Gifts and Curses Chapter 2: Bend and Not Break, a covenant fanfic

Gifts and Curses

Chapter One: Bend and Not Break

I catalogue these steps now
Decisive and intentioned.
Precise and patterned
Specifically to yours.

I'm talented at breathing
Especially exhaling,
So that my chest will
rise and fall with yours.

I'm careful not to wake you
Fearing conversation.
It's better just to hold you
And keep you pacified.

I'm talented with reason
I cover all the angles.
I can fail before I ever try.

Try to understand there's an old mistake
that fools will make and,
I'm the king of them
pushing everything that's good away so,
Won't you hold me now? (I will not bend, I will not break)
Won't you hold me now? (I will not bend, I will not break)

I am fairly agile
I can bend and not break
Or I can break and take it with a smile.

And I am so resilient
I recover quickly
I'll convince you soon that I am fine

(bridge)

Just hold me close to you. (X4)
(Won't you hold me now?) (X2)

Try to understand there's an old mistake
that fools will make and,
I'm the king of them
pushing everything that's good away so,
Won't you hold me now...?
Won't you hold me now... now... now...?

-Dashboard Confessional

"Who are you?" Reid questioned. He didn't move from his chair, didn't even look uncomfortable- she couldn't tell if it was an act. Marny's eyes flashed back to their natural brown and she reached out quickly to collect her cards.

"Miranda Taylor." She answered smoothly, wrapping her tarot deck in a silk cloth. "I transferred in-"

"That explains why I didn't recognize you." Reid interrupted leaning forward in his chair.

"-My freshmen year." She glanced up, her brows furrowed slightly, and looked into his gray eyes.

"Where are you from?" He questioned next, as she looked around her chair for her wig. The damn thing had cost a good twenty and she would be damned if she forgot it.

"England, I moved back here when I was 11. Well, not here precisely. I attended Maryland School of Arts, in Baltimore until my father died."

He stood up and walked across the other side of the desk, grabbed her wrists and started dragging her out of the room without too much pressure.

"What are you doing?" She growled, attempting to pull her wrist out of his grip.

"I don't have time for this." He looked at his watch; she couldn't see what time it was since her hand was in his.

"No one will believe you, you know." She said angrily, but quietly as she almost hit someone in the narrow hallway they were pushing through. He glanced at her over his shoulder.

"I know three people that will." Her eyes flashed white and she pulled at his grip the same time that his eyes went black and the grip tightened. "Calm the fuck down."

"Reid!" Caleb was standing with Pouge and Tyler, the two girlfriends gone. He looked to Reid and then to Marny. "You have ten minutes, we don't have time for this."

That phrase was beginning to grate on her nerves. She didn't have time for this.

"She's coming with us." Reid kept walking ignoring Caleb's outcry, Tyler and Pouge confused expression.

"Reid, think about what you're doing." Caleb caught up with him where Tyler's truck was parked.

"For god's sake Caleb, trust me for one fucking time in our lives, would you? She's coming."

"I'm not going anywhere, with any of you. I'm going home." Marny pulled at the grip again and curled her lip at Reid's warning glare.

"She doesn't even want to come, Reid." Tyler reasoned, taking in Marny's pleading look.

"It's kidnapping, Reid." Pouge's husky voice added.

"We have to go now." Caleb pushed. "Let her go."

Reid's eyes burned and turned black, the truck doors flying open, and the alarm exploding with noise.

"What the hell are you doing?" Caleb's voice pulsed with fury, Reid's eyes cleared.

"Damn. Guess she has to come now." He smirked and climbed into the backseat of the truck, pulling Marny behind him.

"Hell, Reid." Tyler jumped up into the driver's seat. Pouge looked uncertainly at Caleb's face before jumping into the front seat. Usually Reid rode front with Tyler, the fact that he had taken the back seat mildly surprised them all. They wanted to think they were surprised that he would be the one to expose them, but Caleb had been trying to tell him for years. Reid had always been the first to use.

Caleb pulled himself into the backseat next to Marny, but wouldn't look at her or Reid.

"Where are you taking me?" Marny questioned. Tyler looked at her from the rearview mirror, his hat off and kohl just barely smeared. Pouge looked at Caleb, Caleb glared at the back of Tyler's seat. "Do you all have power?"

