Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1)

by Sheryl Lee

  “Yes it is, but that’s not what I meant. Feel it, can you feel it warming up under your fingers, or is it cold?”

  “It’s cold, it’s often cold for no real reason. I hold it and it warms up again.”

  “It’s cold right now because of its properties. It’s been in your family for generations. A fairy known to one of your ancestors spelled it so that it can sense supernatural beings. It goes cold when you are near one. Pay it attention, if you miss the signs in yourself it will warn you.”

  Zora looked down at the ordinary looking stone, and back at Powers. It was cold, but thinking about it, she was sure it was not cold but warm back at the crime scene. And did he say fairy?!

  “We will get to fairies later, you’ll be meeting one. For now, believe that the pendant will help you. I think right now it would be cool and not cold, as I am bound to you as your guardian. The werewolf is a rogue, and it is because of such as it that your family was bespelled. In truth I do not know much more, but you will learn from someone who does.”

  Zora held up a hand. “Ok, back the information bus up there Powers. Fairies, spells, rogue werewolves, what do you mean bound to me?”

  “I’m not handling this at all well. Ok, your mother introduced us because our families have been intertwined for generations. There is always a Barnham born to protect a Hayes. Did you never wonder why your mother kept her maiden name? The Hayes women stretch in an unbroken line of defenders and the Barnham men as their guardians. We are born some years before the women so in effect the birth of a Barnham means there is a new defender on the way.

  I was bound to you from the moment of your birth. I have felt you, seen you sometimes. I knew your face and some of your thoughts. I knew much about you and I watched from a distance. When you chose your career I knew it was the perfect way to get you to the same town so I could better protect you. It is fate that you are here, for this is the first rogue werewolf in two generations.”

  Zora held up her hand again. “Wait a minute, what do you mean we were introduced? I’ve never seen you before I’m sure. And I’ve been here for five months - you’ve never once given a clue about all of this. Why?”

  Powers sighed. “I know you have no memory of the day of the accident, which is why you don’t remember me. You mother brought you to our family to introduce us and the accident happened while you were on the way home. I didn’t know how to tell you without causing you pain, and I liked seeing you happy. But this is a rogue werewolf and it is your responsibility and mine to go after it.”

  Eyes huge in her face, every other farfetched thing he told her fleeing from her mind, Zora zeroed in on the big, big thing. “What do you mean my responsibility?! I just today learned that such things exist and the jury’s still out on that one by the way, so how can this have anything to do with me? Surely there are other families like mine that can handle this? And when you say rogue werewolf, does that mean there are not-rogue werewolves?”

  Briefly cursing his role in informing her, Powers took a deep breath.

  “First, yes there are many packs of werewolves scattered around the world. Contrary to popular fiction, werewolves are committed to living in harmony with humans – they blend in and try to protect people. But occasionally there comes a rogue, one that feels humans are nothing but prey. Families like yours and mine came about because of a fairy spell. A selection of families was chosen throughout the world and bespelled to become human defenders. Rogue werewolves prey on humans and by bespelling these human families the fairies gave them a way of protecting humankind against such a threat. You also have the ability as I said to sense other supernaturals. We the guardian families were chosen because we are shapeshifters, to help keep you safe. Each of our families was bespelled to be bound to one of the chosen human families. Obviously it’s a rather dangerous job.”

  Zora snorted, “Obviously! But again, how did this become my responsibility? I don’t even know what I am or how to do what it is that I supposedly do.”

  “It is the responsibility of the defender to take care of the rogue werewolves as they arise. Your family has always been the strongest. The reaction you had today at the crime scene was extraordinary given that you are completely untrained. When you have learned to harness your ability you will be able not only to sense it, but also to get a picture of it and even how long ago it was there and where it was headed.”

  Zora snorted again. “Don’t be absurd Powers. I was frozen to the spot and it got windy. I for sure didn’t ‘see’ anything or ‘sense’ anything beyond that it was pretty weird.”

  Powers studied her face seriously. “Are you sure Zora? Are you certain you didn’t get a picture inside your head, just a flash maybe?” Zora shook her head, then paused mid shake. There had been that flash of…no, it wasn’t anything.

  Powers saw her hesitation and leaned closer. “What is it Zora, did you see something?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not! It was just a mental flash, probably brought on by my nerves.”

  “Tell me anyway, what was this flash?”

  Sighing, Zora closed her eyes as she concentrated on remembering that moment. With the general weirdness she had dismissed it entirely. She frowned as it came back into her mind. “Eyes, yellow eyes. Not human eyes, but intelligent. And they were looking right at me.”

  Powers smiled in triumph. “You see? No training, no knowledge of what you are and still you used your natural ability. When you are trained you will receive much more information.”

  Zora was not nearly as pleased as Powers, she didn’t want to receive information on some sort of homicidal supernatural creature. For all she knew, this conduit was two-way. Now there was a scary thought!”

  “But not one to worry about. You receive, you do not transmit Zora, and werewolves are not telepathic.”

  Zora narrowed her eyes at him. “You know it’s kind of creepy the way you crawl about inside my head. I don’t think I like it.”

