A.N. Happy Mother's day to all you awesome moms! This is a short chapter and in my opinion, could have done with some more revision but I wanted to update today. Also will not take as long with the next chapter where we will find out what happens with the military showing up at the Island.


Chapter 43

The Spirit Journey

Gasping, she slams the knife down over and over, heaving with the effort. Pulling the knife from the grasp of relenting flesh, the steel glints in the sun. Blood drips in a thick slosh from the serrated edge.

She smiles.

Then her smile slowly fades as she remembers leeches don't bleed.

The blood smells like the scent she cherishes.

The scent of her mate.

Heart rising in her throat, she swallows back the frantic beat. Slowly lowering her eyes, she meets his open and dead dark gaze staring back at her.


The broken sound of her panicked cries wakens her, the screams tearing from her repeatedly.

Hannah's face looms over her. She brings her finger to her lips to make a hush gesture then cradles her face, whispering hastily, "Alvana, don't scream. He will come running and he can't be near you now."

The extraordinary warmth of Hannah's fingers on her chin is secondary to the terror still coiling through her gut.

She brushes Hannah's hands aside quickly, leaning away just as a spew of thin vomit shoots out of her, bringing stinging tears to her eyes. The sour remnants coating the pit of her throat chokes her until she has to spit it out, over and over.

"Oh, Alvana, I warned you about this." Hannah frets over her, wiping at her face with a damp cloth. "Calm down now. It's okay. Whatever you saw is not real, just a final purging of the mind. Now you are fully ready for the Spirit Journey…"

The visions had seemed so real. She can scent his blood on her hands so intensely that she glances down at her shaking fingers. Her hands are clean but her mind is chaotic.

A whimper fights its way out of her without her consent.

Hannah grasps her hands, wrapping her trembling fingers around a cup of tea. Eager to be rid of the sour aftertaste of bile, she eagerly sips at the bitter tea. Except it tastes sweet now.

That whirring tornado builds up again in her head, the dizziness returning in faster waves than before.

One moment she is sipping the tea and the next she is standing before a bridge. The washed out board panels connect across a shallow rivulet, the whispering water wending its way between ashen rocks of various sizes.

Biting her lip as if the mild ache would give her an answer as to where she is, she glances around. Gone are the ghostly pines. She is now surrounded by a forest of redwoods, their blushing trunks supporting full branches heavy with leaves that sway gently like small bright green flags above her.

The crunch of leaves kicked up by moving feet captures her attention. The sound is coming from the other side of the bridge.

A woman is there, running through the trees. She doesn't look at Bella but she stops abruptly, moving her hands to grasp at the roots of her hair as if assaulted by a raging headache.

The woman sinks down to her knees in the grass, moaning softly.

She swiftly crosses the bridge going to the young woman's side. About to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, Bella steps back in surprise when a man emerges from the trees.

The man is young and bare chested, clad in soft skinned trousers, the colour of a fawn. He moves to kneel before the woman where she crouches on the ground, clasping her in his bare sturdy arms.

Neither the man nor the kneeling woman looks at her.

"Marie, Marie, I'm right here..." The man murmurs, stroking her long brown hair.

Her lips seem to part of their own volition and Bella can't close them just yet. She takes a step back, riveted to the couple holding each other.

With a jolt of recognition, she realizes she is in the Spirit Journey.

Blindly sinking onto the forest floor beside the couple, the static tingles of what seem like a million goosebumps shroud her like a prickly coat.

Looking at them, she realizes they can't sense her presence. They don't know she is here.

Marie raises her head, gripping the man to her, laying her head on his bare shoulder.

"I saw another vision, Quidel." Her eyes are wide with terror but her voice has a strong lilt. "They won't stop coming!"

Bella can remember Gran Lee describing Quidel. Marie's mate…

Quidel murmurs comfortingly, hands brushing Marie's hair away from her tear stained face. "What did you see this time, my Tahnee Kwoli?"

Sam's deep voice resounds in Bella's head from that night when she'd been straddling his lap as he whispered the Quileute word for wolf. Kwoli. And after the discovery of the Lost Journal, as she had skimmed over in the first entries, she had learned the word Tahnee means princess. Quidel had called Marie his wolf princess.

Bella couldn't help but smile yet Marie, with a choking sob, starts to speak again.

"I don't know, it's like everything has changed. The people in the vision dress differently. But the cold ones are still the same except they wear these cloaks, long dark red things like the blood they seek, the cloth covering their heads so that only a little of their faces can be seen. They rush through a town, much like Forks but different still. They attack the people, feeding from them. There were so many of them, Quidel! I am afraid."

Bella swallows convulsively. Marie is describing the exact scene that had happened in Forks not too long ago. Her great grand mother had the ability to see in the future, as far ahead as Bella's time.

A movement catches her eye.

