PREVIOUSLY
Previously on How to Believe…Rose Hunter arrives in Haven to help her friend with casework and ends up falling in love with Duke Crocker and Dwight Hendrickson. She also befriends Mari, a young woman who has come to Haven looking for a half brother she didn't even know she had until she was 18. Through each other, each woman finds the strength to fight their own battles, helping their friends and each other in the process…
CHAPTER 1
DUKE
I sat watching the steady rise and fall of Mari's chest. It had been a few hours since we had managed to get ourselves out of the chamber below the lighthouse. We had discovered that Mara could be contained there for the time being. There was apparently some last line of defense against her and she couldn't cross some invisible barrier that was just before the door to the outside world. It killed Nathan to leave, because despite the fact that she was Mara, it was Audrey's body. But we had to leave her there for now. We needed to figure out what the hell was wrong with my sister and what the hell we were going to do about the crazy witch. Rose said that we should take Mari to Magnus before taking her to the hospital, so we had come to the apartment above the Gray Gull where Magnus was. When he examined her, he explained that, while she was still there, something had tried to take over her body and so her inner being was traumatized and hiding. We had to coax her back into the waking world. Rose had agreed to try, but she was so exhausted from her fight with Lilith that she hadn't been able to reach the plane that Mari was on. She was curled up on Dwight's lap nearby trying to get some rest. Jace was laying on the other side of Mari, trying to get some form of rest and Nathan had gone with Vince and Dave to the Haven Herald to try and dig up any information on Mara. Magnus had returned to Brooklyn leaving the promise that, should he be needed, Jace and Rose knew how to reach him.
I rested my head against Mari's arm and sighed. Everything was going out of control. One minute things were good; Rose had gotten rid of Lillith and was safe, William was back in whatever hell he came from and Audrey was safe and sound here. And then the next second it had all gone to hell. I didn't know what to do anymore. I was trying to keep my family safe, but it just kept getting harder. Now Mari was laying here, unconscious, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. I was slowly dropping off into sleep when I heard mumbling coming from the direction of Rose and Dwight. I slowly turned and saw Rose twitching in her sleep. Her mouth was moving, but she wasn't making any sounds until suddenly she jumped up and screamed, "NO!" as she made a beeline out the door and onto the deck. Dwight jolted awake, eyes wide, searching for an attacker. He met my eyes and followed them to where Rose had just ran out the door. "What happened?" he asked me in confusion. I was still staring towards the door. "I have NO idea…"
ROSE
I stood out on the deck for a long moment trying to piece together what had just happened. I was sleeping peacefully on Dwight's lap as we waited for my magick to recharge enough to try and pull Mari back to us and then I heard it. I heard Mara's voice in my head laughing at me. Taunting me. Telling me how she was going to use me to hurt those I love. She showed me their bodies laying dead with my athame plunged into their chests and their eyes empty and lifeless staring up at me with accusation. I forced myself awake screaming and when I opened my eyes I saw Duke staring at me. I couldn't face him so I ran.
"Rose?" I heard from behind me and I turned slowly in horror and surprise. Standing behind me was a young woman of 30 years old. She had long brown hair and bright blue eyes that stood out against her pale skin. "Morgan?" I asked in a whisper, feeling tears begin to fall down my face. "Why did you let her do it Rose?" she asked me, moving forward as a wound opened on her throat and slowly began to drip blood. "Why did you let her kill me? Kill Hunter? Kill Moira?! Why?!" she screamed as she moved so that she was standing face to face with me. Blood was spilling down her neck and turning her white nightgown red. "No! I didn't-I swear I didn't! Morgan! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" I cried as I fell to the ground. "Rose?!" I heard Morgan yell at me. "Rose!" someone yelled again, but this time the voice wasn't Morgan's but Duke's. I looked up and was met with his beautiful eyes, not Morgan's. I searched wildly for her or any sign that she had been there, but she was gone. "Rose what happened?" Duke asked gently, reaching a hand towards me, but I flinched backwards at the sight of blood dripping from his hand. "No! Don't touch me!" I screamed as I scrambled back into a corner. Duke froze and I saw hurt flash across his face. "I'm-I'm sorry Rose, I just don't know what to do to help. Please...talk to me…" he pleaded and I took a deep breath. "I'm fine Duke I just…" I looked toward his outstretched hand again and found it clean. "I think I was having a waking nightmare," I replied slowly as I reached forward and took his hand. "I'm sorry!" I said as I pulled myself towards him and wrapped my arms around him, kissing his collarbone gently. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. "It's okay," he whispered, running a hand through my hair. "It's okay. It's been a rough couple of days for all of us. Lets get you back inside." I nodded and allowed him to pick me up and carry me back inside. That was just a taste my dear. I'm getting stronger and when I finally get out of here, my darling granddaughter...I will make your life a living hell...I heard Mara whisper in my head. I felt myself tense up, but when Duke looked at me I shook my head and tried to smile. I couldn't tell him that this woman was related to me. No one could know…
DUKE
I carried Rose back into the apartment and sat down on the couch, nodding my head to Dwight to tell him to come over. He sat down next to me and I moved Rose so that she was sitting on both our laps. "Rose, what the hell was that?" I asked her, concerned. "Nothing, just a really bad dream," she said, but I could tell there was something more. I looked over her head at Dwight, trying to convey my concern through my eyes. He got it. He put a hand on her back and started to rub reassuring circles around her back. "Baby, if something's wrong, you need to tell us," he said quietly. Rose closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Really, I'm fine. Sorry for the extreme reaction. It really was just a horrible nightmare." I could tell that, for whatever reason, she wasn't going to tell either of us what really happened. "How's Mari?" she continued, looking over her shoulder at the bed. I sighed. "She's breathing," I said. "But to be honest, if she doesn't come around soon, I'm not sure how long that is going to continue." I'd seen people slip into comas before and it wasn't pretty. Sometimes it only lasted a few hours, but other times…"She's going to be fine Duke," Rose said quietly, putting her hand on mine. "We'll get her back." "But how? Magnus said we have to coax her out, but what if she doesn't want to come back? Given her life, I'd wanna stay away too," I said quietly, almost to myself. "Duke," Rose said, moving her hand from mine to my face. "She has four very big reasons to come back. And they are all in this room. She just needs to be reminded, or shown the way. She's a fighter." I had to laugh at the understatement. If there was one thing my sister was, it was a fighter. She could fight her way out of anything, which was part of the reason I was worried that she hadn't come out of the coma yet. "I know," I said, squeezing Rose's hand. "Thanks babe." I smiled at her.
