The gently nudging of my hand, by what could only be construed as a puppy nose is what woke me up. I slowly open my eyes and see Ash in front of me, but he's the cutest little puppy. He slowly turns back into his human form and yells, "Hey, guys! She's awake."
As I stretched my whole body hurt, I hurt in places I didn't even think I could hurt. Wincing from pain, I look around the room, then I see him. The fire starts burning deep in my chest as I start walking across my basement then the realization of where we were hits me,
"Wait! How did I get here? Why were her letting her touch you like that? How didn't you see or feel me near you? The words flew out of my mouth fast and pretty jumbled together. Blaze took a step back looking at me like I had lost my mind.
"Raven, what are you talking about? Who touched me?" Blaze said confused.
"Don't you dare play dumb with me Blaze Harrison!! Yasmin was all over you at the food court! Why didn't you push her away and tell her to go fuck herself!!" I screamed at him. I could feel the fire tickling between my fingers. When Ashton grabbed my hand and doused my flames. Just then Darius and Roe walk into the room.
"And what the fuck are you doing here!!" Pointing my finger at Roe, "You knew! You knew what this book was, you knew what I was, and you said NOTHING!!" I screamed at her. Just as she went to open her mouth a loud booming voice said ENOUGH! Then two white wisps emerged from the book right in front of us all.
Standing there completely quiet and dumbfounded, I looked at the floor as hot tears started streaming down my face. Blaze reached out to comfort me and I pulled away, the amount of pain and hurt that crossed his face broke my heart, but he did what he did.
"SIT DOWN!" the male wisp yelled. We all sat, every single one of us. The female wisp slowly walked up to me placing her hand on the top of my head and said,
"Relax, angel and allow me entrance to your memories." I eyeball her up and down the slowly lean back and nod my head. She says muninn, the Nordic word for memory, yeah, I just know these things now, which was odd. Anyway, she starts to unlock my memories. Next thing I know I am transported back to the food court, back to that bitch with her hands all over my mate. I can feel the fire wanting to start but then a fog is lifted, no not fog, more like a shimmer like off a mirror in the summer sun. The food court scene changed, this time Blaze step out of the way of Yasmin's advances, called her a stupid bitch, then proceeded to watch me freak out, all while Yasmin had a huge smile on her face.
I shake my head, no, no wait that's not possible, how can that be?
"I don't understand?" I muttered looking at the wisp, when I suddenly realized who this was, as she looked exactly like me.
"Rosanna?" I questioned. "Julius?" Is that really you? Looking over at Blaze and he is standing there with his mouth open staring at himself but not himself.
"Yes, we put our spirits in the book, when we passed in case our future generations needed us. As you will one day as well.
"As for the two different memories the first one, your original point of view, was a false image. Someone put a spell on what you were seeing. More like an illusion, I am guessing they wanted a show of your true powers. Which I might add are some of the strongest I have ever seen." Rosanna spoke softly, almost melodic.
"As for Roe, she is your witch guide it wasn't her place to tell you, only to let Darius know that the process had begun. And you will treat her with the respect she deserves!" Barked Julius.
I look at my feet ashamed of myself and start immediately spitting out apologies to everyone. Blaze sits down next to me grabs my hand and nuzzles his nose into my neck and whispers,
"Never in a million years would I ever want anyone but you." As tears were falling from my eyes, I shook my head and laid my head on his chest and just cried.
After about five minutes of me bawling into Blaze's chest, Darius says,
"That is about enough, I know it was shocking to see the kind of power that Arwan possesses but it is over now. So, let us move past this, please."
Sitting up, I wipe my face and look at Darius, Roe and Ashton who are sitting in folding chairs in my basement and burst out laughing. It is quite the sight to see a man as big as Darius slouched down in a tiny little folding chair. I laughed until my sides hurt, then stood up straightened up my clothes and pulled my hair back into a tight bun.
"All right let's get to work!" I said as Blaze stood and stretched his arms out. The spirits of Rosanna and Julius, fly out in front of me and said,
"Tonight's session will be fun it will incorporate all of you and is our second to last session. Tomorrow, you need to be here all day and night." My eyes widen, as I look to Darius,
"What about school?" I said looking at Blaze then back to Darius.
"Well, I don't think that there are any finals tomorrow so I will just excuse you both so you can train. And we know that Ashton doesn't have to be excused as he's not really a student. Are you Mister Drake?" Darius says chuckling as Ashton shook his head no.
"So, you knew that Ashton wasn't a real student?" I questioned looking at Ashton.
