by G. K. DeRosa
“Yeah, and I think we would have remembered if it had glowed when mother used to wear it,” added Nico. He had always been a momma’s boy, tottering around behind her wherever she went.
“I’m going to look into this and perhaps consult with the witches. Though your mother lost her powers when she was turned, perhaps this ring held some special significance.”
“I’m glad I gave it to Celeste. Perhaps it really does give its owner strength,” said Roman.
Stellan looked flustered. “I’m afraid there’s one more thing she left out.” The brothers picked their heads up, furrowing their eyebrows in unison. “Her ring was stolen by the werewolves.”
Celeste rolled over drowsily as the setting sun shined in through the window. Her eyelids still felt so heavy, but she knew she had to get up. Opening her eyes, she was startled when she saw Roman’s face just inches from hers.
“Sorry,” he said standing up abruptly, his cheeks rosy. “I thought you were still asleep.”
“I wish I was,” she said wearily. “But I should probably get home. I’m sure Mom and Aunt Maddie must be worried about me.”
Roman stood by the bed uneasily, wanting to stay but feeling compelled to leave. “Don’t worry about that, Stellan already called them to tell them you were here.”
“Good,” she said, “but I should probably get going anyway.” Roman nodded and began to walk out of the room. She pushed herself up off the bed and let out a slight groan.
He was back at her side in a flash. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said shaking out her shoulders. “I’m just a bit sore from the fighting.”
Roman noticed the scrapes and bruises running down her arms and legs, and he felt terrible he hadn’t thought of it sooner. “Do you want some of my blood to heal you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sure I’ll heal on my own soon.” She knew it would be wrong to take his blood. She couldn’t have it both ways. It wasn’t right to be mad at him for his vampire attributes and then benefit from them when it suited her.
Tentatively, Roman reached out and gently began rubbing her neck and back. Her body began to relax under his strong hands, and she sighed reflexively as she leaned into him.
“I can’t do this!” she blurted out, suddenly springing away from him. Roman pulled his hands back as if they had been burned, a flash of hurt consuming his eyes. “I’m sorry, but it’s still too soon,” she said.
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s my fault,” he muttered.
“I have to go,” she said as she turned away from him and began hastily collecting her things.
Roman accompanied her to the door, but before she disappeared through the threshold, Roman stopped her. “Celeste, wait! Please be careful – Stellan told us about the ring. I don’t know what it all means yet, but I will find out. I promise you.” She nodded and with a wistful glance, walked out the door.
It had been a long walk from Roman’s apartment back to her house, but Celeste found the chilly breeze reinvigorating. She needed the time alone with her thoughts, and when she stepped up onto her porch, she was feeling somewhat better. Mrs. Wilder and Aunt Maddie ran to the door as soon as she stepped foot through the entryway. They had been anxiously awaiting her arrival since receiving the call from Stellan. Her mother and aunt took turns hugging her, and a few tears were shed from all sides.
“I’m fine, Mom,” she said, as her mother fussed over her. Roman had tended to her cuts and scrapes while she had been sleeping, so they weren’t quite as nasty anymore. But her mother was a nurse who prided herself on the ability to heal others, so in spite of Celeste’s rebuttals, she hurried off to get her first aid kit.
“Let her do it,” said Aunt Maddie, taking her hand and leading her to the sofa. “It gives her the illusion of control. Watching you go off and fight like that is hard on her, so at least with this she feels like she can help out.”
Celeste was in no mood to take advice from her aunt now that she knew she had been lied to all along. Celeste turned away, gathering her thoughts. “How could you not tell me that you’re not a guardian anymore?” Celeste accused, spinning to face her.
Aunt Maddie paled and abruptly stood up, walking to the window. Without turning around she said, “How could I tell you? How could I tell my amazing niece, possibly one of the most promising guardians in the world, the thing that has brought me the most shame?” She hung her head and her shoulders slumped, never dropping her gaze out the window.
Mrs. Wilder’s footsteps came rushing down the stairs, and both women stopped speaking. As she walked in, the first aid kit tight in her hand, she noticed the tense silence and shook her head knowingly. She sat next to her daughter on the couch and got to work.
“Ouch!” squealed Celeste as her mother dabbed rubbing alcohol on the long gash down her forearm. Rocky padded over to her, his big brown eyes looking at her in concern. She patted him on the head, and he rewarded her with a slobbery lick.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she said as she touched her arm softly, “but you know that these cuts have to be cleaned properly or they’ll get infected.” Celeste sat obediently as her mom reapplied alcohol to each of her cuts, then put antibiotic cream on them, and finally covered every last one with bandages of various sizes. Throughout the procedure, her aunt sat by the window, her eyes glazed over as though her thoughts were somewhere far away.
“There! All better,” said her mom with a satisfied grin. It reminded Celeste of when she was young, and her mom would kiss her boo-boos and make them all better with the magic of love and Disney character Band-Aids.
