}}}}}}}} THE SPIRIT WORLD{{{{{{{{
T.J. POV
I was back in the clearing just like before but I wasn't the only shifter here. Most of my pack and two members from Sam's pack were here.
"Feel's weird huh?" I asked and they nodded. "Don't worry, it'll be explained in a moment."
Just then several heavy paws hit the earth and were heading towards us. Takoda trotted into view along with the wolf forms of the others. I glanced at my shifter family to find that they were blinking at the new arrivals. I sighed before glancing at Takoda who looked sheepish. Well, as sheepish as a wolf can get.
'Sorry I didn't tell you.' He murmured. 'I wasn't allowed to.'
"I don't blame you Takoda." I told him. "It's a bit of a surprise, but I don't blame you." I peered at the others who still didn't do much except blink. I rolled my eyes before turning back to Takoda. "So are we just supposed to stand around?"
"No." I head my dad say as he shimmered into view. "We have some training for you to do and...people for you to meet."
I said nothing as I schooled my features. I, in all honesty, did not know how to feel right now. Part of me was happy to see him but part of me felt angry that after all this time we were only seeing each other because I needed to gain more power. Something, I might add, that I didn't want or need. Why would I need more power? And why couldn't I just see my dad without any extra bullshit?
'You know, you sound like a very whiney teenager.' Takoda commented and I narrowed my eyes at my 'link.'
"I may not be mad at you," I began. "But that won't stop me form pummeling you if you make any more comments like that."
His eyes went wide and I noticed that the fur right above them lifted about an inch or two. I guess this was the wolf equivalent of raised eyebrows.
'It is.' He told me.
"Be nice." My dad told me and I sighed before pinching the bridge of my nose.
"Fine." I said. "What do we have to do?"
The second those words left my mouth, a large tree trunk sailed through the air and was heading towards my head. I fell back to the ground and launched myself back to my feet using the momentum I had when I pulled my legs back.
"What the hell was that!" I yelled as the tree stopped moving mid flight and flew back at me. I raised my hands and the tree hit my force field, shattering on impact.
"And now your training begins." My dad said as more trees started flying towards not just me, but the others as well. I blocked them as best that I could but they just kept coming. I didn't catch one fast enough and it was headed towards Seth.
"Seth!" Several people said but he stood his ground. He held his hands to the side as I kept blocking the trees. Twin swords with roughly four foot blades made out of bluish white energy appeared in his hands. He sliced through the tree like a knife through butter as I put up a large dome with my hands. I snapped my fingers and it stayed up.
"That should hold for now while we plan." I murmured to the group as more trees hit the dome. I barely felt the hits unlike when I fought Emmett but then again, he was going all out. The feeling I was getting from this was nothing more than irritation.
"What the hell is going on!" Jacob demanded.
"Training." I said with a shrug before looking at my dad. "Are you the only one that will train us?"
He shook his head and the air shimmered. Harry, Uncle, Josh and a woman I've never seen before appeared. I heard someone gasp and I turned to the sound. Jacob was staring at the woman with wide, disbelieving eyes. I glanced at the woman and frowned. There was something familiar about her but I couldn't place it. When she smiled at Jacob, she reminded me a lot of Rachel. And that's when it clicked. This was Sarah Black, Jacob's mother.
"Mom?" He said in a small voice and her smile widened.
"Hello son." She said. "Look at you, your so big now. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of you."
"But I haven't-" Jacob tried to protest but she cut him off.
"You have," She said gently. "And will continue to do so."
Jacob said nothing. He just looked at the ground, looking like a small child overcome with shyness. His mother stepped forward and stood on the tips of her toes to cup his face.
"Don't hide your face my beautiful boy." She told him and his eyes filled with tears. "You have nothing to be ashamed of and I am not ashamed to say that you are my son and that I love you."
A large sob escaped Jacob's throat and he embraced his mother. I didn't think that it would work but then I remembered what Takoda said; In this plane of existence, anything is possible.