"Yes, I knew. Mister Drake came to me about 2 weeks ago. When the light and dark started to shift. And I help him and his friends into the fold of the school. I helped place the spells and wards to make you all think you knew these kids your whole life. Pretty impressive huh?" Darius said, giving himself a pat on the back.
"Well......if you are done bragging about your greatness, let's get started." Said Julius.
We cleared a space large enough for us all to move through and started running through what I can only describe as some sort of Riverdance. I was laughing so hard at watching Blaze trying to manipulate his big frame around that I had to take a break and go the bathroom. But, while I was washing my hands, I heard it. It was faint at first but then it got louder and louder. It was sort of a humming noise, I searched for it but could not find where it was coming from. I looked everywhere. Then I looked in the mirror. And in the center of the mirror was a spot of light.
I peered closer, trying to figure out where this light was coming from. Just as I reached my hand out to touch it, the bathroom door flew open, and Blaze pushed me hard backwards. I braced for impact thinking that I was going to hit the glass door of the shower behind me, but landed very softly onto what I thought was a pile of pillows. What ended up being Ash surrounding me, so I didn't get hurt.
"What the fu..." I started to say, then I saw it. A long black claw reaching out of the center of mirror. Blaze reached up and in one swipe cut it off with his knife. It landed in the sink and loud shrill scream could be heard echoing off the walls of the bathroom.
"Didn't anyone protect the bathroom!!" I heard Roe yell as I stood to see what was in my sink. Just as I got there and looked into the basin, the remains of the finger dissolved into smoke and slithered down the pipes.
"What was that? I said walking out of the bathroom.
"That was a demon, sent here for you. The show you put on at the park was quite impressive. You are a lot stronger than we anticipated. We need to ramp up security. Arawn will have every demon in a 1000-mile vicinity after you now. Ashton, we need more protection. You and your friends need the help of the angels. Please go confer. We will stay with Raven tonight. She will be safe we promise." Darius said and, in a flash, Ashton was gone.
Walking out of the bathroom, I slowly turn to Roe who looks shocked, and said to her,
"Didn't you put the wards out? Did you forget the bathroom?"
"I didn't know that was a bathroom, I thought it was a closet. I am so sorry. " She said looking at her feet.
I walked over to her wrapping my arms around her and gave her a squeeze and told her it was ok.
"Guys, I am starving can we order a pizza or some food please?" I asked.
With a resounding yes around the room, I picked up my phone, went to the delivery app and ordered 4 large pizzas with wings and breadsticks. Not to mention, four two liters of pop. I was starving.
After we ate, we sat around and talked for a about a half an hour letting the food in our bellies start to digest. I found out a lot of interesting information. I found out that Darius was a direct descendant of Julius's warlock guide and who's family followed Blaze's family from South Carolina to New Orleans to keep a weather eye out for the lineage.
Also, that Roeshell was not only our elder witch, but she was a direct descendant of Addi's. She was in fact her 3rd cousin twice removed. I asked her if Addi knew they were related she looked at the floor and shook her head no, she said she had been sworn to secrecy as the other witches in her coven were certain Addison was an elemental witch as her ancestor had been. Something about a birthmark on her left leg.
'Wait did you say a birthmark on her left leg, like this one?" I said pointing at my leg. There beneath my knee was the little brown spot I had hated my whole life. Why had I never noticed Addison had one? I looked down at my leg, and noticed that my spot had changed, it looked more like a star now.
"What? It is different. It used to only be this little brown dot. Now, it's almost star shaped and has a reddish hue...how?" I looked to the elders in the room for answers.
"Well," Darius stated, "The closer you come to your full powers and finishing your training the more it will look like your element. When your training is complete it will be red and bear a striking resemblance to that stone around your neck. It is the source of your power. Those stones, not your birthmark. Keep those close and never, I do mean never, take them off." He continued.
"Why?" I questioned.
"They help protect you from most evil. Here let's put a spell on that to make it unremovable." Roeshell said waving her arms in front of as I felt my necklace move. I started yanking on my chain, trying with everything I had to pop a link and nope nothing, it wouldn't even budge. But that is not what made me freak out, the fact that Roe used magic without saying an incantation is what made my eyes pop out of my head.
"Hey, will I be able to do that one day? Will I be able to summon magic without words?" I questioned. Roe looked at me and said,
"You can't do that yet?" as she looked at the wisps and Darius. No, she can they all said, but she refuses to believe it. Huh, well if I can, I should try then. I look over at Blaze and tell him to stand up and go to the center of the room. Warily he stands, he is still not sure if I am still angry at him. Rest assured I am not. But I do think Yasmin had something to do with what happened, evil bitch.
