CHAPTER 4
MARI
Jace and I walked downstairs and back into the Gull, discussing the weather and how lovely the sun played on the water in front of the building, trying to hide our excitement. We were holding hands and when we got to the door, Jace, being the gentlemen, opened it for me and beckoned me through. "God, you're weird," I laughed walking backwards through the door, but then stopped short, feeling the tension levels in the bar rise and drop dramatically. Actually, a little overdramatically, if I was being honest. "Ok," I said "What did I-" I stopped mid-sentence as I turned and saw the destruction of the bar. "What the hell?" I asked not even looking at Duke and Dwight, still at the table they had been occupying when Jace and I had left an hour before. When I finally looked at both me, I felt them block their minds and I narrowed my eyes. "Where's Rose?" I asked. I reached out to feel her, but instead of the usual bright light that was Rose, I found nothing. Nothing in or around the Gull, nothing by the docks or the Rouge, nothing in her office or around Nathan. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Occasionally she could still hide from me when she wanted to, so instead of panicking, I walked over to the boys and focused all my energy on them. "What happened here?" I asked slowly, but still allowing my annoyance to thickly cover my voice. I figured there must have been a fight and I was going to get it out of one of them one way or the other. "Did one of you say something to Rose? Cause this-" I said pointing to the wreckage in the room, "isn't really her style. But if you said the right thing, well I'd like to think I've rubbed off on her as much as she has on me. And I really wouldn't put it passed her to do something like this." Neither Duke nor Dwight were looking at me and they both were blocking their minds from me. This only annoyed me further. I slammed my hands down on the table, cursing myself as I felt my muscles scream at me. "One of you is going to tell me what the hell happened here!" I yelled. Both men flinched a little. Good, at least they know I mean business. Duke opened his mouth to speak, but Dwight beat him to it. "We asked her about an ex boyfriend and she didn't want to talk about it. We pushed and she-" he pointed to the mess. I raised an eyebrow. There's no way Rose would do this over an ex boyfriend she didn't want to talk about. She'd just leave. But maybe after everything she'd been through in the last 48 hours, she had finally snapped. I relaxed a little. "We were actually just about to go find her and apologize," Duke said standing up and looking pointedly at Dwight. Ok, these boys were definitely hiding something from me, and the fact that they were hiding their thoughts as well was making me angry, but I wasn't going to find out from them so I decided to let them leave. "Ok, tell Rose I say hi," I said. "Will do," Dwight said and both men walked out of the Gull.
Jace sat down next to me as I watched the men get into Duke's jeep and drive off. "They are hiding something from me," I said watching them. "Something's up, and I don't like it." "Yeah, I get that feeling too, but what are you going to do?" Jace asked me, taking a sip from his water glass. "What every good investigator does. Reconstruct the crime scene." I stood up and flexed my muscles. Rose had taught me a simple spell that anyone could do if they knew how. This spell would show me what happened, like watching a movie reel before the sound is added. It was a good thing I could lip-read. I focused my mind on what I wanted to see. I spoke the incantation slowly, making sure I used the exact words Rose taught me. "I request that Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, bless this scrying glass. May all visions be pure and true. So mote it be." As the words finished I closed my eyes, expecting to see images of what happened, but instead I saw nothing. Just the black of the backs of my eyelids. I took a deep breath, hoping to calm my mind, but still nothing happened. From behind me I sensed Jace's curiosity and confusion. "So...anything?" he asked casually. I grunted and opened my eyes. "Shut up! You're distracting me." I shot at him. "You have no idea what you're doing do you?" he asked smiling. "I know exactly what I'm doing!" I said frustrated. "Magnus has access to a portal. I could call him-" Jace started but I cut him off. "I don't need Magnus. I can do this myself!" I shook my head annoyed and tried to remember what Rose had told me about this spell. I flipped through the memory of that conversation, like watching a movie on fast forward, looking for the right moments. When I found it, I watched and listened closely. Close your eyes, say the spell, hold the object from the room-Oh yeah, forgot that bit. I walked over to the bar and picked up a piece of broken glass. It looked like the remnants of a Jack Daniel's bottle. Duke was going to be mad about that. That bottle was practically full. I held it in my hand and said the spell again. "I request that Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, bless this scrying glass. May all visions be pure and true. So mote it be." My eyes were closed again and again I focused on what I wanted to see.
Again I saw only black. "Damn it!" I shouted. "Motherfuckingasspieceofshit! Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!" I stomped my foot on the floor and threw the piece of glass clear across the bar. "Stupidmotherfuckingdamnstupidspellfuckingsonofabitch!" I shouted all in one breath. Jace looked mildly impressed but also bored. "I can always call-" he started. I looked at him narrowing my eyes until they were slits. "I don't need Magnus!" I said emphasizing every word. I stomped over to the bar and grabbed another piece of glass, this time from the remnants of a tequila bottle. Damn! When I find Rose, I'm gonna make her buy me more of this! "OW! Fucking son of a bitch!" I looked down at my hand and saw the line of blood welling up where the glass had cut my palm. I took the glass in the other hand and practically shouted at the top of my lungs, "I request Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, bless this scrying glass! May all visions be pure and true! So mote it be!"
