by Celeste Raye
“More?”
“You said you heard about me. I'm sure that you know that I had to take out a couple of them a few days back. They attacked me, and there was nothing else I could do but defend myself.”
“That is not at all how they see it.”
Marl shrugged her shoulders. “Do you think that I care what a bunch of animals think?”
For one reason or another, that bothered Jazz more than anything else. She had lived with shifters for many years, so she had never thought of them as that.
“I have heard conflicting stories. I would like to hear your side of it if you want to tell it.”
“I would imagine that a lot of what you heard was true. I did some awful things, my sisters and me, but we did not start out this way. Nothing ever does. Going to the dark side took time and betrayal, and a lot of it. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to talk about the future. A future I want you to be a part of.”
“You mean, the future that you're not going to have if I don't help you?”
Marl smiled for a minute. “It seems that you do know a little bit more than I gave you credit for. Yes, I need you. If not, I will die very soon.”
“Is it true that you're hundreds of years old?”
“I'm over a thousand, child. I have been around for a very long time, and I am not going to go down so easily. I do need your help, but then you also know that I cannot force it out of you.”
“If you cannot force me, why would you think that I would help you? I know what you are and what you've done, so it doesn't make sense for me to help you.”
“We are family. I think you've lived without any family of your own long enough to realize how important it is. Our blood is the same. Our power is the same, and we should stick together. Don't you think?”
Jazz did not have an answer for that. What her aunt was suggesting was far easier to understand than what everybody else wanted her to do. Jazz wasn't a killer, and she never used her magic if she didn't have to. She did not feel like she needed to smite her aunt this very moment, and she wasn't even sure if she would be able to. Like she said, she’d lived a long time and would likely find a way without her.
“What is it that you need from me?”
“I just want to do a little spell. Doesn’t take too long, and then we would both be stronger. You will have powers that you can't even imagine. You will be able to do things that you think are impossible right now. I want to give you the gift.”
“So you can live?”
“Of course. Nobody does anything in this world for nothing.”
Jazz wasn't sure if she agreed with that. Her mind went to Cali and how much help the old woman had given her throughout the years. She had gotten nothing back from Jazz in the end. It was easy to see how Jazz would think that everything Marl said was wrong. It may have been her truth, but it didn't mean that it was Jazz’s truth.
“And what if I don't help you?”
There was a moment where she thought that the woman was going to attack her. It certainly crossed her mind, because she could see it as clear as day when she looked at her. Jazz did not want her aunt looking at her in such a way. She did not want to feel like she had to protect herself from her. She did not want Dahlia and Connie and all the rest of them to be right. Jazz desperately needed to find something wrong with all of their assumptions. She needed to find good in her aunt.
“If you don't help me, then I will find another way. This would be the easiest way, but then again, I am looking for a more permanent solution. In fifty years or so, you will die, and then I will have to worry about this all over again. This spell is just to connect us long enough for me to find a way to make this last for good.”
“I will help you, but you have to promise that you won't hurt more children or anyone else. I heard what you did at the orphanage, and if that is even a little bit right, I do not want to help you to keep going that way.”
Marl looked chastised for a moment, but Jazz did not believe it was real.
“That is why I'm trying to do this. I want to do it right, so that I will never have to take another life to keep mine going. All I need is one thing, and I will live forever. With your help, I will get my hands on it, and no one will have to be hurt ever again.”
It sounded too good to be true, but considering what the alternative was, killing her own flesh and blood, Jazz was willing to try anything. If it was just some little spell, she was sure that she could get through it. One little spell was no big deal. Not if it changed the course of a battle that has been raging for years. If she could take away the hunger that made Marl kill, then maybe she could save far more.
“We need to start now. I guess we will not have time to get to a more comfortable place to do it. It is best to do it when the moon is high in the sky. I would have liked to have done it somewhere else, but this is as good of a place as any.”
Jazz just agreed because she was in over her head. There was still this feeling of awe that came over. It was hard not to feel even worse when she knew that it wasn't right. She was supposed to fear her or maybe even hate her, but instead, she was feeling the power that poured out of Marl. It was hard to dislike the extra flow of energy. Jazz liked the feel very much, once she got a taste of enhanced powers that could be hers.
Jazz justified it in her mind because it would make Marl leave Dennis and his pack alone. She would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to them. If she got Marl off of their back, then she would have no reason to attack them. It would all go away. That is what needed to happen.
“Come stand here, and all you have to do is repeat after me. You will see that it doesn’t take any time at all.”
Jazz was feeling rushed, but there was nothing she could do. She had agreed, and now it didn’t feel like she would be able to back out of it, even if she wanted to.
The air in the woods was thick, and she tried her best to hold her composure. Jazz was repeating the words, though she didn’t know if she was doing it right or not. She wanted to believe that it would all work out, but that sinking feeling in her stomach was getting harder to ignore. It was impossible for her to breathe at one point, and Jazz knew something was wrong.
