by Mia Hawkins
Interesting. They can feel other-me even though my body is in front of them. So what part of me am I right now? Is my body just a shell sitting on a bench, is it dying right now? I phase over to my body, but it looks good. I can see myself taking breaths, so what do I do now? I look around, trying to find some way to get back in my body. Maybe if I touch my arm, I will be sucked back inside. I float forward and try to grab my arm, but my hand goes right through. Well, that failed.
I turn and face the forest once more. It’s then that I notice something is shining in the trees. I start to make my way towards the reflection when I see someone running. I glance at the guys to see if they see this female frantically running, but they are oblivious to anything besides my body. I phase in front of the woman, but she doesn’t see me. She has a glow about her as well, like she is not really there physically. Is she stuck here like me?
I follow her over to the tree line and watch her kneel down and grab something out of her bag. I can’t see what she is holding, but it must be important. She has it wrapped in a black cloth and looks almost protective of it as she starts whispering words.
“I huius da mihi ferro tutela, donec unus ex omnibus gentibus, quod est albus draco, ut dici.” As she finishes her chant, a blue mist surrounds the bundle. When the mist disappears, so does the package she was holding. I float forward, and the only thing left is a little impression of her hand in the soil. I have never taken a foreign language, but I have no doubt that what she said was Latin. I didn’t even know people spoke that anymore; I thought it was dead. I look at the woman’s face, and I am surprised by how familiar it looks. She has the most beautiful green eyes, and I have only seen eyes that color on one other person. Is this Xavier’s mom? I thought she was dead.
Now I am really confused. I look back to check on my body only to see that it and the guys are gone. I hear a menacing growl coming from behind me, and I immediately take a fighting stance as I spin around. What I see leaves me speechless. Towering there is the biggest and ugliest creature I have ever seen. It stands on two legs like a human, but that is where the similarities end. It’s tall and slender with scaly skin. Its eyes look like two black abysses, and its teeth are razor sharp. The smell coming off this thing is enough to make me gag, and I am not even in my body right now. Out of all the senses that could have stayed while in this form, why is my sense of smell one of them? That’s when I notice this creature is not focused on me, it’s focused on the woman behind me. I turn to see she is ready to fight this beast. “Why don’t you tell me where the essence is?” I hear inside my head. The voice is slimy and leaves me feeling violated.
She must have heard him too, because she takes out a knife and cuts her hand. “I knew you would show up. They told me to look out for you. Your king will not rise, and I have done my part to make sure you and he stay where you belong,” she spits out at the monster standing in front of me. I watch her squeeze her hand and force her blood to drip down to the earth below her. As if her blood were the switch to some hidden power, magic starts swirling at her feet. Her eyes start glowing gold, while her body is covered in a blue mist. The mist quickly engulfs her and the creature. I hear only hissing coming from the beast. Then, as quickly as it came, the mist disappears. The beast is gone, but the once strong woman is now lying crumpled on the ground with blood coming from her ears.
Chapter 26
Alex
I bang my fists on the barrier keeping me from my mate, but my pounding does nothing. One second I was sitting on the bench with her, and the next we are all half way across the arena. This protection field is the strongest I have ever seen; I almost question whether Rayven is actually the one who put it up. I stop swinging my fists at the barrier and look closer at the scene in front of me. Rayven is in the middle of the barrier, sitting on the bench just how she was a moment ago. She looks untouched, but there is a tension in the air as each of us begins to realize we cannot get to her. I turn towards my brother, who is now standing naked, as he grips both sides of his head like that will help him think of a way to get inside.
I jog over to him. He is by far the smartest of us all, so he has to have some idea what is going on. After all, he is the one who has read the scrolls about her marks, so maybe there was something in there about this. “Matthew.” I reach out and put my hand on his shoulder. His head snaps in my direction, but he is barely containing his wolf. A low growl comes from the back of his throat. “Matthew, you need to calm down. There is no way for you to help Rayven if you can’t control yourself. I need you to think back to what you read in those scrolls. Was there anything at all that talked about something like this?” I try to keep my voice calm because I know all too well how easy it is to lose control. Although I have never gone through it with my mate before, I have still needed to be talked down a couple times.
While we’re talking, Chaice and Xavier join us, and just like me, they are looking to Matthew for answers. Xavier is visibly shaking. For how much he claims to not like her, the way she affects him proves that what he says is not truthful. There is no way he hates her, not when he is standing here about ready to come unglued. Taking deep breaths, Matthew turns and walks away. When Xavier moves to stop him, I grab his arm. “Let him go, Xavier, he will come back once he has calmed down.” Xavier yanks his arm from my grasp.
“He needs to calm down—are you kidding me? We don’t have time for him to take a personal moment, we need to figure out what the fuck is going on and get Rayven out of there,” he shouts in my face. Normally, my brother is the one to maintain peace; he is always so calm and collected. It feels weird, the shoe being on the other foot. For once, I am the one in the middle of the shit storm, and he is on the outside.
