by Ben Alderson
A hard knock at our front door startles me. Chad eyes me curiously as we both inhale deeply, attempting to sense who our visitor may be. I fear they’ve come for me, to haul me away like the criminal I am. Just as I’m about to repent for my sins, my mind clears, focusing on only one thing.
The boy.
The boy!
How stupid could he be to come here? How did he find me? He couldn’t have possibly followed me home. I was too fast for his human senses, this I’m sure.
My shock must register on my face, because Chad looks furious.
“A human?” he spits out.
I race to beat him to the front double doors, but we open them simultaneously. My gaze slides up the lengthy frame of our intruder. He’s as tall as Chad, but where Chad’s muscular frame is bulky, Will’s is lean. Even without Chad’s vampire strength, he could end Will’s life with little effort.
“Give me a minute,” I say to Chad, who doesn’t move. “Chad, please.”
He tears his gaze away from Will’s to stare down at me. In those few seconds of silence, he says all he needs to say before retreating to the parlor. If I thought he’d actually listen to me, I’d tell Chad waiting in the room adjacent to the foyer isn’t exactly giving us space.
“Come in,” I say. I close the door behind him, and we stand in silence in the dark entry way. In this light, he can’t see my red eyes or pearlescent skin. In this light, I’m just a girl standing before a boy asking him what the hell he’s thinking for stalking me.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out to see two texts from George.
Meet me at your house. I know you killed the human.
My throat tightens, my chest heaving. I choke out a breath, and my phone slips from my grasp. It crashes to the ground, bouncing once, twice, before landing at my feet. As if in slow motion, Will reaches down to pick it up. In the corner of my eye, I see Chad emerge from the parlor. I inhale. I exhale. I blink. My breath is loud in my head. The blood in my stomach is heavy, as if it’s formed into a rock. I feel rooted by it, by the blood of a human donor. Muffled voices echo around me, but I can’t understand them.
Will glances at the screen of my phone as he hands it back to me, but I don’t take it. Instead, I watch him. I watch the recognition of those little letters as they register in his mind. I watch as his eyes widen before narrowing at me. It was the slightest fracture in his perfect persona. Had I not been looking at him in that moment, I never would have seen it.
I don’t take back the phone, so Chad steps beside me and yanks if free from Will’s white-knuckle grip. Still unmoving, I watch as Chad reads the text from George. Jaw clenched, he types a quick reply, angling the phone toward me.
Hurry, he responds.
I fear what he will do to protect me. I don’t know what happened between George and him, but Chad once cared for him. I saw the way he looked at George, with respect, with love. George is my family, and I know Chad feels—or felt—that same way. I never asked what happened between the two of them, and I suppose, now, I’ll never know.
Chad slaps my phone into my hand before ushering an unwavering Will out the front door. As he does, George approaches. His face is contorted in such anger, such uncertainty. My heart aches just looking at him, so I glance away, ashamed.
I hear Will argue before the front door slams shut, and the only souls haunting the Danvers Manor are the three of us. Staring at the ground, I wait for someone else to speak.
“Don’t deny what you did,” George says. His voice is laced in anger as his words lash out at me. I wince as they make contact.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I never wanted you to find out this way…
“You’re only sorry you’ve been caught,” George counters.
“So the others know?” Chad asks.
His voice is cool, calm, collected, and I want to smack him upside the head. How can you be so calm right now? I scream internally, but on the outside, I’m simply the shell of the vampire I used to be.
“I haven’t told anyone yet,” George says.
“Yet?” Chad asks. “So you plan to tell them?”
George pauses before exhaling slowly. “I haven’t decided.”
I meet his gaze, unable to hide my shock. What I’ve done is monstrous, but how can he say that? I would give my life to protect him, to hide his secrets, like the one haunting us from the base of Wolfsbane’s cliff.
“Don’t look at me that way, Savi. You killed an innocent human!”
“You don’t understand!” I shout.
“You can’t understand. You’re not one of us,” Chad clarifies.
I reach for my brother, placing a hand atop his forearm. I need him to reel in his disdain for George while we figure out what to do. As if sensing my silent plea, he nods.
“I can’t help it,” I whisper, trying to help George understand what I did. “It’s who I am.”
“So you’ve been killing all this time? How many, Savi? How many have there been?” George asks, disgusted.
I cower at his words, unable to look at the repulsion in his eyes. “Please, stop looking at me like that.” I wipe the tears that spill. “You don’t understand. You’ll never understand! You don’t know what it’s like to deny who you are.”
“Are you kidding me, Savi? Do you realize who you’re talking to? All I do is hide my truth, deny who I am.”
I shake my head. “It’s not the same. You’ve never had to hide who you are from me. You’ve never told me your truth and watched me look at you the way you’re looking at me right now. I can’t stand it! I can’t stand the hate, the disgust, the shame you’re giving me right now. I’ve never looked at you this way, George, even when you shared the things you’ve done.”
I barely make it through my monologue. I hiccup each word, tears spilling as I sniffle. My voice is weak, and my words slur together as if I’ve been drinking. But I know he understands my meaning. The werewolf. He has killed just like me. And I told him we’d take care of it. I told him he’d be okay. I’d protect him.
