“It’s a full moon tonight, Savvy. I put myself in a cage to protect all of you.” Irritation bit into Rebecca’s tone.
“Yeah? Because you’ve done a bang up job at that so far,” Savannah stated coldly. Just being close to Rebecca made her skin crawl and she found herself itching her arm in response. She looked at Hunter. “Why would I help you get unbound? It seems to me that the only one who will benefit from this is you.” She narrowed her eyes.
“Perhaps, but even as a wolf Rebecca has shown control over the air element. Which means you will most likely gain your control of the water element when this spell is broken.” Catherine advised her. “That being the case, this would most likely benefit you as well.”
“And if it doesn’t I’ll be making my enemies stronger,” Savannah argued. She felt a smidge of guilt taking things out on her grandmother after everything she did for them. But she did keep a secret from them all. One that could have created a different outcome if Savannah had known.
“We’re not your enemies. We’re your family. Like it or not,” Hunter stated impatiently. “No matter how dark you decide to go you know that will never change.”
“Family wouldn’t have allowed me to die.” Savannah pointed out as assumed an overly defensive posture.
“If you remember we did everything we could to save you. Or don’t you remember the countless vampire goons that were killed as we tried to reach you?” Rebecca asked. Perspiration coated her face and her hair stuck to her head. It looked like she had just finished running a marathon. Her words were laced with pain. It was obvious she was getting close to the change. Savannah glanced up at the full moon. The silver orb was large and looked closer to the Earth from this vantage point. From the looks of things Rebecca should be a wolf by now.
“This isn’t the time or place for this conversation,” Catherine warned them. “The moon is a friend to some tonight and a curse to others. The sooner we get this done the sooner Rebecca can be freed.”
As if on cue, Hunter took the point of the pentagram diagonal to Rebecca’s point. He held the book open and directed Savannah to take another point. Lucky helped her into position and stood at her side, probably to keep her from bolting. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to do this but it also didn’t look like she had much of a choice. That and if she could really unlock some of her own powers maybe her mother’s magic box would make more sense and give her a way to escape Celestia’s control over her. Her fingers went absently to her mother’s pink crystal necklace she still wore around her neck under her shirt.
Natalia and Catherine took the remaining spots. When everyone was in place Lucky stood back, leaning against a tree, waiting, watching, protecting.
Hunter spoke with authority Savannah wasn’t used to. “Okay, I need you to do exactly what I do. Savannah?” She nodded. “Rebecca?”
Rebecca managed a nod but she was beginning to look dangerous. Her eyes were taking on a yellow hue. “Hurry.” She managed to speak through gritted teeth.
Hunter jumped into action. “I ask the gods and goddesses from the past, present, and future to bless this joining.” He knelt down to the earth, sunk his fingers into the ground and pulled out a rock. Rebecca and Savannah clawed to their own rock, taking their anger out on the earth while Natalia and Catherine pulled out their stones out with ease.
Hunter held it up to the sky and the rest followed. “I ask the earth and moon to bless this ritual.” The rest of the group held their offerings up to the moon.
Rebecca let out a cry of pain. Her breathing was shallow as she bit down on her bottom lip. All eyes turned to her. Savannah noticed the sweat on her face had increased and the pained look in her eyes struck something deep inside her soul. Something she thought was lost between them. The crease on her forehead told her she was in agony. Savannah had an overwhelming urge to run to her sister and help her. That urge made her angry at herself. She was done looking after Rebecca.
“Are you okay, Becks?” Hunter asked, concern clear on his face.
Rebecca forced a smile to her face. Savannah knew that smile was false. “Sure, but we need to hurry.” Her blue eyes with yellow glow looked toward the moon, a look of fear sliding behind the light in her eyes.
Hunter nodded and continued. He ran his fingers through the flame of the torch. The rest followed direction. “I ask the elements of fire…” He threw the raven’s feather into the flame. “The element of air…” He poured liquid from a bottle of water over his hand. “And the element of water to protect us within this circle.”
Savannah rolled her eyes as Rebecca crumbled to the ground with another agonizing cry. And people used to call her the attention whore. It was obvious Rebecca was going for that crown now. She followed his moves to keep the spell moving along.
Hunter glanced at Rebecca who nodded her head, a signal to continue. Hunter sped up the process as Rebecca continued to prolong the change for as long as she could. He spoke the words from the book that promised to break their binding.
When it was done a push of power flowed through the three siblings and the crystal Savannah wore around her neck heated up to the point of burning her. She pulled the crystal out and placed it on top of her blue blouse.
“Is that pink calcite?” Catherine asked Savannah.
Savannah shrugged. “It was a gift from my father.”
Catherine nodded. “Interesting…pink calcite is known to release grief and fear and bring you to unconditional love and self-worth. It was your mother’s favorite stone.”
“Is there a reason it just got hot?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Crystals transfer energy. Perhaps it received a little extra kick from the spell.”
“So did it work?” Hunter asked anxiously.
