Revelations

by Butler, Christine M.

  “Chattox?” Seth was around the threshold of the door before anyone realized he’d moved. “Merriwyn?” Her name was but a whisper on his lips, but both Jaxon and Caislyn stood on edge as he muttered it. Seth looked around outside for anyone else that might suggest this was a trap, then he grabbed Merriwyn’s arm and hauled her inside the cottage, leaving Caislyn to shut the door behind them. The woman before them had the same dark curly tresses that Jaxon had. They were a deep brown infused with a smattering of coppery red highlights. Her eyes were a very light green, which made for an interesting contrast to Jaxon's deep brown, almost black eyes. Both had a pale complexion, although Merriwyn's skin was nowhere near as light as Jaxon's.

  “I thought you were dead,” Seth began to say. “Everyone thinks you’re dead. Darren...” Seth stopped himself and just looked at Merriwyn. “He... he searched for you.”

  Merriwyn placed her hand lightly on Seth’s face as the agony of what he wasn’t saying spread across his face. “I know he’s gone, Seth.” For a moment the same anguish crossed both their faces and then Merriwyn was turning to Jaxon. “I’m here for my daughter.”

  Caislyn looked from Merriwyn to Jaxon and finally put two and two together. “Jax, Jaxon is your daughter?”

  Merriwyn turned to look at Caislyn who was now walking around her and half hiding Jaxon from view. “Surely you stood so shocked in the door moments ago because you saw the resemblance.”

  Jaxon finally found her voice, “my mom and dad died in a car accident years ago.” She looked from Seth to Caislyn and back to Merriwyn again. “I’ve never met this woman before.”

  “Oh, I see,” Merriwyn began. “Apologies, I thought you knew about the adoption.”

  “I know I was adopted.” Jaxon looked again at this strange woman who showed up here, of all places, and suddenly she was wary. It couldn’t be coincidence that her supposed birth mother would show up out of the blue after they came secretly, and unknowingly, to Ireland. “Since we are obviously not that close, I’d like to know just how you managed to find your long lost daughter that you tossed aside at birth. My whereabouts aren’t exactly common knowledge right now.”

  Seth wrapped his arm around Jaxon’s shoulders to help calm her down. It was obvious that she was about to lose it. He whispered in her ear so low only she would be capable of hearing it, “I’m here with you, no matter what.”

  Jaxon couldn’t help the slight smile that she now displayed, but she still stood waiting for an answer. Merriwyn looked as though she had been physically slapped by Jaxon’s words and then she softened some as she saw Seth’s arm go around her daughter. “Oh Seth, what would Darren say about this?” She held up her hand to quiet his response and looked towards Jaxon, “I was able to find you because the Chattox line can always reach one other mind to mind. I lost you when you left Raleigh. You were blocked to me somehow, but after a while I began to pick up on your essence a bit more here and there. I thought I lost you again a couple weeks ago, and that’s when I ran into a witch who was mentioning your name. I had tracked you to a book store and she was there with a vampire trying to grab some trace of where you may have gone. She mentioned something about a cottage in Ireland and I got here as fast as I could.”

  Merriwyn noticed the worried looks on the face of her daughter and her two companions and added, “I found them both here in a town nearby. I pretended to overhear a conversation, they were asking the store keeper about you. A clerk mentioned seeing you girls and I knew I had to step in. I asked them who they were looking for and they showed me pictures of the two of you.” Merriwyn gestured between Jaxon and Caislyn. “I told them I had just gotten off a train in Belfast the day before and bumped into the two of you headed to Dublin.” She smiled, “I think I was rather convincing. I played human and told them I thought one of you might be a witch because I heard you talking about herbs and hiding. Even if I wasn’t that convincing, they were using a locater spell that I just so happened to tamper with. It will appear, for a time anyway, that you did in indeed travel to Dublin.” Merriwyn looked up at Caislyn who was snickering. “Do you know who this woman was, I believe the man called her Melina?”

  “Yes, I do, and...” Caislyn didn’t get to finish her statement because Jaxon cut her off mid-sentence.

