“You guys went all the way to the Shanghai central district archive and all you bring me is this?” Amara stared at the coffee table, more specifically the three books placed on top. Her eyes were narrowed to slits, as if laser beams were about to shoot out and annihilate the inanimate objects.

Kris smiled sarcastically “First of all, yes. Second, they’re not for you. Third, bringing them here was an afterthought,” He gestured towards me “Luhan’s idea.”

Her hostile stare bore holes in the side of my head “Gee thanks.”

“We each picked a book from the library. I’m only taking ⅓ of the blame.” I said, holding up my hands in defense.

It was a little past midnight and business was well closed at the underground alley. We sat in the cluster of seats in front of the final bowling lane, a cursive 13 scripted on the polished floor in front of the bowling ball dispenser.

Amara flicked back the curls from her face, picking up the red paperback. She ran her fingers gently across the cover, eyeing the veins and cracks from time wearing down. Despite her reaction we all knew her as a definite book worm, but the love of reading only extended into history, war, or politics, with the occasional sprinkle of comedy here and there. Romance was the single genre that repulsed her.

“You guys know my taste in books. I find this offensive.”

“You have my sincere apology.” Kris crossed his arms.

“I don’t want the apology I want better books.” Amara all but hissed, staring the paperback as if it was going to burn her hand.

“Aren’t they being too hostile?” Tao muttered quietly.

I scratched my head “Aren’t they always-”  Amara gave us the evil eye from across the table, commanding silence.

“I can hear you know.”

“Sorry.” Tao awkwardly laughed. I decided to stay mute, slightly scared around the pissed sorceress. We would probably still be able to make it out of here alive if Kris would shut up.

“It’s all we got Mrs. Song, take it or leave it.” He said shortly, a smile on his face. The kind begging for a pummelling.

“We’re here for help not to get the crap beaten out of us.” I said, exasperated at our pack leader.

His gaze flickered in my direction momentarily, but the ease in his expression never lessened. The fact he still had the confidence to egg her on was incredible. And stupid.

“-or you could look at it with us, preferably with a healthy change of open mindedness?” Tao cut in, trying to grin convincingly.

She gave him a deadpan look “Why?”

“Because I asked nicely?”

“Kris asks me for many things nicely but I don’t do them.”

“If I could stop asking you I would.” The said person called over his shoulder, heading around the counter.

“Or you could just give up on all your endeavors that require assistance, let me run my alley in peace.” She muttered under her breath. Werewolf hearing would not let it go unnoticed.

“That’s no fun.” Kris jeered. He opened the mini fridge, procuring a chocolate milkshake from within. “You’d never make this ahead of time otherwise.”

“That’s all you care about when you’re here.” She waved a hand. The fridge door popped open, hitting Kris in the shin. He scowled, eyeing two more milkshakes as they floated up and over his head, gently coming to land on the table in front of us. “I made some for you guys too.”

“Thanks noona,” Tao grinned, picking up one. My lips twitched with a smile as was left Kris glowering from the counter.

“That is really stark favoritism.” He voice dripped with annoyance.

“I’m sorry what was that?” She examined her nails “I couldn’t hear you over the gaping quiet of where your thank you was supposed to be.”

Kris snatched his drink, stalking up and taking a seat. It wasn’t until his settled in the leather that a grumbled thank you left his lips.

I scratched my chin to hide my laughter, but it was strained. I turned to Amara “Sorry we couldn’t get you anything else. There wasn’t a lot of time.”

Since the archives weren’t a place someone could visit just for fun, and we’d technically lied about our premise for going there and taken books without getting any kind of clearance to do so. If we didn’t have to be so nonchalant about everything I’d might have started freaking out about what we’d done.

“Luhan?” Kris’ voice was a quiet murmur. Without looking at me he still caught the thread of my internal panic “Relax.” I inhaled through my nose, searching the room with my senses. Water dripped in the sink behind the counter, a soft tap that was steady, a good enough constant for now.

