Lazarus Taxon

Mr Doyle smiled faintly and nodded. “I shall leave you to your mates then if you are comfortable with that, Madam Sanctorum?” Mr Doyle checked with Seph before he left.

“What? Mr Doyle, you cannot leave on that without explaining yourself. You have plenty of explanation to give me, and I presume a fair bit of it will affect my mates. I think you should Take a seat, sir.” Seph told him, Theo and Kayla nodding their agreement anxiously, not wanting to reignite his wrath.

Mr Doyle warily sat in a desk chair, Theo joining him at the desks while Kayla and Seph scooted to the edge of the bed. ‘Don’t crowd him. We must be careful if this is anything like it seems,’ Seph told the others through a mind link. Kayla was careful to stay level with Seph, giving the impression that she was supporting her mate, and Theo kept just over an arm’s length away from the man, ready to move if necessary. They all looked at him expectantly. “What?!” He demanded of them, looking between the three of them. He couldn’t just blurt out the whole story. How could he? He didn’t know what they knew or where they were on their journey.

“Why are you here, Mr Doyle? How did Dextra talk to you? And how come you understood her?” Seph began curiously.

“I am the guardian of the sanctuary. You needed me,” he replied quickly.

The twins looked at eat other behind Seph. This cleared up nothing ‘do you know what he’s on about?’ Theo asked the other two silently. No one answered. Seph was looking at Mr Doyle like that made complete sense; they decided to try and play along too.

“Whose sanctuary, Mr Doyle?” Seph asked him. Theo and Kayla couldn’t work out if she meant who the sanctuary belonged to or who the sanctuary is, but that couldn’t be right. Clearly, sanctuaries are places, not people. Theo’s brow crumpled as he turned to look at Seph, suddenly concerned that they might have missed a brain injury.

“I think you know, child. I think you are finding yourself even as we speak. You found the book” He waited for Seph to nod before continuing, “you know what you are, young one, you know what I am, you know the prophecy. It is your destiny. What path will you choose?”

It was all too much for Theo; he struggled to understand what was happening and not getting an explanation. “Enough, enough of the bloody riddles; someone needs to explain this properly, now!” He demanded. Seph could feel his anxiety. But right now, she had to sort this out.

“Theo, darling, I need to deal with this. I will explain but give me a few minutes.” Seph told him quickly before turning her attention back to Mr Doyle. “Ok, so I am the Sanctorum; that makes Theo my protector and Kay the balance, the rational bit, yes?” Seph paused here, waiting for Mr Doyle’s agreement “but why does our sanctuary need a-? “Seph’s words were cut off by a loud hiss “, ok, a...you, why me and why you? And why can’t my mates know what you are?”

“Every sanctuary over the centuries has a guardian, and it is always me. I am the guardian; there is only me. And your spirit is always the Sanctorum, its essence at least. You can tell your mates if you wish. At the end of the day, you are kin and have the right to tell your life partners if you wish to.”

“Kin? What does that mean?” Seph asked quickly before either of the twins could interrupt; they were still sharing increasingly confused looks, half convinced that Seph and Mr Doyle were in some kind of shared delusion.

“Has you drake not told you?” Mr Doyle inquired, tilting his head to the side curiously.

“My drake? Oh, you mean Dextra? She’s not always drake shaped; she also likes a large salamander form. No, she hasn’t told me anything, and she’s being surprisingly quiet now.”

“She will tell you later when you have had time to prepare your mates.” Mr Doyle began to prepare to leave, an infuriating smile that told all three young people before him that he was not telling them the whole story.

“Wait, I have another couple of questions for you,” Seph said urgently. When he nodded, she continued, “the last bit of the prophecy, I struggled to translate it… what does it mean? And what do we call you?”

Mr Doyle. Rolled his eyes, “you never can get that bit, no matter how many lifetimes you have to master it. Put simply, you could wind up being the end of the supernatural world as we know it. Either for good by creating harmony and peace amongst all the groups and allowing them to mingle happily; by creating some kind of forced mingling that the people do not want, you tried that last time. Please don’t do it again. That vampire was a nightmare to control without you or causing a catastrophic war that the humans get involved in, and nearly all life is wiped off the planet. The first one is your usual approach.” Seph looked between her mates, her eyes wide with shock and confusion. Mr Doyle didn’t notice; he just continued, “I’d recommend we go with that again. As for what you can call me, I doubt any of you could say my name, but I have decided I like the name Odilio” he finished with a flourish as if Odilio was the epitome of male names to choose from. “Is that all, Madam Sanctorum?”

“Um… Well, I guess so… uh… Odilio… we will let you know if we have more questions, thank you.”