“You’re right, we do need to figure out what is going on, but we can’t do that if he isn’t thinking clearly. The same goes for you. I understand she is your mate, but you need to relax. Look at her, she is perfectly fine. She’s the only one who didn’t get her ass thrown across the field. We need to work together.”
Xavier turns his head and gazes at Rayven. In that moment, I can see everything he’s been keeping bottled up. He has such a longing in his eyes, and I know it well. Like him, I have been waiting for her my whole life. I don’t think he realizes everything he is feeling right now, but we all feel it as well. He releases a breath and shakes his head.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” I just stand there looking at him. I’m not going to lie, I am kind of shell-shocked. I never thought I would see the day he would apologize for anything. Maybe I misjudged him, maybe the old Xavier is still in there. I smile and reach out and grab him. I have always been a hugger, and he knows it, but I haven’t hugged him in years. He turns to stone in my arms, but I don’t care, we just had a moment, and we are going to hug it out, dammit.
By the time I decide to release him, Matthew has returned. “Did I miss something?” Matthew sounds confused.
“Oh, nothing much, just Xavier confessing his undying love for me.” I nudge Xavier’s arm, and unbelievably, he actually chuckles. The air feels lighter, even if only for a moment.
Chaice clears his throat. “You got any ideas what she is doing right now?” We all turn and face our mate. She looks peaceful, like she is dreaming, except if she were dreaming, she wouldn’t need this much protection.
“I have no idea, but I am starting to think that when she is vulnerable, her body automatically puts a shield up. Like it knows when she needs protection,” Matthew suggests.
I turn my head towards Matthew and ask, “So once again she is doing something we have no idea how to help her with? How can we help her fully connect with her power if we don’t even understand what power she has?”
“I think the only thing we can do to help her is keep showing her how we each control our own powers. Then when she does something like this that totally freaks us out, we will be here to support her. If it freaks us out, imagine what she must be feeling right now.” See, this is why Matthew is the more respo
nsible twin. He might not be a man of many words, but what he says is always so right. I would have said some stupid shit probably, but Matthew always has a smooth answer. I catch Chaice staring at Rayven, he is being abnormally quiet, but at least he seems to be holding it together better than Xavier has been.
“So I guess we just sit here and wait then? She is bound to wake up eventually,” I say, plopping down on the ground. No sense in being uncomfortable.
Chapter 27
Rayven
I hear something running and turn to see a group of people coming towards the female. Once again, they don’t seem to notice me as they kneel around her trying to see what’s wrong. Then, in the blink of an eye, we go from standing in the field to being inside Xavier’s house. I’m floating behind them through the hallway as they carry the woman up the stairs. The house looks completely different. The walls are covered with pictures, and the house feels full of love. As I go up the stairs, I take the opportunity to look at some of the photos hanging on the wall. All of them are of a beautiful family; they are all smiling and happy. There’s a little boy about seven or eight, and he looks exactly like Xavier. A little girl is also in most of the pictures. I wonder if that is Olivia, his sister. She looks about three in each photo. The woman from the field is in almost every single photo, and I think I was right about her being Xavier’s mother. So that just raises more questions. Am I in the past?
As I continue down the hall, there’s a table with books stacked on top and one picture frame. Inside the frame is a group of five boys probably only about nine years old. I recognize all but one as they must be the guys that I’ve been living with for the past three days. They are all standing in a line and look so full of joy and love that they are almost unrecognizable, but my heart knows it’s them. Xavier looks completely carefree, and it isn’t until this moment that I notice just how much stress he wears on his face. I hear someone talking and decide I better move on and try to see what in the world just happened out in the field. Maybe I am supposed to see this before I can go back into my body.
I finish phasing down the hallway into the room they have set everyone up in. As I look around, I recognize the room we are in. It’s the room I was in yesterday with the huge window. Not much is different, it still has all the bookshelves, but the couches are replaced with a bed. There are two men talking in the back corner when I move into the room. The woman from the field begins coughing, and a man rushes over to her side.
“What happened, sweetheart?” he asks, looking like he is on the verge of tears.
“It was just as they promised. The demon came. They want the essence, Charlie. We cannot let them have her, not even the council. She must stay protected from them both.” She looks like she is getting weaker, and I really want to help heal her, but I have no idea if I am able to. Who is the essence? And why are they trying so hard to protect her?
“Susan, you shouldn’t have used so much of your power today. What if you can’t come back from this? I can’t do all of this alone. You should have waited to take care of it. We could have gone together.” Charlie cries into her hair. This is all so heartbreaking, but I can’t leave yet. I need to find out what in the world that was out in the field today. I hear a sob from behind me and turn to see a much younger Xavier standing in the doorway.
“Mom?” he says as he runs over to the woman lying down. She gives him a hug and a kiss, but I can tell it takes almost all of her energy to do so. I feel like I am intruding on a private moment even though they have no idea I am here. So I move over to the corner of the room to allow Xavier and his mom some time alone. The two men are still talking, so I take it upon myself to listen to their conversation.
