Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume

by Jones, L. A.

  Roy glanced at Dax’s outstretched hand, then at Aradia, then back at the hand.

  “It’s okay,” Aradia sighed. “You two are both kind of sexist. It’s obnoxious. Just shake his hand and call the coin.”

  They shook. It looked to Aradia that both might be squeezing a little harder than necessary, though she wasn’t positive.

  When the coin was at its zenith, Roy called, “Tails!” All three backed away and let the coin drop to the ground. It flipped, rolled, and finally fell, showing face up: tails.

  “Yes!” Roy celebrated.

  He grinned smugly at Dax, but Dax just shrugged nonchalantly, turned to Aradia, and said, "Until our next date."

  He winked at her then left as smoothly and stealthily as he’d arrived.

  Roy, after choking back an urge to throttle Dax, suggested, “I know exactly what we should do for the date! My family is having a cookout this Saturday. You should spend the afternoon with us.”

  “That sounds great,” Aradia replied, though internally she was a bit nervous. She’d been expecting something easier, like going to a movie or putt-putt.

  “Good,” Roy said happily.

  “So…” Aradia said after a pause, “what time should I come by?”

  “Oh!” Roy realized. “No, I’ll pick you up. If that sounds good? At, um, two.”

  “Two it is,” Aradia replied, smiling. “I’ll be ready.”

  It took Aradia approximately two days to assemble the perfect outfit. To be more accurate, it took Rhonda and Liza two days to assemble the perfect outfit; Aradia probably would have had it done in fifteen minutes.

  “Oooh, this is perfect!” Rhonda said, pulling out a pair of sparkling jean shorts from the depths of Aradia’s closet.

  “I honestly don’t know why I even have those,” Aradia replied. “In fact, I think they’re yours. Why can’t I just wear a t-shirt and jeans? I’ll wear my t-shirt with music notes on it. Roy will love it. It’s just meeting Roy's family, we’re not going to a club.”

  Around that time was when Rhonda enlisted Aradia's mother to help. “Oh, my Rai Red Rose,” Liza said, “you should dress up a little. Wouldn’t you want Roy to take it seriously if he were meeting your family?”

  “He’s met you,” Aradia quipped, “and didn’t dress up for it.”

  Liza bonked Aradia, lightly, on the nose with the slipper she happened to be holding.

  At first Rhonda was pleased, feeling as if she’d won, but when Liza immediately vetoed anything even slightly provocative, Rhonda gave up and sulked in the corner. Aradia added a bit of make-up (less than her friend wanted, more than her mom did), and when she felt she was ready, she plopped down in the den to wait for Roy.

  Around two thirty, Roy showed up.

  After calling, "Later, love you," to her folks, Aradia took off with him.

  The first thing Aradia noticed was that his red F150 had been recently washed. Very recently. It was still wet under the wiper blades and door handles.

  "You have an amazing truck, Roy! I can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet."

  Roy grinned. "Thanks, I earned this! It’s not second hand, either. It's brand new. Well, almost new. It was new when I bought it a year ago."

  "You have your license already?" Aradia asked.

  Roy looked at her skeptically. "If I didn't, I wouldn’t be driving you to my house."

  Aradia blushed and said, "Sorry."

  "Nah, don’t be,” Roy replied. “I’m a little older than you. You’ll have your license in no time.”

  “I hadn’t even thought about it,” Aradia admitted.

  “It’s all I thought about, practically, while I had my permit. I worked my butt off at the diner to earn the money to pay for half of it, and I had to get all A minuses or better for my Dad to put up the other half," Roy grinned relishing the memory of his triumph.

  "You did all that?" Aradia asked, sounding astonished. "How did you pull it off?"

  "Never underestimate the power of a guy's determination to get a car," Roy stated matter-of-factly.

  Aradia laughed, thinking back to what Rhonda had said about guys and competition and cars. She said, "You know, Roy, I am starting to believe I may be a bad influence on you."

  He looked at her, puzzled. She rushed on to say, “Before all you thought about was hard work. Now all you think about is me!”

