II

Kadin paced up and down the area in front of their aunt and uncle's – he guessed now it was his and his sister's as well – house, worrying about Katia's whereabouts. It had been over 4 hours since his sister, Katia, had left to 'check out the neighbour hood' and she hadn't returned or phoned or anything. All his aunt and uncle had said was to not worry about it and that she'd be home when she's ready. Kadin knew, deep down, that he shouldn't be worrying, after all she was 16 and had every right to be out on her own, but since their parents strange deaths, he couldn't wrap his mind around letting his sister go.

Not if their was a chance she could be hurt.

"Damn it Katia, where are you?" he mumbled angrily as he pulled out his phone yet again and pressed her number, yet again. And yet again, it went straight to voice mail. He cursed loudly and jammed the phone back in his pocket.

"You shouldn't curse, you know."

Kadin looked up in shock at the soft, female voice from his left and saw a young woman. No, that's didn't serve her justice: it was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was tall, taller than his 6"5 frame, with this knee length golden brown plait hanging over her right shoulder, a curl falling over her face on the right. She smiled at him with these emerald eyes that he could lose himself in any time, any place.

"I know." he admitted, still staring at this woman. "But something's annoying me and cursing is what I do when I'm aggravated."

"What's aggravated you?" a small childish voice spoke. Kadin glanced down, in the direction of the small voice, and then he noticed the small beautiful little girl at this gorgeous woman side. She looked up at him curiously with these big doe brown eyes, her thumb in her mouth, and her dark blond ringlets were held in two pigtails, adding to her look of cuteness.

Kadin's face softened instantly and, before he knew it, he was blurting out his problem to two complete strangers, "I'm looking for my sister, Katia. She left ages ago – almost 5 hours now – to clear her head and she hasn't been back. I'm … worried, is all."

"We could help you look for her!" the child spoke, before turning to the older woman with pleading eyes, "Can we Paige? Please?"

Paige gave her an unsure look. "Lily, I don't -"

"Please, please please Paige?" Lily pleaded harder, making Kadin's heart clench at her pain expression, "I want to help make him happy and find Katia!"

"Fine." Paige reluctantly gave in, before turning to Kadin who was watching them with a small smile, "We'll help you but since you have the pleasure of knowing our names, would you grate us the same?"

The oldest Jackal nodded. "Kadin. Kadin Jackal."

Paige smiled. "It's nice to meet you Kadin Jackal. Do you know where you're sister might be?"

Kadin scanned his mind for any ideas, past memories that might give them a clue to her whereabouts.

"Well," he finally said thoughtfully, "When we were kids, Katia loved going to the park but she wouldn't play there - no – she would sit on the floor or on one of the benches or the swings or anything really, and stay silent. She said the park was a good place to think and to be alone with your thoughts."

Paige looked at Kadin, smiling a 100 watt smile, that made him melt on the spot. "There's a park around the corner – Covenley Park. Maybe she's there, it's the nearest one from here."

Kadin gave her a grateful look, with a small smile. "Thank you Paige." he breathed, "I owe you for this."

"Why are you so worried about your sister?" Lily asked curiously, her doe eyes sparkling with it. "Is she younger than you?"

Kadin scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well … yeah … Katia is younger than me … but only by ten minutes … we're twins …"

Paige raised an eyebrow in confusion. "So, you're worried about your sister, who has to be about 16 years anyway, because …?

"We've just moved in with our aunt and uncle." Kadin found himself explaining. It was a surprise, it seemed to just come out – like word vomit. "Our parents died a few months back. We would have been here sooner but it took a month or two to get the legal documents sorted to allow us to move in with them. Raise is a new experience and I don't like the idea of my sister being out in a place that we don't know that well."

"Sorry about your parents." Lily said sorrowfully.

"Don't worry about it – it wasn't like it was your fault." Kadin laughed it off nervously, "Anyway, do you want to go to this Covenley Park now?"

Paige nodded, looking – to Kadin anyway – nervous. "Sure. Let's go."

The park was empty, stained with rain drops, just like the two siblings and the Jackal. Paige watched with sympathetic eyes as Kadin ran around the large park, looking in every nook and cranny of the large grassy area, in a futile hope.

But she wasn't there.

