The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven

by Jessica Miller

  We made it outside without any more interference. “What the hell is going on!?!” Josie asked.

  “My father, that’s what’s going on,” I growled.

  “Your father?” Josef asked a little breathless.

  “Short version…not really supposed to be here.”

  “Come on, we need to go,” Josie said, tugging on my arm.

  “What’s the quickest way out of here?” I asked Josef.

  “This way,” he said as the door swung open and people began to pour out. I was knocked away from my friends. “Ella!” I turned in the direction of his voice and froze. In front of me was one of my father’s men. I tried using my powers to throw him into the crowd but they weren’t working.

  “What the hell?”

  He smiled and came after me. I attacked. It was hard fighting in this damn dress and I was losing. “Billy!” I shrieked.

  Billy pushed his way through the crowd and ripped the guy away from me. “Josie now!” he yelled.

  “What?”

  Before I knew it she grabbed me and then we were no longer in the alley. I blinked and we came crashing down on the floor of our hotel room. I sat up slowly, my head was spinning and I was seeing dark spots. “Sorry, I never done that before with another person,” Josie admitted.

  I went to stand on weak legs only to fall back down and then throw up in the nearest trash can. “Uh yeah, I probably should have warned you it can be a little disorienting until you get used to it.”

  “You also need to work on sticking your landing,” I grumbled before I passed out.

  Chapter Four

  When I finally came to, I had a pounding headache and my ankle was throbbing. I was lying on the bed in our hotel room. I sat up slowly and looked around the room. Josie and Cameron were curled up on the other bed and Dean and Billy sat around the table discussing something intently.

  “Hey, you’re awake,” Dean said, turning his attention to me. I swung my legs off the side of the bed and tried to stand up. I fell back as soon as I put pressure on my ankle. “Careful,” Dean said, catching me, and helping me back on the bed. “I think you might have sprained your ankle.”

  “Great, just great – more like Josie sprained my ankle,” I thought.

  “I’ll get you some ice,” Billy said, leaving the room.

  I looked at Dean. “Okay, so what the hell happened tonight?”

  The look on his face told me he was afraid to tell me. “I think dad knows where we are,” he said, sitting next to me on the bed.

  “Then where is he?” I asked, pissed that he would go to all that trouble just to catch us.

  “I don’t know, but I think this was a warning.”

  “A warning for what?”

  “That he means business and if we don’t come home soon this could get ugly.”

  “It already got ugly. Seriously, someone could have got hurt because of those people.”

  “Ella, I think you did more damage than they did.”

  I stifled an eye roll. “That was an accident.”

  “Accident or not you definitely brought attention to us.”

  “So now what do we do?”

  “We lay low for a while.” I opened my mouth to protest but Dean stopped me. “Ella, dad knows how powerful you are and once he hears about this incident I’m sure he’ll be on the first flight out here.”

  I got up slowly and hobbled my way over to my bag and started packing. “What are you doing?” Dean asked.

  “We’re getting out of here,” I said.

  “And where are we going to go?”

  “To another hotel.”

  He got up and stopped me. “Ella, that doesn’t matter. Where ever we go he will find us.”

  “You don’t know that for sure and I’m not gonna sit around and wait to find out. You can stay here if you want but I’m not going to let him get me.” He sighed and let me go. He knew when I meant business and there was no use in arguing with me.

  “I think I have an idea of where you can go where he won’t find you,” Josef said, making me forget he was even there. “You guys can come stay with us,” he suggested.

  “Josef, we can’t do that.”

  “I insist and so would my grandparents.” I looked at him doubtful. “Trust me, it’s the safest place you can be right now and he won’t find you there.”

  I thought it over for a moment. He might actually be right. My dad wouldn’t expect us to know anyone there so he would think we would be staying at a hotel. “Okay, yes. We’ll come stay with you, but this is only temporary.”

  “Of course,” he said with a slight smile.

  I woke up Josie and Cameron and told them to pack their things. “What’s going on?” Josie asked groggily.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” I told her. She didn’t ask any questions. She just grabbed her things and stuffed them into her bag. Billy came back with ice. One look at us and he knew something was up. “Get your things,” was all I said.

  Once we were all packed up, we headed down to the car. Billy gave me a piggyback to help keep pressure off of my ankle. Then we loaded into the car and set off to Josef’s house.

  Josef told his grandfather that we needed a place to crash for a while with no further explanation. Caleb didn’t ask any questions as to why we showed up in the middle of the night. Instead he helped us get situated and told us we were welcome to stay as long as we needed. I smiled at him graciously while Billy and Dean collected our things from the car. Caleb told us we could sleep in Josef’s room and the boys could sleep on the couches. I didn’t argue. I was too tired at the moment and my ankle was killing me.

  Josef showed us to his room and handed us some clean sheets and blankets. Then he returned with an ice pack for my ankle. “Thank you,” I told him. “For everything.”

  “It’s no problem,” he smiled bashfully.

  “Okay, well, goodnight then,” I said, closing the door.

  I needed sleep and to get out of this horrible dress. The moment I unzipped it I could finely breathe. I slipped into some pajamas and then crawled into the tiny bed with Josie and Cameron who were already asleep. The second I closed my eyes there was a knock on the door. “Ella?” Billy whispered.

