Marisa
Opening her mind, Marisa let it be like a beacon for the necromancer to find her through. Seeing through her shaman eyes, Marisa could see the auras of everyone around. Different colors simmered over them. There was a little darkness from all; Val more than any. Marisa could sense the conflicts inside Val wanting to help her now.
Cold stiff fingers curled around her arm. It was so cold it burned as if digging her bare arm into snow and letting it longer. Marisa yanked it away turning to find dead hands on her. Not the dead. Only a man that was dead. It was the man she killed back at the underground fighting club in L.A. His irises were marble white. He was trying to speak.
Marisa did not pull away. Instead she pressed her hand against his cheek. "I am sorry you are no longer here. I shouldn't have put myself in the position to turn you. You were not meant to be werewolf."
He stepped back as if not sure what to do next.
"You are free." Marisa wanted to take one less spirit away from the necromancer to use against her or anyone else.
The man took a few more steps away finally turning to leave.
She was in the spirit realm. Everything was fussy when it came to the natural living world. She could still make out Tess. Val beside her along with Kathleen and Pierce. They all waited patiently for any sign.
A snarl lingered from a distance. Marisa twisted to find a werewolf within several feet of her; teeth bare. This werewolf had blood staining around its mouth. Her blood. This was the werewolf that turned her. Absently, Marisa snarled back wanting to kill it. She never he'd the pleasure. Fangs out and canines exposed Marisa was ready for a fight.
Somewhere in Marisa's mind she was reminded of her place. Her purpose. The anger inside her subsided. There was no reason to hate this person who was werewolf. Not anymore. She loved being a werewolf. She could still be close to Val. She found Spencer and was able to be strong enough to have her as a potential mate.
Shedding away last residual anger Marisa stood straight and relaxed. It lunged at Marisa going straight through her. The werewolf landed on the other side snarling with confusion and anger building. She was between realms. The act of being to distracted was enough to lure the necromancer to her. She could sense him physically close.
Anticipation pumped through her veins. Marisa had to take a deep breath to stop from overloading blood into her brain.
Marisa slipped out of the realm where spirits roamed. Many reached out to her, none she knew of. They called to her for help. Fuck, I'm not a medium.
Shamans could see spirits like mediums but they mostly dealt with the souls of the living. It was natural to feel other spirits. See them reach for her, begging to be taken to a better place or helped.
It was like being shoved out of an airplane, skydiving to leave another realm. Marisa grounded to the soul beneath, hands and knees planted into it. She took a few deep breaths.
"Are you okay?" Val stepped forward, looking around a second later. There was something odd that made her wolf want out. She hadn't shifted for a fight in a while. Val usually handed a threat still in human flesh. Tonight would not be the case.
"He's here," Marisa breathed out harshly, just as growls emanated through the few trees present. Marisa stood, letting her claws shoot out in both hands. "Trust in your new abilities," she told Tess.
Val took off her shirt; kicking off her pants and took a deep breath before shifting. Her bones contorted, snarling through the pain. Her wolf raked at her insides, thrilled to get out.
Kathleen pulled out her bow and arrow, Pierce choosing to stay human with a machete at hand.
The first wave of the dead appeared in the open. Their eyes hollow and blood shot; skin molten and rotten. Blood stained around their mouths. There were a few werewolf's with their rib cage exposed. Dead but still approaching. The necromancer was stronger, turning any undead.
Kathleen readied her bow, firing away her first set of arrows. It sank into the skulls of two of the dead.
Marisa roared, exposing canines before lunging out. The attack was on. One by one Marisa destroyed each of the dead wanting only the necromancer. She kept an eye on Tess helping her time from time. Despite not being able to use much of her abilities, Tess knew how to fight.
The dead tried to bite away at Marisa only losing their heads.
By the time they were finished, there were over a few dozen of the dead, dead. The smell of rotten flesh ripped had the same effect of someone taking off shoes with bad foot odor, times four. There was no movement.
Marisa looked around. She could feel the necromancer close. She shifted eyes from left to right whispering for Val to stay in her wolf. Closing her eyes instead, Marisa focused not on heartbeats but on the spirits around her. They whispered things to her. He was close enough to listen.