Paige wasn't entirely sure who Katia was but the smell – an almost identical smell to Kadin – was wafting through her senses, along with the smell of three other people. Males. Two young twins and an older sibling maybe? The smell of animals was also here: Dove, Rabbit and Dog. Wet Dog at that.

Of course, Paige and Lily were the only ones that could tell that. Kadin was just acting in desperation: a human feeling. The two siblings knew those feelings – human feelings that is – rather well. It didn't matter that they'd been dead their whole lives – being born dead and all – they knew about emotions but … never desperation.

At least, not real desperation.

If they lose each other, they could easily be found. Their scent in unique to all around them – it's not that hard to tell.

'But Kadin Jackal doesn't have that ability.' Paige reminded herself sadly as the disappointed and, seemingly, scared teenager approached her and her sister.

Kadin ran a hand through his soaking wet hair and looked at his two knew friends. "She's not here. Are they're any other parks in the area?"

"Yes." Lily answered sweetly, "but you're sister was here. She left not to long ago" her small arms pointed to the right of the park "in that direction."

'And how do you know that?' Kadin asked himself as he found himself aimlessly following the five year old and her older sister. He so wanted to ask that question but, for some odd reason, he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth and actually follow through with it.

It was just something that he couldn't do.

… Something about them as people in general, stopped him from asking awkward questions.

Lily skipped on ahead of them, every so often stopping to look at the sky, before starting off again. Paige followed her with an elegant grace that no woman Kadin had ever seen possessed, a smile on her friendly face, as she calmly and in a caring tone called out to Lily to tell her "not to run off so far". Kadin walked at Paige's side, his gray eyes darting between the woman at his side and her sibling in front in an almost frantic way, his hands deep in his pockets, his mind reeling with worry and confusion.

'Where is Katia? God, when I find her I'm going to kill her for making me worry like this! I hate it when she wanders off and doesn't tell me what she's going to do – it drives me insane! What happened to 'we'll tell each other everything and not make the other wander around town in a panic'? Lord, I don't even know where I'm going!'

Kadin allowed his eyes to settle on the hyperactive, skipping girl in front of him. Her face was a picture of pure innocence, her blond hair sticking to the side of her face from the rain that had completely soaked her face, clothes and hair (although she looked perfectly fine with it like any other normal five year old) as she paused again and once again – although Kadin kept telling himself it was his mind playing tricks on him – sniff the air before taking off again.

'And how does Lily know where she's going? I mean, she's 11 years younger than me and she already acts like she should be my age and I should be hers – well, except for the whole begging and pleading thing earlier but that's beside the point! No child at the age of five knows their way around town, even if they've lived there their whole lives! Five year olds just don't have that mental volume to handle it!'

Kadin's eyes slide to Paige again and he felt himself melt slightly at her happy, beautiful face. Her hair danced in the wind as stray strands of hair fell out of her – now wet – plait. The curl that was, probably, purposely left out clung, like glue, to the side of her marble like face and neck.

'Why does Paige look the way she does? Just so … perfect … alluring would be a better word. Everything about her makes my brain what to let my downstairs brain take control. I guess that's normal for a teenage boy – a 16 year old teenage boy at that – but it hasn't happened before.'

Lily paused again and turned to her older sister and her new friend, an excited look across her face making Kadin instantly snap out of his thoughts to stare at her. "She went this way. Come on! She's close!"

As fast as her tiny chubby legs would carry her, the small blond girl ran across the road and towards this huge estate. Paige's emerald eyes widened in panic and sped after her, narrowly dodging a lone car that came around the corner. The driver honked the horn and few times, as he lent out his now open car window and yelled curses and insults at her. Paige ignored him but that didn't stop Kadin from flipping him off as he ran pasted.

"Lily! Lily! Stop!" Paige yelled frantically, speeding up her pace to a sprint, "We're not allowed to -"

Paige was cut off as a small figure threw itself at her body. She cradled the small child to her chest, whispering her choice of a lullaby under her breath, attempting to calm the girl down. Kadin stopped sharply at their sudden stop and lent on his knees, catching his breath threw loud pants.

"What's … going … on … why … did you … stop?" he gasped out through his pants, "Is … Lily … okay?"

Lily looked up from Paige's chest and met Kadin's gray eyes with her tear shedding ones. Kadin felt a panic grip his heart at the hopeless look on her face.

"A-animals ..."