Tyrell had managed to shoo Kat away from his room, long enough for him to take a nice soothing shower. Washing the dried blood from his skin did do something to improve his damaged morale. With the blood gone, he could see that most of the cuts had been superficial and not that deep. The worst one was probably the mark his cheek had received from the whip and even it didn’t look half as bad in the morning light. Drying himself off, Tyrell applied a bandage to his shoulder and added a few bandages to the gash on his eyebrow and the cut on his cheek. He figured the claw marks on his chest weren’t dangerous or bleeding enough to warrant a bandage of their own. For them, he contented himself to rubbing over them with some antiseptic ointment and patting them a bit with the edge of a wash cloth.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Tyrell could see the redness was still visible in his eyes from crying the majority of the night. But aside from that minor imperfection, the rest of his appearance looked exactly like it always did. He was glad that his exterior countenance did not mirror the internal turmoil of his psyche in the slightest. His feeling of utter hopelessness had diminished a bit, leaving him with little more than a persistent migraine. Reaching into his medicine cabinet, he cupped two yellow capsules and tossed them into his mouth, washing them down with a glass of water from the faucet.

He returned to the main part of his bedroom and noticed that the button on the side of his phone was blinking a soft green, indicating that he had messages from last night. Walking over the phone, Tyrell pressed the gray button on the bottom and waited for the tone to sound. This was followed by a few minutes of blank static that wavered when a familiar voice came through the receiver. It was Cyrus.

"Look Tye, I’m sorry for what happened Friday. I guess I was pushing you guys too hard too fast. And since then, I have spoken with Maren about his harsh treatment of you when you arrived. He says that he’s willing to apologize if you come over after school tomorrow so we can talk about what the band’s going to do next. Oh and I want to commend you on your masterful selection of Gayle for our new bass player. I heard her just before we were scheduled to go on the other night and she’s really great. I believe she’ll make a perfect replacement for Mika. Give me a buzz when you get home so we can discuss the newest song I need you to help me with. Forget rock ballads, this is raw rebellion. I think you’ll like it. Talk to you later. Cyrus."

A feeling of relief swept through Tyrell as he pushed the button that was designed for erasing old messages. The band didn’t hate him after all. He could at least turn to them for distraction. His fingers itched to call his friend back but then he remembered that Kat had insisted that he talk to her after he finished getting ready. Loath to witness Kat in a bad mood, he moved his hand away from the phone and resumed his morning routine.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kat saw her brother stepping out of his room, while still running a comb through his strands of thin mahogany brown hair. Not wanting to upset him too quickly, she smiled and motioned toward her room. Tyrell set to spiking his hair with his fingertips as he followed the young woman. Once in her room, Tyrell sat upon the bed as Kat plopped down on the piece of mattress right beside him.

"So brother, tell me what’s bothering you?" she prodded, sapphire eyes shining with unadulterated concern.

"I don’t think I’m cut out for this Kat. I’m not strong and willful like you. I hate fighting. Why should I have to hurt others?" Tyrell responded, lowering his head and running his hand through his hair in a nervous movement.

"Well, for starters. You should definitely fight back if someone is trying to hurt you first," Kat explained, drawing a figure eight on the bed sheets with her index finger.

"But I don’t want to fight back. I just want to be left alone. I don’t want to be a Key or whatever the hell you want to call us."

"Sometimes you have to fight, Tyrell. You know that old paradox. If you want peace, you must first have war," his sister quoted, impressed that she had remembered such a poignant statement.

"I don’t care. I’m not strong enough. Even Wolf thinks so," Tyrell moaned, leaning his head against his palm.

"Wolf? Who’s that?"

"You know that wolf I told you about a while ago. I think he really is a human being that possesses the power to change himself into an animal just like Lionelle. He often talks to me through his mind, mostly to criticize me though. I don’t think he likes me very much."

"Um..Tyrell, are you so sure you should be associating with this thing? I mean, you just said he changes the same way as Lionelle. What if he’s working for the Chimera?" Kat questioned, looking at her brother with hesitant eyes.

"Oh, he’s on our side all right. When Lionelle tried to kill me yesterday, it was Wolf who saved my life," the boy asserted, jerking up his head to defend any slander of his animal companion.

"Then why do you say he doesn’t like you?"

"He thinks I’m weak. He told me it was his job to look after us, the Keys. He knows a great deal about us. Maybe you should try questioning him about our purpose. I don't know if he would talk though. He seems to be a bit of a loner. He also doesn’t think I’m fit for this position, and I agree with him."

"You’re taking the word of a complete stranger? That’s stupid," Kat accused as Tyrell shook his head furiously.

"He’s not a stranger. I see him almost every day now. He’s almost like a very strange friend," her brother debated, picturing the powerful creature in his mind’s eye as Kat glanced at him in disdain.

"This is a wolf we’re talking about right? ‘Cause I could swear you were talking about an ordinary person the way you describe it."

"He is a person. He just doesn’t want to show himself for some strange reason. I think he might be one of the people that I’ve seen in my dreams. There’s this boy who has the exact same eyes as Wolf and I think that he might be him when he was younger."

"Okay the dreams are too much Tyrell. You need to get your mind off this thing before you hurt your head, not to mention mine. If this wolf-boy thing is your so-called friend, then it shouldn’t criticize you and accuse you of being too weak."

