Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 3 (12 page)

"Why?"

"Didn't you hear the
'considering he chased and almost ate you' part?" Aradia asked with
a sigh.

Melina sighed as well, but
before she could say anything Aradia spoke again. "The truth of the
matter is this Roy is sorry for what he almost did to you Melina
and in his defense it was not really his fault."

"What do you mean?" Melina
demanded.

Aradia sighed before
explaining. "Despite what people think werewolves generally have
control over their animal selves, but during the full moon all that
changes. It is kind of like their time of the month, and their
animal selves take completely over. It turns them into hulking,
huge, bloodthirsty beasts! Worst part is on the full moon if they
bite someone they too can become infected, and by the next full
moon they later turn into werewolves themselves."

"But don't worry I checked
you out," Aradia said reassuringly to Melina's worried face. "Right
after I saved you, I saw no bite marks, so you are in the
clear."

Melina sighed with
relief.

Aradia continued. "For what
is worth Lina, Roy does feel bad about what happened, and for the
record he never asked to be a werewolf. He was born
one."

"Is that possible?" Melina
asked.

Aradia nodded and said, "If
a man and woman who have a shred of werewolf DNA mate their
offspring will most likely be born werewolves. It is rare that a
child of any werewolf will be born human."

"So Roy was born like that?
He grew up that way his entire life?"

Aradia nodded sadly. "We
were all born like this (except for Dax of course and the other
vampires) Roy, me, the fae, and the shape-shifters."

She sighed before
continuing. "Our entire lives have been like this I mean yeah we
got super powers and everything but let me tell you something
Melina. If you ask anyone of us, I can assure you that we would all
say in a heartbeat that we all wish we were human. None of us asked
to be like this hell even with the vampires. I mean some of them
did at one time probably did ask to be what they are, but I bet by
now they wish they could go back in time and undo such a
thing."

Melina was silent after
Aradia's confession.

However, before Aradia could
say anything further Melina asked, "Do you wish you were human
Rai?"

Amazingly, Aradia laughed.
"Of course I do. I hate being who I am. Sure, I have power, but
what has it ever done for me except get me bullied, picked on, and
isolated? Even now after everything has changed, and I do have
friends I can assure that I still wish I was just like
you!"

"Just like me?" Melina cried
out stunned. "What the hell do you mean?"

"I wish I was human like
you. I wish I wasn't the way I am."

"But," Melina argued, "I saw
what you did to Roy. How on earth can you not want or like all that
power?"

"How? I will tell you how!
Because of my power, I have been picked on mercilessly since the
day I first realized that people are not supposed to be able to do
the things I can do. People pretend to be my friend or love me
because I am powerful. Most of all, because of my powers I am now
viewed as the biggest threat of the hidden world and..."

"Whoa whoa time out," Melina
interrupted, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Aradia sighed. She knew she
had no right to tell Melina the whole truth, but the fact of the
matter was all the stress she had been enduring was starting to get
to her. Therefore, she decided that she might as well tell Melina
everything.

"It is like this Lina,"
Aradia began, "Over three hundred years ago the Salem Witch trials
occurred. Although no real witches were hung in the human world, in
the hidden world not only were real witches hung but they were also
hunted down, and executed. I suspect many of them used their powers
to try save themselves but when you are one race against many...I
mean majority always rules am I right? Furthermore, a hidden
witch's powers is based on their energy, if we use too much we
could likely kill ourselves. So to have the rest of the hidden
races attack us and we only have our powers to defend ourselves it
would be like using nuclear bombs against our enemies. It would be
effective, but extremely dangerous especially to us. The other
hiddens knew all this of course, which is why I suspect how it was
possible to hunt down all the witches and make sure none of them
lived. "

"None of them?" said Melina,
"But what about you?"

Aradia sighed. "I am indeed
a hidden witch and I was born in the same year as the Salem Witch
trials, but thanks to the seer of my coven who had raised me when
my mother died that I am alive today. She cast a spell to send me
to where I would find happiness and that is how my parents found me
that is how why I survived the extermination of my
people."

"Extermination?" Melina
repeated.

Aradia nodded sadly, and
decided to finish her tale. "My people were completely killed
Melina. Every witch coven in the hidden world was destroyed. None
of them survived."

Now Melina look confused.
"None of them survived? But Aradia that can't be true! I mean you
are a witch, and yet you are still alive..."

"And I am the last one,"
said Aradia, "I am the absolute last of my kind. Yes, I survived
the slaughter of my people but I was the only who did. I am the
only one who is left Melina. I am the last witch."

Melina now stood looking
completely stunned at Aradia.

"The last?" Melina said
slowly, "But wouldn't that mean..."

"That I am all alone,"
Aradia concluded with a bitter smile. "Yeah."

For the first time since
they ever met, a non-verbal warm comforting bond began to form
between the two girls.

Unfortunately, it did not
last long for at that very moment a tall, dark haired, skinny,
freckled werewolf burst through a window, and landed on all fours
on a nearby car.

Both Aradia and Melina
turned to look at him extremely bewildered, but Aradia recovered
quickly enough to demand who he was and what he wanted.

The werewolf laughed as he
said, "Who I am is not important. What I want I think is pretty
damn obvious."

Melina looked confused.
Aradia, however, did not and raced towards the werewolf. She
grabbed him by his coat, and then hurled him right out of the very
window that he had jumped through.

