By Isabella Smith BeyondDarkLights
A decade after the death of her parents, Avayruh Havens returns to Utah to find that she has inherited her entire family fortune, including the mysterious estate where the horrific crime was committed. As she slowly uncovers her unusual heritage, she meets Ronan, a man who claims to have information that could alter everything she's ever known. But the borders of her trust for him and everyone around her is quickly shrinking, as not only does she discover the truth about her parents murder, but what spiritual DNA runs through her blood.
But I believe that I am not what I am born, but what I have within myself to be…
Unknown
Vaults of Renderverin 600 BC
~oOo~
Prologue
December, 1864 Wyoming
The shadows that lurked at the border of Havens property were still, and unmoving. The fear and awe that pulsed through her veins tried to convince her, as still as they were, they were statues. More preferably, a figure of her imagination. Her ragged breath escaped her mouth in wisps that flowed through the cold night air. The living trees had done the best they could to hide her tiny figure, but the gently magic could do nothing to block the metallic stench of her blood. It drenched her nightgown, and trickled down her calf, down to the ground below. She winced at the sharp pain that shooter down her leg.
Her prayers couldn't stop the shadows from moving. They had heard her, and now they ran. Looking for her. Had she known the land was plagued with ungodly creatures, she never would have ventured beyond the border walls. Crouching in the oak trees, she grasped the wood as the creatures entered the forest clearing. Their howls filled the forest, more shrill and brilliant than the light of the full moon.
They had found her.
Down below, a creature padded into the clearing snarling and snapping its teeth. Its fur was umber and glowed slightly red in the moonlight. Within seconds, the figure seemed to melt into solid skin. and a man stood below her. An onyx black wolf repeated the actions, and a raven haired woman slid into human form.
The child stifled a gasp. These things were not demons, despite the cries of her old self. No matter how hard her mother had tried, the child had discovered Heaven's secrets herself. These were Lycans. Descendants of the fallen.
"Its here. I know it is…" the man growled. He sauntered around the thicket area. When he stood, he looked to and from every bush, and every tree.
Worry ran through her. She put her hands to the base of the tree, and pulsed a call to the win. The two below turned away, and the muscles on their backs tensed as an unnaturally cold breeze pushed at them. Through the gust of wind, the woman had closed her eyes, and put her hands up. The wind stopped.
She cringed. "It's young." she said, and turned toward the oak.
The man did not move, but he still searched. "Ah, and demented as well?"
Despite the circumstances, the child schooled, and considered risking her life an jumping on the dogs head. That is, if the fall didn't kill her first.
"Its not of Lucifer…" the woman mused, to the man's surprise. His neck whipped toward the north, where they had come from, and back towards the woman.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "Kael said it wasn't human. He's never wrong…" His voice was laced with concern.
Wasn't human? That would mean they couldn't be tracking her. And if its scent had brought them here…
The child paid attention to her surroundings now. Demon or not, it wouldn't care if she was human and helpless. Whatever the Lycans were looking for, it must be very aware of her.
If only her mother had told her sooner. The truth about the things that roamed this earth. She bit her lip, trapping in a sob.
The she-wolf opened her eyes. "The one whom we search for is here no more. I can feel nothing but the wisps of Fate, now." she said.
The girl held in a whimper of relief. If they couldn't smell the blood, she prayed they could smell the tears. The male turned to glare at the woman. "Tell me, Bathsheba… Are you now making a habit of hallucinating?"
"Is being a prick a family trait, Victor?" she asked, a snarl escaping her lips.
The two began to shift, once more howls sounded through the forest opening. The wind picked up again, and another wolf padded into the clearing with a bowed head, and spoke a rumbling noise. "The Seeker has sent word. Do not harm the intruder, and immediately report back to Beta Hector."
The male began north, but the female lingered. Both wolves motioned her to follow with a tilt of their heads, but she turned south. "I need to speak with the Seeker. I'll report upon my return." she said.
Both seemed to submit, and the males ran off, jumping over boulders until they were beyond the treelike, fading into the northern forbidden land. The child's attention was drawn back to the female below, who had again shifted to a human. She stared in confusion at the small smile on the woman face. But her heart sped as the woman looked up into the towering oak, directly at her.
