The Renaissance: Book 4 of The Bloodmoon Wars (A Paranormal Shifter Series Prequel to Luna Rising)

by Sara Snow

  My eyes opened wide, and I buried my face in my mother's bosom and inhaled her scent, wanting to forget what I had just dreamed. But for the first time ever, I could remember my nightmare. Other nights, I'd wake up screaming, unable to remember what had scared me so. This time, I didn't want to remember. I just wanted to forget the confusing images I had seen.

  My pulse was loud in my ears.

  “Shh . . .” My mom continued to caress my hair, and my heavy breathing calmed. Her body felt so cool and comforting, while mine was hot and covered in sweat. “Just breathe the way I am, do what I do.”

  She began taking deep breaths, and I did the same, inhaling when she did and exhaling with her. I hated my nightmares, despised them for how weak they made me feel. Someday I would be the Enchanted for this pack, and I didn’t want my fellow pack members to think of me as the broken one plagued with night terrors. I knew my screaming must have woken up the other wolves in the house, and for that, I was sorry. It was the dead of night. We weren’t in our own territory, where our house had been built far enough away to avoid disrupting other pack members when I screamed at night.

  Here, while we remained in hiding, our pack bedded down at night in three houses, all located in close proximity to each other.

  I looked around the small room. The sheet from my mother's bed lay half on the floor. No doubt she had jumped up out of bed when I had started screaming.

  "I'm sorry," I mumbled as my mother moved strands of hair away from my face.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about.” She lifted my face, urging me to look at her. "You have no control over your nightmares. No one blames you, and you shouldn't blame yourself."

  We shared the same blue eyes, but to me, hers were the most beautiful eyes in existence. As the pack nurse, she possessed an air of calm about her that made everyone feel safe and cared for.

  I, on the other hand, wasn't so warm. I was a little prickly, and I recognized that my visions made people uneasy.

  I remained in bed as she got up to fetch a dry cloth by the open window. The night air felt cool against my skin, and my face scrunched up when I realized my sweaty clothes were clinging to my body. She knew to have a cloth waiting for times like this, even though my nightmares didn’t happen every night. They had been occurring more often lately, leaving me exhausted during the day.

  What was even more frustrating was the fact that I couldn't remember what my dreams were about . . . until now.

  I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell my mother. I knew she’d be relieved that I could remember what I’d dreamed, but my nightmare would likely confuse and scare her. It definitely scared me.

  I watched her from the corner of my eye as she returned to my bed and dipped the cloth in a bowl of water on the nightstand. She wrung the fabric out just enough to get rid of the excess water before placing the cool, damp cloth on the back of my neck.

  I closed my eyes as my warm body began to cool from my neck down, and goosebumps dotted my flesh. A cool breeze whisked through the room, helping to drop my body's high temperature.

  I sighed, and my mom moved the cloth to my forehead before gently wiping the sweat from my face.

  "Better?" she asked, and I nodded with my eyes still downcast. “Look at me, Bloom.”

  I looked up when she called me by the nickname she’d given me.

  "I'm okay." She was the only person who called me Bloom, and she knew I had a love-hate relationship with it. She’d called me that ever since I was five years old. I’d found a trampled flower in the forest and had cried that its life had ended so soon. "I'm just tired."

  "Do you want some water?" She was already standing before I could respond, and a few seconds later, she returned with a goblet.

  As much as I wanted to gulp the water down, I sipped it instead. My dry throat hurt at first, but soon, the water did its job. I took a deep breath and released it through my mouth as I stared down into the dark, empty cup.

  “I can remember my dream.”

  While I wasn't looking at my mom's face to see the surprise or relief there, I could see her body stiffen.

  “You can? Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Yeah.” I ran a finger around the edge of the cup. “I just don’t know where to start.”

  She gave me a reassuring smile. "Start anywhere that feels right."

  I didn't tell her right away. Some parts of the dream had already vanished, but I could still remember bits and pieces. "It was fragmented. The images jumped from one to the next almost as if several dreams had been combined into one. ”

  An owl landed on a tree branch just outside the window, its wide bright eyes on my mother and me.

  "I can't remember it all, but it was strange, Mother. The world I saw wasn't this one."

  Her thin blond brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  "I mean, the world I saw looked nothing like this one. The towns were large, with towering buildings made of glass that pierced the sky. The people wore clothes made of unusual fabric, and there were no supernatural creatures. All I saw were humans."

  My mother’s head flinched back slightly, then tilted to the side. "No supernatural creatures at all?"

  “No, none at first. A strange, hardened mud covered the streets . . . and they were littered with bodies. Dead bodies." I squeezed my eyes shut as that memory surfaced in my mind. "I-I can still hear the screaming, Mother. Something was attacking them, killing all the humans." My hand shook as I tried to find the words to describe the other things I'd seen. "Among the bodies on the streets were . . . giant machines that the humans rode in. The machines carried them in the same way a carriage does, but they were made of iron and glass. How is that even possible?"

  She moved further up onto the bed as the owl hooted once and flew away. She continued to stare out the window, her eyes darting back and forth.

