The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat.

by Anastasha Renee

  “I’m going to shower,” I tell Jaxx in a monotone voice.

  He looks at me with bewilderment.

  I start toward the bathroom again, this time at a much more controlled pace. I am fracturing inside, but I’ll be damned before I let anyone see it. I turn to look at his beautiful face again.

  “Which elder wanted to put her down,” I ask him in an utterly calm voice.

  “Moira,” he mumbles in his confused state.

  Little did he know that he just signed this Moira’s death warrant… My mother is THE GODDESS. Not some minor deity want to be. She is everything. She is mine and I am hers.

  No one is stronger than her. Therefore no one is stronger than me. I smile a secret smile. No one fucks with my family. Elder Vamp or not.

  “You make me proud my child, the daughter of my light.”

  I hear bells whisper through my mind. I lock myself in the bathroom and take deep breaths to bring my temper back under control. I start the shower and step under the steaming water. While I am buffing and shaving, I try to think of how to handle the shit storm that is waiting for me downstairs. Nothing short of a show of power will make someone old enough to become a Vampire Elder come to heel. A show of power it is then. I have to control myself though. I can’t let the tempest brewing inside me get out.

  After my shower I dress in a long, flowing white skirt with a green, flower patterned tank. I slip on some gladiator sandals and laced them up to my knees. My mother would approve of these. I smile to myself at the thought. I blow out my hair and add minimal makeup. I want to look utterly cool and collected.

  When I open the bathroom door the bedroom is empty. So I make my way slowly down the stairs and hear a whispered argument going on just below.

  “Jaxx, if she challenges an Elder they will kill her.” That is Gavin.

  “Do you think I don’t know that? You should have seen her face. Her eyes were glowing, but her face held no expression. I have never seen her like that. It was like she turned herself off.”

  “If the youngling means to challenge me, then let her. I will put her down like a dog. Just like I should have done with the other.”

  That must be Moira. She sounds like an arrogant bitch. Well, let’s see just how easy I am to put down. I step off of the bottom step and turn to face Gavin, Jaxx, and the female Vampire Elder. She is a pretty thing, small in stature, with long red hair that falls to her waist. She is covered in so much spackled makeup that she looks garish. She probably tops off at five feet in heels. She looks like she was turned when she’d just hit puberty. Hell, she looks like a child playing at being an adult.

  “Hello, all.”

  I breeze by them on my way to the front room, acting as if nothing is wrong. I walk into the front room and stop dead in my tracks at the sight before me. Jessa is lying on the couch, seemingly asleep. She is a mere shadow of her former self. Her Marilyn looks are still there, but her face has shrunken in on itself. She has shadows cocooned under eyes. Her once vibrant blonde waves are dull and stringy and her body has lost all of its curves. The clothes that she was wearing are baggy and crusted in grime and Goddess only knows what.

  I look around for Sebastian and the other two Elders. I spot Seb and two others on the front lawn. They seem to be arguing about something. I can’t hear their heated words, but I can tell by their body language that they are not happy with each other.

  “So this is everyone’s new pet, the supposed Celios. You don’t look like anything special to me,” Moira sneers from behind me. “You know, I wanted to kill that little rabid thing on sight. She isn’t good enough for Sebastian.”

  I spin around to face her. I see Jaxx and Gavin standing behind her, shaking their heads no at me. Fuck that.

  “Seb seems to think she is good enough. Hell, you aren’t worthy to lick dog shit off her boots. So why don’t you take your clown looking ass back to the coffin you crawled out of,” I smirk and start firing up my palms.

  Moira seems to be struck dumb, gaping like a fish. But Jaxx and Gavin charge for me, probably thinking that they are going to save me from myself. I fling my hand in their direction, throwing a stasis spell at them. They float back into the back wall and can’t move. I don’t know where that came from, but they are out of harm’s way now.

  “What did you just say to me? Do you have any idea who or what I am little girl? I will suck the marrow from your bones!” Moira’s face is flushed bright red. She makes to charge for me. Her fangs have dropped and she probably means to make good on her threat.

