by Jade Frances
“So Evvy, what happened before Rose got here?” he directed straight at me. Sighing, I told him everything I had learnt. Everything that Adam had told us and what Darryl had mentioned in between. Saying everything out loud seemed to take a bit of weight off of my shoulders. Although they had arrived here on bad terms, having the others around and to talk to made everything just that little better. Sandra and Rosemary had listened in, silent and concentrating.
After I finished relaying everything I could remember, I stopped to look at them all, wondering what they were thinking.
“What so Adam tells you a sob story and we are all supposed to believe he’s a good guy,” Sandra snorted. I knew she would be first to pipe up. Before I could bite back, Darryl’s voice came from behind me.
“Actually, Sandra, that’s exactly what you should believe.” Rose stood up and rushed towards Darryl, hugging him tightly and apologizing repeatedly.
“Enough Rose, it’s fine. Really,” he held her at arm’s length and gave her an encouraging smile. Adam wasn’t by Darryl’s side, so he must have stayed in the hut. Leaving us to sort everything out. Both of them came to sit around the fire with the rest of us.
“No, she’s right Darryl, he can’t be trusted,” Taylor said. Sandra looked around at us smugly. I could punch her in the face sometimes. As my thoughts darkened, I felt Adam approaching. A calmness swept over me, washing away all the terrible thoughts of what I could do to Sandra. I was grateful as he brushed against me and sat by my side. I looked into his green eyes and felt the same calmness again.
We both looked to Darryl, who had continued to speak.
“Adam can’t hide anything from me through our bond. The bond forming would have been the energy surge you all felt.” He explained to the others. I noticed Sandra, Rosemary and Taylor had all moved to sit closer together on the opposite side of the fire to us. It would take a lot more convincing than this to get them to accept Adam. “Everything he has told us is true, he is a good guy. As you doubted Sandra,” he continued, calling Sandra out and making her blush.
“What about him being at the house? Stalking Evvy? It could all just be a plan to get her alone,” Taylor questioned back. Exhaling, Darryl shifted slightly. He looked uncomfortable as he looked into Adam’s eyes. A small growl came from deep in Adam’s chest and Darryl gave a slight nod.
“Adam physically cannot harm Evvy, not in the slightest. I can’t tell you why, that is for Adam to say,” he broke off.
“Oh, of course you can’t. Let’s wait for the psychopath to be human again and then we can understand, right?” Sandra shouted, waving her arms about. She looked a bit crazed, to be honest. “Screw this,” she said as she got up and walked off.
“Look, believe what you guys want. Go back to the house with Evvy, start training again. We need to be prepared. This crap show today just proved we are nowhere near powerful enough, or in control enough to defend ourselves,” Darryl shouted towards where the others were reconvening.
“Yes, I agree, let’s head back. We all need some rest in a decent bed,” Rosemary replied, drained from today.
“What about Adam? I’m not staying in a house with a dog,” Sandra snapped, earning a swift slap to the arm from Rose. Taylor joined in next.
“Yeah, I don’t feel comfortable with that either, we have no idea who he really is,” he said.
“Guys, guys. Please. Can we deal with it all at home,” Rose shouted at the other two.
“You stay in a house with me Sandra, am I a dog? But don’t worry, we aren’t coming back yet. We have a lot to catch up on,” Darryl told everyone, glaring at them as he did. I felt my shoulders sag. A depleting feeling overcame me. I would have to leave with the others while Darryl and Adam stayed..
Into the lion’s den I go. I suddenly felt the urge to laugh. What a ridiculous situation. I was leaving two wolves, one of which barely had humanity left. To go back home with three friends who were wary and untrusting of me. Joyful, I thought sarcastically. The others had already started heading out of the clearing. Standing up, I ran my hand over Adam one more time. It felt right having his wolf at my side. Darryl came over to hug me.
“Stay safe, Evvy, give them time,” he said.