After examining her mom’s work, Celeste stood up, but before she could round the couch, Aunt Maddie grabbed her by her good arm. “Wait, please. I want to explain.” Celeste almost pulled away, but when she looked into her aunt’s hazel eyes she could see the pain just under the surface. Her eyes were the mirror image of her dad’s, the warm hazel color speckled with hints of green and caramel, and Celeste felt moved to listen to her. She owed it to her dad. Her mother gave her an encouraging nod and Celeste sighed, then turned to face her aunt.
With a deep breath, Maddie began, “I told you how tough it was for me when I was first chosen to be the Guardian. The Council dispatched me to a strange place where I knew no one, and I was asked to fight and save people that meant nothing to me. I only had one person, one man who was the world to me.” She paused and hastily swiped at the tear that had begun to roll down her cheek. “Maks was my teacher, my mentor, my best friend, and I fell in love with him.”
Celeste’s own heart clenched as she watched her aunt struggle with her emotions. Celeste reached out her hand and squeezed her aunt’s.
Maddie continued, “We knew we shouldn’t get involved, and we fought our feelings for years. He was in St. Petersburg and I was in Warsaw, and I was so young. But it was impossible to hide, not after training and fighting side by side for so long. Maks requested a reassignment so that we could be near each other and when it was granted we finally gave in; we gave us a shot. We were happy for a while…” She smiled wistfully, her gaze again gone to that far off place. Mrs. Wilder put her hand on Maddie’s shoulder, and she snapped back to the present.
“What happened?” whispered Celeste, completely engrossed in the story. She couldn’t believe her straight-laced aunt could have ever done anything against the rules.
“We had finally moved in together. I was twenty-four, and we were planning on getting married the following year. It was a quiet Wednesday night in the middle of summer, and the two of us went out on patrol. Our route generally covered the Old Town of Warsaw, as that was where all the tourists were, and they made the most unsuspecting victims. We had just passed the Royal Castle when we heard a muffled cry down one of the small side streets. Maks went first, and I followed right behind. A dark shadow sped away as we approached, leaving behind a young blonde woman lying on the cobblestone road. She had a gaping wound in her neck and warm
blood still flowing from it. Maks ripped off the sleeve of his shirt and wrapped it around her neck, then directed me to go for help. I did as he said, and when I came back with the ambulance just a few minutes later, he and the woman were gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” asked Celeste, shooting up from the couch.
“When we walked back down the street we found more blood and when I couldn’t find Maks anywhere, we called the police. I later found out that the blood at the scene was a match for his, along with an unknown female.”
“The blonde lady that had gotten bitten?” Celeste asked.
“Yes, I suppose so. They never found her either,” she finished.
“I’m so sorry that you lost Maks, Aunt Maddie,” said Celeste as she wrapped her arms around her aunt. “But I still don’t understand why you went rogue?”
“I had a feeling that whatever had attacked the woman must have come back for her after I left and found Maks instead. He was a strong fighter, and there was no way just any vampire could have taken him down. So I spent the next few months trying to put the pieces together to figure out what happened. I started to neglect my guardian duties and I got into some trouble. I was so hell bent on revenge that I didn’t care about anything else anymore,” she said.
“So you just left?” asked Celeste.
“I was about to. I was going to find and kill the vampire that took Maks away from me, even if that meant following him to the ends of the earth. But one night as I patrolled alone, I rounded a corner and found myself face to face with Maks. Only it wasn’t really him, not anymore anyway. He was a monster. His fangs were buried in the neck of a young girl and as he looked up at me, I saw nothing of the man I once loved. I turned around and I ran.”
“Oh my God, Aunt Maddie, that’s terrible!” The similarity of the scene that her aunt witnessed to her vision of Roman made Celeste’s skin crawl. “Did you ever see him again?”
“No,” she said with a frown. “I looked for him though. I searched all over Eastern Europe for him for years. And that’s why I left and gave up my Guardian duty. But I never stopped being a Guardian, not really anyway. I was always a hunter at heart, and as I searched, I protected the innocent and I killed demons.”
“That’s why you hate vampires so much. That day with Roman when you first arrived – it all makes sense now,” said Celeste.
She nodded her head slowly. “Now you know the real story about ‘crazy’ Aunt Maddie.”
“You’re not crazy,” said Celeste, putting an arm around her aunt’s shoulder. “You were in love.”
Stellan peered up over his horn-rimmed glasses as Roman walked into his study. He had been nose deep in an old Wicka book and appeared irritated at the intrusion. After Celeste left, Roman had come back to Stellan’s to help research his mother’s ring.
Disregarding Stellan’s cross expression, Roman cleared his throat and began. “I was thinking that the attack in Astor and Celeste’s ring could somehow be connected.” Stellan’s scowl lessened, his interest piqued. He motioned for Roman to take a seat. “How much do you know about Dalla?”
This time an uneasy air crept across Stellan’s face. “I know her well enough. Why?”
“I was searching for more information about my mother’s ring, and as it turns out, both my mom and Dalla are from the same coven of witches. Don’t you think that’s a strange coincidence?” asked Roman. Stellan nodded his head. “But still the more important question remains: why would Brazen and his pack have any reason to attack Astor or steal the ring?”