Between the trees behind them, someone else is there watching them. Looking closely at the peeping Tom, Bella gasps. He could be no other than Old Quil.

But now he is much younger, his cheeks rounded with youth and not the gauntness she knows.

The expression on young Old Quil's face is harsh and bitter as he watches the embracing couple.

Quidel pulls Marie to her feet. Turning he glances at Old Quil, as if aware he'd been there all along. Quidel greets Old Quil, a warm smile lighting up his face. "Brother, it's good to see you. Finally, you have returned from the mountain."

Bella watches as Old Quil adjusts his expression into one of docile pleasantness.

"Yes my brother, it's good to be back home again.

Quidel moves towards Old Quil. Behind him, Marie watches apprehensively before following Quidel.

Rising to stand, Bella moves to follow them but that whirring noise of the tornado builds up again, filling her ears until she can't see anything but darkness.


When she opens her eyes again, more darkness surrounds her but there is no accompanying wind of the black tornado.

Something runs past her.

Glancing at the fleeing silhouette, she recognizes familiar mahogany hair trailing behind the fleeing woman. It's Marie, running through the trees except now it is night.

Instinctively, Bella follows her trail. Catching up, she keeps abreast of her fleeing ancestor, wondering what Marie is running from. She can feel the adrenaline pumping through her heart as if echoing Marie's own excitement. She doesn't seem scared in the least.

Then she smells it. Leech. Very close.

The putrid acidity tails Marie as they both run.

Marie suddenly stops running, spinning around to face the oncoming threat. And Bella wonders why she doesn't phase.

The leech materializes from the darkness, a tall, slender man with pale hair.

The long coat jacket the leech wears tapers down to his knees and paired with pressed trousers, the black satiny sheen makes his skin gleam even more unnaturally bright. It almost seems as if he had been at some fancy party and had made a detour. To the woods...

Yet still, if not for her enhanced vision from the Instinct, she may not have seen him at all in the unrelenting darkness of the forest.

As he stares at Marie, the hunger is blatant in his red glowing eyes.

Marie smiles, beckoning the leech with her fingers. She teasingly flings her hair over her shoulders and the leech inhales deeply, licking his lips.

The leech comes closer and Bella wants to attack the leech but no matter how she tries she can't intervene. Like the redwoods around them, she is rooted where she stands, unable to move anymore.

A scream builds in her when the leech, unrestricted by his suit, reaches for Marie with blinding speed. But a huge shadow darts between the leech and Marie.

Amidst the violent sounds of ripping limbs and monstrous growls, the whirring tornado grasps her again, sweeping her away from Marie and the rabid wolf dismantling the leech in the night forest.


Early morning light seeps through thin skin of her eyelids. Opening her eyes, she sits up from the dry leaves on the ground much in the same way she would rise from her bed in the morning. That is, when she'd still been sleeping by herself...

The wail of a baby through the trees pull her to the direction of the sound. These woods seem familiar and she realizes why when stepping out of the trees. Before her stands the original cabin Quidel had constructed for Marie. It is completely different to how she knows it now, a small stream that did not exist anymore trickling opposite the huge redwood.

Seated beneath the redwood Marie tenderly skims her finger over the cheek of the baby she cradles in her arms. Settling herself comfortably on a blanket, she eases out a swollen breast, gently feeding the baby. The baby's cries ease as she burrows into her mother's chest.

Quidel lopes out of the trees Bella had just emerged from, heading straight to Marie and the feeding infant. Carefully sitting behind Marie, he wraps her arms around her, rubbing his face against her hair.

The picture before her blurs a little and Bella holds her breath, expecting the tornado to sweep her away again. But it is her own eyes that sting.

Can your soul cry? Apparently, yes.

Quidel and Marie look at the baby now fed and full now as she gurgles back at her smiling parents.

Without the warning of the rushing tornado, the scene before her immediately changes.

Marie rushes through the woods, her hand clutching her chest. She is gasping for breath as if within the next second, she would collapse from lack of oxygen. Bella rushes after her, her own heart sinking as she traces Marie's steps along the muddy trail.

A despairing wail erupts from Marie. Quidel is lying there on the forest floor, blood trickling from his chest. A gaping wound covers the spot directly over his heart.

Marie flings herself down beside her mate, shaking hands hovering over him as if she does not know where to touch him.

Quidel reaches for her and she clasps his hand to her mouth. All the colour had been leached from Marie's face, her whole body shivers, her eyes vacant.

"No, no, please no." Bella whispers.

They can't hear her.

A beam of light, blindingly white, illuminates the horrific scene before her, shining ever brighter until Marie, and her dying Quidel and the surrounding trees melt away.

"Child of my blood…"

The light whisper echoes around her.

Turning around, she is no longer in the woods.

Her bare toes curl into warm, wet sand. The crash of the waves pummel the shore. Standing before her is the silhouette of a woman, long mahogany strands blowing in the brisk sea wind. Her hair is straight without the ripple of Bella's curls.

