Emmalynn Bennett Pov
*Flashback*
Year 1887
Opening my view to an unfamiliar place, lightly dim with flame shadows.
It's not long to take sight of where I lay.
The ceiling above the circular round stone, a fire in the wall spoke to the calmness of someone's cozy home.
It appears that I have lost consciousness from that healing water, with no reconciliation of knowing this place.
The wolf carried me away before my eyes weighed heavy.
His dark caved home could be miles from where we were.
I've hidden in a cave once before on a hunt, just not as neat and furnished as this one.
I sat up quickly.
A brown grassy rug laid in the middle of the floor as I felt around the soft bedding.
The light purple nightgown I wore - I did not own it. My hunting attire, nowhere in sight.
I instantly sensed the beast from the trees near. I look to the open door way.
He leaned against it, his jet black hair a mess in place. He must have just woken as well.
With brown cut off pants, his olive-tan buttoned down shirt appeared neat as the things in this room.
He was indeed clean.
The fox-wolf spirit was both mighty and pure, yet I needed to be cautious of it. He was still a monster-born.
In the lit cave, the handsome face hides golden yellow eyes, paw prints and things unknown.
"My things?" I ask.
"Washed. On the line to dry at the moment." He gives a small smile.
"Did you undress me?" I asked, wishing not.
"Never without permission. Lora- a vampire assisted. That is her gown."
"Tell her thank you."
"I'm sure she can hear you." He says tapping his right ear, reminding me of vampires- ability to hear from a far.
"This is your home." I noted.
"Yes."
"Alone?"
"More or less. For the moment I share my home with numerous of … Armory mates."
"Did you rescue them?" I wondered.
"It -It was a united effort." He stated.
"I had visions of you." I confessed.
He did not remind me of Tavern Lockwood, yet I enjoy looking at him more now in the light.
"You have?"
"Yes. I foreseen… this."
"You and I." He says in an understanding tone that did not frighten him. "I have lived in this crave before my capture."
"Wouldn't the Armory look for you here?" I asked.
"No, they never knew of any of my homes."
"Homes? What other home do you have?"
"New York. The only way we can breed true is to mate with our other soul-holder. My wife believed she was not my kind however we were few in numbers – hunted almost to extinction. Our territories were destroyed. There are few of us left to defend ourselves. I did not argue with my parents on the marriage. Yet, I had to come here to protect them."
"How?"
"There were… Hunter's there, led by traitors who spoke of peace. My family lost so much, they were hopeful for a fresh start of others accepting our kind."
"Your kind? Your blended species? The Fox." I remembered.
"Yes. Wolf-genetics and Kitsune fox-tail. I was never meant to be a part of my home pack. I was only meant to wed, breed then sacrifice myself."
"Sacrifice? As in death?"
"My mother was killed for being what she was. In spirited she spoke to me, she told me to run. To leave my wife and son."
"I'm sorry, that's terrible."
"It was for the best. I assume they fled soon after. I like to hope they did."
"You never know what truly happened to them?" I frowned.
"No. I had plenty of dreams of them when I was first captured by the Armory. Another wolf that was later locked away gave knowledge that the New York Werewolves moved on."
"Do you wish to find them soon?" I asked.
"No."
"Why?" I say surprise.
"I have evolved. In my mind and in my spirit, they have … different paths if they are alive."
I exhaled. "What can you tell me about this town's Wendigo?"
"The Armory will capture it in due time. You can stay, you are safe with me." He moved closer to me.
He says that as if it is the truest words ever spoken. "No. Tell me. Why am I here? How are you helping my sistas and I hunt the Wendigo if you keep me here?"
"I- believe the… Wendigo is not why I was sent to you." He says cautiously.
"What do you mean?"
"We can discuss it soon. Now, you must eat. Gain your strength. Please, come." He pleaded, touching my arm. I quickly pushed his hand away.
"No. I am not hungry and if you cannot be honest at this moment, then leave me alone." I almost raised my voice.
Sadden frown lines flashes across his face and he nods once.
"I apologize. As you like, I shall leave you to your rest."
"Rest? No, No, I will not rest any longer."
"No?" he was confused suddenly.
"No. I need to be alone so I can seek guidance from the spirits." I say fast. moving on the bed.
"Please, reconsider." His warm palms touch my hip lightly, my bare skin there has goosebumps. "Your limb is nearly shattered. The danger out there is greater than you believe. Shortly in time I promise to tell you more of what I know, give me patience." The tickle of his finger tips tangled the veins in my backside.
"If you insist. Now can you give me a moment alone for my thoughts?" I ask.
