Auriella Everleigh Soleil

I read the file a couple of times in my hands more than a couple of times, wondering if the information on the paper was actually correct or if my dyslexia was deceiving me again; I glanced over to Alexander to see if he had a similar reaction, but with the way, his hands gripped the paper and his eyes trained intensely on every word, I was positive we were reading the same thing.

Feeling my gaze on him, he looked up, his normally calm grey eyes now filled with raging storms but as quick as I had seen them they disappeared as he turned back to the man sitting in front of us with a faux calm expression hiding the torment that I knew would reappear later when it was just the two of us. I followed his lead schooling all my features, even though Phoenix knew us both well, and we were comfortable with him, hiding our reactions were a lot easier.

Emotions were something we could deal with later, but if we had the wrong reaction, then it would always come back to haunt us.

"What is this, Phoenix?" Alexander demanded in a low voice, gazing at the man.

Phoenix sighed, looking at us with the same look we had received from him and so many other people in the past few years, the look we both loathed.

Pity

"No," I speak up, making both men turn to me. "We all know what it is. I want to know how the heck did we not know about this before and why it has come up now?"

"I have no clue." Phoenix shook his head, exhausted. "I know Azariah and Adriano did a thorough job of looking for your families, but it seemed you were well hidden."

He left the unsaid hanging in the air. We weren't meant to find our biological families; they'd been hidden from us from the moment we were taken.

"And now?" Lex pressed. "How did you find them now?"

"It's in the file, Alexander. The file you both have read through from front to back multiple times since you entered my office." He shrank back into his chair at the weight of both of our glares on him. We needed to hear it out loud. "We were doing investigations a couple of towns over from where your biological families live, some small gang leader staying down there, and we just needed to make sure he wasn't causing problems. Anyway, the towns around there are small and a couple of towns share the public high school. The twins had caught someone following a couple of the students a couple of days ago, and we have since identified them as NITE men."

Alexander and I sucked in a breath, even though we already had read it. It makes it so much more realistic to hear it out loud.

"And they were following our biological siblings." I finish and Phoenix nods.

"They haven't stopped looking for you." He passed us each another file and in it was a news report but what caught our attention was the small photographs in the top corner. They were two photos of smaller children, one with floppy black hair and pale grey eyes and another with a mess of curls framing her face and bright blue eyes. It was obvious younger versions of us, all that had changed besides age was my hair darkening to a brown instead of the golden blond in the picture and the vertical cut Alexander had though his eyebrow hadn't been afflicted yet. Other than that, there was no doubt that we were the children in these pictures. "They didn't have much influence, but they have had a private investigator on the case since the police stopped and declared it a cold case. You were both declared dead eight years ago at the age of  ten and eleven years old."

He stopped again, he knew this was a lot of information for the two of us to process. We had lived our whole lives believing we had no blood-related family and over time we had accepted that, especially when we were given amazing adoptive fathers and their families who had welcomed the two of us with open arms. Now our world had just done one-eighty, and I was honestly amazed we were both still sitting here rather than having a breakdown or something. The only form of discomfort Xander showed was the bruising grip he had my hand held in, but he didn't even realise it. If he did, he wouldn't be holding me that tight. He had some sort of irrational fear of hurting me in any way. But right now I was thankful for the pain, it was helping keep me grounded from the emotions threatening to spill over.

"The easiest way to protect this family from the threat that has already taken away two children from them would be to send you in. It would be the most inconspicuous and NITE knows not to underestimate the two of you, so they would be protected. But this case is not mandatory and there will be no consequence if you choose to do the case, and you want to back out. Everyone cares about you both, and we don't want anything to happen to you both mentally and physically. I honestly didn't even want to bring this to your attention, but we know how important this case is to you."

He was right, this case involved a lot more than just our blood family, it involved our chosen family too. NITE had ripped apart more than one of my families. They took us from our blood, then took our family from us.

They had taken the two most important men for both of us, tortured them in the most gruesome, inhumane ways for a couple of days and left them almost dead and unable to escape in a building that had set alight and was then burnt to the ground.

My eyes met Alexander's one more time, he raised an eyebrow at me with a challenging glare, one which I easily returned.

Even if it was under different circumstances we needed to finish the job, we wouldn't let these men tear apart more families than he already had.

<><><>

"We don't have to do this," Xander says softly coming up behind me, his arms wrapped around me from behind pulling me into his chest and resting his head on top of mine.

"Yes, we do."

"No, we don't." He says firmly back. "If you're not comfortable with this, there is always another way."

I turn around wrapping his arms around his neck, making his arms fall around my waist.

"Is it bad that I'm a little curious?" I question hesitantly. "We were both taken from these people, if we hadn't been taken we would have grown up alongside them in their small little town away from all that we know now."

"We would have grown up with lots of siblings, and you would have had a lot of brothers to try and keep you from me." He thinks. "And you would have had a sister, that's something I can't imagine yet. You only have male cousins."

"You have a little sister." Regret flashes through Lex's eyes for a split second. That is something he had always wanted, but he grew up as an only child as I did. Maybe that's why he's so close to Adelina. It's the exact reason I latched onto Ambrosi, they are our non-biological siblings. I tilt my head to the side a bit, watching him carefully. "You want to go."

"That doesn't matter, if you aren't comfortable, we aren't going."

"But you're missing the point," I grumble, raising my eyebrows at him. "I'm saying we should go."

"Yeah?" He still looked unconvinced.