"We need to stop doing this?" Marisa spoke calmly. She stood straight relaxing her shoulders. "This...you send the dead after us. We kill them all over again. You nowhere to be found." Marisa looked down a path knowing he was that way.
"Maybe he isn't strong enough to just face you? My little nephew would have fought us head on by now," Kathleen pointed out. He waved her arm out carelessly. "This was a waste of our time."
"Give him a chance to prove himself," Pierce argued.
"Prove what?" Kathleen snorted. "That he's a coward who hides behind dead souls. He probably fucks them too."
Pierce shrugged, considering. "You could be right." They were purposely insulting him, playing the sympathetic verses non sympathetic role.
"Perhaps...he just doesn't really know what he's doing?" Marisa said. "So he wastes are time searching for weaknesses."
"I am not...weak." A soft but masculine voice brought everyone to stare around.
Expecting to find the necromancer as their father, Tess walked close to Marisa watchful and wryly. The man that appeared was young. Barely considered a man. Marisa looked to Tess confused.
"I can tell what you're thinking." His voice choked on sarcasm.
"What's that?" Marisa said already annoyed.
"How can someone like me store up so much trouble?"
Marisa purses her lips. "Sort of." She nodded. "My thoughts were more along the line of...who sent you out here to pretend to be the cause to all our troubles?"
He sneered, offended by the suggestion that he was impersonating the real threat. "Do you want a test to what I can do?"
"Just like a man...always aiming to prove yourself capable of something no woman here would care to see." If he didn't like insults he was coming after the wrong person. "Why are you after me?"
"Because you are a Shaman and that's the cycle of life."
"Nah. Definitely not the right answer." Marisa took a step and he moved defensively, holdings his hand out as if he had an army at his backside. That made Marisa glare pass him cautiously. "I know when someone is coming after me with a personal grudge. I've got a talent for pissing people off."
"Where's are fathers body?" Tess asked. "We could sense that he was once buried in the location we found. It's gone."
A grin raised at the corner of this boys mouth. It sickened Marisa how young he looked. Seventeen maybe. Where was his mom?
"What did I do to you?" Marisa wanted to get to the point. Worrying about a dead man who left them as kids wasn't going to help.
"Nothing," he said.
"Excuse me if I call bullshit," Kathleen sneered. She shook her head, beyond over this night. "I am Fae. In all my many years I have never wasted life away on a whiny child. I will not now." Kathleen out bow away, shaking head in annoyance.
"You are stupid to treat me like a little boy."
Kathleen offered her hand out to Pierce. "It's a waste of my time and yours to be here."
Marisa arched a brow. Was Kathleen serious? She looked to Val for confirmation. Val only turned to her mother. When her mother took Kathleen's hand, Val looked back to me, tilting her head to one side as if thinking.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tess screamed.
"Let it go," Marisa told her; holding her arm out to wave them away. "They are right. I'd be foolish to waste my time and ours a second longer."
Taking a step, Marisa came close to stepping off the ledge of a cliff; metaphorically speaking. A vampire zoomed up rapidly, hand slamming into Marisa chest hard enough to puncture straight through. It gritted its teeth, hand inside her chest. The vampires fingers squeezed around Marisa's heart. Marisa gasp, feeling the tug. It was like having a major heart attack. At least she assumed this was somewhat how it would feel.
Eyes bulging out, Marisa clamped her fingers around the vampires hand. This vampire was very much alive.
"Marisa..." Tess screamed. She tried to reach for me. Another vampire moved in unnatural speed, stabbing something into her back. Like dead weight, Tess dropped to her knees and then on her side paralyzed.
She could still move her arms, reaching blinding at her backside.
"Don't kill her," the boy said. "Only hold her in place." He watched as Marisa tried her hardest to be still glancing down to her sister. The boy grinned, slapping his hands together a few times. "All right. Turn of events. Didn't see that coming huh?" He chuckled. "I can control vampires. Who knew." He walked close to Marisa, stepping over her sister. "Don't worry. She only has wood pierced into her spine."
Marisa was losing energy by the seconds. She tried to speak but found it hard to do. Relying on her connection to Val she hadn't seen what had happened to her yet. She could only hear snarls as if she was attacking someone. Val was several feet at her backside.
