Forbidden Embrace (8 page)

I’m feeling so relieved with all the confessions going on. The fact that my family is not the only ones affected by Nathanial’s kind of truth ability is interesting too. I’m glad to finally understand why now, and believe that we can all learn so much from Matt. We sit and listen as he explains his training in greater detail. He has done extensive research on the supernatural and we’ll all gain from his knowledge.

We all chuckle. It is remarkable that Matt knows so much about
witches
and their history–I think Ebony is relieved. Nathanial understands a little more now, and the four of us begin discussing the threats heading our way. Matt is giving us some good insight on other threats we may face down the road. I think we’re not only forming great friendships, but great allies in the fight against all Cerberus and whatever else may come our way.

Matt starts explaining more about the
guardians
to us, “When a chosen one passes on, their spirit joins The Great Ones in a magical realm and they begin to complete their training. This training consists of all the things they can’t learn while still alive, including all the powers they gain and extensive practice. Once The Great Ones have completed the formal training, the
guardian
can return to Earth. When they return they can live as a magical human figure. To everyone that sees them they appear to be human; even
witches
can’t tell until the
guardian
reveals themselves to the
witches
they are assigned to work with.”

“
So what can’t you learn until after you die?” Nathanial inquires.

“
Well, like I mentioned earlier, various kinds of astral travel can’t be learned until you are in spirit form. As a mortal our spirit can travel to various realms through meditation, but the physical body does not actually leave, the only exception is magic. A
guardian
can travel through various realms and even physical places.
Guardians
can…well, be here one minute and physically appear in another place a moment later. There is no trace of the
guardian
in the first place. It is kinda hard to explain…is this making any sense?”

“
Yeah, so instead of driving to my house from yours, as a
guardian
you just magically appear,” Nathanial confirms.

Matt continues, “A
guardian
does not age, and should not become involved with a mortal. A relationship can affect their assignment, although history has proven that some
guardians
do have relationships with mortals and are still successful with their assignments. Others have failed miserably and people have died and suffered because of it. They can also be assigned to many different
witches,
and when one of the
witches
they are assigned to calls for them or is in danger, the
guardian
hears the
witch’s
call. The Great Ones help lead them and have many rules, in order to protect their identity and that of the
guardians
and
witches
they help.”

This is all extremely interesting, to hear stories of a supernatural power or entity that we knew nothing about. I always enjoy learning more about the world we live in. It is also nice to learn that there are others fighting to protect mankind. Maybe the universe is not as evil as I had begun to believe, and maybe we are here for a reason. Our little group of friends is so diverse and connected in some supernatural way; this can’t just be a coincidence.

Although Matt is unable to help us in our fight he could report to his trainers about the situation. Maybe they will be able to offer us help, a type of protection or warning. We need to find out who Ebony and Eliza’s
guardian
is. Matt then explains that they try to remain undercover until a time when they are needed, or the
witch
is needed to help with something important. Well, now is that time, even if their
guardian
isn’t aware of it yet. I just hope that we can find him or her soon.

“
Now that I explained about my history and future for that matter, and since I’m fully aware of
witches,
I would like to learn more about
vampires
,” Matt requests.

“
What would you like to know?” I ask.

“
Well you say you have not harmed humans in over 80 years; so how is it that you survive? Don’t you need blood?”

“
Yes, you’re correct, but my family and I survive off a combination of donated blood and animal blood. It doesn’t taste as good, and we need to feed more frequently as it doesn’t keep us as strong. We are very committed to living peacefully among mortals. So this is the way we manage to keep the peace. Florence has become very good at creating various foods and meals from the blood we use; we all have our favorites just as a normal family.”

“
Are there others like you?

“
Yes a few, but most, although living peacefully, still feed on humans, without killing them. The mortal is then compelled or hypnotized to forget what happened. Florence actually has a gift to take that process a step further and implant new memories.”

“
So how is it that you can go out in the sun? I know from my training that burning and some other stuff is true about
vampires
.”

“
Yes, normally that’s correct, but thanks to Ebony’s family and a magical gem we call our day crystal, we can now live more like mortals. When Ms. Edwina was a child she helped her mother create a talisman for each of us. There are a few others that have been helped by
witches
as well. Also, those that are centuries old can go out as long as they don’t go directly into the sun and remain in the shadows. However, in general,
vampires
will burn if exposed to the sun.”

“
Okay, I think I am beginning to understand,” Matt smiles. “So tell me more about these evil
vampires
heading this way; what kind of danger can we expect?”

“
We really aren’t sure, but it won’t be good. They’ve already killed in the New York area and have begun their descent to the New England area. We believe that they have plans to overtake the governing body, the Renata. This governing body is also made up of long lost ancestors of the Cerberus clan.

“
Okay, so what do we do? How can I help?”

Ebony and I both look at one another; I don’t even need Alexander here to sense her emotions and know exactly what she is thinking. Neither of us wants the ones we love to face any harm.

“
You can’t do anything; you don’t have any powers that can help in the fight against them. Nate and you should stay together and protect each other. My family will handle this with the help of Ebony’s family.” Raw emotion coming through in my plea, I beg them both to be safe and far away from this fight.

