by Lisa Randall
My overwhelming feelings passed after about a minute, which was odd. It felt a little different than before. The pressure I had been feeling didn’t want to burst forth from me like with Fen or the demon. It was different in the way that it felt like I had extra energy wanting to be used, and since I wasn’t using it like it wanted to be or had a purpose for it, it began to fade, but only a little.
Selena came up to us and grabbed my shoulder, asking “Are you alright?” I picked my head up from resting on Rai’s chest, unaware I had even done so in the first place, and looked at Selena.
“I think so. Why?” I stopped dancing to ask.
“It’s just that I felt that same energy as before and was a little concerned.” She said. She looked a little worried, and I wasn’t sure if she was worried for me or for those around me. After what I had done to Fen, I wouldn’t blame her for being worried.
“How could you feel her energy in the first place?” Rai asked, turning to look at Selena.
“I’m a witch, remember?” she said. “You two should know about these things better than I do.”
I looked at Rai and it seemed I wasn’t the only one confused at what she had said. We both turned to her to give us more answers.
“Remember when I told Fen that you two were part witch? I didn’t make that up, you know.” Selena said.
“So, you’re saying that we are both witches?” I asked. She nodded. Great, another new thing to process, I thought.
“Don’t you think we would know something like that?” I asked.
“Not if you have never met another witch before. Witches have the ability to sense other witches and other supernatural creatures. It’s a skill we all learn when we are children in order to survive.” Selena explained.
Now the pieces were starting to come together. Although I couldn’t believe I was part witch, I could see how I would have never known about it. I left home at an early age because of the attack, so naturally, my parents didn’t have a chance to tell me. They also either didn’t know or just didn’t tell me. As for searching for my maker, it explained why I could sense him sometimes. He was also a supernatural, a vampire. It also explained how I saw Rai in my dreams, which wasn’t really a dream. For him it was real. I had left my body. Then it hit me. Astral projection.
I turned to Rai and he seemed to be following my train of thought. He seemed as surprised as I did. He nodded at me as if he agreed with Selena.
“No one ever told you, did they?” Selena asked us, looking sad. She brightened instantly as if she had a thought that couldn’t wait to be shared and said “Do you want me to teach you?”
We both nodded. Selena cheered with excitement, startling a few of the others around us. “Not out here” Rai said. Selena nodded and led us to an empty building that looked like a huge dome, but it was cracked and broken in some places. It had stadium style seating all around it, focusing on the ground at the bottom, like an arena. “What is this place?” I asked.
“It’s a place our pack uses to train or hold sporting matches. We haven’t used it in a long time though, so we should be safe from any prying eyes in here.” Selena explained.
“So, what do we learn first?” I asked.
“Well, the basics I guess. Since no one ever really showed you.” Selena said.
“Okay then, let’s get started shall we?” Rai said. He looked nervous for some reason, but then again, I was too.
“Right. First off, you will need to know how to sense other supernaturals. It is something that is important to be able to do in this day and age. You never know who you are up against, really.” She said, looking at me.
“To sense another supernatural, all you need to do is focus your energy outward, gently, to get a mental feel for your surroundings. Every life you sense has a different feel for it, but there is a general underlying sense about each person. That is their aura. Each person’s aura is about the same, depending on their species. For us shifters, our aura is bright, compared to other creatures. As far as I know, other creatures, such as vampires, have dark auras, whereas a demon’s aura is pitch black. Humans, on the other hand, always have a dull aura, but I’m not sure why.” Selena explained. “As for witches, if they are a half breed, like me, they have the color of that species, plus a metallic shine to it. That is the magic in a witch. Its level of visibility depends on the strength of magic in the user. For me, I was told that I have a warm, bright aura with a slight metallic tint to it. Meaning, I am a witch, but not a particularly strong one.” She said.
“Can you tell if someone is good or bad based on their aura?” I asked.
“Sometimes. If you get a sense of warmth, than the creature is usually good. But, if the creature’s aura is cold, than they are bad. The warmer or colder an aura is, the more the creature is either good or bad.” She said. “Would you like to give it a try, Helen?” Selena asked.
I nodded. I was eager to see if I could do this. It would help greatly in my search for my maker. Like Selena had said, I tried to gently focus my energy outward. I waited for a few moments, and it seemed like it didn’t work, when all of a sudden I could sense every soul within a few miles of where we were. I let out a gasp and I heard Rai do the same when he said “I can see them too, Helen. But not as many as you can.”
I stopped focusing, and immediately the sensation went away. It was like seeing lights on a map light up when I had done that. All of the lights were bright, but not all of them were warm. Only a few, which didn’t really surprise me since Fen had been the leader. Who knows what kind of things he did to make these creatures into this way. I could also sense Selena’s metallic aura, along with another one, similar to hers, yet weaker. There must be more than one witch in the pack.
“You can see into her mind?” Selena said, looking surprised.
