"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!!!!" I yelled at my mother. She just smiled and walked to the center of the room.
"Oh RJ, sweetie did you seriously think, I wouldn't have powers. You are a direct descendant of the greatest witch in Salem's history. How did you not feel it, when your powers activated? Honey, do you remember when we used to go out to the lake every year with your friends and their parents?" She said.
"Uh, yeah." I stammer out still in absolute shock.
"Well, the last year we went, you guys were ten. Correct?" She asked, I just shook my head and she continued. "That was the day we felt the power shift from us, down to you girls. When you all found your amulet stones in that cave, we put a protection spell on them and made them into necklaces. We had no clue how powerful you all would be. We had no idea you four were the elementals." she said, looking at me with a tear in her eye. A tear? Seriously, from the meanest, hardest woman I knew. I was completely dumbfounded.
"How could lie to us. How could you not tell us about our heritage? Where is your soul mark? Oh god, it's not...it can't be, he is married to another woman." The questions flew out of my mouth like water from a burst dam.
"First things first, let's deal with the issue at hand." Reaching her hand out she grabs my arm, inspecting it. She checks every single part thoroughly in case she missed something. Then she let go of my arm walked over to where the rest of adults were standing and was whispering something intently as they all stood there shaking their heads. I was so confused. I didn't know what was happening to my life. I started to have a panic attack, Blaze reached up, wrapped me in his arms and kissed my soul mark. It helped relax me, but I pushed him away. I didn't want my mother to yell at me. As she was eyeballing us from across the room. I watched as her face turned from anger to admiration. Which in turn caused me some serious confusion and frustration.
"Raven, come here please. Stand in the center of this circle please. You too, Blaze. Come on now. We have to get this off you before he finds a hole into this universe." Mom pleaded with me. I hesitantly walked into the circle with Blaze holding my non burnt arm. They all clasped hands around us as Mr. Trudeau told Blaze to hold me tight and not let go for any reason. As they began chanting, over and over.
A hot white light began to appear over the imprint of Arawn's hand, the pain shot through my entire body as I started to lift off the ground. I was screaming, it hurt so bad. I thought I might die. Blaze held tight and firm as I felt wetness on my shoulder, I realized he was crying. He could feel it, he could feel my pain and it was agonizing. This went on for what seemed like hours as the torturous pain radiated into my body, up my arm down into my chest. Where my heart shone like a diamond, it felt like it was going to burst out of me. I gave one last blood curdling scream as white light shot out of the center of my chest. I collapsed into Blaze's arms, and finally the pain was gone.
I opened my eyes, looked at my arm and the mark was gone. I slowly stand up, shakily at first but getting stronger by the second.
"What was that? Why did it hurt so bad, and how did it get there?" I questioned. Lincoln, Nina's Dad stepped forward gesturing me to sit, so I sat down on the sofa. He stood in front of me like a towering giant, the man was tall, not as tall as Garrett but tall.
"Raven, before I explain what that was, I have a question for you, if you don't mind answering it." He said. I shook my head yes and waited for him to continue, thinking he was going to ask about Nina.
"What happened in your dream last night, and we need the full story. Please don't leave anything out." He said, looking at me curiously. I told them about the entire dream from waking up in hell to Blaze biting me to wake me up. He just stood there nodding his head, saying ok, yep, uh huh. When I finished the story, he looked at the others and they nodded. He grabbed a chair pulling it up in front of me and placed his hand on mine gently. He looked me in the eye and said,
"Sweetie, that was not a dream. Your body may have been on this earthly plane but your soul, your soul was in hell. It is a very rare gift that especially powerful witches have. They are able to teleport to different realms. You were in hell with Arawn because he called for you. The reason why the mark was so hard to remove was it wasn't on your skin. It was burned on your soul. It was a tracking mark. He placed it so he could always find you and to give him entrance to our earthly plane. Now that it is gone, we have to place protection on your soul. Now, hon, this is going to hurt much worse than that did. Because it is a permanent mark, it cannot be removed by anyone but the person or persons in this case who placed it there. Blaze will get one to and so will all the others as they are brought into the fold. Arawn is too powerful, and his minions are devious and sneaky. We can't take any chances."
As he finished talking, I looked up to see Darius bringing some rope and chains into the room. I started to panic,
"What's that for? Oh my god, are you going to tie us up?" I said. Looking quickly at my mother, who had her head drooped looking at the floor.
"Mom! You are going to let them tie me up!? Are you crazy?" I yelled.
"It's for your own good Raven, please relax." She said as she sat me in the metal chair. The second my butt hit the seat of the chair, Darius wrapped the ropes tight around me, then threw a gag over my mouth and a blindfold on me. I was on the verge of freaking out but heard Blaze going through the same thing next to me, but with a heavier chair and silver chains. Then out of nowhere this pain shot through my entire body. It felt like someone was tearing my arms and legs off.
The pain radiated down into my abdomen and up into my head. It felt like a million little glass shards were tearing me apart. But the worse part of it was I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even suck a little bit of air in. My screaming had stopped, and I was shaking violently. Tears streaming down my face. And as fast as it had begun it was over. The pain was gone. Just gone, not a single hint of what had happened.
