by J. E. Cluney
‘But a wendigo caught wind of this powerful banshee. They say he fell in love with her, desired her. But she did not return those feelings, for a wendigo is a soulless creature, incapable of true love. They desire power and food over all else, and he wanted her power, he wanted to become stronger by becoming her mate.
‘But you don’t just become a banshee’s mate. She must choose you, her banshee side chooses her mates. It chooses those it deems worthy and those that can protect her. It would never choose a wendigo, for they are murderous creatures, feasting on both humans and supes.
‘The wendigo grew angry with this, and decided that if he couldn’t have her, no one could. He’d lived many centuries already, remaining young by feasting on supes and humans, and he was powerful. He caught her alone, and her mates could not come to her aid in time.
‘He killed her, and consumed her. In doing so, he gained her ability of death. See, banshees can foretell death, but as they grow stronger, they awaken more powers.
‘By consuming her, he was able to combine their powers, something that never happens with any other supernatural creature he devours. He was able to take control of vampires in the area, forcing them to do his bidding. He slaughtered many with the vampires, consuming those he murdered to continue to gain power and remain immortal. Without a steady food supply, he’d age quickly, especially since he was apparently already over a hundred years old.
‘He eventually fell at the hands of a warlock, and her mates had to mourn their loss. It is said most of them killed themselves, except for the one who raised his child alone. The werewolf. Our ancestor.”
I just sat in silence, taking in everything she’d said, my body numb.
The room was deathly quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
“So, he ate my parents then?” I finally murmured.
My grandmother gave me a broken smile, and my lip trembled.
My poor parents. They’d been murdered and eaten because of me.
I squeezed my eyes shut, disbelieving everything that was going on.
How could any of this be true?
Marcus and Ollie were my mates somehow? Why had they been chosen by my banshee side? And why was it only waking up now?
Why did the wendigo come for me? Was it truly for my power? Why’d he have to kill my parents then?
I felt the tears trickling down my cheeks as I clenched my jaw, and my grandmother pulled me close as she stroked my hair.
“Shh, it’s okay darling, everything will be okay. I know it’s all so much to take in, but you need to know this. You need to learn about your powers,” she said softly as she held me.
I trembled in her arms, and I could feel Marcus and Ollie wanting to come over and comfort me.
I reached out to Marcus, wanting to see why he’d had that moment of despair when my grandmother had said we’d met.
He knew more than he was letting on. Why would he hide something from me?
I pried into his head, not caring if I was invading his privacy. I was too hurt and confused, and I needed to know. I could feel his guilt and pain for me.
And then I found it.
It was like a punch to the chest as I gasped, the memory flooding back into my mind.
Rain spattered against the windows, and a sense of unease washed over me. My parents were worried, especially since I’d been crying so much and screaming. They were taking me to the hospital now, worried for my safety.
I’d felt it, the fear and dread that something bad was coming. I couldn’t figure out what it was, and I didn’t know how to explain the pain I felt deep inside, the heartache.
“How’s she doing now?” Dad asked, glancing back at me as he drove. The windscreen wipers swept back and forth rapidly in an effort to battle the storm.
Lightning lit up the area, and I shivered as I huddled into my pink jacket.
“She’s doing better,” my mother murmured as she turned to me. “You feeling better now?”
I nodded softly, wanting to reassure her, even though fear rippled through me. I knew something was horribly wrong, but mom didn’t seem to understand that. I didn’t quite understand either.
What followed was a blur.
Dad cursed and shouted as lightning lit up the road once more, revealing a dark figure standing out before us.
The car veered, and I screamed as we slid off the embankment and the vehicle rolled.
I heard mom shouting for me, but everything was happening so fast.
Everything moved around me, and I was thrust against my booster seat belt, hanging from it as we tumbled over and over.
Things must have gone to black, because the next thing I knew, I was blinking, my body aching as I whimpered. Dad was slouched against the airbag, and mom’s head was lolled back against her seat, blood trickling from her nose and split lip.
“Mom?” I whispered.
I froze as the sound of crunching metal reached my ears, and I huddled against my seat as my father’s door was torn clean off.
The man from the road, the creature.
He was peering through the open door at me, with a monstrous face and horns.
What was wrong with mom and dad? Why weren’t they answering? Who was this weird man?
I kept silent as those unseeing black eyes watched me, my heart pounding. I wanted to scream for mom, to beg her to wake up, but I couldn’t look away from his scary face.
A monster.
He ripped my father’s seatbelt off, a deep, unsettling growl emanating from his chest as he tugged my father from the car.
I dare not make a sound as it dragged him off into the night. I squeezed my eyes shut, hearing him return a few minutes later and tearing my mother from the car.
This was all just a bad dream. A nightmare. It would be over soon.
Tears trickled down my cheeks as I sniffled, holding my seatbelt straps tightly. Where was mom? Where was dad? Where was the scary monster man?
My lip trembled, but I dare not cry. What if it heard me?
