Chapter 3
It took us until nine the next morning to find them, which I guess is a normal time to wake up on a Sunday, but we searched everywhere for them and finally we found them back to human lying in a heap around each other. Clarisse thought they were dead but I knew better. I had watched a lot of werewolf movies and read a lot of books about them to know they were not dead. When we got closer I noticed that they were naked. “Oh my God!” I yelled. “We definitely should have brought them clothes or a blanket or anything to cover them up. What are we going to do?”
Before I understood what was happening Clarisse was gone. And then I knew. “Of course, why couldn’t I think of that?” I mumbled under my breath. I stayed where I was, in case I woke them. I definitely didn’t want to see any of their stuff. I stayed close enough to hear them breathe but far enough away that I wouldn’t startle them. They looked beautiful last night as wolves. I was sort of jealous that they were able to transform into a wolf. I secretly loved them. I always loved reading books about werewolves and I always imagined me as the wolf. How fun must it have been for them to be able to run on four legs and see things the way the wolf does. I would never tell anyone that because I feared they would think I was crazy but, I didn’t grow up thinking they were evil, I grew up thinking they were cool. But there isn’t anything I could do about that because I wasn’t born one and I don’t want to risk becoming evil by turning into one.
When Clarisse came back there was a low but noticeable crack that made me jump. “Holy cow I didn’t know that teleporting mad so much noise. Where the heck did you go anyways, to buy them clothes?” I said to her as I realized I waited here for over thirty minutes and I ran out of things to me occupied.
“Um first of all we’re in the woods where there is like no cars and no noise to keep that low crack covered. And second, have you ever gone into Alana’s closet? Let me tell you that I have never and will never go in that zoo again. It was like going through piles of clothes instead of neatly put away clothes, so I grabbed her robe and I got him pants and his typical white tee.”
We heard it at the same time. This low but deep growl, and before we had time to defend ourselves we were jumped on and being attacked by a wolf, not just any wolf, it was John.
“John get off me. What the heck are you doing we came to get you and Alana and bring you home.” Clarisse was yelling at him and trying not to get bitten. His teeth looked so sharp this close up. “Monika get him off of me. Throw a low fireball at him or something, please he is trying to bite me.”
But I couldn’t get to her because I was being attacked by Alana and she was scary. Her yellow eyes glowing in the early morning light, and her light brown fur that coated her body was shiny and smooth like a pets would be, not that I was thinking of her like a pet, but what could I do? What could I say to get Alana off of me and to listen? Then I thought of it, Rebecca. So I yelled up to her. “Alana Listen to me, it’s Rebecca, I’m Rebecca you don’t want to hurt me right?” I felt her loosen her grip on me and I continued. “Alana we came to find you and bring you home. We need you, I need you. I need you Nana.” That name has haunted my dreams for as long as I could remember. I dreamt of this Nana taking care of me, playing with me, as a young child. Sometimes I would get these dreams during the day when I was touching Annie. I would see this lovely girl playing with this little girl they looked like they loved each other a lot and the little girl always called the older girl Nana. And Nana called her Beca. I knew now that this was my Nana. And I am her Beca.
Alana got off of me then, and looked horrified. “How do you know that name?” she demanded. “No one knows that name.” she stated mater-of-fact.
“Alana would you clear your head, please this is Beca, your Beca, I came to find you and bring you home. You turned last night remember. You and John made a promise to go after Raphael and then you took off ‘for a run’ as you stated when you were running away from us. Get him off of Clarisse before he bites her and turns her into a were too.” I finished sounding very drained and desperate. It must have helped because all she did was look at John and he got off her and looked at her as if for the first time, he realized he was attacking one of his own.
Looking very apologetic and ashamed of what he has done he said to Clarisse, “I am so sorry Clarisse, really I am I don’t understand what happened to me. I heard you two talking and my first instinct was to protect Alana, so I turned and jumped on the first one in my reach, Alana must have had the same thoughts because she had Monika pinned too.” He said pointing over at me and Alana on the ground.
