“You’ll understand soon enough. Chelsea will help you sort through all the important details. They can’t know I’m here. It isn’t safe for you or me if they do. I have to go, and you need to wake up. Wake up now, Sophie.”
“Wait!” Sophie jumped out of the pool. She wasn’t ready to let her mother go. “Please, mom!” she ran after her mother’s retreating figure. Just when she thought she’d catch her Regina turned around, “I’ll be back. Wake up.” And with that she disappeared in a flash of light which was in great contrast to the darkness that was rolling in and surrounding her.
Sophie crumbled to the ground as the sadness of losing her mother hit her again with the force of a punch to the gut. She wasn’t going to leave; she couldn’t leave if it meant she might see her again. Tears pricked the back of her eyes. The cold breeze brushed against her bare skin which reminded her she was still in her bathing suit. She rushed over to dress as the clouds continued to roll and rage around her. She managed to get on her shorts, socks, and shoes just as the clouds overhead slowly began to take the shape of a face. Two faces, then three. In moments she was surrounded by five cloud face images staring down at her. Lightening gave their eyes a menacing look. Her shirt was forgotten.
“As I told you, their new healer is weak.” A booming male voice echoed through the storm. The lips of one of the male faces spoke and his eyes turned to dark holes, devoid of all life. Sophie resisted the urge to punch the smirk that raised his cloud lips right off his face image. What kind of damage could a cloud image do to me? She wondered.
“She is of no consequence to us.” A female voice added. Her face didn’t look satisfied, she looked compassionate, and Sophie found herself taking an immediate liking to her. She still felt apprehension around them, but the female seemed like the nicest of all the clouds. Her eyes held the blue sky.
Oh my God! I’m rationalizing talking cloud heads! What is wrong with me? Sophie stood up looking around at the faces surrounding her in the sky. “Excuse me?”
“If that’s the case, we don’t need to kill her.” Another male face said with finality.
“Kill her? Excuse me? Kill me? Why?” She couldn’t believe she was actually talking, even fearing bodiless, talking cloud shapes.
“I still think she is a liability.” The only other female voice offered.
“We agreed we’d avoid killing innocents.” The female cloud face with sky blue eyes spoke.
“Yes but the young witch is hardly an innocent.” The other female argued.
“Hello? I am right here!” Sophie felt furious at being ignored. She hated it when people talked about her while she was in the room. It didn’t matter that she was talking to floating heads made of clouds. She was reaching her breaking point. First her mother’s death, then her father’s proclamation she was a witch, next her attraction to an ancient vampire prince, her ability to heal or kill dying people with supernatural powers, her mother visiting her dream, and now talking heads. Her dream? My dream! That’s right, she needed to wake up because this was a dream. She needed to wake up, but how? She needed to wake up because her life was being threatened, and she didn’t have the power to protect herself. She’d find her mother again under less life threatening circumstances.
“We’ll let the weavers decide.” The compassionate woman spoke again.
Lightning struck the ground with a crack, and when the smoke cleared a man dressed in white ninja garb was left standing before her. He pulled a katana sword from a holster on his back and raised it horizontally above his head. Sophie stumbled backward stepping onto a rock which almost caused her to slip.
Two more ninjas appeared behind her dressed in black uniforms. One of the black dressed ninjas tore her face mask off and said “Wake up, Sophie!”
Sophie looked at the ninja who spoke, she didn’t know the woman, but heeded her warning. She knew she needed to wake up, but how?
The white warrior charged towards her, Sophie screamed and put her arms up in front of her face as a defense. She had no weapon, no way to defend herself against someone with a dangerous looking sword. He’d slice her in half before she could run for help. And who would she run to for that matter, her mother?
The girl dressed in black put her own sword up in front of Sophie just as the other warrior slashed his sword down. They clashed with a loud clang. It was deafening, or maybe that sound along with the seriousness of the situation was deafening. The sound of metal on metal seemed so strange to her. The speed with which the warriors were swinging their weapons was so fast she could actually hear the weapons cutting through the air, like cars whizzing past her ears.
Sophie was speechless as both black and white battled in front of her. Their movements were so fast it was like a blur. The second unmasked warrior woman dressed in black grabbed Sophie and pulled her backwards, out of the way of flying swords and kicks.
“Listen to me. There are more coming. You need to WAKE UP!” she yelled.
“I don’t … know how?” Sophie stated, fear seizing her heart. She had no idea how to wake up from a deep sleep.
“Fear or pain, which do you prefer?”
“What?” Sophie thought she was experiencing fear now, what kind of stupid question was that?
“Fear or pain is usually the fastest way to wake up from sleep. Which do you prefer?”
Another white dressed warrior appeared, and charged toward Sophie and her black dressed heroine. “Time’s up.” The girl in black picked up Sophie and tossed her off the cliff in one swift movement. She didn’t even hesitate. Sophie screamed as she went into a freefall down the side of the mountain. She tried to grab onto something, but everything; dirt, rocks, tree limbs were out of reach. She glanced down and watched as the ground fast approached, let out another terrified scream.