“It figures.” Amara pursed her lips together, the closest thing to a pout she could muster. She was more fierce than cute, and that combined with her short temper and ample supply of sarcastic remarks was enough to make her one of the most intimidating sorceresses’ we knew. Deep down (and sometimes it felt like it was really deep down) she could be really warm, and was willing to help out even if she made it look like it was done begrudgingly. Hopefully tonight we’d get just that.

“We were just wondering if you’d seen anything familiar in these books.”  

She scowled at the crimson paperback. “I don’t get why you think I would. Why not ask Suho, he knows his stuff...decently.”

Tao gave a little snicker “If only he’d heard that.”

“If he did he’d have no choice but to agree. His book collection is no match for mine.” Amara boasted, but her expression quickly turned wishful. “With material from the archive it’d just be perfect.” We all knew that was very unlikely to happen. Being under the jurisdiction of werewolves made the archives inaccessible to other creatures lines without special authorization. That in itself often went to higher ranking, in particular circumstances. There was a good chance she’d never see the place for the entirety of her life, so what we brought today was probably going to be her only and closest glimpse.

The thought made me wish we’d picked up something specifically for her.

Amara flicked through the pages, scanning idly.

“That one has sorcerer characters, but the language is old and harder to read.” I pointed out. She squinted slightly at the words.

“Would you care for your glasses Mrs. Song?” Kris said mockingly, holding out a pair. She matched his smirk with her own, snatching them from his hand. Her gaze seemed all the more penetrating and sharp with them on. Like if she looked at one of us long enough she could read through the leisurely act we were putting on. We hadn’t said our real reasons for going there and so far she hadn’t pressed us to know. If she did, we probably weren’t going to tell her the entire truth.

“You guys aren’t going to actually sit here and wait till I finish reading these right?”

“We were hoping you could use the faster method.” Tao asked, grinning sheepishly.

“That gives me headaches!”

“Please, we need to know as soon as possible.”  

Amara gave him a pointed look, but set the book on her lap. Closing her eyes, she ghosted her hand over the cover, its golden script still gleaming underneath the shadow of her fingertips. Her lips moved, whispering the words of a spell too soft to hear. There was a subtle shift in the air around her, something moving, converging to her as the centre point. Her magic.

I could remember her describing this particular spell once, like taking the words of a text and playing them out in her mind’s eye, a movie set in fast forward. A spell of sight.

She drew her hand up slowly, making a small circle with her middle finger as the guide. A couple moments passed, then slow crease began to form between her brows.

“What is it?” I asked, touching her shoulder. Amara blinked opened her eyes, but her gaze went past my head. Unblinking and vacant.

“I know this book.” A tiny frown was on her lips. “I don’t remember reading it.”

Kris’ gaze was growing intense, but his voice didn’t lose its teasing nature “Uh-oh, someone’s losing it up there-”

“I will turn you into a toad Kris. Literally, there is a spell for that.”

“Maybe it’s similar to something else you read when you were younger.” Tao offered, his eyes darting between me and our leader.

“No it’s familiar in the creepy way. Besides this is a way too sappy love-story, even for the kid me to read.” She blinked “I think...this thing’s enchanted.”

“Seriously?” I said.

“There’s something like a residue on here, but it’s really faint. Old.” She muttered “I might be able to break it.”

“Do we want to break it?” Tao asked, nervous sounding.

“Might as well, it’s not like we’re going to return what we took anytime soon.” I said.

Amara opened the book to the first page. There were only a couple lines spread evenly across, the first word scripted in large elegant swirling script. She hovered her pointer finger overtop, pressing gently. Like a wave words began to appear, filling the gaps until the margin was only about two inches thick, the rest of the page a sea of words.

“Much better.” She murmured.

“Is Amara noona actually enjoying this?” Tao mused. I gave him a look for quiet.

“Is it any more familiar?” Kris asked.

“Nope, just more lovely mushy details.” Amara squinted, but then some of her reluctance started to disappear. A funny was starting to grow on her face.

“You okay Mrs. Song?” Kris asked. “The trance thing is getting slightly creepy.”

