Hailey stumbled down from the fear of the looming body that was coming.
“Hails!” The man called. “It is just me! Caleb.” Caleb said almost on the verge of laughing.
“Shut up!” Hailey retorted on the verge of laughing herself. “Not everyone has superhuman senses Storm boy!” Hailey jeered. They paused and looked at each other. They both knew what was happening. For the first time in what seemed like the longest time ever, they actually felt light and care free. This was weird considering how they were in an isolated part of this very eerie and dark fog laden park to meet a witch doctor.
“I miss the time when we just had to think about which patient went to whom.” Caleb said.
“Exactly. Remember how you used to swap shifts with me so I could get my Sundays off?” Hailey teased. Caleb knew she was trying to imply how he had always been in love with her even before this whole werewolf thing.
“I really did like you, even then.” Caleb muttered.
Hailey looked into his eyes and saw a sincerity that was immensely gratifying. She needed that purity – that sincerity in her life. She started to entertain the idea of being there with just him, minus all the drama her life had just got trapped into.
The sound of the night crickets played a sweet and soulful melody; the song of the night. All of a sudden, that song was interrupted by a blood curdling wail.
“Noooooo!”
Anton. It was Anton and they both knew it. Caleb looked to Hailey whose face was now devoid of any traces of red. “Oh my God.”
Caleb took Hailey’s hand and he flung her over his muscular shoulders as he dashed in the direction of the scream. Passed the elks and down the path, they saw him, Anton bathed in blood. The light of the almighty moon was bouncing off the velvety red color that had bathed the young man who was slumped down on the ground in fits of uncontrollable tears.
“Anton!” Hailey screamed as she ran towards the easily distinguishable silhouette of Anton. Caleb grabbed her arm as if trying to hold her back, but no matter how wolfish Caleb’s grip was, Hailey easily twitched through it as she was on the verge of hysterics herself.
A million things had now run through her mind. That semblance of joy or happiness she had with Caleb just a few seconds ago, she thought, she would trade in a heartbeat just so she could protect Anton right then and there.
This was just another example of her daily conflicts of the heart as she was pulled from one man to another. However, she did not have to think of that right then. All that she wanted was to hold Anton and help ease his pain.
Caleb followed suit as he tried with all his might to use his storm born powers to scope out the place for danger. Hailey and Caleb reached Anton as he slumped over himself, getting a better look at him under the pale blue moonlight; they discovered the source of the blood that had drowned the man.
“Oh my god.” Hailey said as she covered her mouth in disbelief.
Lying before the shocked and placid Anton was the brutalized body of Gustav. They stared at each other knowing that none of them could help the old man out. He was still breathing but the breaths were shallow and intermittent. The blood that had spilled was too much. Hailey, being a nurse – a hospice nurse at that – she knew what a dead man looked like for sure.
“This is my fault.” Anton was muttering under his breath. But no one dared reply to his statement. They all felt responsible. Especially Hailey, the woman for whom the lives of Caleb and Anton were dedicated to as of that moment; the woman for whom Gustav died for. The moon lit the grass where the blood had slowly flowed. There was an unprecedented precision to it. Gustav’s breath became quieter and quieter.
“What happened?” Caleb finally said, breaking the silence that was eating the group up. His voice was electric, and just like that, as if lightning struck his body, Gustav began to cough.
“He’s trying to say something.” Anton said shocked.
“Gustav, talk to me.” Hailey began to cry as she lifted Gustav’s head and placed it upon her lap.
“Ca…” Gustav began to talk.
“Gustav?” Caleb asked, knowing that that single syllable was meant for him.
“Caleb…” He finally said the Storm boy’s entire name.
“Yes, I am here.” Caleb answered. The other two were clearly curious as to why out of all the three of them Gustav chose to call to Caleb using his last dying breath.
“I’m here.” Caleb repeated as he got down on his knees to draw his ear closer to the dying man.
“You.” Gustav said again as he coughed out more and more blood.
“Yes Gustav?” Caleb asked. Hailey and Anton just watched them quietly.
“The keeper… you…” Gustav struggled, and this time it seemed he was going to give in.
“Am I the keeper?’ Caleb sincerely asked.
“You… you can find her.” Gustav finally said. And with that, his life slowly drained out from his with the last of his blood spilling over. Then all of a sudden, tiny bright lights started to reveal themselves from the different trees that surrounded the place where Gustav had just passed. From the biggest of all those trees, the oak, came a larger swarm of these lights. They were so beautiful. They danced in the cold midnight air as the moon light streamed through the canopy of the trees. Slowly the lights fluttered towards them.
“Fireflies.” Anton said as tears rolled swiftly down his cheeks.
The fireflies floated across their universes and encircled Gustav’s body in this effervescent light that was so mild and quiet that it felt like a distinct kind of warmth that they had never felt before. And as the nightingale from the distance whistled its last song for the night, so did Gustav’s lonely body return in a flash to the darkness that he had served.
Gustav was murdered, clearly. His crisp clothes and perfectly lined pants were all torn out into pieces. But it all mended itself in a beautiful display of lights. Gustav was a child of darkness, and even though that might sound sinister to most, Hailey knew that he served a special kind of darkness – the kind that played host to the beauty of the night.
