The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat. (19 page)

I lay there for a while
, praying to the Goddess of the moon. Thanking her for bringing Jaxx back to me. Begging her not to let him be taken from me again, asking her to protect my family. Odd as they may be, they are mine. Lastly, I ask her to forgive me for almost giving up. Giving up on those that love me, on those that need me, on Jaxx, and on myself.

I
see a shaft of moonlight spring through the closed curtains and illuminate Jaxx’s face. He is truly blessed by her. One day I might be also. I can only hope.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

I need to do
something
. Maybe offer something to her alter for the blessing of our union. Jaxx is a child of the moon. His gifts derive from her. I need her blessing. We both do. I will have to ask Jaxx about it in the morning. Right now he needs his rest.  I turn onto my side so that I am facing him. I fall asleep like this, looking at his face relaxed with sleep. I am content for the first time in forever.

Jaxx
is gone when I wake in the morning. I roll over, fingers searching for his warmth and I find nothing but cold sheets. I pop up in bed in a panic.

“Gavin
,” I yell, thinking that it was all a cruel dream, and that I am still without him.

Gavin and Jaxx co
me running into the room, both of them fully alert and looking for danger. What they find is me with tears streaming down my face.

“I thought it was
all a cruel trick. That you were still gone,” I sob.

Jaxx rush
es to the bed and pulls me into his arms.

“Baby
, I’m here. Please, pretty eyes, don’t cry. Look at me. Feel our connection. Look into my eyes.”

I do as he asks
, searching within them. He is here, and now I feel like a child being coddled after a nightmare. I sigh and wipe the tears from my face.

“I’m sorry. I woke and you were gone. I freaked a bit. I’m okay now.” I make to get off of his lap, but he just pulls me tighter to him.

“Don’t you think that I might need reassurance that you are
still here, too? I didn’t want to wake you this morning. From what your brother has told me you need the rest, but we are together now,” he bends and whispers into my ear.

I glance
at the door for Gavin, but he has snuck out of the room once again, leaving us alone. I love that boy.

Jaxx starts
to kiss me. He trails his fingers down the side of my face. We snuggle for what seems like no time at all before Jaxx’s mind snaps back to the here and now, to the dangers that are still lurking.

“We need to start your training today. Not just with your gifts either. We need to start with hand to hand training also
,” he confirms.

I look at him
, puzzled.

“Self-defense training? Why
do you think I’m going to need that?”

“If I ca
n be taken and held at my age, then they can get to you also. We need to cover all of our bases.”

I look
at his serious expression and I think about all that has happened and all that he is saying to me. I need to be protected from all sides, but the main point is that I need to be able to protect myself. I don’t want to rely on everyone around me to coddle me.

“I want to
try something,” I tell him. “I don’t know if it will work, but I want to try it.”

He looks
at me quizzically. “Anything you want, sweets.” He smiles and flops onto his back beside me.

I climb onto his lap and straddle his thighs.
He grins and I laugh.

“No, that’s not what I want to try, you perv,” I tell him when he makes a grab for my waist. I laugh once again at his crest-fallen expression. I put my hands on each side of his face, my fingertips barely touching his temples. I close my eyes and concentrate. I try to reach him with my mind, to feel the wall that protects Jaxx, blocking others, including me, from trespassing on his mind. I search the walls and find a tiny crack-like opening and push my way through. As I skim his mind and current thoughts I feel him stiffen underneath me.

He jerks
back like he wants to break my connection with him.

“No,” I demand
. “Wait. You will understand in a moment.”

He takes a deep breath and calms himself.

I try to find an anchor point, a place to tether my mind to his. I skim his subconscious some more and find a glowing ember burning bright in my mind’s eye. It is his feelings for me. They wash over me like a tidal wave, all consuming, this man holding me in his arms. Trusting me in the most intimate ways, trusting me beyond reason or doubt. I anchor our connection in the recesses of his truest feelings for me. It will never be broken there. The strength of it will protect it always. I slip quietly and quickly out of his mind, being mindful not to take any of his thoughts or memories with me.

I open my eyes and look into the midnig
ht blue of a stormy night. I can tell Jaxx doesn’t really know how to take what I have just done.

“I connected us. Not on a level that we can read each other’s minds
, but we can talk through the connection if we want,” I explain to him, hoping he isn’t angry with me.

Jaxx let
s out a deep sigh.

“I wish you would have warned me of what you were trying to
do. It didn’t hurt, little raven, but having someone inside my head without me expecting it, was strange in the least.”