"Well I never said that he was a nice friend. He’s kind of a perfectionist," Tyrell pointed out, almost laughing when he saw the stunned look on his twin’s face.

"Tyrell, are you going crazy?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and talking to him as one would talk to an unstable person.

"Hey! I thought you were trying to cheer me up," her brother whined in a joking tone, giving her one of his best puppy-dog expressions.

"Look, I tried. But you’re losing it and I don’t want to get pulled into this madness. What you need is a nice vacation."

"School starts again tomorrow," the boy remarked, sarcasm tainting his voice as Kat put her hand to her mouth in abject horror.

"Oh my god Tye! You must be really going crazy! Thinking of school as a vacation!"

Tyrell chuckled at the terrified visage of his sibling and patted her head in a comforting manner. "I was kidding Kat. All I wanted to point out is that a return to normalcy will be a welcome thing to me. And you can’t get much more normal than school, now can you?"

"Don’t scare me like that!" Kat hissed, pushing him away from her and off the bed. He hit the floor with a solid thump and gave her an icy look. Then, the anger faded from his eyes as he realized that Kat actually had succeeded in erasing his misery from last night. He smiled at her and leapt to his feet.

"Thanks Kat. I really needed that talk. I feel a whole lot better now," he said, giving her a quick hug and then returning to his room to call Cyrus.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Having convinced their parents that they could get to school by car without getting jumped, Kat and Tyrell once again arrived at Carthala with Maren and Angelique. Angelique still refused to talk to her cousin and had even resorted to lowering her eyes whenever he spoke to anyone around her. Though her attitude made Tyrell feel guilty, he brushed aside the feeling and continued to bask in the renewal of his friendship with Maren. Maren had given up the idea of pounding him to the ground and instead seemed to be interesting in hearing all about Tyrell’s exciting brush with death last Saturday. It was all Kat and her brother could do to convince Maren to stop talking about that sort of thing around Angelique. But somehow the girl still noticed that they were keeping a special secret from her and she became more withdrawn than usual. Tyrell could tell what was probably going on in her mind. She was struggling to comprehend why Tyrell felt that he could tell his secret to everyone else close to him but still decide to hide it from her.

Tyrell was just about to say something to get her mind of the subject when a running student suddenly overthrew him. As he climbed to his feet, he recognized the person as the blond boy he had seen wandering around Carthala on the afternoon when Lionelle attacked him. Blinking, he bent down to help the youth recover his fallen books, noticing the new black shades that rested upon the other’s nose, covering up the boy’s beautiful chestnut eyes. The other boy groaned aloud and shot out his hand to grab as many books as he could while Tyrell continued to gather a few in his arms. When the two had picked up all the texts, Tyrell handed his armful of books back to the blond.

"Here, you dropped these too," he said politely as the blond pushed up his shades and gave him an agitated glance.

"Thanks," he replied, snatching the books from Tyrell’s hand and shoving them under his arm with the rest. "About running into you, I wasn’t watching where I was going. Sorry."

"Oh that’s okay," assured Tyrell, rubbing his neck with a bashful expression, "I’ve ran into a few people myself sometimes."

"Hey what’s your name?" interrupted Kat, pushing in between the two youths and gazing up at the newcomer with inquisitive eyes. "I’m Kathryn. But everybody calls me Kat. The boy you were talking to is my brother Tyrell. Over there is his best friend, Maren. And hiding behind our little group is our cousin, Angelique."

"Not again," moaned Maren, turning his head to the side so he could avoid Kat’s attempt to embarrass the group.

"You shut up!" snapped the girl, stopping in the middle of her chattering, to turn around to Maren and smack him on his arm.

"Arteme, your sister is trying to kill me again! Get her off!" yelped Maren, moving away from the angry Kathryn to stand behind her brother whose face was red with shame.

"I’m sorry about these two. They’re always like this. You get used to it," Tyrell tried to explain as he ducked from the bickering pair. "So what’s your name?"

"Erik Gaeal," the blond youth replied, watching Kat and Maren squabble as a look of distaste came across his face. "Some interesting friends you’ve got here, Tyrell."

"Yeah," groaned Tyrell with a sheepish grin, "But what are you going to do? Anyway, what year are you?"

"Senior. I just transferred here the other day."

"Oh. That’s good. What class do you have first?"

"Physics."

"Physics! Wow, what a coincidence!" Kat exclaimed, breaking away from her feud with Maren and rushing over to Erik. "Me and Tyrell are heading to Physics ourselves. We could show you where it is!"

"Kat please," ordered her brother, signaling the enthusiastic girl to lower her voice and stop acting like a total freak around the new boy. Then he turned to Erik and shrugged. "She’s right though. We could show you where to find it, that is if you want."

"Don’t agree to it, buddy. Once she gets you following her, she’ll never let you out of her sight again. Listen to some words of experience," warned Maren, tossing a sinister glance toward Kat. Kat fumed and stuck her tongue out at the older boy.

"Honestly Kat, that is so mature," reprimanded the raven-haired youth, waggling his finger at the girl’s childish behavior.

