" Thanks for the ride", I said as I hurled Hansel out of the car, tightly gripped. " No problem", he said, looking around the area like a surveyor, " but where are you gonna go from here, like, there's no house here?" I was hoping he wouldn't ask such a question, but knowing fully well how unpredictable mundanes could be, I prepared a lie. " Well, tomorrow's his birthday so I decided with a few friends to hold a camp party. He was a scout and really loved camping, so we decided to remind him of old days", I dished out the lie, fresh from the oven. " Oh, that makes a lot of sense. No problem, enjoy yourselves, and happy birthday to him". " Thank you", I said as he drove off, his backlight disappearing into the distance with a slow blur. I turned around, facing the familiar woods that I had always maneuver whenever it was time to meet Diego. The familiar crocking sounds of toads and night creatures were very much audible, and the moon was absent in the sky, giving the fores
Patricia's POV " They called for what?" Valkyrie asked, his mouth wide open, his eyes almost tearing up in shock. No one spoke. No one could actually. If the witches had called for an Assembly, it only meant one thing - they have become aware of Diego and his abnormal mate. " Who summoned the coven?" he asked no one in particular, placing his two hands on his head as if the head was about to fall off. " Who the hell called the coven?" he banged his fist on the table in fury, as if it was the poor table that had summoned the coven. It was that witch girl, Ariel or whatever it is they called her. I was so certain about that. " Take him out", the Maester said as Diego was still mopping at everyone in surprise. I escorted him outside to the guard who was to take him to his captive chambers. " Patricia?" he called as I was about to leave. " What is it?" I turned to face him, anger building up in me just with the sight of him. He just kept quiet, as if he wanted to
Dad stood in the middle of the cave, a fire torch in his hand, illuminating the pitch black space with yellow light. I was trembling, almost crying and almost freezing to death. Mom was tied to the side, her hands wounded behind her and tied to her feet, her mouth gagged as she continued crying, pleading consistently. She was saying " please, don't make her do this, please don't" but everything sounded like grunts, how I was able to get what she was saying was all intuition. Dad wasn't listening to her, I bet he wasn't even hearing her. His ears were clogged with rage and fury and his eyes were hot blood red as he stared at me in disdain. " Patricia", he calmly called, his voice more cold than ice, sending shivers to my already shivering body. " Yes dad", I answered still crying my eyes out, hoping that he would retrieve his order, that he would tell me that it was all a joke, that everything was a prank he and mom had planned. But it wasn't, I knew my dad too well to know t
Malia's POV Everything was snowy and cold, and the sun hid its face from the earth, just helping with its rays to provide the earth with illumination. I was running, and someone held me by the hand as we ran together. For some reason, I felt I was shorter than I actually was, but that didn't matter at that moment because our lives were in danger. That is why we're running, right? I looked up to behold the woman who was running with me, and Lo and behold, it was my mother. There was a hint of excitement in me, I felt happy that I was with her. I wanted to stop running, but I couldn't. I wanted to call out to her, to tell her how much I've missed her, but I couldn't. We just kept running, as if controlled by a supernatural force. She barged a large antique door open and led me inside, closing the he door behind her. I found the interior of the building strangely familiar - the long chairs set side by side, constituting of four in a row, the colored windows with depictions of
I couldn't tell why it felt as if I did something bad. I know I actually did something bad; my feelings for Diego will undeniably be seen as bad, but I couldn't tell why it felt as if they had found out about it because only when they find out about it will I agree to being a bad girl. As long as they don't know anything about Diego, I was damn innocent of any charges against me. " Malia, I will not ask that question a second time, where have you been?" alpha Jace asked again, his voice becoming more suppressive. For the fact that he didn't even take my nudity into consideration, it meant that he meant business, and I was well aware of it. " Alpha, I was kidnapped", I tried to sound sympathetic, to at least appear as a victim of torture, but that didn't seem to break my interrogators down. " By who?" Mr Pakistan asked, his voice cool and straightforward, suspicious even, " who kidnapped you and why would they kidnap you?" " It was the vampires. They were using me for some s
Ariel's POV Ever since I could remember, I have always wanted to be as powerful as my mother, and if providence permitted, more powerful than she was. And the first step to achieving that was just to solve one of the witches mysteries and get promoted to a senior witch; the position came with a broom for flying and the Ingrid spell book. The witches' mysteries were definitely far from being easy. These mysteries consisted of things that were yet to be known, solving unexplainable puzzles and explaining certain causes of some events such as finding out what was at the depth of the Bermuda triangle, or determining the cause of the blood rain, or giving a specific time frame or a cause of the blood moon, or finding out the durations of total solar eclipse. Some mysteries were obviously impossible to solve, while others were relatively possible, such as finding out what happened to the Winston sisters, how Latina, the first president of the witches' society, was killed, or findi