Sophie sucked in a breath, and sat straight up in her bed. Perspiration coated her skin. Her heart raced and pulse skyrocketed as she looked around the room. The terror didn’t disappear until she realized she was in the safety of her bedroom. She had a thousand curse words she wanted to scream, but her voice didn’t come because her mouth was dry from fear. She tried to slow her breathing. The dream seemed so real? As reality started to clash with her dream parts of it seemed to fade away. She grabbed a notebook from her desk and started scribbling thoughts she could grasp.
Dream weavers
Talking cloud heads
Fear or pain
White and black Ninja warriors
The springs
Nephilim
Witches
Tiffany – time is short
Mother
The last word gave her pause. That pause was all her mind needed to wipe her memory of the dream clear. She sat there for a few moments trying to remember anything else important. Her mind grasped at any remnant of the dream that still might remain with no luck. It was gone; whatever else might have been important was gone now. She only hoped she got everything that mattered. She took in a deep breath, pulled the hair sticking to her skin up into a loose bun on her head, picked up her phone and dialed Chelsea’s number. She needed to tell her everything before she forgot.
Chapter Eleven
Sophie was surprised to see another council meeting was called to her house. Apparently, their new base of operations had moved to her home; it was a way the council could keep an eye on her, help with her training, get updates on Tiffany’s progress, and use that intelligence to help them figure out what was happening to their town. Sophie didn’t understand it, and she wanted no part of it, but she was happy to see Giovanni was in attendance.
Not only were the council members in attendance, but three men in cuffs. One of them was Christopher. She barely recognized him underneath all the bruises. One eye was fused shut from swelling and he favored one side of his body. She wasn’t impressed with the treatment he was subjected to, and planned to use some of her healing abilities to help ease the pain after the meeting. She was also going to have a few words with Giovanni about his poor
state. They didn’t even try to hide his inhumane treatment. Another one was Luke, the werewolf alpha she met just yesterday-he looked shattered and broken, and the last one was a young looking male vampire with dark hair and piercing blue eyes. He looked like he was in his early twenties, younger than Giovanni by a couple of years. Sophie wondered if the younger vampire was one of his brothers. Luke and the young vampire held their heads down in shame, but Christopher wore his injuries like a badge of pride. Men!
Sophie didn’t understand why she was called in to discuss her dream and Tiffany’s progress. Chelsea was up to speed about everything. There really was no need for her to be there. She’d rather be upstairs working on Tiffany’s recovery and finding a way to get back to her mother. But Chelsea warned her that she should get used to these meetings since she’ll become a regular attendee thanks to her new gifts and the power she’d have when they were fully developed.
It was funny, she didn’t feel powerful. She felt weak and out of sorts. Her world had been turned upside down, and the only thing she knew or understood was to expect the unexpected.
She sat in silence as she learned about the attack at the vampire and werewolf frat house. So many people’s lives were altered over the last two days. So much destruction, pain, and heartache, and everyone seemed helpless to change things. Everyone seemed relieved there were no human casualties, but Sophie found it troubling there was no discussion of supernatural mishaps. And while no one died, the new vampires and werewolves’ lives were permanently altered, just like hers. It was still a casualty. It seemed the council was more concerned with their impact on human civilization and keeping their secrets hidden than they were of their own people’s welfare. It seemed wrong on so many levels. But then again, nothing seemed right for Sophie anymore.
The shackled young vampire turned out to be Giovanni’s sire, and the perpetrator of the vampire attack. “I promise, they attacked me unprovoked.” Gregor defended himself.
“It’s hard not to believe this attack wasn’t premeditated, Gregor.” Anastacia began, “we all understand a human must have the vampire blood in their system at the time of death. How did you manage that feat?”
“My father mixes his blood into the wine during fraternity rituals – a well-known fact by the council. It makes it easy to command obedience. They attacked after the usual weekly ritual. It was pure luck the mob went after him when they did.” Giovanni answered for Gregor. It seemed strange that Gio would be calling someone who looked younger than him his father. But there was no shortage of strange lately. Sophie knew she had to get on board and accept the unexpected. It would make things easier to handle. She needed to come to terms that this was her new world. It would make building her strength and abilities easier, especially after she learned what dream weavers could do and how dangerous they were. She was smart enough to realize she needed to learn to defend herself.
“Just because the council knows of this practice doesn’t mean we agree with it. Most of us see this practice as barbaric.” Mariah snapped coldly. It was weird seeing a woman who looked fragile act so bitterly. It was pretty obvious she didn’t like Gregor, or vampires in general – which could be a problem for Sophie since she was, in a way, expected to answer to her. “Taking away free will is against everything we believe in.” Sophie couldn’t argue with that.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that if he hadn’t done so there’d be thirteen dead humans right now.” Giovanni defended his father. It seemed like an exhausting job being royalty, but Sophie recognized that some of his effort in defending Gregor was for his own longevity. If his sire died, he would follow suit according to what he told her last night. The very idea scared her. She couldn’t stand the idea of losing Giovanni. He was too important to her. She didn’t understand why or how, but deep down she knew she needed him, and for that reason alone, she’d protect him too.