Jacob sobbed loudly as his mother rubbed his back in soothing circles. To the outside world, to see a giant of a man and a woman of average height hugging each other while one of them cried would be a strange sight but I knew differently. I glanced at the others and saw that they were crying too, especially Jacob's wolf. My vision started to blur and I turned away, felling like I was intruding on a private moment. A hand grasped my shoulder.
"Son," My dad called but I didn't turn to him. "Look at me."
I slowly turned to him and saw that he was crying. I pulled him into a hug and started bawling like a baby. All those feelings I had before went out the window as I squeezed my dad tightly, like I was afraid that if I let him go, he would disapear.
"Ease up on the grip son," He murmured to me. "I may be transparent but I'm sure even you could find a way to break my ribs."
I loosened my grip slightly but I didn't let go. He patted my back. I glanced at Takoda and saw that even though he was crying he gave me the wolf equivalent of a grin.
"Ok enough of that." I said loudly as I pulled away. "I don't much time here now do I?" I asked my dad and he shook his head.
"We need to keep going. I'm surprised your dome hasn't gone down yet." He commented as he peered at the dome. Honestly, the dome slipped my mind. I didn't even feel anything hitting it anymore. Then again, the trees were hardly coming as often.
"How is that happening?" I asked my dad and he shrugged.
"Magic I guess you could say." He murmured. "Do you feel anything?"
"From the trees?" I asked and he nodded. "No. When I snapped my fingers I sort of...disconnected myself from my field. I can feel the blows but it's nothing compared to what happened the first time I tried controling it."
My dad nodded thoughtfully. I was going to say something but I felt something really hard hit the dome. I turned to the source and saw a pile of shattered rocks. I frowned in confusion, what could possibly-
That train of thought was stopped when I saw a boulder about three times the size of a wrecking ball headed towards us. When it hit the dome it shattered and became another pile.
"Poor boulder," Collin murmured and we stared at him in disbelief. Well us shifters did, the wolves and the spirits were smiling for some reason. Hmm, I wonder. I narrowed my eyes at the pile of rocks before turning back to him.
"Collin," I called and he looked at me. "Try moving the rocks."
He frowned at me before looking at the dome.
"How?" He asked turning back to me. "The dome's in the way."
"I meant with your mind, cousin." I told him patiently.
He frowned even more before he shrugged and turned back to the two pile of rocks. He held his right hand out and curled his fingers. The pile shifted slightly but did make any major movements. Collin narrowed his eyes and flexed his fingers. Both piles lifted about three feet off the ground. I smiled at Collin who looked like Christmas came early.
"I did it!" He cried while fist pumping with his free hand. "I don't know what, but I did it!"
I smiled even more at his enthusiasm and I noticed the others did too. I glanced at Matilda and Brady while Collin waved both hands to contort the rocks into different formations.
"What about you two?" I asked them and they turned to me.
"What about us?" They said.
"What do you feel?" I asked. "Feel anything different?"
"I can feel a large body of water not far from here," Matilda frowned before glancing up at the mountain ridge. "Up there in fact."
"There isn't any water up there." Jacob said. "There isn't any streams near by either."
"There is now." My dad told him before addressing Matilda. "Do you think you can call out to it?" He asked her and she shrugged slightly. She adopted a look of concentration and raised her hands above her head. Nothing happened for a few moments until a jet of water descended from the ridge and headed toward us in a high arc. It stopped right in front of the dome and started to form a giant ball.
Matilda struggled to hold it all and galleons of water fell to the ground. Matilda was able to get some of it back into the ball but not all of it. After a few moments she dropped the ball and the water splashed almost everywhere. It couldn't get past the dome, it just slid right off. Matilda was panting and her shoulders were slump.
"Damn," She murmured between breaths. "That was hard."
"Dad?" I called and he looked at me.
"Yes son?"
