Embers

by Karen Ann Hopkins

  “Oh, don’t look at me that way, Ember. Eleanor never hurt any of them, and it was said she wasn’t interested in married men either. She enjoyed living life to the fullest, I guess you’d say. She was also very fertile and ended up having at least thirty-four children.”

  I had to interrupt at that point. “She had thirty-four kids! How is that even possible?!”

  Again Ila laughed. “For a Watcher it certainly is. When a woman can live in her prime for hundreds of years, of course she may bear many children.”

  “Did you have any children?” The question was out my mouth quickly, and seeing the change in her face, I suddenly regretted it.

  Ila quietly answered. “I had five children. It was too much for me to bear, watching them grow up and leave the earth before me. I didn’t want to continue experiencing it, so I stopped having the little blessings.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “No, no, my dear, it’s quite all right. You must ask your questions, so that you can learn and make your own decisions. Let’s get back to the story though—where was I? Oh, yes, I remember. Eleanor had many lovers, but there was one whom she held very dear to her heart. He was a simple human by the name of William. She would go to his village every few years to visit him. He was so love struck for her that he never married another. He lived for the day she would pass by, always hoping that would be the time she’d stay with him for good.

  “It was after one of her visits with William that she was traveling through a dark wood back to her home territory. Most common folk would not dare to enter those woods for it was known to contain all kinds of evil mischief, but for a powerful Watcher it was no obstacle.

  “Eleanor had stopped to gather mushrooms beside the ivory trunk of an ancient Sycamore tree in the center of the wood, when a stranger came upon her. Of course she knew what he was immediately, but there was something about him that intrigued her. She invited him to continue the journey with her, and he agreed. As unlikely as it was they soon became lovers. Eleanor thought of a way for her new conquest to continue to be her companion—she offered him her own soul.

  “Close your mouth, my girl. You need to expand your horizons a bit here. The truth is Demons need human souls to survive. They mimic human behavior by eating regular food, but it won’t keep them from starving to death.”

  “Eleanor found herself madly in love with this Demon. And because she was a Watcher, she could allow the Demon to consume bits of her soul, and it wouldn’t harm her.” She paused from her tale to look me straight in the eye, before saying, “You see—a Watcher’s soul will replenish itself if damaged.”

  I glanced down at my chest, still not exactly sure where the soul was, but too afraid to pester Ila with another question.

  “After many years, a desire grew in Eleanor’s heart to see her old beau, William, and she stole off one day to visit him. She was true to her Demon though and nothing happened between Eleanor and William. They only walked hand in hand in a flower garden reminiscing about the past.

  “When Eleanor returned home, her Demon could smell the human man on her instantly. He was overcome with a jealous rage, but he hid his feelings from

  Eleanor until she was distracted. Then he traced Eleanor’s scent back to the village where William lived, and eventually to his house. William was almost an old man, having aged the same as a normal person. He was tending the fire in the stove when the Demon found him. There have been different accounts about how William was murdered, and I won’t get into that, but they all agree that parts of his mutilated body were found throughout the house.

  “News of that nature travels quickly across the countryside. It soon reached Eleanor’s ears and she knew at once what had happened to her beloved William. She confronted the Demon and when he confessed, she was so overcome with her own rage that she sent fire from her fingers in a powerful blast, killing him.

  “When she’d calmed down and realized what she had done, she fell into a deep depression. She was now without both of her closest lovers, and they were gone because of her. Eleanor left her territory, never to be seen again. It is said that she roamed the earth in misery until old age finally came to her, taking her away.”

  When Ila finished the story, dusk had set in.

  “What does that story make you think?” Ila asked me.

  “Eleanor brought it on herself. Didn’t she?”

  “Emotions can hold the strongest power of all and they cause us to act in very irrational ways, sometimes with horrible consequences,” she said with a level voice.

  “But that is definitely enough stories for now. We need to shut the chickens up in the coop and have our supper. You must be rested for your second day of school,” she teased as she rose and offered me her arm.

  I rolled my eyes. Now that I knew I went to school with a Growler, who gets driven back and forth to town by a Demon, I probably wouldn’t sleep at all.

  In reality though, I wasn’t as freaked out as I should have been. A cooler breeze had picked up and it felt good on my skin. Twilight was my favorite time of day. The air took on a thick, gray quality that was kind of dreamy. The surreal feel of the valley invigorated my senses as I followed Ila to the coop.

  Maybe I was an adrenaline junkie or something, but I was looking forward to chatting with Ivan the next day. We were both in the same not-entirely-human boat. Friendship was certainly possible and he was a sweet kid. I didn’t care if he turned into a wolf. It was actually really cool.

  The Demon Sawyer was a different story altogether. I didn’t trust him and I certainly didn’t like him, but he definitely had something going on that intrigued me.

  I reminded myself that he was a Demon. The fact that he visited my dreams didn’t matter one iota. He was an evil being and I wasn’t going to let him sweet-talk me into forgetting it, even if he did have a beautiful face and a Greek-god like body. Nope, I wouldn’t be distracted by his looks or his woodsy scent or his smoldering gaze.

