“You’re grandfather is the King of Vampyres!” Scarlet practically yelled.
“I have nothing to do with him or my Vampyre family.” I said calmly looking around at the others who all stared back at me.
“You’re joking right?” She yelled again.
“Are you going to just stand there and get mad and yell?” I jumped up fast and stood in front of her, “Or do you want to do something about it? Quit your whining.” I yelled.
Scarlet stood silently while looking at me. Her face scrunched up and full of anger.
“Do you want to do something about it?” I asked again, “You need to stop accusing me, and yourself.” I yelled out more. “You cannot change the past, perhaps this was your fate. And you are needed to help in this cause!” I raised my voice.
YES! Was screaming in her head but she still didn’t say anything.
“Yes? Then sit down and be quiet!” I commanded. She did. Her face now falling normal again, and stared into the fire.
“They grow more powerful everyday.” Braeden said, ignoring the blow up that just happened, “We’ve got all the time in the world.” He and the others all laughed.
“Give me some time to train Scarlet and I will help you with whatever it is you need before I leave again.” I said taking a gulp of mead I had in my hand, “Then we do it my way.”
Quinn and Braeden looked at each other. I could hear their surprised and amused thoughts, “Agreed.” They said at the same time, and laughed. I laughed too.
They all got up and wandered off blending in with their people, not even finishing the conversation that they had started with me.
I hadn’t meant to come in and take over like that. You have to understand, I’ve been on my own for a long time. Working, hunting, tracking, killing. You could say I am very independent. Always will be. I’m not used to taking orders from anyone, except my father. Back where I am from, I’m first in command, next to my father. Then there is a second after me.
“Get up.” I kicked at Scarlet’s foot. She was curled up under a tree on deer fur.
“Mmmm.” She moaned at me and made a ‘go-away’ movement with her hand.
“Get up now!” I demanded. “A fight does not wait for you to wake up from your beauty sleep.” I almost laughed at that.
She opened one eye and looked at me. Her thoughts seemed coherent enough today, and it didn’t seem like she was blaming me as much as she was last night.
“Fine.” She sat up stretching and yawning.
“Do you have a sword?” I asked her.
“Only a dagger.” She held up her only weapon to show me. She had it stuffed down in her boot. That’s what she had been killing those vampires with?
“Here,” Duncan came up behind me, “This was my brothers a long time ago. His life was taken from him. Use it well.” He smiled handing it to her. It was a very good sword, made from sturdy steel with leather straps wrapped around the handle I assume for a comfortable grip.
“Thank you.” She said, looking at him with a smile.
“I’m sorry.” I sighed to Duncan.
“For what?” He looked at the ground.
“His life was taken by the Black Thorn.” I said.
“Whose isn’t?” He said and walked away into the darkness of the dawn.
“Follow me.” I said to Scarlet.
We walked in silence for about ten minutes before we finally came to a clearing that had a river running through it. She sighed. The sun was still on the verge of coming up now.
“Can you do this?” I asked her. I ran so fast that she didn’t see where I had gone.
“What the…?”
“Behind you.” I whispered in her ear.
Scarlet jumped and spun around so fast holding up her new sword out of surprise. I quickly pushed her to her ass and she fell hard onto the ground.
“Hey!” She looked up and yelled.
“Look alive!” I shrugged. I had a sword in each hand, and swung one of them at her. She managed to block one of the blows with her new sword.
“Nice!” I smiled at her.
“Thanks.” She replied.
“Now, get up.” I stepped back.
“Ahh!” I lunged at her with both arms swinging. She had a look of shock in her eyes, but she laughed as she blocked the strikes.
“Shit.” She yelled as her foot went into a hole in the ground and fell down sideways.
“Always be aware of your surroundings.” I added putting a sword back in its sheath, then helped her up.
“Are you going to be my teacher now?” She asked me looking into my eyes, “Are you going to try and teach me everything I will need to know to go on and survive?”
“I can do my best. But, the reality is that most of what you learn about surviving is from experiencing it.”
“I will always need a teacher.” She sighed.
“No. You won’t. There’s a time and a place, and a time to move on. Now, enough talking. Pick up your sword and start fighting me.” I gave a toothy grin.
This training went on until it was dark. Then this went on for days. Once she had gotten used to the swords, we would work on the speed and sensing.
The senses were always the most important to master. The hearing, seeing, smelling, and yes even tasting and touching. For us hybrids, all of our senses are heightened one hundred percent better than any other Vampyre or Werewolf, or even human.
Scarlet is a fast learner. I can see that after the years alone, she developed bad behaviors and nasty habits. She sometimes can’t take this training seriously.
“I don’t know if I want to learn how to shift.” Scarlet whined.
“Why’s that?” I asked her.
“It looks like it hurts.” She said innocently.
“It’s not that hard Scarlet.”
“Coming from someone who has done it her whole life.”
“Not my whole life. No, actually I really don’t shift a whole lot. But it does come in handy when you’re in a tight spot.”
