by Lola Gabriel
“I’ll tell you everything when we’re out of here. Come on,” Jagger said.
He began to lead Raven to the door. She flinched slightly, jumping back when she saw a man in the hallway. It was Silver, Jagger’s brother. Raven tensed up. Was he behind all of this as she had begun to suspect?
“It’s okay,” Jagger said quickly, seeing Raven’s discomfort. “He told me everything and he came to help me rescue you.”
“Raven,” Silver said. “I regret my actions, but even when I was convinced you needed to leave my brother, I never would have hurt you or the baby.”
Raven nodded and gave him a half-smile and then the three of them began to make their way down the hallway.
“We came in through an empty window. We’ll leave the same way,” Jagger said, taking Raven’s hand in his as they ran along the hallway.
“You really thought it was going to be that easy? Jagger, I’m surprised at you,” Lee said, stepping into the hallway and raising his hands.
Raven felt the now familiar feeling of being pushed backwards. She saw that Jagger and Silver were being pushed back too, but unlike her, they had ways to fight it. They both raised their hands as one, and Raven felt the pressure on her releasing and she was able move freely again. Lee was now the one being pushed backwards.
Just as Raven began to relax a little bit, she heard footsteps rushing along the hallway. She couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from at first, and then she realized why. They were coming from both ways at once. Raven looked along the hallway, checking each way, and saw men running in from both directions. Lee smiled as Jagger and Silver released their hold on him to concentrate on the new, bigger threat.
Jagger and Silver stood back to back in the hallway, each of them sending their magic down to the men approaching them. The magic held back some of the attackers, but they began to fire back with spells of their own and some of them were able to advance.
Raven felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder and she turned quickly to find herself face to face with a grinning stranger. She brought out her fangs and dove onto the man, tearing through his jugular with a single snap of her jaws. She turned away from the almost dead man and found herself facing off with Lee.
She grinned and threw herself toward him, ready to tear his throat out too, but Lee was much faster than the other man, and Raven felt herself crumpling to the ground as she was hit by an invisible wave of heat that was so hot it burned her skin, instantly blistering it.
She felt consciousness slipping away from her and she tried to hold on, but the pain was too much, too intense, and Raven slipped into unconsciousness.
11
Jagger spun around quickly when he heard Raven’s scream of pain. He felt as though that scream was penetrating him, like he could feel her pain inside of himself. He saw her crumpled on the ground, her skin charred black and blistering. Smoke rose from her hair and her body and she was unconscious. Lee stood over her, beaming with delight, and Jagger stopped thinking clearly for a moment. All he could see was a red rage with Lee’s smiling face in the center of it.
Jagger roared in anger and pushed his palms toward Lee, pushing with all of his might. Lee slammed back against the wall behind him, but Jagger didn’t stop there. He kept pushing, watching as Lee’s body flattened. He could hear bones snapping, and blood ran from Lee’s mouth as his ribs penetrated his lungs and he began to drown in his own blood.
Jagger waited until he was certain that Lee was dead, and then he dropped him to the ground like a stone. He wanted so badly to go to Raven, but they were still in the middle of their fight.
“Go to her!” Silver shouted. “Heal her and the baby. I’ve got this.”
Jagger hesitated for only a moment. There were only two attackers left standing and Jagger was confident that Silver could handle them. He ran to Raven’s side and threw himself onto the ground beside her. He took her hands in his and then he took a deep breath and blew gently over Raven’s body. He watched as the burns began to heal themselves. It wasn’t long before Raven’s skin had healed completely and she opened her eyes and smiled up at Jagger.
“You’re okay now,” he said to her.
He felt a rush of emotion as he looked down at Raven, and suddenly, he knew that asking her to move in with him, something he had been planning on doing that night, wasn’t enough anymore.
“Raven, I… I love you,” Jagger smiled. “And I don’t care if you’re not a witch. You’re my one true mate and I know that now. Raven, will you spend forever with me?”
“Yes,” Raven said simply. She smiled, a smile that lit her face up. “I love you too, Jagger.”
Epilogue
Three Years Later
Raven laughed as Marnie ran around with her friends, all of them shrieking and laughing. Jagger came and sat down beside Raven, kissing her cheek.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Just watching the kids running about like that,” Raven said. “It’s hard to believe that people thought our daughter was going to be some sort of mutant freak, isn’t it?”
“I know,” Jagger said, shaking his head. “Even my own brother was worried.”
“Let’s face it, Jagger. We were a little bit worried ourselves at first,” Raven pointed out.
“True,” Jagger agreed. “But luckily, my mom was right all along. Marnie is just a normal witch in most regards. She just has to drink blood with her meals.”
“She’s really learning to handle the cravings too. She’s going to be just fine,” Raven smiled. She rubbed her belly and looked at Jagger. “And when her little brother or sister comes along in a few months’ time, she’s going to be an amazing big sister who looks out for them and teaches them all about their powers.”