  “And you still didn’t answer about who you are and why you are here.”

  “I’m here because I’m your mother, and the damn cat’s out of the bag now, so I don’t have to hide that anymore.”

  “My mother died, years ago,” Jaxon retorted.

  “Inez was my friend so long ago, and the only person I could trust to keep you safe and hidden.” Merriwyn’s sadness threatened to overwhelm Jaxon momentarily until she got her shields back under control. “I was never far away, Jaxon. Your birth went against the council’s wishes. The damn prophecy has already ruined more lives than I care to imagine, it’s ruined our past. You should have grown up with me, known who you were - how special you are. Please, don’t let it take our future too.”

  Dead silence followed momentarily as Merriwyn’s words sank deep down inside of Jaxon. She could tell that this woman was completely serious, that she was being honest, and that she was standing there with her heart on her sleeve waiting for Jaxon to accept her. Knowing all of that didn’t take away her own sadness, her own feelings of hurt about being abandoned as a baby. That was all she ever knew of her birth mother was that the woman had been unable to care for Jax when she was born and so the DeLaneys had raised her. It never stopped Jaxon from wondering why. Now, here sat her birth mother, with all those answers she so desired.

  Caislyn saw the conflict on her friend’s face and figured the last thing she needed right now was an audience. She grabbed hold of Seth’s arm, “Come on, let’s give them some privacy to catch up.” Seth nodded at her and they both left the cottage.

  “May I?” Merriwyn nodded to the couch, asking if she could come in and sit down. “It’s probably a story best told with both of us sitting.”

  “Fine,” Jaxon relented, “but you might want to take the chair over there. The couch sags a bit these days.”

  “I don’t know where to begin.” Merriwyn sat looking at her hands for a moment as an uncomfortable silence settled between the two women.

  “How about you start with who my father was, because it’s pretty obvious he had to be something other than a witch.”

  “So, you’ve inherited some of his abilities, too?”

  Jaxon looked up at this woman, her mother, and simply said, “you first.”

  Merriwyn’s lips parted in a small smile. “Your father.” They were simple words, but Jaxon’s emotional shield was staggered by their impact. “Darren.” Jaxon could see it now, there were tears in Merriwyn’s eyes. “I was working for the vampire council when I was younger. I was one of the few remaining Chattox witches, my cousins Elise and Charlotte were both still living then. Neither of them would ever lower themselves to work for a vampire, let alone the council. You see, we grew up in a proud family of witches and we were taught that we should never intermingle with any of the other species, humans to be included.” Merriwyn scoffed. “My family wondered why their line was dying out. It’s because we had no one left to breed with. Arranged marriages between witch clans had ceased a couple generations before mine, when it was discovered that we could mate with humans and still have magical children. Elise was already 48 when I went to work for the council. She wasn’t exactly old by a witch’s standards since we tend to outlive our human counterparts by a good fifty or so years. But, it was clear she would not procreate. Her sister, Charlotte, held hopes that she would find a good witch to marry and have lots of babies. She was killed in a fire, quite by accident, just before I met your father. In fact, it was Darren who was tasked with bringing me the news.” She smiled up at Jaxon, “in hindsight, I should have known that nothing bodes well when meeting a person for the first time with bad news.

  Truth be told, I didn’t hear the words he spoke when
he came to my room that night. I was so caught up in those eyes of his. They were deep pools of dark brown like melted chocolate. He was probably the sexiest man I had ever seen. And while I was admiring the view I was chiding myself for becoming so smitten with a vampire. It was one thing to work for them, another entirely to be planning our family out in my own head. Of course, that could never happen anyway. It was well known what would happen between inter-species pairings, especially those that resulted in a pregnancy. "

  "Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, I felt like a daft fool when he came over and placed his arm to my forehead. I asked him what in hell’s name he was doing. I think it’s the first thing I managed to say to him that was coherent. He just laughed at me and told me how sorry he was about the news he had to deliver.”

  Jaxon looked at her mother, unable to hide the smirk on her face now. “So, you’re saying you were a complete flake when you first met my dad?”

