by Idella Breen
Snow frowned, opening and closing her mouth several times. No. It wasn’t possible. Is that why she had been told all those stories of Cait while growing up? “But…” She trailed off.
Gwen took a swig from her coffee before standing back up and gently patting Snow on the shoulder. “Like I said, everything will work out.”
“I need to go home.” Snow suddenly blurted out.
“What?”
“I need to go home. I need to speak with my mom, and I miss my parents. Before I moved here, I had a fight with them and had moved into a hotel for a month. I haven’t seen them, or spoken to them in over a month, but I feel like I need them. I just miss them.”
“Whoa, slow down motor mouth. I understand. You want to see your mom. But do you think that’s such a good idea right now? Leaving Cait here?”
“You just said everything would be fine.”
“I did. Where do your parents live? Can I drive you there? I’d feel safer that way.”
“Would you mind? I don’t have a car yet.”
Gwen grinned. “It would be my pleasure. When do you want to leave?”
“Right now.”
“Oh. Okay. How far is it?”
“It’s only the next town over. About a two hours drive from here. They allowed me to move out. I never said I moved very far.”
***
With Gwen’s driving, they reached Snow’s parent's house in an hour. The werewolf had to peel the brunette out of the car, as she was frozen stiff from all the almost crashes, and hundred miles per hour constant speed.
“Come on; my driving isn’t that bad. We got here in one piece didn’t we.”
“I”m driving back.”
Gwen chuckled as they walked up the stairs towards the butler waiting at the front door.
“Welcome home mistress.” Came his stiff response.
Snow smiled at him and led Gwen into the main hall.
“Mistress.” Gwen teased.
Snow blushed. They entered the main hall where her mother greeted her.
“And the rebellious daughter returns. With a woman no less. Naughty, naughty.” Integra wagged her finger as a sensuous smile spread across her lips. Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled up into a messy bun and her dark eyes kind but mischievous. When she reached Snow, she pulled her into a warm hug and gave the girl a kiss on the cheek. As they separated, she looked thoughtfully at Gwen. “But not your woman I see. A friend then. It’s a pleasure to meet my daughter's first friend. She never brings them here. I dare say she is ashamed of her dear parents.”
“Mom!” Snow whined. “You’re embarrassing me.”
Gwen smiled and shook Integra’s hand. She had heard the daughter of Lidia was a salamander that married a human. Gwen had never met a salamander. They were a rare breed. Lidia’s husband had been a salamander as well. The werewolf idly wondered if Integra could breathe fire.
“It’s a pleasure,” Gwen said.
“Believe me; the pleasure is all ours.” A males voice cut in as a dark haired man came down the hall. He swooped down to scoop his daughter into a hug before turning to greet Gwen. “Hello. I’m Adam. Snow’s proud father.”
Gwen giggled and shook his hand. Adam turned to his wife. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing dear. I was just embarrassing our daughter a little bit. It seems there is indeed a woman.”
Adam glanced to Gwen who shook her head. “It’s not me.”
“You guys! Stop it already. You’ve embarrassed me enough. I’m sorry I left the way I did. So can you stop teasing me?”
Adam chuckled. “Sorry, dear. It’s just too much fun. But maybe we should move this into a more comfortable place. How about the study?”
“Marvelous idea darling. Lead the way.” Integra said.
They had to walk down a few halls, and by the time they reached the study Gwen was completely turned around, the only way she could find her way back to the front door would be through scent.
Gwen settled into the seat next to Snow and the girl's parents settled on a loveseat across from them. Snow’s parents had an air of nobility about them, but they had a laid back demeanor as if they were able to be flexible to any situation. Integra began.
“So, what brings you home on such short notice. I wasn’t expecting you back until the end of the year after the fight we had. I was sure we had finally chased you off for good. “
Adam chuckled. “You make it sound like we wanted her gone.”
“Didn't we?” Integra asked coyly.
“I said I was sorry.”
“I’m sorry dear. I couldn’t resist. What brings you home?”
Snow glanced over to Gwen silently asking for help, but the werewolf wasn’t sure what exactly the girl had wanted to ask her parents. Sadly, mind-reading wasn’t one of her powers. She could only shrug in response. Snow looked back to her parents, and Integra decided to try and help her daughter. “Is this about your woman?”
Snow immediately flushed with embarrassment.
“How do you know there’s a woman?” Her father asked, not puzzled in the slightest. He simply wanted to tease his daughter.
“By the smell of course. A strange smell though it is. I dare say it is familiar though I can’t place it.”
Gwen took that as her cue. “I can help with that.”
All eyes turned to her and while two were questioning one was desperately trying to tell her to stop. Majority won. “Have you even met Cait Fallon.”
Both Adam and Integra shared a look that Gwen couldn’t interpret before Adam answered. “We are aquatinted with her through Lidia. Though we don’t know her very well.”
Integra gazed knowingly at her daughter. “Is this Cait person your woman dear?”
“Quit saying it like that.”
“Oh, I’m just kidding Snow. Relax, I know you haven’t gone past second base as kids say these days.”
Gwen watched as Snow’s entire body seemed to turn bright red. She was beginning to feel bad for the girl. “Well, we have some questions pertaining to her relationship with Lidia.”