  “Come in,” I called.

  He let himself in and right away handed me a bottle. “This will help your ankle.” I mumbled thanks and said goodnight.

  I lasted only hour. I couldn’t take all of Josie’s hitting and kicking. Normally she wasn’t this bad, but I guess being in a strange place made her restless. I sat up and looked around the room. There was a small bench seat slash sofa over by the window. I grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and made myself comfortable.

  The sun was gleaming brightly through the shades very early in the morning. Way too early for me, so I pulled the covers up over my head to block out the light. I felt someone kick the sofa. I grumbled to myself and they kicked it again. “What?” I said annoyed. No one answered. Instead they just kicked the bench so hard I fell off and got tangled up in the blanket.

  I pulled the blanket off and looked up at the culprit. It was Deirdre. She was standing above me with her arms crossed. “You come with me,” she said.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep my anger in check.

  “Since you admire my garden so much I thought you should know what it’s like to keep up with it.”

  “I don’t really like it that much,” I mumbled.

  She just smiled at me wickedly. “Hurry up, it’s late,” she said, walking out. I looked over at the clock. It was six a.m. – seriously, this woman was working on my last nerve. If they weren’t so gracious to have let five complete strangers stay at their house no questions asked, I would have laughed in her face and went back to sleep, but she was Tristan’s grandmother.

  I reluctantly got up and went outside. There were about ten twenty pound bags of soil sitting by the back porch. Along with shovels, gardening tools, and what not.

  She pointed to t
he bags and told me to carry them down to the end of the garden lining them up along the way. I hadn’t realized how large the garden was at first. From where I was standing it looked like a half a mile long. I stood there not sure until Deirdre started nudging me in the direction of the soil. “Okay, okay,” I said.

  I spent the next hour trudging bags of soil up and down the garden. Then she handed me some tools and told me to start digging. I took off the first layer of my shirt leaving me in my tank top. It was hot and I was sweating like a pig. I pulled my hair back and wiped the sweat from my brow. Half way through digging and pulling weeds, Deirdre got up and headed back inside. “Are we done?” I asked. She ignored me and kept walking.

  Ten minutes later she came back out with a fresh glass of lemonade. I was about to thank her until she threw a bottle of water at me and told me to keep working. Then she lectured me on the horrible job I was doing and told me I was slacking. Then proceeded to go sit down in the shade and sip her lemonade. It took everything I had not to throw something at her. I kept reminding myself that she was an elderly woman and it wouldn’t be a fair fight. I just glared at her from over my shoulder and she just sat there smiling.

  I never thought I would get finished. Thankfully Josef came out and offered to help me. We spent the next two hours working in the garden while Deirdre watched. Turns out, Josef is quite the talker. He had a lot of similarities to Tristan. Same dark hair, same physique, the only difference in their appearance was that Josef’s eyes were light blue unlike Tristan’s which were dark blue, and two totally different personalities. Josef was very sweet and very mature for his age and you could tell he was brought up right and knew how to respect others as oppose to Tristan’s spoiled and carefree nature.

  “Breakfast is done!” Josie called.

  “Oh thank god. I’m starving,” I complained.

  “Well come on then,” Josef said, offering me a hand. I wiped all the dirt off on my jeans and headed into the kitchen. I took a seat at the table where the girls had made a wonderful breakfast.

  “You, up,” Deirdre pointed at me. “You will not sit at my table covered in dirt. You clean up before you eat.” She pulled my chair from the table with me still in it and waited until I got up. I stared at her and she stood there with her arms crossed. I sighed and got up to go clean up, but not before stealing some bacon off the table when she wasn’t looking.

  I did feel better after I showered. It was good to get all that dirt and sweat off. By the time I was done, everyone had finished eating and was already cleaning up. “Don’t worry I saved you a plate,” Josef said.

  Just as I sat down to eat Deirdre turned to look at me. “What? I showered?”

  “You took too long breakfast is over,” she said, taking my plate. I was able to shovel some eggs in my mouth and swipe a piece of toast before she took it. “Now you clean.”

  “I didn’t even get to eat?”

  “Not my fault you dilly dawdled.”

  “Thank you Deirdre. That was a wonderful breakfast,” Dean said, rubbing his stomach, indicating he was full.

  “You’re welcome Dean. You go on into the living room. Ella has a lot of cleaning up to do.”

  I scowled at both of them. Why was she being so sweet to Dean and treating me like her maid? “What can I say? It must be my charming personality,” Dean said in my head. I looked at him surprised. “Ella, you’re my sister, I know you. I don’t have to read your mind to know what you’re thinking.”

  I wished sometimes he could read my mind so he’d know how much of an ass he could be and how I wanted to punch him in the face. He just smiled as if he knew and walked away.

  Josef was nice enough to help me with the dishes. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have knocked his grandmother out by now. I know, why put up with it? Because this was Tristan’s grandmother and he cared for her deeply and they were nice enough to let us stay the night. “So, how long do plan on staying here?” Josef asked.

  “In Ireland?”

  “Ireland, the house,” he threw in casually.