“
I’m sorry, sweets. I didn’t know if it would work, but this way we can always know where the other is. And talk to each other privately if we need to.”

Jaxx crack
s a smile, finally, seeming to understand my actions.

“You are brilliant. You
do know that, don’t you,” he chuckles.

“You are also very gifted. Most True Witches only have one or two gifts at the most. We just don’t know what to expect from you. T
hey just keep coming.” He smiles widely at me.

I bl
ow a raspberry at him and roll out of bed. I need a shower to wash off the funk of the last couple of days. I feel like I have been ridden hard and put away sopping fucking wet.
YUM!

“I talked to Seb
astian while you were still sleeping,” Jaxx calls out behind me.

I look over my shoulder on my way to the bathroom.

“Is that right? How is my best friend doing? And when is he going to come and start training me?”

“He said that he took Jessa to a safe haven for his kind. She
is being taught to control her thirst and new body.”

“What
do you mean? He’s leaving her with strangers?”

Oh hell no!

“There is little choice, little raven
. She isn’t taking to him as she should. She is being incredibly stubborn. This is for the best. When she comes into her own in this new life she has been brought into, then she and Sebastian will bond as they should. He loves her very much, you know?”

I look at him speculatively. “Does he?”

“Yes, he does...”

He smile
s that slow, easy smile of his, the one that he only ever seems to show me.

It
is
my
smile,
I think.

I walk over and kneel where he is sitting on the edge of the bed.

“We need to talk about everything that happened to you. I know it hurts you to think about it
, but I don’t want there to be secrets between us.”

“
Can you give me time?” He looks like he is getting ready to retch. “I’m just not ready to let any of it out, or to pull anyone into that nightmare, especially you.”

“Of course I can. All the time you need. I just want to be here for you. You can talk to me about anything. I won’t ever
judge you. I hope that you know that.” I smile at him and wrap my arms around his waist. I place kisses up his chest and snuggle my face between his neck and shoulder.

“And I you, little raven
. And I you.”

I g
et back to my feet and smile at Jaxx, trying to lighten the mood.

“Now I really need to shower. My legs are turning into pine cones.”

Jaxx laughs and smacks my ass as I turn to go. I walk into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I flip the lock and slide down the door. Once I hit the cold tile floor I shudder. What could they have done to him that he won’t tell me about? I really don’t want to think about anyone hurting him. It puts me into a rage anytime I think about him being harmed. I feel the black void in myself start to swirl and whip. I have to push my anger back or Jaxx will know just how pissed and upset I am. He doesn’t need to worry about me. He needs time to heal the wounds that are hidden from the world, hidden from all eyes, but his.

I ha
ve to learn to control my gifts. I need to learn my craft and not be dependent on him anymore. I want to be his equal, not someone that quells behind his back in fear of what might come knocking.

I start the water in the shower and let it warm. I step
under the spray when it starts to steam, washing away the funk of the last couple of days. I am determined not to be a drain on him any longer. I will stand at his side or not at all. It is decided.

Chapter 15.

When I rejoin the others in the living room, I notice that Seb has arrived. I make a running leap for him. I had missed the man, the soon-to-be love of my best friend’s life. He’d saved her. He’d found something that was wrong after her accident when all of the doctors had missed it.

“Seb
, you’re here!” I practically attach myself to him like a pretzel.

“Nice to
see you too, little niece,” Seb replies, gently detangling my limbs from his body.

“How
is Jessa really doing? Don’t lie to me.” I shoot him an evil look when he starts to gloss over the truth. I don’t know if my gifts were growing, but I get the distinct feeling that he is going to sugar coat the truth for me.

“She
is doing as well as can be expected,” he skims.

Ugh
, so fucking annoying.

“We will talk later. You will give me a straight fucking answer
or I will boil your bone marrow,” I tell him, smiling sweetly and turning to my brother and Jaxx who are dragging in three oversized trunks. They plunk them down with little finesse right in the entryway.

“What’s with all of the loot,” I ask anyone in general.

“In these trunks are your learning tools. It
is time for you to own your gifts,” Seb tells me as he walks over to the trunks and flips the lid on each of the three.

In the first trunk I
see nothing but old HUGE dusty books. Same with the second, but the third holds lots of shiny things. Shiny
deadly
things. I practically wiggle in my excitement.

“Don’t get any ideas
, Ella. You don’t get to play with the weapons until you learn more about your people and the world you now live in,” Seb insists in a patronizing tone.

ASS!