Caleb made a sound between a growl and a sigh.

"And Garwin, for Christ sake you're hurting my wrist. I'm not going to climb over you or Caleb and attempt to fly out of the bloody flaming car."

"It's a truck." Tyler said insulted, his brows furrowed in the rearview mirror. Pouge snorted. Reid relaxed his hold but didn't move his hand. It felt warm on her bare skin, and she wished momentarily she could move closer…or at least have her jacket. She wasn't even sure where she had left it, and the cold October air was causing goose bumps even with the truck's heater.

Marny turned her gaze to Caleb, his gaze still fierce on the back of Tyler's seat. She placed her fingertips lightly on his forearm and used, her eyes turning white. Caleb turned to her quickly and looked at her confused.

"Sarah knows," she looked at Pouge- her voice distant. Tyler slammed on his breaks ten feet from the fence in front of the old Danvers' house. "But you haven't told Kate yet and she wonders. Sarah thinks you should, so does Caleb." Her white blank stare focused on Reid for a moment, confused, then moved back to Caleb. "Relax." Her eyes cleared in a flash.

"But it's always been the first and only son. There have never been any girls." Caleb didn't advert his gaze; Pouge and Tyler watched her as if she were foreign, something from another planet.

"Do you enjoy being looked at as if you're a freak?" Marny's smile disappeared and she glared, her chin pointed up in defense. She pulled her wrists quickly from Reid; he crossed his arms smugly across his chest, and she tried not to shiver at the loss of heat. Glancing at her wrist she checked her watch, "its 12:00 a.m. exactly. I have to be back at the dorms in an hour, or my roommate will lock my ass out."

"Fuck." Reid jumped out of the truck and looked to Tyler, "watch her."

Caleb double-checked his watch and looked at Marny once more before jumping down from his seat, Pouge followed him.

"He's ascending." Tyler explained. She tried very hard not to say, 'I know,' and watched as the three jogged their way into the old house. Tyler turned in his seat to look at her. "Caleb was first, back in August. The beginning of school."

"The fall formal right?" She questioned, "Madelyn went to the party that next weekend."

Tyler nodded, "And Pouge's was in September."

"When's yours?" She asked politely. She considered this humble on her part as he had technically assisted in her kidnapping. Not that under general or normal circumstances would she have minded being kidnapped by four of the hottest boys at Spenser- but the circumstances did scream creepy.

"Not until the middle of December."

"I'm a December baby too- the seventh," she smiled, "but I won't ascend. It's a long story." She explained evasively.

Tyler looked at the car radio; 12:03 a.m. was glowing green. "Happy birthday, Reid." The sky above them opened up, the black clouds hardly visible now swirling in the darkness as if a storm had brewed out of nothing to befit the night of Hallow's Eve. Licks of electricity white and blue penetrated the house.

Tyler and Marny watched in silence for the five minutes that they both knew was pure pain for Reid.

"Is he always such a brute?" Marny questioned, rubbing her wrist where the pressure would have caused bruises on a normal girl's wrist.

"He's generally just a smart ass." Tyler said helpfully, the love he felt for his would-be brother all to clear in his voice. It made Marny's stomach clench into sick knots. "He's change a lot since Chase."

"Who?" Marny asked with a perplexed look. Tyler opened his mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it.

"Why don't your eyes turn black?" Tyler questioned instead.

"The power is different in girls, I think. I can't compare it to anything, by all rights I am the first girl…I've done my history." One corner of her lip twisted up. "I can't just expel power, those power balls, like you can. But I see things, by touching them, by using. I heal faster. I can control people's emotions.

"Being the Remembrance of Things Past and the Remembrance of Things to Come." She whispered, staring off.

Her eyes flashed white, and she turned her gaze back to Tyler. He had a hard time looking at the ivory eyes- the contrast of ebony he usually saw mildly unnerved him.

"They're coming back. Caleb's angry again. Reid told him what happened in the Fortune Telling. No…Not everything- just me." Marny's eyes cleared, startling difference between the warm dark brown and the lack of any color.