“I’m fine.” She said bluntly, reassuring in its own way, but her gaze didn’t waver. “You guys should read this again.”

“What is it? Show us.” I urged. Amara laid down her hand at her side. A soft traced out the words on the page, like a shadow made from light shining on the words. Then it rose like thin puffs of smoke the color of jade. Thin flecks like gold appeared across the pages surface, small but bright against the jade cloud. The tendrils of it began to thin around the flecks, twisting and weaving to create shapes. Bodies, one a female and the other male.

“It’s a story set in two.” Amara began slowly.

“Like it has two parts?” Tao asked.

“No, two halves of a whole. It talks about the pairing of two like in lovers, parents, or the connection of the sun and moon.” Her tone was changing, falling into the words of the story and becoming it’s speaker. More shards of light drew up from the page and the jade spun, bringing her words into reality. A curved fleck of gold was enveloped into a wide sphere, it mimicking the cackle of heat of the sun. Another was twisted into a sideways smile, a long curve that sharpened at both ends as a crescent moon. “A pair gives balance, one meant to hold up the other. The connection creates power; drawing from it can create, and breaking it down can destroy. It’s kind of like a warning.” She took a breath, looking down at the book, watching the story unfold with us.

“Once there was a pair, born from the bloodline of sorcery. They shared honor for their abilities in magic, and love by their commitment to one another. Any that came across them knew them to be happy. One that knew them very well was a friend of the vampire clans.” The couple embraced, and the twin shards of gold within them pulsed. Off to the side a figure was slowly starting to build, a body morphing around a flashing speck of light. The vampire watched on as the couple shared a kiss.

“He’s smiling,” Tao said distantly. I couldn’t tell, the facial features were dulled, but I something in me believed the idea.

“One day the three encountered a fae, powerful but also known to have a cruel heart. She was not meant to be in a pair of her own. In a fit of rage she casted down against the lovers, drawing in nature’s forces as her strength. This was the first strike against the balance, the original crack of sin. Later it was known as dark magic.” Amara inhaled, concentrating. More tendrils of jade shot up, grabbing the male, stringing into him like threads to a puppet.

“The sorcerer was torn from his nature by blood and transformed into the shape of a wolf. It was by the essence of the vampire’s blood this was done, so the sorceress could not counteract without hurting one. She watched her lover and her friend fall, the former a beast.” The sorcerer jerked, his back shifting unnaturally as bones cracked and shifted around inside of him, evolving by force. The transformation was nothing I’d seen a wolf go through, brittle snappings of muscle and flesh into something unnatural. A cold shiver ran down my back. Amara could only blink, the story holding her composed.

“She searched desperately for a cure, but no one she asked could tell her anything of this mysterious magic. Every day she found nothing her love grew more faint, falling deeper into the battle between the force of the sorcery and of the wolf. This was a pairing that couldn’t exist together. One needed to overpower.”

The vampire rose weakly, but quickly fell. The sorcerer sat still, a cloud of jade doming around his head. One moment it would be a face, then the features would grow longer and sharper. His spine would curve up and the disks of his spine would protrude from his back, making him a deranged in-between of a wolf and sorcerer. More clouds formed, lining the area of the scene. Nothing specific was defined, but it almost felt like a crowd of eyes, watching the figures in the centre scornfully.

“In time those that tried to help the sorceress were overwhelmed by the ones that wanted the order restored. The sorcerers demand death or exile, the wolves offer to take the male as one of their own. Either path would mean separating the lovers.”

The woman ran to shield him. The curls of jade turned to hands, clawing to touch the sorcerer but she swatted them back fiercely. The lover watched it all, as if in a daze, until his gaze found her back. In a flash he was standing, arms circling around her shoulders and head, exposing the nape of her neck.

“No-” I said impulsively, jerking forward. Tao and Kris do too, but then it’s too late. He bit deeply, the crowd drawing away in a horrified hush. She just stood, paralyzed. For a couple heart wrenching seconds it seems as though he’d killed her. Then a staggered gasp rattles her chest, and they both crumple to the ground.

