“If this is your way of trying to suck up, don’t bother, Charlie. I’ve made up my mind. I’m leaving at the end of summer. I’ve already enrolled in classes.”
Charlie sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
“Just because you’re given some gift,” Michael continued after a minute, “doesn’t mean you should be stuck with it the rest of your life.”
“I get that, Michael. I really do.”
“I didn’t mean it to come out like that,” Michael apologized sincerely.
“The thing is, Michael, you’re not wrong. You’re not wrong to want a life outside The Demon Isle. What happened to me, that wasn’t my choice, but I have to live with it regardless. Just remember that you’ll have to live with your choices too. And your choices don’t affect just you… they affect me, and Melinda, and William, too.”
“You think I don’t know that? Why do you think it’s taken me this long? I wanted to leave with Emily, back when she went to college. But I stayed, Charlie. Mom and Dad were gone and Melinda was a wreck. But she’s getting better now and Mom and Dad aren’t coming back. They’re gone.” Michael took a frustrated breath. “Have you ever considered that maybe it’s just time to move on? Let someone else handle all this supernatural stuff…”
“Someone else? Like who?”
“I don’t know, Charlie. Just, not us. Hasn’t our family sacrificed enough? What law says it has to be a Howard sacrificing their lives to protect this island? And for what? To die trying to find a magical power source hidden on the Isle hundreds of years ago. Look, I get why you don’t want to leave this place, Charlie. You feel a responsibility to be here. But I don’t. I don’t feel that. And more than that, I know you fear leaving because you worry that being somewhere else might trigger your curse.”
Charlie dropped his head. He didn’t know what to say. On so many levels, he agreed with his brother. But the obligation he felt to uphold his family’s heritage overshadowed everything else. Everything except, as Michael said, the fear that something would trigger his curse.
They finished readying their diving equipment in silence. Charlie’s thoughts could not help but stray to the day his life had changed, the day he had lost control of his own future. It was ten years ago now, he was only sixteen, and yet he remembered every detail as if it had just occurred.
They had been hiking. Michael, Charlie and their father, Jack.
He saw the pathway they had been hiking on clearly in his mind. They were walking down hill, hurrying to get back to their campsite as the sun had set and the moon was rising up over the tall pines and maple trees. It was big and bright, but still a day from full.
Charlie could not help but grin as he remembered them laughing. He could not recall the joke, but their father had told it, and it wasn’t even remotely funny, and yet they had laughed and laughed. They had been laughing so hard that the attack had caught them completely off guard.
A monstrous gray wolf jumped onto their path, blocking them, almost as if it had been awaiting their arrival. Charlie remembered that before feeling fear, his first thought was, Why is there a wolf on the Isle? There are no wolves here.
The wolf lunged toward their father’s throat. They had but a second to react.
All Charlie could think to do was use his own body in defense and threw himself in front of his father. Even at sixteen, he was bulkier than his father was.
Michael attempted to use magic to stop the wolf, but he wasn’t fast enough and the spell missed the wolf, hitting a nearby tree, shattering the branches. The wolf sank its teeth into Charlie’s shoulder, forcing them both to the ground. His father blasted the wolf with a strong spell, tearing it off his son’s body. Amongst the torn flesh and profuse bleeding, a tooth jutted out of Charlie’s skin. A souvenir he had put onto a chain and now wore around his neck.
The wolf had run off into the woods, howling as it did so.
Michael and his father had used what magic they could to stop the bleeding, but it didn’t help for long. They rushed him out of the woods and to the hospital. After a long night of tests, stitches and shots for fighting rabies, Charlie was allowed to return home.
It wasn’t until a month later as the full moon approached, that they got confirmation that the wolf had really been something more than just a wolf.
Months of research followed.
Their first thought was werewolf. However, no known cases of werewolves turning before the full moon had ever been documented, plus it had looked like a regular wolf, just larger, whereas a werewolf would have walked on its hind legs, like a human.
