Being kicked out at sixteen had been one of the hardest things I had to deal with at the time. I didn’t understand why the magic had chosen me but because of it, I had lost my family. I hated the gift that was pushed upon me. My parents were nice enough to pay for a one-way bus ticket to Washington State so that I would be the NAWC’s problem. I had grown up in the countryside of Illinois and hadn’t ever been out of state. I cried a lot on the bus, in the privacy of the small bathroom. I didn’t understand how a parent could throw their child out for something that wasn’t their fault and I wanted nothing more than to run back to Illinois and be with them again.

The bus let me off at the entrance of Moon, which just looked like the edge of a forest. My duffel bag hung on my shoulder as I watched the bus fade into the distance. I turned back to stare at the trees in front of me and had an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. I was in a strange state, stranded alongside the highway with nothing but forest on both sides of me. I started to walk, certain the bus driver had mistaken my destination when I heard a soft whooshing sound and a blonde girl around my age, step out of the woods. She was dressed in black tights, a red and black plaid skirt, and a gray turtleneck. She didn’t look like she belonged in a forest. I watched her for a few moments, unsure of what to say.

“Hi, are you on your way to the NAWC?” she asked excitedly. Who the heck was this girl that just popped out of the forest in the middle of nowhere dressed like she belonged in a private school? I thought. I nodded my head because my voice seemed to shy away from the bubbly girl.

“Come with me,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the forest. I let her guide me through the forest; it beat walking down a deserted highway by myself.

“My name’s Fiona Bennett. I arrived here last week although I’ve always had magic; my father thought I should study in Moon this year. Daddy is a powerful warlock and expects a lot from me but I don’t mind, I love magic and you’ll love it too. What’s your name?” Fiona said with a big smile. I arched my eyebrows, shocked that anyone could be this enthusiastic about being a witch.

“Gwen Sparks,” I said softly. We were standing at the edge of the woods and then Fiona pulled me over the edge and a warm breeze caressed my face and the forest disappeared into what looked like a town out of England, or at least the towns I’d seen In English movies.

“You have like the perfect name for a witch you know that? Gwen Sparks,” she giggled and wiggled her fingers as if she were about to cast magic at me. I smiled at her charades and the tiniest bit of my loneliness disappeared.

“Gwen? We’re here.”

I looked up from my daydream and saw that Aiden was trying to get my attention. It had been a long time since I thought about my past.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just thinking,” I told Aiden and climbed out of the SUV. Flora had a small hospital that was just a small square building with the morgue in the basement. The last time I had come here it was when I read Amy Harper’s memories. With each step closer to the hospital I knew that it wasn’t Amy Harper who waited for me in the basement.

19

The screeching of the metal tray echoed through the small room like nails on a chalkboard. I concentrated on my breathing instead of who lay on the tray. Two men that worked at the morgue lifted the body from the cold storage space and laid it on the table that sat in the middle of the room. The black body bag was like a nightmare come to life. I had to turn away from it so that I wouldn’t start hyperventilating. I didn’t claim to understand why certain things happened, and usually I agreed that everything happens for a reason, Fiona’s death, I couldn’t see the silver lining.

“You okay, Gwen?” Micah asked from my side. I had been staring intently at the brick wall and at the sound of his voice, my eyes slowly found his. I sucked in a chest full of air and nodded my head quickly. Micah didn’t look like he believed me and he was right, I wasn’t okay. All I saw when I thought of Fiona was how lifeless her body had been in the overgrown grass, the red that colored her throat, and the emptiness of her eyes.

The two morgue men left the room, leaving the four of us to our privacy. I reluctantly turned around and ignored the heaviness in my chest. The bubble of hope that stuck in my gut was about to be busted and I needed to prepare myself for it. It goes against nature to be able to bring the dead back to life and I worried that if by some miracle Fiona was brought back, what would she be brought back as?

“You don’t have to put yourself through this, Gwen.” Aiden tried to penetrate through my insanity again but I bit my tongue and kept my eyes focused on Ian. Aiden let out an annoyed sigh and leaned against the wall.

“What are you waiting for? Bring her back,” Aiden snapped. Ian shook his wrist in a gesture that said he couldn’t do anything with his hands bound.

