Chapter 10: Trouble, Trouble, Love?

I was almost blinded by the excruciating light that was projected from the ring. All my senses were trained on it as it turned the world around me into a white glow, covering the world so that I seem to exist in a blank universe

I'm surprised that the light didn't burn my skin but all I felt was a warm glow that actually felt comfortable. I thought I heard voices around me but I couldn't comprehend what they were saying.

The light shined for what seem to be an eternity when in actuality it probably only lasted a couple minutes. When the ring stopped glowing I was brought back to the real world and my senses returned to normal.

"Am I alive?" Sage asked wearily.

"Don't worry you're okay and well and alive," Ellie said just as weary.

"Where did Victor and his friends go?" Sage asked.

"They ran off, the light must have scared them away," Christa said. As everyone surveyed the area we were surprised by the amount smoke and fried grass on Christa's lawn. Actually I'm pretty sure there was more ash than there was soil.

"If anyone asks, " Sage said with a grin, "your lawnmower exploded."

"More like five lawnmowers exploded," Christa said.

"I think one of those wizards blew up my homework," Sage complained.

"I'll call you in absent tomorrow," Ellie said.

"Anyway, great job Nessie! You saved the day!" Sage said then stretched out her hand for a high five.

I was about to give her a high five but as I raised my hand, I was hit by an onslaught of nausea and vertigo. I started trembling where I stood and my knees buckled I fell on them.

"Are you okay?" Everyone else said simultaneously. I didn't have time to answer because my vision faded and I was quickly submerged into unconsciousness.

I woke up before my eyes opened. I registered that I was lying on a couch and from the feel of it it felt like I slept on Christa's worn out, lavender-scented couch, wrapped in a knitted blanket and a feathery pillow.

For the first few minutes after I woke up, I couldn't remember anything except that there was a white glow somewhere in my memory. I peeked my eyes open a bit and scanned the room around me. All seemed normal in the cabin of a witch and the living room looked spotless.

I felt my hands wound up under the pillow and I gently slid them out where I could see them. It was then that I noticed I was still wearing dazzling red ruby and my eyes popped open. My memory from not that long ago came back to me.

"She's awake," I heard Ellie squeal. I looked up and noticed Ellie sitting across from me in wooden chair. She looked like she had been sitting there for a while, probably to watch me. Well that was nice of her.

Just then Sage and Christa came skidding into the room with identical worried looks on their faces.

"How are you?" Christa asked.

"Tired. Did what happening actually happen?"

"Yep, by the way I convinced your mom into letting you sleep over. I didn't know how long you would be out so I thought I would just keep you here in case you were effected by some of the magic. Though I think your mom is starting to get suspicious of your spontaneous naps."

"She'll get over it."

"Which means we get to have a sleepover party!" Sage said, the worried look on her face had been replaced with happiness.

"Don't you two have to get home?" Christa said.

"Well we aren't going to school tomorrow so why not just hang around here? You have another couch and bed," Ellie said with a smile.

"Fine. You guys can stay over." Ellie and Sage gave each other high fives and started calling dibs on who would sleep where.

"So anything interesting happen while I was sleeping?" I asked

"Nothing much, Ellie watched you, I made tea, Charlie came over-"

"Charlie came over? Are you crazy?" I said incredulously and turned to look out the window to the front lawn but was surprised that the lawn looked flawless instead of looking like a battlefield.

"But…wasn't there…" I said but trailed off.

"Oh don't worry, a little hour of sprinkling magic and voila! The lawn looked normal again and anything in the house that got wrecked I threw out."

"Oh, so what did you do with Charlie?" I asked going back to talking nonchalantly.

"Oh you know we just talked and apparently Charlie's holding a little party next Saturday. It's going to be for that policeman that got shot and their celebrating him getting out of the hospital."

"And we're invited?"

"Of course, I'm even allowed to bring allowed Ellie and Sage! Your family is also invited though I'm not sure if all of you are going though."

I looked to see where Sage and Ellie were in case they were close by. They seemed to be in Christa's room going through her pajamas looking for something they could wear. Good, I didn't want them to overhear what I was about to say.

"Ellie and Sage won't notice that my family members are vampires, will they?" I asked in a whispered voice.

"No," Christa replied in the same whispered tone, "Only witches like me that are part of the Lacertosus can actually sense other supernatural creatures, the other classes below us can't. If Sage and Ellie see a person without crimson or black eyes then they won't suspect that person of being a vampire. And since all the natives around here are pale your family blends in nicely. Basically Ellie and Sage tell the supernatural apart from the humans by appearance and your family seems to blend in with the way humans look so they're fine."

"What about the Wolves? Charlie is definitely going to invite a few of them."

"Oh please, the Wolves are just muscular, young men. Sage and Ellie will be drooling over them more than they will be interrogating them."

I smiled but then I remembered something Natalia had said to me. "Hey Christa, did Ellie and Sage have any problems or fights with a vampire or a werewolf?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious."

"Well," Christa said, "Sage once told me about a time just a year after she was turned into a witch that she was attacked by a vampire. She was twelve I think and she had wandered away from her witch clan-the witch clan that Lucille took her from-and she came upon what she thought was a beggar."

"She was living in Australia; the homeless population was quite big at the time, and maybe still is, so it wasn't strange if you saw someone homeless every now and then. Sage was in a desert just outside the city of Alice Springs. She was just wandering aimlessly trying to find a place to practice her magic without being noticed."

