Chapter 9
Whilst walking up the grand staircase I looked around the beautiful exterior, it was all very posh and mostly made of light brown wood it wasn't the least bit dusty or old. I was impressed with how well kept the house was, Raven didn't say one word as we reached my room at the end of a long hallway. She opened it silently and I looked around in awe at my new room, I immediately noticed that most of my possessions from my home were sitting on the shelves.
And on the big king sized bed who else should be there but my dear cat Silkie, looking very happy as he purred sleepily on the purple covers. I smiled and turned to Raven who was looking out of the large windows.
"You want to know where the 10th person in our coven is?" Her voice was a whisper and all I could do was nod, Ravens eyes turned red as she pronounced the persons name
"Her name was Terra, but right now I'm not sure if she even remembers her name, shes in the basement rotting away but never dieing. She lost her mind after she made some very bad decisions involving our coven and Slade's, she nearly killed us all. Of course that doesn't stop Gar from visiting her everyday." She muttered the last part, I felt like I shouldn't be listening to this it seemed a bit unfair to me that just because she had lost her mind she should be locked up in the basement.
Of course Raven heard my thoughts and turned to face me
"she does deserve it, she was going behind our backs and telling Slade all of our secrets and weaknesses. She betrayed us and she was sentenced to death by Bruce, but he didn't realise that she cant be killed by anyone other than herself."
I was about to ask how but the mind reader cut me off, "like my father was explaining, we are all different and unique, Terra can only be killed if she wants to be. That's why Slade wanted her in his coven, she would be a key player in his game of chess and he would use her to defeat our coven, its what he was starting to do before we found out the truth."
I manged to ask a question "how did you find out the truth?"
Raven turned away from me and looked out towards the window. "Terra had a guilty conscience, she managed to keep her thoughts guarded from me but she eventually told Gar. He was so heartbroken that he couldn't forgive her and that's when she lost her mind, because she hated herself so much. Yet not enough to kill herself..."
Her tone was bitter and I realised why - Raven had trusted her as well, but it wasn't just that. The way she described what happened between Terra and Gar made me wonder, if Raven hated Terra because she had hurt Gar. Was she jealous of them? Luckily I kept these thoughts silent and hidden, I was grateful when Raven changed the topic.
"So, do you like your new room? I thought you'd like the colors, your little house is practically covered in purple" She rolled her eyes at me and I could help but burst out laughing. She smiled
"well Kori Anders I think we are going to get along just fine."
I smiled back and watched as she took out a strange looking necklace, from her pocket and tossed it to me. I held it up to inspect it,
it was a black cold stone, carved into a raven I looked up at Raven raising an eyebrow, she smiled wider showing her fangs. "If your ever in danger and I'm too far away to hear your thoughts, put that on and we can talk though a mind link created in that necklace."
"Wow" was my brilliant reply, I looked down at the necklace which was already around my neck, it was an emerald which was given to me by my parents when I was younger. When they died I began to wear it more and now I never took it off. I slipped the jewelery which Raven had given me in my left pocket but when I looked back up Raven was gone.
I looked around my room in a state of panic - How the hell did she do that?!
Hearing someone clearing their throat behind me I whirled around and found Raven leaning casually against the wall, "I'm afraid you will have to get used to me disappearing like that, its just my way of doing things. Before I leave though I felt like you wanted to ask me something else?"
She was good, I did want to ask her something else I had a million questions but if she answered this one I would feel much better about where I was going in this crazy situation. So summoning my courage which I would surly need I asked "why is Richard forbidden to touch me?"
Ravens expression went from shocked, understanding, angry and then saddened all in the space of 1 second. She sighed and walked back into my room muttering "this is going to take some getting used to."
"What do you mean?" I asked whilst stroking my beloved cats white fur, Raven rolled her eyes.
"Humans, you ask too many questions, but I'll answer as best as I can" she took a deep breath and sat down on my bed starring at my cat with saddened eyes. After what seemed like an hour she began to answer
"My brother has been a bit forward hasn't he? I'm afraid that he always goes after what he cant have. He is forbidden to touch you, because you aren't to be touched by anyone but your husband to be. You have to choose who that is first"
I thought about this for awhile and I answered foolishly with "What if I choose him?"
Raven looked at me in shock, I turned a bright red color and tried to avoid giving her eye contact "hang on a second there Kori! This is going to be someone who you are going to spend the rest of eternity with! You should at least think about it, besides you cant."
"Why not?!" My voice rose about twelve octaves, I let my hair fall into my face to hide my red cheeks, Raven rose an eyebrow.
"Calm down. You cant choose him because hes not really my fathers son, hes not of noble birth and I'm not even Bruce's daughter either, but he thinks of us as his children. His real son..."
She hesitated and I shifted in my seat with impatience, when she finally answered me I wished she hadn't...
"Is Xaviour Redd."
OOO
My eyes widened and my heart which had already suffered so much today, again felt like it wanted to break out of my chest. I tried to pull my self together and ask a question but I couldn't, so I did the only thing I could think of - ask her with my mind.
How is that possible?
She smiled and answered.
"In 1820 my father got bitten by a vampire, but before that he was a rich business man who had one son and no wife. His last wife had died in child birth and he was very lonely after her death, so he gradually drifted apart from his son and became obsessed with work."
I was finally able to talk "so what happened?"