  I push my palms out in front of me and hit her with a good dose of my light. She is flung through the air head over heels and lands a good ten feet away. She twitches, but lays still for the moment.

  I hear Seb and the men out front with him run for the door, hearing a tiny voice in the back of my head guiding me once more. I wave my hand in their direction and erect a warded force field around the house. They keep trying to run and ram it with all their strength, but they just keep bouncing off. The two male Elders bare their fangs at me through the window and hiss. Obviously they don’t like that I am going to kick the shit out of Moira.

  Moira starts to rise once more, but I am distracted by Jaxx working himself off of the wall. If he gets loose then he will definitely get hurt in the cross fire. I turn to look at him, pleading with him through my eyes to stay where he is. He gets my message loud and clear and nods in my direction right before his eyes widen.

  I feel a weight hit me from behind like a freight train. Moira has hefted herself upon my back. She yanks my head back by my hair and sinks her fangs into my neck in a brutal ripping motion. The pain is so bright that my knees almost give way. Tears are pooling in my eyes. Fuck that hurts. Time to up my game.

  I reach behind me as best I can with her gnawing at my neck and wrench her away from me by her fiery red hair. I swing her away and turn to face her. She is rising to her feet once more. She tilts her head and looks at me like I am some new kind of bug she has just discovered. She licks my blood from her lips, pulling her eyebrows together as if she is trying to puzzle something out.

  “What are you,” she hisses at me.

  “I’m born of a Goddess,” I snark at her. I feel the ever present dark void inside me start to rise. All the power contained in my body wants to be let free. So I let it.

  Wind starts to rise and whirl around me, knocking pictures off the walls and sending furniture flying. I feel my power wash over my skin as I start to glow like moonlight is beaming through my every pore. My feet rise off the floor as if I am floating on the very air itself. My toes are barely touching the ground and I can feel my eyes start to glow. I can tell by the awed and frightened expression on Moira’s face that she wasn’t expecting my answer. Or the light show I seem to be putting on.

  Moira drops to her knees. She is muttering something that I can’t make out with the wind rushing in my ears. I push my way into her mind and skim across her memories and present thoughts. She is frightened indeed, but she is also seething with anger and rage. She is jealous and power hungry. She believes that I don’t deserve the gifts I was born with. Moira wants to sink her fangs deep into my neck and drink me dry while she rips out my throat. She thinks drinking me to death will empower her with some of my gifts. Disgusting parasitic bitch!

  “You have come into my brother’s home and threatened my family,” I intone.

  Moira is shaking her head in the negative. As if I don’t know that she wants to kill Jessa because of her potential. It has nothing to do with her being feral. The bitch starved her to this point.

  I withdraw from her mind because her thoughts and past deeds are making me want to retch.

  “I know what you have to done to Jessa, Moira. You have starved and beaten her until she retreated into herself, surviving on instinct alone. You wanted to kill her from the start. Jealousy is a nasty vice, one that should have been broken long ago.”

  “You know not what you speak of,” Moira screeches at m
e. She tries to rise to her feet once more, battling the strong currents of wind that are whipping at her.

  “I skimmed your mind Moira. You cannot lie to one such as me.”

  I wave my hand in Moira’s direction and her body goes stiff. She cannot move because I am controlling her like a puppeteer. I look into her eyes and in mine I know she can see her own death. I have never met someone more deserving of their fate.

  “You have been judged and been found wanting, for your sin I will end your pitiful existence,” my voice echoes off the walls as I pass my judgment.

  “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

  “Who are you to judge someone as ancient as I,” Moira is still hissing and spitting, thinking that this will end differently than it will. But her fate has been cemented.

  “I am Celios, blessed by my Mother Goddess, Hekate. I was made in her image. Put on this plane to do her bidding.”

  Moira’s eyes are now bugged in her head.

