Frej Fox

At the meet that evening, I sat in the stands with Mariposa. During the whole meet, I cheered on Riley and kept a look out for the Frej that Mark had mentioned earlier. There were so many guys on the deck, some wearing caps, some just tucking their goggles into the waist of their suits the second they pulled themselves out of the water. None looked any different from the others, and after a while I just gave up trying to spot the foreign exchange student that had ruffled my school's feathers.

Finally, it was time for the 400 relay. I looked down and saw Mark and Riley streching out their muscles. Leo came up behind me and tapped my shoulder.

"Riley is a good swimmer, but Mark has him beat. If Frej is just as good as either of them, I think this may be an interesting next five minutes." Mariposa whispered in my ear as the meet official asked for quiet. I felt myself nodding and looked at Leo. He nodded towards the middle lane where two guys were almost staring with god-struck eyes at a third while a fourth stood statue-still on the block. I felt a tug in my chest as my eyes passed over the three guys.

The buzzer went off and my eyes were pulled to the six bodies in the pool, moving at speeds that were beautiful to the eye, yet would have been slow on land. Silence fell for half a second as they all made their turns at the same time and were swimming back towards the blocks. Cheers from the stands made me realize that I had been stock still ever since the buzzer. I jumped up and pulled Mariposa with me down the stands to get as close to the deck as possible. We leaned over the rail and shouted ourselves hoarse and squealed with joy as Mark was the first of the last set of relayers to be in the water. Then suddenly, almost as if the swimmer had materialized there, there was another swimmer next to Mark. I felt my tongue get stuck in my throat for a second before I started screaming like a banshee for Mark to move it and beat the other guy. One, two, three turns and it was the last length of the pool and they were still neck at neck. Mariposa was precariously leaning over the rail above the deck and I was hanging onto to her, both of us still screaming at Mark, and shouting furious glances at the other swimmer. With three strokes left to the wall and the win, the other swimmer put a burst of speed into his kick and his hand touched the wall inches before Mark. Silence filled the pool with a loud cheer from the fans and swimmers of Jenkins. I looked at Mariposa as I pulled her up. She looked like she had swallowed her tongue and half her teeth. I looked as the winner pulled himself out of the water. Another tug in my chest. Mark was still in the water, treading as he gave a silent snarl at the board above the pool that gave real meaning to what everyone there already knew. Leroy time: 4:10:12 Jenkins time: 4:10:09

 

I waited outside in an alley behind the school. Leo came up to me and pulled me into a hug. Then he laughed. "Well, that was interesting. Wonder how Riley and Mariposa may bond over this?"

With a snort I looked up at him. "How they will bond? Over this? Come on, they have their artwork. Let's just leave it at that. I mean, let's be real. They're in high school. You don't find the person you are meant to be with in high school. There have got to be other foxes for them. I want to get out of here and get back to drake hunting, tarot reading for Hades, and job searching for God. This is almost boring!"

Leo was quiet for a long moment and then he turned to me and picked me up so we were face to face. In these forms, face to face meant that I had my feet hanging a good eight inches above the ground. "You haven't been like this since Abel. What happened?"

"I just felt a tug in my chest. Nothing special. Wait, two tugs. Still nothing to get worked up over." I looked away from him and squirmed a bit. "I think I just miss Crue and wish he could be here with us. Ever since he Fae-ed back to his normal self and he has more freedom, I feel lost without him."

Leo dropped me, muttering something that sounded like "damned, bloody, dwarf-ridden, farie king"

"He's still a sword to me!" I shouted into thin air as Leo decided to pull an Elemental trick and disappear without so much as a ripple in the atmosphere.

"Who are you shouting at? Who be a sword?" A heavily accent voice came from behind me.

When I turned, the tug in my chest made my heart beat so fast I could barely breathe. As I felt myself doing my second humpty-dumpty, I whispered, "Leo. Abel!" and then for the second time in my life, I felt nothing.

 

Leo's account of Cassandra's second falling

 

I love Cassandra, and yet I know she will never love me. Physical lust is her greatest weakness, as we discovered in Ireland when a drake taunted Cassandra for nearly a year and as she fell for him, she fell from what she calls her fence. Since she is the only one of what she is, it took nearly a month before I figured out how to bring her back...

 

"Leo. Abel!" I heard her whisper. Abel had been the name of the drake.

"NO!" I felt myself shout from the top of Everest, where I go when I want to be alone. How could this happen again? How could she have such a heavy weakness? It was almost cruel to her.