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Seph and Kayla were only just holding back their laughter; once the door shut behind Odilio, they couldn’t contain themselves. They fell back onto the bed, holding their ribs tightly as they laughed uproariously. They couldn’t get even half a sentence out between them, and every time they made eye contact, it seemed to make them laugh harder. Theo sat there, watching them with a bemused half-smile on his face that clearly said he thought the girls had lost their minds. After about 5 minutes, Seph began pushing Kayla to calm them down. It took her a little while to stop laughing, Kayla following suit a moment or two later. “I have to pee, then you can ask,” Seph said to the twins in general, shuffling to the edge of the bed, still holding onto her ribs with one arm. She may benefit from healing powers and accelerated healing from her mates, but her ribs still hurt like a bitch; it had only been over a week.

When Seph shuffled back to them and got herself comfy up against the pillows again, Theo tried to help, but she hissed at him like a cat. He took that to mean he was doing it wrong and stepped back, slightly shocked at being hissed at. But at least it meant Seph was starting to feel more herself. The Seph they had been seeing over the last few days, since her return home, had been far too compliant. It was clear to Theo that people were annoying her, but she didn’t make them leave or fake sleep. She didn’t want to eat half of what she was brought, but she took a few bites of everything. She tolerated Archer because he would growl at people and make them want to leave, and she could relax with him there for security, so Archer spent most nights in Seph’s room, leaning against her legs, so she knew he was there. Theo, human Theo; however, Seph didn’t seem too interested in him. He understood completely, he had been a fucking dickwad and messed everything with her, but he was determined to fix it and make it up to Seph. Theo wanted his mate back. Theo couldn’t even describe the joy he had felt when she had finally curled into him in the library earlier, but then he went and started taking her shoes off without asking permission and scared her. Archer was so pissed at him.

Kayla flashed Theo a superior grin as Seph leaned into her, allowing her to help get Seph comfy against the pillows. It was his own fault, Kayla thought; no matter how much Seph said, she understood that it was a spell, and he wouldn’t necessarily have realised what was being done to him. Kayla knew what Seph’s magic felt like, and she believed that she would know if someone else’s magic was influencing her. She felt that Theo was lucky Seph was even willing to have him in the same room as her. She kissed Seph’s cheek before settling at her side gently. Happy to see Seph asserting herself once more. She must be feeling stronger again now. Kayla figured things, as horrific as what Seph had lived through in her time with the witches, couldn’t be as bad this time as they were in her past.

For one thing, everyone here believed her. Lorcan or Elder Maher regularly invited Seph to participate in the case preparation; Seph didn’t feel strong enough yet, though. They kept her up to date with everything regardless, reassuring her that they were fighting for more sanctions on the coven.

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Once they were all settled on the giant bed, the girls at the top and Theo at the bottom, Kayla began with the questions, “well, come on then… what is he and what nonsense is he talking, babes? Or do you only answer to Madam Sanctorum now?” Kayla snorted a laugh again but controlled herself after Seph pushed her.

“If anyone calls me that, I will chop them up and make a stew with the body parts!” Seph growled, only half-joking, “he’s a dragon. Honest to goddess dragon. And apparently, I’m some kind of dragonkin? I guess that means I’m related to them? Oh, and we are supposed to somehow unite the supernatural world or kill everyone? Yeh, I think that about covers it… oh well, apart from whatever Dextra needs to tell me, but she’s not talking yet. I can’t pull her out with broken ribs that would seriously hurt me, which is why she is staying put and had to call for help when I freaked; ordinarily, she would have just burnt your head,” Seph finished with a slight shrug.

Theo shook his head disbelievingly, “Dextra would never do that to me. I’m her favourite. She tried to teach me to speak Dex and wouldn’t hurt me on purpose.” He declared with an overconfident smile.

Seph giggled a little at his stance and shook her head “oh poor, innocent little wolf, never trust a dragon entirely. Clearly, it is Dex who is more dragon than me. I don’t know a lot about them. Still, from what I know, they are incredibly private, possessive, protective, domineering at times, brilliant in a crisis and absolutely genius if you need to get into Fort Knox undetected. Still, you must be careful with your wording, contracts, and promises. They will keep every promise they made down to the letter, so watch your letters, don’t leave anything implied. They make the best barristers, or they did. They are thought to be extinct; no pure dragon shifter is known to exist. Clearly, we have an immortal one… with horrible taste in names and a terrible temper.” The girls burst into fits of giggles again at this, falling into each other and showing no sign of stopping. Theo gave a shrug; if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, he figured and joined the pile of bodies on the bed, ticking Kayla mercilessly to push his way into Seph’s arms.