The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat. (21 page)

Jaxx wraps
me up in him. Pulling me into him so tight I can hardly breathe.

“Don’t
do that to me again. I can’t withstand it,” he whispers into my hair.

I d
on’t know how I ever got so lucky to be destined to have this wonderful man in my life, or how I am destined to have a Goddess for a mother. I might have many trials ahead, but I still count myself lucky.

“It
was good that you woke when you did, little raven. We have company.”

I turn my head and stare at him. Gavin
had said that this place is private. Secret even. “Who?”

“Three Vampire Elders have brought Jessa. She was fading without her Kindred.”

I jump and sit up in excitement.

. “Jessa
is here? Like here in this very house?” I know I sound like a toddler at Christmas, but I can’t help it.

Chapter 17.

I am out of bed and running for the shower in no time flat. After lying in bed for two days I am bound to smell horrid. I want a shower, and then I want to see my Jessa. Jaxx catches me by the arm and spins me around.

“Stop, Ella
. You have to listen to me. Jessa is changed. That is another reason she has been brought here. It was either bring her to Sebastian or put her down.”

My palms start
to tingle. I know my power is rising.

“They want to kill her like she
is some kind of animal?”

Jaxx slowly nods
at me.

“How much has she truly changed? Why would they want to
do that? She is of their kind now.” I am seriously freaking pissed right now.

“They had to get another True Witch to knock her out with a sleeping concoction. They say she went feral when Seb
astian left to come here. He left her there so they could teach her. Being around him seemed to agitate her. So he thought it was for the best.”

“What
do you mean feral? What is that exactly?”

Jaxx look
s at me with sad eyes.

“She i
s nothing more than an animal. She tried to slaughter everyone, including the Elders.”

My legs threaten to buckle. I
am shaking so bad it is hard to stand on my own, but I don’t want to lean on Jaxx right now. I don’t want to be touched at all. I am half pissed and half scared to death of losing the only sister I have ever had. I take a deep breath and calm myself outwardly. I always did have a good poker face.

“
I’m going to shower,” I tell Jaxx in a monotone voice.

He looks
at me with bewilderment.

I start
toward the bathroom again, this time at a much more controlled pace. I am fracturing inside, but I’ll be damned before I let anyone see it. I turn to look at his beautiful face again.

“Which elder wanted to put her down
,” I ask him in an utterly calm voice.

“Moira,” he mumbles
in his confused state.

Little did he know that he just signed this Moira’s death
warrant… My mother is THE GODDESS. Not some minor deity want to be. She is everything. She is mine and I am hers.

No one
is stronger than her. Therefore no one is stronger than me. I smile a secret smile. No one fucks with my family. Elder Vamp or not.

“You make me pr
oud my child, the daughter of my light.”

I hear bells whisper through my mind. I lock
myself in the bathroom and take deep breaths to bring my temper back under control. I start the shower and step under the steaming water. While I am buffing and shaving, I try to think of how to handle the shit storm that is waiting for me downstairs. Nothing short of a show of power will make someone old enough to become a Vampire Elder come to heel. A show of power it is then. I have to control myself though. I can’t let the tempest brewing inside me get out.

After my shower I dress in a long
, flowing white skirt with a green, flower patterned tank. I slip on some gladiator sandals and laced them up to my knees. My
mother would approve of these.
I smile to myself at the thought. I blow out my hair and add minimal makeup. I want to look utterly cool and collected.

When I open
the bathroom door the bedroom is empty. So I make my way slowly down the stairs and hear a whispered argument going on just below.

“Jaxx
, if she challenges an Elder they will kill her.” That is Gavin.

“Do you think I don’t know that? You should have
seen her face. Her eyes were glowing, but her face held no expression. I have never seen her like that. It was like she turned herself off.”

“If the yo
ungling means to challenge me, then let her. I will put her down like a dog. Just like I should have done with the other.”

That must be Moira. She sounds
like an arrogant bitch. Well, let’s see just how easy I am to put down. I step off of the bottom step and turn to face Gavin, Jaxx, and the female Vampire Elder. She is a pretty thing, small in stature, with long red hair that falls to her waist. She is covered in so much spackled makeup that she looks garish. She probably tops off at five feet in heels. She looks like she was turned when she’d just hit puberty. Hell, she looks like a child playing at being an adult.

“Hello
, all.”

I breeze by the
m on my way to the front room, acting as if nothing is wrong. I walk into the front room and stop dead in my tracks at the sight before me. Jessa is lying on the couch, seemingly asleep. She is a mere shadow of her former self. Her Marilyn looks are still there, but her face has shrunken in on itself. She has shadows cocooned under eyes. Her once vibrant blonde waves are dull and stringy and her body has lost all of its curves. The clothes that she was wearing are baggy and crusted in grime and Goddess only knows what.

I look around for Seb
astian and the other two Elders. I spot Seb and two others on the front lawn. They seem to be arguing about something. I can’t hear their heated words, but I can tell by their body language that they are not happy with each other.

“So this
is everyone’s new pet, the
supposed
Celios. You don’t look like anything special to me,” Moira sneers from behind me. “You know, I wanted to kill that little rabid thing on sight. She isn’t good enough for Sebastian.”

I spi
n around to face her. I see Jaxx and Gavin standing behind her, shaking their heads no at me.
Fuck that.

“Seb seems to think she is good enough. Hell, you aren’t worthy to lick dog shit off her boots. So why don’t you take your clown looking ass back to the coffin you crawled out of,” I smirk and start firing up my palms.