The boy snapped his finger. "Help her turn around." He twirled his finger in circular motion. "There we go. See." He pointed to Val snarling and snapping her teeth at no one except the air. He cackled, hunching over as he slapped his hands into his knees and humorous hysteria. "She's what I call, 'tripping.' Literally."
It was because Val's mind and soul was already weak and being attacked by another threat. She snarled fighting with herself.
Marisa hated seeing her best friend like that. Taking a moment to weigh in her options, Marisa shut her eyes ignoring his words. He was irrelevant to her and she would not let him be a distraction.
Taking shallow breaths Marisa focused on the vampire before her. The woman was young in appearance and in vampire youth. There was no way this kid was strong enough to control an older vampire.
Tapping into the gifts that made her Shaman, Marisa stared down at the vampire. She only waited, digging into the vampires soul. The vampire eyes began to quiver, struggling to maintain what was real.
Marisa watched her eyes hesitate to look up. Slipping in partial spiritual realm Marisa tugged for the vampire to open up. "Cut it," Marisa whispered in the vampires conscious mind.
The vampire stilled, eyes slowly moving up to Marisa's.
"Are you listening to me," the boy screamed having a tantrum.
Marisa eyes shifted back to him. "No. I wasn't."
"Do you even care that I have your life in my hands?" His arrogance had no backing.
In short breathes, Marisa answered. "I would...laugh...if I could." She cleared her throat. "I'm going...to have to...put you on timeout. After...of course." She blew out a few shallow breaths.
Slowly Marisa ability tore away the control this idiot had over the two vampires and Val. She had to admit he was good. He knew how to use his abilities, better than she knew for herself. But his arrogance would be his downfall.
"Kill her sister," the boy ordered. The other vampire looked down at Tess and then Marisa.
"You have a choice," Marisa said.
The vampire looked to the boy in anger. The boy stared confused.
"He's mine to handle," Marisa spoke weakly. "After, of course."
The vampire nodded and left in sudden speed.
The boy screamed in panic. "Kill her, now."
The vampire that had her hand in Marisa's chest looked into her eyes and slowly loosened grip on Marisa's heart. Her hand left Marisa's chest. "Sorry," and than she was gone.
Marisa dropped low to her knees. "I broke your connection. You may be able to control them. Feed on their souls. But I can reach them at a level you'll never understand." Marisa coughed out a few breaths, spats of blood hitting the ground. She cleared her throat. "So...who are you again?"
Weakly, Marisa crawled to her sister. Tess screamed when Marisa touched her, in complete agony.
"I have you. Let me get it." Marisa brushed one hand over Tess hair calming her as her other hand moved around the wooden stair at her back. "Ready."
Tess nodded quickly.
Without counting; like ripping a bandaid, she yanked out the wooden stake. Tess screamed but relaxed a few seconds later. Glancing over to Val, Marisa could see that she was all right.
The boy grimaced. "I hate you," he sneered.
Marisa looked up, straightening on her knees. "That's a great start. How about you tell me why?"
He wiped tears from his eyes. How can a seventeen year old boy cause so much havoc and still be such a child when it mattered? For the first time, Marisa felt sorry for him.
"How did I hurt you?" There was sympathy in her voice.
He wiped away his last few tears. "You killed my uncle."
Marisa's eyes widen. She thought back to the few she knew she accidentally turned and ultimately killed. "The werewolves--"
"No," he screamed pulling out a knife. "No," he breathed out in hysteria. His chest caved in and out in anger and bitterness. "His name was Lawerence."
"And your name?"
"Doesn't matter." He frowned.
"It does." Marisa stood trying to step forward. He held his knife up, defensive. All his tactics were over.
"Peter." His eyes widen as if caught off guard by his openness toward Marisa. His eyes harden again. "You killed my uncle. He was all I had."
Marisa took a slow breath. Val was shifted back human skin putting her clothes on and helping Tess heal by feeding her blood from her wrist.
"I got into many fights." Marisa looked with guilt to him.
"You can't even remember--"
"I fought a lot. Stupid and reckless. But...I remember fighting a man named Lawerence." Marisa mind went back to that night. He was one of the first set of fights she had that very first month. The most reckless she'd ever been. "He was a tall guy. He was a boxer. He needed to earn money for your college funds."
"Yes..." Peter said weakly.