Erik stared at the scene unfolding around him and sighed. This just wasn’t his day. First running into another student by accident and now getting caught up in all of this. Well, at least the one boy seemed fairly sane and his silent cousin didn’t pose any significant problems. He situated the books in front of his chest and nodded to Tyrell.

"I guess I’ll go with you," he whispered as Tyrell’s eyes shone in delight and he grabbed his furious sister by the arm and started to drag her down the hall, motioning Erik to follow.

"Hey Ren, watch after Angie for me. She’s not feeling well so I want you to make sure she gets to class on time, okay?" Tyrell called back to his friend as Maren waved his hand in understanding. Then, the older boy turned toward Angelique who looked at him in complete bafflement. Patting her shoulder, Maren began to lead her to their first class of the day.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The other trio of students continued on to the Physics room and placed themselves in the middle row of desks and waited for the teacher to arrive. It was no surprise that the man wasn’t there yet. From what Tyrell had heard from Maren, who had taken the course last year, the Physics teacher was always late to every class. Apparently, he was one on those illustrious persons who used his free time to get as drunk as possible. Lifting his head up to check out the students that were currently seated, Tyrell noticed that Erik was watching the door intently as if she sensed something was behind it.

Moments later, the door swung open and the teacher rushed over to his desk and whipped his assignment schedule out from one of the drawers. He did a hasty roll call, failing to notice that he had another new student, and then set about lecturing the youths on their upcoming test. Kat amused herself with composing an apology letter to Maren, filling it with useless fluff about how it was hard to stay angry with him for long because of his charming personality. Erik was still gazing at the door; his cheek propped upon one hand as he totally ignored whatever the teacher was talking about.

Joining his friend’s disinterest in the present topic, Tyrell leaned his elbow against his desk, propping his chin upon his palm as Erik had done. He was so tired. This weekend had been a grueling workout and he was not in the mood for a monotonous sermon. He could barely make out what the instructor was saying when the door opened slowly and a low voice caught his ear. Erik’s head shot up as he focused his complete attention on the door, nearly rocking back his chair with his sudden movement.

"Is this room for Physics?"

Turning his head, Tyrell saw a young man step through the doorway, lugging a dilapidated book bag on his back and holding a half-folded white card in his hand. The new boy had a thick mess of black hair that dangled over his eyes like a shaggy mane and in the back, trailed down to the bottom of his neck. He was wearing some sort of black sleeveless that revealed the elaborate wolf tattoo on his left arm, along with a pair of faded blue jeans. On his right arm, a length of white bandaging circled around the flesh starting at the part right below his shoulder and ending just after his elbow. From his fearsome appearance, Tyrell guessed his age to be somewhere around eighteen.

Hearing the youth, the teacher nodded firmly and motioned for him to come to the front desk. Grumbling under his breath, the boy trudged over and shoved the white card in front of the instructor. The man picked up the card and gazed at it a moment before raising his eyes to the rest of the class. He pushed himself up from his seat and made a noise in his throat that seemed to get the rest of the youths’ attentions.

"Class, this is Dominic Solanis. He’s a senior who just arrived here the other day and will be joining our Physics group for the remainder of the year. Please do your best to make him feel like a part of the group," the teacher said while the black-haired boy looked around the room with a skeptical air.

Tyrell noticed that he had the most fascinating pair of deep violet eyes that seemed to darken as they fell on the younger boy. He was sure he had seen those eyes before but he couldn’t remember where. Dominic continued to stare at Tyrell with the same searing gaze until the instructor tapped him on the shoulder. The older boy jerked his head to the side to see what the man was trying to tell him. Then, he saw that the teacher had his hand pointing to the seat to the right of Tyrell.

"Since you seem to already take to each other so well, I guess you can sit right over there by Tyrell Arteme," the instructor stated, pushing Dominic toward the empty seat. Dominic gave a halfway glance back at the man before focusing his attention back at the young man who was staring at him so strangely with his grayish-green eyes. The older boy glared back at him with the same withering expression and then took his place in the spot next to Tyrell. He stared back at the other youth who immediately averted his eyes.

Turning his attention from the new boy presented Tyrell with a chance to review a few things inside his head. As usual, the black wolf was there and causing racket, but now was accompanied by the young boy from his dream. Putting two and two together, Tyrell tried to sneak another peek at Dominic who narrowed his eyes as he noticed the boy looking at him again. But the brief glance had given Tyrell what he wanted to know. There was no doubt about it. Those piercing orbs of amethyst could only belong to one creature that he had ever seen. Nothing else could portray that look of simple hatred and at the same time, glisten with a hidden sadness. This was definitely his Wolf. This was also the boy from his dream. Dominic Solanis. Nick. It all was finally starting to make some sense.

"Will you quit looking at me!" Dominic suddenly hissed in a low voice, not wanting to draw the instructor’s attention to himself. Tyrell gulped at the anger in the voice and shrank down in his seat, forcing himself to keep his eyes of the other boy long enough for Dominic to return his gaze to the front of the class. But even as Dominic’s eyes followed the droning speeches of the teacher, his attention seemed to be focused on the boy beside him as was evident by the way his eyes kept rolling back every few minutes.

