True of Blood (Witch Fairy Series) (4 page)

“The princess fled taking a horse from the stable for the garage was too well lit and guarded for her to get one of the cars her parents kept.  She rode the horse hard through the woods for miles and miles until she couldn’t push him any more and then she set out on foot.  She travelled like this for days, keeping to the woods and back country as much as possible.  She scrounged for food and slept in the open air.  By the fifth day, she was filthy and weak and had scratches on her hands and feet making it impossible for her to travel in the woods any longer.  She didn’t dare use her magic to heal herself even this far from her home because the Witan could still use it to track her.

“It was on the fifth day that the princess met a man whose blue eyes and handsome face were full of kindness.  He was a doctor and promised to heal her wounds with science instead of magic.  He brought her to his home and listened to her unbelievable tale and he believed her.  As he cared for her physical wounds, he also helped to heal her emotional ones and they fell deeply in love.  He left his home, his state and his practice and they disappeared into the mountains not leaving any type of trail behind and there he helped raise the princess’s daughter as his own and he loved her more than anything in the world.  And even in death he loves you still.”

Okay, can being a ghost make you go crazy?  Because I’m pretty sure my mom has gone over the edge.  “Mom,” I say slowly, “it’s 2011.  Do you really expect me to believe that you are some kind of Witch princess and that I’m half Witch and half Fairy and nobody else in the world has figured out that magic really exists?”

Mom smiles sadly.  “Many people know that magic really exists but they keep our secret or they are spelled to forget.”

“Okay, Mom, you’re freaking me out here.  You really believe that, don’t you?”  I stand up from the couch to put some distance between us.  What do you do when your ghost mom goes crazy?

“Xandra, you have ghosts for parents.  How is it that you can’t believe that magic is real?”  She floats up from the couch towards me but I back away so she stops in the middle of the room.

“I believe in ghosts because I have to and because I believe that your ghost form is your soul taken out of your body.  I do not believe that people can do magic and make people forget things.”

“I know it’s hard to take in…”

“Does Dad know you believe this?” I ask interrupting her.

“Yes.”

“And he’s okay with it?”  Dad’s always been a pragmatist.  It’s hard to believe that he would believe in Witches and Fairies and magic.

“Your father has done everything in his power to keep you safe from my past and your foretold destiny.”

“My destiny?  You mean to open the gate between this world and the Fairy world?  Mom, that’s just crazy.  Are you sure that being a ghost for so long hasn’t kind of eaten away at your sense of reality?”  I know that sounds cruel and disrespectful, but come on.  She wants me to believe in Fairies!  Not to mention the idea that my real father could turn himself into a horse.  My real father.  The one with black hair and green eyes just like mine.  Dad’s not my real dad.  I sink down onto the thick gray carpet in shock.

“Xandra?” Mom says softly.

I don’t look at her.  I can’t look at her right now.  My whole life has been a lie.  What else don’t I know about my parents and their past?  “Who are you?  Are you really Julienne Smith?”

Mom shakes her head sadly.  “My real name is Quillian Vorel Levex, Daughter of King Sveargith and Queen Athear.  I am of the Witch line and was supposed to rule after my parents but now I am branded malsvir and Faessi, evil and a coward, for betraying my people and bringing into the world the possible destruction of humankind.”

It takes a moment for her words to sink in.  “What?” I squeak.  “Do you mean me?”

She moves her head into a small nod.  “You were never meant to be born but I loved you too much to allow them to kill you.”

Oh, this is too much.  I live in the mountains in the middle of nowhere with the closest person living more than ten miles away yet I’m supposed to bring about the destruction of mankind?  “How, exactly, am I supposed to destroy everyone?”

“Your blood could allow the Fairies back into this world and they will come back angry to have been kept away for so long and they will force humans to bow down before them for fear of death.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve read about things like that in a myth or two, but that’s all they were, Mom.  They were myths.  You can’t possibly believe all this.  And if you do, then you really are crazy.”  I am beyond disconcerted now and have moved on to anger.

“I know it’s hard to accept…”

“No, not hard to accept.  Impossible to accept!  I don’t know why you want to make me believe this stuff but it’s crazy and I’m not going to do it!”  With that, I pick myself up off the floor and walk away from my insane mother and go into my room slamming the door behind me.  I pace back and forth in front of my bed trying to understand what made my mom go off the deep end.  She was fine just a couple of days ago.

After a few minutes, I decide I need to get out of the house but I don’t want to risk being seen and having to talk to Mom some more, so I put on my dark red jacket and pull on my black knee high boots and I push my bedroom window open.  I climb out quietly and close it softly behind me.  I trudge through the snow aimlessly trying to shake off the morning I have had but Mom’s story keeps nagging at me, begging me to believe it which I absolutely refuse to do. 

