoulder scabbard for them both. They crisscrossed his back coolly like Deadpool did.

Quinn chose throwing starts, and the pouch they sat in was also spelled to never run out. He and CJ were joking that they might be able to give Chuck Norris a run for his money now, but everyone else disagreed.

Ryan declined purchasing anything because he said his Mom had already gifted him his Gandfather's Khopesh and he could just use that.

When Xander chose, he could have picked anything, but when he picked a pair of Glocks, they all had to agree it was perfect for him, he looked like the personification of a Hollywood action hero and the dual weapons suited him to a tee.

When the merchant suggested that he could provide bullets of different descriptions that would fend off any number of magical creatures, Lauren watched as the guys looked at his purchase like they wished they had thought of that.

Xander face split into an evil grin and he wrapped his arm around the stall owner and chuckled, "tell me more, as he walked away.

Finally it was Zach's turn. The kids knew he was training with Galahad and using a broad sword, but he could pick anything he wanted now. But when Zach lock eyes on a medieval sword with a filigreed hilt he seemed to fall in love and when he picked it up and began to flick it this way and that, moving it in wide arcs and figure eights they all had to agree it was the perfect weapon for him. He also purchased a back scabbard to rest it in.

Afterward, they all went their separate ways with armloads of equipment. They had even scored some troll bile from a creeper before they left. It wasn't a lot and they would have to use it sparingly, but at least now they knew where to get more and they wouldn't have to hold back in training.

They devised a plan to train every night in Muir woods from Midnight til 3AM under the stairs every night until the Ball. They would take Wolfe with them to patrol the woods for rangers or strangers. Lauren would portal them all over one at a time. It meant an half an hour on either end of hard work on her part, but it was worth it to have the hope of rescuing her brother.

And promised herself she would get her brother back from the crew that were using him, if it was the last thing she did . . .

Tune in on tomorrow to find out how their training is going.

********************THANKS FOR READING***************

If you liked this chapter Vote, Comment, add this book to your reading list, or suggest it to a friend. I just want to thank everyone for all their support. It means the world to me. *hugs*.I've decided to go back to my regular upping schedule of twice a week. I think it will now be Tuesday and Friday from now on. Thanks my beautiful Havenites.