  But the more I told myself that the Demon had no power over me, the more he invaded my mind. The image of Sawyer that continued to rise before me was the apparition from my dreams. And peering into his dark, pained eyes, I experienced something else.

  Gritting my teeth, I fought the hammering of my heart until I grudgingly accepted that I was attracted to Sawyer.

  And that realization scared me more than anything else.

  John 1:51

  And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the

  angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

  Sawyer ~ Twenty

  When I turned off the engine, I looked at Ivan. He’d been quietly staring out the window for most of the drive up the mountain. I didn’t have much to say either, having been lost in thought about the strange girl.

  “It’s better that we don’t mention the girl to any of the others. Agreed?” I knew what his answer would be, but as an afterthought, I said, “Even Lutz.”

  “I don’t want any of them to know she even exists,” Ivan said firmly.

  “That’s what I figured you’d say, but I wanted to make sure we’re on the same page.”

  It was unusually quiet. I glanced over at Ivan, who shrugged, appearing as baffled as I felt.

  There was little difference between the outside of the compound and the inside. Forest stretched across the entire fenced area. Only if you were really looking, did you see any of the buildings. They all had the same rustic wooden exteriors that blended smoothly into the nature that was all around.

  As I walked with Ivan on the stone walkway between the small houses, I breathed in deeply. The familiar scent of the forest was comforting, and here and there leaves fluttered down onto the pathway reminding me that autumn wasn’t too far off.

  There were ten houses in all nestled among the trees. They varied in distance from the pathway, with a few being fairly close, and others further back and well camouflaged in the tre
es.

  We passed five dark and empty houses before we came to Charlotte and Colton’s. They were sitting on their porch with Patrick. As I turned to go to the house, Ivan made a beeline to the path on the right which led to one of the hidden cabins. I wasn’t surprised by Ivan’s departure. The kid didn’t hang around with the others. Besides the two Growlers, Lutz and Cray, he didn’t speak to anyone else except Garrett and me. It’s funny that before that moment I hadn’t really thought about it before. Lutz, the big black bear was pretty gregarious and even Cray, the mountain lion who spent a lot of time alone, did interact with us fairly regularly.

  When I reached the steps, I immediately knew by their faces that they were upset. “Where is everyone?” I asked, dreading the answer.

  Charlotte was the one who spoke, which was usual, as she was the dominant personality of the group. “They’ve gone into the woods to plan their next hunt,” the attractive brunette said.

  “Where’s Garrett?” I inquired.

  This time it was Patrick who answered me. “He’s in the library, acting as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Really, Sawyer, I think he’s losing it.”

  The flame haired man was fierce to look at, but in reality when it came to confrontational situations, he usually avoided them. That he was speaking this way about Garrett showed the true gravity of the situation.

  I glanced at Colton, one of the few men in my life that I considered a friend. His blonde head was bowed and he stared at the wooden boards of the porch. When he finally looked up, his slender face and gray eyes were tense.

  “You need to talk to him,” Colton demanded.

  “They arrive in two days and we have to change his mind or it’ll be the same as before,” Charlotte added solemnly, brushing a stray brown curl out of her face. She didn’t look at me. Instead she gripped the porch railing and turned away.

  “Did Pricilla go with them?” I searched the men’s faces.

  “No, I don’t believe so. She’s very young and doesn’t know what to do. Her conscious is battling her cravings,” Patrick answered me.

  “What about Horas?” I asked the group.

  Horas was the wildcard. Even though we had shared the same house for years, the man was usually distant. He had appeared a decade earlier and asked Garrett if he could join us in the compound. They had a mutual friend back in Italy and Garrett had allowed him to stay. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but he was incredibly old, having been around since the height of the Roman Empire. He was still a mystery to me in many ways, but I believed he didn’t like the idea of hunting the humans either.

  “He went with them—said something about seeing what they were up to. You know how he enjoys his cloak and dagger games. We won’t know what he’ll do until the vote.”

  “I believe the old Roman will be with us, so including Pricilla, that makes six,” I said.

  It’s still not enough to win the vote.

  “That’s why you need to talk to Garrett. They’ll listen to him,” Colton begged.

  Maybe, now that they’d experienced the hunt, even Garrett might have a hard time controlling them. I had a feeling the situation was going to turn ugly.

  “All right, I’ll see what I can do,” I said stepping off the porch. I’d been put into a leadership position that I didn’t want.

  When I reached the main path, I turned left and walked towards the largest building in the center of the compound. It was an octagon shape with a wrap-around porch. Most people would have found the building fascinating, but they may have wondered about its lack of windows. This was the communal building for the compound. It housed a large living area with pool tables and comfortable couches, a kitchen, exercise room and a library with all manner of books. The library was one of my favorite spots. Garrett had amassed the majority of the books, but each of us had each contributed many of own favorites from various periods of history. On the far end of the great lodge was an outdoor pool with a patio around it.

