Chapter 10: The Family Promise

A/N: I am posting this chapter because I really hate chapter 9. It was necessary though. I wanted to bring in Max more. So here is. Please review.

Adriana's POV:

I told everyone that I was sick and that I would be in my room. I know it was a lie but I had to see my brother. So many things have changed and I don't know who I can trust. Yes I have Adrian, Kat, and Luke but I just met them. With something like this I couldn't be too careful. No matter what has happened in my life my brother has always been there for me. Sighing, I stare at the clock: 11:25. Good I could do the spell. Marcus thinks I haven't been paying much attention to my magic and that's what I need him to think. I need everyone to think that I am the happiest I have ever been. I had found a bunch of old spell books that taught how to use the elements in magic. I could not only draw from inside me but from the earth around me. I was gaining crazy amounts of power and as of late I needed all the help I could get. I was trying to stay away from using spirit. I have heard what it does to a person and I couldn't deal with going crazy too. After I texted my brother I went on a witch hunt – no pun intended – to hide a transportation spell. The one I found required a strong witch I was hoping I was one. I started to recite the spell and I could feel the magic. The spell required me to pull from the earth. My magic was warm, like a hot summer day. I was sweating but earth felt like a cool calming river. The feeling of peace spread through me but at the same an inner battle was taking place. My body wanted to pass out from the heat rising inside me but my brain wanted – needed – to keep going. At that moment I knew what being close to death felt like. Before I had the chance to, I hit the ground. Blinking away tears I saw I was at the lake in my town.

This lake was like any other lake. Beautiful and peaceful but if you go off the beaten path you will find hide outs. That is exactly what my brother and I fond when we where eight; we named it Twin' cove. At the time we were so obsessed with the fact that we where twins and it couldn't get any better than that. The cove had a huge tree in the center that split up the center, giving it only two main branches. There was a massive piece of wood that was placed in between the branches. We had dragged that wood a mile and lifted it to fit in the tree. We were determined.

"I'm here." Max announces from behind me, pulling me out of my little world. "But what I want to know is how you are here." I was hugging him before he could finish his sentence. I was so happy to be around him.

"Magic, brother." I didn't want to tell him everything that had happened, I knew he would freak. Hell I freaked out when it was happening.

"I was trying to figure that out," Oh God. My brother was naturally a questioning person and if he didn't understand something you bet your bottom dollar that he would eventually. "And the amount of magic it would take to transport you from one side of the United States to the other is something you don't possess. So how did you do it?" HE wasn't going to drop it either.

"Okay, originally there was one coven of witches –"

"How does this answer my question?" Max says cutting me off.

"If you would shut up I could tell you." He sighs "Now like I was saying. In the beginning there was only one coven of witches. The coven was ruled my two brothers both equal in power. One brother names – Tarsus – fell deeply in love with a human woman. She loved him back every much and they were going t be a family, however, she had a terrible accident that led to her death. Grieve stricken. Tarsus uses his powers to bring her back to life creating the first Strigoi. After she was awoken, she was not the same. She went on a killing rampage. She ended up turning about fifteen humans into Strigoi. Alarmed, the other brother – Discus – casted Tarsus out of the coven and anyone who followed under his rule. That happened to be half the coven. Discus had to stop the Strigoi, so Discus rounded up the five strongest witches and warlocks and used the power from earth, fire, air, and water to create living vampires – Moroi - that could yield one of the elements. The others in the coven thought that the new Moroi could defeat the Strigoi; however, Discus knew that they would need something stronger to really stand a chance. When everyone was asleep we did a spell that used his spirit to make a fifth Moroi that could yield spirit. The rest of the coven found him dead and a Moroi sitting next to him. This coven named themselves Light and swore off the use of the elements in magic after they saw how it could kill. They kicked out the Moroi to fend for themselves, out of grief. Even though they had sworn off the use of the elements, however, didn't mean that they didn't right down those spells. There are extremely old spell books that talk about using the elements. Tarsus and his coven despised Light and wanted nothing to do with them. They were called Dark and practiced a kind of magic that used the darkness from spirit and the world. That kind of magic isn't practiced anymore nor did they ever write a spell book with dark magic. I came here with the help of earth magic." He looked like he wanted to protest and tell me all the dangers of elemental magic that he knew nothing about. "Before you get all preachy I needed talk to you because someone sent me this." Reaching into my pocket, I take out a letter.

The letter had no return or send address on it. But the message was written on pretty expensive paper. I had found it on my bed when I had finally stopped by my dorm after a night spent at Adrian's. The message was short, but impactful:

I can still find you.

I can still see you.

I hope your new friends don't get hurt this time.

Or you.

My brother looked at me after reading it and immediately crossed the space between us to embrace me "Like last time we will get through this again."

A/N: I know another short chapter. They all won't be this short. I wanted to show you just how close siblings can be. Plus I like writing really suspenseful chapters. Tell me what you think. After this I promise for a Chapter on Luke and Adriana. I am really excited for that BTW. Anyways I probably won't update still Friday so see you then.

DA