Tyrell also noticed that another student had taken an unexpected interest in Dominic as well. From time to time, Erik was also sneaking a few looks his way. Not that he could blame the other boy, Dominic was quite a sight to behold. He possessed all the wild beauty of the wolf, yet the jaded look in his eyes made him seem even more amazing than the animal had ever been. The slanted curve of Wolf’s eyes could never come close to comparing to the darkened expression in Dominic’s. Moreover, the way his hair hung in front of his eyes in rough choppy bangs made him appear even more exciting and almost dangerous.

Hoping that Dominic didn’t notice he was staring again, Tyrell rummaged in his desk for a pencil and began taking a few notes just to clear his mind of the other boy’s presence. Dominic obviously wasn’t interested in copying down a word the teacher had to say as he leaned against his chair, eyes fluttering. Perhaps, the event of the weekend had taken their toll on him as well. Tyrell struggled to understand what the instructor was explaining but his mind just wasn’t following the discussion. He had a much better thing to study now.

A harsh bell rang through the room, bringing Tyrell from his daze as the room of students rushed to gather their belongings and trudge out the door. Tyrell reached into his book bag for a scrap of paper and jotted down the evening’s assignment as he watched Dominic walk to the front of the class and start to speak with the teacher. Erik had already disappeared with Kat, and the black-haired youth and him were the only students left in the room. Straining to hear what the two people at the desk were discussing, Tyrell pretended to still be writing the homework on his paper. All he could make out from the conversation was that Dominic was interested in picking up any of the work he might have missed by coming to the school late. The teacher scratched his chin and flipped through his grading book. Then, he picked up a loose sheet of notepad paper and scribbled some of the early assignments across the lines. He handed the paper to Dominic as the older boy thanked him quietly and began to leave the room.

Not wanting to lose sight of Dominic until he knew where he would be having his next class, Tyrell shoved his homework assignment into his book bag and raced after the departing youth. As he ran out the door, something caught the strap of his book bag and yanked him backwards. Looking up, his eyes came across the highly irked eyes of his newest obsession.

"Why are you following me?" the dark-haired youth growled as Tyrell wracked his brain to think of a sensible answer.

"Uh...I just wanted to know where your next class is. I like showing around the new kids and I thought maybe you could use some help," rambled Tyrell, realizing from Dominic’s narrowing eyes that he wasn’t buying his excuse.

"Why don’t you go help that other boy, Erik? I hear he’s new as well," Dominic said in a menacing voice as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"Well he...he is. But my sister’s helping him right now. So...I should help you, right?" the younger boy tried, glancing up at his companion for some change in his demeanor. But Dominic just glared at the boy harder and unwound his fingers from around the strap of Tyrell’s bag.

"I don’t need any help," he replied as he shoved Tyrell to the side and stormed into the halls, quickly becoming lost in the sea of students searching for their classrooms. Tyrell tried to stand on his toes to see above the waves of teenagers but his efforts soon proved fruitless. He adjusted his book bag on his back and hurried off to reach his next class, confident that he would see the older boy again that day.

*~*~*~*~*~*

His earlier suspicion proved true as he spotted Dominic while munching a club sandwich for his lunch. Dominic had just arrived from the central doors, carrying nothing but his schoolbooks. He appeared to be searching the cafeteria for a place to sit down, hoping to find some locality that wasn’t surrounded by gossiping teens. Seeing his apprehension, Tyrell stood up at his table and waved to the older boy. For the first time since he started school, he was glad that Maren had the second lunch and not the first as he did. Maren would never have consented to letting such a callous person share the table with them. But Tyrell was determined to get some information out of Dominic.

Dominic raised his eyes and saw the flailing hand of the boy. Grumbling under his breath, he sighed and walked over. At least, the table was only occupied by this boy so there wouldn’t be any hideous disruption of his peace. He sat his schoolbooks on the table and gave Tyrell a questioning glance.

"You can sit here if you want, Dominic. I usually don’t have anyone else to eat with on Mondays since both Angie and Ren have different lunches than me. Not to mention, I’d rather die than spend the hour with Kat and her noisy fan club," Tyrell explained as Dominic shrugged and slid himself onto a seat at the other side of the table. Sensing that the older youth was uncomfortable with the situation, Tyrell decided to try a little light chitchat to break the ice. "So it must be hard for you. Having to change schools in your final year and leave all your old friends behind."

Dominic shot an offended glare at the younger boy and flipped through one of his textbooks. "I don’t have many friends."

Realizing that his plan had backfired, the green-eyed youth made a sloppy attempt to recover his ill-conceived words. "Oh. I kind of find that hard to believe."

"Really? Why is that?" Dominic pressed, looking up from his reading and training his violet eyes on the nervous boy.

"Well I mean, look at you! All the girls must throw themselves at your feet. You’re rather good looking...and...I think I’ll shut up now," whimpered Tyrell as he caught a glimpse of the frowning face of his companion.

"I see, so I’m good-looking in a guy’s perspective."

"That’s not what I meant!" the younger boy groaned, allowing Dominic to return his attention to the book splayed out on the table. Frantically searching for a better conversation topic, Tyrell ran his eyes across the room and gasped when they fell across the bandage winding up Dominic’s right arm. He had seen the wrappings back in Physics class but he hadn’t taken any real notice of them until now. "Um Dominic, how did you hurt your arm?" he asked as soft as he could, not wanting to infuriate the boy any more than he already had.