Unlike me, his first instinct was not to protect me, but to shame me. As unforgiveable as that is, my heart is still breaking for my best friend. I desperately need his forgiveness. Not because his forgiveness grants me safety from the council, but because I love him. He and Chad are all I have. I can’t lose this. I won’t survive it.
Before he can respond, his phone buzzes, and I watch as he glances at his incoming text message. He gasps before reading the message aloud.
“It’s my mom. She said the wolves have reported one of their own is missing... Savi, if they find—”
I spring forward and take his arm. “Come on, we should go before the hunting party goes out. There’s still time.”
We leave Chad in the parlor, his face twisted with confusion. As I pull the door closed, I tell him I’ll explain later. What I don’t acknowledge is that I may not be coming back…
George
We don’t talk the entire way to Wolfsbane Forest. I can sense Savi’s lingering discomfort from our conversation that had to end so abruptly. But regardless, her words still batter around in my mind. She is right. How could I look at her with such disgust after what I’ve been made to do? I know the answers lie with what Mother has me do to vampires. The panic I feel roots from that. If Mother ever finds out what Savi has done, I know in my heart that she would have me hurt her, regardless of what Savi means to me. But the question I ask myself… would I do it? My heart says no. The dark coiling power within me says yes.
“What happened here…” I say, taking the back paths through Wolfsbane Forest to the location of the bonfire. “With the human boy?”
“It is hard to explain,” Savi mumbles.
“Then try,” I say. “I want to know everything.”
Savi gives me a look, eyes wide and lips taut. Then she sighs and tells me her truth. “When I drink blood, I can see into the thoughts and memories of those I feed from. The girl, the one who… died, was in a relatio
nship with the boy. I saw it as plain as day. It’s hard to distinguish real life from the memories sometimes, which is why it’s hard to let go of her emotions for him. It doesn’t help that he is hellbent on finding answers. But if I’m being honest, that’s not the only reason I agreed to see him.”
“Why did you want to see him?” I ask.
“He was at the party when the wolves attacked. He saw what we can do.”
“He did?” My suspicions were true.
“I’m afraid so.”
I couldn’t speak. In one day, we broke the treaty tenfold between us. Exposing magic to humans, killing an innocent, and murdering another supernatural… So many crimes between only two of us.
My hands begin to shake uncomfortably. Even sticking them in my pockets doesn’t stop their frantic shivers.
“Then he read your text message,” Savi says, adding to my burning worry.
“No…” I stop walking, taking a moment to lean against the large oak beside me. Its rough bark helps still my anxiety as I use its energy to ground me. “If he tells anyone—”
“Then we will both be sentenced. I won’t let that happen, George. I… I was going to kill him too you know.” I can see the shame on Savi’s face as she admits it. “It’s the only way to protect you, us… to ensure he can’t tell anyone what he saw that night.”
“You can’t. We both know that,” I say, not sure how I feel about Savi’s confession. I’m grateful she’d go to such lengths to protect me, but the bodies are piling up. Literally.
“I can,” she says plainly, shocking me. “But I won’t.”
She looks away, picking at her nails as she riddles in her silence. I want to comfort her, but I find it hard to conjure the right words. For the first time, I see the danger Savi possesses.
“We should keep moving. Let’s worry about the wolves first and deal with all this other crap later,” she says.
I nod, pushing myself from the tree. Staying behind Savi, I keep my gaze on the back of her head, watching as her dark-brown hair sways with each step. She seems like such a mundane creature, human and soft. But she hides inner demons just as I do. We wear these masks to cover up what we really are. For once, I finally see just how similar we truly are.
I spot Old Oak up ahead. For as long as I can remember, this has been our meeting place. Usually triggering happy childhood memories, all I think about today is blood and death.
I know we are close to the bonfire. Only a short walk, and we will reach our destination. I connect to the air around me, trying to sense another presence. Dani and Samuel should’ve left the forest by now, hopefully with no answers regarding the human girl’s death. Now, Savi and I are alone and can deal with the next mess on our ever-growing list.
“See the ground? That’s where the fire was.” Savi points through the tree line, and sure enough, I see the charred earth left behind from the bonfire. A table is still strewn across the grass, red cups littering the space around it. But no bodies remain of the humans who became food for the beasts. It’s not uncommon for the wolves to clean up after themselves. Unlike the stories, they’re clean—or smart—creatures when it comes to massacres. And they don’t waste meat.
Savi takes my hand, her touch cold. Having her close helps. We walk together to the cliff’s edge, which drops down toward Raven Cry Lake. In daylight, it’s easy to see the ground far below, but I can’t see the platform in the fringes of night.
“We need to get down there,” Savi says. “Are you feeling up to it?”