This noted though, it was obvious that Charlie took on traits known to belong to werewolves. Like an increased appetite, a higher body temperature and faster healing from wounds. Although, the wound inflicted by the wolf did not ever fully heal and left a scar in its place.
As each full moon approached, Charlie would get agitated easily, and when his temper got the better of him his features would change, taking on a feral quality. His hair would darken and stiffen. His eyes would change from the bright blue the Howard’s were famous for, to sharp silver. As the months passed, his wolf nature began to emerge whenever his emotions were heightened. He didn’t have the complete strength of a fully transformed werewolf, but he was quite a bit stronger than a human should be.
Regardless of all the changes taking place, he never fully transformed. Each month as the full moon neared, he tried, if possible, to avoid things that would set off his temper. He could feel the wolf inside, craving to escape. But he kept it inside, never allowing it to fully surface.
How?
No one had any explanation. Even after months of research that included William leaving The Demon Isle to search out myths and legends, they had no explanation. The best they could come up with is that because Charlie wasn’t bitten on a full moon, or because he had powerful witch blood coursing through his veins, that somehow this had affected the outcome. Over the years, Charlie had also theorized that the power source might be keeping the curse at bay. But again, there was no proof, only speculation.
Not being able to contain the wolf was Charlie’s number one fear. He reached up and brushed the wolf-bite scar with his hand, and then watched Michael stepping into the frigid waters of Bloodsucker Bay. He shouldn’t be forced into this life…but do any of us really have a choice?
Charlie dropped his hand and silently joined Michael in the water. He was already swimming away from shore and diving underneath. About ten feet out his head popped out of the water and he took out his mouthpiece.
“There’s a steep drop off just a few feet out,” he warned Charlie.
He nodded, taking a few cautious steps until he saw the drop off. He dove in alongside Michael.
“Test. Test,” Charlie said, checking his microphone.
“Hear you loud and clear,” Michael replied.
“You lead the way,” Charlie returned.
Michael opened his hand where he still held the crystal. It was heavy and didn’t float in the partially salted water. It made a slight turn in his hand and lit up. He motioned for Charlie to follow and they set off. It took Michael about ten minutes to locate the entrance to the cave. He motioned for Charlie to look, but his brother’s attention was drawn to the depths below the cave’s entrance.
“I think there’s another diver,” Charlie said, pointing. His voice broke up a little, but Michael heard enough to understand.
“Yeah, um, maybe. You can see better than I can.”
Another gift the wolf bite had given Charlie.
They swam a little closer, curious as to who else would be diving in the area.
“Hey! I think they’re in trouble!” Charlie shouted suddenly. He took off, deftly swimming down to the ocean floor. Michael followed, apprehensive at first, but trusted his brother’s eyes at these depths, more so than his own.
As usual, Charlie’s instincts were correct, for as they swam closer, it became clear that the diver was in serious trouble. It
was a woman, and it was her unusually fierce white hair that Charlie’s eyes had been drawn to. As soon as the diver noticed the brothers, she began waving her arms frantically.
“Her leg is stuck in between two rocks,” Michael pointed out as they approached. The woman took out her mouthpiece, pointing at it.
“And I think she’s out of air,” Charlie replied. “I’ll give her mine. I don’t need it anyway.”
Michael knew Charlie could easy use a spell to breathe under water. They just preferred to do things the normal way, to avoid raising suspicions from any unaware onlookers. Charlie took off his tank and handed it to the woman. She looked puzzled for the briefest of moments, until Charlie shoved the mouthpiece into her mouth, ordering her to breathe. He kept the headpiece with the microphone and the goggles. A second later, a large air bubble surrounded his head, like a helmet.
Michael tried to free the woman’s foot, but to no avail. He was not strong enough. “I can’t free her,” he said, panic rising in his voice.
Charlie dove down and tried to free the woman’s leg. The rock fell slightly, discharging a stream of blood from the woman’s injured leg, but not releasing it.