Soon, she could feel everything from her aunt. It wasn’t just the power; it was so much more. She could feel her aunt’s feelings, as well as the sense of betrayal that was filling her. Marl certainly felt betrayed, and it was such a strong emotion that she was unable to get away from it.
Jazz started to ask her something, something important, but then Marl touched her cheek and said a few words.
“Sleep, child.”
Jazz did so immediately, and her body fell to the ground in a heap. Jazz was out, and Marl was walking away. She had her sister bond back; now she had her eye on something more.
Chapter Twenty-One
When he found Jazz, she was out on the ground. He tried to rouse her, but Dennis wasn't able to get any reaction out of her.
Dennis knew that Jazz was not alone in the woods. There was another presence, a witch, and if he had to guess, it was her aunt. Dennis needed to get her back to the village, and then Connie and Dahlia would be able to help her.
He did not worry about upsetting her this time. He transformed and threw her on his back. Dennis knew that she was still alive, but he also knew that whatever had put her out was not natural. It was some spell. He had to make sure that she was alright before he could worry about who had done it to her.
It seemed to take Dennis forever to get back to the village. Jazz had wandered off quite a distance, miles even, and he had no idea what she was doing out there. He hadn't thought that it was because of him and what happened between them. Maybe it had been too much to think about, the idea of having to face him this morning.
Whatever it was that kept her away, Dennis wanted to fix it. He was only whole when she was around. He tried not to think about the what-ifs and all the bad things that could happen. Knowing Marl, there was no telling what had ha
ppened. She was capable of anything.
He wasn't mad at Jazz. He was just happy that whatever had drawn Jazz to Marl, Jazz would now see what kind of a person she was. It would make life easier if they were on the same team again.
He was almost to the village when he started to smell smoke. Maybe he had smelled it a little bit further away, but he had just brushed it off. People were burning things late into the night because of all the leaves that had fallen. It wasn't that alarming.
But then he heard a distant scream, and he knew that it wasn't just autumn foliage burning. Dennis was having a flashback of the last time that he had come upon a fire. This time, he hoped that it didn't have such devastating consequences. Before, they had lost much of the summer village and several of the pack.
His worst nightmare came to fruition right in front of him. Another village was burning because of Marl Stein, and he sat Jazz down as gently as he possibly could. But he had to go and start pulling people out of the burning buildings. Dennis didn’t even feel the blaze. His only reaction was to start saving people. He could not stop the fire that was eating away a village that had been built over a hundred years ago. All he was worried about was all of the people inside. He had to protect them. It was his duty.
Dennis saw Frank and Justin doing the same thing, pulling people out of houses, and then women were gathering them around to try to do a headcount to see who else was missing. The whole time that it was going on, Dennis was looking around, trying to find out who the culprit was. He knew, but he wanted to see it with his own eyes. He needed that resolution in his mind.
He spotted Marl Stein up on the hill. She was watching everything go on underneath, and then their eyes locked for a moment. The witch’s eyes were practically glowing, and if he saw her correctly, she was laughing at the chaos that she had started below. Marl Stein was not a woman who had been led into darkness. She had been born that way; he was sure of it.
Dennis wasn't thinking, and he started towards her. He wanted to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeeze until the living was finally dead. It had been far too long that Marl Stein and her sisters had been terrorizing him and his people. As far as he was concerned, it all was going to stop tonight.
Marl went back to her chanting, and Dennis had no idea what she was doing. It didn't matter. He shifted into his true form and started running towards her at full speed. He was not going to stop until he had gone through her. Then she would no longer be able to say the spells that ruined everyone's lives. Marl Stein was the embodiment of everything that he hated about witches. She had ruined everything, and for that, he was convinced that it was time for her to die.
She wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore. Marl had her hands up in the air now. The chanting was getting louder as he moved towards her. He knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but he was going to stop her.
Before Dennis could get to her, though, the skies started to light up with lightning that was unlike any he’d ever seen before. It was obvious that she was manipulating the weather now. He could see it coming down from the sky and striking anything that was in its way. Dennis knew then that she was trying to kill his pack, not just run them out of the area. Most likely, this was her revenge.
Turning around, he started yelling to his brother, telling him to get them into the woods. At the moment, everyone was gathered up, and he knew that they were just an easier target than before.
He saw Jazz getting up where he’d dropped her, and then a moment later, a bolt of lightning crashed down in front of her. He wanted to make sure that she was fine, but then he had to dodge a few of his own. They didn’t seem to be coming down from any rhyme or reason. It was just a gamble, and he felt two of them graze against him. One on his arm and one on his leg. It sizzled the skin where it touched, and he gritted his teeth against the pain.
