Zora's Dawn (Defender Book 1) (11 page)

Zora
soaked away her aches which were more minor than she deserved. She supposed
that was the effect of her enhanced healing ability. She began to think about
the past few days, but the image of the werewolf looking directly at her and
snarling silently filled her mind. Zora tried to believe that Axel was right
and it didn’t see her – and really how could it? She wasn’t there. But then how
could she ‘see’ any of that when she wasn’t there? And if she really had
abilities beyond any other defender how could Axel be sure that the rules were
the same? She shuddered at the thought. If the werewolf could actually see her
it knew her face. It would know her and would undoubtedly try to kill her if
(or when) they crossed paths.

Another
very unwelcome thought occurred to her. Axel had assured her that she would
know a rogue werewolf when she saw one, that her pendant would warn her. If
that were so, would a werewolf know she was a defender also? Surely if the defenders
had been going for hundreds of years the rogues had plenty of time to come up
with a way of recognising an enemy. Zora thought again of the werewolf. It was
so big, and so strong. She was sure she would not be able to protect herself if
it came at her and her only real ability was available at one time of the day.
So what if a werewolf attacked her at midday? What could she do then? What had
possessed the fairies to think that dawn was the only time of day a werewolf
would be a danger to a defender?

“Zora? You
ok in there?”

Zora
jolted back to her surroundings as she heard Powers voice on the other side of
the door. She realised that her heart was pounding and her breath was coming
too fast. And of course with this bond he knew and came to her. It was actually
reassuring to know that, she could feel her heart settling back to a more
normal rhythm.

“Zora!
Stop analysing your heart rate and get out of there! We need to talk about a
few things.”

Reassuring
and really annoying. Zora got out of the bath and pulled the plug before
towelling off (Powers’ towel because she forgot hers - a wet towel in his near
future). She dressed quickly, opened the door in a cloud of lavender and bad
temper and found him lounging on his bed. He patted the coverlet beside him
invitingly. “Come sit, let’s chat.”

Zora eyed
off the bed and Powers. “Here? Can’t we do it in the kitchen?”

“Sunny is
in there ordering the fairy guard around and cooking dinner. She’s something
else that girl.”

Surprised
to feel a spurt of something that came mortifyingly close to jealousy Zora
tried to shrug casually. “Then the lounge room, or the veranda? I know you have
a light out there.”

“And
sandflies and mosquitos too. Marcus and Axel are in the lounge room. Sunny
procured his supplies and he prefers not to make humans uncomfortable.”

Zora
stared uncomprehendingly at him for several seconds before the penny dropped.
“Oh, right, Marcus is a vampire. So his supplies are…” She swallowed and felt a
wave of dizziness at the thought.

“Yes,
blood, which by the way he drinks from a wine glass. Don’t ever decide to
sample his red wine. Come sit before you fall. Don’t worry, I’m not interested
in your virtue. Not right now anyway.”

That
brought Zora’s head up and the colour back into her cheeks. “You wish.” But she
went and sat next to him (pushing aside the mental image of Marcus drinking
blood from a wine glass and making a resolution to never drink red wine again).

“Zora I
need to apologise to you. I keep forgetting how new to this world you are. So
there are things that we all know except you.”

Zora
groaned, “Oh great, I’m a super powerful completely ignorant defender.
Wonderful.”

Powers
smiled at her and took her hand. “Shapeshifters and the werewolves, they are
not the same. Shapeshifters are not controlled by the moon like werewolves.” At
her start of surprise he nodded, “Yes that myth is actually true. Werewolves
are strongest at the full moon and the change comes onto them most easily at
that time. They can change any night, once they are older and more in control
of themselves. Werewolves change only to the wolf, and a wolf is nocturnal. So
werewolves are also nocturnal.”

Zora
looked at him, trying to understand his meaning. Powers sighed. “In other words,
werewolves change only at night and at the dawn they change back. They are
weakest just before the dawn. That is why the fairies gave the ability to the defenders
at that time. So you will never be confronted by a werewolf during the day,
only by the human form of them.”

Ohhhhh,
right. Zora absorbed that information. “So werewolves only change at night. But
shapeshifters can change at any time?”

