by Mela Zen
“Hola, ¿estás aquí para donar sangre?” She speaks in her native tongue.
{Translation: Hello, are you here to donate blood?}
“No, pero estoy aquí para tomar un poco. Me llevarás a la habitación que contiene la sangre. No se lo digas a nadie, cierra la puerta cuando salgas,” I compel her, she easily standing up and I follow her.
{Translation: No, but I am here to take some. You will lead me to the room containing the blood. Don’t tell anyone, lock the door when you leave.}
We go to the far back, into a small room that a bit chilly than most. It was empty as she opens the steel doors, grabbing a few packets, handing it to me. She closes the door on the way out, the locking clicking in its place.
I pour the blood in the beakers that I found on the table. I drank about four packets, feeling much more than satisfied, gulping away. That is when I felt a hand on my shoulder, throwing the beaker at the person.
Except the beaker went through the shadowy figure, small blood squirting everywhere. Since the ghostly figure touched me, I felt my energy being drained. Great, somebody called Spiritus autem Rapit, or a Spirit that Steals, mostly energy and life.
“Praemorior,” I say harshly, moving my fingers at the figure. Not surprising, the figure stays, floating slowly at me.
{Translation: Disappear}
It soon transformed into a physical being, easily described as death but instead of scythe, it is a staff, long and black with gray mist surrounding the top. The head of the staff is shaped like a tulip, but instead of soft structure, it is metal clangs, the sole purpose of stealing energy. It is not meant to kill you, it is simply meant to make you weak.
But I have been weak twice, I am not letting go a third time.
“Veni puer non multum vacat,” it whispers.
{Translation: Come child, no time to spare.}
“No,” I say running towards it, “extrudat.”
{Translation: Push forth}
We both go through the walls, landing in the back of some alleyway. The spirit gets up and whacks me on the side, I begin to fall but I use my hands to flip me back up. This time it was running at me, full charge, but I grab the staff, trying to remove it from its grasp.
The problem is, the staff also drains, but not as much as the head. I kick the spirit, sending back to the wall, it groaning and holding down. I break the staff in half, it screams hurting my eardrums. Fortunately, by breaking the staff you also break the draining spell.
“Quis te misit?” I say holding the sharper end of the broken staff close to its neck.
{Translation: Who sent you?}
“Quia ego sum apud te, ut de libertas,” it replies, “But more of us are coming, be aware, Annabelle.”
{Translation: You know I am not at liberty to discuss.}
“Ut mihi significatum est, quod spiritus, qui est in orbem redi ad te pertinent,” I chant, still holding the shank in my hands.
{Translation: Spirit that was meant to take me, go back to the world in which you belong.}
It continues to scream before a small circle appears sucking in the creature leaving alone, facing the wall. If this is meant to attack me, then...Elijah.
Elijah
I felt a pair of hands roaming around my body as if they were picking out the best option to grab it. I felt my heart pounding against my chest, getting louder as I feel the touch getting nearer and nearer, not stopping.
“Spiritus odor vitae in captionem!” I hear Annabelle’s voice say out loud, sighing in relief.
{Translation: Trap the spirit in the scent of life!}
I open my eyes to see a nasty figure above me, gray face with wide eyes, shades of bright yellow. It was about to grab onto me when I see it being pulled away, its figure slowly turning into mist.
Annabelle holds a bouquet of sunflowers in her hands, firmly holding it towards the ugly being. It screams, trying to get ahold of something but it eventually gets sucked into the flowers.
“Incendium,” she says still holding the flowers in her hand. Out of nowhere, the fire appears burning each petal until it eventually leaves nothing but ash in her hands.
{Translation: fire}
“Mind explaining,” I finally say looking at her. She doesn’t look to well, pale than ever. Her eyes are completely drawn out, her sharp cheekbones piercing through her skin.