  "It's strange that I dreamed of such a place, right? Nowhere on Earth is like that."

  "Maybe it wasn't Earth," she whispered, but deep down, I knew it was.

  I wasn't sure how, but I could feel it in the same way I could feel the darkness that was attacking the humans, although I couldn't see what it was.

  “It was Earth, I’m sure of it. It was just all different.”

  She turned to me. “Maybe it’s something from the past?”

  I bit down on my lip, my eyes squinting as I tried to remember more of the dream. "No, if that was the past, why would the world look the way it does now? Everything looked advanced. It was the future. I don't have any other explanation."

  "What I’m curious about is how far into the future you saw. Are you sure there weren't any supernatural creatures there?"

  "The dead bodies were all humans, but I saw two live women in one of the dream fragments. I only saw them for a minute before the dream changed, but one had red hair and the other was blond. I could smell that they were both werewolves."

  My mom looked somewhat relieved, though I wasn't sure why. “Do you remember anything else about them?”

  The memory of a high-pitched scream rang in my mind, and I shook my head.

  "Maybe you shouldn't push yourself. You remember some things, and that's what counts. Maybe the nightmares will stop now.”

  "No, I want to talk about it while it's still fresh. I might go back to sleep, and everything will fade away. The girl with the red hair . . .” I frowned as the memory came back to me and my voice lowered. "She had white eyes like Elinor.”

  “Another white wolf.” My mother’s voice remained low and calm, but her eyes darted back and forth across my face. “Are you certain?”

  “I can’t remember her face right now. But she had red hair, white eyes, and a curvy body type. And she was wearing close-fitted pants that were even tighter than the ones men wear.”

  The attire of the humans in the dream still baffled me. No, I definitely hadn't dreamed of the past. The world had looked strange to me. But the more I remembered it, the more it grew on me.

 
I wish I knew how far into the future such a world awaited, and if I’d be alive to see it.

  “The redheaded woman was a warrior, but it wasn’t clear what she was fighting. The blonde looked fine, then bite marks appeared on her body . . . l-like vampire fangs. But she was fighting them off, and they were dropping.” It clicked then, the darkness I’d felt.

  Vampires, vampires were the ones killing everyone!

  “Wait—it was vampires. That’s the darkness I felt that was slaughtering everyone. It was vampires.”

  My mom licked her lips. Her frown was deepening by the second, and I understood how she felt. If I was dreaming of the future—and I believed I was—why were vampires still destroying everything?

  “Vampires so far in the future can’t be a good sign, Ione.”

  “I know,” I mumbled. “It means we don’t win the war.”

  "It may not mean that. We can win this war, and I believe we will, but if we do win, it means vampires won't be wiped out. Maybe they'll attack again in the future, and that's what you saw."

  “We need to tell the Alpha!”

  She grabbed my arm. “No!” She released my arm and placed her hand on my cheek. "No, this is just a dream, Ione, and we can't be certain if it is, in fact, the future. You know the future changes constantly. We can't tell anyone of this, or your dream may influence decisions being made with this war.”

  "But maybe we can stop the vampires from attacking in the future as well," I protested.

  Still, she shook her head. “We can't stop that without wiping out the vampire species altogether."

  That didn’t sound like a bad thing to me. Ridding the world of such vile creatures would be better for everyone.

  “What if we could kill them all?”

  Her hand fell away from my cheek, and she sighed. She remained silent, a sad smile on her lips. She said nothing as she turned back to the window and looked out. The thought of taking a life, even a vampire’s, because vampires were once humans or supernatural, was hard for my mom. It had always been like that for her. She was a nurse who had dedicated her life to saving lives and healing suffering.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I just want all the killing to stop.”

  “As much as I wish the same, I know it will never end, regardless of what happens in this war. The sooner you understand that, Ione, the better. Our world relies on balance. Life has a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. If our lives had no ending, we wouldn’t make the most of the time we have. We must first know the pain of war and conflict to appreciate the gift of peace. " She swallowed audibly. "It's the way of the world, and it always will be. If your dream was, in fact, a vision of the future, it's not something we need to worry about now."

  "But I must have seen it for a reason," I argued.

  She hung her head, nodding. "Perhaps. How can we be expected to change a distant, ever-changing future if we are alive now, in this time? " She reached out and placed her hand on my thigh. "You saw a white wolf, and that's proof enough the world will always have someone like Elinor to save it. Perhaps this dream was meant to reassure us of that.”

  I chewed my lip, unable to shake the feeling that the Goddess was trying to tell me something.

  Still, my mother was right. There was nothing we could do about it now.

  “What was the other girl like?”

  “Huh?”

  She turned to me as a gust of wind blew the window shut. The candle went out, too, but with our enhanced vision, that wasn't an issue.

  “You said you saw two girls.” She got up and lit the candle once more.

  I watched the flame burst to life and recalled one of the iron carriages from the future engulfed in flames. “Yeah, there was a blond girl with blue eyes—like yours, actually. She was tall, with long legs and . . . ” My words trailed off. “Her blond hair had turned white just before the dream changed. She was beautiful.”