I saw Dwight look questioningly at Rose. "Four reasons?" he asked. Rose looked at him and put her other hand on his cheek. "Jace, Duke, me, and you," she said simply. "Me?" he asked confused. I could sense Rose roll her eye and smile. I smiled inwardly knowing what she was thinking. "Mari thinks of you as her big brother too Dwight," I said looking at him. His look of confusion deepened. "Really? Why?" Rose helped answer that part. "When this," she said, pointing to the three of us, "happened, she figured it just made sense. Duke's her biological brother, but you and I have sort of become her adoptive family. You did also save her from William's henchmen," she said. I saw Dwight's features soften and a smile creep across his face. "Oh," he said simply. He looked at me as if he wanted to make sure it was all ok. "Hey," I said, taking his hand. "If anything were to happen to me, I couldn't imagine anyone better to look after my baby sister." Dwight squeezed my hand. "Thanks," he said. I leaned in and kissed him. As I leaned back I looked over to the bed, hoping that I'd see movement or that Mari would have just woken up on her own. But nothing had changed.
Mari still lay motionless with Jace laying next to her. I had to hand it to the kid, if he could handle all of this, then he'd be able to handle anything my sister threw at him. And so far, he'd seemed pretty good with all of this. A part of me had hoped that Mari would wake up with him laying next to her, but it was looking more and more like we'd actually have to work at it. She wasn't waking up on her own. "Go," I heard Rose whisper in my ear. I looked back at her and I could see love pouring out of her eyes. Love for me as well as love for Mari. I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and got up, moving to the seat next to the bed that I'd been sitting in earlier.
I sat down next to the bed and took Mari's unmoving hand. "Come on Mar. You can't do this to me. You can't leave me. We all need you," I whispered hoping she would hear me. I kissed her hand gently and realized I had tears rolling down my cheeks. A part of my mind told me to care, but I couldn't bring myself to. I had almost lost both the loves of my life earlier that day and now I was very close to losing my sister. Even though she had only been in my life a few months, I couldn't imagine my life without her. Sure she was the most snarky and sarcastic person I'd ever met, but underneath that she had a good heart. Now that her life had stopped resembling a Bond movie, she had started to open up and let her walls down. She had become one of my best friends and the thought of never talking to her again, never seeing her smile again, a rarity in itself but still, that thought killed me. I glanced back towards where Dwight and Rose were sitting, but I knew, just from looking that Rose needed a few more hours of rest before she was up to performing any sort of miracles.
"You know she loves you right?" I heard from beside me and I turned to meet Jace's eyes. "She is proud to have you as her brother," he continued and I smiled softly. "Yeah well, I'm pretty proud to have her as a sister too," I replied. "So if you hurt her I will kill you," I threatened jokingly. He smiled tightly at me and nodded. "Noted," he replied. "But I never would. Hurt her, that is." I nodded. "I know you won't. I think you've gone through enough with her to know that she is crazy and so is this town. If you're still here...well...I give you tons of points and I figure you know what you're getting yourself into." He smiled. The moment was interrupted by Rose who had walked over. "Okay. I think I'm up to giving it another go," she said softly. "If you two are okay with it?" She looked between me and Jace and we both nodded. "Yeah, let's do this," Jace said, but I frowned at her. "Are you sure babe? That nightmare was pretty intense and you did just fight off a seriously bad witch…" I began, but she cut me off. "The sooner I do this the better. The longer we wait the farther away from us she can get. So it needs to happen now. I'll be fine sweetheart," she said softly, kissing my lips. I sighed and nodded. "Okay, what do you need?"