“Sure D,” I whispered. “Just hurry and come back ok,” I added quickly. A few squeezes later and hesitantly, I walked off to follow the others. Would things ever be ok? Could we all just be a content family? I’m sure we will figure it all out soon. For now, I had to rebuild trust and somehow get the others on board with Adam. Cheers Darryl, leave it all to me. Won’t be a train wreck at all.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Back at Moorway house, it seemed it would not be much of a train wreck after all. After a restless sleep, I had made my way to join everyone for breakfast. Once we were all seated, I looked around and concluded that things seemed relatively normal. Well, there at least wasn’t too much hostility in the air. Not yet, anyway.
“Training starts again today,” Rose announced, bringing the three of us to attention. “Who wants to do what?” Well, that was a welcome change. Usually we were just assigned to a section. I guess Rose was stepping back slightly from the leadership role she had given herself. I wasn’t so sure that was such a good thing, but after losing control yesterday, I could kind of understand why she would. Before I could voice my opinion on it, Sandra beat me to it.
“I will work on strengthening my gift. Not that I really need to.” She stated in the typically overly confident style she always had whilst flipping her hair over her shoulder. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as she spoke.
“I saw that Evangeline.” Chills flew down my spine and I froze.
As soon as the familiar voice registered in my brain, I spun out of my seat and ran towards her.
“Avetta,” I shouted as I wrapped my arms around her neck, pulling her in for a big hug. Surprise and shock emanated through me, but above all, joy. I could feel her energy tingling in the air. It was off, warped slightly. Darker than it usually was. I shook it off. For once, I thought just maybe, now everything would be ok. Once I explained everything, she could help, she could talk to the others. A faint glow was building in my mind. For the first time in ages, I knew it was hope. Hope that we could unite, hope that we could overcome our differences, and hope that we could survive whatever lay ahead for us. I could feel myself beaming from ear to ear.
“Put me down Evangeline, we have much to discuss.” The tone in her voice shot down the small feeling of hope I was building. She wasn’t angry, but she wasn’t happy either. I had noticed that something was off with her energy, but I had also brushed it off. I had put it down to not seeing her for a long time. Letting go of her, I edged back slightly to look at her. Which only confirmed what I somehow already knew. Avetta wasn’t here on a social call, that was for sure.
“Take a seat,” she commanded.
Turning back to where I had been sitting, I noticed that no one else had got up, or even looked shocked to see Avetta here. I quickly realised that they had already been expecting her. Just another thing they had left me in the dark with. The realisation put yet another dampener on my mood. I could feel the black swirling mist of negative emotions lingering inside me. Threatening to come to the surface. I was over not knowing anything that was going on. Why was I always the last to know everything? Did they really see me as a fragile little girl that couldn’t handle the new world I had been thrown into? Suddenly, it was like someone had sucked the mist out of me. The negative emotions that were raging inside me slowly disappeared. Leaving a clear and calm feeling in its wake. What the? Something made me look over to Rose, who was staring back at me intently. Her eyes had a slight glow to them. She glanced towards her hands laying on the table. Had she done that? Shaking my head, I focused back on Avetta. Whatever it was, it calmed me, and right now I needed to just remain cool. No point lashing out at everyone when I didn’t have a clue what was going on, yet.
“Avetta,” Taylor curtly nodded in her direction
, finally acknowledging that she was actually here. Rose and Sandra both smiled fondly at her as she moved to take a seat around the table with us.
“Now. I have heard of the misadventure you all had yesterday. Quite frankly, I am disappointed in all of you. Especially you Rosemary.” Rose turned a deep shade of pink and in that moment, I felt sorry for her. Although Avetta hadn’t mentioned exactly why she’s disappointed in Rose, we all knew. She wasn’t finished there though. “You, Evangeline. Should have known better than to endanger everyone by running off on a fool’s mission.” My turn to be chastised. Something inside me didn’t agree with her fool’s mission comment. I was already on thin ice with the others, I didn’t think Avetta would side with them over this. I could practically feel Sandra’s smug face looking my way. It hurt me, causing the slight mist of darkness to start slowly reappearing. Before I could jump in, she had moved on and the attention was off of me, for now.
