by D L Blade
“So, you asked him to turn you.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded. “After he turned me, we moved to a clan in Warwick. I grew to love the vampires there. They were kind to me, and Lucas kept hidden from them the fact that I used to be a witch. Vampires and witches were enemies and always will be, and the punishment for turning a witch was death. We were there for several years.”
“How is it that witches today know very little about vampires?” I asked.
“After the Chosen Ones became immortal, vampires feared them, so they hid. If they killed a witch or human, they were discreet about it. They were no longer slaughtering villages and making a scene everywhere they went. It would have only drawn Caleb and the others to them. Witches didn’t want mass hysteria, so they didn’t write about it or tell anyone about them. A few stories made their way into our history books, but for all witches know today, they were no longer a threat, or they were simply a myth.”
I looked up at Caleb, who was leaning against the wall, watching Abigail and me. His arms were folded and his smile was faint. I smiled back to him and turned my attention back to Abigail.
“What took you away from that clan?”
Tears formed in Abigail’s eyes. It was weird seeing her so vulnerable. She was so perfect in my eyes. She continued, but her voice became stern. “Lucas brought me a child who introduced herself as Emily. I thought he had adopted the little girl for me. As a vampire, you can’t conceive a child and he knew how much I wanted children. I wanted to hold her, hug her, and keep her safe. She was the daughter I never had. I realized what was really going on, when he grabbed her by the hair and shoved her toward me. He wanted me to feed on her. I looked at the girl who had tears in her eyes. She was so frightened. I was beginning to feel emotions that were almost impossible for a vampire to feel. I had no choice but to obey him and drink. As I went to sink my teeth into her neck, I felt a force pull me back, like someone was grabbing on to my head and pulling me from her. I looked down at her neck and saw that she was wearing a black stone necklace. It was a jet stone, the same stone I saw you wear the night you came to my house. As I’m sure you already know, the stone protects witches from demons like me. I didn’t realize at the time that this enchanted stone was made by your coven to protect witches from demons, but I knew she was a witch. The stone had been enchanted.”
I stared blankly at Abigail as she continued her story.
“This little girl was a victim to something dark and evil. I had asked a vampire to turn me into a monster, just so I could live forever. I was so selfish, I didn’t think twice about the lives I would have to sacrifice for my needs. I also knew that this child was a witch, part of who I truly was, and still am inside. I may have lost my powers as a witch when I was turned, but it will always be who I am deep down. I told Lucas I couldn’t betray my kind. This, of course, angered him, the fact that I chose a witch over the vampires. He ripped the necklace from her and sunk his teeth into her neck.”
“He was going to make me watch her die as my punishment.”
Poor Abigail. I can’t imagine watching a child being killed in front of me.
Abigail placed her hand over her heart as if she was experiencing chest pain and tears welled in her eyes. “Everything happened so fast after that. I broke the leg off a dining chair and lunged toward him. I don’t think anyone there even saw what had happened. I staked him in the heart and killed him. I turned to Emily and she was losing too much blood. I had to save her, so I turned her. After her transition was complete, we fled the clan. A few years later, we met Sherwood. He gave us a place to sleep and he fed us.”
“You mean, he let you feed on him,” I guessed.
“Not at first. He didn’t know we were vampires. We did our best to stomach the human food he served us, but we had to find blood to survive. We would take walks at night and find animals near the forest by his house. It just wasn’t the same.” She cringed and shook her head. “It’s just not natural.
“Over time, Sherwood noticed we weren’t getting older, so I had to tell him the truth. Sherwood loved us and accepted us, no matter what. The blood from the animals was weakening us so he let us feed off him from then on. But I knew when to stop so I didn’t hurt him. Emily was afraid her old coven would try to find her and destroy her if they found out she was a vampire. So, we changed her name to Desiree.”
I gasped, staring at her with wide eyes. “Your house servant?”
“My daughter,” she corrected.
“Of course,” I said quickly.
Wow. To kill a child for her to come back as the undead must have been awful for her.
I couldn’t imagine what those two had gone through and hearing Abigail share the most vulnerable parts of her proved she was one of the strongest women I had ever met. I would be happy to fight beside her.
Lily and Joel had been gathering some snacks and water in the food storage closet for everyone. When they re-entered the room, Abigail shifted in her seat.
I stood up. “I need to keep my friends safe, Caleb. We need to bring them here.”
“You’re not leaving this lair, Mercy,” he ordered.
“No. I’m not saying I have to leave.” I turned to my uncle. “Joel, can you teleport them here?” I asked.
“I can. Who do I need to start with and where are they?”
“I can’t reach Riley, so it will just have to be Shannon until I can reach him. I’ll call her now.”
Caleb grunted in the corner and I glared at him. “What is your problem?”
He threw his hands up. “This isn’t a fight that will be done by the weekend,” Caleb snapped.
“I get that, Caleb. But if we can get as many as we can here, I can cast a spell to protect them somehow. I need them in a place I know they’re safe until I can figure out what exactly I’m up against, now that the vampires are aware of my Awakening.”
