We followed Kyle a block over to a small house that looked like each of the other houses we passed along the way. When we got there, he walked right in and led us to a bedroom in the back, where we could hear voices speaking softly.
"I don't know what we can do. None of us are strong enough to make her change," a female voice said. I could hear subtle crying, but I didn't know if it came from the woman who'd spoken.
As we entered the room, the voices stopped and five sets of eyes turned to us. There were two men and three women. One of the men looked similar to Kyle, with long white hair and bright blue eyes. I didn't think I was going out on a limb to guess he was one of the other berserkers. The other man was tan with very dark features. The women all looked somewhat similar with long blonde hair and gray eyes.
"Oh no." I heard Frannie whisper from behind me.
"What is it?" I asked. Like usual, everyone else knew something I didn't.
"Her heart was taken out," Kyle informed me.
I didn't know much about uniques, in fact I hadn't heard the word used to describe anyone until that day, but I didn't think it mattered what you were as far as missing a heart went. I was always taught that was kind of a necessity to remain in the land of the living.
"Usually, even that wouldn't be fatal to her if she had changed recently or was able to change," Nate started to explain. He turned to Kyle and said, "I smell the ghost orchid in the air. I'm guessing someone used it to halt her change."
"She has been gone for almost a month now. We think whoever took her used it to weaken her, and then cut out her heart, so she wouldn't be able to heal," the man I assumed was a berserker said.
"Those three," Kyle said, indicating the women in the room, "are some of the other foxes we have in the community. We were hoping that one of them would be able to force a change on her and allow her to heal. It seems none of them can, though. We were hoping you might have some way to do it."
"We'd have no problem with another phoenix, and maybe even another species of bird, but a fox would probably be beyond any of our abilities," Rick answered.
"How would you force a change on someone in the first place?" I asked, wanting to learn more about abilities I could have. I was aware it might reveal that I didn't have all my marbles, but it was something I thought could be important.
"We go in and speak directly to the animal within. When we make contact, we call them out and force them to the surface. It isn't something really done amongst our kind, because we don't have the same monthly requirements for shifting," Nate said. The hold he had on my hand tightened slightly.
"Is there anything you can do?" I asked my group of friends.
"I can't reach the fox," Nate said. "I tried as soon as I realized the situation and I'm getting nothing."
"Same goes for me," Rick said.
"My cat won't call to a member of the Canidae family," Gary replied.
"I have a similar situation. I don't know that any Faie could help, but being of the cat branch of the family, my powers would be very limited," Frannie put in her two cents.
"Well, everyone keeps telling me I'm special, maybe I should give it a try."
I didn't think it would hurt me and it didn't seem like it could hurt the woman any more than she already was. Trying to take a look around wouldn't cause her heart to stop, so other than turning her brain to mush, I didn't think I could make things worse.
"Avery, are you sure? You haven't tried anything across species before and we don't know what could happen," Nate said in his usual overcautious tone.
"I prefer not to watch her just die. If there's anything I can do, I think it's a good idea to try," I replied.
"I can understand where you're coming from, I don't know that this is a good idea," Rick said. "Would it be best to try with one of the healthy foxes? That way they can maybe assist with showing you how to do it."
"That I could live with. I don't want you getting overtaxed trying to find the fox within and hurting yourself in the process. We don't mind helping, but my wife's health comes first." Nate more than likely only used the W-word because there were too many male eyes in the room studying me.
"I'll volunteer to be the test subject," one of the women said, stepping forward.
With a test subject, I went to work trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. To start, I tried to talk to her with my telepathy. I figured if she wanted to show me anything, I needed to get in her mind. I hadn't attempted it with anyone other than phoenixes before, so I didn't know if it would work.
"Can you hear me?" I asked.
"I can," she replied, using her voice rather than her thoughts. "I don't have telepathy myself, so I can't speak back to you via my mind."
"I can pick up your thoughts, so you don't have to really speak to me, just think and we should be able to communicate." I continued keeping the conversation just between us as I used whatever part of my brain was capable of listening in to other people.
This is really weird; I don't think she'll actually be able to pick up my thoughts. I mean I've heard of people with that ability, but that would just be wrong to go around plucking stray thoughts out of people's heads all day.
"I don't do it all day. I rarely do it at all except with my housemates when I think they're keeping something from me. In case you didn't think of it, they're probably monitoring every thought going around the room. They can be annoying like that."
Oh crap. I didn't think she'd be able to do that. Okay, let's see how we should do this. She needs to look into me and find the fox. How do I describe where to look? I guess I'll start with a description of what she looks like. I'm sure she's seen a fox before, so that shouldn't be too difficult.
"You don't need to go into great detail. When you started thinking about her, I found her. Come here, little fox. You're so cute," I said to the fox. I wasn't sure where to go from there, so I closed my eyes and started chanting in my mind, "Come to me, change your forms now and let me see you in real life."
There was probably some easier way to do things, but no one from my side of the party was helping by talking me through it. After a few minutes of my repeated requests, I heard a little bark and felt something running around my feet. I opened my eyes and saw a little white fox spinning in circles.
"You did it. How are you feeling? It didn't drain you or anything did it?" Nate asked, coming over to me and giving me a hug.