“It’s ok but here take these and please put them on, I’m really not liking seeing all your goods.” She said to them both. “Then we can go home. I won’t tell anyone about you almost biting my head off and we can work on your plan to take down Raph. By the way I don’t think you need to practice turning you both got it nailed.” She said sarcastically. “But we can talk more once were in the compound, I feel exposed here like we’re being watched.”
She was right of course, it definitely felt like we were being watched and the sooner we got home the better. They changed fast and we were gone within a minute. Clarisse must have told someone that we found them, because everyone was waiting for us when we got home. They all looked so relived and we were too, except I needed to talk to Alana about those dreams I had, I know it’s another power, so I need to know how to control it, and if it is a helpful one or not, but for now I’ll let them get bombarded with questions and go and take a shower. I looked at Clarisse and she had the same idea in mind.
“We are going to shower, so when you are all up to date on what happened we need to come up with a plan on how to take down Raph and when the best time to do it is. Plus our great leaders smell a little foul themselves, I’m sure they are in need of hot water and soap too.” I said sarcastically.
We went up to our rooms and showered got dressed and we met in the upstairs library. We talked about that feeling of being watched and how it came as sudden as we felt it.
“I don’t like it. Someone was watching us, if not us at least them. It had to have been Raph.” Clarisse said. “I mean how else do you explain something like that. They followed us there and kept their distance. I bet they were expecting them to turn on us, and were going to take us to their leader or something. Ugh! I don’t like this.” She threw her arms around as if to show her frustration.
Clarisse sounded frustrated as well she should be. I didn’t blame her; I was frustrated too, just kept it under better control. “So what do you say we do? Use our leaders as bait? I don’t think that’s a great idea. Something was definitely messing with their brains though. It like they didn’t even recognize us, our voices or anything. It’s got to be dark magic or some kind of wolf tricks. I wish we had a better idea what we’re up against.” I was resting my head on the back of the chair now and staring up at the ceiling I remembered many nights that I read books up here and fell asleep looking up, I always wondered why there was this little layer of paint that looked slightly fresher than the rest of the ceiling. I usually stared at that spot for hours before falling asleep on the floor, but this time it was seconds before Clarisse’s voice pulled me forward and out of my day dream.
“Did you hear me, Monika?” She sounded desperate. “I have an idea. We need to get into their layer, hideout whatever those things want to call it. We need to get in and search it, to make off the weak areas, and get it back to us. It’s the only way.”
“Are you crazy? They would be expecting that, especially if they were watching us in the woods today. No way am I letting Alana and John go in there, what if they don’t come out?” I couldn’t believe how crazy that sounded, but I was actually considering it. Wow I must be going crazy if I’m actually considering infiltrating their compound.
“You have a point.” She sounded sad almost let down, it made me feel bad that I didn’t share with her my actually liking the idea. So I changed the subject.
“Look up at the ceiling for me.” I said pointing to the spot that always had me mesmerized. “You see how that little square looks like it was recently painted but the rest doesn’t? It looks like something is up there, I spend hours every night looking at that one spot, I don’t know why but I feel like I’m meant to find that and there is something in there for me.” I said feeling a little silly for actually coming out and saying it. I got up out of my chair and all of a sudden I was floating in the air. “Oh my God! What is happening to me?” I screamed. “Get me down! How do I get down? Why am I floating?” I said completely freaking out.
She looked surprised that I was floating up in the air but she spoke calmly, “You are not floating. What is happening to you is the same thing that happened to your mother. Your mother and my mother were the only two in this covenant that could levitate. That power is passed down through the women. So I can do that too. I’ll help you learn how to control it.” She said it so calmly as if I have had a lot of experience flying through the air. And as she said it she was floating in the air next to me. “The first thing you have to do is calm down.” Reaching out her hand I took it, and we soared up to the spot in the ceiling that has called to me since the first day I came into this room.
“Thanks.” I said as I landed on the floor again. As we landed I heard a gasp of surprise come from behind us. I turned to see Alana and John standing there watching us. Alana had her hand over her mouth and John was just staring like he saw a ghost.
“You have all of your mother’s gifts, I cannot believe I have found my Beca and didn’t even know it. Can I ask you a question? Are there more gifts you have that you are not sharing with us?” I looked at her and her eyes looked far away, as if she were somewhere else.