“Is being forced into a future you never chose not a similar fate?” AnnaBella asked, joining in on the debate.
“Give it a rest, AB. There is very little we can change now. We all have supernatural elements in our rituals. I bet if we took a vote every one of us would find something wrong with the rituals we all perform. We should be thankful he doesn’t feed on his charges.” Harmony rubbed her neck. Impatient to move things along, she continued. “Do you have any witnesses who will verify your testimony?”
Gregor shook his head sadly. “None of them remembers the attack.”
“Convenient.” Anastacia chimed in.
“Perhaps the best witness would be Luke. He had a similar attack from his frat members.” Gio offered. Sophie was amazed at how he remained so level-headed with so much at stake.
“Which eliminates the most logical explanation, the probability of poisoning.” Eric added sadly. A rumble emerged from the group on the council. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, and none of them seemed to be very positive. Sophie’s fingers itched to speak up, but the formality of the group made her hold her tongue.
It was the fairest of them all that broke through the disagreements. “All of this started with the nephilim. Has he given any indication of what is happening here?” Bella asked, her voice melodic despite the worry in her eyes. Of the rest of the council, Bella looked the most delicate. All the rest seemed to scream dangerous warrior. Even Gio the prince gave strangers the impression he could rip someone’s throat out. But Bella wore pretty lace dresses with matching gloves to cover her hands. Her guards were the dangerous ones. She seemed like a helpless girl from the 1800s. She seemed so out of place, but when she spoke everyone listened. It made Sophie wonder what power the fairy queen had.
A muscle in Gio’s cheek began to tick. “He hasn’t been very forthcoming, as you can imagine.”
Most of the council shook their heads, and the random voices started vocalizing their opinions about the situation. Most didn’t believe Gregor’s story. Sophie started to feel like Gio was losing his battle.
“But his sister spoke of dream weavers.” Sophie blurted out, it wasn’t her turn to speak, but she couldn’t help the words from escaping her lips. She needed to say something, and felt she’d regret it if she didn’t. Everyone turned eyes on her and she continued, “I had a dream with them, discussing whether or not to kill me, and their plan to take Mystery Springs because of the magic it possesses.”
“You’ve seen the dream weavers?” Eric had a worried look on his face.
“Well, I saw five cloud faces judging me – underestimating me if you want to know the truth, which according to Chelsea and my father is probably why I’m still alive.” No one spoke so Sophie continued. “They couldn’t decide whether I was a liability or a nuisance so they sent ninja warriors on bolts of lightning to dispatch me.” As she said the words she realized how ridiculous she sounded, but the severity of the situation helped the dream come back to her in vivid images.
“Ninjas?” AB asked, confusion marring her pretty face.
“Cloud faces?” Bella shook her head, disappointment in her eyes.
Gio eyed Sophie from across the room. He couldn’t help but feel slighted that this was the first time he was hearing about her dream, but admired her courage. No one interrupted the council when they were deliberating. No one but his spunky little Sophie.
The council members seemed to be mulling over the new details, speaking in hushed whispers that were lost to Sophie’s human ears. “You’re new to this magical world. What makes you think what you saw was really dream weavers?” AB asked doubt clear on her face.
Sophie worried her hands in front of her, and felt herself start to balance her weight on opposite feet. She was suddenly back in high school giving a speech in front of the class. She hated public speaking, and this moment reminded her why. But Gio’s life was on the line, and she wouldn’t let a little fear of talking in front of groups keep her from helping him. She stuffed her hands in her jean pockets and answered. “My mother told me.”
Rafe cleared his throat and interrupte
d her in hurried words. “Honey, perhaps…”
Sophie shook her head emphatically, “no, dad. I know you think she’s passed on, but she hasn’t. She was trying to give you some peace. Unfortunately, the dream weavers have partnered up with the nephilim, and they are attacking us to take over the town.”
“And your mother told you this?” Eric asked.
“Yes.”
“Your father’s the guardian, dear. You’re the healer. Perhaps you should stick with your own area of expertise.” Mariah spoke with a sternness her frail body didn’t look like it could express.
Sophie was getting the distinct impression the witch elder didn’t like her very much either. “So I should ignore my dreams?” Sophie stated defensively, “because from what everyone is telling me the majority of healing power takes place in the mind, and my dreams are linked to the subconscious which happens to be the power center of the mind.”
“No one is telling you to ignore your dreams, but perhaps that’s all it was, a dream. You heard the word dream weaver from your patient and your imagination took that idea and ran with it.” Mariah used logic as a weapon, a really good weapon in this case.