The car rolled to a stop at the edge of the clearing and before Anouchka could even stop the engine, Jane was jumping out of the sleek, black hummer that apparently belonged to Luke.
If circumstances had been different she would've probably being admiring the car, but now was most definitely not the time. Jane tipped her nose up skyward as she shut her eyes to concentrate on the sharp scents that came to her.
The clear air and damp dirt were the strongest smells making it rather hard to concentrate on the duller scents, but she wasn't going to give up. She took in another breath and focused on those smaller scents and was relieved when she picked up the faint traces of Tony, Cassie, Luke and Levi.
No Clare yet, but Jane was sure her biological mother was somehow involved.
"You picked up their scent yet?" Anouchka asked, coming to Jane's side.
Jane simply nodded, "Follow me."
She was sure Anouchka could probably track the scent herself, but it would be a better precaution if only one of them was entirely concentrated on tracking and the other keeping an eye out for enemies. Besides, Jane knew what she was smelling for, a sickly, ashy scent that she would recognize anywhere.
"And you're sure that your m- that Clare, is the one causing all of this?" Anouchka confirmed as she looked behind them to assure that no one was sneaking up on them.
After giving it some thought Jane was sure, she recognized the state the boys were in to be as a result of some type of powder her mother carried on her. Jane couldn't remember how her mother ever realized the potential of a couple of burnt herbs could be used to her advantage, but she remembered it to be one of her mother's favourite form of weapons when she was faced with large numbers.
"Pretty positive," Jane nodded, "Clare had this, powder that as soon as it was inhaled and hit your lungs and rendered you immobile- alive, but still immobile."
She let out a breathy laugh, "She sounds... interesting?"
Jane shrugged, concentrating on following the scent of her mate that was getting closer.
When the pungent odour of the powder Clare used, hit Jane's nose she came to a stop and turned to Anouchka, "She was here, and she used the powder on them."
"How do we fix it?"
"We need to shift, firstly. When we're in wolf form, the powder won't affect us, I don't really understand how it works, but from what I remember that's our only chance."
Unlike Luke, Anouchka hadn't been surrounded by the Wolfsbane for very long and after a few days the effects of it had worn off and she'd been able to communicate and shift into her wolf again. Luke on the other hand, was still not back to his old self, but whether that was a good or bad thing, depended.
"So... we shift and then go all angry she-wolf on them, you know, the whole 'don't mess with my mate thing'?"
Jane smiled, "Not exactly, we have to release the powder from their lungs, already their body is working on it, we just need to speed up the process."
Pointing to a spot on her upper chest, Jane instructed, "Deep bite, right here. Not enough to damage the bone, but enough to break through the skin and some of the tissue. Luke and Levi will heal, its Tony that I'm most worried about."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Any signs of Clare still hanging around?"
Jane took in another deep breath and shook her head, feeling a wave of dizziness as the smallest trace of powder entered her lungs, "No, at least not yet."
The two of them, quickly shifted, stowing their clothes at the base of a tree, before they continued onward in the direction of their mates. It would be quicker for them to reach the others if they didn't have to haul their winter attire through the forest. It would also throw off their scents if they were being tracked.
Jane tried to pick up the scent of the person – most likely Clare – who'd done this but she couldn't find even a trace of a foreign scent.
Even in her wolf form, the heightened smell wasn't detecting any other scents, meaning that whoever had done this had carefully disguised their scent. Jane knew that her biological mother was most definitely capable of doing that, she'd remembered her doing so.
By the time Jane and Anouchka had gotten to the clearing, whoever had done this was long gone, the only evidence they'd even been here was the obvious fact that Levi, Luke and Tony were immobile and Cassie was seeming to be having some type of fit.
Jane had a feeling whatever was happening to Cassie was more caused by Vivian trying to enter her body than anything else.
But Jane's attention was hardly focused of Cassie. Instead she was anxiously running over to Levi, letting out a small whine as she nudged him slightly with her nose. Being in wolf form, she felt the normally dormant presence of her wolf, become overwhelmed with concern and worry for her mate.
Bearing her teeth, Jane slowly sunk them down to the correct spot on his chest. Applying enough pressure to break the skin and the first few layers of tissue, but restraining the bite as to not do any seriously, devastating damage.