I was shocked. Not particularly shocked, in fact, I was torn in-between feeling shocked and feeling happy that the message was successfully sent. " Good morning Madison", I greeted back as two other witches joined us on the other platforms - they were both witches from America. " We got the message the werewolf sent to us, requesting for the gathering of the Assembly, but we decided to meet with you to discuss other important details before the Assembly", she said, her aura was persistently giving out dominance and feminine grace. " Okay", I nodded, completely forgetting that I had made myself breakfast. " First of all, we have sent a letter for the call of the Assembly to both the girl's pack and the boy's pride, and the gathering is to take place tonight". " Tonight? Isn't that too sudden and on such short notice?" I asked, feeling that the people in question may not be able to turn up as much as we would want them to. " In a way it is, but after discussing the gr
Malia's POV The truck came to a halt, and I was bundled out of it with my mouth gagged. We stood in front of what seemed like an ancient palace, with sculptures of already extinct animals. A long span of staircase led to the building, and the floor was completely covered with marble. The ceiling wasn't constructed like the normal ceiling with an aluminum sheet, it was covered with an enclosed glass panel that made it seem like those dishes that were served at top restaurants and were covered with elongated steel covers that always made the dish itself look like a buffet. The others came down from the truck, together with those in the first truck, and we all started climbing the stairs. We came to the door, a massive one that led into the building, with the ancient aesthetic pillars that went round the building. The building obviously contained just a single floor, but it was way higher up into the sky than a building with fifteen floors. We turned around to the sound of cars
" I didn't", she retorted, her lips twitching towards the left side of her face like she was itching, " I did", she heaved, " it's actually complicated". " I don't think it is. Did you or did you not know? it's practically a yes or no question", I said, feigning annoyance. " Okay. I knew. I knew that my pack was trying to assassinate you and your father and I tried to inform you, but that was when I was captured and taken to that medical facility that treated me like a lab rat", she said, getting all teary, and I didn't even know when I mellowed down, taking her into my embrace in a tight hug. I knew she wouldn't have stayed still and watched her pack try to harm me, and I knew that she knew that I would do the same for her. " They even treated Hansel worse than me, even though he did nothing wrong, he was only trying to find me, and they captured him and almost killed him", she said, sobbing slowly and holding herself lest she releases an outburst. " I'm sorry, I'm sorry",
Grafting. The concept of grafting has always seemed far fetched for me. That particular notion of joining parts of two or more plants to make them appear as one, has always seemed theoretical to me, never. practical, not until while pursuing for a parasitology degree in Howard. We were all divided into different groups of three people each, and every group was given two fruits to graft and bring to class in the next month. My group was given an apple and a guava, and at first I thought about giving up on that particular assignment because it seemed practically impossible. Apple and guava are two different fruit species that belong to distinct botanical families and have different growth habits and environmental requirements, and as such, it is not possible to graft or grow them together on the same tree. So I thought that it would be more suitable to not even begin a task that I certainly wouldn't be able to finish. But the only girl in our group; I think her name was Halle o
Diego's POV Some people say that love is blind, and I'm quite sure that I can agree with them. Love really is blind. I had pleaded with Malia to leave before I would hurt her just like I had done in my dream, or vision, or whatever it is that was. But she was a blockhead. The type that would do just exactly that which you tell her not to do. I had thought that it was only kids that were that stubborn, but Malia was proof that the petty stubbornness can also be found in adults. After I had uncontrollably bit and sucked her blood, I came back to my normal self only when I had sucked enough and she fainted to the floor, probably because she had lost too much blood. I picked her up, almost crying, trying so hard not to think of the possibility of her dying, praying for that intention, and luckily, she began to heal. There was no doubt that the Moon Goddess was on our side. " How are you?" she asked as she opened her eyes so well, probably still healing. " That isn't what m
