Raven (11 page)

Clearly
the idea was absurd to me and I told them so as I stood up abruptly
and paced up and down the room shaking my head.

“
Lilly, these dreams you've been having are the strongest
indication so far that you can change into both animals. Remember
you told me you changed into a mountain lion and a raven? Well, it
appears that may be true. Your subconscious has been telling you
so,” said Gabriel softly.

“
Well,
can you change, Gabriel? Can you?” I asked defensively.

“
And
what about you Wyatt? Meredith? Rose? We're all related... surely
you can all change too?” I said, my body shaking as I
spoke.

There
was silence for a moment before Rose stood and took both my cold
hands in hers. “I can, Lilly. I can change into a lynx. Your mother
wasn't able to and sadly we never knew if Neleh had the ability as
she died before she became of age,” she said softly.

I could
tell she was telling me the truth by her eyes, those black eyes
that became the brightest blue in different lights. I remembered
the day that I'd met her. She'd known I was there without even
looking, her sense of smell and her sense of hearing were both
incredible, just like a cat. I'd even thought she'd looked
feline-like at the time. Her home was full of cats and they'd all
gravitated towards her as if she was one of them.

It all
made sense. What didn't make sense was the fact that I was one too.
Could I really be? Could I really be able to change into a cat or
into a raven? I felt as if I was dreaming. I even pinched myself to
see if I would wake up. I didn't.

“
What
about the ravens? Which of you can change into a raven?”

“
None
of us here can, sweetheart. Your great-grand-father could though.
He was a great man and a great raven,” said Meredith.

“
What
about my father... could he?” I asked suddenly thinking that
perhaps that's what happened. He escaped Vivian by changing into a
bird, but apparently I was wrong because according to Gabriel he
was never able to either.

“
We
usually find out around the age of seventeen or eighteen. If it
hasn't happened by the time we're twenty, it tends to mean that
it's not going to,” said Wyatt.

I
wondered if it had happened to Jo but they told me she was still
'innocent' as they put it. However she was fully aware that it
could and she has had some dreams to indicate that she may well
have the raven 'gene'. And Cormac? At fourteen, he too was still
too young, apparently.

“
But
we're practically the same age,” I stuttered.

“
With
you, dear, it just seems to be happening sooner rather than later,”
said Rose.

“
After
all, you have already demonstrated an intelligence beyond your
years, according to the high school that is,” smiled
Gabriel.

“
Does
the rest of the family know about all of this?” I asked. The answer
was yes, it was our family secret that had to remain a secret in
order to protect us all.

“
To
protect us from what... or who?”

It was
then that I found out about the predators and other
creatures.

“
In
the past, the werecats and the ravens were enemies, but over the
years they have formed a strong bond – mainly due to the friendship
between Rose and me. However, elsewhere in the world they continued
to hold a strong dislike for one another.” said Gabriel.

This
sounded quite natural to me.

“
So
what does this make me,” I thought aloud, “if I have the genes of
both within me?” I asked as I struggled to understand what this
could mean.

“
Honestly, we don't know. You appear to be the first of your
kind Lilly. Well... the second after Neleh but we don't believe she
ever changed,” said Gabriel.

Sitting
down, I took a deep breath before my imagination began to run
riot.

“
So
what other predators do we have?”

It
turned out that werewolves were not particularly fond of ravens or
cats. Generally speaking though, we didn't have a problem with the
vampires as they tended to lust after pure human blood. There have
been times far in the past when we were the victims of the blood
suckers, as Wyatt described them, but they were not too fond of the
way we tasted, apparently. Well, that was a positive, I
supposed.

I
laughed aloud as it sounded so ludicrous. The others laughed with
me momentarily, but it didn't last long. Again there was silence as
I tried to take in all these bizarre stories.

I took a
moment again to think of my father and Vivian and, as if reading my
mind, Meredith crouched down to the tin of photos and rummaged
through them, clearly looking for something in particular. She
found what she was looking for. It was a picture of Serena and me
at the hospital and to one side, was Vivian.

“
This
is the only photograph we have of Vivian, and the only photo we
have of you,” she said as she passed it to me.

Vivian
looked much the same as the last time I'd seen her. The only real
difference was that she had a long deep gash on her cheek. It
looked fresh. I'd never noticed a scar, though.

Up until
a few months ago, the last day I'd seen her, she had kept her hair
the same way – a blunt bob in a deep red colour with never a single
hair out of place. Her piercing blue eyes stood out menacingly,
belying the innocent sweet smile that curled from her lips. It was
the only time I'd ever seen her smile.

It was
the first time that I could see her for what she really was. Pure
evil. If only I'd known before. Perhaps I could have done
something. Perhaps I could have stopped the spell she maintained
over my father.

As if
reading my mind, Meredith spoke up, “There's no point in thinking
about what could have been, Lilly.”

“
How
do you always seem to know what I'm thinking,” I asked,
surprised.

“
Just
one of my special talents,” she said with a wink, before changing
the subject to Vivian again.

“
When
Vivian first met your mother, she was the sweetest person.
Obviously we found out later that it had all been an act. She was
after your father the whole time. She was weaving her way in. And
when Serena died, it was her perfect opportunity to pounce and
that's exactly what she did. She needed to get to know your father
before she could cast her spell. Sadly we weren't quick enough to
prevent it from happening because we had no idea what she really
was.”

