Craved (26 page)

“Please understand. Fiona is my best
friend and she’s been with me through so much. I can’t accept that
she’s gone for good, not yet. Give me this one last piece of hope
and then, if what Ian says is a lie, I’ll deal with the loss of
her, but not yet.” The tears that blurred my eyes fell slowly down
my cheeks and I quickly brushed them away, not wanting to be weak
in a moment that called for strength. I needed to have a level head
at the moment.

Aiden wrapped me in his arms and
kissed the top of my head as I tried to gain my composure. “I just
don’t want you to get your hopes up. Have you even thought about
how a vampire could be able to bring the dead back?” He spoke with
a careful tone, as if I was on the verge of losing it, and maybe I
was, I had been through a lot tonight.

I lifted my head from his chest and
wiped the tears away and sniffed, hoping that snot wasn’t sliding
out of my nose. “How, as a vampire, were you able to conjure a
rose?” I whispered so no one would hear. I had no clue what kind of
tricks were up Ian’s sleeve but I had hope that from his brew
consumption, he could save Fiona. Aiden didn’t say anything,
knowing I proved my point.

“You guys coming?” Micah called from
the opened doorway. I gave Aiden one last look and headed towards
Micah and Ian. I didn’t expect Aiden to understand what mindset I
was currently in, but I wished he’d keep his pessimism to himself,
he’d have plenty of time for “I told ya sos” later.

*****************

We all rode in Micah’s SUV over to the
morgue. My hands wouldn’t quit shaking and I couldn’t stop from
bouncing my knee as I anticipated what would happen. We only had an
hour before the sun rose and Ian and Aiden would be dead asleep
until tomorrow night. I couldn’t wait an entire day without knowing
whether Fiona was alive or permanently dead. My mind reeled with
the memory of first meeting Fiona, ten years ago….

The NAWC headquarters was
in a special otherworldly town called Moon. A lot of humans thought
that Moon was a werewolf town but witches also lived there. The
phases of the moon play a very important part in our magic. I was
sixteen then, when my powers chose me. I had gotten a summons to
appear in front of the NAWC so that I could be initiated into the
world of witches. My parents had happily shipped me off, since they
were very religious and not comfortable with having a witch for a
daughter. My mother had let it slip that her mother had also been a
witch and that she hadn’t spoken to her in almost twenty years. I
guessed she was telling me that even though I was her daughter, she
wouldn’t speak to me either.

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.

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.