“The sorceress came to see the threat her love had become, but desperate to keep him all the same she casted a spell of her own. Unnatural again, and the second strike against nature’s order.”

She took his face in shaking hands, it still shifting, still dangerous.

“The ultimate binding spell. Eliminator of distance and freedom, bringing together the fate and form of a pair into one. Before anger, pain, and destruction the pair shall be remembered and shall be valued, because the fate of one is imprinted onto the other.” Amara’s voice went faint, as if she’d lost her breath. “It’s the love that binds, and so it shall be named Lover’s Bound.”

The marks on her neck pulse with golden light, and the sorcerer’s eyes envelop a golden brown color in response.

“By god.” Kris breathed. I couldn’t move, my heart hammering inside my chest, but the story wasn’t over. The wisps still weaved, pulling the strings of the tragic story to the very end.

“There was no balance in the sorcerer anymore, only the residue of his magic and the side of the wolf. But he regained his mind and in it was his beloved, as she always had been.” Amara continued softly. “A life saved waged that a life be taken. The magic the sorceress used made her weak, too weak to live. They stayed together until her final moments,” The golden shard in her chest was fading, like the light of a flickering candle just about to die “until her life was gone.” The light blew out. She was suddenly just a little doll made of smoke, a pawn in the midst of the story. The body unravelled, turning back into the tendrils jade and fading into the cloud.

“He didn’t leave the corpse, and so it wasn’t long before his life was lost as well. Thus ended the first true pair. Tragically, but together.” Amara finished. At her halt the story began to unravel. The specks of gold disappeared and with them all the wisps of jade from Amara’s jade. In seconds the book was made bare, just a collection of sheets bound together with inked words. For a while none of us could say anything, just staring at the open page.

“How do you know this story?” Kris asked quietly.

Amara didn’t look up right away. The confusion in her face had been morphed into a complicated mix. Bafflement. Sadness. Disturbance? “I don’t know.”

“Should we tell her what happened?” Tao broke the quiet in our minds. It was an idea we hadn’t talked over. The plan was to get information on the books, not let Amara find out about how our pack had revived an ancient ability that apparently existed in our Creature race.

I tried to keep my tone calm, reasonable when I spoke next: “Amara might know something more. If we could help her jog her memory it could help-”

Kris’ fingers twitched on his lap, the only break from his composure.

“Luhan.” I nearly jumped when Amara called my name. “How did you find this book?” She asked softly, but her eyes didn’t lose their penetrating stare. Like they were searching into me.

A part of me was ready to just blurt everything out and be done with it.

“I just did, when I was looking through the shelves.” I said slowly, the words numbing on my tongue. “It’s a book about sorcerers, but it was in a section of werewolf histories.” Amara looked deep in thought. I half expected her to ask the why; why did we need these books in the first place, but it never rose. She kept looking at the crimson book in her hands, no longer repulsed, just mystified.

“What’s wrong?”

“Anything transferred to the werewolf archives has to be cleared and its contents accessible to the librarians. The sealing spell, it should have been dissipated. ” She turned it over, eyeing the weathered cover more carefully, as if there would be an explanation in the cracks or breaking spine “How could nobody notice for this long?” It was a significant detail, but the look on her face said she thinking about more than just the organization slip-up.

“Maybe because it’s a fairy tale?” Tao said, nudging the corner with his knuckle.

Amara shook her head. “That’s not a good reason. I mean, by human standards we’re all just fairy tale figures. Being Creatures helps us to see the world a bit better, but I think the line between reality and fiction is more slim than anyone can ever know.”

~~~

Hey lovelies, how’s everyone doing?

I’m back a little earlier than usual with this update *does a little happy dance*

But it still took a month so I probably shouldn’t be congratulating myself so fast.

This is a bit of a filler but it’s not for nothing. The story goes more smoothly when minor details and the background is put down first so bear with me here!!! There shall be fluff and cute moments and romance galore in the coming chapters!

Please subscribe, comment, and upvote and be the wonderful followers of M.B.N I know you guys are! Until next time :)

*Bows 90 degrees*

Bye!