 
Chapter 3

After about an hour of rambling, I realize I’ve gone quite a ways from home and should probably head back before I get lost.  I had pulled on my black hat and gloves that I keep in my jacket pocket but the cold mountain air can’t be held at bay for long.  Reluctantly, I turn around and follow my footprints in the snow back towards home.  About half a mile from my house, I start to see footprints that aren’t mine.  Strange.  Could this be the same person who left tracks in the snow yesterday?

Stopping, I scan the woods for any sign of movement but there’s nothing except the occasional bird.  The bare trees are quiet, not even swaying in the gentle wind that’s blowing.  Turning back towards home, I keep moving.  Dad can come back out and look for the hiker and make sure he or she isn’t lost.

I go about twenty feet when a red fox appears in my path about ten yards away.  Funny, we don’t have red foxes at this altitude.  A few seconds later, a mountain lion joins the fox.  Okay, those we do have this high up and it’s best to avoid them.  I stand very still hoping they will both keep moving and ignore me.  They don’t.  They start walking towards me.  I’m pretty sure I’m hallucinating because as they walk, the air begins to shimmer and their bodies elongate and their faces change and soon they are walking only on their hind legs as the fur from their bodies begins to dissolve and in less than thirty seconds, two very naked people are walking towards me.  The woman is tall, probably three inches taller than my five feet seven inches.  She has jet black hair and high cheek bones like mine but the twisted smile on her thin lips takes away any beauty she might possess.  The man is also tall with a large muscular build and his dark hair is shaved close to his scalp.  Both have vibrant green eyes and both look menacing.  I take several steps backwards which just makes them laugh.

“Don’t worry, Princess, we have only come to bring you home,” the woman says and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t mean the home I left an hour ago.

Summoning up my courage, I ask, “Who are you?”

“We are Pooka, loyal to King Dagda.  I am Olwyn and this is Maurelle.  We have been given the task of returning you to your rightful home in the realm of the Fae,” the male says.  Both continue walking towards me as I take a few more steps backwards in the deep snow.

“I already have a home,” I say nervously looking around for a possible escape route.

The female, Maurelle, scoffs.  “You have been forced to live among the Cowan.  That is not a home, it is a prison.  You are superior to them and you belong with your own kind.”

“Cowan?” I ask.  Maybe if I lunge to the left I can lose them by jumping over the small gorge over there and looping around back to the house from the other side.  I surely know the woods better than they do.

“You may refer to them as humans,” Olwyn explained. 

They are almost close enough to grab for me now, I have to make my move.  I fake right and Olwyn grabs for me but then I lunge left and start running.  I can hear them behind me as I run through tree branches and then I lift my feet up into a jump over the five foot gorge and lose my footing on the other side.  I am not fast enough in getting up and Maurelle catches my coat.  She pulls me roughly to my feet and hurls me against a tree face first.  My head hits it hard and my vision gets slightly blurry.  I feel blood at the corner of my mouth and I’m pretty sure I’m close to losing consciousness.

“You will return with us,” she says as she wraps a hand around my neck and lifts me off my feet but as she makes contact with my skin the amulet around my neck shines brightly and she drops me just as quickly as she had lifted me.  She pulls her hand to her chest and cradles it as if she has been burned and she takes a step back from me.  She is about to speak when her attention is caught by a raven that lands on the lowest limb of the tree I am leaning against.

Maurelle’s lips pull into a sneer.  “Kallen.”

Trying hard to stay still so as not to bring her attention back to me, I watch as the raven elongates and begins to take on the characteristics of a boy around my own age.  A gorgeous boy.  Where Olwyn is big and brawny with bulging muscles and is much older, this boy is tall and lean and has the muscles of a large cat.  Sleek and strong.  His black hair is unruly and his green eyes are piercing.  He also happens to be completely naked like the other two.  Doesn’t anybody feel the cold like I do?

“Maurelle,” the boy says as he jumps to the ground.  “I will not let you take her.”

“There are two of us, Kallen.  You cannot fight us both and expect to win,” Olwyn says pulling himself up to his full height that is still several inches shorter than Kallen.

“No, but I can slow you down,” Kallen says and from his closed hand he throws two objects hitting both Maurelle and Olwyn in the chest.  Turning to me, he yells, “Run!”

I hesitate for only a second before I realize that whatever he had thrown at Olwyn and Maurelle has them kneeling in pain.  I pull myself up and ignoring the pain in my head, I run as fast as I can getting cut by branches and brush as I push through them.  I’m almost home when I hear the pounding of feet in the snow behind me.  I dare to look over my shoulder and I find Kallen getting closer, his longer legs able to carry him faster than mine.  Maurelle and Olwyn are no where to be found.

Breathing heavily, I slow down and finally come to a stop to try to catch my breath.  Kallen slows to a walk and approaches me.  I expect my savior to be happy I had escaped but all I find on his hard, gorgeous face is annoyance.  “Why did you not use your magic?” he demands as he stands in front of me in all his naked glory.

