The Madness at Koresh Manor­ Part 2

Karalius was different then what Raphael remember her looking, back when they dated she was a tall black hair Cherokee girl from North Carolina who played with magic a bit too much. She was thin back then, and every boy they knew wanted to kiss her, but it was Raphael she fell for, and he fell for her. But there wasn’t a Cherokee girl standing in front of him now. No, it was a tall black fox lady with Karalius bright green eyes and earrings on her pointed ears, three on each ear with a matching ring through her nose looking like a bull’s ring. She was very different then what Raphael remembered. 

She creaked a smile at him. It had been two years since they talked, two years since she broke his heart by disappearing from his life without a word.

“So, it true then,” he said. “You played around with the wrong kind of magic.”

“It’s why I stop talking to you,” she told him not looking him in the eyes.

“You shouldn’t have,” he said.

“Yeah, well, I was going through a lot,” she said. “Its true about your powers as well?” She asked eyeing the green rocks in his skin.

“Why are you here?” He asked walking past her to his bathroom.

“I need your help,” she called out with him taking off his shirt. She looked away even if she didn’t want to.

“My help?” He asked. “Did you steal come chickens or something?”

She said nothing about the joke and asked, “Do you know of Guinevere’s Hunters?”

“Yeah, Guinevere’s Freaks, people like to call them,” he said sticking his head out from the bathroom. “We have worked with Rain a few times. Why you with him?”

“Not like that,” she said, “but I am a part of the team.”

“Make sense,” he said because everyone in Paladin knew Guinevere’s Hunters were the freak show of the army. No one who joined that team was normal by any means, and they all live with Rain’s parents on Lovecraft island way from the world. He had heard stories about them but never went to the island. He only met Rain Lovecraft the sorcerer boy a few times and didn’t like him. Rain had an air of elitism about himself.

“Yeah,” she said looking down at her boots. Raphael got the feeling as he stepped back into the room she was only acting this way with him. She was softer with him, always had been, back when they were together she was a ball fire with everyone else, but not with him. She always acted like a sly girl around him and keep her flame at bay. He didn’t understand why but he was sure he acted differently with her around as well. Funny how love makes someone change who they are, he told himself.

And he still loved her, he knew it. He tried not believed it, but his heart was racing once he heard her voice. Once, he saw her he knew he was still in love with this person. Although, the fox body would take some getting use too, it didn’t bother him too much.

He couldn’t believe he was still in love with her after all this time.

She hurt him, and he did what he always did with people hurt him, he wrote them out of his life. And yet, here she was standing in his room asking for help. The pain from the two years of silence yelled for her to go away, but the pain in her eyes made him keep his mouth shut.

“Where else could I go?” She asked.

“You were always welcomed here,” he said.

“Looking like this?” she asked glancing down at her tail.

“We have seen stranger things,” He said.

“I know and thanks, but I really need your help,” she told him.

“I’m waiting to hear what it is,” he said.

“Right, right,” she said probably equally as shocked to see him as he was to see her. “Rain is in trouble.”

“What about your other teammates?” Raphael asked.

“I can’t go to them,” Karalius said. “He is on a mission that’s off the books.”

“Oh,” Raphael said slipping his shoes off, “his on a mission that will get him in trouble, huh?”

“Right now, he is in trouble and so is the rest of the world,” Karalius explained.

“And you don’t want Paladin to know,” he said walking into his closet.

“Can you help me or not?”

“Tell me what kind of trouble Rain is in first,” Raphael said pulling out some clothes, but he had already made up his mind. He was going to help her anyway. She was scared and wouldn’t have shown up here unless she had no choice. He was hurt at the fact he was the last person on her list while at the same time felt alright about how she trusted him so much to be here.

“Rain is always looking for new magic,” she told him. “He is always traveling the world gathering what he can and where he can. We heard of his cult in Canada who was using some new magic and Rain went to study with them.”

“And he drank the cool-aid?” Raphael asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Karalius said. “He gave me orders if that ever happens to do everything I could to get him out of there.”

“Did you try calling him and asking him to come home?”

“He won’t talk to any of us,” she said. “Something is very wrong, and I think, they plan on using him to bring on the end of the world.”

“Why do you believe that?”

“They are called the House of David,” she explains, “and they are trying to break the Seventh Seal of the apocalypse.”

“A doomsday cult then,” he said walking back to the bathroom.

“A doomsday cult who has one of the most powerful sorcerers in their rank now,” she pointed out.

“So, you want us to go and save him?” Raphael asked.

“Just you and me,” she said. “Yes.”

“Well, the real question is,” he sticks his head back out of the bathroom, “do I have time to take a shower?”