“Um can I talk to you alone first about my mother?” I said as I looked at Alana, then turned toward Clarisse “I promise I won’t open this without you.”
“Ok.” Was all she said and walked out of the library with John and closed the door.
After the door was closed I sat back down and motioned for Alana to join her. “I believe I am way out of my league here. I know to call you Nana because of these dreams I have. But I only get the ones with words in it when I’m holding Annie. Other than that I just get pictures. I always wondered who Nana was, and when I picked up Annie yesterday to show you, it came back to me and all my memories of before came back as well. I remember you giving me her and I remember you playing with me and taking care of me, I remember I couldn’t say your name so I made one up and you laughed and said ‘I’ll always be your Nana, and you will always be my Beca’.” I was crying now. “I don’t know why my parents left me, what could have happened to them that they didn’t leave me with you?” I had my head in Alana’s arms and I was sobbing uncontrollably. Alana was trying to sooth me by rubbing my back.
“You have a very special gift Beca, one that a few of us have; it is a very powerful and very important gift. The gift of premonitions I know it is overwhelming, but look what it did for you. It let you see your past. You knew who I was and you were able to keep me from killing you and Clarisse. If I didn’t hear you say that name I would have killed you. There was something there blocking my mind. I felt it; it felt like I was being forced to forget who I was. Or what I was supposed to do. I don’t know how to thank you; you saved me and my mate from becoming something we are trying not to be.” She finished what she was saying with a smile on her face but tears in her eyes, and she gave me a hug so fierce, as if she hasn’t seen me in years, and in which case she hasn’t, well not knowingly.
I hugged her back just as much, but was the first to pull away. “You know what I don’t understand? If you are so powerful why didn’t you use a spell to try and find me?” I said a little upset that they had all this power and they did nothing to track me down.
“It’s not that simple Beca. We need to have something very important to you, like a favorite toy or favorite piece of clothing even some hair from your brush. But when they went to look for it, there wasn’t anything. They must have known they were going to search for you so they got rid of everything.” She said sounding disappointed in herself and her covenant.
“So your strong connection to me wasn’t enough?” I asked in disbelief.
“No.” Was all she said. She looked so disappointed that I changed the subject.
“I found something that I am pretty sure was left by my parents. Clarisse was the one to help me get to it, because I have no idea what I am doing. But please don’t mention my premonition gift to the others not just yet, I’m getting all these “gifts” at once and I don’t want them to think of me as some super which.” I bent my head down and looked at my feet struggling with something I was about to say and then I finally said, “Before I forget did you get the chance to check on Sebastian? How is he doing? He’s not going to change is he?” I’ve so worked up over Alana and everything that happened, I almost forgot about Sebastian. I don’t know how I forgot about him because he’s usually all I think about but it’s been a stressful night.
Alana was the first one to know about how I felt for Sebastian so she knew what I was feeling. And Alana couldn’t lie to me no matter how much she felt it would be ok to. I am her Beca and she did not want to start their reunion off on the wrong foot. So she told her “I believe he is going to turn. He has not gained consciousness since he was bitten and is turning very pale. If he was not bitten by a vampire I would assume he was getting the flu or something else, but he looks very ill and the bite is what is causing it. Beca I am so sorry, you can go and visit him before we put him downstairs.” With that she stood and motioned for me to follow.
I did and we went to the infirmary together. It was on the second floor one level below the library I was in. when I walked in I had to fight the urge to run to him. He looked worse than what Alana had said and I hated myself for letting this happen to him. I knew it could have been worse if I wasn’t there but if I would have listened to him it wouldn’t have happened at all. I felt so horrible. I didn’t know what else to do, so I went to his bed and sat next to him and cried. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing so well, so I was sure he couldn’t hear me if I started to talk. So I poured my heart out to him; telling him everything from the premonitions to the new levitation power and everything in between, including my feelings for him. I thought that if he was awake he would tell me that I was naïve for thinking that he could have feelings for me, but I would never know. The only thing that happened was his hand reached out and grabbed my hand and squeezed it, not hard but as firm as he could. I looked up at his face and his eyes were silted open, the tiniest amount of eye you could possibly see through was looking back at me and it looked like he was crying.