This time when I closed my eyes, I finally saw what I had been waiting for. A vision of the bar came into my mind and I watched as the scene played out. At first it looked like Rose was having a fit and then a temper tantrum, but Rose didn't have temper tantrums. I looked closer, focusing on Rose, and I realized it wasn't Rose I was looking at. It was her body, but inside she was someone else. I replayed the scene again and watched her carefully. Then I saw it. Duke looked at Rose, but instead said Mara's name. Rose's mouth grinned and then I watched her destroy the bar.
When the vision ended it was like someone had thrown cold water on me. I opened my eyes suddenly and it felt like I couldn't breathe. I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds of the water outside. I matched my breathing to the sounds of it flowing in and out and was finally able to gain control again. I turned and looked at Jace who was standing, looking at me with concern. "Mara she, she's in Rose," I said slowly, trying to keep my breathing steady.
Suddenly Jace was in front of me with his arms wrapped tightly around me. I could hear his heart beat in his chest and I again tried to match my breathing to it. It worked and I was able to keep myself calm. "What are you going to do?" he asked, knowing full well I wasn't going to just sit back and let this bitch take my friend. I didn't have a plan yet, but the more I thought about it the more annoyed I became. My brother and Dwight knew and had kept it a secret from me. I didn't like people keeping secrets from me. It never worked out. "First of all, I'm gonna kick my brothers' asses!"
I stomped onto the Rouge knowing I'd find both boys here. Sure enough, Duke was leaning against the opposite railing and looked up suddenly when he heard my footsteps. "Mari what-" he started, trying to quickly hide his thoughts. "You knew!" I screamed at him. "You knew and you tried to hide it from me! What the hell Duke?" I marched up to him and was staring him in the face. "I'm, I'm sorry. We thought it would be better if you didn't know! We didn't want you getting involved!" He turned and started walking away. At this point I was pretty full up on my own anger and frustration, but I allowed myself to soak in everything that was coming from the boys, pretty much guaranteeing that Duke was not going to get out of this that easily. "You knew I'd find out one way or the other! You should know me well enough by now to know that I protect the ones I love!" "Exactly!" he spat at me. I stopped for a second, taking that in. Was he saying that he didn't tell me because he knew I'd go after Rose or was he saying that he was doing the same thing? Trying to protect me? That only made me angrier. "What the hell does that mean?" I shouted, following him to the bow of the boat. "You had no right to keep this from me! She's my best friend! She's like my sister! I deserved to know and I deserved to hear it from you!"
I felt myself pull my arm back and the next thing I knew I was laying an uppercut into Duke's chin. I felt his jaw snap shut and my hand hurt, but that didn't stop me. He staggered back and, for a split second, I thought he might just stand there and let me use him as a punching bag, but suddenly I was getting a fist to the face as well. My head snapped to the right and I felt pain shoot through my face. This was exactly what I was hoping for when I came here.
I threw another punch straight at Duke's stomach, connecting and causing him to double over. I pulled back and kicked out, hitting the backs of his knees with my leg. He went down hard, but got up quickly, punching at me from every direction. I blocked his punches and sent my elbow flying at his head. I heard it connect and he staggered back, just long enough for me to send him my frustration and anger, letting it fuel his own. As he began to feel that surge of anger, he ran at me, grabbing my waist and throwing me to the ground. I hit the ground with a crash and brought my knee up, just under Duke, kneeing him in the stomach sending him backwards. I rolled up and kicked out at him again, but he grabbed my foot and threw me against the wall. He pinned me to the wall, left arm at my throat, and brought his right arm back to punch my face. I grabbed a fistfull of his hair and pulled as hard as I could. I felt his arm come off of my throat just enough for me to move and instead of his fist connecting with the left side of my face, it hit the wall instead, so hard it left a slight dent. I rolled behind him and kicked his back with both my feet, sending him face first into the wall. He hit it and then turned around and ran at me again, sending punches and elbows flying. I duked around most of them, but he managed to get me a few times. Twice in the arms, once in the chest, and once on my face.
By this point, Dwight had come up on deck to see what the hell was going on. "What the-? What the hell are you guys doing?" he yelled. I didn't have either the time or inclination to stop fighting and explain what was going on so I sent him waves of frustration and anger, knowing he'd join in, at the very least to protect Duke. I was right. I watched as his level or frustration rose and he came at me like a charging bull. A small voice in the back of my mind told me that taking on both Duke and Dwight at the same time was a mistake of epic proportions, but right now I didn't care. I was pissed and needed to take it out of somebody, and the two biggest guys in Haven were a pretty good choice.