  I’ve had enough of her shit by this point. Just looking at her puts me in a rage. I shove my palms outward toward her and let loose all of my pent-up anger. Two beams over crackling jade lightening swarm toward her. When they hit her in the middle of the chest it implodes inward and her skin starts to burn and smoke. The stench is awful, like burning hair mixed with sulfur. I keep my power flowing outward until her body starts to buckle in on itself.

  She is wailing like a banshee in a fit. Moira’s skin starts to flake and ash as she is burned from the inside out. After what seems like forever her screeches go silent and her remains crumble to the floor.

  Clean up on isle ten.

  I turn behind me and wave my hand in Gavin and Jaxx’s direction, canceling out the stasis ward holding them immobile. Gavin is looking at me like he has just met the monster that haunted him from under the bed. Jaxx is smiling at me, shaking his head as if he’s known what I am capable of all along.

  I shake my head at them. I don’t let the shield concealing the house down yet. I don’t want to deal with two more irate Vampire Elders. Not yet anyway. I turn back toward the front room where Jessa is still lying on the couch as if sleeping. I glide toward her as if I am dancing as I walk. I still haven’t powered down. I won’t until I deal with the other unwanted company waiting out on the front lawn.

  Jessa isn’t just sleeping. I can tell because she is breathing very shallowly. I don’t know what was done to her besides what I pulled out of Moira’s head, but it has affected her in very physical ways. She doesn’t look like the little brash wench I knew and loved. Seeing her like this makes me want to kill Moira all over again, but before I can erect any more retribution I need to heal her. I just don’t know how to heal a Vampire.

  I place my palms on Jessa’s chest and force a wave of healing into her rapidly depleting body. Wave after wave of my light enters her chest, but nothing changes. Her breathing doesn’t even begin to get better. What am I doing wrong? I don’t know the physiology of a Vampire. Tears flood my eyes and wash down my flushed cheeks. I wish my mother was here. She would know. Vampires might not be her children but she is the Mother Goddess. I hear gasps and knees dropping to the floor behind me before I even register the new charge of energy in the air. I swing around, ready to battle some new enemy that has slipped past my notice. What meets my eyes is a most welcome surprise.

  “Be at peace my child,” Hekate says in her bell-like voice. “I am here to offer my help, to guide you in healing this young one you hold so dearly to your heart.”

  Hekate is still wearing a Grecian-style gown and golden sandals. Except this one is in shades of blues, greens, and browns. She is exquisite. The very essence of what a Goddess should be. I run into her waiting arms and power down. When she embraces me it feels like I have finally found something to fill the gaping wound deep inside me. I pull from her and notice that there is blood smeared on her gorgeous gown.

  “Mother you are bleeding,” I ask in disbelief.

  “No child. You are.”

  Shit. I forgot all about Moira biting me. Hekate lifts her hand and holds it against my wounded neck. I feel a sharp bite of pain then warmth flowing into the wound.

  “There. All done.” Hekate smiles at me, then waves her hand over her gown and the smears of blood disappear. With powers like that, who needs dry cleaning?

  I look over her shoulder and see Jaxx and Gavin face first on the floor. Kneeling like their lives depend on it and maybe they do.

  “Do they need to remain kneeling,” I whisper to my mother, not liking that Jaxx has his face plastered to the wood floor, but not knowing what to do about it.

  “Just for the time being, my light. Let us heal your friend here. Then it will be time for introductions.”

  I pull back and smile a smile so wide my cheeks hurt.

  “I’m so glad you have come.”

  “I told you that I would when you were in need.” Hekate glides over to look down at Jessa. She reaches down and lightly glides her fingers down Jessa’s hollowed out cheek.

  “So young, she was nearly starved to death. No child this young should be tortured so.” There is a bite of anger to my mother’s words. I can’t agree with her more. She turns her face to look at me.

  “I agree that the ancient one had to die. It was past her time to walk upon this plane of existence. Some cannot withstand immortality without becoming cruel as they grow older.”

  Hekate shakes her head as if Moira’s very existence was a waste. I guess it was. Someone that old, so old that I could feel her age in my bones, could have lived a productive life, helping her kind and others instead of being the parasitic bitch that she was.