Grabbing Melina's hand and
dragging her away, Aradia fled into the back room. Temporarily
reeling from the stench of oil and gasoline, Aradia let go of
Melina. She then closed the door behind them, dug her small
fingernails into a heavily dismantled car, and dragged it in front
of the door!

"This will stop them,"
Aradia muttered to herself, "But not for long."

As if to prove her
prediction true, there was suddenly a loud pounding on the door
making the car in front of it slowly screech.

Aradia turned to face a
trembling Melina.

After heaving a heavy sigh,
Aradia knew what she had to do.

She went to Melina, seized
her face in her hands, and told her to look and to listen to her.
Aradia had to shake her a little bit in order to get her attention,
but once she did so, she repeated her command.

"Look Melina," said Aradia,
"The guys that are here they are after me."

"Why?" Melina
demanded.

Aradia sighed heavily before
she explained. "The only thing that sucks more than being the last
witch is the fact that being the last makes people see me as some
kind of political tool or to be more precise a political trophy
that can be stolen or in this case kidnapped. It happened last
year..."

Aradia stopped; realizing
explaining would take too much time.

"Look Melina my point is
this," Aradia said sharply, "These guys that are after us. I know
they are not going to hurt me at least not much, but since you are
human, the chances are if they find you, they might kill you.
Therefore, I need you to hide somewhere in here where the oil will
disguise your scent. They won't be able to find you."

"What will you do?" asked
Melina.

Aradia gulped. "I will try
to hold them off, but chances are that the werewolf has brought
reinforcements so no matter how hard I fight it won't be for long.
After they take me, I need you to sneak out of here and get
help."

"You mean you want me to
leave you?" Melina asked bewildered.

Aradia sighed and nodded
while Melina stood stunned.

Slowly, she began to shake
her head. "No. Aradia. Forget it! I cannot just leave you! You
don't know what they will do to you!"

"I am pretty sure I do,"
said Aradia with a bitter smile.

Melina tried to argue
further, but Aradia cut her off. "Look, there is no time to argue I
need you to hide like now!"

Nevertheless, Melina shook
her head once again. Aradia then exhaled a breath and with no
further warning she, head butted Melina, knocking her out
completely. She then dragged Melina behind a pile of oil rags. She
also grabbed an armful of the rags and threw it over Melina,
covering her completely!

At that very moment, a gang
of werewolves stormed through the previously barricaded door. They
turned slowly to look at Aradia, all of them smiling
evilly.

Aradia forced a nervous
smile before saying, "So who wants to dance with me
first?"

The werewolf that was the
first to storm the shop rushed towards her, still in his human
form, but with his claws extended long and sharp.

Aradia quickly sidestepped,
narrowly avoiding him, and said, "You huh? Well in that case let's
mambo!"

Chuckling dryly, the
werewolf raced towards her but once again, she avoided him. She was
tempted to use fire in order to make them back off permanently.
However, since this was a mechanics shop there was gasoline
everywhere so Aradia deduced that one spark of fire could make this
whole place explode with her and Melina in it.
I am going have to use brute strength to solve
this one
, Aradia thought to herself
with sarcastic smile. She then kicked the werewolf right into the
pole, which helped keep a blue car up in the air. At least, it had
until he hit it and caused the pole to bend so far that in a mere
second the blue car fell on top of him!

For a few tense seconds the
rest of them stood looking at the car awkwardly until Aradia
chuckled and said, "My bad."

Snapping out of the stunned
silence, another werewolf lunged towards Aradia whom threw a
roundhouse kick that sent him flying!

Aradia chuckled. "Let's hear
it for women's lower body strength!"

However, it was while she
was chuckling that two werewolves lunged forward at the same time
and grabbed hold of both of Aradia's arms.

"Oh crap!" She muttered as
she struggled, trying to free herself.

"Careful with her boys,"
Another werewolf chuckled as he walked towards her. "We don't want
to take damaged goods to our client!"

"Hell Dude! By the time, I
am done with you! You won't even be able to take me to the prom!"
Ironically, using the two guys who held her as suspension Aradia
raised her right leg to kick him from below his chin and then her
left to get him away. He fell several feet away flat on his back,
groaning softly in pain.

Aradia laughed, but her
victory was very short lived. She had been so busy fighting that
she did not notice that one of the werewolves had snuck up from
behind her with a pipe. He hit her with a loud clang, making Aradia
slump forwards.

"Jesus! Don't tell me you
killed her!" the werewolf holding her left arm shouted as he laid
her down.

The one on the right quickly
felt her pulse and then sighed, "No. She's okay. Just
out!"

"Thank God!" The last one
exclaimed who stood in front of them, and was looking down at
Aradia. "The last thing we want to do is kill our next
paycheck."

"What were the rest of our
instructions from our client?" the one on the left asked while
scooping Aradia into his arms.

The last one dug into his
pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

After looking at it for a
few seconds, he said, "We take her to this address and then we get
paid."

"That's all?" asked the one
on the right.

"Hey," The one with the pipe
interjected, "Do you really want there to be more? I mean look what
she did to Bjorn."

Using the pipe like a
pointer, he gestured towards where the blue car had
crashed.

"Is he still alive?" The one
on the right asked.

The last one shook his head
sadly and said, "If he was he would have let us know by
now."

An awkward silence now
filled the room.

It lasted until the one on
the left said, "It's a shame really. He was a cool guy."