As Dwight came at me I ducked and moved to the left, sending him straight into Duke. I laughed to myself. As he hit Duke I roundhouse kicked him in his back, sending the two to the deck. They hit hard and the sound it made briefly caused me to worry that Duke's boat might sink if we kept this up. I shook my head not wanting to worry about that right now. Both men were back on their feet and were coming at me. Dwight strong armed me and again I kicked out at him. He was expecting it this time and moved so that I kicked air instead of his gut. He moved behind me as Duke came at me from the front and I was cornered. Dwight's large arms wrapped around me and held tight while Duke grabbed my fists and held them to my sides. "What…" Duke tried start, but he was breathing too hard. "What the hell is wrong with you Mari?!" he finally managed to get out. I struggled against them both. I was breathing hard too and didn't want to answer him. I held my mouth in a stubborn line and looked over Duke's right shoulder. Duke sighed and forced me to look at him. "You just woke up out of what we thought was going to be a coma. We just got you back and we just got Rose back and then everything went to hell again. We were caught off guard and needed to process it between the two of us first. We were going to tell you…" he trailed off, glancing at Dwight for help. "We were going to tell you once we had some form of plan. We have no idea HOW Mara is controlling Rose, nor do we know why. We wanted to have some information before we told you," he explained, trying to make me see their reasoning. "Yeah right!" I spat at Duke. "Did it ever occur to you that I might be able to get that information, since I can, you know, READ MINDS AND ALL!?" I yelled at them, still pissed as hell that they had kept me in the dark.
Dwight let me go and he moved to stand with Duke, resting his hand on Duke's shoulder. "Mari...we didn't want to hurt you. We wanted you to have a few moments of happiness and relaxation before getting thrown back into hell," he said softly. "I know you may not like our methods, but we tried for you. I'm sorry." Duke nodded and then moved down the stairs to get some ice. Dwight looked after him and then turned back to me. "When you're done being angry with us, we will be downstairs trying to figure things out. Good luck reading her mind though. With the connection between the three of us, we are generally able to read each other's minds, but the second Mara took over, she was blank. Rose isn't there anymore and we have no clue what Mara is. Just...be careful," he said finally, kissing me on the cheek gently, before following my brother down the stairs and into the state rooms.
I threw my arms up and stomped off to the railing. "Hmph!" I said out loud. Dwight's words were beginning to sink in and I was trying like hell to stop them. I still wanted to be angry. I still wanted to kick both their asses. Why did everyone suddenly think I needed protection? It's not like I lived in a nunnery before coming to Haven. I'd lived a very dangerous life. One which most people would have thought impossible. My life had been like a Bond movie before Haven, full of excitement and danger. This wasn't any different. Except this time you have people you care about involved. People you want to protect. People who want to protect you. I hated that little voice in my head. The one that sounded like my mother. She'd been dead for 20 years and yet she was still giving me advice. I "humph"ed again and thought more about what Dwight had said, and then realized something he clearly hadn't. I sighed and rolled my eyes. I guess I was going to have to let go of my anger after all. I turned and walked down the stairs to the stateroom, slowly because every step shot epic amounts of pain through me. I put both my hands on either wall next to and took each step one at a time.
"You know," I said reaching the last step. "The reason you could hear Rose in the first place was because of your connection. If Mara possessed her, it would have automatically broken the connection and you'd stop hearing her." I moved to sit down at the table. "Ow, fuck, ow!" I said as I sat down in one of the chairs. "My trouble," I winced as I finally sat, "doesn't work like that. I can hear everything and everyone all the time. Unless they are actively blocking me. As far as I know, Mara doesn't know about me. She won't know that she needs me to block me. I couldn't find her before because I was looking for Rose, but now that I know to look for Mara…" I trailed off as my head started to pound and my shoulders started to ache. I put my head on the table, letting the cool slab ease my pain for a second. "You know…" I heard Dwight drawal from the nearby couch where he was holding an ice pack to Duke's face. "I should just let you sulk in pain for a bit so you learn your lesson about picking fights. But I want to find Rose as soon as possible, so there is some extra strength Ibuprofen in the cabinet to your left."