The woman let out a short scream, nearly sucking in water as she almost dropped the mouthpiece. The scream rattled the brothers. They didn’t have much time. The blood would soon attract unwanted company, leeches, topped by the fact that the woman was in serious danger of dying if they could not free her.
Charlie decided he had only one choice. To let go of the control he normally kept so carefully in check.
He felt the strength of the wolf coursing through his veins, which popped against his skin and sped up his heartbeat. His eyes shifted color, turning to bright silver. The stubble on his chin darkened as if thickening. A low snarl forced its way out of his throat and into the air bubble surrounding his head. Muscles rippled through his shoulders, down the length of his arms and with one thrust, he heaved the rock off the woman’s leg, as if the rock suddenly weighed nothing. It fell to the ground a few feet away with a slow crash. Charlie grasped the woman, pulling her out of harms way.
He swam with her in tow, into the cave, as it was the closest spot they could safely check the woman’s injuries. A few seconds later, their heads popped out of the water. Michael surfaced alongside them.
Charlie needed no help getting the woman out of the water. His extra strength yanked her body out and to the top of a jutting rock with ease. The woman coughed out some water and fell onto her back, catching her breath. She wasn’t a tall woman, about five foot four, and her body was thin, but well toned.
Charlie straddled the woman, leaning over, looking her in the face. He guessed she was in her mid twenties, and her hazel eyes screamed shock as she stared into Charlie’s animalistic face. He jumped up and turned around, trying to re-cage the wolf. How am I going to explain this? He panicked for a moment, but hoped he would be able to blame it on her injury somehow. Although, it wasn’t her head that was injured.
“Are you okay?” Michael asked the woman, distracting her.
She nodded yes. “Thanks to you two,” she whispered in an exhausted, raspy voice. She took a quick side-glance at Charlie.
“Nasty cut you got, though,” Michael noted, pointing toward her leg.
“I’ve had worse,” she admitted.
Charlie spun around, looking human once again. “If you’re that clumsy, maybe diving isn’t the best idea for you,” he said harshly.
“Right now, I cannot argue that point,” she replied, guiltily. “Thanks, for saving my life,” she added, as if those words hardly made up for what they had done for her.
“Lucky we dove when we did,” Michael told her. He allowed his empathic ability to engulf the woman, sensing for her emotional state. He was surprised to feel that she held no lingering concern or fear over seeing Charlie as something more than human, and did not seem fazed by her near death experience. Abnormal things did not bother her. Hopefully, this would prove to their advantage.
Charlie leaned down to check her leg. He heard the woman holding back a wince as his hand ran down her calf, examining the wound. He frowned. The cut was substantial and all their medical supplies were in the jeep. He unzipped his diving vest and slipped off his tank top, tearing it into strips. He kneeled and tied the strips around the wound, gently.
“This should hold until we get back to the surface. We’ve got medical supplies in our jeep,” he explained.
“You carry medical supplies. Do you often find damsels in distress?” she asked curiously.
Charlie just shrugged, as if to say, something like that… their eyes met, and a sudden coolness stretched through his body, shooting an icy feeling through his veins. It was as if his wolf-warmed hot blood dropped a few degrees, instantly. He shivered, goosebumps popping up on his arms. Charlie Howard had not shivered due to being cold since before he’d been bitten by the wolf, ten years prior. He had forgotten what it felt like.
He didn’t like it. Something about it felt wrong. Unnatural.
Charlie let go of the woman’s leg, standing, his usual hot blood returning, melting away the icy chill.
The woman’s gaze lingered on his diving shorts, Charlie’s only remaining item of clothing. She cleared her throat, averted her eyes and then grabbed hold of her long mane of white, ringing out excess water.
“What are your names?” she asked.
“I’m Charlie. This is my brother, Michael.”
“Well, Charlie and Michael, what brings you two down to the bottom of Bloodsucker Bay, other than happening to save this gal’s life?”
“Well, what brings you down to Bloodsucker Bay? Ms? Mrs?” Charlie asked in return.