"I'm fine. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just kept telling the little fox to change. Are you sure I really did anything? Maybe she just got tired of standing there. When will she change back? I don't even know her name and I'd like to make sure I didn't somehow hurt her, if I did cause the change. Right now her thoughts seem to be about running and playing."
"Normal shapeshifters use a lot of energy to change, so she won't be changing back for an hour or so. The change only looked more hurried than normal, which tells me that she didn't initiate it on her own. I'm sure she'll be fine," Gary informed me.
"Her name is AnnaBelle," one of the other females said. "I'm Jackie and this is Kelly."
"I'm Liam," the man who looked like Kyle said.
"And I am Joesph," said the last of my new friends.
"We'll go through our introductions once we see if Avery can help Miranda," Nate responded for us. "I don't think she can hold on too much longer. Whenever you're ready, I suggest you hurry."
Not being connected with all my phoenix senses, I didn't know how dire the situation really was. The missing heart said a lot, but hearing that a unique could live through something like that left me unsure as far as severity.
When I touched Miranda's mind, I got complete silence back. I hadn't touched enough people to be an expert, but I always felt something greeting me when I tried. Without any help from Miranda, I began searching around for the place I found AnnaBelle's fox.
It took a while, because Miranda's wasn't a playful little thing looking for attention, but I finally found a little white fox curled in a ball. I tried to spe
ak to it, but it didn't move at all. Giving up talking, I started yelling at it.
"Wake up, you little fox. Right now. Don't you want to live? You can't survive if you don't shift and I want you to shift right now!" I continued screaming "shift now" over and over in my mind. It got to the point where everything kind of disappeared around me and it was just me and the fox, and in the end it was just me chanting.
"That's enough, Avery," Nate said, touching my shoulder. "You did it, so come out of your trance."
It took a second for his words to sink in. I shook my head and opened my eyes. On the bed, instead of a woman was another little white fox. The AnnaBelle fox jumped up on the bed and started licking the Miranda fox.
"Oh thank God," Jackie said as she ran over to the bed. The Miranda fox looked healthy and was snuggling into Jackie's hand as she pet her.
"How many other people are missing and how long have they been gone?" I asked. I couldn't imagine what the others might be going through.
"There are three," Liam responds. "We have a bear, a hyena and an eagle missing. Miranda disappeared first and the others have been gone between a week and two."
"You aren't counting our daughter in your number of missing?" I asked.
Liam looked confused for a second, and then I saw the light bulb go off in his head as he put the pieces together. Kyle must not have had time to fill everyone in on what we were doing in town.
"Sorry, the doc has been known to go off to help people not in the community, so not seeing her for a week or two isn't out of the norm," Liam replied.
"I hope you're right and that's why she's missing. Your other missing people are worrisome. Hopefully, when Miranda is able to change back, she can give us some information and we can find the others," I said.
"With her injuries she's probably going to be recharging for twelve hours or more. That much damage takes some time to heal," Kelly informed us. I was pretty sure everyone but me already knew that information.
"Okay, why don't we go ahead and do formal introductions. After that, I think we'll head home and try to get a little sleep," Nate suggested.
He went around our little group and introduced each of us and explained what we were, so there'd be no surprises. I found out Liam was for sure a berserker and the other man was a wolf.
"Kyle may have left out the part about what you guys were doing here, but he filled us in a little on what to expect when we met before he ran to get you. I have to say, your little lady is even more than what I expected," Liam responded.
I'd felt his and Kyle's eyes almost burning through me from the moment I'd entered the room. Nate had a staring problem, but there was something about the berserkers that made me even more aware of their gazes.
"I'm very much aware of that, but as Kyle was told, she's very much spoken for. We've been together as husband and wife for millennia, so don't get any ideas." Nate sounded testy, which wasn't new.
"I won't, but as I'm sure Kyle warned, you need to keep her close. We're a civilized group here, but I have a feeling the power she's giving off may be addicting to some. Working miracles like she just did, didn't help matters as far as that goes. I'm thankful she was able to help, but it doesn't change the fact that it felt like a nuclear bomb went off in here as she exuded her raw energy."
"Any ideas on how I could tone down the power? I really don't want to draw extra attention to myself." I hadn't felt anything unusual, but I hadn't exactly felt like I was in the room with the others at the time.
"Sorry, no help for you there. I'm sure you don't even know you're emitting it. Whereas Kyle can sense what species other people are, I can feel the energy coming off people. You three phoenixes are radiating a lot of power between you. You, though, are by far the most powerful person I've run into in my almost two thousand years," he said to me.
"That's not something I really want to hear," I replied, looking in his blue eyes for some kind of hint that he was joking.
"Sorry, sweetheart, I just tell it like it is."
"It's okay, Avery, we've known for a while you're getting stronger," Nate said, giving me a little hug. "Let's head out for the night. We need to get some rest, so we can regroup in the morning."
We made our way back to Elizabeth's house without really saying good-bye. I could tell Nate and Rick were uneasy around the new uniques, but I didn't bring it up. Nate and I settled into bed and I quickly fell asleep before we could broach the subject of how messed up I was.