  “Um, I suppose you could put it like that.”

  “Good to know. Apparently it runs in the family!”

  Merriwyn raised her brows in question, but after receiving no clarification she continued on. “When I finally managed to hear what Darren had been trying to tell me, I was distraught. Charlotte and I had been much closer in age and had grown up together. The news was hard to take and before I even realized that I was sobbing uncontrollably he was there holding me.” She looked up at Jaxon, “he was a member of the council, even then. He could have delivered the news and left. He stayed and coddled me like the weaker being that I was.” She sighed, picking at imaginary lint from her sleeves. “I fell asleep on him at some point and he left me there alone, tucked in my bed. It was days before I saw him again. I was just heading back to my room after working a spell for a vamp who was headed out in search of,” she stopped short realizing she was about to say something she shouldn’t. “Well, I don’t know what she was in search of, but on the way back to my room I ran into Darren. He questioned me about how I was coping and we chatted idly all the way back to my door. We stood there for a few moments more with that build up of tension fluxing between us. I’ve never felt anything like it before. I think I started leaning forward, my body betraying what my coy mind wanted to do. About that same time he leaned down and kissed me. We never questioned what we were doing. Heaven knows, there was no thinking go on that night. It was all need and desire.” Merriwyn bit her bottom lip and held it between her teeth a moment as she thought. “It was the beginning of something extraordinary. At any rate, you don’t want to hear all the bawdy details. Just know that I fell madly in love with Darren and I like to think he felt the same for me.”

  “So, why didn’t you ever tell him you were pregnant with me then?”

  Merriwyn paled noticeably at the question. “Oh, Gods, Jaxon! How I wanted to tell him! I ached inside wanting to be a normal couple who could be happy about a baby. You’ve heard the prophecy?” She looked up questioning and waited for Jaxon’s nod of affirmation. “I was there when a lycan and a witch were brought before a tribunal. She was pregnant and they killed both her and the baby on the spot. What they did to him, well, I still have nightmares about it. I couldn’t...” A sob was stuck in her throat as the emotions from all those years ago came rushing in again. “I couldn’t put Darren in danger like that. I thought I had enough magic to hide in plane sight... to hide you from the world for a while. I thought if I managed that we’d all have a fighting chance at being able to live. I had no clue that Darren would be taken from this world anyway, but at least you were kept safe. I made sure you were safe and sound with Inez and her husband and I kept tabs, but I couldn’t get close or reveal myself. I couldn’t take the chance that you would be hurt. I knew it wouldn’t matter any longer once the council met and watched the three of you vanish without a trace. Oh, the panic that ensued when you took one of their own as your hostage.”

  “He’s no hostage!” Jaxon countered.

  “So I gathered from seeing for myself.” Merriwyn eyed Jaxon closely. “Just what is he to you, then?”

  Jaxon’s normal pale complexion broke out in a scarlet blush that made her feelings for Seth all too clear.

  “I see,’’ was all Merriwyn would say.

  You may want to go rescue your friends from the cold now. We have time to talk and get to know one another. Besides, I’d like to have a chat with Seth. It’s been a great number of years since I’ve seen him.”

  Jaxon walked off mumbling to herself about how everyone seemed to know Seth.

  ***

  DREAMY INVASIONS

  "I have definitely got to be dreaming," Caislyn was talking out loud to herself as she looked up at a castle that sat along the edge of a cliff. She began wandering ever closer and with each passing step the view clarified. Where there once stood a lone castle, there were now holes in the walls and blue energy bolts firing across the sky. Those energy bolts were very familiar to Caislyn. She had seen them the day Jaxon and herself had been attacked by the Fey at Causeway Park, back home. "The Fey are here," she turned to tell someone, but then she realized she was still just dreaming. "Well, I hope I can't die in a dream." She walked closer, trying to figure out what was going on, or at the very least, what she was seeing.