“And just think. One day, she’ll be leading the tribe,” Jagger said. “I think once that happens, it will help bring vampires and warlocks and witches a lot closer and I think we’ll start to see more cross-breeding between the two. Maybe Marnie will be the inspiration for a whole new race.”
Raven smiled again as she watched Marnie.
“Maybe,” she agreed. “And look at how confident she is. She would be the perfect candidate to lead a whole new tribe and help them to carve out a place for themselves in the world.”
“Just like we did,” Jagger agreed. “When we told the world we didn’t care about their traditions. That we might be a warlock and a vampire, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be true soulmates.”
Wolf’s Troubles
1
Marin Bailey marched into her parents’ house and went straight down the hallway and into the living room. Her mom was sitting on the couch, an open book in her hands. Her father sat beside her, his gaze fixed on the TV. Both of them looked up as Marin entered the room, startled by her sudden appearance.
“What’s happened?” her mom asked, sounding worried.
“You haven’t heard?” Marin asked, surprised that her parents were in the dark about this. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she might worry her parents by bursting in like she had; she really expected them to know why she was there. “Lewis and Kyle have been causing trouble again.”
Lewis and Kyle were Marin’s younger brothers. They were twins and they were fifteen which meant that they were just getting to that awkward stage where they began to rebel. Their rebellion was, for the most part, harmless teenage stuff, but this time, it was different. Up until now, they hadn’t done anything that really warranted a massive telling-off, but this time, they had gone too far and Marin was here to make sure they got the punishment they deserved because she knew her parents would let it go to keep the peace. They would perhaps even encourage it a little bit, especially Marin’s mom, who was constantly telling her that boys will be boys and that the twins’ rebellion was harmless.
“Nothing new there, then, love,” Marin’s mom said with a half-smile.
She went back to her book and Marin felt her temper rising slightly. How was it that she wa
s more concerned about this than either of her parents were?
“Seriously, this can’t be allowed to go on,” Marin said firmly. She sighed and sat down in a chair opposite her parents. She reached out and took the remote for the TV from the coffee table in front of her father and muted it. To his credit, he didn’t complain. She sighed again, feeling more like she was the parent and her parents were the children. “The twins are making the whole family look bad. You know what people think, don’t you? That you two can’t control your own children.”
Marin’s mom snorted down her nose.
“Since when have we cared what other people think?” she said. “Maybe those busybodies should spend less time judging our boys and more time worrying about their own behavior. I bet if everyone in the pack did a little more of that, then we could all get along so much better.”
Marin opened her mouth to tell her mom that this was more than just idle busybodies gossiping. The things they were discussing had actually happened and the neighbors were getting sick of putting up with the twins and their lack of discipline. Before she could respond, her father spoke to her.
“Marin,” her father said gently, speaking up for the first time since Marin had entered. “It’s not that we can’t control your brothers’ behavior, it’s more that there’s nothing to control. They aren’t doing anything wrong. They’re wolves, Marin, and they’re following their natural instincts. The people who are complaining are just jealous because they’ve become so conditioned to act in a way that goes against their nature that they forget there is another way. They see the boys acting like wolves and they crave that freedom for themselves.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Marin said, shaking her head. “We’re all wolves and none of us three feel the need to go out and wreak havoc, do we? The natural instinct of a wolf isn’t to go off and do whatever the hell they like. The natural wolf instinct is to be a pack member and to follow the rules set forth by the alpha couple so the whole pack can flourish. And Lewis and Kyle are doing the opposite of that. They are the epitome of doing whatever the hell they like, despite the consequences to themselves and others.”
“Don’t you think you’re exaggerating a little bit there?” Marin’s mom said. “I know they’re not exactly the model of good behavior, but they’re hardly doing the opposite of what the alpha couple expects. What did they do this time? Skip school again? I’m sure the alpha couple isn’t ready to banish us all because of that.”
“No,” Marin sighed. “I wish that was all it was. If it was, I might even agree with you. But this is so much more serious than that, Mom. This time, they turned in front of a human. Some guy that caught them acting out in public and told them off. They turned and scared him half to death. Luckily, no one believes him that two teenagers turned into wolves before his eyes—they think he was hallucinating or something—but that’s hardly the point, is it? They could have believed him. Please tell me you can see how serious this is. They could have given away their identities—all of our identities. What if the man had been a hunter? They could have put the whole pack in danger.”
Marin stopped and waited for the seriousness of the situation to register with her parents. After a moment, her jaw dropped in surprise when she saw the look of amusement pass between her parents.
“Are you smiling?” she demanded of her father.
He looked at her mom and she smiled back at him. He looked back at Marin and nodded, the smile stretching across his whole face.
“Of course I’m smiling. Marin, like it or not, we’re superior to humans. They’re weak, we’re strong. And I for one am sick to death of us always cowering away in the shadows, hiding from them. If anything, it should be the other way around. So, yes. I’m smiling at the thought of my boys putting some interfering old human in his place,” Marin’s father said. “And the fact that the other humans now think he’s crazy is just the cherry on the sundae, isn’t it?”