Sitting back on her haunches, she watched Levi closely.
It took a while, but he slowly began to move again and Jane could feel the tension leaving her body as she was flooded with relief. And resting her wolfs head on her paws, she looked up at him and watched as he raised himself into a sitting position.
"I thought you promised you would stay at the dorms?"
She had no idea what Levi was going to say to her, but at the very least she expected a thankyou- once a jerk, always a jerk.
She just growled at him, and stood up ready to walk away, when she felt his hand rest lightly on my back as he called, "Wait!"
She turned her head to look at him as if to say, 'What?'
He sighed and removed his hand from her, as his hypnotic eyes gazed into hers, "Thanks for not listening to me."
Finding it difficult to conceal her happiness whenever she was in wolf form, Jane yipped excitedly, wagging her tail as she came back over to him and nuzzled her face in his chest. She'd always been really affectionate when she was in wolf form.
Pulling away from him, Levi shrugged his jacket off and held it out to her, "If you need to shift back, take it."
Remembering that she had ditched her clothes quite a distance behind her, Jane didn't feel like leaving Levi to go back and get them. Simply gesturing for him to turn the other way, she shifted back and put on the jacket zipping it up all the way just as Levi turned to her with a cheeky grin plastered on his face, "If the situation wasn't quite so serious there's a heap of dirty jokes I could be making right now."
Jane rolled her eyes as she shakily stood to her feet, Levi following her movements.
"Who did this to you?"
Levi's jaw clenched in irritation as he replied, "Not sure. Whoever did this struck quickly and I didn't see them. Maybe Tony or Luke will know who it was. But the attacker was quick so I doubt it."
Jane still couldn't shake the feeling that her mother would be behind this. The only thing that didn't make sense was why Clare would come here without making her presence known and leave without a trace. Sure her biological mother could easily leave no trace of her being but that was only after she killed someone.
Nobody was dead, so why would Clare do that?
Completely wrapped in her thoughts, Jane felt a sting on her arm and immediately found her wandering mind snapped back to reality from the pain.
Levi noticed her pain as he frowned, "What's wrong?"
She had to pull his sleeve up over her wrist as the sleeves were far too long, but when she did, she noticed the mark from Vivian glowing a bright red. It was at that moment Jane remembered the reason for their group to be out here in the first place.
Gesturing in the direction of Cassie she asked, "Did whoever do that to you and the boys, make Cassie like that."
The young witch was hovering above the ground at a sufficient height, tremors and spasms running through her body involuntarily. She looked as though she was having a seizure of some kind.
"No," Levi answered, "Ever since she started calling Vivian to take over her body, she's been doing that."
Anouchka and Luke, came over to them and Jane was relieved to see that the pair of them were okay. Like her Anouchka had to steal some of Luke's clothes, in her case it was his long-sleeve cotton, shirt. Jane wasn't the least bit surprised to see Luke was parading around his upper body shirtless.
Noticing her staring, Luke just winked at her as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. She heard a slight growl from Levi, and focused on ignoring them both.
"Tony?" Jane questioned, and Anouchka pointed to a spot behind Jane's shoulder.
"Thought it might be easier to wait until we have better medical supplies and can make a clean cut. These two heal impressively quickly and Tony... well, witches heal like humans."
"So you just left him?"
A pointed look was thrown her way, "Of course not, I moved him into the back of Levi's car."
Jane nodded in reluctant agreement knowing there wasn't a whole lot more she could do at this point in time. Silence settled through the group, an all eyes shot to Cassie, who at that moment decided to go deathly still and had been lowered back to the ground by whatever force had been keeping her up.
Without a word spoken between any of them, Jane found herself, Levi, Luke and Anouchka all nervously standing around Cassie's still form.
Cassie wasn't breathing, her eyes firmly shut and her entire form was covered in a layer of sweat as though she'd been running for hours on end. Jane suddenly started to panic at the obvious lack of breathing that Cassie was doing and just as she took a closer step forward to try and put her somewhat mediocre CPR skills to use, Cassie's eyes open wide as she took in a deep breath and sat up.