Catherine shrugged her shoulders as she watched Rebecca wearily. Rebecca was halfway through the transformation. Her teeth and nails had already grown longer. Hair covered a large portion of her body and face. She was on the ground on all fours.
“We’ll have to wait to find out. I think we need to leave so Rebecca can complete her change.”
“Please.” Rebecca spat out. Her body was stuck in between the transformation. Organs were trying to rearrange themselves, but the collar she wore stopped that from happening.
Hunter, Catherine, Natalia, and Savannah started to leave. Lucky pulled out a tiny remote from his pocket. He pressed the button and it released the collar from Rebecca’s neck.
Rebecca let out a blood curdling scream as the transformation continued to happen without the restrictions from the collar.
Savannah stopped to watch as Rebecca’s body morphed into a large wolf. The screams were deafening. The transformation was almost mesmerizing. She was hypnotized by the miracle of life as she watched a new animal being birthed from her twin’s body. When it was done there was nothing left of Rebecca. She was unrecognizable, except in her eyes. Deep, deep in her eyes Savannah saw her twin.
The wolf caught the scent of Savannah and snarled. Savvy was thankful her twin was safely behind the bars of the large square cage, otherwise she feared they’d be in a battle to the death. It was that moment the reality of the situation hit her. It hit her like a brick wall, one that she feared would be impossible to climb over or break through. Rebecca and her were never going to be the same, ever again. In that moment her heart broke.
Lucky laced his fingers in Savannah’s and pulled her toward the vehicles in a hurry.
“But you can’t leave her in that cage.” Savannah insisted as she fought his pull. She didn’t know much about werewolves, but she assumed locking a wild animal, any wild animal in a cage was inhuman.
“I’m sure Gabriel’s wolf will find her.” He opened the door on his SUV and shoved her into the passenger seat. “Either way, Rebecca wanted it this way.” He slid across the hood of his SUV as a wolf’s howl broke through the night, and then another, and another. The woods were full of wolves tonight.
Savannah may have appreciate
d Lucky’s “dukes of hazard” move had she not been more concerned for her twin and the wolf in the cage. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine the horrible reality of her sister’s curse. It was almost as bad as her miserable existence.
It was Grandmother’s urgent knock on her window that pulled her from her thoughts. Thankfully, Lucky was in the right mindset and rolled the window down for Savannah.
“I want you to take this.” Catherine handed her a small wooden box.
“What is it?” Savannah asked as she hesitantly took the gift.
“A moral compass. I hope it will help you find your way home to us, sweetheart.” She patted Savannah’s hands with a smile. The pat, Savannah didn’t notice, it was the tears in her grandmother’s eyes that shook her to her core.
Another howl broke through the night. “We better get going before Rebecca’s pack members find her.” Catherine started her way back to her car.
“Wait, what do I do with it?” Savannah asked. Too much was happening at once. She couldn’t focus on anything.
“Keep it with you and use it when the time is right,” she said as she hopped in her vehicle.
Lucky used the electronic controls to roll up Savannah’s window. The car was already running. Savannah hugged the box to her chest. She prayed it would really help her find her way home because right now she was lost in a terrible abyss and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get out alive—or even undead.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
“Hello, Hunter.” Sundae’s voice was soft and inviting in Hunter’s mind. He turned around the room, looking for the source. He wanted to thank her for all her help lately but hadn’t been able to find her.
“You called?” she asked as she appeared in front of him out of thin air.
“I did?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t have your number.”
“But you were thinking of me while dreaming and here I am.” She answered the confusion on his face.
“Aww, so we’re dreaming again. You seem pretty comfortable here.” He chuckled softly.
“Yes, far more comfortable than I do in the real world. In a way, I think this realm is my real world.” She looked around at the landscape. It was dark, cold, and barren. “I think you can create a far better place for us to meet, don’t you?”
Hunter shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. Sundae used to creep him out, now she simply intimidated him. “I don’t know how.”
“Sure you do. Simply think of a place and it’ll build up around us.” She raised her hands and spun around in a circle.
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because this is your dream, friend.” She tilted her head at him after she finished spinning, and waited patiently for him to do something, anything.
He sighed heavily and closed his eyes.
“Open your eyes,” she spoke softly into his ear. He felt the warmth of her breath on his neck and shivered as he opened his eyes. “Good, now think of some place you’d like me to see.”
His mind traveled back in time. To a time lost from tragedy. He was in his old family home. His mother and father were alive and happy—together. They were all seated at the dining room table—Savvy, Rebecca, mom, dad, and him. They were younger, but most importantly his mother was alive.
He and Sundae watched the family dinner night play out in front of them like flies on the wall. Sundae placed a gentle hand on his arm.
Hunter was only six. He’d played in his first little league baseball game and was excited about the two runs he made. His father was beaming at him with pride, his mother with love, and his sisters were poking fun, but smiling happily at his accomplishments. It was real. They were real. He was whole again.
“You had a beautiful family,” Sundae spoke softly.
“Key word is ‘had.’ Now my family is torn apart by circumstances beyond my control.” He fought back the tears that threatened to fall.