Wind rushes, urging us to fall into its embrace. I hear it singing, like a siren, wanting me to jump.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and call upon the element of air. It rears its presence at my call. I open my palm and reach for it, pulling its hungry rush of energy toward me. I can feel every morsel of it around me. I sense the creatures burrowing beneath the mossy ground and the shift of wind beneath birds’ wings. I’m everywhere. Pure power rushes from my soul and out of my hands. The air across the lip of the cliff face hardens, and I step forward. One foot at a time, I move from solid earth to equally solid air.
Next, I call on earth.
Loose stones from the cliff separate and form a plate beneath my feet. I need the extra strength for when Savi joins me for our descent.
“Hop on,” I say to her.
Savi frowns, looking at the swirling mass of air and earth at my feet, and she shakes her head. “I think I’d rather jump than rely on that.”
I shrug, the rush of power making my head light. “Meet you down there?”
Savi dips her chin and smiles, looking at the drop as a challenge.
“First one to the ground wins.”
For a moment, we forget the chaos our lives have become. It reminds me of our days before the bonfire. There were so many childish actions and daring encounters. It was what took us out of our daily worries. Perhaps we did it now to cope with what might be waiting on the rocky ground below.
Twisting my wrists, I will the whirling elements to move. My stomach flips as I begin to lower into the abyss. Savi screams with glee, throwing herself over the edge beside me. She falls fast, disappearing beneath me. All I can see is the face of the cliff inches from my own. White chalk blends in with dark dirt. I pass empty nests and divots sized to hide small animals. The rush of wind beside me is thrilling.
Soon enough, we reach the pointed bed of rocks that crown Raven Cry Lake.
The earth and air disperse as my feet touch down on the ground. I lower my arms to the side, silently thanking the elements for their help. My brown curls are the last thing to still.
I turn for Savi, who is breathless, hair a mess around her gleeful face.
“I’ll never understand the recklessness you possess,” I tell her.
Savi claps a hand over her mouth, repulsion crunching her face. Her sense of smell is stronger than mine, but her reflex causes my heart to race. She smells the body. What else could be the reason behind her reaction? I look around, trying to find it, but from my vantage point, I see only the points of rock and small pools of water that surrounded them.
The lake shines azure to our side. I peer up and see the top of the cliff. The height causes my stomach to twist with excitement. I did that. I came down here and not a single bead of sweat caresses my forehead. Mother is right about one thing: using our magic is thrilling.
But in the back of my mind, I recognize a feeling of unease. Savi walks ahead, hand still over her mouth, as she searches the distance. I follow her steps, reaching my legs over a jagged stone. She stops, and I almost bump into her. Disrupting the beauty is a terrible stench. I see Savi, one hand on her stomach and the other over her mouth. Finally, I’m close enough to sense it, close enough to see the corpse.
“It’s here—”
Something stirs in the shrubbery, causing a murder of crows to explode from their hidden perch. I freeze on the spot. Arms and legs refusing to move an inch for fear of being caught. Savi also stills, looking around with her pointed teeth bared and brows creased. The rush of blood hammers in my ears as we both glue our gazes to the moving undergrowth, and we watch as wolves slip out from their concealed locations.
“Looking for something?” A man says from where he stands behind the three wolves. He is tall, broad. Black hair is piled atop his head, twisted in a messy excuse of a bun. Even his beard is dark and wiry. His tan skin is marked, scars covering almost every exposed part of him. I know what they are—duel marks from his kin.
“Who asks?” Savi stands her ground, already her surprise has melted from her face.
“I have seen many beings—both welcomed and unwelcomed—pass through these woods, but why would your kinds come now during such tense times?” the man asks, ignoring Savi’s question.
“Why the bodyguards?” Savi references the wolves, a growl stuck in her throat. “Does our presence concern you?”
“On the contrary.” The man smiles, flexing his broad shoulders. “I didn’t sense your p
resence. I still don’t. Why is that? How can you stand before me, yet be invisible to my sense? A wolf’s nose is a difficult thing to trick.”
I fist my hands to hide my nerves from the wolves and say, “We are exploring. There is nothing wrong about that.”
“No one explores this far into Wolfsbane Forest. Do not offer such a weak excuse. You are looking for something and so are we. I bet you can help us find… it.”
“We don’t know what you are talking about,” I say.
I peer at the body of the werewolf I killed. It lies only feet away, pierced by a piece of stone. My spell has protected my secret, hiding the remains from prying supernatural eyes, save for Savi’s, of course.
I watch as the wolves being to corner Savi, sending her farther away from me.
“I’m only going to ask this once, and then things are going to be very bad for the two of you. Which one of you killed my brother?”
“Come on, Savi, we should leave,” I urge.
The moment she takes a step toward me, the wolves pounce.
“Run,” Savi screams as the wolves make contact. The world slows as Savi is buried by fur. All I can hear is my own breath in my ears. The man watches on with glee, hands rubbing together.
The coiling of power twists within me. It is strange, new.
I can help. All you need to do is let me.
The voice rings through my head. I don’t recognize it, but I don’t care. In that moment, it is hard to register anything but the fact that I cannot see Savi beneath the scrapping wolves.
I have to help.
Giving into my power, I grab hold and refuse to let go. The man snaps his head to me, but it is too late. The elements are under my control.