  “It’s been happening a lot more lately, which is not surprising since there is a werewolf in town.”

  Zora choked on the mouthful of coffee she had just taken. Until he put it like that, she hadn’t fully understood it. There was a werewolf in town. If you believed in such things, and she didn’t. Well she hadn’t this morning. She didn’t want to believe in something that had given her child self nightmares. She couldn’t even watch Twilight for goodness sakes. She looked at Powers’ hand where it rested on the small table he had pulled over to put their coffee on. So she didn’t spill hers again, she thought. Had she really seen it change into a paw?

  “Zora.” She looked up as he said her name, and almost dropped her coffee again when she saw the golden feline eyes looking back at her.

  “God Powers! Don’t do that without any warning!”

  Instantly contrite he changed back to his human eyes. “I’m sorry, I just wanted you to be quite sure you were not dreaming or imagining things.”

  Zora felt a wave of panic wash through her. “Powers I can’t do this, I don’t even know what it is I am supposed to do! I’m not prepared, I’m not trained, I’m just a human woman. What use could I be?”

  “Zora we won’t be alone. There is a fairy coming, and a vampire. They are going to meet with us here, and together we will come up with a plan.”

  Zora turned huge eyes on him. “Are you serious?? A fairy and a vampire? I thought you said this was about werewolves, why would a vampire be coming here?”

  “All supernaturals come together when there is a threat. A rogue werewolf is a threat to humans and to the balance we currently have living within your communities.”

  Zora stared at him, speechless. All the things he was saying, they were crazy. Surely if the human population shared the planet with supernatural beings word would have gotten out long before now.

  “Think Zora, you know about werewolves, vampires and fairies. But you believe they are myths. The human mind is very good at hiding from a scary truth. Generations of human
s have turned what is truth into a myth that has no power to destroy, only to scare children. But be sure, they are all real.”

  Frowning, Zora spoke her thoughts out loud, even though he probably could just read her mind. “I don’t get it. Say I can sense a supernatural, I can stand on a crime scene and see which werewolf it was and maybe where it is going. But what use it that? How does that make me strong? Surely a vampire can just suck it dry? And what about other werewolves, can’t one of them rip out its throat?”

  Powers smiled a little at the mental images her words conjured up. “Zora there are rules within the supernatural community, however a rogue falls outside of those rules. Nowadays once a rogue does something like this the supernatural community has a duty to deal with the problem. But a long time ago this was not the case; each species dealt with its rogue members as it saw fit. However there was a large human toll with that approach and the fairies especially wanted to address this issue. That is why the fairies bespelled the human families, so that within your species you also have people capable of dealing with the rogues.

  These days the supernatural community is more proactive and we band together to deal with the more difficult rogues such as we fear this one is. The defenders work with us because your abilities are very valuable. You can do more than just sense the werewolf, you can track it.”

  Zora snorted at this, and rolled her eyes mentally at that idea. “I don’t think so Powers, I can’t even find my way across town without using Google Maps, and I always lose my car in the carpark. How on earth can I track a werewolf?”

  Smiling a bigger smile, Powers continued, “Fortunately it is a different sense to your sense of direction! Once the others get here we will discuss the best way to go after the rogue.”

  “We? Me? Travel with a shapeshifter, a fairy and a vampire? And hey, why isn’t there a werewolf?”

  “We are going to go to other crime scenes, we need to learn as much as we can about this particular rogue. We believe that this is a dangerous situation that must be dealt with swiftly. One of the werewolf leaders will meet us at the first place, he lives there.”

  “But why do you all need me? All I can do is tell you it was a werewolf, and you already know that.”

  “Well there is another ability that you have Zora. Did you ever wonder what your name means?” At the shake of her head he continued, “The meaning of Zora is dawn. Hayes is from an ancient Celtic name O hAodha, or O Haye. It means fire. So your name essentially means dawn fire. And you bear this name for a good reason. If you and a werewolf meet at dawn, you have the ability to cause the werewolf to burn.”

  Zora was fully gaping at him. “You’re not serious! How on earth do I make a creature spontaneously combust? That’s crazy.”

  “You can Zora, it is part of the fairy spell. That is why the fairy is coming. Your mother would have shown you if she was still here, and it is a secret passed down from mother to daughter. This fairy is coming to teach you how be a defender.”

  “Oh my God, my life has turned into a horror movie. I just want to go home and put on my pyjamas and make a pot of tea, or maybe open a bottle of wine.”

  “I do understand how you feel, but this is real and not a movie. It is unfortunate that you are not better prepared for this, but being a defender is in your blood. I believe that you will adjust to it all very quickly if you open your mind.”

  Zora held out her empty coffee cup. “I need fortification Powers, I need time to assimilate this, but mostly I need caffeine. And then I need to go home and try to take it all in.” Powers took her cup and went wordlessly into the house. Time enough to tell her she wouldn’t be going home when she had consumed more caffeine.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Zora glared at the person sitting at the kitchen table. For once it was not Powers she was mad at, although when he had told her she would need to stay with him in his house she had been pretty unhappy. No, this was a new person – if person was the right description. This was the fairy, arrived early that morning while she was sleeping and apparently fairies were morning people. Zora hated morning people, fairies, whatever. Nobody should be cheerful so early. And besides, since when were fairies six feet four and exploding with muscles and male! And where were his wings? It was just all wrong.