“Eva. Eva Jordan. Ms. I guess… if it matters. And to be honest, I was looking for some adventure,” she made a face that said, Boy, did I get more than I bargained for.
“Well, it is nice to meet you, Eva Jordan, although I’m sure different circumstances would have been preferred,” said Michael. “My brother and I are from the Isle. Often spend our days diving in these waters, strictly in search of damsels in distress.” He winked in a flirtatious manner.
There goes my brother, thought Charlie. Turning on the charm. No woman can resist…
Eva Jordan did resist however. Her curious eyes still landed on Charlie. He leaned over, outstretched his hand and helped her to her feet. He felt better once he’d touched her again and the strange coolness did not happen a second time. Perhaps it had just been the dive messing with his temperature.
“Thank you. I’m really quite fine now,” she said. “You two can just, you know, do whatever you came to do.”
“And just how are you going to get out of this cave?” Charlie asked her.
“Hadn’t really thought that far ahead,” she said. “Boy do I sound like a dope. Guess you boys are stuck with me.”
While Eva gathered herself together, Michael whispered to his brother. “This complicates things a bit. Can’t use magic.”
“We’ll just have to investigate the old fashioned way,” Charlie replied, sounding annoyed.
“Um, not to interrupt,” the woman named Eva said. “I can’t help but hear what you guys are saying. Everything bounces off cave walls, you know.” She twirled her finger as if to remind them of their surroundings.
The boys stared in silence, unsure how to explain to this stranger about magic and witches.
“Look,” she added. “Don’t worry. It is completely obvious you guys are magical types, witches or something, and you Charlie, well, you are definitely something more than human, I’d wager. I’m sorry for freaking out on you a minute ago… your face up close like that, it just caught me off guard.”
“Wh-What?” Charlie stuttered, unable to find the right words he wanted to say. Michael could do no better.
“When I was a kid,” she continued to explain, “my dad summered here on the Isle a few times. He said it was some kind of Mecca for the supernatural community. And he always told
me he was sure there were witches living here. Let’s just say I am well versed in the world of the supernatural.”
“So you know about witches and magic… and stuff,” Charlie confirmed, sounding uncharacteristically confounded.
“Yup. Can’t do any magic. Not a witch. But my father is what you could call an expert, and I, well I travel around with him now, helping him with his research.”
“Wait a minute,” Michael said. “Eva Jordan? Your dad isn’t by chance Anthony Jordan, the author, is he?”
Eva’s face lit up.
“Who is Anthony Jordan?” asked Charlie.
“My father,” confirmed Eva.
“Wow!” replied Michael with renewed interest. “Your father wrote the Modern Day Guide to the Supernatural, didn’t he?”
“That would be correct.”
“William has that book in his study, Charlie. For someone coming from a non-magical background, his work is quite thorough. It’s a handy guide, I must say.”
“Of course, most people think it’s just made up drivel,” Eva added. “He is not exactly a respected literary genius in the writing or scientific community.”
“Well in the witch community, at least this witch community, he’s got fans,” said Michael.
“You’ve read it then?” Eva asked.
“Cover to cover,” Michael admitted. “I’m not just a pretty face,” he added with a wink.
“Got a little inner geek, eh?” she asked.
“I’ll never admit that,” he replied.
She laughed at his response. Michael liked her. She was easy going and his empathy didn’t pick up on anything potentially dangerous.
Charlie, on the other hand, found he didn’t like the situation at all, it seemed wrong to him. First, that they just happened upon a woman in trouble, and then come to find out that she is aware of their world, something few are completely aware of, or rarely want to admit exists. And the timing... right after a dead body was found in this very cave...
Then again, she did have a nasty gash on her leg and was truly panicked when they had found her. Plus, the man found in the cave had been dead for years, and had been killed by their mother. A con of his wolf nature… bouts of paranoia. He could tell by Michael’s reactions that he wasn’t getting any strange vibes, so Charlie shook it off as best he could.
Witches of The Demon Isle Box Set, Volumes 1, 2 & 3 Page 5
