Chapter 1
The Beginning
I was breathless, I can't keep running anymore. But I had too, I have to keep my daughter safe. She's the only thing that's willing me to keep pumping my legs to go faster. She's the only hope that our people have for our bloodline to continue. The Hunters found us, the last of us, it's been sixteen years since we went into hiding after the last massacre of 1803. I have to get home.
The woods were dark and I could hear the screams of the village people behind me as the Hunters burned women at the stake for being accused as one of us. This shouldn't have happened. All those innocent people being murdered and watching their homes being burned to the ground because of us. This is all our faults, we were created to protect the humans and nature but yet, here I am running from the soul thing I was created to do. What my people are about to do. We can no longer protect them, not anymore, my family and I are the last of our kind. If the hunters are to find us this will be the end of the Carpe bloodline and those humans who we have taught our magic too will hold the responsibility of keeping the balance of nature and guard the second world.
As I get deeper into the forest the cries of the village become hazy and soon I could no longer hear them. Tripping over my petticoat, I landed on the cold hard ground, scraping my hands in the process. I feel like I've been running for hours. My throat and lungs burning and willing me to stop. The cold air of the winter numbing the skin of my face and hands. My legs are throbbing and my feet feel like they are on fire, I didn't have time to put on any shoes when Maria shoved me out the back door of her cottage. I turn over on to my back and look up past the blacken treetops to the clear night sky, the stars look so beautiful tonight. It must be nice to be a star. To shine so brightly and never have to worry about losing the ones you love and running for your life, to never feel pain or sorrow. My grandmother told me a story the night of the 1803 massacre; she held my crying body close to her and whispered into my ear
'I will always be with you my little butterfly, maybe not here physically but I will be here in your heart. And every night when you lay upon the grass, look up and you shall see me among the stars. Looking down upon you and protecting you. Never be sad when a Carpe leaves this world little one because we never truly do, we become one with nature and the heavens above. We become a star.'
That was the last time I saw my grandmother and parents. I remember as our estate was being raided with Hunters, I could hear the horrible screams of agony, the smell of burning flesh and wood, the cries of children my age being ripped from their parents' arms and slaughtered like they were nothing and blood...I remember blood, all around me, in the air that I breathed, I could taste it. Fire...fire so red and hot, like it was going to melt away my skin, muscle, and bone. Just remembering all of this reminds me of tonight and I threw up the dinner that Maria had made for me.
"Maria" I whispered as I grabbed a nearby tree to help me to my feet. When I finally stood up I turned back to the direction of the village "Please, Maria be safe" She's my best friend since we were little, she and I were one of the seven that escaped that night. My mother grabbed both my older brother and I and told us that we will be safe, and that we will be going far away from our home and when this is all done they will come and look for us. She kissed us both on our cheeks, told us that she loved us for the last time and handed us over to the older children, which included Maria. When we got on the carriage to leave I looked back and saw the tears running down her face, and when I looked into her eyes, that's when I knew I was never going to see her again...since then I vowed that I will be as strong as my mother was. I will protect my daughter as my mother protected my bother and me.
I could hear the wolf calls from the hunters close by, they must have found the dirt road that led up to the house. Looking up one last time to the sky above, I said a silent prayer to my mother and ran. Running as fast as I could. I'm almost there, I could see the glow of the candles in the windows. And I could hear the stream off to the right. Coming up to the side of the house I made sure that no one was coming up the road at the same time. Remembering the shouts that I heard from them, they couldn't be that far away. I had to move quickly. Going around back I climbed the three stairs that led to the back door. Knocked twice, paused, knocked once, paused and knocked the last three. Letting Jedidiah know that it was me and safe to open the door. When we moved to this village sixteen years ago when I was eight and Jedidiah was ten we came up with secret knocks to communicate to each other, and soon after the seven deiced that it was best if we did these secret knocks to let each other know it was safe to open a door. Since the massacre, we were always on our toes about the Hunters.
There was no answer. I pressed my ear against the wood door. There was no sound. No movement, no hushing, not even the whimpers of my baby girl. Panic raced through me, fear running through my bones. The doors were locked and the only way in was Jedidiah. And since he was the oldest in the house at the age of 26, he is the only one who is allowed to open the door. I had to get in. pressing my hand above the brass door handle I concentrated on the wooden lock, thinking about mending and lifting the wooden slab that sat across the door up. I felt it move slowly upwards, praying to Nature that it would move faster. Looking around making sure no one was watching or around the area, I hear the slab lock into place next to the door. Thanking Nature I turned the handle and pushed the door open to the kitchen.
I was too late.
"No" there lying on the kitchen floor was Cole, one of the Seven. He was the youngest of us all.
"Cole, please Cole wake up!" I was at his side, begging him to open his eyes, but I knew in my heart that he was gone, the wounds to his neck were far too great. Picking myself up off the floor I made my way into the tiny seating area of the house, tears came flooding down my cheeks and sobs were stuck in my throat.
I was too late, I wasn't fast enough.
The smell of the blood is still so fresh. Laying across the old sofa was Cras, Cole's older brother. With a sword jammed into the middle of his chest. In the fireplace was a dead hunter who had his throat slit wide open. Thinking about my baby I ran to the back of the house where our room was located. Pushing open the door I finally let out a scream. There pinned high on the wall was my brother, Jedidiah. With a sword plunged into his heart just like Cras's. Blood colored the walls as it did for the rest of the house. Rushing over to him, I pull out the sword and held him tightly in my arms, letting his cold dead bloody body rock against mine as I cried.
"You are too late little girl" Turning around fast I saw another Hunter sitting up against the wall on the other side. He was wounded and could barely talk "Everyone here is dead, including the toddler. The village is burned to ash, women, and children killed and the man fought so bravely against us, but no human can defeat a Hunter who is trained kill."
Standing up I grabbed the very sword that killed my brother and drove it deep into his heart and with his final breathe I looked at him dead in the eyes "How does it feel to be killed by the very thing you are trying to kill" watching the light of life drain out of his body and I pushed him aside and turned to the crib by the window. Praying to Nature that she had protected my daughter. I looked inside and saw what I dreaded the most. My baby girl Lana, laying there dead, she was only four years old.
"Nature how could you do this to me! My people have severed you for hundreds of years!" I crashed to the floor, crying my heart out, my baby girl. "She was only four" I swore to protect her, I'd give her my blood….lifting my head up, I looked at the full moon that I saw out the window, surrounded by millions of stars
"I'd give her my blood" I smiled, for the first time on that horrible night. I stood up and ran to the seating area in the front, grabbing the ax off the fireplace, I then darted off to the left were there where stairs leading up to the second story of the cottage. Reaching the last step I got on my knees on the floor, turned around and started swinging at the top step. Cracking the wood into pieces till it showed bindings of three large heavy set books. As old as time. Wiping away salty tears I grabbed the black leather book. Setting on my lap I looked closely at it. Old Leather, as black as the night sky with a purple hue, running my fingers across the buckles that held it closed, the cool touch of the brass. Holding this book, felt like I was holding death. I could feel the dark magic running off of the old pages beneath.
"This is the only hope at saving my baby girl" standing back up, I held the heavy book in my arms and entered the room off to the right of the stairwell. Cole and Cras's room. Looking around I found three candles, I need two more. Rushing back down the stairs, careful going over the broken first step, I grabbed to more candles and headed off, back to Lana. I brushed the back of my hand to her pale cold cheek
"Mama is going to make this right" I wrapped my baby in a crochet blanket and gathered the book and candles and headed for the clearing in the back. Down by the wood and near the stream.