I jumped, my heart hammering as the horned creature appeared at the side window.
He cocked his head, staring in at me, those unseeing black eyes glowing faintly red. That strange skullish face, long and garish, cracked and creaked as his mouth opened.
Blood. There was blood all over his gruesome, white, boney snout. No nose, just a hollowed out section of his skull face.
I held my breath, not daring to breathe as the monster looked in at me.
Lights flashed up on the street behind our car, and I whimpered.
I cried out as the creature slammed a hand against the window, splaying it out, his claws scraping the cracked glass.
A smear of blood was left in its wake as he slid it down.
And then he was gone.
I yanked free from my grandmother as I turned on Marcus.
“You knew!” I cried out as the sobs wrecked me.
The pain and anguish on his face made my chest burst, but the betrayal I felt overrode it.
“I didn’t want to hurt you more,” Marcus said as he flitted over.
“How did you know?” I murmured, glaring into those frosty eyes as I bit my lip to stop it from trembling.
“When Teresa was doing your reading, your magic flared up, and I saw a memory of yours. You didn’t see it, and I didn’t want to make you relive it,” he murmured as he gently held my arm.
I wanted to rip my arm away from him and curse at him, but the pain from the memory made me stop.
The pain he felt.
He had only been wanting to protect me.
“I knew too, Cupcake. Don’t take it out on him,” Lucas said as he stepped closer.
“What do you mean?” I turned to him, frowning in confusion as I sniffled. The tears were still sliding down my cheeks, but I fought back the sobs as I tried to hold it together.
“When you wanted to know more about your family, I got the files on your parents deaths. I discovered that they’d been mauled. As had Wayne.”
/>
“Wait, Wayne?” My frown deepened as I tried to focus on that rather than the fact that they’d both hidden it from me.
“Linda’s boyfriend?” It was Natalie’s turn to look confused, and I was reminded that she and Dixon were still there.
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Why though?”
“My guess is that he wanted to try to trigger your powers. Going after your parents was supposed to wake your powers up more. Seems it didn’t work. From what I’ve been told, I believe they woke up the night you connected and bonded with the vampire. Your banshee side must have reached out to him,” My grandmother mused.
“Why would it trigger her powers?” Ollie asked from his seat on the floor.
“Because a banshee is all about death. He probably thought that by creating deaths close to her, her banshee side would awaken to foretell them. And hopefully awaken fully, not just flare up and then fall dormant again,” my grandmother said.
“How come you know so much?” I asked softly as I stepped away from Marcus and sunk down beside her.
I felt his hurt at this, but I meant nothing by it. Sure, I was still annoyed at both him and Lucas, but in the grand scheme of things, it was trivial. I could tell he only wanted to protect me.
In the memory, I’d been hysterical, hence the trip to the hospital. But it was the same kind of feeling I had now about Derek. Had I sensed their impending death? Had my powers flared up all that time ago?
“I have the family history book. It gets passed down as the older generation passes. Since my husband died, I’m the last one with it, and when I die, it’ll be passed on to Natalie, and so on, so forth. We don’t bother sharing all the knowledge in its pages, as it’s not really important most of the time. Mostly lineages of werewolves and such. But in your case, there is something in there,” my grandmother said as she stroked the side of my face tenderly.
“So the wendigo is after me for my power,” I murmured.
“Yes. And now that your power has fully awakened…” my grandmother didn’t need to finish off the sentence.
Now that my power was awakened, now that I could feel it inside me, it would come for me.
It wanted to devour me.
“I think you should inform the Area Enforcer and the University,” my grandmother stated as she turned to look at Lucas. How she knew that he was kind of the leader of our little group was beyond me, or maybe she’d sussed out his aura and knew he was the warlock.
“He knows already,” Lucas said.
“But does he know everything? And the uni should get in a banshee instructor. They’ll hopefully be able to find one. There has to be another here somewhere. Allison needs to know how to control her powers and better understand them,” she said firmly.
Lucas just nodded as he headed back out into the hall to make the call.
“So, if a wendigo can’t love, how do they have children?” I asked. Obviously they had children, since the lines were still around.
“They don’t,” my grandmother state. “Wendigos are created.”
“How?” Skip spoke up.
“Supes who feast on others for a long time. Normally a non predatory type. Shifters and werecreatures just become known as rogues, and hunted down. But if another supe, a witch, fae, or even shifters who aren’t predator types, begin eating supes and humans, they eventually turn into a wendigo. It takes over them, turning them into a hungry killer, and making them immortal,” she explained. “They morph into this beast as the years pass.”
“Great,” Skip muttered.
“So, what do I do about Derek?” I finally asked the question that had been niggling at me along with the dread.
“Who’s Derek?” my grandmother frowned.
“The guy that made her scream, Mom,” Natalie groaned. They’d obviously already been told his name from Marcus.
“Right. There’s nothing you can do. If he’s going to die, he’s going to die,” my grandmother shrugged, but gave me a sympathetic look.