“Sandra. If you think for one second, you have mastered your gift enough to protect you in an actual fight. Then, well, you are more of a fool than Evangeline,” Avetta snapped. I fought back a giggle, childish I know, but Sandra had reacted no better when I had received my scolding. “And Taylor. How on god’s earth did you allow any of this to happen?” she had a softer tone for Taylor, but I could tell she was still very much disappointed in him.
“I’m sorry, Avetta. Everything happened so fast, I had no control. It won’t happen again,” Taylor was the only one who had replied to her. Brave, I thought, but I guess he was the only one who was asked a question.
“You weren’t the only one that had no control,” Avetta boomed across the table. In the room we were in, it made me wince slightly just how far and loud her voice carried. I noticed Rose’s hands were visibly shaking. Sighing, she looked at each of us in turn. Frustration flowed through her steely gaze. My shoulders dropped, and I looked down at the table, just like everyone else was doing. How long would this lashing of words go on, I’m sure we all got the point. Even if I didn’t agree with her, maybe I could have handled the situation better. No, I thought. We had no other choice. It was the only way to get the information we needed.
“You are correct Evangeline, you obtained valuable information. How much is true, we don’t know? But what you didn’t need to do was endanger everyone to get it!” With some bravery I stared up at Avetta, mustering as much steel in my gaze as she had in hers.
“I didn’t ask them to follow, I didn’t ask Rose to lose control and hurt Darryl.” I snapped. Everyone’s head whipped in my direction, mouths open. I wish Darryl was here; he would have stood by me. Strong and proud of what we achieved. Darryl knew in his heart Adam had goodness in him. But the fact was, he wasn’t here. I was on my own. With that insight, I dropped my gaze from Avetta’s. It looked like no one else would stand by me, let alone recognize what we had done. A hint of sadness edged into me as I thought about Adam. They would not accept him anytime soon. They will hold on to their resentment towards him for a long time. This would be a battle, one I had no hope in winning just yet. As much as I hated it, it was best to just remain quiet for now, I thought to myself. No one had spoken or moved for a good few minutes and things were getting awkward.
“Taylor, get back to the academy. I have work to do with the girls.” By the new tone in her voice, Avetta had calmed down considerably. My ears perked up with interest at what she had said. Forgetting about keeping quiet, I couldn’t help myself as I blurted,
“What academy?” All eyes looked towards me, but none looked willing to answer the question. Instead, Taylor scraped his chair back, getting ready to leave he gave everyone a slight nod. Looking at me, I could see a bit of regret flash in his eyes. But I couldn’t ponder on that. As soon as the door was closed behind him, Avetta spoke again.
“We need to work on your bond.” She said flatly. I groaned, remembering the first time I had learnt of it. It was after Darryl had knocked me out to stop Rose getting through. I didn’t have a clue what was happening at the time, but I didn’t like the feeling.
“Something wrong, Evangeline?” Avetta asked me.
“Just another thing I have no idea about,” I bit back. Sensing the bitterness in my voice, Rose looked toward me.
“You’ll master it like everything else,” she calmly replied.
“I wouldn’t say she has mastered anything,” Sandra muttered under her breath. Which only relit a fire within me. The need to prove myself. I don’t know why she affected me so much, but I felt that it was necessary to show her just how powerful I could be. I have had enough of her treating me like nothing. Thinking back to the way I had felt when Rose had tried getting through to me, I tried to copy the same energy. Once I felt the slight tingle and was satisfied I had tapped into the right part, I directed my mind to Sandra’s.
Pushing through the haziness and black mist that surrounded my mind, I focused intently on entering hers. Reaching out with my mind, I felt resistance pushing me back like an invisible wall. She had felt or figured out what I was trying to do and was trying to block me. Closing my eyes, I drew more of my energy forward. Pushing and pushing into her mind.
Finally, I broke through. I could feel a jumble of thoughts spinning around, but they weren’t mine, they were Sandra’s. They were whirling around so fast, I couldn’t understand them. Flashes of memories whipped around me, just out of reach. I suspected Sandra didn’t want me seeing those. It felt so strange being in someone else’s head. Anger flowed to me through our bond from her. I had successfully pushed into her mind and she didn’t like it one bit.