~oOo~
Chapter 1
May faith be the anchor of my fate. May my hope be sure and steadfast. May heavenly spirits which enter in the dark night, to thou I will not bow. Before me lay a choice of life and death. Oh, I would beg they bring thy everlasting peace. O Elyon, Most High, I cry… How I hate my doubt… How I dread the painful discord that awaits me on judgment day. What have I done?
E. Havens 1899
~oOo~
2015
~oOo~
2015
It's funny, really. How some memories can be so vivid, she thought. She could still remember that day. It was spring, a time of beauty. And she remembered the smell of rain that followed. The day she left that place. She was eight years old. And she wasn't sad. She almost couldn't contain the joy that filled her, to be dragged away to Arizona. She had a new life. She had gotten a job. She had finished college when she was seventeen. She owned a house in Flagstaff. She was... happy. Until three months ago when she got the news that she had inherited the entire Havens fortune. And received a contract that she had apparently signed when she was thirteen, saying that she was perfectly content with the decision. Of course.
She had spent a good twenty four hours screaming and throwing any ceramic object her eyes laid on. And another three hours convincing herself that this was not, in fact, a god-sent blessing. So, being the stubborn woman she was, she refused to acknowledge the money, and much less, the property in Wyoming in her name. Until she received a call from the authorities of Utah, saying her long lost Aunt Mareena Havens had been living on her property, for several years, unsupervised. After somehow signing herself out of Varindales Special Care for the Mentally Disturbed Hospital.
Now THAT... did not sit well with Miss Avayruh Havens.
So she packed. Locked her house. Shut down her shop. The fact that she could have flown, expressed her dread for returning. And then she passed the outskirts of Lucrosif, Utah.
"Living there... as in, she had a key without your permission?" a woman voice sounded on the bluetooth.
"No," she dragged. "As in she escaped the loony jail, broke into Havens property, and has been squatting in my house for the past five years." Her voice was laced with frustration. She had been driving for three days, and hadn't been able to sleep a week before the drive. She was tired. And hungry. And her friend was angry.
"Why am I finding out about this just now?" she demanded. "You didn't have to leave. Why couldn't you have just called the property manager?" She almost sounded lonely.
Ava laughed. "I am the property manager! No one who was ever associated with Havens property except me and that crazy woman is still alive," she explained slowly, as if she were talking to a child.
"Why?" Kyla asked.
She blinked, and Ava looked at the blue chip, considering throwing it out the window. Looking at the green forest she passed in a blur, she sighed. Ava could hear her friend scowling through the phone line.
"Why?" the car vibrated. "I mean, why now? After ten years, why do you all the sudden give a damn? Why, after ignoring the money and land so long? Because I know your not in it for that. You are a strong, driven, mean, ticked off woman. Why?"
Oh, I don't know, Kyla, she thought. Maybe because there's most likely a possessed woman crawling around my family's one thousand year old estate.
Biting her lip, she gave up. "It's exactly what you said, Kyla... It's been more than a decade. I could care less about the money or the property. I'm doing this because I'm interested in mending the thin thread I still have connected to my family members. The only family member, to be exact." She explained. "Even if she is a little loopy in the head, I could always kick her out, or take her to Friendship Villas AL if she gets out of hand."
She waited for an answer.
"Aw. How heartfelt."
"Shut up."
Kyla giggled through the phone line. This was their relationship. They were closer than most sisters were. Kyla had been Ava's friend every since she left Lucrosif, eleven years ago. The day they met, Kyla had gotten on her nerves, asking why she was so shadowed. She had also screamed at the few who dared to laugh at Ava. And as she cried in the bathroom stall, she had kicked open the door, and asked "Is it because of you're parents?"
The connection clicked, and they went from friends to un-twins, opened a gallery in Flagstaff and spent ninety eight hours a week with each other.
"Look," Ava sighed with a grin, "The sun is setting and I gotta find a motel. I'm not risking sleeping in that house tonight."
Her friend snorted. "You mean the haunted shit hole called hell? Oh, sweetie, that place is perfectly safe to sleep in, I'm sure!"
"Goodnight and riddance you idiot."
"Tootles, babe. I'm gonna hang up before I scream and spill the nail polish on the sofa."
Ava beat her to it, leaving the car silent, and her attention drawn to the darkening sky above. She realized Kyla's words were true. Lucrosif was a haunted looking town. Even when she was a child, she had never seen the town folk out after dark, other than partying teens at a bonfire which she could spot though the trees on the balcony of her old house.