by J. B. Garcia
“So what happens on my 18th birthday?” She stands from the stone before me. “The Blood Moon is on your birthday. This only comes once every 1,000 years. It’s very rare to have a newborn Mystic Queen awaken on this day especially now that you have the ability to morph into a wolf. You have already been given my powers and the Blood Moon with triple them. You are going to become the most powerful Mystic, Morpher and Queen our race has ever had.” I don’t know how to absorb all this. I am becoming more and more afraid with every word. I don’t know what to think anymore. What if I cannot defeat Khan? This is too much pressure for me. I was just a normal girl and now my life is changed forever. Renee reaches her hand up and touches my face. I lean into her hand trying to feel some sort of comfort. “Niki, on your birthday you will come here to the island. When the Blood Moon is highest in the sky it will shine down its crimson light onto this stone. You need to lie on the stone and let the light cover your whole body. If any part of your body is not in the light the awakening will not be completed and it will fail. The blood moon will turn on you and instead of awakening you it will make you sleep for all eternity. Travis knows what needs to be done and he will guide you through it.” I stand from the stone and begin to pace back and forth carving the ground with each step. How am I going to be able to do this? I don’t think that I have the strength. I look into her eyes “If I am a Mystic then why did I not see this coming?” She looks at me annoyed and turns her back on me. “Your mother tried to stop your Mystic abilities because she was afraid. Denise told her that I would come to you when she was pregnant. Denise tried to share her gift and was made an outcast. Michelle was afraid that you would suffer the same fate. Humans fear what they don’t understand and they cannot just accept things for what they are. She numbed your ability with medications and you began to believe that it wasn’t real. If you don’t believe in yourself your ability will slowly die. Fortunately for you, I found you before it left you completely. You need to stop taking the pills that she forces on you. You need to learn to control your gift again. Once the medication is stopped it will take a few days to leave your system and then the visions with return to you. At first you will not be able to control them and then slowly you can make then appear when you want them to.” She turns back to me giving me a reassuring smile.
My head is beginning to throb. For so many years I have been told that I was crazy and now the realization that I was right is making my head spin. I start to feel dizzy and sit back down on the flat rock. Renee grabs both my hands and kneels in front of me. “Niki this is the last time that I will be able to talk with you. You will not longer have this vision. Travis knows what to do and he will help you but you need to trust him and let him into your heart.” She is leaving me now? There is no much that I want to know. “You can’t just leave me Renee I need you!” She stands and the white light that blinded me when she arrived begins to illuminate. “Niki, Trust in your ability and trust in Travis he is your protector now.” The light becomes bright and I block my eyes. “Please Renee don’t leave!” I scream into the darkness that she has abandoned me in. Uncontrollable tears fall from my eyes and I collapse to the ground. There is nothing that I can do but scream over and over. I sink my fingers into the ground grabbing grass, ripping it from the ground and throwing it with all my might. I feel like a child throwing a tantrum but it’s all I can do to release all the anger and fear I have inside. My voice is becoming hoarse and I feel my body beginning to shake fiercely. I snap awake. I am back in the guest room with Travis and he is shaking my shoulders trying to wake me. I had been screaming so loud that my mother and Denise woke up and are standing in his room. Travis looks into my eyes with tear streaming down my face and my heart is racing. I look around the room trying to catch my breath and my mother is kneeling by the side of the mattress paralyzed in fear. Denise is standing in the doorway leaning again the frame trying not to look at me. I can tell that she doesn’t care what is happening. I look back at Travis and wrap my arms around his neck desperately trying to feel the comfort his touch provides me. I hold him as tightly as I can and he wraps his arms around me and trying to comfort me “It’s ok Niki your safe with me. Just relax. Take some deep breaths.” I start to breathe in and out trying to slow my heart. The beats begin to come down to a normal pace and my arms loosen around his neck. I lean back onto the pillow and look at Travis. “Are you ok now, babe?” I run my fingers through my hair which is now covered in sweat. “Yes, I’m fine.” My mother frowns and scrunches her eyebrow and looks at Travis “Babe? What the hell does that mean? Speaking of which why the hell are you in his bed Niki?” I turn over to my side and look at her. “Mom, there is too much to explain. Basically Travis and I are bonded. It’s not a voluntary thing and you can’t control when it happens or who it happens with. He is pretty much my soul mate.” Denise is still in the door frame and she lets out an annoyed sign. “I tried to tell you that last night Michelle but Niki pushed me out of the way before I could. They are bonded for life. That is why there are two wolves in the crest on the back of her neck and not just the thrown. They are going to be together FOREVER.” My mother’s eyes grow wide and she looks back to me and Travis. “I don’t know what to say.” She keeps staring at me not breaking her gaze. “Mom there is nothing to say. This is how it is now. It’s something that you are going to have to deal with.” He face becomes filled with anger. She stands up and stomps out of the room. Denise moves out of the way so she can pass. Denise turns back to me and throws me an evil glare and walks down the hall towards the living room.