"It’s none of your business!" Dominic snapped, not looking up from the page he was reading.

"Oh, I just thought..."

"Look Tyrell, I’m not exactly a great conversationalist! As a matter of fact, the only reason I agreed to sit here is because I honestly believed that you wouldn’t cause half as much noise as the rest of the kids here. But I guess I was way wrong," the older youth charged as Tyrell winced and resumed taking bite-sized nibbles at his sandwich.

The rest of the lunch hour went by without any more words from either the brooding Dominic or the contrite Tyrell. By the time, the bell rang signaling the next change in classes, Tyrell was sure Dominic had forgotten that he was even there. He watched the older boy collect his books and step away from the table.

"Maybe I’ll see you later, Dominic," he called to the boy as Dominic turned and joined the mass of students in their exodus from the cafeteria.

"Lucky me."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Tyrell hung by the school basketball court, waiting for Maren and Cyrus to come by so they could find Gayle and head over to Cyrus’s place. He was sick of searching for Dominic and fed up with the whole notion of talking to the older boy altogether. Dominic clearly had no interest in listening to a word he had to say, which ruined the concept of asking him questions. After his interactions with Wolf, Tyrell had expected someone who was a little more considerate since he had never found the wolf to be completely objectionable. But Dominic’s cold nature had shown him that Dominic was more like his feral personage than the wolf ever was. He had no further intentions of speaking with him until he had another encounter with the black wolf. Maybe there was a chance that the two actually weren’t the same. He could at least hope.

As he waited by the court, he saw someone shooting hoops on the far court. He could hear the person cussing loudly even though every shot was perfect. Cocking his head to improve his hearing, Tyrell was finally able to make out what the youth was shouting into the air.

"Damn alarm clock! Next time, I’ll get myself a friggin’ rooster! How could I possibly miss my first day of class? At least Shira managed to make it to school on time. But she couldn’t have taken five seconds to wake me up," the unhappy boy screamed as another one of his shots sailed through the hoop in perfect formation.

Confused at what the other boy was ranting about, Tyrell lifted up his head to take in the appearance of this distraught creature. He looked very much like a girl with a loose mane of dark red hair that hung just above his mid-back. There were a few thick strands of loose crimson that hung by either side of his head, probably overgrown bangs. The clump on the left side was slightly smaller than the other one, indicating that the loose hair wasn’t styled that way on purpose, just that it fell that way due to its troublesome nature. It was mostly the voice that told Tyrell of his gender, that and the lean bunch of muscle that was revealed every time a jump shot lifted the boy’s shirt up his torso.

Just then, the boy tilted his head to the side and took in the boy who was watching him with a curious shimmer in his dark eyes. He put a hand to his eyes to shield them from the glare and he waved a hand in a welcoming gesture for Tyrell. "Hey kid, what are you doing over there? Want to play a game?" His voice trickled out in a throaty purr that reminded Tyrell of the rumbling sound native to the large wild cats.

Tyrell trotted inside the court and stood at the halfway line, shaking his head. "I’m not very good at basketball. I’m more of a soccer guy."

"What? But basketball is so easy. Come over here and I’ll show you a little trick I always use," the red-haired boy urged as Tyrell moved over to him and stood a few feet from his side. He held up the ball in his hands and motioned toward the net. "See you just keep your arms in this arcing position and push with your calf muscles. That way the ball is given a bit more oomph, making it go directly in the net if you aim right." He bent his knees slightly and executed the move so Tyrell could see how it was done. "Here you try it," he said as he offered the ball to him.

Tyrell took the ball and tried to focus his sights on the hoop looming over him. Remembering what the other boy had said, he dipped his knees and positioned his arms in an arc before releasing the ball into the air. As if by magic, the ball sailed through the air and smacked against the backboard, bouncing against the rim for a moment before it toppled into the net. Astonished that he had actually made the shot, being that his current basketball record in PE was 1:43, Tyrell grinned back at the red-haired boy.

"Thanks. That really works," he beamed as the other gathered his hair into a fist and withdrew a band from his pocket, which he wrapped around the clump, creating a high ponytail.

"Of course, I’ve been perfecting that one for years. By the way, what’s your name?" the redhead inquired moving over to scoop the basketball back into his arms.

"Tyrell Arteme. And you?"

"Lucian Ambrose. I’m new to this school if you haven’t guessed yet," laughed the longhaired boy as he stood against the court’s fencing, the ball positioned under his left arm.

"We’ve been getting a lot of new kids this year. Anyway, I kind of gathered you were new due to your yelling about missing class today. So what year are you?" Tyrell asked, happy to be talking to a boy who actually acknowledged that he was speaking.

"I’m a senior. Yeah, missing my first day did kind of piss me off. But I figure the school’s not going to leave and I can always make up the time tomorrow, right?"

"You sure recover quickly," chuckled the younger boy as he looked up at Lucian who was smirking at his response.

"Hey, Tye, when you live my life, you learn to adapt to the situation as soon as possible. Letting things get to you can be bad," explained Lucian giving Tyrell a sly grin.

"Whoa! Are those contacts?" Tyrell shouted as he noticed the sparkling garnet eyes of his companion for the first time during their conversation.