  Several blue bolts streaked through a particular spot in the castle's wall, coalescing into one massive energy ball before making a new gaping hole in the castle's exterior. Men and women who appeared to glow slightly poured into the castle through the new, entrance. Caislyn stepped ever closer, wanting to see what it was the glowing people, the Fey, her own people, were doing. A few, painfully stretched out, minutes passed her by as she continued to creep closer to the melee.

  She was only a few feet from the entrance that had been blasted away by the energy bolts when she saw some of those same glowing people emerge carrying something. No, it wasn't something, it was someone. "Dad!" Caislyn was screaming for Mac before she could stop herself. The Fey began to turn in her direction, several peeling off from Mac in order to come after her. Caislyn turned on her heels and began running, but they would catch her soon. She was no match for their speed. "This is just a dream!" She kept repeating to herself. "Wake up!" When she felt a hand catching hold of her arm she panicked and in the blink of an eye she was in her own bed in the cottage. The tingling sensation from where she had been grabbed in the dream was crawling up and down her arm. She looked, under the sleeve of her shirt, and found an angry red hand print there. "Oh Goddess! We aren't safe anymore."

  Caislyn ran to the room Jaxon was staying in and barged in, not even bothering to turn on the light, grabbing up one of the suitcases they had teleported over from the apartment as she went. "We have to pack and go, now." When no one answered Caislyn flipped on the light to see that she was alone in the room. "Damn it." She walked out of the room and down the hall, figuring she would find Seth and Jaxon together. She heard low whispers coming from the living room so Caislyn went straight there. "What is everyone doing in here?" She demanded. Seth and Merriwyn were sitting side by side on the broken couch talking. Only now did it register that she had been hearing the shower running.

  "Caislyn," Seth responded looking a bit puzzled, "what's going on?"

  "I had a dream, we have to get packed and get out of here now."

  "Wait, what kind of dream?"

  Caislyn realized she didn't have time to explain and make them understand the difference between her normal dreams and the one she just had, so she rolled her sleeve up until it was tucked on top of her shoulder and showed them the hand print that was still red and angry against her skin. "The Fey are coming, they know where we are!"

  Merriwyn stood and went to Caislyn, taking her arm in her own hands. "This happened in a dream?" She was astounded and looking to Caislyn for answers.

  "I don't know how, it's never happened before. Usually, I just see glimpses of the future, rarely the past, sometimes the present, but I have never been hurt by a dream before. I think it was because they are Fey. They saw me the
re. They came after me and I barely got away because I couldn't wake up."

  "You're telling me that the Fey can touch your dreams?" The shock on Merriwyn's face was evident. "But it was my understanding that the Fey could only reach out as such to another of their kind, unless given permission to be there."

  "Well, that explains that, then." Caislyn looked worriedly up at Seth. "We can't wait for Arkos to get here. Maybe we can leave some sort of trail that the wolves can follow?"

  "If the wolves can follow a trail, then someone else might pick it up as well. Are you sure we have to go?" Seth looked at the imprint left behind on her arm. "This has never happened to you before?"

  "No, it's never happened before." Caislyn was busying herself now, putting food into bags that they could carry with them. "I've never known Fey to be wandering around my dreams before, storming castles either, for that matter. The only Fey that I have ever dream walked with is my dad. I mean, I have hugged him before, I didn't think it was us - actually touching - or anything." Caislyn noticed the way Merriwyn was looking at her and she stopped what she was doing. "What? What did I say?"

  "You said they were storming a castle?" Seth answered back instead of Merriwyn.

  "Yeah, the same castle where the Brotherhood was keeping my dad. They took him, I saw them carrying him, his body, out."

  "I'm sure he will be okay, Caislyn."

  "I think he was dead." Caislyn looked at her hands again, the same ones that she had thrown around her dad one last time in a dream the day before. "That's why he told me I had to get my mom out and not to worry about him. He already knew it was going to happen."

  "Fey aren't that easily killed, Caislyn." Seth was now helping to pack the necessities.

  "Caislyn, I didn't realize you were Fey." It was the first time Merriwyn had spoken in a while and now the look on her face that Caislyn noticed earlier was making sense. "I assumed with the last name Vadoma, that you were of the gypsy clans - a witch."