"Why can't I see anything?" I asked and he frowned. "With my gift I mean. Ever since I got here, I haven't seen anything."
"Oh." He said nodding in understanding. "That power is, I guess you could say, blocked here." At my frown he continued. "That gift of yours works one of two ways, when you're awake or when you're asleep. Technically, you're neither asleep nor awake when you come here. This is not a dream, but it's not reality as we know it. It's sort of the in between if that makes sense."
"So basically I'm running blind here." I murmured while eyeing Brady who was looking very frustrated.
"Essentially." My dad shrugged. "Just trust your natural instincts when your here."
I nodded my head without taking my eyes off of Brady. He growled low in his throat before he clapped his hands together before rubbing them furiously in an attempt to hype himself up. He rubbed them so hard and fast that they burst into flame. He yelped and fell to the ground, rolling around to try and put out the fire. Several of us rushed forward to help but the spirits beat us to it.
"Brady calm down." Harry said.
"Calm down?" He said in disbelief. "I'm on fire, how the hell can I calm down!" He rolled around frantically but the fire wasn'tgoing out.
"Brady, the fire is apart of you sweetheart, it will go out once you calm down." Sarah said gently.
Brady rolled around for a few more moments before I flashed over to him and yanked him off the ground. I shook my hands after I let him go. He may be immune to fire but that hurt like hell for me.
"Breath." I told him while my hands healed. "Just breath."
This was the first time I had ever seen him look so scared. He glanced down at his hands, which were still on fire, with a look of absolute terror.
"Brady, you need to calm down." I told him. "Think about something that makes you happy. What makes you happy Brady?"
"My family." He said shakily. "Elektra," His eyes went wide. "Oh god Elektra! I could kill her with this."
"Which is why you need to breathe." I pointed out. "I want you to picture the first time you ever saw her and how that made you feel."
He closed his eyes and took in a few shaky breaths. After a moment or so, the fire started to receed. Brady slowly opened one eye then the other before sighing in relief. He snapped his fingers and a small flame danced in his hand.
"That's good." I said with a nod. "You just have to remember that and everything will be fine."
He nodded as he juggled three balls of fire.
"Throw them at the dome." I told him as a thought occured to me.. "I want to see something."
He frowned at me before shrugging. He held his arm out, plam up, and fingers flexed. The three balls hovered over his hand and spun around in a counter clockwise motion. He curled his fingers and they began to spin even faster. He flexed them again and one by one, they shot towards the dome.
They hit the dome, bounced off of it, and headed towards Collin who yelped and threw his hands in front of him. The earth groaned and a large wall of rock erupted from the ground, just in time to block the fire balls.
"I'm sorry!" Brady cried. "I didn't mean for that to happen."
"That would be my fault," I sighed as Collin put his hands down and the wall of rock receded back into the earth. "I should have thrown up a secondary field."
"All that would have done was make it bounce again." Leah said, speaking for the first time since we got here.
"I guess." I said with a shrug. I still felt like I should have done more.
"Son," My dad said and I glanced at him. "Lower the dome so we can head up to the ridge."
I shrugged and snapped my fingers after I glanced around and saw that nothing was heading this way.
"Lead the way." Jacob told me in a quiet voice and I frowned.
"Why me?"
"You've been here before," He explained. "And if there are any sneak attacks, you can block them.
"Oh so you just want to use me? I see how it is." I said, sounding hurt and he rolled his eyes at me and smiled. "Besides, this place is an exact replica of the clearing back in our world. Your the Alpha, you should lead."
"I know that." He nodded. "But I'm going to be out of comission for a month. So you need to get used to the idea of being in charge. As my second, it is your responsibilty to take over when I can't. You know this, so why are you avoiding this issue like the plague or dismissing the idea altogether?"
I sighed and looked him square in the eye.