Lucian looked nervous as he looked back at Tyrell and his hand rose toward this face. Then he noticed how excited Tyrell looked. In fact, he was even smiling. He quickly dropped his hand and smiled back. "Nope. Genuine Ambrose quality."

"Wow! It must be so cool to have red for your natural eye color," gasped the green-eyed boy as he stared at Lucian with envy.

"Believe me, it gets old fast," the older boy griped, shifting his eyes to the side as if the conversation was making him uneasy.

"Oh sorry if I brought up any bad memories," apologized Tyrell as Lucian quickly shook his head ‘no."

"It’s all right. I’m used to it by now. I usually wear dark sunglasses so people don’t stare. I guess I just forgot to today."

"Bet people stare at you even without the red eyes," the younger boy joked, eager to change Lucian’s downcast expression.

"You telling me? I have to avoid heavy crowds all the time unless I want to get torn apart by raging girls," Lucian teased as Tyrell gave him a knowing glance.

"You’re so lucky."

"Yeah right, I’m sure you have your own flock of females nipping at your heels."

"Maybe," Tyrell admitted as he thought of the only girl he really wanted to follow him around. "But sometimes it’s good to be away from all that."

"I guess, but I kind of enjoy being popular. As long as you don't let it go to your head, it can be fun," the older boy confessed as he played with a strand of hair that spilled across his shoulders.

"Maybe," sighed Tyrell as the corner of his eye caught the sight of a figure stepping out from behind a building. It was Maren dragging Cyrus by the wrist. He saw Tyrell chatting with Lucian and made a swift motion, demanding that he get over there right now. Tyrell mouthed a reply to the black-haired youth and then turned back to Lucian. "I have to go now, but I’ll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Sure, if you don’t see me in any of your classes or during lunch. We could still come out here and shoot some hoops before or after school," assured Lucian as he waved goodbye to the youth.

"Cool! Hope you enjoy Carthala, Lucian!" Tyrell called back as he ran up to meet his fellow band members.

Lucian watched the boy disappear with his friends and then laughed to himself. "So that’s Tyrell Arteme. One of the Keys? Doesn’t look very strong but hey, he’s got a great personality. I guess that I’ll be keeping an eye on him for a while."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Tyrell woke up on Cyrus’s couch from where he had been resting his head against the tailpiece of his guitar. A few indentations of knobs graced his cheek as he raised his head from the instrument and yawned. Cyrus was sitting on the floor beside him, scratching down some notes onto a piece of sheet music. He looked up and saw that his other member was finally awake after two hours of dozing.

"Hey Tyrell, are you ready to do some real work yet?" he asked, balancing his glasses on his nose as he leaned over his compositions.

"Jeez, I’m sorry. I guess I kind of passed out. I’ve been so darn tired lately," yawned his companion as Tyrell slid off the couch and sat on his knees to examine what Cyrus was working on.

"Yeah well, you should get some more sleep at home then and not during our practices. I don’t cut time out of my studies just to watch you sleep," Cyrus replied, a touch of anger in his voice as he looked at the boy with reproaching light brown eyes.

"I’ll be more careful next time," promised the younger boy as he stretched out on his stomach and stared at the notes on Cyrus’s page. "This is looking good so far, Cye."

"Good, that means it shouldn’t take you very long to create matching lyrics. With any luck, maybe you’ll be finished by next Saturday’s concert."

"Whoa! You’ve already got us a new gig. You’re amazing Cyrus!" praised Tyrell as Cyrus retained his humble visage and nodded.

"We need something to fix our image after that horrendous display last week. So I booked us for the next appearance during some Best of the Bands concert," Cyrus illustrated his point for the other boy.

"So STRYFE should be back on top by the beginning of next week?"

"Perhaps. But a new song would seriously help."

Tyrell sat up and looked around the room for a moment before turning back to Cyrus, a concerned furrow in his brow. "Where’s Gayle and Ren?"

"Do you have any idea what time it is Tyrell?" Cyrus responded, not lifting his eyes from his sheet music.

"Not exactly."

"It’s almost nine’o’clock. Those two left about an hour ago to finish their homework. Though I think Maren had more intentions of seeing your sister than getting to any schoolwork."

"Crap! Nine’o’clock! I’ve got to get home. My parents are probably having a coronary!" yelped Tyrell as he leapt to his feet and scrambled to grab his book bag from the edge of the couch.

"Yeah they did call a while ago," Cyrus mentioned, watching Tyrell’s eyes widen in absolute horror.

"Really? Are they going to kill me?"

"No, I assured them that you were fine. I said you were just hanging at my house and had fallen asleep. They told me not to wake you up. Apparently you haven’t been getting much sleep from what they told me," the brown-haired boy continued, still focused on his project at hand.

"Okay. Well tell the others I’m sorry for passing out on them and I’ll make up for it tomorrow. Bye," Tyrell rushed as he scampered out the door and sprinted down the street.

*~*~*~*~*~*

As he the raw fear of his parents’ wrath began to fade from his mind as he got farther down the road, a new fear sprung up to take its place. He was alone and it was dark. These were the ideal circumstances for Lionelle to make his appearance, and based on what happened with Dominic earlier that day, Tyrell wasn’t even so sure he wanted to see Wolf either. He pulled his book bag against his back and began to race down the street as fast as the heavy load would allow.

Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind and pulled from the main road by a strong arm. He was dragged to the edge of the forest surrounding Cyrus’s wealthy development Shaking he whirled around, expecting to see Lionelle and was shocked when he realized that the person who had snatched him was none other than the black-haired boy, Dominic. Dominic’s eyes shot daggers at him even through the dark night as he shook him roughly and gripped his wrist so hard it hurt.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?" Dominic snarled, using the reserves of his control to stop short of beating some sense into the stupefied youth.

"Dominic? What are you doing here?" Tyrell asked as his head spun in a sort of daze.

"What do you think I’m doing here, genius? I thought you said you figured it all out the other day," the dark-haired boy shouted, shaking Tyrell’s arm in one fierce motion.

"Wolf?" the younger boy questioned, his gray-green eyes glistening will a thin veil of disbelief and fright.

"Yes, you stupid boy! I’m that blasted creature! Now get your ass out of here before you attract any unpleasant company!"

"But Dominic if you knew that I knew it was you the whole time, then why did you get so pissed at me for looking at you today?"

"You’re wasting time with your ridiculous questions. Now I said get out of here!"

"Where am I supposed to go? My house is at least a good fifteen minutes away from here," resisted Tyrell, yanking his wrist from Dominic’s grip. "Are you planning on following me home?"

"Perhaps," Dominic replied, seriously considering the option as he recalled how easy it had been for Lionelle to trap the young boy the other evening.

"Fine. But I want to get going now! Believe me, I’m just as unhappy with my being here as you are. I’d be glad to get home as soon as possible. I have no wish to have another encounter with that maniacal Chimera."

As he spoke, Dominic grew suddenly still and jerked his head to the right as if sensing something in the distance. "Damn!" he hissed as Tyrell clutched at the cross on his chest that had begun to burn with its usual savage heat. He started to tremble as his eyes dashed across the area, searching for any sign that Lionelle was nearby.

Dominic lifted his own amulet from under his shirt and rubbed at the topaz stone in the center, whispering something under his breath. Responding to its master’s call, the stone pulsed with life as it shifted to become a sword, very similar to Tyrell’s. The only exception was that the blade was forged of pure silver steel and the hilt glittered with winding streaks of gold. He pointed the tip of the blade in front of him and stared out into the darkness, sensing something with his perceptive violet eyes. "Back off Lionelle!"

A flash of silver caught his eye as another blade crashed against his, pushing him backward. Forcing himself to call upon his own weapon, Tyrell crept toward Dominic and gazed at the form that stood before them. With his orange-red hair that fell to the sides of his face in loose bangs and soulless cornflower blue eyes, the person confronting them was obviously not Lionelle but someone else. He was also a great deal younger looking than Lionelle and almost seemed too innocent to be associated with such a dangerous group as the Chimera. The unknown man whirled his sword in a circle around Dominic’s weapon and skillfully knocked it out his hands with one blow to the edge.

"How dare you refer to me as my brother!" the blue-eyed man spat as he held his sword before Dominic’s throat. "I am nothing like that loser. He can’t even finish a couple of measly children. But I promise you, I am quite capable of handling this job for him. I must admit though that you two were certainly hard to find. I guess Lionelle dissuaded you from hanging out near your usual haunts. Nice area here. Ideal for a duel."

"Are you so sure of yourself?" mocked Dominic, refusing to accept that fact that he was completely incapacitated at the moment. He kept his eyes focused on the blade wavering before his neck and glanced at the older man in bitter contempt.

"Yes, I’m sure of myself. Would you like me to demonstrate why I have such confidence in my abilities?" roared the man as he prepared to shove the tip of his sword right into Dominic’s jugular. "Who are you anyway?"

"Unlike the Keys who are afraid to shed any blood, I am a Guardian and hold no compunctions to killing."

"Too bad, neither do I!" the man remarked darkly bringing the sword back to slice into Dominic’s unprotected throat.

Tyrell screamed and cut his weapon through the air in a pattern that sent a current of lightning whirling down upon the man. Since the shock was not that of pure lightning, the man was only stunned by the attack but his brief hesitation was enough to allow Dominic to escape. He ducked below the sword and rolled to the side, grabbing his fallen blade and clutching it within his hand. Snarling in rage he swung it out at the older man, scratching it against his own weapon and releasing an intense wave of pure heat. The man staggered from the pain that the heat was causing to rush over his body and sank to his knees. Immediately, Dominic trained the tip of his sword at the man’s chest, eyes devoid of emotion.

"I guess you’re even weaker than your brother, whoever you are," he said pushing the tip even closer so that it just touched the man’s skin.

"My name is Fang! And I’m far better than my brother ever was! I just got off to a bad start," the man replied, his voice steady and even despite the deadly weapon being leveled at his heart. "I can see from your power that your element must be that of the sun. Well, my dear Sun Guardian, let’s see if you can handle this!"