“Its call a Spirit that Steals, they mostly steal life force or energy. Whether you are dead or alive. They,” she pants leaning against the counter, “They are called upon witches by drawing out the blood of their targets. For the blood, in return they get the energy of the target.”
“Annabelle, are...are you okay,” I hold her next to me. If it were even remotely possible, she is colder than ever.
“No, they got to me when I went to get blood,” she pants, leaning her head on my shoulders.
“You know I could have given you blood,” feeling hurt.
“You already did, I just..just..need to rest until I am fully back...alive,” she attempts to laugh.
“No, I am giving you some of my blood.”
“They only took a little bit, don’t worry I will be fine,” she gets up, and I admit she does look better.
“I am surprised they didn’t try to get the book,” I say softly.
“The book!” Annabelle rushes to the counter, seeing the book is still intact. I hear her whisper something and the pages of the book fly out spreading out in front of her.
“What happen? Why are you doing that?”
“Maggie must have called the spirits as a decoy to try to get into this book. We work on a lot of things together, this is one of them. It contains spells to steal things, call things forward, and even create...hybrids.”
One by one, she puts the pages back until she stops at one of them, more like five pages of it. She examines them closely, “What are we looking for?” I ask.
“Since Maggie is working for Daryl, as well as Madeline and Genevieve, they want the blood of a tribrid, which is me. Right? But why would they waste blood to steal the life force of mine? They need blood in order to replicate the genome.
But I remember writing in these pages that in order to create a hybrid, a witch, and vampire, you need the life of a witch. Just peaks of it, secure it then you create a hybrid. She should know that but I wiped it away from memory.”
“Is that why she is after the book? I thought she would want it to reverse the ripper spell?”
“I wrote that spell in every book, so it’s pretty much pointless.”
“Every black magic book? Because it wasn’t on the regular old books.”
“Yeah, those books. The point is, we need to make sure that this book is not in her hands. Get ready Elijah, because we are heading to Scala dei Carthusian Monastery.”
“Um where is that? What is that?”
“One of Spain’s ruins. I have some people to talk to.”
***
“Jesus, Annabelle this is the most hiking I have done in years. Can we slow down?” I complain after going through a bunch of rocks and dirt.
“I wonder how you are in bed? If you can’t keep up with me at this pace, then you sure as hell slow in bed,” she gives me a sly look.
“I have you know I am fairly good in bed.”
“Hmph, so you say.”
“I can take you on right here, right now.”
“Wait,” she holds her hands up.
“Too scared?”
“Never, but be quiet. There are spirits wondering.”
“How can you tell?”
“You are of Lockwood descent, hear the voices,” she scorns.
I give her a confused look, she scoffs rolling her eyes, “Shut the other noises out, open your mind, and listen to the voices.”
I do as she says, shutting out natures voice and letting the spirits come in. My mind solely focused on them and then, as if on cue, I hear them all.
“She’s here,” one whispers.
“The species, the rare o
ne,” another says.
“Lockwood.”
“Grace.”
“Elijah.”
“Power.”
“Help.”
“Don’t listen to the help. They always want to be free but we never let them out because all they do is scare people,” Annabelle says to me, tugging me along.
We go inside the deserted monastery, I examine the features of the old architects idea. It is a very beautiful place, it would have been gorgeous if it were refurbished. Suddenly the voices cease when Annabelle places candles all over the room.
She hands me a pile of sage and mint, “Place them sparingly, they love mint. I don’t know why but mint attracts.”
I do as I am told, took me a while but I manage, going back to the middle of the room. Annabelle looks up at me and smiles, “Now light the candles.”
“What I have never done that many?” I say not so confidently. Truth be told, I haven’t been good with fire.
“Now, Elijah or you will be embarrassing your ancestors.”
“Annabelle.”
“Just say the word, Elijah. Don’t be a bitch. Wow you suck at speed and you are too scared, honestly how to go-” I place my lips on hers, she moans in my mouth, and I push in more. It was heated for a while, but eventually, I let go.