He stormed off. I didn’t understand why he was being such a jerk.
I stood and put my hand on Abigail’s shoulder. “Thank you for telling me.”
She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge me anymore, and I accepted that. It probably took a lot for her to open up that part of her life to me.
Caleb cursed in the distance.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked as I approached him.
“I don’t like this. I can’t protect you while worrying about the safety of your friends.”
“They will be safe here. I can’t fight when I am worrying about their safety.”
He walked up to me, slid his hand around my neck as if he had a right to touch me, and pulled me in.
“You’re the most important person in my life.” He gently pressed his forehead to mine. My heart rate picked up at his touch, but I couldn’t allow myself to feel this right now. I had to focus.
I placed my hands on his chest and pushed him away slightly, giving us some distance, and backed away from him. I pulled my phone from my pocket and he shook his head.
Shannon’s phone rang once before she picked up. “Oh my God, Mercy! Are you okay?”
“Yes and no. Look, Shannon, I don’t have a lot time to explain, but—”
“Riley found me,” she interrupted. “After what happened to Jeff. He told me that he saw you being taken against your will by Caleb. I swear to God if he touched you …”
“No, I’m okay. Caleb didn’t hurt me. I need to explain something that you may want to be sitting down for.” I suddenly felt nervous to tell her.
“Is this about you being a witch and how vampires are after you?” she asked bluntly.
I caught my breath. “How did you …”
“After you were kidnapped, Riley told me everything. I didn’t believe him at first, but then Jeff tracked me down. He figured I knew. He was freaking out about what you did for him. Is this a joke?”
I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see me. “No, it’s not a joke. This is real, Shannon, and it’s not over. I need to get you here, and now. T
here are vampires out there that are going to hurt the ones I love in order to get to me. I can’t let what happened to Cami, happen to you.”
“Cami was hurt by a vampire? Wow. This is unreal, Mercy. I knew you didn’t mean what you said. I’m sorry I didn’t understand at the time,” she cried.
“Stop, Shannon, all of this is my fault. I can’t fix what happened to her but I can save you and Riley. I don’t want to risk them finding you on your travels up here, so my uncle is going to teleport you here.” I waited for a gasp to come from the other end, but it was much louder.
“Teleport?!” she screamed.
I had to pull the phone away from my ear until she calmed down. After she stopped screaming on the other end of the line, I instructed her to pack a bag and stay on her couch until we brought her here. She agreed, but a part of me felt she doubted the whole story of witches and vampires. I knew this kind of news wasn’t the easiest to believe. Even though I couldn’t physically show her my powers, I knew being pulled through the walls of her home and into a vortex would be proof enough.
I tried Riley’s phone again.
Please, Riley, pick up. Pick up.
His phone rang a fourth time before the answering machine picked up.
Dammit.
We spent the next hour trying to devise a plan on how to draw out the ones that would seek me out, before they found me first. The last thing we needed was to be snuck up on. We needed to keep my friends down here while we scoped out some of the most prominent vampire clans in Salem. The problem was, they’d smell me a mile away. We needed to find a spell to mask my scent.
Shannon texted me to say she was on the couch and was ready. I wasn’t sure how long we’d be at the safe house. These vampires weren’t going away after this weekend but keeping her close until we saw what we were up against was the smartest and safest move. Riley still wasn’t answering his phone, but I left a message about where to find us.
My next call was to the hospital where Cami was admitted. I spoke with a nurse who informed me that she had woken up an hour ago but wasn’t speaking to anyone at the hospital, not even her doctor.
She’s at least alive.
“Cami’s awake,” I told everyone, shutting my phone down. Lily’s whole face lit up.
“The spell must have been broken when Kylan died,” Joel explained.
“She’s still not safe. Can you bring her here, too?” I asked.
Joel shook his head. “No, I won’t do that. Cami has been through enough. Pulling someone through a portal takes a lot out of the person. I don’t think it would be the best thing for her health, to put her through that,” he explained.
My heart was pained at this news. I knew it was best not to put her body through any more stress, but not having her here, where I knew she’d be safe, worried me.
Joel lowered his eyes and caught my gaze again. “The only spell I can think of is a cloaking spell. The nurses won’t see her but if they touch anywhere on the bed, they’ll feel her,” he said.
“Do it, then. It’s the best chance she has,” I said optimistically.
“But, Mercy, I can only do it for one person because it’s linked to me. We will need to lock Shannon down here and hope no one penetrates the locks.”
I nodded. “Let’s do it.” I looked up at the clock and saw that it was half past midnight.
Joel was working on the cloaking spell from the kitchen and building the portal through which he’d teleport Shannon.
They’ll be safe soon.
Shannon stepped into the lair and looked around. Her hair had been whipped around from her journey and she was shaking. Her eyes shot wide open, and her jaw dropped as she looked around. The amount of supernatural overload was probably overwhelming her in that moment.
“This … is … crazy, Mercy.” Shannon shivered as she took in the room around her. “That was insane.”
Abigail was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking into the dining area where we sat.