  We’d worked hard to make the compound comfortable and functional. The bonded pairs had their own houses, and the other houses were shared by small groups.

  I was almost to the lodge when I slowed my pace. On the right was the only building in the enclosure without a porch. It was small and its windows were located high on the walls. You couldn’t look in or out. The building was empty now, but usually housed the donors. Charity had been one of them. I paused, remembering the scene several months earlier when she’d died.

  Most of the humans were drained of their souls on arrival. The cause of argument recently involved the matter of the draining. We had always kept the humans in a state of suspended animation, so there was no pain or fear.

  The searchers were careful to pick the type of humans that wouldn’t be missed from society. They searched hundreds of miles in all directions for their victims. When they found a suitable candidate, usually a criminal type or a drifter, they’d persuade them to get into the van. Once inside, they’d use their powers to keep the humans unconscious while they brought them back to the compound.

  We were doing the human communities a service by weeding out their societal weakness. At least that’s what Garrett preached to us. I always figured it was an attempt to justify our actions, make us feel a little less evil.

  Occasionally, instead of draining a new-comer’s soul, they were selected to be a donor. The donors would stay in the small building so that we could suck their souls dry slowly, over time. The donors died, the same as everyone else, it just took a little longer.

  Charity’s name had been her bad luck. Garrett picked her for the irony of it, but no one had expected Patrick to become infatuated with the young woman. He would take her out of her cell for short walks around the compound while the others mocked him. When Charity’s body started to become an empty package, Patrick became distraught.

  Out of the blue, Garrett announced that he sensed that the woman might be changeable. I’d doubted it from the beginning. If she’d had the right genetic makeup, Garrett would have known immediately when she was taken off the van. The same way he had known about me, and the others he’d awakened.

  I’d worried that Garrett was up to something and told Patrick so, but he was so intent on having the woman with him as our own kind that he trusted Garrett—big mistake.

  Garrett instructed Patrick on how to tug at her soul in an attempt to waken it to our level. I witnessed the ordeal and I can attest first-hand how gentle the burly man was with the human, but it didn’t matter. When he initiated the pull, Charity’s soul broke free instantly. Patrick couldn’t control his hunger. He ate her soul, and has lived with the agony of it ever since.

  With more determination and a longer stride, I closed the distance to the lodge, only slowing down once I was in the dimly lit interior of the building. The cooler air dried the sweat from my skin and I made my way warily past the couches and dining tables.

  The scent of tomatoes cooking reached my nostrils before I passed the open doorway to the kitchen. Pricilla was hovering over a steaming pot, but she happened to look up when I passed by. She waved and I lifted my own hand with less enthusiasm.

  I strode right into the library without knocking. There wasn’t much time before the others returned. I needed to have this conversation with Garrett alone.

  He was sitting at a small reading table surrounded by several piles of books. He glanced up when I entered the room. After closing the book he held, he removed his glasses and proceeded to rub his eyes vigorously.

  I waited for him to look back up and when he did, he smiled complacently.

  “We need to talk about the hunting. It shouldn’t go on. If they keep doing this, they’ll lose control.” Even though my heart pounded in my chest, I thought my voice sounded steady.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to come to me. They sent you because they know I have a soft spot for my first changeling.

  “You remember how we traveled from place to place, over time, searching for others like us.
Eventually, I learned I could sense our kind from across great distances, and our numbers grew until we had a proper community.”

  He flashed a smile, brushing the thick brown hair from his forehead. He was stranded in a thirty-five year old body. The small creases at the corner of his eyes made him look wizened compared to the others.

  “When I brought our family here and decided to settle permanently, I knew what we were doing was going to be challenging, but we made it work for over fifty years. Now there is turmoil…and you are willing to turn against me—the one who changed you?” he grimaced, as if he’d bitten into a sour grape.

  “I’m not turning against you. I don’t understand why you’re letting them go against all that you preached to us for so many years. If we are the enlightened ones as you’ve said, would we be torturing the humans? I don’t think so.”

  “You seem to have misunderstood me, Sawyer,” he said in a low voice. “Because we are the enlightened ones, we can do whatever we want. Our numbers have grown to the point that we can behave true to our nature. We don’t need to hide away in the woods as thieves in the night any longer. Our kind has prospered, not just here on this mountain, but around the world. It seems we have come into a time where violence and murder is a common thing. Humans don’t care about what happens to other humans that they feel are beneath them.”

  “What are you saying? That you plan to go out and begin stalking humans in the streets as it was done hundreds of years ago?”

  “In time, yes, the world is changing and we’ll reap the rewards. The era of the humans is nearing its end. But for now, we need to prepare, by learning the old ways.”

  Garrett studied my face intently, waiting for my reply.

  What he was saying was insane. Did he believe himself to be a prophet predicting a cataclysmic event that would alter the known world? The thought of hunting humans in the open was more than I could imagine.