  This time he blushed. After just a short moment, he recovered, saying, “Actually, I think you may be rubbing off on me.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “I’m cracking jokes more often.”

  “There’s hope for you! They seem to be even as funny as mine!"

  "Really?" asked Roy, smiling.

  "Well," Aradia added, cocking her head to the side, "Almost as funny."

  Roy threw his head back and laughed.

  Chapter Five

  "Why did the Sovereign summon you?" Keon asked. He stayed seated as Saul approached, and did his best to hide his nervous anticipation. He wanted to run to meet Saul the moment he recognized that familiar shine of blonde hair, girlishly smooth lips, and tall, thin build. He restrained himself.

  Saul’s report had taken over an hour, so Keon was very eager to have his answers and to leave.

  Saul merely shrugged in response. "He asked me what I’ve been up to, then just dismissed me. He did compliment you though.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not much. Had some nice things to say about you, actually,” Saul replied.

  “Oh?”

  “That you’d trained me well, basically.”

  “Nightshadows,” a deep, dry voice rumbled from behind them. Keon turned to face the speaker and found a heavily built, hulking, vampire with brown wavy hair that was threaded with sliver.

  "Damari! What are you doing here?" Keon demanded, clasping hands with the much larger fellow.

  "I am here to settle a legal issue with the Sovereign. What is your business?"

  Saul opened his mouth to speak, but Keon placed a hand on his shoulder to silence him. Keon replied, "Nothing of importance. Regular status update. Apparently I am doing a fair job training my lackey here. Now we really must be going."

  “Until we meet again,” Damari replied, but as Keon and Saul began to move past him he said, as if an afterthought, "I have been hearing some fascinating rumors about the place where you have been posted. Where is that again? Oh yes, Salem! Salem, Massachusetts, in the United States. I have heard some fascinating stories about witches there."

  "It is Salem,” Keon muttered sarcastically. “Where else would you look to find witches?”

  Saul chuckled. Damari politely joined him.

  Despite Keon's sarcasm, Damari continued, "Really, though, it’s the most fascinating rumor I have heard in a long time. A hidden witch being alive, and living in Salem. The very place you have been posted. I have also heard that this last witch single-handedly solved a rather interesting set of werewolf murders. I must say it all sounds amazing! Do you know if any of that is true?”

  "I really couldn’t say," Keon replied, “though if you are interested, why not come find out for yourself? Imagine how valuable the last witch might be.”

  “From what I hear, you’re not the only one with that idea,” Damari replied.

  Keon was no longer in such a rush to go. “Oh?”

  “Mmm,” Damari replied. “Three bad characters are on their way now. That’s where I got the word myself. A lot of talk about blood drinking and all that. You know how some of us can get when they’re worked up.”

  “Three, traveling together?”

  Damari nodded.

  “You don’t say,” Keon replied absently.

  Without anything more in the way of a goodbye, Keon motioned for Saul to follow him, and the two of them walked down the hallway toward the exit from the complex.

  "Looks like you spread the word well," Saul said to Keon.

  Keon nodded bitterly. "Easy job. What with that little bitch Ar
adia making such a spectacle of herself, chances are word of her existence would have spread to the four corners of the earth by now with or without my help."

  "What do you suppose will come of this?" Saul inquired further.

  "If the bitch is smart, she'll keep a low profile and hope that no one believes she really exists."

  "And if she does not?" Saul pressed further, prepared to defend his curiosity as necessary to fulfill his orders, if questioned.

  Keon laughed darkly and responded, "If she does not, and I believe she won't, the news of her existence will shift from rumors to truth. The odds of her being targeted or killed will rise dramatically."

  "But," Saul pointed, "she did survive the massacre of her people? Surely she can survive anything a few rogue hiddens might do to her?"

  Keon turned to look back at Saul, letting a few seconds pass, creating a dramatic pause. “Her people didn’t survive being targeted, Saul. What makes you think she will?”

  The last time Aradia had been over to Roy’s, they’d been alone, and he’d given her a rough primer on the main types of hiddens in Salem. She felt just as overwhelmed with information as Roy gave her a rough primer on the members of his family. It wasn’t a small one.