“What did he actually say?” Hailey asked.
“He said I can find the keeper.” Caleb said almost dumbfounded.
“Of course you can.” Anton exclaimed finally realizing what Gustav realized. “You are a Storm. You have the gift of sight!”
“What do you mean?” Hailey asked.
Anton looked to Caleb who had now understood what it all meant too.
“It means that we are all totally lost. I have no way of knowing how to work my powers, especially now that Gustav is gone.” Caleb said as he slumped down at the now empty field where there once was a pool of Haitian blood.
“Do not say that. How hard could it be?” Anton inquired.
“It is hard. It was so hard for my father that it took him fifty years for the power to manifest. This was when he had all of the elders of the Storm pack teaching him. Me? How about me? I'm all alone with no one to tell me what to do.” Caleb explained.
Caleb paused for a while. “Look. We need to find another way to solve this dilemma. Trust me on this one. Depending on me to find the keeper is not going to be very fruitful.”
Anton nodded. “We can’t force your powers, definitely not. It is supposed to grow out of you organically...”
“Sure.” Hailey said sincerely trying to comfort the obviously distraught Caleb. “But please Caleb. Do not ever say that you are alone.” Hailey said with a stern voice.
“I will always be with you through thick or thin. I will be here.” She finished.
Anton looked a little uncomfortable at the sight of the two being all too chummy. So he spoke up just to break the sweetness between the Hailey and Caleb.
“That’s all nice but we have one thing you guys are forgetting all too quickly.” Anton said with a dark demeanor.
“If you have not noticed at all…” Now Anton just sounded downright mean. “Gustav is dead. He was murdered and I’m betting the Khi
ones got to him.”
“He is right.” Caleb agreed.
Something needed to be done about the Khiones. Hailey felt this deeply in her heart and mid the whole time. It was not just about protecting herself now; it was about revenge. She needed to avenge Gustav.
“The Khiones must have found out about this rendezvous.” Hailey pitched.
“I doubt that.” Caleb rebutted. “If they knew he was meeting someone, and if they suspected it was someone who had something to do with the sacrifice, then they would have stayed here or at least left a watch.”
“There is not a single living soul around us for half a mile.” Anton replied. “I can’t even sense a wolf anywhere near us here.” Anton finished.
“Then what happened to Gustav? Are you two saying this wasn’t the Khiones?” Hailey asked.
“To be honest, I didn’t sense anything wolf-like on Gustav’s body.” Anton said, defeating her original theory of the Khiones being the perpetrators of the crime.
“Exactly. Those wolves have a distinct smell and I’m pretty sure the smell would rub off.” Caleb added.
“So guys, who could it have been? I am pretty sure if it were a wolf pack, you would have said it by now.” Hailey looked frustrated.
“Wait.” Anton stopped. “What did Gustav tell you exactly?” He looked to Caleb for an answer.
“I don’t get what you mean? He said I could find the keeper.” Caleb replied.
“No! Hailey exclaimed. “He never said keeper.”
“Exactly.” Anton exclaimed. “Gustav said only you can find HER.”
*****
They decided to continue their conversation someplace safer and more private. Although they had finally concluded that the Khiones must still be oblivious to Hailey’s existence and that they were not Gustav’s murderer, they were faced with another dilemma.
Only one person could find the keeper and that was Caleb with his power to see through mist and cloaks. But he could not manifest his powers in time enough to save Hailey. At least they knew one thing for sure: that the keeper was a female.
“How do you guys think he figured that one out?” Hailey asked.
“I have no clue, but I’m thinking he met the keeper.” Caleb said.
“There is no way Gustav could have uncovered her identity without meeting her in person.” Anton continued Caleb’s line of thought. “That must mean the keeper killed him.”
“Ughhh… who is this keeper?” Hailey threw herself onto the bed of her little apartment.
Hailey started crying frustrated, defeated tears. A friend was murdered trying to protect her. This was the worst day of her life, she felt.
“Okay.” Caleb said in the most sullen tone he had ever spoken his whole entire life. That key was the biggest decision he had made so far. It was far bigger than his decision to have a threesome with Anton and Hailey. This was an okay, signifying his willingness to revisit the past that he had abandoned so long ago and to embrace the situation – the cards he had been dealt.
“What do you mean okay?” Hailey asked.
“I’ll do it. I’ll activate my powers to find the keeper.” Caleb said.
*****
The next couple of days were a blur to the threesome. Anton stuck his nose into every single book and old text they had in their very expansive library. He needed to know as much as he could about the Storms and their powers so they he could try to help Caleb activate his power to see.
Hailey, although told by the other two to just quit, went to her old box of memorabilia. She didn’t really have much in it, but it was better than just doing nothing. She just wanted to feel she was needed at least to some degree, no matter how little that degree was.
Caleb on the other hand researched every single diary, notebook and planner he still had that belonged to his grandfather and father.
“The power to see is the power to not see.” Caleb muttered. This was something repeatedly stated all over the files he had.
“What does that mean?” He asked himself.