Moira
seems to be struck dumb, gaping like a fish. But Jaxx and Gavin charge for me, probably thinking that they are going to save me from myself. I fling my hand in their direction, throwing a stasis spell at them. They float back into the back wall and can’t move. I don’t know where that came from, but they are out of harm’s way now.

“What did you just say to me? Do you have any idea who or what
I am little girl? I will suck the marrow from your bones!” Moira’s face is flushed bright red. She makes to charge for me. Her fangs have dropped and she probably means to make good on her threat.

I push my palms out in front of me and hit her with a good dose of my light. She
is flung through the air head over heels and lands a good ten feet away. She twitches, but lays still for the moment.

I hear Seb and the men out front with him run for the door
, hearing a tiny voice in the back of my head guiding me once more. I wave my hand in their direction and erect a warded force field around the house. They keep trying to run and ram it with all their strength, but they just keep bouncing off. The two male Elders bare their fangs at me through the window and hiss. Obviously they don’t like that I am going to kick the shit out of Moira.

Moira
starts to rise once more, but I am distracted by Jaxx working himself off of the wall. If he gets loose then he will definitely get hurt in the cross fire. I turn to look at him, pleading with him through my eyes to stay where he is. He gets my message loud and clear and nods in my direction right before his eyes widen.

I fe
el a weight hit me from behind like a freight train. Moira has hefted herself upon my back. She yanks my head back by my hair and sinks her fangs into my neck in a brutal ripping motion. The pain is so bright that my knees almost give way. Tears are pooling in my eyes.
Fuck that hurts. Time to up my game.

I reach
behind me as best I can with her gnawing at my neck and wrench her away from me by her fiery red hair. I swing her away and turn to face her. She is rising to her feet once more. She tilts her head and looks at me like I am some new kind of bug she has just discovered. She licks my blood from her lips, pulling her eyebrows together as if she is trying to puzzle something out.

“What are you
,” she hisses at me.

“
I’m born of a Goddess,” I snark at her. I feel the ever present dark void inside me start to rise. All the power contained in my body wants to be let free.
So I let it.

Wind start
s to rise and whirl around me, knocking pictures off the walls and sending furniture flying. I feel my power wash over my skin as I start to glow like moonlight is beaming through my every pore. My feet rise off the floor as if I am floating on the very air itself. My toes are barely touching the ground and I can feel my eyes start to glow. I can tell by the awed and frightened expression on Moira’s face that she wasn’t expecting my answer. Or the light show I seem to be putting on.

Moira drop
s to her knees. She is muttering something that I can’t make out with the wind rushing in my ears. I push my way into her mind and skim across her memories and present thoughts. She is frightened indeed, but she is also seething with anger and rage. She is jealous and power hungry. She believes that I don’t deserve the gifts I was born with. Moira wants to sink her fangs deep into my neck and drink me dry while she rips out my throat. She thinks drinking me to death will empower her with some of my gifts.
Disgusting parasitic bitch!

“You have come into my brother’
s home and threatened my family,” I intone.

Moira
is shaking her head in the negative. As if I don’t know that she wants to kill Jessa because of her potential. It has nothing to do with her being feral. The bitch starved her to this point.

I withdr
aw from her mind because her thoughts and past deeds are making me want to retch.

“I know what you have to don
e to Jessa, Moira. You have starved and beaten her until she retreated into herself, surviving on instinct alone. You wanted to kill her from the start. Jealousy is a nasty vice, one that should have been broken long ago.”

“You know not what you
speak of,” Moira screeches at me. She tries to rise to her feet once more, battling the strong currents of wind that are whipping at her.

“I skimmed your mind Moira. You cannot lie to one such as me.”

I wave my hand in Moira’s direction and her body goes stiff. She cannot move because I am controlling her like a puppeteer. I look into her eyes and in mine I know she can see her own death. I have never met someone more deserving of their fate.

“You have been
judged and been found wanting, for your sin I will end your pitiful existence,” my voice echoes off the walls as I pass my judgment.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“Who are you to judge someone as ancient as I,” Moira is still hissing and spitting, thinking that this will end differently than it will. But her fate has been cemented.

“
I am Celios, blessed by my Mother Goddess, Hekate. I was made in her image. Put on this plane to do her bidding.”

Moira’s eyes
are now bugged in her head.

I’
ve had enough of her shit by this point. Just looking at her puts me in a rage. I shove my palms outward toward her and let loose all of my pent-up anger. Two beams over crackling jade lightening swarm toward her. When they hit her in the middle of the chest it implodes inward and her skin starts to burn and smoke. The stench is awful, like burning hair mixed with sulfur. I keep my power flowing outward until her body starts to buckle in on itself.

She
is wailing like a banshee in a fit. Moira’s skin starts to flake and ash as she is burned from the inside out. After what seems like forever her screeches go silent and her remains crumble to the floor.

Clean up on isle ten.

I turn behind me and wave my hand in Gavin and Jaxx’s direction, canceling out the stasis ward holding them immobile. Gavin is looking at me like he has just met the monster that haunted him from under the bed. Jaxx is smiling at me, shaking his head as if he’s known what I am capable of all along.

I sh
ake my head at them. I don’t let the shield concealing the house down yet. I don’t want to deal with two more irate Vampire Elders. Not yet anyway. I turn back toward the front room where Jessa is still lying on the couch as if sleeping. I glide toward her as if I am dancing as I walk. I still haven’t powered down. I won’t until I deal with the other unwanted company waiting out on the front lawn.