I slowly raised my head and looked at the cabinet. I was going to have to get up to get the Ibuprofen, which according to Dwight's mind, was on the top shelf. So not only would I have to stand up and walk, I'd have to reach. Dwight was enjoying this a little too much. I groaned and slowly rotated myself so that my legs were out from under the table. I gingerly pushed myself up letting excessive profanity spill out of my mouth. When I was standing I slowly put one leg in front of the other and made the three steps to the cabinet. I could hear Dwight snickering behind me, but I refused to look at him or ask for help. I took a deep breath and reached up to open the door. A shot of pain ran the length of my arm all the way to my neck. I winced, but pulled the cabinet open. I saw the bottle on the top shelf, just out of reach. "And people think I'm cruel and vindictive," I growled under my breath. I reached up and this time the pain shot across my neck and down my back. I stretched as far as I could, but couldn't reach the bottle. I took another deep breath and stood up on my toes. My fingers found the bottle just in time as I nearly collapsed against the cabinet. "You ok?" Dwight asked from behind me, still amused. "Yeah, sure, just dandy!" I said through gritted teeth. I sat back down at the table. "I know you're enjoying this, but would you mind getting me a glass of water?" I asked him as I opened the bottle and took out four pills. Dwight laughed to himself, but got up and got me a glass, filled it with water, and handed it to me. "Thanks," I said. I popped the pills in my mouth and swallowed a gulp of water. I put the glass down and put my left hand on my right shoulder, rubbing it and rotating my neck, trying to release the muscles.
"Feel better?" Dwight asked as he moved back to where Duke was laying and began to gently run his fingers through Duke's hair. "Sure," I said. He smiled and continued until we both heard Duke's breathing slow and even out. "Can you hear Mara?" he asked softly so he didn't wake Duke up. There was a note of desperation in his voice and I realized exactly how scared and worried they both were about Rose. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to focus. This time, instead of focusing on Rose, a voice I knew extremely well, I focused on voices I didn't know. Given that Haven was such a small town, these voices were fairly few in number, even though I didn't socialize. I heard one woman obsessively thinking about her cat, and closed the door on her, knowing that it wasn't Mara. There were a few men fishing out on a boat in the harbor and a young boy watching clouds up on the hill. I kept scanning until I suddenly found what I was looking for. It was a voice I didn't know, or at least, sort of didn't know.
It was Audrey's voice, kind of, but there was something darker and more sinister about it. I was always struck by the fact that a person's voice could be changed based on how they lived their lives. You could always tell a person's true character by listening to the way they spoke. Or as least I could. Mara was thinking about that morning and about how she'd been torturing Rose. "I can hear her," I told Dwight. "She's out in the forest near the lighthouse. She doesn't want to be in town because she's afraid people will notice, even though she's in Rose's body." Dwight nodded tensely. "Is she giving any clues as to how she is able to take over Rose's body? Or anything like that? Rose mentioned that it was because they were both witches, but I just...I don't think that's what this is…" he trailed off and I could feel the helplessness that was flowing through him. He hated feeling helpless. I knew the feeling. "Hold on, that's gonna take some digging." I focused once again on Mara, but this time I flipped through her thoughts like flipping through a book. I had to be careful. Most people never realized when this was happening, or at most, they felt like they were being watched, but someone who was in touch with their mind, the way a witch would be, would know exactly what was happening if I wasn't careful.
"Holy shit…" I said quietly finding exactly what Dwight had been looking for. "I know why Mara's connection to Rose is so strong." Dwight waited for me to continue with bated breath. Duke had stirred at the tension in his lovers' body and was looking between us in confusion. "What's going on?" he asked softly, but Dwight was still staring at me. "Why?" he asked softly. "She's...she's Rose's great grandmother…" I said, still not quite believing it. There was absolute silence after my statement and the boys just stared at me. "Why wouldn't she have told us?" Duke finally said and Dwight just shook his head. "I'm not sure...but for now the thing we need to focus on is how to get her back. Any ideas Mar?" I staggered for a minute, still trying to process what I had just learned. "Um..." I started, not paying attention to what I was saying. I shook my head and actually tried to focus. "We could try doing what Rose did to me...maybe?" I said slowly. "Granted, it would take holding her down and actually knowing what the hell Rose did...you don't know do you?" I asked hopefully. They both shook their heads. "All we know is that she said she was going into your mind to try and pull you back and that she spent a good 45 minutes with her hands pressed to your temples before you both woke up," Duke said. "Maybe…" Dwight paused for a moment of thought. "Maybe we can call Magnus Bane and see if he knows?" I grunted. Why did everyone want to call that guy? One small little favor and suddenly he was on everybody's "go to" list? "She's your...girlfriend…" I said, pausing trying to find the right term. "You should do whatever you think is best." I stood up and immediately regretted it. I fell back and leaned heavily against the wall, a sudden wave of vertigo hitting me. "You okay?" Dwight asked as he moved to help me stand. "Maybe you should lay down for a minute." I groaned but knew he was probably right. "Yeah ok," I said. Dwight gently picked me up and carried me to their bedroom. He layed me down gently on the bed, kissed my forehead, and I let darkness claim me.