“That’s
right. We are not of the wolf, we are anything we wish to be. So we can change
at any time. Shifters are also not tormented like the wolves, wolves are tied
to the moon and they must change at the full moon whereas shifters don’t. A
wolf cannot stop the change at the full moon, it must change no matter what.
The wolf is controlled by the moon.” Seeing her look of confusion he continued,
“A shifter can change, or not, at will. But a wolf must change at the full moon
and sometimes when they change, they don’t change back fully, mentally the wolf
is still in them.

Well
actually the wolf is in all of them – all werewolves are as unpredictable as
the animal itself - but for some of them more of the wolf remains even after
they change back to human. Those ones feel that the wolf form is the real form
and the human one is the weak one they change to. They become hunters, day and
night. They feel that they are wolves, not men and women. Those are the ones
who go rogue.”

Zora
struggled to understand. “But when they change, when you change, you are the
animal you change to?”

Powers
traced imaginary circles on the back of her hand. “Yes, I become the animal,
but underneath I am me, I retain my humanity. For some wolves, they become the
wolf completely the first few times. And for a very few they have the wolf take
over every time they change. And eventually they are always the wolf. Even in
human skin they are the wolf.”

Zora
shuddered as comprehension dawned. “So this werewolf, it is a wolf all the
time? Day time as a human and night time as a wolf?”

Powers
nodded, “That’s right. These wolves, they are so conflicted by the change and
so controlled by the wolf that they are not rational, not as a human nor as a
wolf.”

“You mean
they’re crazy?”

“Well no,
not exactly, but they identify so strongly with the wolf that they resent the
human form they have to assume at day time. They want to stay the wolf. They
are most dangerous because they have a human brain that thinks like a wolf.”

Zora
stared at him in horror, “So because they resent the human form they also
resent humans?”

“Exactly,
they see humans as both prey and as a reminder of what they are in daylight.”

Swallowing
against the lump that seemed to have formed in her throat Zora asked, “So this
werewolf, it is not only homicidal with a flair for the macabre but also
slightly insane?”

Powers
nodded slowly, “Well, we believe it is one of those that feels its human form
is wrong and weak. Nonetheless, it must change to human form at dawn and at
dawn it is weak.”

“Right, so
we only need to find this werewolf, figure out where it will be at dawn, get
there first and destroy it and mankind is saved.”

“Something
like that yes.”

Zora sat
for a while, so busy processing what Powers had told her that she didn’t notice
he was still holding her hand.

“That
doesn’t explain why it takes body parts from the victims, or that’s something
else you know that you’re not telling me?”

Powers
shook his head, his expression worried, “No, nobody has any idea why this
ritual is being done. There is no record of it, or at least none that the
fairies are sharing with us.”

“What do
you mean none the fairies are sharing?”

“Zora,
fairies have secrets – or to be more fair, they often withhold information from
other species because they believe either it is not relevant or they feel that
they are the best equipped to deal with it and therefore we do not need to know.”

“So with
the fairies it’s a need to know basis, is that what you’re saying?”

Powers
patted her hand and placed it on her lap. “Exactly, and don’t ever forget it.
Zora, all of us are supernatural beings; the werewolves are the most
unpredictable, the witches can be arrogant, the vampires consider themselves
the superior beings and the shifters – well we can be a bit flighty. The guardian
families are part human, so we are usually not so flighty.” He grinned at her
wry expression. “But the fairies, they are elemental beings, they have no
humanity, you cannot and must not ever give them human motives. They wish to
help us against this threat but they are not human.”

He grinned
suddenly, reached out and captured a lock of damp red hair. To Zora’s dazed
eyes the lock seemed almost to twirl around his finger, glowing as it touched
his skin. She blinked, but it still seemed to be glowing. The light must be
hitting it at exactly the right angle she thought. Powers gave her hair a
gentle tug and then released it as he stood.

“Come on,
Sunny has probably finished cooking dinner and she won’t want us to dawdle.”