"It's not something I wanted." I told him whole heartedly. "It's not something I asked for and I don't understand why fate decided that I needed not one but two powers. On top of that, it's been decided that we will have to work with people that would no problem killing us and if my vision is anything to go by, I have to lead them? How am I supposed to do any of this? I'm not ready for this."
"In all honesty cuz, I don't know how to answer that." He said with a sigh before looking skyward. "I don't like this any more than you do but it has to be done or else it all goes bad." He turned back to me. "I'm sorry Thomas but you are the only one who has authority other than me, and I'm not going to change that."
I sighed and rubbed my eyes before walking forward.
"Follow me." I muttered unenthusiastically. I broke into a sprint and the others followed quickly. We got to the ridge in less than 20 seconds to a very...interesting view.
The thunderbird was there but he wasn't alone. There was a doe, a fox, a racoon, another bird that I couldn't place, and a giant whale in a big patch of water that was floating over the huge drop over the ridge. I blinked at them before shaking my head.
"Uh hello." I said to the animals that I didn't meet last time.
'Hiya!' The racoon said excitedly, while waving one of it's paws. 'I'm Winniefred, protector of pranksters and thievs.'
She held out her paw to me and I shook it.
"Thomas." I murmured. On the outside looking in, this would seem very strange but really it actually feels...right.
'Oh I know,' She said. 'We've been watching over all of you.'
"So you are the ones that are going to help us?"
'We already are.' The whale boomed from the water, causing the ground to shake slightly.
'Ease up on the voice brother.' Winniefred chided softly before turning back to us. 'That's Josiah, protector of the seven seas. That's Pheobe, protector of messengers and travelers," She gestured to the bird that was as big as an Eagle. "That's Malachi and Ameena. Protectors of the hunt and nature respectively,' She nodded to the fox and the doe. The doe nodded at us but the fox was glaring at Winniefred. 'What's wrong with you?' She demanded.
'Must you be so informal sister?' He snarled at her. 'They are not our friends and they are not apart of this council, so I would appreciate it if they addressed us in the correct manner.'
"Jeeze what a dick." Brady said ouloud before covering his mouth with his hand. Malachi turned to glare at him before he snarled. I stepped in front of Brady and growled at the fox.
'Idiot boy!' He snarled. 'Out of my way, I need to teach that pup a lesson.'
"You'll have to go through me first." I told him in an ice cold voice. "And I will not make it easy for you."
'You don't have the power or the will to do anything.' He spat at me. 'Why would you even try?'
"Because it is the right thing to do."
Suddenly, he stopped glaring and gave me a toothy grin. I frowned in confusion. I glanced at the others and saw thet they were confused. All except the spirits and the other wolves. I narrowed my eyes.
"This was a test." I said. It was a statement, not a question.
'Do you still feel that you are not ready for this?' Malachi asked dryly.
"This is different."
"No it's not son," My father said. "A real leader does not think of themselves, they think of those they need to protect. They would willingly give their lives to protect the ones they love. You would do such a thing. You know this, so why are you afraid?"
"Because what if I fail!" I snapped as fresh tears welled in my eyes. "What if somebody dies on my watch? I couldn't live with that! I couldn't save you. I couldn't save Harry. Hell I couldn't save anyone of you!" I pointed at Aunt Sarah and Uncle Josh. If Quils dad were here, I would have pointed at him too.
My dad stepped forward and slapped me across the face. I was thoroughly shocked for the first time in my life. Mainly because that was the first time my dad had done something like that. He glared at me and said.
"Don't you ever say that again," I flinched from the tone in his voice. It was an angry tone with a hint of disapointment. "It is not your fault that I am dead. It was my own damn fault. I don't blame you for what happened to me and you shouldn't either. Nobody hear blames you right?" He asked the other spirits. They shook their heads. "See, nobody does so please don't hold on to that." He said softly. It would have been better if he yelled at me.
I fell to my knees, put my head in my hands and sobbed. I felt my dad wrap his arms around me and he rocked me gently.
"Let it out son. Let it out." He told me and I did. For the first time in 15 years, I cried like a child.