  “What can I do to help Jessa? I tried to use my healing magic. I forced an immense amount of my light into her chest. It didn’t help at all.” I shake my head with new tears forming in my eyes. I feel defeated. I couldn’t live with myself if I lost her.

  “She needs blood, my light.” Hekate once again wipes the tears from my face while giving me a gentle smile.

  “Will my blood do? Will it help her recover,” I ask urgently, getting excited at the thought of healing my best friend.

  “You are the child of my light. The blood of a Goddess runs through your veins. Of course your life essence will heal her.” Hekate pulls a small decorative golden dagger from a sheath on her belt. It is only about three inches in length, but it looks wickedly sharp. I quickly give her my left wrist palm up for her to cut. She shakes her head at me, then hands me the little dagger.

  “Your blood must be given freely without help or artifice. Now slice in a vertical line down your wrist so that it doesn’t close too quickly.”

  I take her ordinate dagger and slice deeply into my wrist. I wince from the sharp bite of pain. Blood rushes from the wound, dripping onto the floor. I bend down and use my right hand to pull Jessa’s chin down to open her mouth. I quickly push my gashed wrist to her mouth, letting my life-giving blood flow freely into her mouth.

  “I give you this gift freely my sister. Let it heal you and right the wrong that was maliciously done unto you.” I look at Hekate for her approval and she gives me a small, almost regal nod in return.

  Jessa’s body jerks as if she is coming out of deep sleep, but her eyes do not open. Her arms rise to encircle mine as her fangs rip into my arm. I continue to let her feed off of me until I start to feel light headed from the loss of blood. I gently pry her arms from mine and remove my wrist from her mouth. I watch in astonishment as my wound knits itself back together on its own. I look at my mother in disbelief.

  “When I healed your neck I gave you a gift, child. You will now heal as I would.” She smiles gently at me.

  “Why hasn’t she woken up yet,” I ask.

  “She is still under the stasis spell. Look child. She is healing. Her body is rejuvenating.”

  “How do I remove someone else’s spell?”

  “You don’t already know that answer? Listen to your mind, child. My book has been guiding you since i
t has come into your possession. It should be whispering its wisdom to you even as we speak.”

  I close my eyes and listen intently to my subconscious. I hear the whispered words of wisdom. It is nice to know where they are coming from. For a minute there I thought I might have developed a split personality. As if the world could handle more than one of me. Ha! “Yes,” I whisper with my eyes still closed.

  “I can hear the tiny voice in my mind.” I look at Hekate and see her smiling at me like a proud parent would. That look alone, coming from my mother, makes my heart skip a beat. I have never experienced that look from a parental figure.

  “What is my book telling you to do? Listen to it. Follow its instructions,” Hekate instructs me.

  I close my eyes once more and raise my palms over where Jessa is still sleeping on the sofa. I listen to the chanting, whispering voice in my head, and then start to chant along with it:

  “Those who have trespassed

  Are welcome no more.

  Release this child from her slumber.

  Let her rise and see the light.

  Let her soul resume to burning bright.

  Let her lungs welcome the breath of life.

  Let her eyes open to no more strife.

  Remove the hold you have on this being.

  Retract your claws.

  Or feel my eternal sting.”

  During the chant I was fueling it with all the power I could muster inside myself. I could feel the spell start to lift like a rubber band stretching, then finally breaking free. I open my eyes and see that Jessa’s color has finally returned to normal and she is breathing regularly again, but she remains sleeping.

  “Why has she not woken,” I ask once more.

  “She will wake when her body has fully healed. Now that you have removed the stasis spell she should waken with the rise of the moon. Her kind are more powerful then.” Hekate turns to look behind her where my brother and would-be lover are still kneeling.

  “Can we please allow them to get up now Mother?” I laugh slightly and try to hide it. I mean what are you supposed to do? A Goddess for a mother, people are meant to bow in her presence, but I am just not used to it.