“I can’t warn him?” I gaped.
“No. Would you like to know you were going to die but couldn’t do a single thing to stop it?” she said, cocking her head at me. She didn’t say it in a nasty way, just in a way to make me understand.
I clenched my jaw as I looked down at my hands.
She was right. Telling him was pointless, not that he’d believe me anyway. But this sucked. Sure, he was an arsehole, but death was not something I’d wish on anyone.
Not even the men who’d hurt me.
‘I’m glad Wayne’s dead,’ Marcus growled, and Ollie muttered mentally in agreement.
Maybe I was too soft. I’d never forgive those men, but death was a huge leap.
“So, I can foretell death, but I can’t stop it?” I clarified.
My grandmother just nodded sadly.
“Well that’s a shitty power to have,” I growled.
Who the fuck wants that kind of ability?
2
Lucas.
Ally’s eyes went black when she screamed. The wave of energy that came off her was definitely enough to make us all take a step back. Even Derek, who let her go as she collapsed.
And now I knew why.
A banshee.
I would never have seen that coming. Now the telepathic bonds were making sense too. She was bound to death in a way, so of course she connected with Marcus, and their bond was the deepest.
But she was drawn to Skip and I as well, that much we knew. And we were drawn to her.
I guess we were meant to be her mates too, that she’d chosen us.
That was troubling to think about. Giving in would mean giving myself to her completely, and I hated not having control. I’d had my heart broken with my first boyfriend, and I’d sworn to remain in charge of my life. No more family calling the shots, no more relationship ties.
Accepting this pull I had would mean losing that. Ally would become my mate, bound to me in mind and soul.
A part of me loved that thought, to be a part of her, connected to her, and the other part wanted my freedom.
Her grandmother had also said that a banshee’s mates get more powerful as well. That certainly was interesting. Obviously only when the bonding was complete, since nothing had changed with Marcus and Ollie.
Now I was in the hall, speaking to my father and telling him everything.
He was completely amazed to learn she was a banshee. They were beyond rare, rarer than wendigos even.
Hence why he hadn’t known what she was.
“Is it possible to find a banshee instructor for her?” I asked once he’d gotten over questioning me about her. I only knew what I’d been told too, but I left out the mate part. No need to get into that with him.
“Possibly. I’ll have to speak to the board, see if we can find anyone,” my father said.
“And what about the death she foretold?” I added.
“Nothing can be done from my understanding. No magic can stop it, a banshee can only foretell it. It’s like a part of them can sense it’s coming. That’s all I know. It’s like knowing there’s a storm coming. You get the heads up, but you can’t do anything to stop it,” my father said.
I knew that, but I’d just wanted to bring it up.
Ally was distressed by it, that was clear.
And she thought it was a shit power to have.
I didn’t blame her. It was rather useless really. But apparently other powers would awaken as she became more powerful. What could those be?
Hopefully an instructor could help.
“Do you even know where to start looking for an instructor?” I asked, concerned that if they were so rare, they’d have no luck.
“Someone on the board will know. There’s a list of all instructors in the country, I’m sure there will be a banshee somewhere,” my father sounded quite definite in his tone. I could only hope that was true.
I hung up after a curt goodbye and promised to keep him updated. He was the Area Enforcer, and even if our
family relationship was shit, I needed to remain professional. For Ally’s sake.
I headed back in just as Marcus headed past with Ally.
“Going to take a bath,” Marcus informed me.
I just raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes.
Probably meant just her, but he didn’t word it too well. Not that I’d comment on it. Now was not the time.
I joined everyone back in the living area, where they were all sitting in awkward silence now.
“So, her ability to tell if animals are fatally unwell, that’s a banshee thing then?” Ollie queried.
“I’d assume so,” her grandmother shrugged.
“But, the dog she first sensed it in, it got treated and was okay,” Ollie pointed out.
I frowned at this. So it had been avoided.
“Must work differently for animals. Did she scream?” Natalie asked.
“Don’t think so,” Ollie murmured.
“Then maybe she can sense things that could lead to death, but can be fixed. Whereas her screams mean it’s going to happen,” Dixon suggested.
“Probably the most likely explanation,” her grandmother said as she cleaned her glasses.
I smirked as I noticed her eyeing Skip out of the corner of her eye.
He always had a strange way with older women. They were drawn to him. I guess not having a shirt on helped with that. Natalie had been avoiding looking in his direction too.
“I’d also think it could be a combination with her wolf side maybe,” Natalie threw in.
“There was a pencil that gained a knife head when she infused it with mischief magic. Apparently it had other magic in it. Could that be a combo magic too?” Ollie blurted.
“A knife head?” Dixon looked horrified at the thought.
“Her powers may combine across the three species, but honestly, we can’t say for certain. Banshees are rare, and I’ve shared everything I know about them,” Patricia sighed as she stood up. “Now, how about I get started on cooking something up for all of you?”