KIARA'S POV
I explained everything to Rollo: the kidnaping, the conspiracy theories. I also mentioned my spying-by-Wicca from a couple of nights ago. I didn't mention the stuff I found with Woodville though and I definitely didn't mention the fact I went to the douchebag's house on Saturday.
Rollo dropped me off at home, quiet and still in shock. Finally when we were five minutes away from my house, he asked, "Is Kiara Rivers your real name?"
I spluttered with laughter. "Of course it is! What do you think I am? Some kind of spy?" I laughed nervously at this.
"Well, Ki, you can't exactly blame me for thinking that. You went to a school for geniuses and you have pens that shoot knock out darts," he said. "So ....... you are a spy?"
I scoffed. "Hell to the no! If I was, Griffon would be cold-stone dead."
Rollo laughed. "You two are going to marry in the future."
"Hell to the no, again!" I spluttered. "Hell no, times one hundred million!"
"I'm not kidding! He likes you."
I scoffed again. I turned my face away from Rollo so he couldn't see the blush that was slowly creeping onto my face. "Never in a million years. Even in the unlikely event that we would be both turned into vampires and forced to remain in each other's company because we risk attacking our families and what little friends we have and the President and the Queen and-"
Rollo laughed and cut me off, "You can say all that now, Kiara, but it's true. He likes you. And it hacks me off," Rollo stopped at the latter and sighed, looking slightly at his lap before turning his eyes ahead.
My cold, dead heart started to beat. Rollo ....... was jealous?! Like, OMG! Was this even possible?
"Why?!" I said through nervous laughter.
"Because we have a code, Damian, Caleb, Jason and me: if one of us date a girl and another of us is interested in the same girl, she is off-limits until she is dumped. Griffon is not respecting that code; I am seeing you and he is interfering, like at the bowling alley." Rollo clenched his hands tight around the wheel.
I smirked slightly. "Are you sure you want to keep seeing me after what happened?"
Rollo suddenly stopped the car and turned to me and wrapped one hand around my neck, making me look at him. "You really think that freaked me out?! Hahahahaha! That was not the scariest thing I had seen in my life, and it confirmed my suspicions."
"And what were they?" I asked as casually as I could manage.
"That there is more to you than the Bad Girl persona, more than the Wiccan Irish-Brit girl. That there was a reason why your family came to Salem of all places!" He chuckled but then winked. "But then again, kick-ass girls are always hot."
I blinked, shocked. This weird human not running away screaming in utter terror and calling up a witch hunt!
GRIFFON'S POV
I came home pissed off.
"How was your date, honey?" Mom asked, smiling.
I shrugged. "Was fine. Jason and Damian tied ....... again."
"I was surprised you didn't ask your charming friend Kiara Rivers. Did something happen yesterday? She left in a rather large hurry, like you had the Black Death or something. Did you argue with her? Did you hurt her feelings? I've told you before to be aware of hurting a girl's feelings, even if she says she doesn't care! Griffon Woodville ...... answer me!"
I looked down at the floor. "She doesn't like me, Mom."
She looked taken aback. "Doesn't like you? How can she not like you?! You're all heart-shaped eyes for her!"
I looked at her as if she was crazy. "Heart-shaped eyes?" I repeated.
"Yeah, you know in cartoons guys and girls get big pink love hearts for eyes when they fall in love? Yeah, you're like that only your eyes stay normal because you're not a cartoon but I can see right through you. You really, really like her. Yesterday proved that."
"What do you mean?" I demanded defensively.
"Honey, the only time girls run away from you is when you've kissed them without them expecting it."
I blushed bright crimson.
Mom chuckled. "Oh my boy. You're falling hard."
"I don't fall in love."
"Sooner or later you will. It always happens."
"But she doesn't like me!" I practically shouted. "She hates me!"
Then my mother said something that I didn't expect her to say. "Then keep annoying her. Sooner or later, she will warm up to you. They always do."
Bless the wisdom of mothers!
KIARA'S POV
For the entire week, Monday to Friday, I made it my mission to avoid the annoying Baddies at all cost. Xenia, Lilith et al were very helpful; they were my eyes and ears, giving me heads' ups about Baddy locations if they happened to cross paths with the boys.