"We fought. He caught me with a punch. During that time, anything set me off." Marisa snarled, shaking her head.
Val and Tess walked up. Tess looked to the boy. "I do remember you," Tes said. "I was tracking the werewolf at the time you hurt your uncle. I came to the funeral."
Marisa looked to Tess with guilt in her eyes. She couldn't coward away. "After dealing with the werewolves you sent to attack me. The ones I turned...I am barely realizing who else I could have effected."
"You effected my uncle," he sneered. His eyes went hot red. "Only he could not turn like the others. It made his sick and sicker until he died from the fever," the boy began to cry.
Marisa wanted to bring the man back. He was only trying to win money for his uncle. No amount of words would matter. "I'm sorry."
"I need more than your sorry," he screamed. "I need your blood on my hands."
"Than do it, if it makes you feel better." Marisa shouted back. She pulled off her shirt. "It won't bring him back but if it helps you grieve to hurt me...do it."
"Wait. Don't go extreme." Val stepped in the way.
"How can I not? He has a right to." Marisa stepped up.
Tess was about to stop her but trusted what Marisa felt was best.
"I'm not giving you a right to kill. Because...I'm not that same reckless, cold, angry, bitter person I was before. But...you can punish me. My actions deserve consequence."
He looked at Marisa hesitant as if she was tricking him. When she kept her arms out he walked closer. Gritting his teeth he pointed the knife to her stomach. He waited for her to stop him. To fight. She only looked to be focusing on her breathing.
In a loud shout if anger he plunged the knife into her abdomen. Marisa hissed out a sharp breath, hunching over. He looked shocked that she allowed him to do this and that he actually did. He pulled the knife out.
Val wanted to rich in and stop him but knew that this wouldn't kill Marisa. She was werewolf. She hated knowing that she would dream of the same thing if Marisa killed someone she loved. Though Marisa's actions weren't intentional it left with severe consequences.
Peter slammed the knife into her again, screaming out his anger. "I hate you." He cried.
He stabbed her a few more times until she dropped on her knees. He dropped with her. Tears were down his face. So was there in her eyes too. She nodded for him to continue. Marisa took another blow, struggling for a breath. She hunched into him, her body pressing into his. She grunted in pain as he stabbed her again.
One last time Peter stabbed his knife into her before taking it out and slowly letting it slip from his hands. He began sobbing hard. Marisa whispered. "It's okay. I know...this will never be enough," she whispered. She wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling him into her. She tried embracing him. He tried to fight her off until he let completely go.
Marisa held him as he cried.
Kathleen and Pierce made it back with a few of her fae guards that worked along with the new supernatural law court.
Marisa held his hand up. She knew that Pierce and Kathleen saw them capable of handling him. Their eyes widen in confusion. They went to get the supernatural law to take hin soon as the restrained him.
"He's not...going with you," Marisa breathed out in pain.
Kathleen snorted. "Yes he is. They are expecting him."
"No," Marisa said. "They will only lock him away for the rest of his life. He deserves another chance like me."
"You didn't purposely go out seeking someone dead," Val argued.
"No. But I pushed him to do it."arias leaned back, arm cradling her center defensively. She couldn't stand and wouldn't try. She winced from everything.
Tess eyes widen. "It's my coven. I can feel them." She smiled as if a part of her healed back up. Her expression soften toward Marisa. "They will take him."
Marisa eyes widen. "You mean...you will take him." She knew what this meant.
"Only for short while," Tess said sadly. She knew what this meant. She could see her son again. Get him back. Have her coven again. "I promised I wouldn't leave your life again. I have to do this."
Marisa nodded. "I'll see you again?" She asked hopeful.
Tess smiled. "Very soon."
Kathleen looked to the Fae guards. "Tell them...the coven will take custody of the boy. They can complain to me later."
"As you wish." They bowed, leaving.
Tess walked over to Peter, kneeling down beside him. "You have an opportunity to turn what you are into something greater. You'll have to suffer your own consequences...but it will only make you a better man. A better necromancer." Tess offered out her hand. He hesitated but gradually took it.
For the first time he looked more younger than he even appeared. It broke Marisa's heart. It would be guilt she'd never forget. She needed to suffer more than she done now. And she would. Every time she closed her eyes and saw him and his uncle that would be the start to a long punishment.