“Ignis,” I say, focusing solely on the candles. Lone behold, they all turn on, “You and I are definitely going to do it later. I’ll show you then.”
“We’ll see. Now, say this spell with me,” she smiles, pointing at the spell.
“Okay, that is a long spell. Are we chanting?”
“Yup, might take a while and a few trembles but it’ll work. Now place the book in the middle, then slide it slightly upward, only by a few inches.”
“Very specific Annabelle. Why this?”
“In case someone does come and get it, they have to do the math to figure out how the hell to get it out of 200 feet of dirt. Ready?”
“Always, baby.”
“Maleficis mortuorum ego autem,” we say together in slow rhythm, “thesaurum istum in vasis vestris hold ponere.”
The ground begins to rumble, the building shaking entirely, candles blowing out. Annabelle steps back, motioning me to do the same. Then I see the book twirling on the floor, counter clockwise, going deeper and deeper.
“Taurine in alieno,” we continue to say, “genre Lockwood militem.”
The rumbling continues, shaking as the dirt falls down on us. When the last candle blows out, the rumbling stops, and the book is no longer there. I suddenly feel my soul leave me and I open my eyes, still facing Annabelle.
“Your ancestors are here,” she says.
I give her a confused look, she then points behind me and I see a slew of beautiful women lined against the door. Smiling at me, one of appears, her memorizing figure walks slowly towards me, her hand touching my cheek.
“Bienvenido, Lockwood,” she says before firmly slapping my hands.
When suddenly come back to reality, my hands stinging in pain. I look at it and see blood oozing out, but not a lot.
“They needed your blood toward the book. In case someone does get their hand on it, they would need your blood or my blood to actually open the book,” Annabelle says wrapping my palms slowly.
I see her eyes are fixated on the blood, but she does try her best to ignore it. She quickly collects the candles, placing them all in one pile, leaving them there, “In case kids decide to try spell binding.”
“They were really my ancestors?” I finally ask.
“Yup. Although most of your ancestors descended from Africa, namely Oromo, in Ethiopia nowadays, some of them manage to find themselves in Spain, in not so...willing way.”
“I know what you mean. How do you know all this?”
“Research.”
“You did research on me?”
“Had to. It was bugging me since I first met you. I just needed to know.”
“Well, you also need to know my performance in bed. So let’s get on out of here and I’ll show you what you are missing.”
“Not so fast tiger, we still have things to do.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we are going to Italy. Time for you to meet my mother.”
Chapter 17
Elijah
Suffice to say, I didn’t get a chance to show her what I can do. Instead, she practically trained me with a whole bunch of spells, pronouncing it right and getting the right ingredients. As the plane descends in Italy, I look over to her, very concentrated on her phone.
“Any news?”
“No. I am officially worried about her,” she sighs tossing the phone on the other side of her seat.
Flashback.
“Elijah, seriously stop. Eventually, you’ll get it, nobody completes a spell in one day, let alone a spell that requires a lot of energy,” she soothes my shoulder.
“I look and feel like a complete fraud. I am no Lockwood descent,” I huff out in anger, crumbling my paper.
“You’ll never when your magic will come at full circle. It takes time,” she looks at her ringing phone, “Its Anna. Hold on.”
She gives me one last smile and answers the phone, “Hey Anna, whats wrong?”
“What?” Annabelle gets up, looking at me. She then puts it on speaker for me to hear.
“Annabelle, he is dead. Dead. Freddie is dead. I found him in his dorm, pale. His eyes wide open, they look like to be in fear. I see two bite marks, I think a vampire got to him. Annabelle, what the hell. Annabelle, please do you know who did this?”
“Is there any evidence in the room? Like footprints? Um, a note?”
“No, Annabelle. Nothing. He’s gone, Jax tried giving him blood but he won’t wake up.”
“Jax?”