When he looked back to see Jazz, she was covered in thick smoke and dust. Something around her was on fire, and he couldn’t wait around anymore. The witch was going to have to wait. He had to make sure that Jazz was alright. It was all he could think about, and he was almost to her when a bolt hit him high in the shoulder. The impact knocked him down and out.
Blackness overcame Dennis, and the bear was turned back into a man.
Jazz came to, and everything felt like it was on fire. Fire was coming down from the sky, and it took her a minute to realize that it was actually lightning. A lot of lightning.
The ground in front of her was hit, and then a tree that was nearby was struck as well. It started a fire immediately; the dry conditions and wind that kicked up with the new weather pattern helped to bring the fire truly to life. She screamed once, getting her voice back before she saw Dennis.
She also saw her aunt and knew that this was all because of her. Whatever her aunt had done was what gave her the power to do what she was doing now. The village where she had spent many seasons was burning, and it didn’t look like any of it was going to be salvageable. All of that had happened simply because she wanted to know about her family.
The anger started to creep up inside of her, and she formed a magic ball that was bigger than ever before. This time though, she had the control to handle it and then throw it where she wanted it. She chucked it as hard as she could at her aunt, hitting the older woman in the chest. It knocked her back and the skies instantly cleared.
The magic in the air dissipated, and Jazz looked at the damage she had caused. It was all over, and it was all because she had given her aunt the power.
She saw Dennis, and he was lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving, even though the lightning had stopped. He was hurt, she just knew it, and walked towards him slowly.
When she got there, it was clear that he was hurt badly. Jazz hadn’t ever tried to heal anyone before, but something told her that she needed to now.
She concentrated on all of the new power that the spell with her aunt had brought her. Dennis wasn’t dead, but he would be soon if nothing was done.
All she could do was close her eyes and think of him well. There was pain at even the mention that he wouldn’t be, and some of her magic started to flow out of her and into him.
She didn’t open her eyes until she felt him moving underneath her. The blood was still there, drying on his skin, but the gaping, singed wound that had created it all was gone. A big part of her was exhausted as she had never been in her life. It was hard for her to lean over him, but she did, holding herself so as to not lose her balance.
“I am so sorry, Dennis.”
She planted her lips on him only briefly, not even giving him enough time to kiss her back or pull her close. Jazz wasn’t sure that he would want to do those things with her.
Jazz stood up, and she was devastated at what she had done. She’d nearly gotten him killed, and Dennis’s body wasn’t the only one on the ground. There were others, and all of them were because of her.
The guilt was all-consuming, and before anything more could be said, Jazz took off towards where Marl had run. She wanted to be between her aunt and the pack. She wouldn’t let anyone else hurt them again.
Jazz’s heart was breaking for not just all of the people that were killed, hurt, made homeless. She felt even more guilt for feeling sorry for herself. She had finally found love, or the closest she’d ever experienced, and it was already over before it really got started.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dennis laid there, sort of in a daze. At one point, he had considered that he was dying. It was more like a fact, something that he knew to be happening.
And then Jazz came over and changed everything. As soon as she touched him, he knew that everything was going to be fine. It wasn't too long before the searing pain in his chest and back was gone. Not too much longer after that, there was no pain at all.
Then she was kissing him, standing up and apologizing before she took off. He was still in a daze, trying to pull himself together, and he was unable to get up in time. He saw only the wisp of her hair as she ran
out of sight far ahead of him.
He couldn't stop thinking about the apology. What was she sorry for?
He didn't have an answer for that, and it wasn't long before everyone started providing him with questions. They wanted to know what they were going to do next, but as he looked around and realized that they had nothing left, it became impossible even to imagine.
His brothers wanted to go on the defensive, but Dennis did not have the heart to have any kind of real conversations about tactics. His mind was not in it, and his heart certainly wasn't either. All he was thinking about at the moment was Jazz and what she had done for him. Why had she apologized?
“Where did Jazz go?”
He looked to the old woman and told Cali that he had no idea where she gone.
“Did she say anything to you after she healed you?”
“Yes, she said she was sorry, and then she ran off. I don't even know what that means.”
“She is blaming herself for what happened here.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she bonded with her aunt, and that is why the old witch is strong again. I'm sure you could tell the difference.”
Dennis agreed immediately. There was no way that he could have conceived that one person could have done such damage. She did seem a lot stronger.
“How certain are you that she did it?”
“She wouldn’t have been able to heal you, and you’d probably be dead right now. That is the funny thing about the future. You have to live through it all to get to where you need to be. This had to happen, or you would be dead, Dennis.”
“How do you know that?”
The old woman leaned down a little bit closer and whispered, “I have a little witch in me, you know.”
She pulled back and smiled at his shocked face. “We need to take them to the cabins. It is the last place that the pack has. We are going to have a lot of rebuilding to do when the Stein witches are done.”