I lay my head back down on the pillow and let out a sigh. Travis lies down next to me and looks at me worriedly. “Niki, did you have another nightmare?” I roll over to face him. “I wouldn’t say that it was a nightmare. I talked to Renee. She explained to me more about King Khan and the Blood Moon.” He puts one arm around me and pulls me closer to his body. I need this right now. I need to feel the comfort he provides me. He knows when I need and I love him for that. I can’t believe it, I love him. I love someone again. “She also told me some disturbing information about your mother.” He looks shocked. “What?” Distress covers his face. This is going to be difficult to tell. I don’t want him to turn against me now when I need him the most. I wonder how deep this bond will go with it comes to his mother.
“Well basically she is going to trying to help Khan kill me and if she finds out that I know then she will alert Khan.” He lays flat on his back and stares blankly at the ceiling. There is a long silence so I decide to snap him out of his trance. “Travis, Please talk to me.” He keeps staring at the ceiling for a moment and rolls on his side and looks at me. “What am I supposed to say Niki. She is my mother. I didn’t know that she was going to try and help Khan. She told me that we were coming to help Michelle with her daughter. I didn’t ask a lot of questions.”
“I’m sorry Travis.” We lay silently for a few hours just enjoying each other’s company.
***
“Are you guys going to come out of that room? It’s almost lunch time!” My mother screams down the hall. She is not taking this new relationship very well. I don’t blame her. I have known Travis for almost a month and we are already bond for life on the first day we met. This new world is so strange to me and I don’t know how I am going to overcome my fear of it. I have a powerful King that is trying to kill me before I become Queen and Denise is aiding him in doing it. I don’t know why Renee thought that I was the best choice for this. Travis rolls over and pushes me out of the bed and onto the floor. “Time to get up!” I giggle lying on the floor. “You need to get up too!” I grab his foot that is hanging over the bed and pull him down onto the floor. He lands with a loud thud on his butt. “Ouch! Feisty today?” I grab his shirt and pull him inches from lips “Your breath smells bad, Travis.” He bursts out laughing “Well you don’t smell like a basket of roses either. You smell like dirt from last night and bad breath.” I pull my shirt to my nose and smell it. “Touché Travis. I am goi
ng to take a shower.” He gives me a playful wink and pulls me by the collar of my shirt. “Can I come?” I let out a playful gasp of surprise. “I don’t think know so Travis. We may be bound for life but you are not going to see me naked that easily. Plus I don’t want to give my mom a heart attack. She needs to get used to the idea of us before we start taking showers together.” He begins to pout his bottom lip and look to the ground. “Don’t be such a baby Travis. We can go swimming later.” He lets out a sigh “Oh alright fine. Swimming it is.” I get up from the floor and open the door. Denise is standing right in my face as I open the door. “Good morning you’re Highness.” I push past her and walk down the hall “Don’t call me that, Denise.”