“Then why do I have to learn how to do it?”
“To know how to do something is better than not knowing how to.”
“Ok.” She paused, “Then show me how to do it.” She then smirked, “I’m glad its getting dark out so no one can see us.”
I glared at her, “Fine. Come.”
I took my jacket off and laid it on the ground by the tree near by, then placed my swords on top of it. I turned toward the clearing of the wooded area and beckoned Scarlet to follow. Once we were in the clearing, I took a few steps towards another tree and took off all of my clothes, so that I can transform into my wolf.
The moon was full and bright tonight, but it was summer so the tree’s were full and the moonlight was not quite reaching underneath where we stood.
I looked up towards the sky, my long hair was flowing down my back. I raised my arms as an offering to our Great Moon Goddess and asked for a blessing, while I shift tonight. I closed my eyes and my senses heightened. I could hear every little sound from all around me. Scarlet breathing, the water running from the creek down below in the forest. Every wisp of wind that was running though the branches, the crickets singing, the owls calling, and even the flight path of their wings. I heard it all.
Shifting is all in the mind of the person who carries the animal within them. You must feel it within you, and you must will it. Once you will it and claim it, the animal claims you back.
I dropped to my knees as to give in to the power of the earth below and arched my back. I could feel the shifting begin. I wanted to scream, and I wanted to laugh. It was a pain, but it was a good pain. This was a feeling of a pure adrenaline rush, and it was ecstasy.
Inch by inch my body started changing form into the wolf. With a few blinks of the eye my human body changed, and standing before Scarlet was a large black wolf with bright green eyes. We stood staring at each other.
You’re turn. I said
into her head, she jumped when she heard me.
“No way.” Her smile was in fear. I barked at her and then growled.
“I can’t do it Angel. I just can’t.”
You will someday my dear Scarlet, and you will regret that you didn’t practice when you had the chance. I stood and started to walk away towards the woods to run.
“I’m sorry.” Scarlet said. I took off in a dead run. I guess I lied, I didn’t just live for the kill, I also lived for the run.
I ran and ran for hours that night, until the sun started to come up. I made my way back towards the area where I had left my clothes. They were still laying there on the ground. I shifted back into my human form and dressed slowly. Before I put my jacket back on I sat on the ground in the cold morning air just breathing it all in.
“How are things coming along?” Braeden came up behind me slowly so that I wouldn’t be startled and attack him.
“With?” I asked still sitting there taking in the fresh air of the forest.
“With training?”
“Oh. I guess it’s coming along alright. Where is she now?” I asked.
“She’s meditating down by the river.”
“I see.”
“She wouldn’t shift last night would she?” He asked me.
“No.” I sighed, “No, she wasn’t ready for it.”
“Do you think that she will ever be ready?”
“I don’t know.” I stood up and looked him in the eye. “I think maybe she will someday be ready for all the advanced things.”
He smiled, “Good to hear. How long did it take you to learn everything?”
“Um…my training started when I was able to walk.”
“Really?”
“Yea. There’s this woman who is like a medicine woman and she had me meditating probably by the time I was four years old. Everyday was work and no play. I had to be the best to protect myself and others in my village.”
“That’s a lot of work for a young child. Our children here don’t start training until they reach at least twelve years of age. That is when they will show whether they have the gene of shifting in them or not.”
“That’s how it is back home too.”
There was an awkward silence between us.
“You’re a good teacher for her.” He pointed towards the river was where Scarlet was meditating.
“I suppose, but I hate the idea of turning her into a cold-blooded killer. She is still so innocent.”
“But that is the only way we can survive, no? If you can’t fight then you die. It’s as simple as that.”
“I suppose you’re right.” I glanced over at him. I put my jacket on and put my swords back in their place.
“Is she still angry with you?” He asked walking with me.
“Not as much as she was before.”
“You know, you can’t be blamed for her family’s death.”
“Right. I know that.” I paused looking around, “Did you hear that?” I asked him.
“No. Hear what?” He was looking around.
“Do me a favor, don’t let Scarlet out of your sight. I will be back.” And like that, I took off without a trace.
I heard horses hooves on the hard ground and voices talking from the morning light. They were beautiful voices like a song. The voices made me want to stab myself in my ears.
I stopped about half a mile from the pathway in the forest watching all of these humans and horses. And Vampyres. No wonder my ears hurt. Those were the beautiful voices that I heard. They were seductive, hypnotic and disgusting. How do you think they get their victims and have all of those followers? Their voices are like a human eyeing a God or a Goddess and can’t take there eyes away, or better yet like an animal in the headlights of a car wondering what’s coming at them and then it’s too late for them.
I had not ever come across anything like this before, humans and Vampyres traveling together. A very odd sight indeed.
Angel.
3.
Running with my Boys.
Present Time.