“Sebastian! Are you ok? Can you hear me?”
He shook his head yes and I reached out and hugged him not to tight afraid I was going to hurt him. And he said “Rebecca….. I’ve… missed… you.” With long deep breaths in between each of his words he continued “I Knew… it was you… the moment… I saw you… I… just couldn’t… be sure… until now.”
I pulled away a little and looked into his eyes. He looked sincere enough that I had to ask him, “How did you know me? I mean back then, you knew me? I don’t have any memories of you or premonitions about us as we were little. I don’t understand.”
He took me in his arms and said something that I wasn’t so sure that, that is what he said. “We were… destined… to be… mates.”
I didn’t think that those were the words that escaped his mouth, so I asked him “What did you just say?”
He looked at me and smiled and said “You… heard me… right… Rebecca. You… and I… were meant… to be mated… I felt… your soul… call to me… the first… time I… met you.” He started coughing and pulled me closer. “Some of us… are paired… at birth… while others… find their… other half… in other groups… and were not… meant to be… but are great… together… I knew… you were… Rebecca and… I have… waited almost… a year… to kiss you. Since I saw you… and felt you… I knew… you were for me… I just… didn’t… know how… to talk to… you.” He rolled over so he could look at my whole face, take in every detail, so he won’t forget it. “If I told… you this… would it… have freaked… you out?”
I looked at him and stared into his eyes. How I loved those eyes. How weird it was that I was hearing all of this from him as if he could look into my mind and see or hear what I wanted. It made me feel good, but sad at the same time, because it was coming out at the worst possible time. He was going to change into a vampire and they would never have this life that was planned out for them that I so desperately wanted. “No, it wouldn’t have. I felt it to, the call of your soul to mine; but I didn’t know that was possible I thought you chose your mate, and I never thought you would want me.” I turned my head away so he couldn’t see me blush, and he tilted my head back up so our eyes met. And I continued. “I’m just an ordinary girl who just found out she has powers and belongs to a strong covenant of witches and warlocks. I’m not special, pretty or anything else that attracts guys to girls. I’m just me, Monika Marshal or better yet now I’m someone else Rebecca or Beca depending who you are. I don’t even know who I am any more. All I know is that I don’t want to live a day without you and now I’m going to lose you. How is that fair? And it’s all my fault I should have let you take me back. You should have forced me.” I was crying and he leaned over to sooth me.
“You will not… lose me… Rebecca… I will not turn… I won’t… I can’t lose… you neither…”
“Alana says you’re going to turn; that you look like you will. I’ll kill them. All of them.” At that time the door swung open and in came John and Peter. They were there to help carry Sebastian downstairs to the cells. Before I could think about it, I leaned over and kissed him. And he kissed me back with more force than I would have thought and we were lost in each other. That’s when it happened, my first vision of us. It was of the future, I was wearing a violet colored dress that was long to the ground, and even with heals on it was still just touching the ground. My hair was back to its original orangey red color and it was down and curly. He was standing next to me with a nice lilac colored tie with a white button up shirt. His hair was as it always was neatly arranged on his head in that way that made me want to run my fingers through it. He looked at me and smiled and what I saw made me catch my breath. He had fangs. But he was so sweet and gentle as if he weren’t that monster he was turned into. I pulled away and looked into his eyes, and for some strange reason I knew he saw it too, he saw my vision.
And before they took him away he said “Don’t worry… I’ll never hurt… you Rebecca.” And he brushed my hair away from my face and kissed my cheek. The guys came over and helped him down stairs and I was left there breathless and feeling empty.
******
After about twenty minutes I went to go look for Clarisse so I could finally open up the envelope that we found in the library. I promised I would open it with her and I like to keep my promises. I went down stairs first, checking all of the rooms and was about to go back up when I found her in the weapons room, with fighting gear on. She always wore tightly fitted black clothes when she knew she was going to go fight, so I was a little worried to see her dressed like that, since I didn’t know anyone got sent out on a mission.