She became thoughtful, "well one night Xaviour left home at the age of 18, he and Bruce had an argument but I don't know what it was about. Anyway Bruce was devastated and so he went out that night to find him, he searched all over town but he didn't find him, he found someone else. She was devastatingly beautiful, with long black hair and deep blue eyes, he was entranced by her and she thought it would be wasteful to simply kill such a handsome man.
So she changed him that very night and left him in a stable, when he awoke she was gone. To this day he has been searching for her but has never found her..."
She looked down in sorrow and I felt deep sympathy for Bruce, I still didn't totally trust him though, there were cracks in his foundation of 'the perfect leader.' Like what had he said to Xaviour to make him leave?
"So if I cant marry Richard, who can I?" My voice was dripping with anger, if I was going to be forced to marry I would have chosen him. I felt strange for thinking that but it was the truth, he was the only one I had bonded with since I had been dragged into this mess.
I was grateful that Raven and I had began a new friendship. She didn't seem like the type to go shoe shopping or talk about how amazing the lead male actor was in a movie but I knew I could trust her even if she wasn't a girly girl like I was sometimes.
She narrowed her eyes and looked out the window "Roy Harper would be one choice, hes of noble blood but hes a loner. He doesn't like being under command but he has an alliance with us, Richard told you he was dangerous huh?"
I nodded as she rolled her eyes and muttered something like "stupid, jealous brother."
Tilting my head to the side I asked "who else?"
She sighed heavily "Wally would be a candidate but...he is in love with someone else..." It was my turn to raise an eyebrow and I signaled her to continue, she did so reluctantly.
"What I tell you next is privet, whatever you do, you cant think about this while your around Bruce, he would go mad if he knew the truth."
I smiled "I promise"
That seemed to be all Raven needed.
"Everyday he goes out on patrol, but instead of going on patrol Wally goes to see Jinx."
"JINX?!" I thought back to the pink haired, wild eyed girl that had been standing before me many hours ago. Now that I thought about it I was totally worn out, but I wanted to know more so I pushed away sleep depribed feelings.
"Yes, I'm afraid you cant help who you fall in love with, she feels the same way about him too. Slade and Bruce dont know but if they did...Wally and Jinx would most likely be killed."
Kinda like Romeo and Juliet
"why?"
Raven looked away from me again "It would be betraying their covens, Wally wants to leave Bruce's coven so he and Jinx can run away together but Jinx cant get away from Slade. So right now they are lying low and trying to think of a plan"
I nodded in understanding, I was puzzled by many things she had said but I didn't want to bother her with any more questions than necessary. I allowed myself to ask one more question
"and why are you telling me all of this?"
She tilted her head to the side slightly "I don't know, I never usually talk to anyone, let alone tell anyone other peoples secrets. Its like Ive gained some of my humanity back by being with you, I now see that you will be a wonderful leader to our people... thank you Kori."
I nodded happily and then stopped short when I realised what she said, I opened my eyes from blinking and noticed that again she had disappeared.
"Wait! What do you mean a great leader?!"
All I got in response to my question was laughter echoing around my room.
OOO
Much later into the night at about 5.30 in the morning, I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I sat up in bed and grumbled to myself, I had had about 2 hours sleep and I wasn't in the best of moods from the small amount of sleep. I grumpily opened the door to find Richard leaning casually on the door frame, I stumbled back in surprise and tripped over my own feet, he quickly caught my waist and set me up straight.
"I apologise, I should have waited until later but I wanted to ask you something." He shut the door behind him and smiled politely
I rolled my eyes "yes you should have waited until morning! Do you have any idea what time it is? I'm not a vampire, I don't sleep during the day and I am supposed to have 8 hours sleep!"
His eyes turned sad "I'm sorry"
I grumbled "you should be."
The sides of his lips turned upwards, like he was trying not to smile, then shocking me and giving me a very large wake up call he took my hand from my side, and brought up it to his face which was now seconds away from mine.
"Would you forgive me if I put you back to sleep?" His voice was low and husky I couldn't help but lean slightly towards him as he kissed my hand again like he had when we first met properly. I nodded slowly in responce to his question "yes, but you might as well ask me your question..." I was surprised at the sound of my voice, it was low too and flirtatious I had never flirted or even gone out with a boy before.
Richard smiled and realsed my hand, his blue eyes were twinkleing misceveously "would you like to accopany me to a dance tommorow night?"
I felt my eyes widen "a dance?!"
"A dance" he repeated casually and then leaned towards me slightly "wear the red dress in your wardrobe" he whispered.
"B - b - but I - me, you! Together? Dancing?!" I cursed myself for stuttering, he seemed amused at my blunder.
"Yes, is that alright? I thought you liked dancing"
I shook my head and tried to clear it, in truth I wanted to go with Richard to a dance but I kept remembering that he wasn't of noble birth and I couldn't marry him.
God...I'm going to get married...
"I do, its just...Richard, why are you doing this? Raven told me about how 'I cant marry someone who's not of nobel birth,' she told me you weren't so why do you keep doing this?" I had just realised that I had unententionally dropped Raven into this conversation if Richard didn't like what she had told me she might get in trouble.
He didn't look too happy either "Raven told you that did she?" His voice was low and dangerous, he looked like he was trying to hold back his anger but his eyes were turning red again.
I couldn't lie myself out of this one so I nodded and hoped that Raven would forgive me - Its not like I told him on purpose.
He backed away from me and composed himself slightly "I'll pick you up tomorrow at 7.00, forget what my sister told you, she doesn't know what shes talking about." With that said he bowed and walked out of my door, I stood there helplessly and grumbled to myself about annoying vampires as I shut the door behind him with a slam.