"Okay then, tell me why I would be in more danger with the knowledge of the blade than without." Then I could decide if I truly wanted to take on more strangeness or if I wanted to leave it as it was; with me obliviously going on with my witchy life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
"The blade had been passed down through generations and belonged to Alexandria's mother the last I knew. She kept it hidden away and only brought it out for ceremonial purposes." He hopped right into the history of the blade without further prompting. Finally I was getting somewhere with less and less haggling to get the end results that I needed.
"It was said to hold ancient magic, magic that belonged to the Gods. The legend says that when the Gods created our families they placed into each one the magic that was theirs to hold. Over time the Gods realized they had made a mistake entrusting power such as that in mankind so they fashioned a blade to contain the magic that had once been given freely." A sickening feeling began to build in my gut. I couldn't make him stop. Something within compelled me to keep listening as he went on with the story.
"He called forth his most beloved follower. Ava, of Alexandria's blood, and gave her a spell that would ultimately take the power of the Gods from each family leaving behind the most basic of gifts. Of course she followed their command without a word against the decision. When she returned to her village with the blade in hand the families were furious with her blind acceptance. They had grown so used to life without the same needs as mankind that they were fearful of how life would change without such gifts. Ava, reassured them that this was only temporary. That the Gods had promised that in time a female child would be born with the ability to carry the magic that they so craved once again. She would be their protector—the chosen one."
When he stopped to look at me once more, I didn't know what to say. Shock filled me to the core. Did he truly believe that the blade that Sebastian had stabbed me with that night had been the same blade from the legend? Even more, did Sebastian believe it, too? If so how had it come to be in his possession? It felt like crucial pieces to this puzzle were missing. If I was the chosen one, then why had my family rejoiced in my death all those years ago? One would think that they would want a child destined to be their protector and the one who brought the ancient magic back, to thrive in this world.
"That doesn't make any sense. If you truly believe I died by the tip of that blade how come I didn't consume the power it held, like Ava had prophesied?
"Who says you didn't?" I stared at him wide eyed. If I didn't slow my breathing I was sure to hyperventilate.
"There were three original families; mine, yours, and that of Sebastian's blood." I remembered Sebastian telling me something similar.
"Each family had been given a special ability from the Gods. They knew that it would be unwise to gift all their magic into each bloodline. My family was given the ability to bend the elements at will, your family was given the gift of prophecy, and Sebastian's family was given the ability to control one's will. When the Gods stripped them of their powers they no longer had control of these elements. Our families believed that this act was a test given by the Gods. If they could prove themselves to be worthy of such power the child whom they promised would come."
"Ava was the first of the Elektita." I voiced out loud.
He gave me a curious glance but kept up his tale. He already knew I had learned a thing or two while I was missing.
"Yes, she then formed an elite coven of women, one from each family that she would share the command of the Gods. It didn't take long though for the Elektita to become corrupt with the need for more power. They watched for a child that would be born of the blood; striking dead many of the villager’s children long before their time. They too believed that the blade would not kill the chosen child but fulfill the prophecy."
"They thought I was the chosen one." Sebastian had said they brought Alexandria into the elite coven at such a young age. They must have seen something in her that made them believe her to be special. My stomach churned with the sickening thought. They sacrificed children to gain the power that their own Gods had taken from them. They had become truly warped.
Jonathon nodded at my additive.
"When Alexandria was born the entire village could tell right away that she was special. The Gods spoke to her, held her safe when others would parish. They saw that she was the child they had been waiting for. So they raised her, taught her their warped version of what the Gods had planned for her. When she became a woman she began to argue and fight with the Elektita. Her voice was heard all across the land, from one mouth to the next; our people were not worthy."
I tried to stop my fidgeting that manifested when I desperately wanted to ask a question but at the same time didn't want to interrupt the story.
"What of the Lupo? How did that happen?" I finally blurted. I had only assumed that Jonathon was a werewolf just as Sebastian and Richland where. When I had accused him earlier and wasn't immediately met with a denial I knew it to be true. Jonathon shook his head like I had just made a grave error.
"I was getting to that. My Gods, women, you need to acquire some patience." He may have had hundreds of years to process the fact that at some point in his daily life he shifted into a werewolf but I hadn't, regardless of the many lives I have appeared to lead.
"It was a curse brought on by Sebastian's line." His straightforward answers were both a relief and a shock. Sebastian was cursed.
"But that is not my story." Again, with the damn code. How come my life was so readily broadcasted but I had to bounce from person to person to fill in the blanks. I sighed up towards the ceiling. I knew I wasn't going to get much by way of answers if I asked any more on that subject.
"Then how are you a werewolf if you are from a different line?" I think that question fit into the things he could tell me.
"It was by choice." His voice held a note of sadness but he kept his head held high. He didn't mourn for his choice it was something else entirely.