"When she was about to practice she heard someone moaning. Sage looked around and noticed a dirty man with ripped clothes yelping in pain beside a couple of boulders. Sage the sweat heart she was hated seeing vagrants in such misery and wanted to offer the vagrant some food and maybe a place to stay."

"As she got closer to the man he noticed her and called out for help. When she reached him she automatically lent him a hand. He told her that he was thirsty and needed something to drink badly."

"He turned his face toward her and Sage noticed how his skin shimmered off the Australia sun and immediately backed away from him. She also noticed that his eyes were pitch and he was looking at her funny. He was a vampire and Sage was the unlucky victim."

"The next part gets a bit gory so I won't go into full detail but Sage and the vampire battled it out. Eventually Sage's clan came looking for her and killed the vampire attacking her. Sage wasn't bitten but she was badly injured and it took a lot of magic to fix her."

"Poor Sage…and she was just 12!" I said sympathetically.

"It's sad a similar thing happened to Ellie though much worse," Christa said.

"What happened to Ellie?"

"Like I said the story is similar," Christa said, "But one night when Ellie was fifteen, almost two years before I left, she was attacked by both a vampire and a Child of the Moon. It's actually a rarity that this happens. You're aware of the Volturi's laws, right?" I nodded.

Christa continued, "Well not everyone is loyal to their leader so sometimes a vampire will do something to oppose the Volturi-to show that the Volturi can't control them-so sometimes a vampire will look for a Child of the Moon, or werewolf, and then purposely travel with them and protect them against the Volturi."

"So one night Ellie was at a pharmacy getting something-I forget what, if I try to think about I keep saying that it wasn't worth what was about to happen next-and she was walking home."

"All of the sudden, the streets and sidewalk were clear with no person, car, or building insight. Ellie told me that there were no streetlights; the only thing lighting her way was the glistening full moon. She was just walking on the sidewalk when out of nowhere he pounced on her. It was a vampire, thankfully a weak one that Ellie managed to get away from my confusing it with her magic."

"Ellie ran into the woods, but that was where the werewolf was waiting for her. She managed to run half a mile before the werewolf caught up to her. The werewolf was worse than the vampire. It managed to grab on to Ellie's foot with its sharp teeth and dragged her back to the vampire. They ganged up on her leaving her much more bruised and bleeding than Sage was.

"Luckily Ellie was strong enough to try and fight and she screamed loud enough for us to hear a mile away. Everyone came after her and we managed to kill the vampire but the werewolf got away. The werewolf stalked Ellie after that and sent her threatening messages so we had to move away. We never saw him again and if we do he isn't going to get away."

"It was interesting though. When we were bandaging Ellie, it was the first time that I had seen Tiffany be so nice to her own sister, regretting every mean thing she had done to Ellie. And Lucille, it was the first time I saw her hold Ellie for longer than ten seconds. She incessantly hugged Ellie and begged her to stay alive. We were all depressed about Ellie but they were the most."

"Sage and Ellie are both now terrified of vampires but Ellie is also scared dogs and wolves and I think she goes a bit crazy every time she sees a full moon.

"Any other scary stories you want to hear?" Christa asked concluding Ellie's story.

"How do you tell stories with such detail even though you weren't there?" I asked.

"Ellie and Sage are descriptive tellers and I picked up a few things they hinted," Christa explained.

"So," Sage said coming up from behind Christa, "I heard you talking about us. What did you say?"

"Oh you know, just about how awesome you and Ellie are," Christa said sarcastically.

"Of course," Sage said and we all laughed though laughs turned into yawns and I felt my eyelids get droopy.

"You're tired already kid?" Sage asked.

"Yes I guess I'm really drained from what happened today," I said and started making my way towards the couch.

"Goodnight," Everyone said in unison. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I watched and smiled as Nessie landed face first into the pillow. I could hear her light snores already and I giggled. That kid was really cute; I think I might steal her from Christa one of these days.

"Sage," I heard Ellie say my name, "Do you want to get ready for bed as well?"

Before I could reply the doorbell chimed that someone was hear.

"It's eight o' clock at night, can't people just wait until the morning to bother me," Christa grunted and I giggled while fiddling with my long braid. Christa opened the door to three large Native American boys. I think I remember Christa telling me that the Native Americans here were called Quileute or something.

"What's up Jake?" Christa said to the boy in front.

"I just brought over Nessie's stuff," he said giving Christa the over-sized duffle, bag in his hands. He peered into the house and noticed Nessie sleeping lazily on the couch.

"She's asleep already?" Jake asked incredulously.

"You just missed it, she feinted into the couch literally five seconds ago," I said and I heard one of the boys at the door chuckle. I turned to look at the boy and he turned to look at me.

And then it was like something in the air exploded that only me and this boy seemed to notice. I had never met this boy but I felt like I did and for some reason it made my heart go wild. We stared at each other blissfully while everyone else seemed to be oblivious to our connection."

"Come on guys lets go," Jake said and went out the door along with the other boy in the doorway while my beautiful boy hesitated then walked slowly out the door while watched me the entire way. My heart seemed to cry as he left. Oh, I didn't veen know his name…

Author's Note: In case you didn't know, yes, a Quileute wolf imprinted on Sage. No, I will not tell you who…yet. Please review! I also wanted to ask if anyone had any suggestions for the new title of this story (in case you didn't know I'm changing because it kind of sounds corny) and I want to hear your opinions on the new characters like Christa and Sage because I can't write about them if you don't like them. And did I say to review? I did, too bad! REVIEW!

-J.J.