Friday, my luck ran out and it didn't help that it was the 13th ...... I think.
My motorbike refused to start. The engine was flat. Malaki had to take me, and knowing my brother, he now parked close by to where the Baddies parked - at least two or three car spaces away. But that wasn't the bad luck that I had that day since, guessing that Damian's Rover was stuck in the traffic jam we had just managed to avoid. the Baddies weren't there yet.
Good.
My luck ran out at lunch.
Lilith, Xenia, Chrissie and I spent the entire break and lunch times finishing our homework for PA (even though we don't use that abreviation in front of Chrissie since she associates it with PVA glue) and for Media; we had dumped our stuff in our lockers afterwards so we could grab a few things from the canteen, which ended up being pasta with tomato sauce, which wasn't too bad. And it didn't taste like plastic like the pasta served at my old school's canteen. The Principal fired that dinner lady in a jiffy! #LOL.
OK, so what happened was this.
I stood up from my seat, picking up my try with the empty plate and cutlery. I had promised to meet Katya before last lesson to help her with some IT technical issues she was having with the school radio, being the OK friend that I am.
I made my way up to the small ex-office that was now the base of the school radio. No one was there, not even Katya. I shrugged, thinking nothing of it. She must have forgotten or something! I mean, Katya could be a bit of a scatter brain, I soon got to notice. I wasn't in the least suspicious ...... until I noticed something very strange, just after two minutes of assessing the equipment.
There was nothing wrong with any of it!
"What the hell?" I whispered under my breath.
I had caught on a little too late.
The door slammed shut behind me.
"Hello, Miss Rivers."
I turned cautiously but with no fear.
Facing me were three of the people I recognised from my visions: the oh-so-obvious leader, Jack; the only female of the group who seriously puts the "vamp" in "vampire"; and the guy who had tried to knock me out with chloroform. How and why had I not seen this coming!? What was wrong with my Dimensional Scream?
"Don't try anything, Kiara. We just want to talk," Captain Jack said.
"And I really would love to one day eat a strawberry, but you see I'm gonna be disappointed because I'm allergic to strawberries," I sneered. "So you're going to be just as disappointed, because I don't want to talk to you!"
"You really think that if we wanted to hurt you that you would still be able to make that come-back?" Dracula's daughter said icily.
I gritted my teeth and glowered at her. A small smug smile spread onto my face when I saw a pang of fear enter her eyes; I think my eyes glowed the neon green that I had intended. Maleficient is officially my favourite all-time Disney villain! I have been training my eyes to turn the same colour green as her eyes when she casts magic; it's a nice little illusion using my aura.
"Do you know who we are?" Captain Jack asked.
"Yeah. You're the people who tried to kidnap me. You're the people who want to kill me like you did with the rest of my religion kin."
"You think we have something to do with the disappearances and deaths of followers of Wicca?!" the guy scoffed and then laughed. "Wow! And here was me, thinking that you were smart!"
I opened my palms. Jack and his two minions were sent flying against the wall and the closed door; their winces were music to my ears.
"Tell me what the hell you want!" I shouted.
"We. Want. To. Help. You," Captain Jack managed to say.
I burst out laughing. Help me!? That was a laugh! "Help me?!" I repeated through laughter. "Yeah, and Judas was helping Jesus when he led the Romans to him!"
"It's true," the female said. "You don't know the full story. You only know the side of the story your aunts told you."
I folded my arms. "You have five minutes," I decided. "And why should I believe you."
"Because we let you take our information from our van."
"What do you mean, let?"
"We knew you would come to track us down, so we made sure we would be close enough for your Dimensional Scream to pick us up. We went inside the Town Hall, and waited till you arrived. Philip was ordered to let you knock him out. So yeah, we helped you; we shared our information with you."
I should have known it wouldn't have been that easy!
"There are a few things you need to know, Kiara. A) the people who have been disappearing and ending up dead are not Wiccans; humans call every single person these days with a gift either a psychic or a Wiccan. But they got it all majorly wrong."
"What are you talking about?" I demanded, my eyes narrowing slyly. "If they aren't Wiccan, what are they?"