“Why not Niki, you are going to be Queen you know.” I turn around and give her a sarcastic smile. “Yes Denise I know, and your son is going to with me for the rest of his life in the lap of luxury. Lucky him huh?” I hear Travis in his room burst out laughing. She turns around angry and walks down the hall.
***
The hot shower feels so good on my skin. I can feel it melting the stress in my shoulders away. Since the day we got to the lake house it has been nothing but stress. I just want to stay in the shower and never come out. I don’t want to face what is coming. There is a knock at the door and I can tell by the urgency it’s my mother “Yes mom.”
“You are going to have lunch with us?” I turn off the shower and step out grabbing my town from the hanger. “Ya I’ll be right out.” I wrap the towel around myself and walk out of the bathroom. Chills run up and down my spine, this house is so cold sometimes. Once in my room I drop my towel and thrown on my bathing suit, shorts and a white t-shirt. I come out of my room and walk down the hall and into the dining room. Denise, my mother, father and Travis are already sitting at the table waiting for me. I pull out my chair next to Travis and sit down. The tension in the room is so thick I could cut it with a knife. Denise is sending Travis and I evil glares and my mother staring at me worriedly. “Niki did you take your medication this morning?” I look up at my mom and know what I am about to say is going to upset her. “No mom. I am not going to take that medication anymore. Renee says that it numbs my ability and I need to stop taking it.” Denise’s eyes lock onto me. “You spoke with Renee? She is dead how could you have talked to her?” I cross my arms and stare right back at Denise. “Well Renee came to me last night in my dream and explained what I need to do and who I really am.” She arches her eyebrows “Did she now and what is it that you need to do?” I lean forward “Denise it doesn’t concern you.” My mother snaps at me “Niki why are you being so rude?” If mom only knew that she is helping Khan trying to kill me. I don’t want to upset her more than she already is so I reply “Sorry mom, I’m just tired I guess.” She gets up from her chair and walks over to the kitchen. Here we go again, she is shutting me out when things get uncomfortable. Thank god I have Travis to support me. My father has no idea what is going on and he stares at me with his mouth open. “Niki do you want to explain to me what is going on. I go to sleep early one night and it seems I have missed something rather important.” He folds his arms and continues to stare at me. Travis grabs my leg under the table and shakes his head slightly no. I look back at my dad and he is still waiting for an answer. I have no idea what to tell him. I have never lied to my father before and frankly I don’t want to. “Dad do you remember what Denise told you when mom was pregnant?” His face starts to lose a little color. “Yes, How do you know what she told us?” I let out a small sigh “Because it’s true dad. I am a Mystic.” His mouth drops open and he looks to my mother. “I told you, we should have never of put her through all those tests.” She face turns bright red with anger and she screams at him. “You told me!? How the hell did YOU tell me? You were all for what we did. You agreed with everything. You thought that that it was the best thing for her.” He hits the table with the side of his fist. “Michelle just relax. What is so bad about it anyway? It’s pretty cool to be able to see the future.” My dad looks back at me and winks. Denise decides to respond to the question from my father “James, Your daughter has been chosen to lead the Realm Werewolves. On her 18th birthday she we be awakened as a Mystic and Morpher. Then she will rule over us forever. Oh ya, Travis is her soul mate and they will be together for the rest of their lives.” She says each word ‘matter of fact’. I can feel the anger building in Travis. “Mom, why don’t you shut the fuck up!? This is not your business to tell.” He yells and her face turns white. The whole room goes quiet and my dad is staring off into thin air. Finally there is some life in his eyes “Wait so Travis is your boyfriend? You have known him for like a day! How is that possible?” I giggle and look at my dad “Out of all the crap Denise just told you, the part about Travis is all that concerns you?”He shrugs his shoulders “Well Denise has always been full of shit so I don’t know what to believe. But if you are with Travis already I am going to have to kill him” He looks as Travis and punches him on the shoulder. Travis tries not to laugh and looks at my dad “Sir, I wasn’t expecting this to happen. I mean, hell, I honestly didn’t want to come on this trip. I am sorry that you had to find out this way but yes I am with Niki now and there is no separating us. I would die for her.” My father’s eyes widen and he looks back at me. “Well I guess there is nothing that I can say to change this?” I shake my head no. He turns to my mother “Alright then everyone, let’s eat. I don’t want to talk about this subject anymore until we are done eating. It’s giving me heartburn.” My mother looks at him with disgust “How can you be so calm about this James? This is a very big deal or do you not care?” He turns to her and I can tell that she has pushed him over the edge. “Michelle what would you like me to do? Please tell me because I don’t know.” She turns on her heels stomps around the table, down the hall and slams her door shut. My father shakes his head and continues to eat.