Jaxx walks by Seb and whacks him hard on the back. I guess that is a manly hello or something. I prefer the pretzel. Jaxx pulls Seb off to the sitting room and they start to talk in hushed tones, probably catching each other up on recent events. What a fucked conversation that is going to be.

I wish I had super hearing. I bet they are talking about how fragile I
am right then, since I am still recovering from nearly dying. Maybe they are discussing what my father’s clan put Jaxx through while he was absent. If he can’t talk to me about what happened, maybe he can confide in Seb. It isn’t healthy to keep all of that darkness bottled up. One day he will explode from the pressure of it and everyone around him will be collateral damage. I will not be looking forward to that day.

Gavin
walks over to me and throws his arm around my shoulders, steering me out of hearing distance of Seb and Jaxx and what they obviously don’t want me to hear.

I shrug off his arm and move over to the first of the trunks to i
nspect the books inside. They are all thick and dusty. I pick one up and almost drop it right where I stand. It starts to glow when my fingers touch the old fragile leather binding. I look over at Gavin and see his eyes widen as he stares at the book.

What the fuck?

“Umm,
Seb? Why is this book glowing,” I yell so that he could hear me in the other room.

Seb comes
running into the room only to stop at the sight of me holding a large black leather book. The leather is splitting and curling in places. Gold etching runs up the spine and around the words that are stamped into the surface in a language that I can’t read.

“Put the book down
slowly, Ella. No! Don’t drop it,” he shouts at me when I almost fling it away from me.

“Just gently s
et it down. That is a very old book. I don’t even know how it found its way into my possession.”

“What
do you mean you don’t know how IT found its way into your shit?” I look at him like he’s been sipping bad Kool-Aid.

“Books don’t travel on their own.”

“This one does. It is the book of Hekate. Her personal scribe wrote it with his own blood. It goes where it wants and picks who or what it belongs to.” Seb is looking at the old tome like he is seriously scared of it.

“Who or what
is Hekate. I’m sorry that I seem so ignorant, but, yeah, I am.” I roll my eyes. Yes, I know I am being a brat, but I am so tired of being slow on the upkeep.

Seb purses his lips and stares
down his nose at me like I am a naughty child.

I smirk at him in return.

“Hekate is a Goddess,” he tells me slowly like I am…well…slow. “The most powerful of all Goddesses. She is a triple. Goddess of the Moon, the Earth, and the Underworld. She is the one that has gifted your race with their birthright. The gifts bestowed on you come directly from her. Jaxx’s ability to mist, for instance, is stronger in the presence of moonlight, if you think about it. When everything comes full circle it always begins and ends with our Mother Goddess.”

I look around the room to
see if I am the only one breaking out in goose bumps at the mention of the Mother Goddess. Obviously not. Everyone is at rapt attention for this little lesson.

“Thank you for explaining that to me
, but why is her book here and what do we do with it?” I ask Seb, hoping he has the answer for this also.

“No
we
, my dear.
You
. It has chosen you. It glowed and revealed its power at your touch.”

“What does that even mean?” I ask Seb.

He must be going cray, cray,
I think. I have no idea what to do with that book. I don’t even want it, it seriously creeps me the hell out.

“It means that it belongs to you and only you. It
is another talisman to help guide and guard you in this life.” Seb shakes his head as if in confusion. “The last time the Book of Blood chose someone to belong to, they were a Celios.” At my questioning glare, Seb explains. “A Celios is either a demigod, someone born of a God or Goddess, or someone that was blessed at birth by our Mother Goddess.”

I breathe in deep through my nose and
try to fathom why such a powerful relic would choose me, of all people, to belong to. I am new to this life. I am so far behind everyone else that I might as well be crawling around and shitting in my nappy. I walk over to the trunk and gingerly picked up the Book of Blood and hold it in my hands once more. It starts to glow even brighter than the first time that I touched it.

Everyone in the room
is staring at me like I am some kind of freak.

“Seb, would you get me something to wrap it in, to keep it safe,” I ask.

He hand
s me a cloth the size of a large towel made of black velvet. He must have yanked it from another one of his many trunks.

I gently wrap the tome and
walk out of the room. I have no idea where I am going to hide it, but I know I have to keep it safe. It is like a voice is in the back of my head guiding me as to where to take the book.