Stellan let out a sigh and rubbed his temples wearily. There was something both men were missing, and he felt it – a little glimmer of a connection that he just couldn’t grasp. “I was aware that Dalla and Lilliana were in the same coven. As you know, your mother was part of the Council for a short time before she met your father. Their coven, the Albsurori, was very powerful and frequently worked side by side with the Council and many guardians.”
“Do you know Dalla well?” he pointedly asked again.
“Yes, I do. I’ve known her for many years. We have history, as they say, and I can say without a doubt that she had nothing to do with this.” Stellan appeared irritated at the insinuation.
“You’re sure about that?” Roman pushed. “Because according to this,” he held out a book that he had behind his back and opened it to a page that had been marked. “My mother’s ring was pretty powerful, and it’s been missing for decades. It belonged to the leader of the Albsurori and was passed down for generations.”
Stellan read the ancient script and his eyes widened. “It magnifies natural power,” he read aloud. As he continued reading, he discovered that the possessor of the ring was endowed with great strength and amplification of his or her natural abilities. The first leader of the Albsurori coven had been gifted the ring by a wizard centuries ago, and since then it had been passed on through their descendants in utmost secrecy.
“Then why did my mother have it?” asked Roman.
A wistful smile crossed Stellan’s tired face. “She was destined to be the head of the Albsurori. She was to marry Fabian, and with their combined magic, they would have been the most powerful rulers the supernatural world had ever seen.”
Roman paused to contemplate how different everything would have been had his mother never met his father. Would Fabian have been his father? Would he have become the cruel monster that wreaked havoc on all their lives? He shook his head, pushing away the bad memories. “So my mom had been given the ring and inadvertently ran off with it when she and my father escaped.”
“That’s what I presume. It’s likely that your mother never knew the power that the ring held. Shortly after she went into hiding, the head of her coven was killed and a new leader, Marja, was chosen. Perhaps Marja never even knew of the ring.”
“That would make sense. With the old coven leader dead, and my mom in hiding, there would have been no one to pass down the secret of the ring,” said Roman as he put the pieces together.
“Unfortunately, this doesn’t get us any closer to finding out who stole the ring or why,” stated Stellan.
“Doesn’t it though?” asked Roman. “What if the witches found out about the ring somehow just like we did, and they came after it.”
“No, Roman, you are wrong. The Albsurori are good; they would never cause such death and destruction. They have always been close allies to the guardians. If they had known about the ring, they would have simply asked for it to be returned to them.”
Roman grunted. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he decided to drop the subject for now. There was one thing they knew for certain: Brazen and his werewolves had played a part in this. And that was where they would start.
***
Celeste rummaged through her closet in search of a cute outfit for girls’ day at the mall. She was looking forward to a day of normalcy with Natalie. The problem was that all of her clothes either had blood or weird goo stains on them, or were torn and frayed from altercations with supernatural adversaries. Why can’t I just be a normal teenager?
As she continued searching, she heard a tap tap tap coming from outside. She spun around to see a snowy white falcon perched on her windowsill. Throwing her hands up in the air, she crossed the room and unlatched the lock. Nico flew in, popping back into human form before his talons hit the ground.
“Hey, sorry to barge in on you like this,” he said, trying to avert his eyes when he realized Celeste was still in her pajamas.
“It’s fine,” she said. She couldn’t help but notice that Nico had come instead of Roman. She felt a little twinge at the slight even though she was the one who told Roman to keep his distance. “What’s wrong now?”
“Nothing major,” he said, “but Roman and Stellan found out why someone might have wanted to steal that ring from you.” Celeste’s eyes widened. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“Great,” she muttered with a grimace, but sat down anyway.
�
��It turns out that our mom’s ring was no ordinary piece of jewelry. It belonged to the Albsurori witch coven – the coven that my mom, and coincidentally, Dalla were from. Anyway, to make a long story short, the ring has magical powers and it amplifies the owner’s abilities.”
Celeste gaped. “So that’s why I’m so good? And the beam of light from my sword – it was the ring…” Her head was reeling from the realization. All those times that she had fought deadly supernatural creatures and won, it hadn’t been her; it was the ring. There wasn’t anything special about her at all.
“Hey,” said Nico, bending down in front of her and taking her hand. “You are good, no, you are great! This just gave you a little edge, that’s all.”
Celeste chewed on her lower lip, willing the tears back from the corners of her eyes. “Right,” she said, setting her jaw so that her voice wouldn’t quiver.
“But now that you know, we just wanted you to be extra careful, okay?” said Nico. “You know how Roman is; he always worries about you. I know you can handle yourself though.” He gave her an encouraging smile and a cuff to the chin.
Celeste leaned in and gave him a big hug. “Thanks Nico. You always know how to make me feel better.”
“Happy to oblige,” he said, standing. “I gotta run, but I’ll see you soon. And call me if you run into any trouble. I know you and Roman aren’t in the best place right now, but I’m still the Alfred to your Batman.”
Celeste giggled. “Where are you going anyway?” She could see he was anxious to leave which roused her suspicions.
He paused, contemplating his response. “I’m just running off to meet Roman. We wanted to have a few words with the werewolves.”
“You’re going to see the werewolves without me?” questioned Celeste, standing up with hands on her hips.