“Yes. And only her, so you have no need to worry.” He said.
“Oh, I’m not worried about you reading my mind. It’s just…” She paused.
“Go on.” Rai urged her.
“Well, it is told in my family as a fairy tale, a legend.” She said, looking awestruck.
“What is?” I said.
“It is said, that there will be two beings of the same species that can communicate through their minds. They were told to be the ones who would rid this world of the demons, they would be so powerful.” She explained.
“So, you think that we are these two people?” I asked.
“Yes. It is also said that one of the two can bring forth the sun and fire, while the other can share his memories with his soul mate, as well as call forth lightning. No other creature can do these things, which makes these two beings very rare and very powerful.” She said.
“Well, I don’t know about the sun thing, or the soul mate thing, but I know Rai can share memories, and I can share mine with him as well. And we have all seen the fire with our own eyes…” I told Selena. Her eyes got wide and she began to tremble. “What is it?” I asked.
“That was one part I did not tell you, in case you were in fact not those in the prophecy.” She said.
“Prophecy? I thought you said it was a fairy tale?” Rai said.
“They are the same thing, but some chose to believe it while others did not. Those who did not believe, told it as a story, something to tell the young children on scary nights. But those who did believe told it as a prophecy, believing that one day it would come true.” She said.
“What you did earlier, with Fen…” Selena began to say.
“It could have been seen as bringing the sun, but from the inside out.” Rai said. “But that is only a guess.”
I still couldn’t believe that I was a part of some prophecy told by someone I had never met. “But that doesn’t explain the soul mate thing.” I said.
“I have never been able to do the things I have with you with any other being, Helen.” Rai said, stepping closer to me. He put his hands on either side of my face and stared into my eyes. I looked into his eyes as he concentrated
on something, and I began to feel something. All of a sudden I was inside Rai’s mind, and he was in mine. I couldn’t just see, but I could feel myself in his mind as well. It was an odd feeling. And then I found a part of him that seemed to call out to me. I was drawn to this part of him, and I couldn’t stop myself from going towards it. I could sense the same thing happening to Rai as well. We were both being drawn towards something that seemed to promise hope and love, and neither of us wanted to be away from that feeling ever again. We both reached where the feeling was coming from, and entered it.
We were no longer in different minds now, but in one single mind. I looked around and all I saw was whiteness everywhere. Then Rai was beside me and we were holding hands. Then we both knew. We were soul mates.
*****
Everything was happening so fast.
First Helen fights a demon and wins, then fights with Fen the were-wolf leader and wins; she becomes pack leader, then we both learn we are part witch. It explained a few things that had been happening between Helen and me for a while now. I remember the first time I saw her floating at night, leading me to her crypt. It seemed so long ago, so much has happened since then.
Now, Selena, the witch for the were-pack, tells us that we are the ones from a prophecy. What next? Oh yeah, it turns out, Helen and I are soul mates. As soon as I took one hard look into her eyes, I could feel our souls merging into one. It just felt right to be around her. I didn’t know how I had lived before I had met her. That time feels muted, like I was just existing, waiting for her to come into my life. What a day this was turning out to be.
Chapter 8
The three of us went back to the party, and Selena told the pack about Rai and me being the ones from the prophecy told hundreds of years ago. A pack meeting was held and they agreed it should be our mission to eliminate the demons from this world, since they were pure evil. They didn’t want to live in fear of them anymore, but were too afraid to fight.
Selena offered to go with us, in order to help us to learn more about our powers.
Rai and I had only one mission. To find our maker. We both wanted answers as to why we were turned, and as to who our maker was. We both agreed to continue our search for him, and if any demon got in our way, we figured we could handle it. After all, I had already defeated one demon today.
I asked Selena to see if anyone had heard of a vampire like us before, and no one had.
“Let me check our pack history, Helen. Maybe there is something there.” Selena offered.
“It couldn’t hurt.” I said.
We followed Selena to the archives, which was just a small building, with an even smaller bookshelf of old handwritten books that looked like they would fall apart if you picked them up.
“I’m the only one in the pack that knows how to read. Everyone else didn’t see a need to teach it throughout the years, so no one except for the witches of our pack learned.” She explained.
She picked up a book titled “Dangers Of The Worlde” and began to read it. “Aha!” she said after a while. “It seems a vampire a few hundred years ago was going from pack to pack, searching for the strongest fighters to come with him to the Human City. He wanted to abduct as many humans as he could, but he never gave a reason why. Three of our best went with him, never to return. It says here in the margin that he was able to go out in the daylight, and claimed to have special powers, but no one in the pack ever reported of seeing these powers.”
“Where is the Human City they went to?” Rai asked.
“It is to the west of here. It says the humans made their city into a series of caves in the mountains in order to hide better.” She said.
“It’s decided then.” Raid said. “We are headed west in search of this vampire.”