I must've had an ear problem. Yeah, that must have been the case. Or rather he didn't literally mean what he was saying, like he was using an idiom. That must be it. Those damn idiomatic expressions can be as misleading as hell, imagine someone walking up to you and telling you that they saw a white elephant, only for you to later figure out that there wasn't an actual white elephant, just that the person had witnessed something unimaginable. Yeah, it was always unnerving, just like when you find out for the first time that Santa Claus doesn't actually exist, it's just mom that has been placing those gifts under the tree all those years. I even knew a girl that cried for several days when she found out that the tooth fairy doesn't really exist, the poor fellow would've probably been a grandmother by then, or would have even met her demise. " Excuse me sir, you mean that she had a vampire turn you into one, right?" I asked, just to be clear. " No. She turned me into one by hers
" What? You do what?" I asked him, my eyes widened in surprise. " I said I know who you are. Now come on in or if what you want to say is very brief, you can say it here right now", he said, keeping me on my toes with his husky voice. " Okay", I said. He proceeded to go into the house while I followed after him. His footsteps were tired, as if he was finding it hard to carry his own weight. He led me into the sitting room; a fairly spacious one with cloth covered sofas, all giving off the aura of a warm home. " Have a sit", he said, pointing at the sofa right opposite the television. The sofas were four in total; a three in one, a two in one, and two singles, all set to fill up the space allocated to the sitting room. He sat on the one next to the television, with a sofa dividing us both, giving a considerable amount of distance. " So, what do I owe this August visit?" he asked, relaxing carefully on the sofa, preparing himself to listen to any rubbish that I had to spill
Ariel's POV I immediately got zapped up into the familiar tunnel unconsciously, but instead of traveling down the tunnel, I started swirling around like that was inside a tornado. Drops of water appeared out of thin air, forming little screens that were showing different things, but all were of Calipsu, as if I was watching short videos of her with different screens, all passing by and rummaging with the storm inside the tunnel, giving little time for me to make out sense of what any of them were showing. The wind was picking up, blowing my hair into my face and my clothes almost away from my body. I tried to focus on the screens, but they were too much for me to focus on anyone. One screen was depicting Calipsu at another date with Diego's father, another was the familiar picnic scene, another was of both of them in bed, making love, another showed where she was casting a spell on a sleeping Diego's father, lying in the center of a witch's circle, but the one that grabbed my
Death. It has always been a mystery, a journey whose end no one knows. No one has ever trailed down that road and returned, and so there was no answer to any questions one might have regarding the phenomenon. But one thing was certain; that everyone, every living creature must die. For humans, their time was shorter. They mostly died at seventy, eighty, ninety, hundred, or sometimes a hundred and a few more years, but it never exceeded a hundred and fifty. For werewolves it was a bit longer - three hundred, three hundred and fifty, four hundred, and so on, but they normally did not exceed five hundred. Witches normally exceed five hundred, even reaching up to seven hundred if they do take proper care of themselves, while vampires were topping the list, being able to live for a thousand years, but normally not exceeding a thousand and two hundred. It was also believed that one goes on to another part of the world after death. The Abrahamic religions - the Christians, Muslims, and
Patricia's POV I drove off immediately as soon as we locked up Diego in the room. I couldn't tell why dad would choose to have him locked up in that house, of all the places that he could possibly be locked up in. The house held memories that I wasn't so fond of, memories that I had buried deep inside me, sent straight to the back of my mind, and seeing the house again almost got me overwhelmed with the emotions that I had tried so hard to bury over all these years. But yet again that was predictable of my father. It was literally in his nature to torture me, to bruise me, both physically and mentally, all for the goal of making me stronger and wiser, and it was working. The fact that I walked into that house and came out without having cried myself to stupor was evidence of my father's toughening syndrome being active in me. I drove off immediately before the wall I had put up would crash to pieces, dropping the two guards at the Maester's quarters and leaving immediately t
" No, please, stop", Diego said, likely talking to himself as he struggled to let go of my neck. Trembling, he got his hands off, tears running down his cheeks as he tried to control himself. His head moved with the intention of burying his teeth into my neck, but instead he bit into his arm, shouting in-between as he kept biting his arm. I was too astounded to even move and I just laid there, watching him try to tame the monster in him. " Tie me up now!" he said as he continued biting, somewhat making it hard to discern what he was saying but thankfully, I was quick-witted and realized what his grumbling meant. I pushed him off my body, slamming him into the wall as the urge in him tried to have him attack me, but instead he bit deeper into his arm as the dripping blood increased. I quickly got the bed sheet and immediately tackled him to the floor, tying the sheet behind his back and letting him gawk for some time. I got off him and moved to the other side of the room, trying