“Yeah, I am right here,” I hear Jax’s voice take over.
“Listen, Jax, it’s going to be hard but you have to get Anna away from there. You both don’t want to look like an accomplice to murder.”
“We already called the cops, they are on their way, Annabelle.”
“Ugh, fine. This sounds terrible, but send me a photo of Freddie. I need to examine the bite marks. And grab a few strands of his hair, or get some fingerprints.”
“Annabelle, why are you doing that,” Anna asks.
“Because I am going to connect with him, in the dead. Jax, send it to my house. Anna, listen very carefully, you have to stay with Jax or my brother, whoever. I know you can protect yourself, you are stronger than you realize. However, this could be the work of other beings far greater than you. We...can’t bring him back, but we can avenge him. You got that?”
“Of course,” she sobs.
“Jax, let me know when everything is done.”
“Bye Annabelle,” he hangs up the phone.
The notification sound stops my daydreaming and I see Annabelle furrowed her eyebrows. She gets up and leaves the plane, heading to the tarmac. I quickly follow her, thanking the pilot and grabbing our bags.
“Ciao, porta una macchina a noleggio e dammi le chiavi. Non dirlo a nessuno, lo restituirò l’ultimo giorno di questa settimana,” Annabelle says as she grabs the man’s shoulders.
{Translation: Hello, bring a rental car and give me the keys. Tell no one about this, I will return it on the last day of this week.}
“Um, Annabelle?” I finally ask as I see a man run to one of the cars.
“Yes,” she says hastily.
“Was there an update?”
“Yes. Police don’t know what to rule it, so Jax said it was murder. Anna is scared to death, but she is staying with Jax. Jax send the things I need to my house and we need to get there before the full moon.”
“Why full...oh.”
“Yup. I have to turn every full moon, no matter where I go. It so happens to be this day,” she yanks the keys from the driver and sends him off, “And Elijah, right now, I am not in the mood. The drive will be silent, so I hope you brought earphones.”
“
Ditto,” I put the luggage in the car.
***
Annabelle
I grip the steering wheel tight, leaving a dent when I realize I was also holding my breath. I roll my eyes seeing the damage, turning to the forests of Italy. I usually visit my home every other year, normally alone hardly with Zeke.
I barely bring anyone so it’s a stepping stone to bring Elijah here to where I was born, in where I was created.
I know Daryl and Aldridge had something to do with Freddie’s murder, I recognize those bite marks anywhere. I can’t believe I let Freddie die like that, I thought he was better off not associating with us but it turns out I am wrong.
I resume gripping the steering wheel, holding back tears. I felt like I let everybody down, especially Anna since I have grown fond of her. I thought of Zeke and Danni, worried that something might happen to them.
“Hello, sis,” Zeke’s voice scatters in the car, “You okay?”
“Are you okay?” I ask trying to hide the gulp lodge in my throat.
“No. I am not. Danni is with Anna, we just had Freddie’s funeral. They are both pretty shaken up, we...I sold the house.”
“I figured. Where are we staying?”
“We are moving to Portland, but right now we are staying in San Francisco. It wasn’t easy convincing Anna and Danni’s parents, but we did it, without compulsion too so I say we won something.”
“I bet the Alpha didn’t let Danni go without a fight.”
“About that...”
“Zeke.”
“We had to get married, so I can take her in our pack. We have a new member of the Silver Moon Pack.”
I hit on the brakes hard, Elijah knocking his head on the dashboard. I get out of the car, slamming the door hard, breaking the window, and I ran out. I ran into the woods, jumping up and shifting to my form.
Elijah
Well, that was unexpected.
I see Annabelle run then turned and ran again. I massage my head, feeling the pain, looking around at my surroundings.
“Annabelle?” I hear Zeke’s voice.
“Yeah, she just shifted and ran off into the forest. Do I wait for her?” I respond.
“No,” he sighs, “You got a car with you?”