3RD PERSON POV
Makhai was pacing in his room as he contemplated on whether or not he should go through with this part of the plan. He didn't need to take the life of this woman, regardless of how vile and corrupt she was. He started to think of ways of where he could use himself as bait but they kept falling flat. Maria wouldn't stop complaining even after he had given her a few people to feed on. She said it took the thrill out of things but she was lucky to be getting anything at all, even if the people were less than stellar examples of what human beings should be. They were nothing more than thugs and drug dealers who preyed on the weak and didn't care about the consequences of their choices.
Makhai felt better that scum like them would never be able to harm an innocent again. One could ask, what gave him the right to be judge, jury, and executioner? He would say that no one did but he would ask what you would do had that been your child or family member. He would respect you had you said you would have faith in the justice system even if he didn't. For him, those that worked for the justice system were nothing but a bunch of fools. The evidence could be staring right in the face and they would still let these fools out of their imprisonment or worse, they weren't imprisoned at all and someone else had to take the fall. Makhai merely removed the bad guys out of the equation and so far, no one's been complaining.
Some would call this vigilante justice but I am no such thing. Makhai thought. I just refuse to take the lives of innocent people when they already have enough to deal with.
There was a knock at the door which caused Makhai to stop pacing. He turned to the door and said.
"Enter."
Raymond and Toshiro entered the room and bowed.
"Master," Toshiro murmured. "The human is getting restless, would you like us to sedate her?"
"No." Makhai sighed as he knew that it was now or never. "I'll be there shortly, just give me a moment."
They nodded and bowed before leaving the room.
Makhai turned to the fire place and glanced at the two pictures hanging over it. One was a portrait of him and his siblings. He and his brothers were in the back with their sisters in the front. He was the oldest boy but his sister, Alala, was the eldest child. They were followed by the twin boys, Proioxis and Palioxis. Their sisters Dysomnia and Neikea were next and their little brother Kydoimos was the last child.
Now while they were all of blood relation, they were not of the same species. Makhai, Kydoimios, and Alala were bitten by vampires and the others were bitten by werewolves. One would think that the instincts that they had would have torn the family apart but they overcame them and were stronger than ever.
They were easily the oldest of their kind. They weren't the first of their kind but they were there for the beginning of things. They never flaunted their powers and they never opressed anyone. They did the opposite in fact, they freed them from it. They fought many kings and leveled empires without so much as a batting an eye.
Nearly 3 millenia ago was when things changed.
They encountered a small group of vampires that offered them a place in their guard. The sibling refused out right and practically laughed in their faces when they said they would be the rulers of the supernatural world. One of them with snowy white hair had made the move to strike at them only to be struck down by a female werewolf who was close to the super powered siblings. He snarled in indignation and swore that he would get his revenge.
Not too long after, on the night of the full moon, he tried to kill her but she gained the upper hand. That is, until his brothers came in and helped destroy her.
That was when war was declared and all hell broke loose.
So much pain because of those bastards. Makhai thought angrily as he remembered the bruised and broken bodies of his wolf siblings. He was just as angry when he thought about what they did to his sisters befor they murdered them. His thoughts became sad when he glanced at the second picture. It was a portrait of him and his wife, Selene. She was taller than the average woman. She stood just over 6 feet with honey blonde hair that went to her lowerback and her eyes were a brilliant shade of grey.
She was a werewolf and they were one of the few interspecies couples that existed at the time. He tried not to think about that day when she was taken from him but a few images passed through his mind and he shuddered. He stared directly into her eyes and said.
"If you are watching over me, please understand that I am doing this for you." He paused and closed his eyes. "It's always been for you and I hope to see you soon my love."
He bowed to the portrait and headed for the door while thinking, 'Oh Zeus and other gods, give me your strength.
Short chapter for now. I had a little case of writers block when writing this, so it's probably not that good but I hope you enjoyed it.