Micah walked over to him and said, “If you try anything, you won’t get any further than that door before you’re dead, got it?” Ian smiled like Micah hadn’t just threatened to kill him and nodded his head, his eyes watching me. Once Ian’s hands were free, he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and watched me with unspoken words dancing on his lips.

“What?” I asked, my voice shrill.

“I need blood,” Ian said with a smirk. My eyes widened. “Well we’re in a hospital and they have blood.” I couldn’t stand the delay. Why couldn’t he just snap his fingers and make Fiona pop up and say “Gotcha!” I could accept that it was a cruel joke if it meant Fiona was alive. Maybe she had planned this to get back at me for supposedly being interested in Ian.

“I need witches’ blood,” Ian announced and was answered with Aiden’s snarls and a low growl from Micah. If the situation wasn’t so stressful, I would have felt honored to have two strong men be so protective over me. Unfortunately, the situation was dire and their amped up testosterone wasn’t helping.

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“So I can bring your friend back, of course,” Ian said sarcastically. I glared at him with all of my pent-up anger and he held his hands up in surrender. “I have to use magic to bring her back; for that, I need the blood of a witch.”

Aiden had pushed off the wall and was standing in front of me as my own personal vampire blockade. His body was rigid with his rock hard muscles ready to rip Ian’s head off. His hands fisted at his sides and his feet were braced shoulder-width apart. I placed a hand on his shoulder and walked around his tense body. I shrugged out of my jacket and held my wrist out towards Ian. Aiden was in front of me so fast, I had to blink back my surprise. His eyes were black with anger and his fangs fully emerged.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled at me. Considering what Aiden and I had just gone through to get my magic back from him, it was a stupid action. I knew Aiden felt bad for the torture I went through to reclaim my magic, but I knew that’s not what he was angry about. Vampires didn’t like to share their property and to Aiden, that was exactly what I was, his property. What was fueling his anger was jealousy.

“I told you I was going to do whatever I could, if it meant bringing Fiona back,” I said, trying to keep my voice stiff. “He won’t take too much,” I said but I looked at Ian when I said it. I knew that I wasn’t in any danger with Aiden and Micah there to protect me. I wasn’t too thrilled to have Ian bite me, but I had to look at the big picture and that was Fiona.

“I won’t allow it!” Aiden ordered and in return got a sarcastic laugh from Ian. Aiden was across the room and on top of Ian within milliseconds. Snarls and sickening cracks echoed through the room, leaving my stomach upset with nausea.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” I yelled at Micah. He shrugged his shoulders as if the thought of ending the vampires’ temper-tantrum was the very last thing on his to-do list. I grumbled my anger and walked over to the blur that was Ian and Aiden.

“Stop it!” I yelled at them. I might as well have been trying to tell a tiger to change its stripes, for all the good it did. I was way past my boiling point and didn’t have the patience to deal with two vampires going at each other like rabid dogs. My hands tingled to the point of numbness and with all of my anger directed at the blur, I held my hands out and a bright blast of blue magic shot from my palms and hit my two targets, sending them to be blown apart from each other. The room was small so they had only landed a couple feet from each other. “Enough!” I said strictly. Aiden and Ian groaned as they got to their feet and when it looked like they would go after each other again, I produced an apple sized orb of magic and held it at the ready as I eyed them both.

“We have less than an hour until the sun rises. We don’t have time for games or jealousy.” I took a moment to give them both a dirty look and then held out my wrist again. “Ian is going to drink from me and then he’s going to bring Fiona back. If it doesn’t work then I’ll stake him myself. Aiden you don’t have to be okay with this but you can not order me not to.” They were lucky I didn’t turn them to ash right then and there, I was so pissed off.

“You’re kind of a bad ass aren’t you?” Ian said with one of his famous smirks. I wanted nothing more than to rip his head off myself and cut my losses, but I didn’t. I arched a brow and gave a slight nod of my head, daring him to push me further. He bit his tongue and reached for my wrist. Aiden didn’t say anything as he walked past me and out of the room, yelling a loud curse to echo in his wake. I knew that it had to be hard on him, but with the night I was having, I couldn’t focus on my relationship woes.

I heard a click of a gun and saw a red laser dot on Ian’s chest. I turned my head to see that Micah was holding some sort of fancy handgun with its aim on Ian. “You stop when I say, otherwise I’ll pump you full of silver,” he said. I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. Surely the stress was causing me to go insane because the situation I was in was no laughing matter.