The next few breaths that she took in were staggered and soon turned into breathless laughter as she slowly stretched her hands in front of her, turning her palms upward and back down, flexing her fingers open and closed.
Jane was acutely aware of Levi grabbing onto her arms and slowly positioning her halfway behind his body, as Cassie's breathless laughs turned into chuckles as she spoke with an English accent, "About time."
If the Chelsea-London accent wasn't proof enough that Cassie was no longer in control of her own body, the fluid, languid movements that came from her body indicated that Cassie had left the building, or at least allowed someone else to take over.
Taking her time, Cassie stood to her feet, stretching her hands above her head and smiling contentedly as she sighed, "There's nothing like the feel of a real body after all this time being stuck in limbo."
As though he couldn't control himself Levi growled, "Vivian."
Cassie - now, Vivian – looked over at the four of them, her smile shifting into a grin, "Oh no. Don't tell me it was the Jackson brothers who convinced my daughter to share her body with me after all this time?"
The only response the witch got was a chorus of growls, Luke the loudest as he demanded, "Give us the book Vivian."
The witches response was a cold laugh as she rolled back her shoulders, "Well, I guess I do you owe you boys something. After all, you did persuade my daughter after all this time to let me in and use her body."
Jane felt herself wincing, feeling their idea become more of a mistake the more Vivian spoke. She'd heard about this infamous witch countless times, yet nothing could prepare her for seeing, even just a glimpse. The raw, cold energy she emitted, even from Cassie's body had Jane clenching up in fear.
This witch wasn't to be messed with and here she was right before them, in a perfectly functioning body, no doubt with years of deviousness to be catching up on.
Jane watched as Vivian looked at all of them in turn. Starting with Anouchka and Luke she gave a small giggle, "You're Luke and Anouchka right?"
Jane more heard Luke push Anouchka behind him and growl at Vivian, rather then see, because at that moment Levi had completely blocked her off from the witch.
"This, I'm guessing is Levi," Vivian began craning her neck to see past Levi as she greeted, "Hi Jane."
Jane felt her blood running cold at those two little words. She had no idea what was worse how Vivian had known their names and had clearly been keeping tabs on them during her state of half-death. Or that Levi now knew her name.
"You said something about wanting a book Luke?"
In a blinding white light, Vivian suddenly held what looked to be a thick leather bond parchment book that looked like a relic from a museum.
"You boys can have it," the witch offered, "I insist."
Stepping away from Levi, Jane looked at the book with a frown trying to figure out what was wrong with the book for Vivian to be handing it to them so freely.
"What's the catch?" Levi voiced the question hanging over all of their heads and Vivian swung her head in their direction, "There is none. I am indebted to the two of you for bringing me back, Luke asked for the book you get the book. Although... since I'm feeling extra nice today, I'll give you a heads up, your curse isn't in there."
"What do you mean it's not in there?!" Anouchka snapped irritated and Vivian shrugged, "Just that. It's not in there. In fact, if I remember correctly, you were the one who took it out of the book in the first place those few hundred years ago."
Few hundred years ago?
"Funny thing reincarnation," Vivian stated like it was no big deal, "For someone who lives as long as I do its always amusing to see who comes back and who doesn't, but all four of you back at the one time. Well if I believed in fate, I'd say that it's a bit of a coincidence. Don't you think?"
Jane didn't believe it. She couldn't. There was no way that what she was saying was possible. Reincarnation. Is that even a real thing?
Luke snapped at Vivian and if Anouchka wasn't holding him back, Jane had no doubt that Vivian would've been trying to fend him off, "Tell us where we can find the cure for this curse!"
"Cure?" Vivian scoffed, "Listen boy, I can tell you right now that page your little mate ripped out of my grimoire is somewhere in Europe and it won't tell you anything about a cure. Because there isn't one."
~*~
Authors Note
I know this update is late, so to make it up for it I'm posting the next one early!
The story was feeling a little uneventful, so hopefully this has made it a little more interesting.
I've decided to try entering Refusing Rejection in the wattys2015, as this is my first ever book on Wattpad I'm literally not expecting anything but I won't know until I try so... why not?!
Thought's on Vivian?
And who thinks that Clare was the one who really did that to Levi and Luke?
NEXT UPDATE: 1-3 days