"Uhuh, that's what I've been trying to explain to you for the past like five minutes." I sass, explaining it to him like he was stupid. He rolls his eyes at my attitude, lifting me, so my legs automatically wrap around his waist, and then he presses me back, so I'm caged in between him and the wall. I try moving, squirming in his grip, but Xander doesn't let go of me, in fact smirking slightly when he sees I can't move.

Even though we trained together and had for years, he was still stronger than me mainly because of biology. I was strong for a woman, being able to do a lot of things people didn't think I could, but Xander trained especially in weights and strength while I preferred speed training and other things like dance over normal workouts. He normally never really let his strength overpower mine in any way, but there were always circumstances in which he reminded me of it.

Like right now.

He leans forwards, so our foreheads are touching and just when our lips were about to meet we heard the ding of the elevator signalling that somebody was entering our penthouse. He groans, letting his head fall to my shoulder before lowering me to the ground slowly.

Normally, he would have carried on if we knew for certain it was just one of our friends, but there was the possibility of it being one of my cousins and with their overprotective nature it was better to keep PDA minimal around them.

The only reason a thirteen and fourteen-year-old were allowed to share a flat was that I had multiple cousins in the building and so did Xander, so they had made it a game to try and drop at random times to stop any activities they deemed inappropriate. We both thought it was silly, but those were the rules and if we wanted it to stop we had to move out, so we tolerated it.

A flash of blond hair and dark hair greeted me as I opened the door, so I knew who it was. But I was surprised to see glares adorning both of their faces, drilling holes into both Lex and me.

"Uhh, hi?" I greet cautiously, not exactly sure what I did to deserve the hostility.

"What do you mean we're being reassigned?" Lex and I met each other's eyes for a split second, both of us sighing, we knew this was going to be a difficult conversation. We gestured for them both to take a seat on the couches, but they never budged, so we walked closer to them.

In my heels I was exactly eye level with Julian Anderson, the honey-eyed blond stood at 6'3. A scowl adorned the face that was usually covered with a contagious smile that kept everyone around him happy unless, of course, you hurt someone he cared about, then of course he went psychotic. The eighteen-year-old was extremely intelligent, making his way through high school and onto medical school at only sixteen years old where he continues to fly through the work and is estimated to graduate at only twenty years old.

Next to him stood Demetrius Parker, he was dark-haired and dark-eyed thanks to his eastern Asian roots. He had the most flawless skin and stood at 6'4 only an inch shorter than Alexander. Demi was normally neutral, mentally prepared for any situation that might take place, but the thought of us leaving had shaken him up. Demetrius Parker was amazing at money, he knew what to invest and where. He had taken the brunt of our inheritance and multiplied it multiple times, leaving us with an immeasurable amount.

The four of us had been placed in a team together when I was twelve by the Secret British Government Agency our parents all worked in. We were chosen to be one of five elite children teams all containing four people. We worked well together, I was the brains of the team, Xander was the muscle, Julian was the medical assistance when something inevitably went wrong and Demetrius was our eyes in the sky. He kept an eye on us from cameras and kept in contact by comms. So to hear they were being transferred from the team they had spent four years on was something else.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Julian asked softly, pure heartbreak lining his tone, pulling at my heartstrings.

"We just found out, we were just discussing whether we are going to take the job." Alexander tries to explain gently, not wanting to escalate the situation.

"And are you?" I give them a single nod, making them sigh. "Okay, how long are you going for?"

"Not exactly sure, but I think six months, maybe." I look up at Xander, who shrugs, not having a clue about the timeline either. "This case is slightly different, it's more personal."

They immediately catch my drift, and Demetrius blows up. "What the heck, you two are not taking on NITE without our help."

"That's only the surface level, there is so much more involved, but we have the Lombardi twins with us, that's why you're transferring to their team. You are going to work with Kaeso and Ahmed while Leandro and Lorenzo work with us."

They finally accepted it, they knew once we set our minds to something there was no changing it, so why even try? "Just be careful, alright, I'm not there to patch you up when you inevitably go on off doing one of your crazy plans." Julian sighs, pulling me into a hug.

"Love you, Jules," I whisper in his ear. "But no promises."

He rolls his eyes, I never make promises, he and everyone else knows that. I hate broken promises, so I won't make any that way I can't break them. The only person I make promises to is Alexander, pinky promises. It was our sacred tradition we have been doing for as long as we can remember.

"I'll look after her," Xander promises watching me in amusement. "Well, now we have to go back and clear up that one's side of the closet."

That makes them leave quicker, so they aren't roped into helping. Clothes were something I had an abundance of and my closet was overflowing. It wasn't that surprising considering I owned a fashion company. The majority of my wardrobe were potential pieces, stuff I was experimenting with, or they were given to me by other brands to promote on social media as I had a large following. Our social media were big platforms, with millions of followers on both Xander's and I's pages. We never showed our faces though giving us anonymity to the public which helped especially with our role in the government.

"We have an hour until our families get here for dinner, think we can do it?" He asks with a challenge. I meet his eyes and pull him down, so our lips touch lightly before I pull back.

"You and I can do absolutely anything, just as long as it's together."

Okay, so does anyone want to be an editor for me, I seriously hate editing. The same reason why I sometimes have fully written chapters sitting in my docs for a couple of days before I get in the mood to edit.

Anyway I'll probably post a chapter once a week, maybe more on a certain week if I feel like it

Please don't forget to vote and leave a couple of comments

Have a great week

Ara <3