Hell Bound (The Immortal Balances- Book 1)

Chapter Seventeen: Mischievous Hormones

"What the Hell was that?!" Jules screamed after me, running behind me into the field. The sky was dark all around us, empty, with no stars nor clouds, just the moon staring hauntingly down at me. I rolled my eyes at it.

"Caleb!"

Right after the supernatural indicent, I'd practically dashed from the scene, not being able to contemplate what had happened back at the parlour. The waitress had acted like I would have expected her to, to agree with whatever I was making her agree with, and then leave as soon as possible. So she followed the rules, that was great, but I didn't have powers so she shouldn't have done anything but hassle us for the bill.

I didn't have powers. We'd all established that our powers had been drained, that the Living realm with us five here was too much. I'd gotten my powers before because it was just me, but all five of us was just too much.

Clearly that had been a misconception.

I obviously still had mine.

Approaching a scrawny looking tree that was mostly bare, bar a few leaves that poked out here and there to catch the last of any sunshine, I clenched my fist. Before Jules or anyone else could stop me, I raised my hand and tensed.

I couldn't close my eyes- but I wish I had.

"Oh fuck!" I shouted the second the tree caught on fire, its flames as blue as the ocean and as wild as my current emotions. They caressed and danced scarily around the branches as if they were furious ballerinas, but just as quickly as they had ignited, they died down. A pile of red ash was left sitting helplessly in its place.

My painful sister went to say something, but she held it in.

Jules and I were silent for a while.

"Hey guys," Seth called out after us, his nearing heavy footsteps alerting me he was close. I would have turned to face him, but the red ash held my attention in captivity. "Did you figure out what happened back there- HOLY SHIT!"

Seth too stood at an angle that was half facing the ash and half turned away. His structure was tense, just as Jules' was, and they both had the look of complete and utter fright plastered upon both of their immortal faces. They both knew what the colour of the ash meant.

"I swear when we burn things with our powers, red is the colour that is left to symbolise the Royal Bloodline?" He asked a few moments later, still staring down at what had been the tree, staring so hard as if he was trying to make it disappear.

Jules and I gave weary nods.

The colour of burnt things was like a type of ID back in Hell, if someone wasn't too sure if we were fakes or the real Royals. The Angel Royals had one too, anything they grew would turn into a beautiful ice white, symbolising their 'pureness', whilst ours symbolised... our evilness.

Most of the time, the souls back in Hell would chant us on to burn down masses of things: bars, houses, the little nature that grew there- all for a show. My siblings and I would literally paint the town red.

The thing is though, it only worked when we were at home.

"I think we're gonna have to find somewhere to stay the night," Jules eventually said, the hesitance lingering in her quiet voice.

I was still staring down at the ash when she began to pull me toward the promenade.

*****

Thanks to my newly recovered powers, we'd landed a very high-class and expensive- had we been paying- suite in a hotel we'd stumbled upon after my scene in the field. I'd simply walked in and sweet talked the receptionist as if I were Seth, and even managed to get her number for him to make up for stealing his charm, as it were. While Jules and the twins had been trying for their own powers, Seth had snuck off to who knows where, probably to get with the receptionist on her break, no doubt.