As soon as the gag came off, I gasped for air, then promptly threw up. It was quite a sight to see, two teenagers tied to chairs, puking their guts out. Darius removed the rope and the chains, and we stood up. But something felt different. I looked at Blaze as he rubbed his chest, not even aware I was doing the same thing.
"Why does it feel like I have a tingling in my chest?" I said cautiously, side eyeing every single person in the room.
"That is the spell, it will stop momentarily" Roe said.
"Why were we blindfolded?" I asked.
"That was so you didn't know who placed the protection spell. If you knew, they could find a way to force you to tell and injure or kill the one or ones who placed it. Causing the spell to be broken." Said Tessa. I guess I looked surprised by that as she reached out a hand and placed it on my shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze. Resigned to the fact that this is apparently my new life, weird shit happening, every day. I gave a huge sigh and sat back down, exhausted,
I looked around at all the people who helped me and thanked them all. But asked them to give me and my mother some time alone. I needed the answers to some of the questions I had asked her earlier.
Mom looked at Lincoln, Tessa and Grace and thanked them for the help, telling them she would call them later and just as fast as they had arrived, they were gone. I looked at Roe, Darius and Blaze and said,
"So go ahead and start training, I will be back down in a bit. Oh, and Roe? Don't think I don't remember what you said about a surprise." She smiled and said,
"Oh, I didn't." As I turned and headed upstairs to talk to my mom about her lies and secrets.
We sat down in the den on the sofa, mom reached out for my hand, but I pulled it away. I was too angry at her right now for her to touch me. She folded her hands in her lap and said,
"Ok, sit back and listen. Many years ago, when I lived in Salem, I had a soul mark, and he was an amazing warlock. Gorgeous and handsome, we were so happy and engaged to be married, when the unthinkable happened. He went off with his buddies for his bachelor party. It was supposed to be just a nice quiet hike through the woods with some fishing and camping after. Nothing outrageous. But Jonathon's, that was his name Jonathon McKinley. Jon's boot slipped as they were rock climbing and when he fell his tether snapped. He was killed instantly. I felt him die over 200 miles away. I was heartbroken. Completely inconsolable. I had just graduated law school and was looking forward to our amazing life together and just like that, it was over. I didn't get out of bed for over 2 months, the pain was so intense. It still is every once in a while. I wasn't blessed with a second chance mate."
I was staring at her and apparently my mouth was hanging open as she reached over and closed it for me. My poor mother I can't imagine, nor would I ever want to know that pain. She shook her head and continued,
"Finally, it was your grandmother who would not stand for that nonsense, any longer. She packed us up and moved us here to New Orleans. She helped me put in applications and I passed the Louisiana state bar and got a job at Stonewall and Harrison. I was so lonely, that when I met your father, I just kind of took advantage of the opportunity to put some pain behind me. The fact he was a vampire was just more intriguing to me. And nine months later you were here."
"Wait, my dad is a vampire? Well, of course he is. But his mate had to feel him cheat, she had to know. Right?" I questioned.
"No, Raven. He is like me; he had lost his true mate in childbirth 3 years before. His new wife was human, so she had no clue. But when I became pregnant, he was angry. He almost fired me, until I disclosed my ability to read minds. I am a telepathic witch, Raven. The only mind on this planet I could never read was yours, which is probably why I was so frustrated with you most days. Anyway, I felt it a few days ago when your powers heightened. And I know that the man that was here the other day is Arawn's son. I also know he called you and freaked you out. But you have to keep your enemies close."
I honestly couldn't believe what I was hearing, how, why? I was just lost and confused. Mom looked at me, ran her hand over my head smoothing out my hair and said,
"I love you more than life itself, Raven but you need to finish your training and I need to meet with my coven. I love you." And with that, she vanished.
Walking back down to the basement, I think I had more questions than answers, but was in awe that my mother had kept a secret so big from me. I turned the corner to go into the big room downstairs and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. All the furniture I had bought yesterday was there and very nicely decorated I might add. But what really threw me off was the knives, chains, punching bag, and weights on the far-right side of the room. And there was a giant circle mat on the floor in the center of the room.
"What the fu..." I started to say, but they all yelled surprise at me scaring the ever-living shit out of me. I must have looked ridiculous hanging there from the doorframe that I had somehow managed to jump up on. I stepped down on the floor still clutching my chest when a dark mist flew into the room, followed by three more dark mists and four whitish pinky mists.
I knew the first mist was Ash, but who were the other seven? I wondered.
"Perfect timing Ashton." Darius exclaimed.
And in a flash, there standing in my basement we Ashton, Gage Henderson, Cicely Braun, Keely Patrick. I had never paid any attention to them before, but they were all quite beautiful. Ashton and Gage stood six foot one or two, long black hair, greasy in appearance. Very lean and muscular, around 185 pounds or so, with very dark ominous eyes. Cicely and Keely are around five foot six, with very long fingernails, shaped into what appeared to be daggers, with pointy teeth and dark grey eyes that looked almost like the sky when a storm was rolling in. And they all smelled amazing, like earth. Like pine, dirt, and rain, reminded me of a walk in the forest after a good rainstorm. Crazy.