Seconds later, I was by her side, looking down at her. It was just like last time, almost worse. It looked as if there was a star just under her skin that kept blinking out of existence. Her skin was cracking in pieces and the light escaped, followed by a black sulfer scented smoke. Her demon half and angel half were at war with each other, instead of the normal balance she lived in. They were trying to push each other out and that act was killing her. She had been in so much pain the last time, and it had lasted for hours before she had hardened into a marble-like statue. During that month that she had been like that, many demons and angels alike had come to try to kill her, but the statue wouldn't break or even be scratched.

"Liah! Brax!" I shouted to the sky. Only Cassandra's parents could heal her. Only together could they convince each side of her to recognize the other as an equal and not an enemy.

But Abraxas was a demon and Pahaliah an angel. They each needed their own summoning spell to be brought here. Cassandra was the only one who had a direct connection to her parents and could summon them without a spell.

"What happen to lady?" An accented voice came from behind me. I turned to see Frej, the foreign exchange student. He must have been the reason that Cassandra had fallen. Looking at him without goggles, I could see what Cassandra would have been attracted to. Dark straight hair to the shoulders, blue stormy eyes, skin that was tanned perfectly. He was Cassandra's type, alright.

"You, Frej, right?" I didn't even wait for a confirmation before throwing him a piece of paper from my pocket. "Say this and stand over that manhole over there. Then get back over here  as quickly as you can!" When he didn't move I stood up and let my eyes glow red, "NOW, MORTAL!"

I started my own summoning of Liah. From my other pocket I pulled out a piece of white chalk and a small vial of oil. Frej came back over to me and looked over my shoulder. I hope he had been able to summon Brax, but the summoning spell I had given him had been in German, so shouldn't have had any problem.

I didn't have anything to worry about, because seconds later, just as I finished the spell for Liah, the ground under us buckled upward a few times. Frej fell backward and was knocked out when his head his the ground.

 I would check on him after Cassandra was alright. She was still spewing forth light and smoke from the cracks on her skin and they were getting further apart. She had been screaming at first, but her voice was long gone; that didn't mean her mouth wasn't still open with silent screams.

The earth buckled another time, and then the most horrifying demon in all of history burst from the ground and landed about five feet from me. While Cassandra wasn't bad looking in her demon form, her father was a creature of nightmares.

Abraxas, creator of all pure demons, had multiple snakes winding around each other for legs. His chest was that of a black dog and each arm was a skelton of a different animal, one being that of a lion, the other of boar. He had wings spreading from his back, dark green with dried bloody and gore dripping from the tips. The gore was all over his body and if I hadn't seen Brax before, I would have pretended that it was just because he had been in a sewer. His head... it would have been beautiful if you didn't stare at it, and so I never looked at it except for that first time and told myself that it was actually very nice looking everytime after that.

"Leo, why have you summoned me?" His voice was a snake hiss, loon scream, and human death rattle all at once.

"Cassandra needs you." I kept my head down.

"Ah, yes. My spawn of Liah. Is she here yet? No, well this is not all that good, Leo. You know I do not being kept waiting."

"Brax, you do not need to wait. I am here." I turned and saw Pahaliah. The complete opposite of Abraxas, Pahaliah was pure beauty and innocence. Milky pale skin, hair that was a deep red, and sky blue eyes, she was everything anyone would think an angel was.

"Hello, Leo. I see my child needs help. Come, Brax, let us work the magic we did when we first brought her into creation." Liah held out her hand and Brax took it. Together they knelt on either side of Cassandra's whitering form and moved their hands over her. A few minutes later, the cracks closed up and she stopped flickering. She went still and whispered hoarsely, "Mom? Dad?" and opened her eyes to see her parents.

Liah smiled and Brax touched Cassandra's cheek, the only sign of affection the demon had ever shown his daughter. Cassandra sat up and hugged both her parents at the same time. Brax cleared his throat, stood up and bowed to both women before vanishing in a flash of sulfer scented smoke. Liah smiled at her daughter again before nodding and disappearing herself.

"Thanks again, Leo." Cassandra whispered, looking at me. She looked as if nothing had happened. Her hair was slightly mused and throat a little raw, but that was it.

"Frej!" She gasped and I turned.

"Ah, yes, the supposed cause for your falling... Can I kill him now." I said through my teeth.

"Kitsune!" Cassandra gasped out before coughing.

"Kitsune? Kitsune? Kitsune!" I looked at her and through her coughing she nodded.