I stand about 6 feet away from Blaze and think to myself how nice it would be to see him covered in some blue protection flames. And flung my right hand out and up in a swoosh, and in the next second I heard him gasp, hey stop that tickles. I look up and he is covered in blue flies. Odd, ok must think clearer. With a swoosh of my left they were gone, I tried harder really concentrating this time. I close my eyes and envision what I see and lift both hands palms up out in front of me and pull them down and back and I peek one eye open, and Blaze is standing in front of me covered head to toe in light blue flames. He is standing there staring at his arms, running his hands over the flames. He looks up and asks,
"Why do her flames not hurt me?" Darius says, "I can answer that. Her fire will never hurt you, you are her soul mark, half her soul Blaze. Just like her fire won't hurt you the other elementals will be unable to injure their soul marks as well." The second the last word fell out of Darius's mouth, Blaze began screaming.
"OUCH!! What the fuck!! My neck is on fire! Make it stop." Just as his eyes turned red and his fangs descended, Darius, Roe and the wisps looked at each other and said that is our cue to leave. The wisp vanish into the book, Darius and Roe started headed out of the basement.
"Wait, I thought you said I couldn't hurt him?! Why is he screaming?" I yelled. Roe popped her head in from the stairs and said, "You just marked him, and now he wants to return the favor. Marking is a highly sexual act, and we don't need to be here to see it. Have fun!" She giggled as she turned on her heel and ran up the stairs and was gone.
I looked over at Blaze, the hunger in his eyes and before I knew it, he was on me, he swooped me up and we were flying through the air and landed on the couch softly. Like he picked me up and just gently laid me there not slammed into me and threw me there like he did. He was lying on top of me, when I heard a noise, I turned my head toward the sound, and he brought his fangs down and sank them into my neck. The fire that erupted in my body exploded out and around us as red and gold sparks flew all around the basement. We were floating through the air, hovering above the couch as our bodies melted into one being, one soul.
I saw images of all our past lives together, flying through my mind, our children, our children's children. The mass amounts of love we had for each other then and now just grew leaps and bounds. He removed his teeth from my neck, and we lay there panting, covered in sweat. I think if this is what sex is like, how will we ever stop. Blaze laughed. I covered my face; I was so embarrassed I forgot that he could hear my thoughts. Blaze turns to me and says,
"Not only can I hear your thoughts baby, but now I feel all your emotions as well." Grabbing my chin making me look at him.
"You are mine; Raven and I will spend the rest of our lives proving it to you. I want no one on this earth but you. I love you." He said gently.
I reached up and grabbed him, wrapped my arms around his neck and told him I loved him too before pulling him in for a deep kiss.
Sitting up after our make out session, I summon a mirror to me and check out my new mark on the side of my neck. It looked like a flame surrounded by a circle with a heart in the center. It was very weird cause I thought he just bit me. I turned and looked at his neck and the same symbol was on his neck as well. I ran my finger gently over his mark, when Blaze looked at me and said,
"Stop, don't touch that, well not unless you want to rip off your clothes right here, right now?!" I looked at him as my face turned red and questioned what he meant. He reached up and ran his finger on my mark and my head fell back, my breathing picked up and I started to flush pink all over my body.
"See, apparently these marks are highly in tuned to our bodies and we need to not mess with them when we are not prepared to follow through with what our bodies are telling us to do." He stated. Just then the book appeared and opened up.
Those marks are what tether you together, only you can see them, but others will be able to tell that you are coupled. What I mean by that is Yasmin's feelings towards you will be gone. No other man or woman will ever find you attractive, they will never try to come between you. Well, only one other being will and that's Arawn. He believes that Raven is his destined mate. Not yours, not anyone's but his. He feels entitled to you, Raven. This is why you were first; you need the most training as you are the strongest and what he is after. It is not always that way. There will be other demons, other beings that crave the power of others over you, but that is for another day. I think you have had enough excitement for one day and we will rest now, but you are in for a long day and night tomorrow.
And with that she was gone. The exhaustion of the day over taking Blaze and I as we made our way up to my room. Never have to sleep huh. Well, I feel like I could sleep for the next 3 days. Blaze yawns and says yeah, me too. I jump a little then remember he has a full open pass to my thoughts. I am going to have to figure out a way to block some of that. I think. Good luck he says as he lays down on my bed. I put up all the wards, plus add a cloaking spell on Blaze in case mom peeks in at me. She won't see him there and lose her mind. The spell glides into place as my head hits the pillow, and I am almost instantly asleep as Blaze's arms wrap protectively around me.