Joseph, Kent, Michael, Tobey, and last but not least, my best friend, James. All of which are the most beautiful Native American men that I have seen. All with black hair and tanned skin, darkened eyes and just beautiful features. All of them over six feet tall, muscular, and toned.
These boys I have well kind of grown up with, all in there early twenties now and I almost four hundred give or take. Ever since they have reached the ripe age of eighteen we’ve kind of been inseparable. We ran almost every night together through the forest. We have only a couple hundred acres now because of the humans and the Vampyres who decided to move in next door. That was a big upset to our people. I will get into that later on.
There’s nothing better than living free and running after shifting. I tend to stay in my human form when we do that. I, for some reason, don’t find it a need to turn into my wolf when running. I just love being out there feeling the breeze on my face and enjoying Mother Nature. They guys, well they shift every time and they love it. I usually let them beat me too. We race to the top of the gully’s edge and back to the shore. Only about five or six miles.
“Hey white girl! You want to come running with us tonight?” A voice came up next to me as I walked alone on the shore. And yes, they called me White Girl. As I am very, very pale, and they are very tanned.
“Hey Tobey, maybe I will.” I responded after a quick moment of thinking.
“Angel…please! You haven’t come with us in the longest time. Besides we grow tired of hearing James whine about you!” He laughed, punching me in the arm.
I punched him back, “What’s he whining about?”
“That he misses you, and you don’t hang out with us anymore.”
“Perhaps there is a reason for that.” I suggested.
“Whatever the reason is, please just come with us.” He made a poor attempt at a pouting face.
“Alright. I will come. Just come get me when you…”
“We won’t have to come get you, you hear everything anyways White Girl!” He turned laughing and ran in the opposite direction back to the village. I sighed and shook my head.
I often come out here to the shoreline on the lake and walk by myself to be alone in my thoughts. Its my so called thinking time. I’ve had too many things running through my head as of late, and well, they don’t make any sense at all to me. It’s like they are not my thoughts. Like they are being placed there. So I spend most of my time thinking it all through. I suppose that being alone doesn’t help my cause.
Nightmare after nightmare keeps me awake through out the nights. I would be grateful for a full nights rest with out these visions stirring in the pot. It feels like I’m going crazy sometimes. And I feel that there is something going on behind enemy lines. Whatever it is, it’s going to be big. I feel it.
The weather today is perfect. The sun is out and shining, in the high seventies. Those big white fluffy clouds are floating in the sky over the lake making these beautiful pictures that reflect in the water and change with every ripple. This is my kind of weather.
I look down as the water rushes up onto the pebbles and sand onto my bare feet. It’s definitely not as cold as it has been. If someone were to see me out here who didn’t know who I was they’d think I was a ghost. Dressed in a white sun dress , and my long flowing brown hair, plus my “White Girl” skin, I probably glowed in the dark.
“It’s about time White Girl!” Joseph Henry yelled over to me as I walked up next to the boys at our meeting spot by the end of the forest. They had already started a small bonfire for us. When our run was over, we sat around just talking. Talking was good. It’s not always good to keep your silence. I’ve learned that after all of these years.
“Yea, yea.” I shot him a smile while looking around to see who wasn’t there yet.
“Yea, why haven’t you been running with us anyways? Are you afraid that we are going
to keep beating you?” Kent Webber asked as he was hugging me tight and kissed the top of my head.
“You don’t want us to feel like we’re a bunch of pussies!” Tobey Sanders responded, and all of the guys started laughing.
“Considering only one of us actually is one!” Michael Gia punched my arm. His sense of humor sometimes made no sense, but we laughed anyways to make him feel better.
“Why are we all laughing?” Chris Haven asked walking up to the group now. I turned to look at him and James Wolfe was walking with him staring at me intensely.
“Mikes joke…” I smiled at them both.
“Hey girly!” Chris picked me up in his arms and hugged me throwing me around like I was a rag doll. I was only about one hundred and fifteen pounds.
“Hi Chris, ok, put me down now.” I managed in between my little girl like giggles because he started tickling me.
“Easy with the merchandise.” James laughed, rubbing his hands through his short spiked black hair smiling at me.
“Aren’t you going to say hi?” I asked him, as he was looking at me all shy.
“I don’t have to, you already know what I’m thinking.” He winked at me.
I rolled my eyes. I do know what he’s thinking. I know what all of them are thinking pretty much all the time. I have learned to just bite my lip and try not to smile to their thoughts.
“Yea, see we don’t need to imagine the things like that, it’s bad enough we hear em’.” Joe said, as he was taking off his shirt and throwing it at the end of the trail on the big rock pile. The other guys followed suit. The Six heard each others thoughts and could talk to each other with their minds, and lucky me, I heard them too.
“Do you guys smell that?” I asked with my nose to the wind sniffing up into the woods.
“I don’t smell anything.” Kent was the first to respond.
“What does it smell like?” Chris asked me.
“I don’t know…it’s…blood.” I sniffed the air again.
Fate of the Blood Moon's Path Page 5