Chapter 2

IRMA rushed to the door when she heard consecutive knocks. She opened it, and her mother came in.

“Look what you’ve done!” her mother Lucinda said through gritted teeth.

“Mother, I’m—” She couldn’t finish her sentence when her mother’s palm landed on her cheek. And as if not contented, she also slapped the other one.

Tears rolled forth Irma’s cheeks afterward. However, she was not crying because of the physical pain her mother’s slaps had given her. Irma was crying, for she knew she had done something against their law and must pay for it.

“We’ve been ex-communicated to the coven!” her mother snarled and poked her on the chest. “And that’s because of your stupid—”

“Loving someone isn’t stupid, Mother!” Irma countered.

“It is!” Lucinda sneered. “If love doesn’t make you stupid, then tell me why you performed necromancy even though you know that the coven forbids its use?!”

She buried her face in her palms and cried.

“I did it because I love Sebastian, and I couldn’t bear to live my life without him….” Irma said in between her sobs. “If you think that’s stupidity, well, I don’t think about it that way!”

“I…” Her mother heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t know where I went wrong. I did my best to raise you well, yet you still turned into someone—”

“I know I’m a huge disappointment. I’m a mess… But believe me, Mother, I may have broken the coven’s law, but this is—”

“Whatever it is that you’ll say, I don’t want to hear it. I had enough, for now, Irma.”

Lucinda sauntered towards the bedroom and pushed the door open. Sebastian was there, sitting by the window.

“You! When will you leave my house?”

“Mother, please….” Irma rushed to him and hugged him. “Sebastian and I are together, and he’ll stay with us from now on—”

“This is my house! I’ll be the one to decide who’ll stay and who’ll leave. And that man should leave—”

“Then the two of us will leave this house!” Irma told her mother bravely.

Her mother eyes widened.

“What did he feed you to be like this, Irma?” Lucinda’s hands clenched. “You know that leaving this house means leaving our coven.”

“I-I k-know…” she said with a shaky voice. “B-but I can’t lose Sebastian now, Mother.” Irma cried.

“Love isn’t all about being together—”

“But I need him! Our child needs him!” Irma snapped.

“W-what did you say?” Her mother’s eyes grew even wider.

“I am with child, Mother.” She hugged Sebastian even tighter.

“T-this can’t be true, Irma….”

“But it is.”

“How could that be when you’re barren?” Lucinda shook her head hard. “What have you done?”

Irma immediately attended to her mother upon seeing her falling on the floor.

“Mother, are you all right?”

Lucinda grasped her arms tightly and looked straight into her eyes.

“Aside from necromancy, what other forbidden things did you do, Irma…?” Her mother’s words trailed off. “Tell me…”

She looked at Sebastian and turned to her mother again. “The moon goddess blessed us, Mother.”

“W-what?” Lucinda’s forehead creased.

“She blessed us with a miracle, Mother.” Irma cupped her mother’s hand. “I prayed and prayed, and now she heard my plea.”

But the look on her mother’s face says that she was not happy about the news. Instead, she saw worry and fear in her eyes.

“What if you’re mistaken, Irma? What if this is not a miracle but chaos?”

“Mother…”

“No,” Sebastian chimed in. At last, he decided to talk. “I… saw a vision.”

Sebastian was a pure-blooded werewolf and had a gift to see what would happen in the future through his dreams.

“What vision?” Lucinda stood up and immediately approached her daughter’s lover.

“A vision that the prophecy is about to happen soon,” Sebastian said confidently. “The moon goddess will walk the earth in the form of a human and kill all the vampires in the land. The prophecy said that a barren witch will carry her in her womb—”

“Is that why you approached my daughter?” her mother said through gritted teeth and turned to her.

“No. I love her… and I didn’t know she was barren until she told me about it. I also don’t have any idea that the moon goddess will choose Irma and me. I saw the vision after we had confirmed that she was with child,” Sebastian explained.

Her mother clenched her hands as she looked at her and Sebastian back and forth. It seemed that she was not pleased with what she heard. Maybe her mother does not believe in the prophecy.

“May this be a prophecy or a lie to make me believe you can’t change my mind. You, Sebastian, will leave my house. Take Irma if you want.” Her mother stormed out of the room and shut the door.

Irma burst into tears and buried her face in Sebastian’s chest. He immediately hugged her and gently caressed her back.

“Why is she like that?” she said in between her tears.

She thought her mother would be delighted to hear such news. But then…

For a long time, she’d been praying for someone to love her, for someone she could share her life with. Sebastian came into her life. And because she loves him so much, she wanted to make him happy, to give him a family they could call their own. Though Irma knew she could not bear offspring, she did not lose hope. She prayed and prayed, day and night. She never stopped offering the moon goddess everything she had to offer. Now, the goddess answered her prayers with a miracle. That thing should be celebrated, but her mother saw it in a different light.

“Maybe your mother was just surprised by the news. Let’s wait until everything sinks into her.” He planted a kiss on her temple and pulled away. Sebastian cupped her cheeks. “This is our miracle, my love. And no matter what happens, we will celebrate her life….”

Irma nodded her head and kissed him on the lips.

“WHY is the moon like that, Mother?” Luna asked as she looked up into the sky.

A smile curved on Irma’s lips as she watched her child staring at the moon with so much fascination in her eyes.

“Did something eat the other half of the moon, Mother?” Her daughter stood up and cupped her cheeks. “We should search for it and give it back to the moon goddess. She must be crying right now!”

“Oh, dear.” She caught her daughter’s hands and brought them to her lips. Irma kissed her knuckles one by one, then her cheeks, and lastly, the tip of her daughter’s nose. “It’s not missing. It’s the phase of the moon, dear.”

Luna looked up again. “Phase?”

“Hm. Just like you. You’re a kid now, and then after years, you’ll turn into the woman that you’re destined to be.”

Irma gave birth to a girl under a blood moon, strengthening Sebastian’s claim that their daughter Luna was indeed the child in the prophecy. But Sebastian was hesitant to tell his pack. He was afraid that they would take their daughter away if the alpha learned about it. So, they decided to live in secret deep in the woods. Most of the time, it was just her and Luna in their home, for Sebastian had duties in his pack. And he was always busy because he was a beta.

“Mother, what is that?” Luna asked and pointed far away.

Her forehead creased. “What, dear?”

“That!” Her daughter was not taking her eyes away in the direction she was pointing to.

Irma stood up and carried Luna.

“Let’s head back home.”

She ran as fast as she could. Irma deposited her daughter on the bed and secured the house. She cast a spell that will make the house disappear to the naked eye, though other entities might still see it. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Mother…” Luna went out of the bedroom and rushed to her. She tugged the hem of her dress.

“W-what is it?” She crouched and tucked the loose strands of her daughter’s hair behind her ear. “Are you afraid?”

Irma did her best not to show her daughter that she was afraid as well. Sebastian was not home, and even if she summoned him, it would take time before he could come home to them. He traveled to a faraway island with their alpha to settle an important issue with another pack of werewolves living there. It seemed that some of the young werewolves had caused trouble.

“What are those?” Her daughter asked and turned in the direction of the window.

Irma’s body froze when she saw a pair of red eyes outside their house. She could not be wrong; those red eyes belonged to a vampire.

Vampire!

Irma cast a protection spell.

“Sebastian…” She breathed out slowly. “Sebastian… Do you hear me?”

But there was no response from him.

Irma picked up her daughter and snatched the cloak from the rack. There was only one way to save their lives; she must run.