“
She
was obviously a very good actress,” added Rose.

“
But
how did you know that she wasn't who she said she was?”

Vivian
had managed to get a job as a nurse at the hospital, whether she
was qualified or not wasn't clear. Not that it mattered... she was
a witch, after all. My family believed that was where she first saw
my father and there that she decided she must have him. She didn't
care that he was madly in love with Serena and that his second
daughter was about to come into the world. All she cared about was
having him for herself.

“
It
was when your father acted like we were strangers, and then Vivian
threatening us – and you – that we started to suspect that there
was something darker going on, so we started to try to find out
more about her. It took us a long time but we managed to find out
that she wasn't just a normal woman,” said Wyatt.

The real
'being' behind the 'perfect' Vivian was a far cry from the
beautifully manicured and perfectly made up woman I had thought I
knew. An evil monster was a better way to describe her. Although
her look said she was an attractive mother in her 30s, the truth
was frightening.

Gabriel
had tracked down a coven of white witches in north-western Canada
who knew exactly who she was.

Vivian
was just one of many aliases she had used over time. And she had
existed in this world for many hundreds of years. In order for her
to continue to be young and beautiful, she needed a man. But not
just any man.

She
needed a man who possessed unusual powers like werewolves,
werecats, ravens, halflings, changelings and so on. Which is why it
was strange that she latched onto my father, apparently, because he
had never shown to possess any such powers. He had never been able
to change into a raven, so why choose him? It was a question
neither Gabriel nor the witches could answer.

Could
she have mistaken him for someone else? Could she have wrongly
thought he had the powers? Could he really have had the powers but
not told anyone? Not even his closest family members? Although
unlikely, it was a possibility.

I tried
to stifle a long yawn but Meredith noticed and said, “It's getting
very late. We should all get some sleep, especially you Lilly. We
know this has been very hard for you to take in – especially all in
one evening. Why don't you go to bed now and we'll continue our
talk in the morning?”

The
thought of my comfortable warm bed was appealing, even though I had
a feeling that my sleep would be particularly fitful that night.
Now that I knew the truth about myself and my family, my
subconscious would undoubtedly go into overdrive.

“
Don't
worry, Lilly, we'll be here for you all night. We'll know if the
dreams start. Try and get some rest,” she added, as if she had read
my mind again.

All four
of my family members gave me long hard hugs before I headed to my
room. I knew they would continue talking well into the
night.

As I
tried to sleep, things started dawning on me about Vivian. Now that
I knew she was truly evil, so much more started making
sense.

I
remembered the many times that she had prevented me from being
alone with my father. Come to think of it, as long as I could
remember, I had never had any time with him at all. Vivian had
always ensured that she was there... always. It had never occurred
to me to be a problem because I honestly thought she was my
mother.

For a
long time I'd thought all mothers treated their children the way
she had treated me. Up until I had met December, I had nothing to
compare it with. Of course now, when I see the way Meredith is with
Cormac and the way Sonya is with Jo, I knew that she was about as
far away from a real mother than anyone could possibly
be.

She had
not once praised me for doing anything right. She had scolded me
for the slightest thing and she would lock me away in that tiny
little room called my bedroom for hours and hours on end. The real
reason I had spent so many years with no friends, the real reason I
never watched any television, the real reason for my lonely
existence was entirely the fault of Vivian. How could I have not
seen it before? I could have rebelled. Why didn't I rebel? I
honestly didn't know. Maybe deep down I knew there was something
evil about her. Perhaps deep down I knew that either me, or my
father, would end up getting hurt or worse.

There
was something niggling me as I forced my eyes closed and I couldn't
quite put my finger on it. It was something about my father. I knew
there was something hidden in my subconscious that might help me
understand but it just wouldn't come to the surface of my mind. As
I eventually slept, my dreams were more like repressed childhood
memories than real dreams but they were obviously things that I
needed to remember to help me move forward.

I was a little girl, perhaps
six or seven, locked in my bedroom. I heard gentle footsteps
outside the door... someone was
tiptoeing. The handle turned slowly and
the door was pushed open before my father appeared silently as
always. He was acting like he didn't want to be heard and he kept
looking behind him to make sure he was alone. He put his finger to
his mouth to stop me from speaking and then he produced a large
hardback book which he handed to me, again placing a finger on his
lips. I knew he wanted me to keep
it a secret so I hid it immediately. I put
it under the bed until later that night when I knew they would both
be sleeping. When I looked up, he was gone.

I later
remembered that this wasn't just a single memory. This had happened
many times over the years. Each time, he crept in silently and
stealthily, handed me a book and then disappeared. The books were
always similar. They were all either fairy tales or books with
supernatural themes.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When I
woke up the following morning, I knew what it was that had been
niggling me.

My
father had been trying to tell me that I was in the middle of my
very own supernatural fairy tale. He was trying to tell me that he
was trapped, that Vivian was the evil stepmother and that there was
danger. Everything now fell into place. Everything I had been told
by my family the previous night had been true. I had just needed my
father to confirm it and he had in a way by allowing all those
memories to flood back in a dream.