“Hi Clarisse, where are you off to? Do you need any help?” I said as I walked into the room. I reached into my pocket to make sure I still had the envelope which I did; it was starting to feel heavy like it was tempting me to open it and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“No I’m not going out I’m just looking for something to practice with, you were gone a long time so I thought you forgot about me…” she cut off as I pulled out the envelope and motioned for her to follow to me up to the unused library.
When we got to the library we sat in the back on the two bean bag chairs that were set up for the kids in the covenant. There aren’t many kids here since the only pairs are John and Alana and Peter and Jessica. The older couples are still around but unable to fight so they teach and train the kids. But John and Alana haven’t been successful in having any children and now I wonder if they ever will. Jessica is five feet three inches tall with black hair and blue eyes. Peter is five feet six inches tall with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Their kids are eight and ten. The boy is ten his name is Alexander. And the girl is eight her name is Rhain. Alexander looks like his father in every aspect apart from his eyes; those are his mothers. Rhain looks like a splitting image of her mother. Every last detail she could be her twin. The others are older in their teen years none old enough to fight yet, but one is close she turns eighteen next month, and she is more than ready, her name is Maia.
I took the red bean bag and Clarisse took the blue one. When we were comfortable I took out the envelope and opened it slowly. “Ok, here we go. I hope this was meant for me and no one else, because I’ve been so anxious to see what is in here.” I said.
“Ok so open it.” Clarisse said a little anxiously. So I opened it. And pulled out first a letter it was short, but I put it aside as I noticed there were pictures in there as well. I took out the pictures and went through them. The first one was of me and Alana and I was sure it was Clarisse. So I gave it to her and sure enough Clarisse confirmed it. “This was taken two days before you disappeared. We had gone out to get ice cream that day we were at the park down the street. I was wondering where these pictures went.” As she grabbed the next one that was of me and my parents, she told me “This is your mom Samantha and your dad Robert.” She said pointing out the individuals in the picture.
“I know.” I said and paused before telling her what just happened. I wiped at the tears in my eyes and said “I just had a vision as I touched that photo. It was of the three of us, they loved me so much, kept telling me that everything will be ok and that they love me. But nothing bad happened in the vision except my dad had a weird mark on his shoulder; he was pulling a long sleeve shirt up over it.”
“You have visions too? It must be because your mother did. She was a very powerful witch. And her and your father were just like Alana and John; so in love and always together. When they were mated they were just as strong together as Alana and John are. I still wonder what happened to them.” She said as she was staring off into space.
I was done looking at the pictures the other two were of me as a baby and me with a boy I was sure was Sebastian. He looked older than I was which if it is Sebastian he should be. I put it aside with the intent on asking him about it when I was done looking through all of this. I reached for the letter and opened it. It was short enough to make me feel like they were in a rush writing it. It said…
My dearest Rebecca, I am sorry we had to leave you like that, but your father was bitten by a werewolf and we had to leave the compound before they planned an attack. It was the downtown pack who did it, please forgive us. I love you with all my heart and hopefully one day we will be reunited. Use your gifts well as they will help you find us. Love mom and dad.
I stared at the letter dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe that they were still alive and hopefully they didn’t turn evil. It worked with Alana and John, so maybe they will be ok too. But after all these years of them being gone I couldn’t think of anything that would make them stay good. I looked up at Clarisse and handed her the letter. Clarisse read it and had the same look on her face, one of dumbfounded misery.
“I can’t believe what I am seeing. I mean he was acting funny before they disappeared, well that’s what my mom said to me anyways, but I can’t picture them turning and not telling anyone.” She stood up and started pacing the floor in front of the bean bags. She looked completely shocked and I was a little worried.
“Well apparently they didn’t want anyone to know, although I don’t know why they didn’t just leave me here. Maybe that wasn’t part of the plan. Maybe something happened to them before they could bring me back.” I said hopeful of anything to keep my parents and their intentions good.
“Well I’m not sure Monika, but we should get Alana and the others, they will know what to do, hopefully.” She said as she got up and went to the door waiting for me to join her.