One more curious thing was the fact that the rituals of the Alpha were never put down into writing. Just like Anton and the Alpha’s before him, the Storms had a ritual which was essentially sacrificing the Alpha to the moon for him to actually receive his license to lead his pack.
Caleb could only remember so little from the time he witnessed his father’s ritual. All he could recall was a loud and agonized scream. It lasted so long and it echoed all throughout their mansion up on Providence.
Then he heard his phone ring. It was playing a song he specifically tagged for one person if that person called. The ring tone was “Fuck You”, and he knew automatically from who it was from – Anton!
“Yes?” Caleb said with a tinge of annoyance in his voice that Anton easily caught on to.
“I figured it out.” Anton said. The darkness of his expression was intense and very deliberate.
“What did you figure out?” Caleb said a bit scared now.
Anton took a deep breath before he said anything.
“Hello?” Caleb asked.
“I’m here… I just… I think we should meet up, all three of us, right now.” Anton said. “I finally figured out why it takes such a long time for a Storm to get his power, and why you do not get to read it in any of your diaries. I mean, whoever would want to have a lasting memory of it is beyond me too.”
“You are scaring the shit out of me. Okay. Meet you in five. “Caleb answered.
They had decided to come to Caleb’s house. When they arrived, Caleb could finally see that darkness in Anton when he called.
“Tell me now.” Caleb demanded.
Hailey was utterly quiet the whole time and just propped herself beside Caleb, across from Anton.
“Here read this.” Anton gave Caleb a piece of parchment paper. It was a letter that was really old and written in a delicate and ornate fashion.
Dear Romano,
I have just come back from the Alpha ritual of the Storms and now I am beginning to fear for my little boys.
I am scared. I never thought it would be this gruesome. But I tell you this, you must help me, or else, I shall die from the fright of seeing my children go through the same amount of pain their alpha had just experienced tonight. They are cruel people, my dear Romano. I now regret why I chose to marry Vlad. I regret why I chose to be with him over you. I was scared of what their father could do to me or my family.
The letter was between Romano Dominguez and a woman who called herself his “White Lily”.
I fear that even if I object with all my might and power, I could not change the destiny of my children. They will have to go through the same thing. It is quite scary how they can only gain their powers if they undergo this ritual.
I know my children will want to go through it. But probably just like all other Storms, they shall choose to do so later in their lives to make sure they survive.
It’s funny that we wolves fear them because of their power, but the truth is, very few of them have it, and for good reason too. I cannot imagine my children going through it even when they become of proper age.
No! I cannot see them blinded only to receive that power of sight. I cannot take it as a mother.
You must rescue me.
With love,
Your White Lily.
Caleb shivered in place. The silence ate them all up before he finally stood before both of them and said, “I’ll do it. The power to see can never be had if I still see with my old eyes. I understand it now.”
Anton fell silent at the proclamation of Caleb.
“No. I can’t let you. What if something goes wrong? Even your forefathers were scared to do it when they could count on the knowledge all of them had at that time.” Hailey said with a forceful tone.
“What if it doesn’t work? What if that letter is fake?” Hailey shot daggers with her eyes at Anton.
“What if I don’t do anything?” Caleb asked. “What if the mark wears off an
d we don’t know how to taint you. What if they find out about you and take you away from me?” Caleb was getting all too emotional.
“I do not even think I could live with myself, Hails.” Caleb finished.
He looked to Anton, and gave him a slight nod. Anton knew Caleb was serious and sure. He knew that Caleb knew that if it were him in that exact position, he would do the same.
“Tonight, when the moon is full and the wolf’s bane is dry, you Dominguez will blind me.” Caleb said while Hailey rushed out of the door crying frantically at Caleb’s declaration.
“I swear by the moon Storm, I will aid you as you ascend as an Alpha.” Anton said. There was silence after as the two men looked to each other for comfort they badly needed.
Tonight, Caleb was going to go blind.
TO BE CONTINUED
Alpha ENCHANTMENT
(Part Four)
Winded. That’s how it all seemed to feel at first, just plain and simple windedness. He could barely breathe even though he was racing to catch his breath with intermittent heaves and gasps. It seemed like there was smoke clogging his lungs. He tried to heave in air like a runner sprinting that last one hundred meter stretch, but nothing came in.
“Caleb!” A voice in the distance beckoned him like an all too sanctimonious call. Should he heed? That was the question that summoned with a distinct incessancy. The man who lay there –Caleb Storm of the house of Storms – was willing to endure the pain and suffering he was going through right then and there for the love of a mysterious woman – Hailey. He had recently found out that he knew nothing about this woman, whose savage appetite for sex was insatiable – whose origins unknown.
“Caleb!” The voice beckoned yet again. However, this time it was far fiercer, more yearning. It sounded like a poor little girl in search of her lost doll.
The pain became clearer now. He didn’t feel winded, but more like he was slowly drowning. The pain that radiated from his temples down to the nape of his neck that shot bullet-like stings through his entire muscular frame sent him screaming.
ROMANCE: CLEAN ROMANCE: Summer Splash! (Sweet Inspirational Contemporary Romance) (New Adult Clean Fantasy Short Stories) Page 86