  She frowned grumpily and tuned out his excessively cheerful voice as she began to search for the tea. Powers had better have decent tea in his kitchen since he’d basically shanghaied her into staying with him. Ok, it kind of made sense that she may be in danger and that time was short and it was much more efficient for them to be in the same place once the others started arriving. But still, he’d better have good tea in his kitchen. Especially since she’d had very little time to pack clothes for a few days and she forgot her special mug.

  Powers chose that moment to appear fresh from the shower. He’d disappeared as soon as the fairy – Axel, what sort of a name was that for a fairy – had been introduced. She turned her temper onto him looking so fresh and calm and edible while she was frazzled and still in her nightclothes and desperate for her tea and some earplugs. Powers smiled at the picture she made, like an angry Valkyrie in his kitchen, but one that could be appeased with a pot of tea.

  He reached into a cupboard and withdrew a teapot, her favourite type of tea (leaves, not bags) and a fine porcelain mug in exactly the style she liked best. Zora gazed suspiciously at his offerings and at him, decided that it really didn’t matter that he did that crawl in her head thing sometimes, and accepted them with a small frown. Powers deduced, correctly, that this meant thank you but don’t think it gets you off the hook for bringing this annoying person here and smiled a wider smile.

  Axel, meanwhile, had continued telling Zora about his plan for her training. Powers knew she hadn’t listened to a single word, but decided it wasn’t his business and said nothing. While Zora fussed with her tea he got the coffee machine going and waved a mug in the direction of Axel who accepted the wordless invitation with a smile. When everyone was sitting at the table, and Zora had drunk most of her first cup, Axel turned serious.

  “Zora, we have to try to cram years of training into only a few days here, and then ongoing training on the road. It’s going to be very tough to have you ready.” Axel glanced at Powers, but his expression was not accusatory for which Powers was grateful. “I understand that you have not been made aware of your heritage until just yesterday. The reasons were laudable so I am not displeased. However it does make a problem for us.”

  Powers felt a small rush of relief at the words of Axel, and acknowledged to himself that he had been concerned about the reactions of the fairies. Realising that Axel was still talking he tuned back into the conversation.

  “Of course we the fairies knew that you were unaware of your heritage little Zora, and we felt your strength. Your excursion yesterday merely confirmed your powers to us.”

  Zora stared at Axel, transfixed. There had begun to emanate from him some sort of glow. She squinted a little, trying to see more clearly. It was almost like a silver shimmer that enveloped him. Like an aura, she realised. Did this mean she could see auras now? Or only his? She shifted her gaze to Powers. Nope, he was gorgeous and he had that citrus scent thing going on, but there was no shimmer. Looking back at Axel she realised the shimmer was becoming stronger. She didn’t need to squint to see it now. As she watched – completely ignoring what Axel was saying – there seemed to be a surge in the shimmer so that for a second it seemed almost solid. Zora jumped when a handsome silver staff suddenly appeared on the table. The shimmer around Axel had gone, as though it had been transformed into the staff that had almost knocked over her teapot.

  She stared at it, then looked at Powers. She was relieved to see he was looking rather surprised at this addition to his table top. She looked back at Axel (really her head needed to be on a swivel that was more efficient than her neck) just in time to catch an odd look on his face. She couldn’t interpret it, but hey, he was a fairy, she was no expert on fa
iry facial expressions. Axel picked up the staff and then gazed at her. He stared without speaking for so long that Zora began to feel nervous and also wondered if she had a zit on her face or something.

  Finally he spoke and the tension that had begun to build up dissipated. “Little Zora, I believe you just saw a shimmer emanate from me, is that correct?”

  Zora stared in surprise, this was unexpected. Surely Powers had seen it too? She glanced at him but he was wearing an expression of incomprehension on his face. It did not sit well on him and she was sure she had not seen it before. Probably it would be the last time so she should savour the moment. Belatedly realising Axel was waiting none too patiently for her reply and he was after all a magical being, she pulled her attention back to the question.

  “You mean that silver shimmer that surrounded you?”

  She felt Powers start and tried to stop her mind from feeling satisfaction at this. Then realised that he should have sensed from her what she saw. But he clearly had not.

  Axel tapped the staff gently on the table to pull her attention back to him. “You saw the colour also? You have more power than we realised. No human has seen our power in action in generations, and I don’t think any have seen the colour. What you saw was me invoking my power to bring this staff from the palace. The aura you saw was silver for two reasons. One, I was calling on a silver object and two, the main colour of my aura of power is silver. I am silver, my mother the Queen is gold. All other fairies are colours specific to their main talents.”

  Zora put her teacup down quickly before she dropped it, and gaped at him in what she just knew was an unladylike manner. His mother the Queen? He was a Prince? The Prince of the Fairies, fairy royalty was sitting across a battered wooden table from her, waving a silver staff in her general direction, which he had just produced out of thin air. Her life was totally a paranormal television series now.