  My mother came over to me, her eyes wide. I sat up straighter, a little frightened at the look on her face.

  “She was an Enchanted.”

  I looked to the side, recalling Faelen’s white hair. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

  “But . . .” My mother placed a hand on her chin. “Did she have a straight face with a pronounced jawline and a button nose with a strong straight bridge?”

  I got up, swinging my legs off the bed because she was spot on. “Yes, how do you know?”

  She started laughing. I looked around the room, a little nervous and confused.

  “Mom?”

  "That was what my grandmother looked like. You just described your great-grandmother, other than the fact that she wasn't particularly tall." She walked over to me and held my shoulders. "What I’m saying, Ione, is that I think you saw a future relative, an Enchanted who shares our bloodline. And if she has white hair, then she is as powerful as Faelen.”

  “So,” I drawled. “What does that mean?”

  She looked down. “Well, I'm not sure, honey, but what I do know is that we don’t need to worry about the future. A white wolf will be there and an Enchanted from our bloodline. This war might not truly end with us, but with every move the vampires make, powerful werewolves will be there to stop them."

  19

  Elinor

  My chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, and the sisters formed a circle around me. I wasn't sure how many hours had passed since we'd started fighting, but we were all covered in dirt, sweat, and bruises.

  Our battle would not end until I'd beaten all three women at once, and only then would my training end.

  I knew they were holding back a little—we weren’t fighting to the death, thank the Goddess— but still, they were so powerful. I swallowed hard, but my mouth was dry as a desert. I licked my lips, and the taste of my sweat slipped down my throat as I swallowed again.

  Tien banged her staff on the ground, and the resounding noise it created grew louder and louder. Before long, the sky above us darkened with rain clouds.

  Ariel swung her swords, her black gem glowing purple. “Had enough? Do you want to give up?”

  “I think she does,” Tien added with a smirk, and as her staff connected with the earth one more time, a clap of thunder exploded above us. "If you want to give up, just say so."

  Angelisa remained silent, her blue eyes glowing. For months I had trained with her, perfecting my use of the elements I could control so far. To my surprise, she was the most powerful of all three sisters.

  She could create anything she thought of. While some things were illusions, others were real, but that was the trick. Her opponents never knew what was real and what wasn't. To win this fight, I'd have to take her out first. Then Tien, with her stamina and agility, needed to go next.

  Ariel, the most calculated fighter, always had an attack up her sleeves. But with the others out of the way, I should be able to finish her.

  I lifted my hands upward, commanding the soil beneath our feet to rise, and so it did. Tien charged at me through the dust, and my fist connected with her chest. Unfortunately, she had moved her staff to protect herself from the blow, and the bones in my hand shattered on impact. But still, I’d sent her flying across the meadow.

  I inhaled deeply, commanding the wind around us to come forth, gathering around me in a whirlwind and throwing Ariel off-balance as she charged at me. I released gusts of wind here and there, pushing her back and then pulling her forward.

  I grabbed her outstretched sword and let loose a lightning bolt I had been holding. I gave it all to her, knowing that as much as it would hurt, it would keep her down.

  Though my plan had been to take care of Angelisa first, I soon realized that would not work. She was a slow fighter, using tricks and illusions. I couldn’t wait that long, so in the end, I decided it was best to take down the others first. I grabbed Ariel around the throat and slammed her to the ground.

  A foot connected with my jaw, sending me flipping along the ground.

  I skid to a stop and spat bl
ood onto the ground as Angelisa lowered her dress to cover her leg. “Did you really have to go for the face?”

  “You were open,” she answered, then suddenly split into two.

  I snarled low, hating this particular trick, as a third Angelisa appeared. In seconds, I was looking at seven of her. I got to my feet as the bones in my right hand healed. While breaking bones was still painful, I had learned to let the pain flow through me, to not resist it, and to not focus on it, which allowed it to heal.

  A person could be stabbed and sometimes not notice it. Angelisa had taught me that . . . and that was when I learned that she was the most brutal sister. Her gorgeous looks, feminine attire, and good-natured personality belied the savage nature with which she fought to not only defeat but break her opponent.

  After one of our training sessions, she had told me that before she was trapped here with her sisters, angels had tortured her by breaking every bone in her body. She had finally overpowered them on the day a broken bone no longer bothered her.

  When pain no longer controlled her, she became unstoppable.

  "People use pain against us to torture and influence us. They threaten to hurt others to make us act, to force our hand in their favor. Pain is unavoidable in life. Once you stop fearing pain, it ceases to control you. You'll take the actions you need to take without hesitation."

  Yeah, that was what she had told me.

  During one of her fights, she had dislocated one of her arms to break free from my hold.

  "Your body is a weapon, too, Elinor. Use it."

  I had learned so much from these three women. Every time I thought about it ending soon, I felt a tightness in my chest. Blue swords appeared in the hands of all the Angelisa clones. I couldn't tell which of them were illusions, but I knew how to change that.

  Out of nowhere, the earth moaned, and spikes erupted from below us. Angelisa and her clones scattered, but that was just a prelude to the real attack. A lightning storm rained down on them, and four of the clones vanished.