Without a sound he gives me a nod that feels more like a bow, and sweeps from the room.
Looking at the fire, and the sand around it. I had to do my best to connect to the spirit-world about my vision of the Wendigo.
Here in Illinois we come on Dalton's guidance.. Now I'm unsure what to believe.
On the bed, I criss-cross my legs then squeezed my eyes shut.
I pushed the magic around me.
The darkness of my eyelids suddenly visioned the stone pathway that led up a mountain to the cave beneath a waterfall.
A fanged wolf-man near the entrance, hunched over a bush of blackberries.
My fingers tremble, vision clouding as Naysa or Keziah try their best to channel the sightings around me.
I screamed as a slash deep on my hand appeared.
Instantly the wolf arms tighten around me protectively, "What has happened?" He panicked.
Then suddenly in an instant the pain was over.
"That witch-" I growled, not expecting it. Cradling my hand the best I could.
Holding me closer to his heart he tore the ends of his olive buttoned shirt, to wrap my wound.
The rhythm of his pulse, calming as a lullaby. I look at his eyes, taking in his beauty once more.
"My sister. Keziah…. specializes in painful vision spells."
"This is her doing?" He whispers, lips inches from mine.
"Yes, to see if I'm alive. It works by connecting my sight, giving her the ability to see through my eyes. I'm not cloaked, so my allowance has her to see that I am safe in my skin with you."
"To locate you?" He asked.
"Yes, with the typical use of sand, a map, and a personal keepsake of mine. She still holds one of my rings she stole long ago. The magic energy will move the sand across our map to form a path in my location."
He nods, understanding.
For a moment, I'm overcome by the connection between me and my sister that I forgot his name. I shifted slightly in a whisper.
"Uh- Bronzen."
He nodded once in reply.
"I do not belong here. Enemy of thy enemy is no friend. It's not safe for us to … coexist this way. If Keziah finds out who you are, she could lead Dalton to you. He must'in know us together."
"Together?" He asks with a small amused smile.
"No. Yes, but..you understand. My sistas and I hunt. We have duets."
"To hunt the Wendigo?" He mutters.
"Yes, and I cannot find it here. Please, help me." I begged. Bronzen slowly took a breath then turned into me.
"There's much you should be told."
"Of the Wendigo?" I was confused. Told what?
"No. Well- yes. In time."
I shook my head. "No, No. There's no time. We must go now." I say almost ready to move from the bed. Bronzen held my arm in place. I pause, "Please, I cannot allow death to take my sistas. There's no time to waste."
He narrowed his sight, clearly brooding secret thoughts.
He spoke no words. I can tell he was not the one to hold his tongue in situations such as this.
"In the night you ask me to trust in you, knowing in my nature it was to kill monsters such as you. Instead you insisted on helping me. Tell me all you know of Dalton St. John." I say with a firm tone."Or what truly gives you pause."
He nods.
"I was one he praised himself to understand why I survived his poison. Rare. I'm unsure of the reasons myself. Kitsune had been my mothers genetic bloodline. It is not possible to be turned into a Kitsune." He noted.
"What does that mean to me?" I was still confused.
"You were stolen. Your bloodline may be of a sorcerer, yet only a true Kitsune blood is of a woman. Dalton, may very well know your nature.. like your sisters. However, you breed fire and flames."
My eyes widened in panic. "NO. We- we were not stolen. Our parents are… Well, they died in a fire. A .. a horrible fire. An accident." One that I caused.
"Emmalynn?"
I could not answer. His dark brown eyes turned Reddish-Jasper. "Trust my truth."
I shook my head trying to remember that night of the fire.
"The three of us were the only ones to survive. It was entirely my fault, we were on a hunt hours before. I was arguing with my parents… then suddenly the entire home was in flames. I only remember my father rushing back to wake Naysa and rush her out. I'm not even sure how they –"
"I assure you… there is more to that tale."
I never could understand that night of the fire, of what truly happened. If what the handsome breast says holds any truth, the false memory was manipulated by a sorceress.
"No. Keziah and Naysa… they are my blood." I informed him.
He slowly shook his head.
"You.. are not one with them, not entirely."
"I am." I disagreed. "I have been for many years! They are my sistas. I have memories of us.. Playing, running about the bayou and riverbanks. They are of my bloodline."
"I am truly sorry, Emmalynn. You have been taught tales, your true parents are very much alive.. at lease in some form."
I looked up at him in disbelief. "This is a trick! You want the three most powerful huntresses to turn from each other so all the beast of the night can roam freely to kill. You are a monstrous beast that I will crush death once I -"
"Please. Emmalynn, listen." He grabbed hold of me into a tightened bear hug, I thought I would twist on fighting.