Marie regards her with smiling eyes.

Draped around her slender frame is a soft skin dress, the material like the deerskin trousers Quidel had worn. Her warm skin reflects the fawn shade, a pale beige, of the dress which reaches mid-calf and ends in thin tassels that skim her delicate ankles.

"I'm so sorry. About what happened to you. And your mate." Bella whispers.

"Don't be." Marie slips her arm between Bella's own, drawing her to walk along the shore. The water foams along the sand not reaching their bare feet.

"There is much I have to tell you, my daughter. But the time we are given now is little. You are needed more than ever now. The ability you have is the defense needed to overcome those who would destroy everything good."

Bella looks at her, "You have the ability to see the future."

"In my earthly time, yes I did. It was useful, I must admit. When the Cold Ones came to the Rez, drawn by my scent, I saw when they would come before they did. And my Quidel and his young pack would ambush them."

"They were drawn to your scent?"

"As they are to yours as well, my daughter. Your scent attracts the males of their kind. They hunger for it. The Cold Ones are repulsed by our warriors but your scent lures them to you. In my time, many leeches were drawn to the Reservation after I had come fully into my Alvana. Now that you have, your scent will grow even more powerful, an aphrodisiac for the Cold males. It can be an advantage. I would draw them in and in their distraction, my Quidel would annihilate them."

"And you saw them intruding before it happened."

"Yes. The Cold Ones are not the only ones who are gifted. Every Alvana has her own special ability."

"I think I don't have any."

"Many will underestimate you my daughter but you must not underestimate yourself. There is not time for that now. Your gift is wrapped inside you. You just have to find it."

"If I do have a special ability…do you know what it is?"

Marie sighs softly, looking out at sea as if seeing some ship at the faded line where sea meets sky. Turning to look at her again, she whispers, "I can't tell you what your gift is. Every Alvana must discover it on her own. You will find it when you most need it."

Bella glances down at the sand as they stroll on the shore. "The leeches…the Cold Ones…they didn't kill your mate. They didn't kill you. Old Quil shot Quidel, didn't he?"

"Yes he did."

She cannot fathom the calm in Marie's tone. "Didn't you, um, see what would happen?"

"My gift only extends to the Cold Ones, daughter. Every vision I ever had was about the Cold Ones' arrival. What people did was beyond the realm of my gift. As Quidel's blood covered my hands and the wound on his chest sealed up caging the bullet in his heart, only then did I learn that the people you trust can be even more dangerous than your enemies."

"I can't believe Old Quil did this to the both of you."

"Old Quil was once young Quil." Marie smiles.

Again, she turns her face away to watch at the distant horizon, at the golden flare of the setting sun. The fringe of her lashes glistens in the waning sunlight as if lacy frost clings to the long tips.

"There is something I want you to do for me, Bella. About Quil. Here's what I want you to do."

Turning to her, Marie whispers in her ear.

Swallowing harshly, Bella slowly nods.

Marie beams at her.

"Our time now is almost over. Remember, you may be part of a war that would reveal the monster in those around you but never lose your peace, child of my blood. Because it is in the center of your calm, you will best use your gift to fight the storm. I have been granted time to be your guide. The Journal will show you how to find me when you need me. And I will be here to give you guidance when you need it just as the Alvanas before I was born did for me. And you will need more guidance than those before you. Not because you are weak but because of what you must face. You have no choice but to be strong because you were born to be."

"How will I see you again?"

"Read the Journal, my daughter. The Journal is yours to grow, add your own experiences to it, make it a book of victory. The battle I have foreseen so many moons ago is already unfolding. You, Alvana, are needed more than ever."

"I feel like I'm not big enough for this." Inhaling deeply, she tries to articulate further, to make Marie understand that she feels as insignificant as a gnat on a mountain. That she is beyond her element.

But Marie pats her shoulder, her brown eyes reflecting understanding. Looking into her great grandmother's eyes glowing like chocolate diamonds, Bella realizes how pretty her own eyes are.

"Small things grow, my daughter. You are the seventh wolf to phase in your pack. Seven has always been a sacred number within the tribe. Your gift is the backbone of your warriors. Don't allow fear to cripple your strength."

Marie glances over her shoulder and Bella follows her gaze.

Footprints embedded in the damp sand trail out behind them. But it is only one pair of footprints. Her own...

She turns to Marie but she's gone. Looking around quickly, she realizes the wind on the sea shore grows into a wail. Sand swirls into the air creating a dusty veil that obscures the water. But the impromptu sand storm does not sting her eyes though she closes them out of reflex.

And when the whirl of the tornado returns, she wonders where she is going next.

Within moments, the gusty winds of the tornado fade and she slides her eyes open. The buzz of a helicopter intrudes on the deep calm of the previously silent woods.