After lunch Travis asked me to show him around the Lake. I am only assuming he asks me this because he wants to get away from his mother. We get up from the table and start to walk out the door when I hear my father “Where are you guys going?” I keep walking out the door and down the steps “We are going swimming.” I can feel my dad’s eyes locked on me as I walk down the steps from the porch and make my way to the lake. “Travis, do you know how to swim?” He looks at me confused “Ya why?”
“Can you swim far, you like are you a strong swimmer?” he maintains the look on confusion on his face. I can tell that he has no idea where I am going with this. He shrugs his shoulders and says “Ya I can swim well why did you want to swim somewhere.” I extend my arm and point out towards the island. “Oh no we are not going there Niki. Not yet at least.” I drop my hand to my side “And why the hell not?” He runs his hand through his golden hair and says “Well it’s not safe right now. We don’t know if Khan is waiting there. They will be expecting you to go to the island before the awakening. The island will call for you when we get closer to your birthday.” I turn my back to him and start to walk towards the shore. I stop at the sands edge and look back at Travis “Niki, don’t you do it.” I turn to face him and grab the bottom of my t-shirt. I give him a devilish smile and start to pull my shirt up my stomach and over my head. I drop it to the ground and look back at Travis. He shakes his finger at me and starts to walk towards the shore. I can tell that he is going to try and stop me so I pull my shorts and slip my shoes off. I run towards the water and jump in. I can hear Travis behind me “Damit Niki you don’t listen.” I swim out till my feet can’t touch the bottom and I turn to the shore and begin to tread water. Travis is standing on the shore staring at me and I wave for him to follow. He removes his shirt and shoes and throws them on the ground. He wades into the water and then begins to swim toward me. I turn back towards the shore and start to swim for it. I miss the feeling of water rushing over me as I swim. It’s so calming and relaxing. There is nothing that can stop me once I start swimming. The cool water rolls over the back of my head as I speed towards the isl
and. I turn my head to take a breath and I hear Travis splashing behind me. I stop swimming and begin to tread water waiting for him to catch up to me. He reaches me and stops. “Why do you do this, Niki? I told you that it’s not safe to come to the island right now.” I swim towards him and wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around this waist. “Because I want to see the flat rock that I saw in my dream. I want to know what is going on and I need to see if for myself.” He wraps his arms around me and gives me a tight hug. “Fine Niki, but we are not staying long.” I give him a wink “Sure babe.”