And four strangers I had never met before. These strangers were stunning to look at. The women in the group were short around five foot one or two, rail thin around maybe one hundred pounds, long flowy silvery hair, long pointy fingernails, and silver eyes, ethereal looking, fairy like almost. The two men were also not very tall around my height five foot ten or even five nine. The had shorter blueish silver hair, were very muscular, maybe around 200 pounds or so, and their eyes were stunning. They were purple. It was the craziest thing I had ever seen. But that is not what drew me to them, it was their scent. They all smelled so good. Like cottonwood, rose and lemongrass it reminded me of walking along the shores of the gulf, on a warm spring day.
I stood there staring at them when Darius clapped Ashton on his back and told him good job. As he walked over to the four new people shaking their hands.
"Um, excuse me, does anyone want to let me know who these people are? And why you are all here?" I said, staring at everyone. I looked up past Darius and saw that it was only five a.m., everything that just happened, happened in an hour. Ugh, today is going to be a long freaking day.
One of the new people stepped forward and bowed deep at the waist and said,
"Hello, fire keeper. My name is Ori, I am a spiritual being from a place far from here. The others and I are the same type of entity as, what do you call him? Oh, yes, Ashton, only we are made up of light and energy instead of darkness. I am the Ying to Ash's yang. I am his spiritual other half. We are one. This is Arri, Numi and Trai. We do not have human names as we have never been needed until now. You and your mate will be guided and protected by Ash, and myself. You will be able to walk through the night and day unseen as long as we are here. I am proud to be at your service." She said bowing once more.
Shaking my head, trying to comprehend what was happening in my basement. I sat down with a hard thump on the floor, putting my head on my knees and started sobbing. Blaze put his arms around me, and the room was silent for a moment until Ashton spoke up,
"Raven, I understand that this is a lot to take in, and probably very unnerving, but we have a very limited amount of time today to prepare you and Mr. Harrison. We must keep going."
I shot up onto my feet, the fire burning deep inside me and screamed as loud as I could. Thank heaven for sound proofing.
"LISTEN!!! I understand that, Ashton or whoever you are, but up until 3 days ago I was a normal teenage girl with a crush on a guy who wouldn't give her the time of day and now that guy is my soul mark and I have a centuries old demon who wants me for himself, not to mention that I can control fire, my mom and my friends parents are all witches, and everything I thought I knew about the world was a complete and utter lie!!! So, if you would give me a few human moments to decompress and absorb all this, that would be just fantastic!!" I shouted as I turned and ran out the basement doors up to my room and threw myself on my bed in a puddle of tears.
What seemed like an hour later, my body exhausted from crying my face off. I roll over and see Blaze sitting on the end of the bed, his head bowed down and tears falling onto his jeans. I slowly sat up and reached out to him. My hand landing on his shoulder gently as I pulled him toward me.
"Oh, don't cry babe. I am sorry, I just needed a break. It's just a lot. Ya know?" I said as he turned and looked at me.
"Oh, I know. But that is not why I am crying. I am crying because I can feel your pain, your confusion. I can feel it all Rave, and I can see it in your head, and I see how you felt about me for all those years, but what you don't know..." he said trailing off. I gave him a small hug and told him he could tell me anything, I would never judge him. He turned his whole body towards me, and placed one hand on my face and said,
"Rave, I have liked you since the day you kicked Declan in the nuts. I have been head over heels for you since that day."
What!? I looked shocked, but he placed his other hand on the other side of my face, leaned in, put his forehead on mine and told me to close my eyes. I did what he said confused, but curious. I leaned into him and closed my eyes. Memories flooded into my head, but they weren't mine. These were Blaze's memories, of ME!! All the years of seeing me grow up, watching me, standing outside my house, picking up his phone to call me and so much more. Tears started streaming down my cheeks, as I opened my eyes and gently kissed him.
"You really do love me?" I said as he shook his head.
"Yes, I really do." He said standing up pulling me with him. As we kissed the fire in my belly intensified, the urgency picked up as we held on to one another. We started to float up, toward the ceiling, as the passion took us over, the heat burning deep inside of us, the red and gold swirls flying around and around. Just then the bedroom door flies open, and we hear a deep booming voice bring us out of the passion fueled trance we were in.
"STOP!! NOW!!!" Darius boomed from the door. "You must not consummate your bond until you are fully trained. Or you will destroy one another. You are not strong enough to withstand the power you will unleash if you do."
Settling back to the floor of my bedroom, we both shoot daggers at him as he instructs us to return to the basement. Begrudgingly, we do as we are told. We head out of my room, Blaze grabs my hand, bends over and whispers into my ear,
"One of these times, we won't be interrupted." Then he places a kiss right behind my ear, making me shiver as we make our way down to the group of people in the basement. Walking past the clock on the steps, I just happened to notice that it was only 5:15!! Did someone put a spell on the time?