Before Dominic could move, Fang flicked out his claws and uttered a curse that caused enormous rings of fire to spring up around both boys. Terrified by the flaring pyres, Tyrell backed up quickly, not watching where he was going. He moved so fast that he smacked the back of his head against the sturdy bark of one of the trees that rested on the forest’s fringe. Tyrell moaned softly as his skull connected with the unyielding wood and then he crumpled to the ground. Flames raced around his unconscious form as Dominic cursed in frustration at the flames that lapped at his skin.

Fang cackled at the boys’ dismay and wrapped a wave of fire around himself as he vanished into the glowing pyre, telling Dominic that he looked forward to seeing him again if he survived. Dominic growled through his teeth and dropped to his knees to locate his fallen charge. Rolling through the wall of fire penning him in, he crawled across the ground until he noticed a faint patch of white standing out amongst all the orange-red blades of flame. Realizing that the white must be a piece of Tyrell’s school uniform, he fought through the heavy smoke until he came across the motionless figure.

Groaning, he pulled himself forward and lifted the prone Tyrell into his arms. Then, he hefted himself to his feet, bringing the boy up with him and steadying him against his chest. Dominic coughed hoarsely as a billowy cloud of smoke swept over him, causing his eyes to tear at the scorching and stinging mist. He looked at the blade that had been clutched in his companion’s hand and realized that it had returned to the onyx cross. He willed his own weapon to revert to the sun amulet so that he wouldn’t have to lug both the boy and the heavy object. Once his sword had once again become the orange relic, he repositioned Tyrell in his arms and began to hurry away from the fire, making sure to duck under the thick clouds of smoke.

As soon as he and Tyrell reentered the main stretch of road, the flames vanished from the forest, leaving no trace of their previous existence. Another spell, probably. Dominic staggered as he struggled to carry the unconscious Tyrell. Normally, this would have been an easy task for him, but his last fight with Lionelle had messed up his right arm badly and it frequently sent jolts of hot agony through his muscles as he fought to hold the boy. He just hoped he could last until he got the younger teenager home.

Farther off, another being was keeping a close watch on the disaster-prone Tyrell. Untrusting chestnut eyes followed Dominic as he limped down the street, continually shifting Tyrell’s body to get a better hold. The owner of the brown eyes could sense something odd about Dominic, something that had to be eliminated as soon as possible. Erik’s whole mission could depend on discovering this secret and destroying it. He would not let anyone interfere with his plans for young Tyrell and his sister.

*~*~*~*~*~*

An urgent knocking at her front door awoke Tiana from her state of restless sleep. Wondering who would be visiting at such an hour, she hurried down the staircase and threw open the front doors to reveal an exhausted teenager with damp black hair cradling the lifeless body of her son. Both appeared to be marked with some sort of singe marks and Tyrell’s face was covered in gray ash. Horrified, Tiana took her son from the panting boy and held him against her chest, holding her breath in fear. But as she held the limp form, she could feel the slight rising and falling of his chest, and sighed in relief. Brushing Tyrell’s dirty bangs from his forehead, he looked up at the youth that had returned him to her.

"What happened?" she demanded, a glint of anger marring the gentle elegance of her emerald eyes.

"He got caught in a small fire. He’s a little singed but I doubt there’s any permanent damage," Dominic consoled the woman as she stared at him, tears of gratitude welling up in her eyes.

"Thank you for saving my child. But who are you?"

"My name is Dominic. I met your son at school. When I happened upon the fire, I recognized him."P>

"He is so lucky to have met such a brave and noble young man as you," cried Tiana, pressing Tyrell even more tightly against her chest. Her impassioned tears falling upon his restful face and rolling down his neck.

"It wasn’t anything special. I just wanted to help," Dominic replied in an almost indifferent voice as though the praise physically hurt him.

"What can we ever do to repay your kindness?" the woman persisted as the weary boy backed away from her, holding up his hands.

"Seriously, it wasn’t anything special. I don’t need any reward. I don’t want any gratitude," he argued, trying to get away from the lady as fast as he could.

"But you must want something. Anything."

"All right, if it will make you happy, I’d be grateful if you delivered a message to Tyrell when he wakes up. Tell him Dominic says he should be way more careful in the future when traveling at night," Dominic consented as he turned from the house and bolted down the street. Tiana gazed at his departure, dumbfounded beyond belief, and then she straightened her son in her arms and carried him into the house, muttering to herself about the odd boy she had just encountered.

Dominic raced down the paved road, keeping a fast pace until he could no longer see the house in the distance. His lungs yearned for breath and he rested for a moment, leaning over and panting in fatigue. He wiped at the ash on his cheeks and felt a few ends of his hair that had been singed by the fire when he had rolled through it. Aside from a few miscellaneous burn marks on his arms and hands, nothing seemed to have been seriously injured from the flames.

He had been lucky. Or maybe not as lucky as he had secretly hoped. Either way, the important thing was that his charge was safe for the moment and lying in a place where his family would watch over him. Family. The word brushed over Dominic, bringing with it the usual bitterness. He hugged at his upper arms, forcing the unwanted feeling away as he returned his mind to the problem at hand. Protecting Tyrell all by himself was an extremely laborious task. If he was going to survive this, he had better come up with a safer plan and fast.

"If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were determined to get me killed by the end of the month," Dominic whispered to himself as he glanced back at the direction where he had come from.

*~*~*~*~*~*