"When you had been lost to our village I chose at that moment to follow you by whatever means I could." That wasn't the answer I was expecting. He chose to be cursed and walk the earth as a monster that mothers used to scare small children into following the rules just to be with me. I knew we had been lovers in one life or the next but he had loved me. The dreams of Sebastian licked at those memories just as vigorously.
"I was yours," I repeated the words Jonathon had thrown at me in anger. At that moment I knew he was the other that I had been promised to and could do nothing more than to follow what he had lost. I was the reason for his curse. I didn't think he meant my death when he said I was lost to the village. I left my people and him for Sebastian. My heart leapt with the surety of that statement. I left him for a monster yet he still followed me and I let him. In my dreams neither of them ever seemed truly happy. I held them both to me by something well beyond simple selfishness. I could feel it even now. I haven't felt what I would define as simple love but something much more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Rain began to pour down on us from the clouds that had burst into existence. This was entirely my fault.
"You see what I mean?" Jonathon yelled over the raging storm that had suddenly bared down on us. "The blade changed you! These powers were lost to us."
He was using my supernatural meltdown as a visual aid to prove his point. How thoughtful. I couldn't wrap my mind around his logic. He said it himself. They saw that I was special even before I was stabbed with the blade. I was an instigator against the Elektita's goal that is why they had rejoiced in my death. If I truly was the child they were looking for then that would have never happened.
The mist that I held so close fanned out riding just atop the furniture in the room. All I am is a curse, cursed to be born over and over. I was the true curse that had caused Jonathon to change into something that he wouldn't have chosen otherwise. He had loved me for hundreds of years and all I had been was a curse. His love blin
ded him of that.
"You were wrong about one thing, Jonathon. I am your curse. You have to know that by now." Tears large and angry slid down my face at the same pace as the storm. It felt good to let out what I had been holding inside since I saw him sitting on my bed.
"You have to stop this, Alexis! There is only so long I can contain this storm within this room before alerting others." He could do that? He couldn't have done that the numerous other times that I have thrown a magical melt down in public.
"Why now, why contain my crazy now?"
"I told you, Alexis, you are strong. You are far stronger than I had thought you to be and your magic is growing. I am using all that I am to keep this from expanding beyond this room. I may not have the strength to put to right what is done if you keep it up much longer."
I pulled the rain back within me while I told myself I was only doing it to save myself the trouble of attempting to explain the unexplainable. It was becoming easier to reign in the magic. With time I may even learn to control its outbursts. I let the mist stay, it was a comforting distraction from the pulse of my wolfsbane. Jonathon shook himself and when he was finished he was dry. His clothes had shown no sign of ever being damp. I looked around at the rain soaked room, my feet squished into the carpet and my clothes where full to the max with water. The smell of mildew and salt ran thick.
How was I going to explain this? Jonathon followed my assessing eyes, "I can help you with this." Did I want his help? He did owe me. I knew I couldn't handle him or this right now but he wouldn't listen and he chose to stay. Now look at the mess I was in.
"Okay, but only because it’s your fault."
He rolled his eyes and gave me a sly grin before bowing his head. I thought he was thinking until I heard the beginnings of words under his breath. It sounded like a prayer before I realized he was repeating the same line over and over. Chanting, Jonathon was chanting something in a language that I couldn't recognize. I watched in awed wonder as the water began to slink back, draining from the room leaving behind a dry crisp version in its wake; even the air smelled clean and fresh. That had to be the coolest thing I had ever seen.
When all was back to normal he lifted his head to stare directly at me. His eyes flashed red but only for a split second just before returning to the normal solid black. The look he threw me felt hard, laced with such intensity my chest contracted with his pain. I had seen this look on only a few occasions and none of them where happy times. That look warranted fear, and that is what I gave him.
"There is something that you must know; far more important than my history or ours. In every life that you have led you were murdered, each time for the same reason." That bit of information struck me in the gut. They would come for me and I would die. The thought from my last dream rocketed through my mind. I felt the truth in those words just as solid as Jonathon standing before me.
“What of my second life?" From what Richland told me, my second life was a fluke. She died before her life was even discovered. He wasn't expecting that, I could tell by his flared nostrils and the muscles that flexed ever so slightly in his neck.
"They use that child as an argument for Elektita's ignorance to your rebirth until adulthood but there is too much proof to counter their claim. It is just that, an excuse."
My flower pulsed brighter sending shock waves through me. Whatever it was trying to tell me I didn’t understand.
"Then tell me what your belief is." I didn't want to agree nor disagree with any of this; all I have ever wanted was to understand. If I could fit enough pieces together I could piece together the puzzle on my own.
"Your lives have always ended at different times. Whether during childhood, as a youth, or even young adult; they have always ended after you came into the knowledge of your existence and for what purpose." I couldn't listen to much more the pain was growing stronger and the magic was burning hot under my skin. All this information was wearing down on my mind sending my emotions into frenzy.
"I need to rest." He had to see the weariness in the way I had slouched into the office chair. I really wanted to fall into my bed and wake up from this nightmare that was my life, but that was one thing that I couldn't do. He made absolutely no move to leave. You could tell by his set jaw that he didn't want to go not until his objective was completed. I couldn't do it though.