“I know it’s sad, Hunter. But at least you had happiness at one time. At least you can have happiness again. All is not lost.” She squeezed his arm. “There are others who had far worse childhoods.”
“Like you?” Hunter wanted to change the subject. He needed to find a new focus. He needed to forget about the illusion that was his family once and focus on the present.
“This isn’t about me, it’s your dream.”
“But I want to know about your family.” He realized he really did. Why? He had no clue. But from what he gathered things were bad for her.
“My past is of no consequence.”
“Your past makes you who you are. I want to know, to understand who you are, Sundae.”
Sundae shook her head. “Your past only influences who you are. Your destiny is your own, made up of the choices you make.”
“Please.”
Sundae shook her head again, snapped her fingers and a new scene built up around them. Hunter watched as she was transported into her family home. “You’ll be sorry,” she warned.
Sundae was younger, maybe about six or seven. Her white hair was long and flowing. She didn’t have the black streaks she had now. Her sky blue eyes were hopeful as her white haired mother and dark haired father tucked her into bed.
The younger Sundae was excited. Happy. Hunter had never seen a child so excited about sleep before.
“You have done a wonderful job of manipulating the dream landscape, Sundae. We are very proud of you.” Her father smiled warmly.
“Tonight your father and I want you to do something different when you visit Maxwell in his dreams,” her mother spoke softly.
Sundae grinned. “Okay, what?”
“Kill him.” Her mother smiled coldly.
“Kill him?” The younger Sundae swallowed hard. “No, I can’t kill anyone! You said if someone dies in dream land they die here in reality.”
“You can and you will,” her father spoke firmly.
Sundae shook her head over and over again. “No. No, no, no. I won’t do it.”
“You will or you’ll have an assassin assigned to kill you.”
Sundae stopped her head shaking and stared wide eyed at her parents. “You’d do that to me?”
Her father looked away and her mother nodded her head. “Yes.”
Sundae started crying, but no one held her or comforted her. She was alone. Her father left the room and her mother stared her down with a cold look.
“You know crying will do you no good. You have your orders and your consequences.” With that her mother left the room and little Sundae was surrounded in darkness with nothing but her sobs to comfort her.
Hunter knew Sundae was once a dream assassin, but that scene painted a completely different picture of her. She was as much of a victim of her parents’ expectations as he was of his parents’.
His belief in his father’s expectations forced him to use drugs last month. The same night his sister Savvy was being held captive by the evil vampire Celestia.
Hunter turned to Sundae and wrapped her teenage frame in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Sundae. No one should’ve been forced to do something like that at such a young age.”
Sundae stood ramrod straight, the shock of his hug obviously setting her aback. Eventually she melted into his embrace. Hunter couldn’t help but wonder if it was the first real hug she’d ever gotten.
“Your kindness is nice but unnecessary, Hunter. I was only showing you this because you asked. You know what a loving family looks like and you can bring everyone back into that fold.”
Hunter pulled out of the hug, reluctantly. He enjoyed being close to Sundae more than he expected. “My father killed my mother. It can never be the same.”
“I would think after seeing that scene you’d realize that circumstances push us to do things we don’t want to do. Maybe you should talk to him and find out what really happened…without Celestia around.”
Sundae had a point. But what kind of circumstance would make his fathe
r take their mother away from them? It was a question he decided he wanted an answer to. “Maybe you’re right.” He would find a way to talk to his father someday. But now he had more pressing things to do, like find a cure for the virus eating away at his sister’s humanity.
Sundae shrugged. “Maybe.” As an afterthought. “So why did you call me?”
Hunter chuckled. “To thank you. I guess I can thank you twice now.”
“That’s what friends do for each other, I’m told.”
Hunter nodded. “And you are, you know? A friend, that is.”
A genuine smile spread across her face and lit her eyes. “And I consider you one too...a friend, that is.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Savannah
The first half of the day at school went smoothly. Savannah realized she only had a few more months of this and she’d be able to make it through. That realization made her more comfortable with the idea of finishing her classes despite the fact she was a member of the undead and the skills she learned here would do little good for her out in her new world. There was always the hope she could go away for college and become whatever she wanted to be in her adult life. At least for fifteen to twenty years until she had to change her identity to hide the fact she was immortal.
She finished rubbing the skin lotion into her face and slid on a little mauve lipstick before slamming her locker in irritation.
“Savvy?” Rebecca stood so close behind her that when she turned around she was practically slamming into her. Her two guard dogs, Lucky and Gabriel, were at her side.
It made Savannah step backward as claustrophobia began to set in. That was a comic thought. A vampire with claustrophobic issues. Thank the gods we don’t sleep in coffins anymore. “I told you I go by Savannah now. Thanks to you, Becca, Savvy is dead.”
Rebecca fought back the frustrated growl. Her wolf was still amped up from last night’s hunt, or lack of a hunt. Siren was also pretty pissed she spent most of the night in a cage and made sure Rebecca knew it. “Well, Savannah, Grandmother wants your guest list for Saturday’s birthday bash. It’s the one we’ve been waiting for. The big eighteen.”