Well, tough. Satisfied, I spoke into her mind.
Get out my head, you cow! She snapped her reply into mine, just as I felt her resistance pushing me back out. I started pushing back again. Our energies were fighting a minor battle no one else in the room could see. At least, I thought they couldn’t.
“Enough!” Avetta slammed her fists on the table, snapping me back into my own mind. Making me slightly dizzy in the process. “Is this a game to you two? Who’s stronger? Who is more capable? Well guess what, you are stronger together. Not alone! Start dealing with your problems or you will lose the battle ahead.” Avetta didn’t need to shout. We all knew how serious she was. I was regretting my force of power. But not enough to stop me from shooting Sandra a quick, smug look. I thought I would have received one back, but Sandra was looking at me funny. Studying me.
“Rose, open yourself up to look into Evvy please,” she asked calmly. Rose looked at her questioningly, but whatever she saw in Sandra’s eyes made her give her a small nod of acceptance.
“Girls, did you listen to a word…” Avetta started.
“Wait Avetta, there’s something there. I can’t tell what it is. This isn’t me being a cow,” Sandra, who was acting very serious, cut her off. She was serious enough it made Avetta sit back, intrigued as to what was going on.
A tingling entered the outskirts of my mind and as curious as Avetta was, so was I. I gave Rose no resistance as she entered. Her energy came through, glowing, strong, and as powerful as she was. The hazy black mist I had grown so used to was hovering just next to her. Then I noticed more energy joining. Sandra’s. Hers wasn’t as bright or as strong as Rose’s but I felt her coming through just the same.
What is it? I heard Sandra ask.
I… I’m not sure yet, Rose replied as her energy inched toward the dark mist.
That’s just where my emotions collect, figured everyone had some darkness, I responded to them. Rosemary and Sandra ignored me as their energies drifted closer. An overwhelming sense of fear overcame me. I don’t know where it came from, but it seemed to be a warning. No, don’t go any closer, I shouted at them, reaching out with my energy to pull them back.
But I was too late. Their energies mingled together and touched, only slightly, in the darkness. Almost as soon as they touched it, they jerked back. Then, I felt something else enter my mind. Something dark. Something twisted. Something evil. Screaming, I cl
utched at my head, trying to push it out. Pain radiated through my mind; it was unbearable. Too much to handle. Shaking my head, I tried to force my energy forward to push the darkness away. Evangeline, Evangeline! I thought I heard my name being screamed. From somewhere far. It sounded like… It sounded like Ava. There was no way she was here; I was imagining things. Concentrate, I told myself. Shaking my head again and closing my eyes, I tried so hard to push it out. There were so many voices and unwanted feelings that were filtering through from god knows where. I wanted it all gone. Something wasn’t right. The darkness was overwhelming, dimming my mind and the energy I had in it. I knew what was coming as the black mist crept over me; I didn’t have any fight left in me. What I didn’t expect was to hear one last voice. It was as clear as my own. A voice I had heard many times in my nightmares. Just before I completely blacked out from the pain, the dark mist drifted right to me, carrying the voice with it.
Ahh Evangeline, there you are. Thank you for letting me in. See you soon. Then I fell into a pit of blackness and I couldn’t hear, see, or feel anything.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Distantly, I could hear people frantically calling my name.
“Evangeline!”
“Evvy.”
Darkness still surrounded me, but I could now see a faint glimmer of light. I’m sure I could feel someone physically shaking me, while repeatedly calling my name. Reaching for the light, I pushed towards it. Watching with relief as it grew bigger and bigger. When I finally reached it, I felt exhausted. Squinting, I looked up into the faces of Avetta, Rose and Sandra. All three had mixtures of fear and worry in their eyes as they looked down at me. Yep, shockingly even Sandra.
“What happened?” I croaked as I tried to sit up. My eyes were still painfully adjusting to the light.