"Please Jonathon; you told me once before that if I did not control this it would end me. Do you want that? I cannot control it with you here. I am too weak." I knew it wasn't fair to appeal to the side of him that held his love for Alexandria but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. If I thought about it hard enough I was probably doing exactly that; ending myself. This pain sure felt like it would be the end of me.
"Fine, I'll leave." I wanted to walk him to the door, but I knew if I stood the pain would send me directly to the floor. If that happened I would never get him to leave.
"But Jo will stay with you tonight." The demand was thick in his voice and I didn't like it one bit. Jo stepped through the open door, like they had planned it that way, before I could even form an argument.
"Why do you all think I need a babysitter?" His eyes ran the length of my crumpled form. A hint of familiar lust chased away a bit of the pain.
"Because you are weak." Those words felt like a boot to the lust, snuffing it out completely.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jo wasn't shy, bubbly, or even worried, she was pissed. She stood in the entryway with her arms crossed. The black long sleeved shirt had slits up the arms defining her very feminine muscles. The tight form fitting jeans even had the slits up the dark denim. If I would have to give an opinion she looked like a biker on a mission. It was as far from her steam punk norm as possible.
"I didn't want to ruin another of my outfits." I must not have hid my assessment as thoroughly as I thought. I stood on shaky legs and made it the few feet to the bed, falling into the plush comforter. The soft mattress felt great against my sore body. If I didn't think I would drown, a bath sounded like an actual vacation right about now. But relaxation in any form was a gift.
"So where have you been the last few days?" Yup, she was pissed. Her voice was laced with venom directed at me.
"Didn't Linda tell you? I was on vacation." I wasn't going to play nice if she wasn't.
"A vacation; where you learned of us and of you. It must have been a hell of a vacation." That’s right. I thought back to my dream. Jo was in it, she must be Lupo as well. So that meant that she is either of Sebastian's blood, which I doubted, or she took on the curse voluntarily as well.
"Why did you choose to become a werewolf?" Her sudden outburst of laughter darkened her face even further. How could Jonathon have left me with her?
"I am not Lupo." That caught me off guard. If she wasn't a werewolf, and I was the only one given the curse of reincarnation, then what in the hell was she?
"You really cannot feel it? The bond is strong but you must be far too weak to truly feel it." I tried to feel whatever it was that she was talking about. All I could do was see, more than feel, the anger that rolled off her entire demeanor. I ran back through all of our encounters. Something sparked but I couldn't grasp on to it.
"Just tell me, I am sick and tired of riddles and games." I curled myself up in the thick wool comforter. This was what I loved about this particular inn. The blanket and pillows weren't the commercial that kind most all other motels carried, they felt like home. Jo walked towards me and sat on the edge of the bed. Her anger had dwindled if only a bit. I would take it though. I didn't want to have to spend the night surrounded by anger. I don't think my fragile psyche could take it.
"I am your familiara, or your familiar, in English." She stopped to let that sink in. I knew what a familiar was, and she is not what I had expected. I thought familiars where the little black cats that followed witches but clearly she wasn't a cat.
"I know strange, right?" I think strange was undermining what any of this was but if that’s the word
she had chosen who was I to argue?
"How?" That is all I could say anymore. I could no longer form more elaborate questions.
"That is the strange part; nobody knows. Even our elders believed such a thing was a myth." She laughed, harsh and short.
"At first the village thought me a sign of forgiveness from the Gods. I was birthed from an unwed mother said to be barren. Then when you died as Alexandria I woke in the night screaming. Blood poured from my woundless chest. It was frightening for all. My mother rushed me to the chambers of the Elektita. By the time we reached them each of the women had already begun to feel your death. When they laid eyes on my woundless, blood soaked body as I writhed from ghost pains they declared me that of a familiar, only to lock me away."
I had fallen so deeply in her story that it took me a moment to recover once she had paused.
"How horrible!" I sat up in bed suddenly wide awake. The pain had thankfully begun to fade. "You felt her death." It was still too hard to equate Alexandria and I as one person.
"I felt them all." She took a deep breath before continuing. "They kept me chained up in a tomb for many weeks. It wasn't until Jonathon freed me that I learned more of my fate. It wasn't long before I realized that I was no longer aging, I didn't fall ill like so many around me. It was as though I was frozen in time. We searched, Jonathon and I, for any old stories of familiars that we could find. All the old stories had one thing in common, the familiar died with the witch it was bound to."
"But I died!" Would it be so hard to make some part of this crap easy to comprehend?
"You did. There was no denying that especially once your body had been delivered in a heavy casket during the night."
"Let me get this straight—Sebastian stabbed me in the heart then delivered me back to the people that I had run from?" Jo gaped at me wide eyed. All the anger had drained from her face replaced with shear shock at what I had just revealed. Surely after so many years they knew who had dealt the death blow.
Aconite (The Elektita Series Book 1) Page 15