His arms were too strong. He led us away in an inch.
Face to face, his frown pleaded. "I beg you. To hear me. To feel this truth. In this town.. an evil wish to do harm to all kinds. The bad and reformed. Dalton is no longer a reformed friend to you or us. He may live on, but the true creatures must not."
"What are you saying?"
"Only you and one other half have the gift to destroy it all, you must trust how the enemy breathes- in order to defeat it." He says.
"I do not know what that means." I clarify.
Bronzen looked around the small room to the fire, then back to my eyes. "Myself and the other Armory prisoners are aware of the evil that has latched itself on to Dalton years ago… We seek help from all who are a threat to him."
"You seek my help?"
"To The Most High, yes." He nods.
I can sense that Bronzen was honest, yet I am confused and rattled on the knowledge that my sisters are not who I believed they have been.
"Come, we eat… rest, and soon we seek the spirits for guidance. They may lead us to a force that can help. Perhaps as well as a memory recollection spell." He suggested with hopeful dark brown eyes.
"It could help?" I ask.
"I have heard stories. A spell that utilizes blood to connect one to another person, drawing their mind to relive selected memories. To see events unfold the night of the fire as if they were present day." He says.
"I believe that will help, and all it would require for us to have is a cup of serpent's blood, stones, and fire." I look to the fire ahead. "I must seek the truth of who I am, and of my real parents. If my father practiced magic.. He may as well be under a spell to have not found me."
"We won't know for certain just yet." Bronzen gave a small shrug.
"If so, Dalton could have created the fabricated memory through a spell, but why go to great lengths to shield my past?"
"Fear. Fear of the power you hold. Dalton's weakness is having no control of others and power."
"I should have forsaken. You're a legacy. A witch. A hunter. With great knowledge. I can sense you miles away. Your surge of possessive energy, like a beacon so powerful pulling each one of my muscles to you." He says lifting his palm to my cheek.
Like a moth to a flame, his handsomeness had me in its trances. "Oh… that is…. powerful." I smiled, my eyes feeling like heated leaves on a scorching day.
I lean in half way, letting him wrap me securely to his chest. My head almost drops against his shoulder as the softest skin presses on mine.
The lust and fury within that seems to be at war. It was both for me, my insides in flames.
He growls lifting my gown, leaning my chest bare to his kisses and I hardly notice what I'm doing as I tug him free of his shirt.
Tore buttons on the floor. I hesitate, glancing back towards the room entrance. "Wait. We aren't alone." I breathed.
"The moment I lay eyes on you through the trees, I trembled. Feeling this prickle of wavering energy within me, a magnetic force I've never felt before." He confessed.
I meet his eyes, and he pulls me closer, but before his lips can touch mine again- I needed to know he could manage self-control.
"Bronzen, we cannot. I always imagined marriage before intimacy such as this lust."
He paused, with a small compassionate smile.
"I see your spark, Emmalynn. It fills me, you fuel my veins with your light. It makes me believe in our paths. In a way that was aligned to the starry night stars."
He then gives me a strangely shy look. If I didn't know better, I think he was almost nervous. "Do you not see?" He asked and I narrowed my eyes not understanding "Do you not feel the need as I do?"
"Need?" I am confused again.
His Jasper-red eyes flick to mine, fully attuned to me for the first time, and a deep wave of emotion washes over me.
It was clear he would do whatever it takes to help me. Yet, Why have our paths crossed I now wonder? Was I meant to lose my memory and knowledge of where I came from?
To repeat the question instantly with silence, making his lips bruising against mine.
The desire for him was taking over. Soon each thought will press.. until no more words form, but a body, yearning to touch and be touched. It was in his nature.
He and I. "Need of–"
"To bond." He whispers. "To mate." His voice pitches lower, more desperate, more untamed.
Goosebumps erupt on my skin.
I inhaled, then suddenly a shadow over cased us.
In the doorway, stood the Wendigo.
Bronzen leaped from the bed in a twist and hunch, under this transformation.
I had no time to search for a weapon.
Nails sprouting into claws, something knocked me to the floor.
Like a brush of magic.
Bronzen red eyes, black fur - the biggest of ever seen of a wolf- bit into the Wendigo's neck.
A small brown wolf by the room entrance tossed his head back, "Ah-Woooo!" To warn the others in the cave.
I covered my ears and instantly felt dizzy at the rush of it all.
When did The Wendigo find us?
How did it pass by the other werewolves?
Where are Naysa and Keziah?
*End Of Flashback*