“Why is she staring at me like that?” Shannon asked, her voice trembling. “I mean, is she … she’s not a witch, right? She’s something else?”
“Oh, for crying out loud. I’m not going to bite you.”
Shannon squealed and backed up. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“If I were going to eat you, I would have done it before you could ask that question. I don’t kill humans.”
Shannon gulped, but kept her eyes on Abigail. Caleb was in the lair’s training room, pounding out his frustration on a boxing bag, while Lily and Joel were working on making Cami invisible for the time being.
Lily broke from Joel and welcomed Shannon with a hug. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. You’ll be safe here,” she promised.
I turned to Shannon when Lily released their hug. “Did you ever get a hold of Riley?” I asked her.
Shannon nodded. “Yes. Finally. He’s picking up his new friend, Amber, and then they’ll just drive here.”
“Amber? Did we go to school with her?”
“No. I met her tonight after the football game. She’s the girl who found him after the wolf attack.”
I checked my phone one last time to see if Riley had tried calling before turning back to Shannon. “Okay, we’ll start without him and I’ll fill him in when he gets here. Well, if he gets here.”
I caught her up on the events from the evening in more detail than I had over the phone. I explained the ritual, my mission, my sole purpose for even being in this world, and the powers Spirit gave me. Finally, I explained my immortality and my destiny to protect humans. Surprisingly, she expressed her acceptance of the new me and her desire to help in any way. She was shocked, yes, but it was now her reality, too.
Caleb emerged from the training room after pouting in there the last hour. Sweat was dripping from his neck, and he was breathing heavily. He hastily interrupted us. “We need Mercy to start training. She needs to learn to fight.”
“Mercy? Fight? This should be interesting,” Shannon snickered under her breath and I playfully rolled my eyes at her.
I walked into the training room. It was quieter than the rest of the lair. It had a padded floor and weapons stretched all the way up to the ceiling. Caleb explained that witches created this place after they took the lair over. The adult witches would bring their children here to train them, just in case they needed to fight witches that were into dark magic. Back then, vampires weren’t a threat to witches anymore, but not all covens were allies.
A radio hung on the wall by the door. Caleb walked over to it, turned on a rock station, but lowered the volume.
“You get reception way down here?” I asked.
“It’s the only station that will come in somewhat clearly.” He softly laughed. “I hate fighting in silence.” He pulled a hairband from his pocket and wrapped it around his hair, pulling it into a man-bun. He then removed his T-shirt, revealing a black tank top. His muscles were hitting the material just right, showing off the definition of his abs through the thin cotton material.
Damn.
He walked up to me, pulling out another rubber band from his pocket. “Here, tie up your hair. It’s about to get really hot in here.” His sideways smile and not-so-subliminal sexual reference made me blush.
I tied up my hair and joined him in at the center of the room. He held up his palms. “My hands are your target. Don’t hold back.”
Over the next couple of hours, he showed me kicks, jabs, upper cuts, sweeping, punches, and strikes. “It would be much easier if my memories of how to fight came back. Can’t you just do what you did during my ritual and show me everything from my past?”
“Even if they did, you’ll remember the moves, but you still need to practice. This new body of yours is weak and skinny. We need you to be able to side-kick your opponent and actually knock them down.”
“Okay, I get it. I’m a frail little girl that no one in their right mind should trust to save them. Caleb, I can just use my magic.”
He shook his head. “I wish that were enough.” He walked up to me and placed his index finger under my chin, lifting it up slightly. “Your physical strength has heightened since the Awakening. You just have to learn to use it.”
“Alright. Just, go easy on me.”
“Not a chance,” he said with a huge grin on his face. He came up from behind me and put his arm around my neck in a choke hold. “Now, try to pry my arm away.” The heat from his breath tickled the back of my head, weakening me at my knees. “I’m your enemy right now, Mercy. Do what I showed you.”
I gulped and closed my eyes. As he had shown me before, I grabbed his arm, pulling it down from my neck, stepped to the right, and elbowed him in the chest, hard. He winced and backed up slightly. Now taking his arm, I twisted it behind him, holding it firmly. “Don’t hold back, Caleb.”
His face crunched and blood rushed to his face. “I’m not, Mercy. That was all you. You can let go now.” He grunted and released a deep breath he had been holding in.
I released him and he straightened back up. “Now kick me,” he commanded, and I did just that.
I shifted my body slightly to the left and side-kicked him, but he grabbed my foot and twisted it, but it twisted my entire body and I fell to the floor. He was on me before I could get back to my feet and pressed his chest against mine, pinning me down. He forcefully grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head. My heart rate picked up again. As he glared into my eyes as if he were devouring me, I wiggled out of his grasp, placed my hands on his chest, and blasted him off me. He flew so high up that he slammed into the ceiling above me and then plummeted to the ground. This time I didn’t apologize. I knew he was okay.
“You see? I can just use my magic.”
He proudly smiled at me and came to his feet. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “Let’s get some water.”
We both took a swig of water and got back to the mat. Before we could start again, we heard a commotion coming from the main living space of the lair.