“They were right about the demons. I wish we could trust the council enough to tell them what is going on,” the brown-haired man says. If I had to guess, I would say he must be related to the twins. His eyes are mismatched just like theirs are, and his hair is a rich chocolate color.
“You know as well as I do that the council has gotten way out of control. They keep doing these experiments, and it is changing them. I don’t want Chaice to grow up under their control. If the essence is our only hope to end both threats, then we need to make sure she stays protected at all costs,” the other man says to the twins’ dad. So these must be the guys’ parents; I remember them saying their families were close. This must be before any of them died. I wish I knew what year it was.
I am torn from my thoughts as I hear Xavier yelling. I float over to him, and I quickly see why he is so distraught. His mom is barely hanging on. Her skin is pale with a light sheen of sweat, and it makes the blood look even worse. “Susan!” Xavier’s dad shouts as he crosses the room, holding a cup of something. Looking down at Xavier’s mother, I can see the pain she must be in. Charlie yells for someone to take Xavier out of the room. I wish there was something I could do to help. I heard them talking on the way in about trying to get a mage out to heal her. They were afraid no one would be able to make it here in time, and it looks like they were right.
I glide over to the other side of Susan’s bed, and the need to help becomes overwhelming. I need to try something. I reach my hand down to her head and try to feel her skin. Just like when I’ve tried to grab everything else, I go right through her. Since I can’t touch her, I try to rest my hands above where her skin should be. I focus my energy into healing her body, I try to feel her pain like I did Xavier’s, but I can’t. Maybe since I am not in my actual body, things don’t work the same way. I can feel my power building, and with one final thought, I let it flow freely into her body. I hear movement around me, but I keep my eyes pressed tightly shut until I am sure I have healed her as much as I can. When I finally open my eyes to look around, everyone is staring right at me, not through me.
I look down at my hands to see them covered in white mist, which I have always associated my healing power with. Did healing her cause my power to turn me visible? I glance up and look around at everyone who now notices they are not alone in the room. I can hear a low growl coming from the two men in the corner. Susan starts to cough, so I pull my hands away. Her bright green eyes are open and focused solely on me. “Hi,” I awkwardly wave. She smiles and sits up on the bed. No one has moved since I opened my eyes.
“You look just like her. I didn’t think I would ever get the chance to meet you.” She sighs. I am completely confused at this point. I have no fucking idea what is going on right now. Susan leans forward and tries to grab me by the waist, and she looks heartbroken when her arms pass right through me.
“Who do I look like?” I ask, hoping she has some idea what is happening, because I am at a loss.
Chapter 28
Rayven
She looks over to her husband, Charlie, who nods his head sadly. “I can’t tell you much because we don’t know what is going on in your time. But if you are here, that means we have done our job. Do you know anything about your origin?” she asks me.
“I don’t know anything. Up until about a week ago, I didn’t even know that supernaturals existed.” I shake my head, hoping that they don’t see how uncomfortable I am. The growling has finally stopped, but I have not looked in their direction to see if they look suspicious of me.
“That’s excellent, that means the binding spell worked,” she said excitedly.
“You were made to be our savior,” Chaice’s dad speaks up from the other side of the bed. Susan turns to scold him, but he cuts her off. “We don’t know how much time she has here before she is pulled back. We need to tell her as much as we can while she is here.” He walks forward and looks me right in the eyes. “It is true, you look just like your mother,” he whispers as he comes to a stop in front of me. “She never liked to beat around the bush, so I am guessing you are the same way. You were born for the sole purpose of uniting the different factions of supernaturals. There has been a rift since the beginning, and it just keeps growing with each passing year. The first solution we tried was to raise our sons tog
ether so they will realize their differences make them stronger as a whole. The second and most important solution is you though.” He stops talking, and I wait a minute to see if he will start up again. Like, way to leave me hanging. You don’t have any more information than that?
“Is me what? What am I supposed to do? Matthew said something about the one from all races. What does that mean?” I look around, hoping someone will have a good answer for me. The brunette man from the back comes forward to talk to me.
“My name is Dominic, and Alex and Matthew are my boys. I knew Matthew would try to find answers in the library, some things never change.” He chuckles to himself. “I thought I had removed all of the literature about you and the prophecy, but obviously I forgot some of it. I could not let the council get ahold of any information about you. The reason being is there is an uprising happening. Lucifer is trying to get out of hell and is using demons to do it. He is killing people all over the world. Most people can vanquish a demon, but you are the only one that can make it cease to exist.
“I wish I could tell you that the demons are your only worry, but I can’t. The council is getting out of control—do you know about the testing? I don’t want to waste too much time explaining if you already know.” I think back to what Chaice had been saying in the office the other night and nod my head. “Ok, then they haven’t stopped then.” He has a grim look on his face as he looks over at Charlie. “You also have to stay away from them. If they knew how much power you possessed, they would not hesitate to steal it from you. If you want the truth, the only people we know you can trust is our children. We can’t tell them about you, but once they feel your connections, they will protect you. You will need them in the battles you are to face, and they need you,” Dominic finishes with a small smile.