Marny thought about using to knock Tyler out. Then her options would be to leave him outside for the other sons to find, and steal the truck; or to leave him in the Covenant's vehicle and walk…Either way she wasn't using with mortals anymore, these boys were just as powerful as she was and more so in some cases.

When Tyler jumped out of the car as the three others walked out of the fog, Marny followed his example and jumped out as well. She crossed her arms, holding tight to herself to stop the shivers the cold already wintry air was causing. Standing out in the air, her skirt swirled about her legs causing her to freeze and wish she had gone as a Rusian Gypsy, bundled.

To her surprise Reid pulled off his coat and handed it to her when they came close enough. He had his red favorite red hoody on and the cold wasn't bothering him after the power boost he had just gone through. He felt as if he had been reborn, new, his powers rejuvenated.

"Let's go inside. We can start a fire in the cellar. Gorman knows were coming. All of us." Caleb looked to Marny. Marny looked at her watch.

"It's fifteen after." She looked back up at the four different faces, all set. She grumbled, her teeth clenched and followed Celeb up to the house. She could feel the sorrow from him. Death lurked here, and it made her shiver. She looked around carefully, noting everything.

"Reid offered to drive you home after the meeting." Caleb looked to Reid silently, and Reid met his look stubbornly.

"Really? I didn't even know you had a car." Marny tilted her head as the walked up the stairs.

Pouge snorted, Tyler shook his head.

"It's in the barn." Reid didn't say anything more, and Marny put her concentration to walking down the narrow spiral staircase. Her insides were warring, one half felt the need to protect her from falling and wanted to reach out and clasp the old railing. The other half argued that it looked horribly unsanitary and anyway, it was old, it would likely fall.

The 'ew' side won out in the end, but she managed without tripping.

The cellar was slightly damp, and the book lover recoiled at the sight of the hundreds of years old tomes sitting openly on shelves. She wanted to wrap them in cotton and tell the boys to move them somewhere a little less dank so they wouldn't mildew.

Not your books, not your problem. She reminded herself. She held the dark coat closer to her body, and looked around hopefully for the fire, the stone slabs in the middle of the cellar made a circle and here Tyler used to cause them to come to flame.

Marny immediately took a seat next to the flames and looked up at the four boys.

"So…is this where you kill me and get rid of the body?" She was only half joking. Being exposed was a problem, knowing she could expose them put her life in danger.

Tyler laughed. Caleb smiled for the first time since Reid had pulled her up to them.

"We just want to understand." Caleb offered, lifting a hand in question and letting it fall to his side.

She smiled in a way that made Caleb think of a predator. Untamed and wild.

"I inherited it, from my father." She started. "Not to mean that I was born with powers, and my father willed his to me as well, don't mistake me. I was, after all born not only fatherless, but powerless.

"My Step-Father was a member of The Golden Dawn, in England. He was born to Thomas Taylor, and was Thomas' only son- of course. My father was banned from the Golden Dawn in his twenties for breaking to many of their rules. They told him he could die on his own away from their boundaries and not spoil their reputations. For good men," she smirked, "are members of the Golden Dawn.

"My father decided to tour American and met my mother while she was bartending in a run down rowdy Pub. They married and the three of us moved to England. He stopped using for her.

"He treated me like his real daughter, his own child, and when he was diagnosed with cancer we moved to Maryland. I attended MSA, he loved my art work.

"He was on his death bed; the chemo hadn't worked on him. He told my mother that he loved her- looked to me and said five words that changed my life. 'I will you my powers.' His eyes clouded over and he died peacefully. My mom decided she wanted me to get an education that would land me a job I could earn money at and enrolled me here my freshmen year of high school." She paused, her eyes showing her regret at leaving behind something she had enjoyed. "I won't ascend, because my power is already at its peak…Its different, I've noticed that just from reading my fathers books on his family history. I'm not sure if it will pass on if I ever have children, or if using will age me the same way. It's all up to chance in the end. My father told me when I was little 'you can never have magic without both men and women.' I guess giving me his power in the end was another poke at his father and the Golden Dawn."

TBC

References::

1 "Being the Remembrance of Things Past and the Remembrance of Things to Come." The Necronomicon, Avon Books (1980)

2 No true magic without both men and women. The Necronomicon, Avon Books (1980)