“Oh, what kind of questions?” Gwen had a feeling she was being led astray. There was no way they didn’t know who Cait was. She was too famous for people as important as the Bennett’s not to know well, especially, since she had been Lidia’s personal guard at one point, according to the women herself.
“It’s more a question about a story that grandma told me when I was little.” Snow finally regained her normal color and found her voice.
“Oh dear, you know those were just fairy tales. Nothing more.”
“No, they weren’t!” Snow said stubbornly catching her parents off guard with the conviction behind her words.
“Well then, what particular story do you want to know about. I’m afraid I only know a few.” Adam placated.
Snow took a deep breath before asking. “I want to know the truth behind how grandma met Cait.”
“Well now, that is a story indeed.” Integra sighed.
Adam looked startled. “Integra we really shouldn’t-“
She cut him off. “Honey, we haven’t tricked either of them in the slightest. Believe me; I can smell their conviction from over here. It really was silly for us to think we could keep her in the dark. I thought you were young enough that you would have forgotten all those stories by now. Lidia always did have her own way of doing things. Once I found out exactly the kind of stories she was telling you, I forbid her to continue on the threat that I would keep you from her. But by then the damage had been done.” Integra sighed.
Gwen cut in. “Can you explain from the beginning, Mrs. Bennett?”
“Please, call me Integra. You are my daughter's friend. You have earned that right. From the beginning, you ask? Well now, that was a long time ago. I dare say three centuries maybe closer to four. You tend to lose count. Let’s just say that it really began after the Treaty of Absolute Peace was signed. I’m sure you know the one I’m speaking of. It’s the one that p
ut the Bennett name down in the history books. I was but a simple teenager back then. Young and naive but I was able to pick up on all the whispers going around. The most fascinating one was about the prophecy from the Great Book.”
Snow shuddered as she remembered the words of the boy vampire, the dark blood that had cornered her in the hallway. “I know of it.”
That surprised Integra. “Mother didn’t tell you about that. I’m sure of that. She was the one that created the Silence over that matter. How do you know of it?”
Snow shrunk under their gazes. “ I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Was it from the dark blood that you met at your school?”
Adam jumped up from his seat. “They made contact with you? So soon?”
Even Integra looked shaken. “Well, that changes things.”
“I thought we had another decade,” Adam mumbled sitting back down.
Gwen cleared her throat. “What is the Great Book.”
Integra frowned. “I’m not surprised you don’t know of it. Only a few do. The ones that do are old enough to remember it’s creation or are dark bloods, as it is their book of prophecy.”
“What was the rumor you heard so long ago?” Gwen urged.
“Ah yes, the rumor. I only know what I heard down the chain, but it spoke of a child as cold as ice and her protector. When the Treaty of Absolute Peace was signed not all parties were for it. The dark bloods in particular. The other monsters had forged their signature after their repeated refusal to sign. You have to understand; we were all desperate for peace at that point. The world was at war for a century, and all sides had received heavy casualties. It wasn’t until Lidia came along, with her power of persuasion and ability to control ice, that we were able to bring about a stalemate between all the monster species and the humans. The treaty itself took over a decade to write, and during that time it was a fragile peace. The only monster species that actually thrived during the war were the dark bloods. Disgusting creatures they all are. I assume you don’t know how they are created?”
Gwen and Snow shook their heads.
“Dark bloods are created by draining the blood of a tortured victim. When I say tortured, I mean tortured to the point of insanity. It didn't matter what they were before, monster or human, either would do. So long as they are tortured and drained, they would become one of them. Both sides, humans, and monsters were equally disgusted by the dark bloods and the treaty was obviously stacked against them, as Lidia hated them. She united the humans and the monsters through their mutual hate and desperate need for peace. The dark bloods didn’t take this too well and in a desperate attempt to gain the upper hand killed and turned a famous seer, then forced her to create the Great Book. Thus the prophecy was foretold.”
“And that was?” Gwen asked. She was sitting on the edge of her seat.
“I don’t know.”
“What? Why not?”
“The Silence was enacted shortly afterward by my mother.”
“Why?” Snow asked.
“My mother didn’t believe that the future was a concrete thing. She firmly believed that people decided their own destiny, so she enacted the Silence to hide the prophecy from the future generations, to give hope and to give us all a fighting chance. Those were her words when I confronted her about it. All I was able to uncover was the bit about the child as cold as ice and her protector. When Snow was born, we were filled with dread, and I turned to my mother. Lidia had simply smiled and called a woman to our house to meet Snow. We didn’t understand at first but then she began to tell you stories about the woman. The werewolf named Cait Fallon. The cursed one. You can understand we were furious to have a murderer such as her come near our daughter, not to mention, false stories of her heroics being told to you, Snow.”
“Cait isn’t a murderer! She’s a good person.”
Integra sighed. “I know that now. My mother explained it to me. The truth. I take it that was the story she told you?”
“Yes, but it was the child version. I want to know the adult one.”
Integra looked at her husband. “It is in the past, but if it is so important to you, we will tell you.”
“Please mother. I need to know.”