  Neither was Roy’s house small. It was quite large, in fact, and rested in a tight clearing surrounded by the lush green of Salem Woods. They bounced along a small, dirt road to go the final leg of the drive. Aradia determined two things once they arrived. One, Roy's family diner must be doing fairly well. Two, it was probably their werewolf nature to crave a remote, natural setting where they could shift and hunt. She knew that for safety, they overpowered that instinct; also on her last visit, she’d seen the series of high tech underground cells in their basement.

  As Roy led her by the hand into the house, Aradia added a third supposition to her list. His family was really huge! She could rattle off most of their names from the quick run down Roy had given her, but it didn’t really hit her how many people she was about to meet until she saw the cars lined up around the house and heard the racket coming from inside.

  Five young kids tumbled out of the front door, wrestling each other.

  "I thought you said you only have four brothers," Aradia observed, trying to sound casual.

  "Oh I do! Those are my cousins," Roy explained.

  "You have five cousins?" Aradia asked astounded. “I only have one.”

  "Twenty actually," Roy stated.

  Aradia's jaw dropped as she stared at Roy.

  “What the heck, do werewolves have kids or litters?”

  He shrugged and gave a small sheepish laugh. “I guess both, sometimes.”

  "Your entire family lives here?" asked Aradia.

  "No. Just my dad and my brothers," said Roy.

  "Then why are your cousins here?"

  "Every month my entire family holds a BBQ at my house," Roy explained as they stepped into the house. They were greeted by a tidal wave of sounds and scents. The smell of spicy food was powerful and mouthwatering, and the loud chatter of Spanish conversations left Aradia in a daze.

  "My aunts and uncles bring their kids, their kids bring their friends sometimes, my father hosts, and my brothers... well, my brothers behave the same pretty much anywhere."

  "You mean Al and D?" Aradia asked.

  "I mean all of them," said Roy.

  Aradia nodded and asked, "What are your brother's names?"

  "You already know Al and D," said Roy. "My younger brothers’ names are Juan and Roberto. They usually go by Johnny and Robbie."

  Aradia took one long look around her, soaking in the details.

  "You know, Roy, when you proposed having dinner with your family for a date, I did not expect all this..." Aradia trailed off.

  "Hey,” Roy replied, “I asked if you wanted to have dinner with my family, and that’s what we are doing. Isn't it?"

  “It’s just a little scary is all,” Aradia said meekly.

  “You’re not afraid to face off against a wolf form werewolf,” Roy said, still grinning, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “A few human form ones won’t be too much worse.”

  As they neared the kitchen, Roy suddenly yanked her aside into a nearby closet and slammed the door. He flicked on the light, and Aradia gulped, wondering if Roy knew or understood the term 'fast.'

  If she was expecting him to pull her into his arms and kiss her passionately in an attempt to eliminate Dax from the competition, Aradia was sorely disappointed.

  Instead, Roy said, "Look, before we sit with my family, there are few more things you need to know."

  "Oh? You mean like werewolves are closer than they appear?" Aradia joked.

  Roy maintained his serious demeanor.

  "There’s that. But also... okay, you know how when you first found out about me being a werewolf, I wasn’t in total control?"

  "I’d certainly hope you weren’t," said Aradia. “It was positively ungentlemanly if you were.”

  "That wasn’t the first time a werewolf had lost control and hurt somebody he cared about. Not just for me, but other times for other people. It’s probably happened everywhere, even in my family, and there have been... consequences."

  "What do you mean, Roy?" asked Aradia nervously. “What kind of consequences?”

  "About three years ago one of my uncles lost control in his werewolf form. His wife knew about him, knew his secret about being a werewolf I mean. On a full moon, somehow he got free from his bonds and just like people who collect exotic pets something terrible happened."

  Aradia's eyes grew as big as dinner plates. "What?"

  "He attacked her."

  Her mouth then dropped slowly open.

  "He attacked her?" Aradia repeated.

  "The same way I attacked you," Roy said with a sigh. "He almost killed her. It was bad."

  “Is she okay?” Aradia asked.