We headed back to the rest of the pack to tell them of our decision. Many eyes were on us, and I felt a little self conscious about holding Rai’s hand. Neither of us seemed to want to let go.
“Is there any among you that wishes to travel with us?” Rai asked.
Nobody said anything. It seems we were the only ones who wanted to leave. Then Selena stepped forward. She looked each pack member in the eye and said “I will go.” There were gasps from the crowd, but nobody said anything. We waited a few more minutes and no one else stepped forward or objected to her leaving.
“We leave in the morning.” Rai said, looking to me and Selena. We both nodded and went to go try and get some rest.
I tried to relax and sleep, but it seemed both my mind and body didn’t want to sleep any more than I already had. I went over to the nearest building and went to the roof. I found Rai there, lying on the concrete roof, staring at the sky.
“Hey.” He said, still looking at the sky.
“Hi.” I said. I lay down next to him.
“Can’t sleep?” he said.
“Not a wink. I think I slept enough for a long time, don’t you?” I asked. He didn’t say anything, then “do you remember the stars?”
“Yes.” I said.
“Show me?” I turned to him, placing a hand on his head. I concentrated on the many nights I stared up at the sky, memorizing the patterns of the stars. I heard Rai sigh next to me, and I opened my eyes to see him smiling at me. It had worked again. I could feel his happiness through our bond, which in turn made me happy. My hand found his as I stared up at the sky.
“Have you ever been to the Human City in the west we are headed to?” I asked.
“No, but I have heard stories about it.” He said.
“Tell me about it.” I asked.
“Well, the humans today are nothing like they were before the Wars. Humans live in fear of any outsiders, and rule their cities with an iron fist. They regulate their food supply strictly, and like here, the humans didn’t learn to read, since it was no longer necessary for their survival. They live like hermits in their caves, and never leave them. I’m not sure how intelligent they are, but I would use caution when we get there.” He said.
“I do know that they also have witches in their city, like here. Each species seemed to get their own witches after the war, as a means of defense. From what I know, witches today don’t really have that much power. The most they can do is act as healers, and have no attack power.”
“Then why would Selena want to go with us?” I asked.
“Maybe she isn’t happy here.” Rai said.
“Why wouldn’t she be?” I asked.
“Well, Fen wasn’t exactly the nicest of people, and everyone seems relieved that he isn’t here anymore. I haven’t seen one sad face since his death.”
“Really?” I asked. I was surprised to hear this. Everyone should have at least one person who cares for them.
Rai gave my hand a light squeeze, reassuring me.
We were quiet the rest of the night, holding hands and watching the cloudy night sky, trying to imagine it full of stars.
When dawn came, the pack gathered to watch us go. Just as we were about to leave, someone in the crowd asked “Who will be pack leader when you are gone? Who will protect us?”
“You can fight among yourselves for the pack leader, if you really want to.” I said. “But if, and when, I return, I just want for me and those with me to be treated with respect. No one will attack us, and if need be, you will protect us for however long we need you to.”
No one said anything. “If you agree, then hold up your hands.” All hands went up. “Then it’s settled. Goodbye.” We turned to go when Selena stayed facing the rest of the pack. She said “There is something I have not told any of you.” There was a pause. “I have a cousin. She is among you. If you will allow it, she will be your new pack witch. Cousin, if you agree, step forward. If not, I will not single you out.” A small girl stepped forward. She couldn’t have been any older than a teenager; she was skinny and had long, bright red hair and green eyes. “I accept.” She said, barely a whisper. Selena nodded, said her goodbyes, and we were off to the Human City.
Chapter 9
> It took a few days of walking to reach the Human City. During this time, Selena taught Rai and I about how to control our powers. I learned I could only use the white fire when my emotions were heightened, and Rai learned that he could share memories and experiences with me like we had before.
Now, we could share memories from our human lives, as well as our vampire lives. It had been so long for both of us we had almost forgotten about our time as humans. During these past few days, I rarely slept, and when I did, it wasn’t for long. I wondered if this was normal for me now, or if it was because I had slept for so long already.
Selena said she could feel another power within Rai, but wasn’t sure what he could do. She said it felt similar to my white fire. Rai didn’t seem that excited about learning something new, which I didn’t really understand. Maybe he doesn’t trust her as I do.
We talked about our lives, and how we ended up where we were now. I had just finished telling Selena about my ‘big sleep’ through the wars, and she was surprised at how long I slept. She seemed a little worried at this. She suggested maybe it wasn’t my idea in the first place to sleep, especially for so long. Before, I had enjoyed wandering the cities, reading and watching movies. Over time, I’m not sure when exactly, I had grown depressed and just felt like I wanted to escape it all. I never questioned this feeling until Selena asked me about it. I told her, “One day I just felt so exhausted. Like living every day surrounded by the humans just disgusted me and trying to deal with their problems was too much to handle, and I just wanted to escape it.”