“Then I shall tell it. You have to understand that we had always known of Cait, but from her day of birth she was known as the cursed one. The only white wolf among a clan of black. That wasn’t the only thing we heard. There was also the rumor of her lacking a heart. At first, we believed this to mean the literal sense but were soon corrected.”
“What does it mean?” Snow all but demanded.
“It meant, she was born without a soul,” Adam answered.
Snow gasped. “What?”
“It was said, that at birth her soul had been stolen by a goblin and eaten. This is what turned her wolf’s coat white. It was also what lead to the great tragedy of her clan. According to my mother, who watched Cait very closely from the time of her birth, the girl was an outcast among her whole clan. People would whisper as she walked by and children shunned her as their noses could detect the lack of a soul in her. Their wolves couldn’t trust her, so the humans shunned her. It was even spoken for a time that they should kill her before she reached maturity.”
“No!” Snow gasped.
“Her father would have none of that talk either. He and his wife were the only ones to believe their daughter was meant for greatness. Her father was a great alpha and commanded much respect. He alone kept her from the fangs of their clan. But that didn’t stop the sadness and emptiness that came from lacking a soul.
My mother recounted the day to me in vivid detail. Cait was the strongest wolf to exist, second only to her father and only because she hadn’t fully matured. This caused a lot of fear among the clan and if forced Cait to need to prove herself. My mother said she was ferocious on the battlefield during different clan fights over land. No mercy to her enemies. I guess she had reached a point that she believed if she couldn’t gain their love then she would command their fear. But that all changed when a rumor reached her of a man that might be able to help her get back her heart.”
“Who was it?” Snow whispered.
“None other than the king of the dark bloods, Xavier.”
“Wha…no..why would she…” Snow stumbled over what she wanted to say and just gave up.
“I don’t know why she believed a man like him would help her. Some believed he was the one responsible for taking her soul in the first place, but I can only imagine how desperate she was to find a cure for her condition. So she went to him and pleaded for him to help her. Not much is known of the full powers of the dark bloods. They have managed to keep it a secret, but it is believed they are very powerful. He promised her the cure if she gave him her wolf for one day. From dawn to dawn.”
“What did he mean by that? How could she give him her wolf?” Gwen asked.
“As I said, not much is known about the dark bloods, but my mother believed that Xavier has the ability well, more like the magic, to take what is freely offered. He can take the thing people treasure the most. This allows him to grant one wish. The thing is that desperate people never really know what it is they truly treasure. Cait agreed to his conditions, and he took her wolf, using it as the tool to take what she truly held dear. Her clan. Despite the way, they treated her she valued them above everything. So he took her wolf from her body, leaving her in a weakened state, and he used the beast to massacre everyone she ever loved.”
“How old was she?” Snow whispered.
“My mother said it happened shortly after her sixteenth birthday. When Cait managed to make it to her home she fought with her clan to stop her wolf, but she was too weak, and all her kinsmen fell one by one until only she was left to face off against the beast. Something happened during that last battle between just her and her wolf. According to my mother, Cait’s wolf was supposed to kill her. That was how the promise would have been kept. Her whole clan had to die including her or her wo
lf, but Cait managed to subdue the beast and reclaim it before dawn, so her end of the bargain to Xavier was unkept, and the deal was off. But the mistake had been made, and the damage was done. That’s when my mother Lidia decided to act. She saw that Cait was truly lost and she took the woman under her tutelage. And you know the rest from the stories she told you, Snow.”
Snow had tears streaming down her face and wiped at them furiously. Gwen was even dabbing at her own with her sleeve.
“Does that answer your questions, sweetie?” Adam asked softly.
Snow nodded. “Yeah. It does.” She hiccuped.
Integra cleared her voice. “Snow, I would like for you to consider staying here. Until we get this whole prophecy thing straightened out. I’m concerned that a dark blood has made contact with you. Whether you are the one they believe you to be or not, dark bloods are dangerous, and it would put my mind at ease to have you close, where we can protect you.”
Snow rubbed her eyes dry and shook her head. “No, I’m going back to my apartment tonight. I refuse to put my life on hold because of what some silly book said. I’m going to keep going to school like I planned and finish out my senior year.”
Her parents looked ready to argue, but she stood, and turned to Gwen. “We’re leaving. Right now.”
Adam pleaded. “Won’t you at least stay for dinner? I’m sure you are tired after the day you’ve had.”
Snow shook her head as Gwen followed her to the door of the study. The brunette didn’t even pause as she carelessly tossed an absent goodbye over her shoulder. Her parents continued to follow her all the way to the front door of the mansion.
“Please Snow, stay?” Integra asked.
“I really need to get home. I want to have an early night tonight. I also have tons of homework that I have to catch up on.”
“Will you really not stay?” Adam asked as he stopped his daughter once more in the doorway.
“I’m sorry but I really want to be alone right now.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in Snow, but you don’t have to think through it alone. You can do it here in your home.”
“My home is two hours away from here as is my bed. I just want to be in my own space. I’m sorry.” Snow gave them each a quick hug and a kiss. Her father gripped her tightly, and lingered, but she pulled back from him with a small smile.