I
walk to my room and start to stomp on the wood floor near the huge bed that I had claimed. I hear a creak as a wooden plank moves slightly out of place. I gently place my wrapped charge on the floor as I reach for the board. I pry it open and discover a fairly big sized cubby under the floor boards. I slip the velvet wrapped book gently inside and close the board back over my new hiding spot. It should be safe there, but just to be sure I want to try to ward the tiny space. If the book is meant for me in this life time, then I shudder to think what will happen if it falls into the wrong hands.

I k
neel above the loose board and close my eyes, concentrating on how I don’t want anyone to be able to sense the book here. How I don’t want anyone to know where it is being kept. How I don’t want anyone to be able to get into the cubby but me or someone that I give my permission to. I feel my palms begin to heat in the centers. I hear that little voice in the back of my mind guiding me as I place the wards. I trace a strange marking with my light onto the floor below with my finger, markings that I can’t understand, but somehow know that they will keep the space safe from prying eyes and hands. Once I am sure that the book is secure I rise and leave my bedroom.

When I ma
ke it back to the front room Seb has a study space set up on the coffee table. Books and notebook paper are spread over the top. Guess class is finally in session.

“Did you find a secure spot to hide away your new treasure
, little raven?” Jaxx pulls me into his arms.

I love
the way he smells and nuzzle into his chest. He is starting to feel like home to me.

“Yes, I think it
is safe in the place I have picked for it.” I look to Seb from the protective shell of Jaxx’s arms.

“Are you about ready to start my lessons, teach?” I snicker at the affronted look on his face. “Kidding!”

“Yes. We are ready for you to learn more of your world. I quizzed Gavin, but he seems to be up to speed on everything that I could have taught him. Later we will test both of your powers to see if there are any exercises he might need to do to strengthen himself. I need to test you to see exactly what you are capable of.”

Yay! That sounds like a fun zone to me
.

I
walk over to the coffee table and Seb hands me a slim book with nothing written on the cover. I turn it over in my hands, trying to figure out for myself exactly what information it could hold.

“That book
is a list. Every type of Supernatural Creature is in there. I think it’s time that you know that there are more than just witches, True Witches, and Vampires in our world.”

I
am actually excited. I have wondered what kinds of others there are besides people like me. I open the cover of the book, wanting to get started as soon as possible, when Jaxx speaks and startles me.

“
I’m going to go and start on some brunch for everyone. You are going to need your energy if Seb is going to cram so much information into that pretty head of yours,” he snickers at me when I blow a raspberry at him.

I
sink into the couch and get comfortable amongst the throw pillows while Gavin and Jaxx file into the kitchen. Seb takes the club chair across from me in a slouching pose. He pulls out a thick volume of Goddess knows what and starts to thumb through it, grunting at me when he notices me staring at him.

The first chapter of the book I
am studying pertains to werewolves. How awesome is that! Werewolves exist. They are creatures controlled by the moon. ‘Hundreds of years ago a man prayed to the Goddess Hekate to grant him the means to make a beautiful maiden in his village fall in love with him. Up until that point she had snubbed his advances.

Hekate granted
the poor farmer his wish, but warned him that if harm befell the maiden by his hands or actions then he would suffer a curse far worse than he could ever imagine. He took her warning with a grain of salt. He was too excited to go and collect his new lady love.

Love him she did for years and years. She bore him many strong sons and was a pleasant wife for the fa
rmer, until he let his jealousy get the best of him. Throughout their marriage many taunted him, telling him that his wife could have done better. That by marrying her he’d pulled her down into the muck with him. He cast his dark thoughts aside until one day a lonely, dirty, and bedraggled drifter passed through the farmer’s lands while he was away at market. His wife took the drifter into their home and bade their sons to bathe the man while she fixed him a meal.

After a hard day of hocking his wares the farmer returns home to find his wife entertaining a
very handsome young man. They were laughing over something and it looked very intimate. A dark rage like nothing the farmer had ever felt rose up within him. He remembered all the taunting and teasing of the towns folk. How he’d pulled down his lovely wife from the life of splendor she could have had to a life in the muck with him.

He reached
into his cart for his hatchet and charged the drifter. He swung the hatchet high above his head and brought it down in a hard stroke. The only warning the drifter had was the slight widening of the farmer’s wife’s eyes. The farmer’s hatchet buried itself deep within the back of the drifter’s head. His life was snuffed out like a weak candle. The farmer lifted his head and saw his lovely wife weeping and screaming. She was covered in blood.
She is not my lovely maiden. This harlot cannot be my wife,
the farmer thought to himself and he charged his wife, screaming
harlot
at the top of his lungs. His sons ran into the room and she shooed them away.
Run
she told them
. Papa is not well.
The boys scattered.