  “I don’t think my body could take another day like this,” I joked. “I think once we know my father is off our trail we’ll head back to a hotel.” There was a slight disappointed look on his face. “As far as how long I’ll be in Ireland? I’m not sure, a week, two, who knows?” He perked up knowing I’d be around for a little while at least.

  When we finished the dishes we headed into the living room to relax. I heard a familiar voice and I froze. I was half tempted to run, but I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later. “What are you doing here?” I asked stunned.

  “I should ask you the same thing,” my father said, scrutinizing me with his eyes.

  “How did you even find me?” I narrowed my eyes at Dean thinking he wasn’t on my side after all.

  “I had nothing to do with this,” Dean projected in my head.

  “You think you can go anywhere and I not find out?” my dad laughed. “The question isn’t how I found you. It’s why I had to come here in the first place. You have any idea what you have done?”

  I was about to plead my case when my dad’s eyes went wide and his skin turned paler than normal. “Hey Ella have you seen –” Josie began when she came out of the bedroom. She paused when she saw my father. “Um…hi Mr. McCallister,” Josie said sweetly.

  “How, how is this possible? How…I was there…I…” I never saw my dad stumble over his words so badly.

  I knew Josie loved the surprised reactions on people’s faces when they saw her for the first time. She smiled and said, “Long story short, I’m an angel.”

  “Fallen?” my dad asked confused.

  “Gee whiz, why does everyone say that? I didn’t think I was that bad when I –”

  “Josie, technically you are…what did you say…grounded?”

  “That’s beside the point and if I remember correctly it was to save your butt.”

  “Enough,” my dad interrupted. “Do your parents know?”

  “No and I’d like to keep it that way. At least until I know for sure what is going to happen to me?”

  “Understood,” he nodded respectfully at Josie. “Now if you’ll excuse me I would like to talk to my son and daughter…alone.”

  “Yes sire,” Caleb said, giving my dad a slight bow. I looked him thinking why in the hell is bowing and why did he call him sire? “Are you sure there’s nothing I can get you?”

  “No, thank you. Just a few moments alone with my son and daughter, if you don’t mind?”

  “Of course,” Caleb said, bowing again, and walking backwards out of the room. I looked at Josef and he just shrugged his shoulders following him out of the room.

  Deirdre gave me a smartass look as if my displeasure pleased her. I glared at her as she walked out of the room followed by Cameron and Billy. I whispered to Josie on the way out. “If you don’t hear from me in twenty minutes call the cops.”

  “Ella, he’s not that bad,” she said, looking over her shoulder, and then turned quickly back to me. “On second thought, it was nice knowing ya.” I glared as she joined everyone else on the back deck to give us privacy.

  My dad didn’t hesitate to start screaming at me. “What the hell would possess you to drop out of school and fly to Ireland? We had a deal Ella and now you have broken that deal.”

  “No, I haven’t,” I said calmly. “I did not drop out. I just…took a mini vacation if that’s what you want to call it.”

  “I’m not in the mood for your smartass comments,” he warned.

  “Look dad,” I began, taking a breath so I wouldn’t let my anger get the best of me. “I’m an adult now. You can’t control me anymore.”

  “Then start acting like one!” he yelled, making me flinch. That vein in his neck started to bulge like it normally does. “You have any idea what you have done? The reason I had to come out here in the first place?”

  “What are you talking about?” I scowled.

  “Your actions
have consequences Ella. That little stunt you pulled at the club has caused a lot of problems.”

  “How do you even know about that?”

  “One of the councilmen’s daughters was at that club that night. She said some very powerful witch took out twenty men with a single flick of her wrist.”

  Shows what she knows. I’m a wanderer not a witch. “Obviously it wasn’t me. She said it was a witch.”

  “Nice try. Any of our kind knows that there is no witch that has that kind of power at such a young age.”

  “Still that could have been anybody. That doesn’t mean it was me.”

  “She also said the girl had long, black hair with blue streaks and tattoos.”

  Crap.

  “Well maybe if you haven’t sent your henchman after me none of this would have happened. And he’s a tip, if you want to be a little less conspicuous maybe they shouldn’t have all shown up in black trench coats.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose indicating he was trying hard not to flip. “Ella, do you realize you put several of those men in the hospital?” I smiled smugly, causing him to glare at me. “Ella, this is serious.”

  “What did you expect me to do?” I yelled frustrated. “I felt threatened. If someone attacks me I’m going to fight back and how was I supposed to know they worked for you? They could have been sent by anyone. They could have been working for Jack for all I knew.”

  “You can’t just take off in the middle of the night and fly halfway across the country! You have idea what could happen to you? Ella, you don’t get it. There are so many more reasons why we were so protective of you. We knew you were going to be powerful, but we had no idea you would be this powerful and this is just the start. Your powers aren’t even fully developed yet.”

  “Well than what’s the problem? If I’m as powerful as you say I am then I should have no difficulty defending myself.”

  “Because it makes you a constant target,” he sighed, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Ella, why do you think I stressed you going to Hamilton Hill. It was because there I knew you could learn how to defend yourself only if you needed to. To learn about our kind and keep you safe.”