We finally get to the edge of the shore and decide to lie on the hot sand for a moment. The lake is freezing and the hot sand is slowly breaking through the freezing shield that is on my skin. I look over at Travis and I can tell that he is enjoying this as much as I am. He looks over at me and says “Yes I am enjoying this.” I sit up quickly “Ok how do you do that?” He looks at me confused “Do what?” I slap his arm “You know what I am talking about. I think about something and then you respond. Can you read minds or something?” He looks back up into the sky putting his arms behind his head and closes his eyes “Yes I can actually” So he can just read my thoughts whenever he wants. That is not only rude but an invasion of my privacy. I don’t think I like his so called gift. “I don’t think that I like you reading my mind whenever you want to. I can’t have any thought to myself.” He sits up and puts his arms on his knees. “Niki I didn’t get my gift until after I was awakened. I haven’t learned how to control it. I have known my whole life what I would become but I never knew what gift would be given. I can’t help but hear thoughts and see memories. See memories? What does that mean? “What do you mean see memories?” He brushes some of the dry sand off his legs. “Well, for instance when I first came here and you showed me the spare bedroom and I saw a small girl playing in the room. It seemed like she was pretending to be a princess or something. It was the most adorable thing that I have ever seen.” My face begins to turn tomato red. “That is really embarrassing. I never wanted anyone to know that I used to do that. He starts to laugh “Well, I know now and I thought it was a great memory.” I stand up and brush the sand from my legs and back. Travis gets up and does the same. I walk to the edge of the sand and then I freeze. A vision disrupts my steps and can’t move. My senses are tingling all over my body and I begin to see Travis standing over the large flat rock staring down at me lying on it. The Blood Moon shines down is crimson light over my entire body. I snap back into reality and I realize that Travis is standing next to me looking confused. “Are we going in there or are you just going to stare at the trees.” For a moment I don’t know what to say. I stand there motionless and finally I shake my head yes. We begin to walk into the redwoods and I don’t see the flat rock. “Travis where is the rock I am supposed to be on?” He points his finger into the darkest part of the trees. “It’s in there. But if you are not of our world, you can’t see it. It’s a way of protecting our secrets.” I look at him with a smirk on my face “I am sure that if a Human sees a rock they are not going to automatically know that your race exists. It’s just a rock Travis.” He shakes his head and walks ahead of me into the trees. For some reason I have the feeling of dread in my stomach. There is something wrong here, or something that is going to happen. I ignore my instincts and follow him. Its pitch black and I can’t see a thing. All I can hear is Travis steps in front of me. “Travis please come back here and walk with me I can’t see anything.” Before I can finish my sentence I feel his hand in mine guiding me thought the darkness. “How can you see its pitch black in here?” He lets out a chuckle “Werewolf…duh” Laugh and slap his arm. “Don’t be an ass.” He stops walking suddenly “What is it Travis?” and lets go of my hand. My eyes are slowly adjusting to the darkness and I can see the flat stone right in front of my feet. I bend down and run my hand over the top of the rock. It surface is as soft as a river beat stone. I move my hand down the side of the rock and I feel groves in the rock. It seems to be that there are carvings in the sides of the rock. I move around the rock to see of the carvings are consistent around it and they are. “What are the groves in the rock Travis?” I smell his sweet cologne and realize that he is kneeling next to me. “These are the markings of every King or Queen that has been awakened here. Soon your mark will be here.” I wish that I could actually see the stone. I want to see what the markings look like. “Can you see them yet Niki?” I let out a disappointed sigh “No, I can only feel them” He takes my hand and says “Soon Niki you will be able to see them. You have to be fully awakened before you can see through darkness.” We both stand and he leads me out of the pitch black trees and into the bright forest. My eyes sting for a moment as I try to adjust to the sun’s rays. Travis stops dead in his tracks and yanks on my arm “Travis!” His face has totally changed. He is no longer the lover Travis that I have come to love. His eyes are black and anger covers every inch of his face. “Travis what is wrong?” He gives he a glare “Shh!” Fear has taken me over and I freeze. There is something on this island and Travis knows it’s here. I should have listened to him. Now I have put us both in danger. He pulls me behind his back and starts to take slow steps back towards the pitch black area of trees. Once we enter the darkness he stops moving and everything is silent. I feels like hours have gone by and nothing has happened. No breeze, no birds singing, there is no noise other then the lake crawling up the sand and then pulling its self back in. Then a CRACK rings out and breaks the gentle silence. Travis crouches to the ground and pulls me down with him. He looks around and starts to move away from me and back into the light. “Khan!” he yells out. “Khan I know you’re here! Show yourself!” there is still no response. Khan is here? He is already trying to kill me. I have another week until my birthday and I doubt that we can hind from him that long. The silence is broken “Travis.” A gentle man’s voice responds that almost seems reassuring. Travis gasps “Oh my god! Dad!”