"They're like you," the girl said, shakily standing up. "You are not a Wiccan either, and neither are your aunts or your brothers. Wiccans are not Wiccans! You're all descendants of products of a project that started in 1930s when the Nazis came to power known as Operation Witchcraft. The Nazis were trying to create the ultimate super weapon in the form of a human: they were trying to create witches, literally. The project was finally shut down in 1997, but by then it was far too late. Anyone who has ever called themselves or transfered to Wicca are linked to Operation Witchcraft."
"So, I'm just a human experiment?" I said. I laughed shortly. "Thanks for making me feel better!"
"No, you are descended of a subject who has been experimented on."
"How would you know?"
"Because you already have full control of yourself. The subjects who had been experimented on did not have their so-called gifts in their DNA yet so they were unpredictable and untrustworthy. However, each gift that gets passed on through the generations gradually becomes part of the genetic makeup, making what ever it is one can do natural. And the people behind the killings are just like you - descendants of subjects, who have not made the right choice."
I wasn't buying any of this. First these bozos tried to kidnap and kill me, and the next they are trying to help me?! I folded my arms and said, "Why should I believe a word that you have just said to me?"
"Because you and your family are next. When we tried to "kidnap" you, we thought you were one of the rogues," chloroform guy said.
"But what about the covered up tomb and the bottled-magic now being stored at MI6? And the grimoire of an ancient sorceress?" I said. "How do you explain that?"
"That has nothing to do with what is happening here," Captain Jack said. "It's a red herring. And the "bottled-magic" is not magic: it's DNA."
I pulled a face. "How in the name of the gods can that be DNA?!"
"It's what's left of Rachella de Riveria," the girl said. "Or, at least, that's how legend goes."
I had had just about enough of listening to my three supposed enemies. I sighed and folded my arms. "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" I asked.
"Yes. My name is Fox," the girl said.
"And I'm Wolf," chloroform guy added.
"OK. Not what I meant," I said, shaking my head and brushing past them and out of the room.
At least they made no attempt at following me. Third time not so lucky, I guess. I was starting to feel like Maliki, who did his Maths GCSE three times and failed three times.
"KIARA!"
The next thing I know, the real life Maddie Hatter in the form of Chrissie Valentine had almost knocked me to the ground in her enthusiastic hug.
"Hey, Chrissie," I managed to say. I swear I could see my life flashing before my eyes.
"Your brother was looking for you," Chrissie said, finally letting me breathe again.
"Maliki?!" I said in surprise, almost choking on my own saliva in the process.
"Yeah. Something about needing to talk to you about doom and danger and all those bad kinds of things. He didn't say anything about unicorns or cupcake floats or candyfloss-"
"CHRISSIE!"
Lilith had arrived. Not only that, but she was covered in goo. Green, slimey, Halloween goo, by the bucket load. It was hard to see who was more shocked, Chrissie or me. I don't scare easily, but I was afraid for the person who had done this to Salem's resident Mean Girl.
"Lilith, who the hell did this to you?" I said.
"Oh, it wasn't meant for me!" Lilith roared. "I went to get my books from your locker; the next thing I know, I looke like a human-shaped slimey walking lime!"
"Someone boobytrapped Kiara's locker," Xenia said, arriving just at that moment. "Ryan and Oliver have gone to find out who it was, and let's just say they weren't too hard to find."
"WHO WAS IT?!" Lilith shrieked.
"Who do you think? Griffon Woodville."
"I'M GOING TO RUN HIM OVER WITH A BUS!"
"Or," I said calmly, putting a hand on Lilith's shoulder. "We can do things ..... my way."
Lilith looked semi-interested. "Enlighten me."
I grinned. "Have you seen Maleficent?"
"Duh! Anyone who hasn't doesn't deserve to walk on Earth."
"Do you remember the scene where she conjures up an indoor storm in the "Good" Fairies' cottage?"
Lilith burst out laughing. "That was one of my favourite scenes...." Her voice trailed and she looked at me with wide eyes. "I hate to ask but, why do you ask?"
I grinned eviily. "Because I'm tired of playing nice."