  “She survived.”

  “As a werewolf,” Aradia realized.

  Roy nodded. “That’s not the bad part, though. They smoothed things out. Especially once she was a werewolf herself, she understood it hadn’t really been him.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Shortly afterward, they went on vacation together. I don’t really know the details, but I think it was a reconciliatory thing. To celebrate their new relationship.”

  “Uh oh.”

  “They went to Washington. Washington state, I mean. It was a beer and wine touring vacation. Apparently there’s lots of vineyards and breweries there.”

  “Roy, focus.”

  “Sorry. There’s something else in Washington that there is a lot of...Bears.”

  “Didn’t see that coming,” Aradia replied. “Bears? What about them.”

  “Well, some story, different twist. This time it was my aunt. They were in a new place, and that puts any of us off balance. On top of that, she was a new werewolf. She shifted and ran.”

  “Wasn’t she tied down?”

  He shook his head. “It wasn’t on a full moon. I told you before, we can shift anytime if we want to, and when we’re emotionally fragile, we might just shift any time. That’s what happened for Aunt Lupe.”

  “And where do the bears come in?”

  “Just one bear that mattered. She got loose, roamed, hunting. It’s what we do. She was new to being a werewolf and didn’t have any experience, only instincts. She looked for something to fight. She found it.”

  “Oh,” Aradia realized. “A bear.”

  “A grizzly bear,” he replied. “She picked the wrong fight, and ended up hurt again, even worse this time. There were scars.”

  "What kind of scars?" Aradia asked.

  "Bad ones," Roy stated firmly.

  The two of them stayed quiet as Aradia's mind processed the information.

  "Why didn't she get plastic surgery or something?" asked Aradia.

  Roy shook his head, sadly. "Hiddens have many advantages over humans. Most of us have more advanced healing powers, we ha
ve special doctors, but just like in the human world there are some things we just cannot fix. Facial wounds are a perfect example. Nobody knows why, but for some reason whenever a hidden is injured on their face the wound heals more slowly and scars are permanent. Usually permanent. There are weird exceptions. Unfortunately, my aunt’s not one of them."

  Another moment of awkward silence passed before Aradia asked Roy, "Why are you telling me this?"

  Roy responded, "Because she is here and she is sort of sensitive about it. So if you could just not mention it and act natural around her, I would appreciate it."

  Aradia smiled and said, "Sure thing, Roy. Anything for you.” With a smile she added, “Plus it’s the obvious and decent thing to do."

  Roy smiled back. "Thanks."

  "What are friends for?" Aradia asked rhetorically.

  Roy smiled even wider. "I know what friends are for, but what about boyfriends?"

  Suddenly he was leaning in toward her, eyes closing, mouth opening.

  Oh crap, Aradia thought, now we’re back to not understanding ‘fast.’

  Aradia wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or relieved when the door to the closet burst open. Standing in the doorway were an eager-looking girl and more-eager-looking Al. His expression changed, however, as soon as he saw Roy and Aradia. At first, he just stared at them in disbelief, then his mouth split into a highly amused smile.

  "Oh, sorry Roy," Al said in a smooth silky voice dripping with sarcasm. "I didn’t know that this make-out spot was already taken. I didn't mean to interrupt you getting your groove on."

  "Only you would consider a closet a make out spot," Roy muttered weakly.

  “Um,” Aradia interjected, eyes on the ground, “you really were trying to use it as a make-out spot.”

  Roy took Aradia's hand and squeezed uneasily past his brother. As they passed, Aradia whispered to the girl, "Whatever you pay for him, be sure to keep the receipt."

  The girl stared open mouthed as Aradia grinned.

  She then added, “And remember not to tip him!”

  Al and the girl both laughed and closed the door behind themselves.

  Roy hurried the two of them down the hallway, eager to escape the scene of his failed kiss. They found themselves in the kitchen. Although Roy's entire extended family was huge, there were only a few people in the kitchen. Two guys Aradia didn’t know were munching at the kitchen table, Roy’s dad was washing and slicing veggies, and a woman was adding some kind of herb to a steaming pot.