“
I’ll talk to my trainers and try to see if The Great Ones have any information regarding the Cerberus.”

“
That will be great, thank you Matt.” I can tell Nathanial has a new found sense of relief as he rests back in his seat, pulling his right ankle over his left knee.

“
Dude you don’t know how glad I am that I will not be stuck alone in this crazy secret anymore,” Nathanial says with enthusiasm. “Even if you’re not exactly mortal like me.”

We chuckle and Matt adds, “I am until I die…and who is mortal once they die anyways?”

I continue to explain a little
vampire
history to Matt in condensed form; he will learn more as time goes by, plus Nathanial can fill in the blanks. Nathanial will soon be a
vampire
pro; he has borrowed Elijah’s journals that he keeps as a sort of history book for reference. Finally finishing off with the serious stuff, we can relax a little before going home for the night. School will be interesting tomorrow with all the new faces we have met. I still can’t believe what a huge success our New Year’s party was, although I still wonder where Danika took off to that night and if anything happened.

Here and now though, I’m really beginning to feel such comfort. I finally feel like I belong; our close friends all have some special secret. I have to wonder is this just a coincidence, or is there some reason bigger than any of us could imagine? For now we will just need to handle the Cerberus problem, and then maybe we can figure out why we have all come together.

Matt looks at Ebony, holds her hand, looks deeply into her eyes and asks, “Are you feeling a little better, more comfortable now that you know we all have secrets?”

“
I do…I feel a great sense of relief, and to know that you and your family are involved with
witches
is comforting.” She lets a small smile slip out.

“
We really should head home–it’s getting late,” I suggest.

“
Sophia’s right; vacation is over and back to jail…ah, I mean school…we go. We’ll catch up with you at school,” Nathanial rises, stretching out his hand to shake Matt’s.

“
Yeah, of course. See you bright and early,” Matt shakes his hand and they do their silly little half man hug, patting one another on the shoulder.

I begin taking the trays of drinks back to the kitchen for Ebony and gently place the glasses in the sink, wipe the tray down and put it away. I say my goodbyes, and whisper to Ebony, “Call me in a bit.”

She nods in agreement.

Chapter 7

Protecting

School starts back in with a bang, Alexander and Matilda drop me off at Nathanial’s house and we drive to school in his new car. It seems like the entire student body stops and stares as we pull up. The car my ‘parents’ gave Nathanial was pretty nice, and it was a known fact his family could not have bought him the car.

“
Dude! Win the lottery over Christmas? Nice car!” Ben, Nathanial’s friend from football, begins scoping the car. He is always ready to tease us, or at least tease Nathanial, but it is all in good fun.

“
It was a Christmas gift,” Nathanial smiles at me.

“
I guess someone was good this year,” Ben pokes.

Without divulging that it was a gift from my family he just replies, “Yeah, Santa was good to me this year.” Then we head to class.

It’s a pretty typical day with the exception of everyone greeting us now. The seven of us, which includes Danika, eat lunch together again, just like before winter break. We quietly discuss what is going on around us, and laugh about everyone’s chatter about us. I would have thought that after our New Year’s party the chatter would die down a little, but I think it may be worse now, albeit nicer. After lunch we finish out our classes and head home, just continuing through the motions of being regular teens. Nathanial, Ebony and Matt all come to our house to study, bags and books in tote; midterms are later this month and everyone wants to be well prepared.

We start working on our homework and then we can study for our midterm exams. As the others study, my family and I excuse ourselves to go on a scouting trip to ensure we remain well fed. We have been so caught up in training we haven’t stocked up on animal blood. We’re trying to ensure fresh human donation every other day, but don’t want to overdo it. We have worked very hard to sustain our life without causing harm to others, and too much fresh blood could result in blood lust. Danika has remained on her usual diet of blood from the blood bank combined with animal blood; she wouldn’t be able to handle fresh blood, and definitely not straight from a mortal.

“
Danika, you can stay here with our guests; I have your dinner prepared in the kitchen, as well as some snacks for our guests,” Florence informs.

***

“
Can you believe we caught a moose, a bear and some smaller animals?” Alexander says with excitement. This will help to replenish our stock nicely; the larger animals allow for us to extract more. We are able to get several bags of blood from one large animal.

We all enjoy the thrill of the hunt; after all, it is our nature. This is not something we normally all go out together and do; because of our diet we just remove the necessary amount of blood and store it. However because we don’t know what is to come, we make sure we have extra to store.

“
I’m amazed that we saw a pair of wolves. I thought they had been extinct in the area for over 150 years when they were run out by hunters,” I admit.

“
There have been a few reports of sightings over the last few years, but never confirmed,” Elijah announces. “I think it is best to avoid them. We do not want to cause the extinction of an animal in the area and interrupt the natural order of things. If there are only a few left in the area, we are best to leave them be.”

Isaac agrees, “Did you notice the unusual way there are several other animals hovering around the two wolves? Wolves don’t usually keep company with other breeds of animals; this is very suspicious.”