“And you don’t care at all that their actions were reckless and they could have compromised us all?” Marin asked with another loud sigh.
“Relax, honey. You said it yourself—no one believes the man saw what he saw. No harm has been done,” her mom put in.
Marin sighed in exasperation, shaking her head. Talking to her parents was frustrating her more than she had anticipated. It would be easier to reason with the boys than with them, Marin thought.
It was becoming clearer to Marin by the minute that she was never going to get through to her parents about the boys needing to be reined in a bit. It wasn’t so much that her parents were bad parents or that they didn’t care about the boys, it was just that the boys knew exactly where the line was and they made damned sure they never crossed it. They knew that their parents believed they shouldn’t bow down to humans and so they knew this latest stunt wouldn’t land them in the kind of trouble it should land them in. The trouble here was that Marin’s parents’ line in the sand was in a much different place from the line the rest of the pack were expected to toe.
Marin knew that at some point, if the boys’ behavior continued to go downhill in this way, the rest of the pack would intervene and force her parents to deal with them or send the whole family away. Marin didn’t want it to come to that—a pack at war with each other was not only unpleasant for everyone involved, but it made them weak. While they were fighting with each other, they were less likely to notice a common enemy encroaching on them. And the thought of being exiled, shamed, and alone was almost too much for Marin to bear.
Despite knowing all of this, Marin also knew that it was pointless to try and explain any of it to her parents. She had tried enough times in the past and her parents had always insisted that enough of the pack felt the same way they did about cowering away that if the issue came up, things would finally change and the wolves would get the recognition they deserved. Marin didn’t think that was the case at all. Even if enough of the pack secretly believed that, Marin was certain most of them would keep that opinion to themselves and continue to follow the alpha couple. And where would that leave her and her family? Back in one of the predicaments she kept imagining, that was where.
Marin was pulled out of her thoughts when the front door opened and slammed shut again. She heard laughter from the hallway, voices calling out and bangs from the owners of those voices shoving each other playfully into the hallway walls. Marin looked up as her brothers came into the room, matching grins on their identical faces.
“Hey, Marin,” Kyle said, grinning at her.
Marin started to return his smile and then she remembered that she was mad at the twins and stopped herself. Lewis elbowed Kyle.
“Uh oh, Marin’s pissed off,” he said.
“Again,” Kyle agreed.
They both laughed and Marin rolled her eyes, trying to swallow down her annoyance at the boys’ dismissal of her anger. She reminded herself that they were the kids. It was her parents she should be angry at really, not them.
“Enough with the language,” she said. “And…”
“And I hear you turned into your wolf form in front of a human?” Marin’s father interrupted her, finishing the sentence she had been about to say.
Marin glanced at her father. He was looking at the twins expectantly, awaiting their response. Marin bit her tongue, letting him take over, pleased that he was finally stepping up. Kyle nodded his head.
“Yeah,” Lewis said. “But he was yelling at us, thinking he could scare us. We had to show him that he can’t go around acting like that toward us. Right, Dad?”
“Right,” he said, his serious expression melting away and becoming a grin.
“You did the right thing, boys,” their mom added.
Marin felt her temper rising again and she stood up. This was the last thing she had been expecting when her father stepped in, although now that it had happened, she figured she probably should have seen it coming.
“No,” she said, shaking her head furiously. “No. They absolutely did not
do the right thing. Kyle, Lewis, you both know that, right?” She didn’t pause for them to respond, afraid that they didn’t really know it. “The man only yelled at you two because you were causing trouble. If you behave yourselves, then people won’t yell at you. And if something like that happens again, you must never ever show your true form to a human. What is it about this that you two can’t seem to understand?”
“That’s enough, Marin,” her father said. “In case you haven’t noticed, your mother and I are the parents here.”
Are you? Marin thought, but didn’t say. Because surely then you should be stepping up and having this conversation with the twins instead of me.
“But…” Marin started, trying to think of a nicer way to voice her thoughts.
“No, Marin. No buts. The boys did nothing wrong and I won’t have you chastising them and making them feel like they did. Am I making myself clear?” her father said, interrupting her before she even had a chance to speak.
“Perfectly clear,” Marin said coolly.
“Good,” her father said.
“Boys, why don’t you tell us what happened? I want to know what that nosy old human’s face was like when you turned,” Marin’s mom said.
Marin shook her head and headed for the door. Her mom sounded like she was excited to hear more, as though the boys were giving her some juicy piece of gossip and Marin didn’t want to hear any more. She didn’t think she would be able to bite her tongue for long enough to hear the twins telling their story and watch her parents lapping it up.
“I’m off,” she said. “I’ll be by tomorrow to watch the boys after school until you come home from work.”
“We don’t need to be watched. We’re not children anymore,” Kyle protested.