“I-I don’t have any magic,” I stammer.  Has the whole world gone crazy or am I suddenly in a parallel universe?

“Of course you have magic,” he scoffs.  “The amulet around your neck is proof of that.”

I look down at the necklace Mom had given me.  It’s no longer glowing if it really had at all.  I look back up at Kallen and as my eyes travel up his body, a flush covers my cheeks.  I’ve never seen anyone my age naked before.  “Don’t you have clothes?” I ask casually trying to cover my embarrassment with bravado and failing miserably.

He crosses his arms over his chest.  “I am perfectly comfortable being sky clad.”

My brows pinch together in confusion.  “Sky clad?”

I didn’t think it was possible for him to look more annoyed, but he does.  “Clad only by air,” he explains.

“You could have just said naked, and around here, we prefer clothes,” I say trying to keep my eyes from wandering any lower than his because they keep trying to.

“You have just been attacked by Pooka warriors and you are concerned about my state of dress?  You are a silly, ignorant girl.”

“Hey, what’s your problem?”  I demand.  He may have saved me but there’s no reason for him to be such a jerk about it.

“My problem,” he says through a clenched jaw, “is you flaunting yourself about these woods as if you had not a care in this world.  Do you not care if the Pooka take you?  Are you in league with them?”

“I don’t even know who the Pooka are but I do know that you’re a jerk and I’m going home.”  I turn around again and start walking through the snow wishing I could effectively stomp my feet so he would know how annoyed
I
was now.

Kallen catches up to me and grabs my hand but he releases it quickly with a hiss.  I turn to look at him and I see pain in his eyes like I had seen in Maurelle’s when she touched me.  I look down at my amulet and it’s glowing again.  “Why does it keep doing that?” I ask stupidly.

Kallen gives me a disgusted look.  “Because it is iron bound by amber bound by silver.”

I have no idea what that means.  “So?” I say hoping he will explain.

From the look on his face, he’s getting more disgusted by the moment.  “Did that Witch of a mother of yours not teach you anything?”

“Look, Kallen or whatever your name is, I don’t know who you think you are but you need to leave my mother out of this.  And my guess is, you don’t know why it’s glowing either or you would just tell me.  I am so out of here,” I say and continue walking. 

I can hear Kallen following.  After a moment, he says stiffly, “It is a Fairy repellent.”

Yup, everyone has gone crazy.  Or just I have and I’m imaging all of this.  I really hope it’s not that.  “There’s no such thing as Fairies.  Or magic,” I add for good measure.

“You do not believe in magic?”  He actually sounds surprised.

I’m tempted to turn around just to see a look on his face that isn’t contemptuous towards me but I force myself to keep walking.  The sooner I get home, the sooner I can get away from these crazy naked people in the woods.  Now, there’s something I never thought I would ever have to say.

“Your mother has not taught you the ways of magic?”

“Nope, because there’s no such thing.”

“How could she have been so foolish?” he asks.

I whirl around.  “Look, I don’t care if you insult me but that’s the second time you’ve said something nasty about my mother and I’m not going to stand for it.  Why don’t you go back to wherever you came from and leave me alone.”

“You are an ungrateful little snit.  Do you not care if you are in danger?”

“In danger from crazy people in the woods who seem to think they’re Fairies?  Yeah, I care about that which is why I’m trying to get out of these stupid woods and back home so thanks for saving me back there from your twisted little friends but now you need to go away and leave me alone.”

“It is not that simple,” he says.

“My dad has a shotgun and he taught me how to use it.”

“Cowan weapons do not frighten me.”

Exasperated, I stop again and face him.  “Will you stop it already with this LARP stuff or whatever it is you’re doing?  I don’t want to play your stupid game.  Especially if I’m some kind of target in it!”

“What is a larp?” he asks with what looks like genuine confusion on his face.

I roll my eyes.  “Like you don’t know it means live action role playing.  Good for you, you stay in character very well.  Now, why don’t you go find your clothes so you don’t freeze to death and then find some other girl in the woods to mess with.”

“If I become too cold I will return to my raven form.”

Oh, yeah.  I forgot about all that shape shifting stuff that happened back there.  The pounding in my head must have pushed that from my consciousness.  It had to have been some kind of trick.  Some smoke and mirrors thing or something.  “Well, then why don’t you change back into your ‘raven form’ and fly away,” I say as I start walking again.  “Your friends are probably missing you.”

“They are not my friends and they will be incapacitated for a while.”  He has fallen into step next to me now and I have to keep my eyes straight ahead so as not to get the full show of his nakedness.  A part of me really, really wants to take a peek, though.

“Why, did you throw a paint ball at them and now they have to play dead for a while?” I ask not even bothering to hide the sarcasm in my voice.