“I’ll be
right out.” Zora was still thinking about all that Powers had said. She wasn’t
sure she was reassured by all the additional information, although it was good
news that she was not going to be jumped on by a werewolf in daylight. Of
course the prospect of being jumped on at night was way worse. And by an
unhinged werewolf, because a sane werewolf was not nearly scary enough she
thought, unconsciously using sarcasm to defuse the anxiety she was feeling.

As her
fingers curled around the tiger eye in her pendant another thought occurred to
her. Was the mental state of a rogue werewolf somehow connected to the combusting
spell? Maybe the pendant picked up on the different brain patterns of a rogue
that was mostly wolf and a touch insane. They would be different to a regular
werewolf she was sure.

Replaying
back her own thoughts Zora snorted in disgust at herself. She was actually,
seriously, trying to use some sort of science to explain the basis of a fairy
spell. How sane was she just now, exactly? Time to stop thinking she decided.
She would go into the kitchen and eat dinner with a vampire, six fairies, a
shapeshifter and a human and she was going to enjoy it.

When Zora
came into the kitchen she was amazed to see the large dining table set and even
a centrepiece of blush pink roses. Sunny had made pizza, some sort of noodle
and vegetable concoction, potato salad and a green salad. There was a large
basket heaped with warm bread rolls and to Zora’s delight, chilled wine, which
to her relief was a white sauvignon blanc. If ever she needed wine it was
tonight but still she didn’t think she would have been able to stomach red.
Looking at all the food and the nicely set table she felt domestically
challenged. She could never have prepared any of this which was precisely why
she never held dinner parties. Her offers to help were waved away, Sunny having
employed the fairy guard as her assistants. Zora was slightly bemused to see
the fairy Queen’s guard carrying bowls and plates and doing as Sunny asked with
smiles. Smiles?? She was sure the fairy guard were usually far more formal than
this. What was it that Sunny had to get this sort of co-operation?

Thinking
about it Zora realised that Sunny always seemed able to get people to do as she
wished. Maybe that was why she was so annoyed with her, Zora, for failing to do
as expected. A few days ago she would have put it down to an easy going nature,
but now she was a little more suspicious. She studied Sunny as she stood
laughing easily with Cameron. The blue haze that had never left her seemed
stronger and brighter. What was that haze and why could she see it now and not
before?

Zora
jumped a little as Axel spoke in her ear. For a big man he moved very quietly.

“Little
Zora I think you can see the aura that surrounds our Sunny. As I said to you
earlier, there is more to her than you realise.”

Without taking
her eyes off Sunny Zora asked, “Why can I see it now and not before?”

“Did you
open yourself to her in some way?” As Zora drew breath to ask what he meant
Axel clarified, “By which I mean did you wonder why I want her with us and
study her with that thought in mind?” At Zora’s slow nod he added, “So you used
the extra sight that is part of your abilities. It allowed you to see Sunny’s
aura and once seen you will always see it. Magical and supernatural properties,
once seen, cannot be hidden again from you. You should learn to use your extra
sight all the time little Zora.”

Well that
gave her more questions than answers. “I have an extra sight? Why didn’t you
tell me? And what is Sunny? She is more than human?”

“Not
tonight little Zora, tonight we will eat our dinner and take some time to
relax. Come, no more questions for now, I think Sunny wants us all to sit at
the table.”

Although
frustrated by his refusal to answer Zora was pretty sure she would not be able
to change his mind, and dinner did look good and she was really hungry, again.
Well she was using a lot of energy with all these supernatural beings in the
room. She was going to have to ask Axel if there was some way she could lessen
that response, since she was going to be with them for the foreseeable future,
and there would be more of them too.

Powers
came up to her and took her arm. “Time will take care of that, as you get used
to us you will use less energy. Your body will recognise those it knows and
while you will still use more energy it will not be as it is now. Remember, you
are also adjusting to this new reality.”

Zora
shrugged, “I hope you’re right, or I’m going to cost you a lot in food on this
trip.” She allowed herself to be guided to the table and took her seat,
accepting a glass of the chilled wine with pleasure.

The rest
of the evening passed very pleasantly. Marcus, no doubt revived by his ‘red
wine’ was bright and entertaining company. Zora noticed that Sunny placed
herself very close to him at the table and was enjoying his company enormously.
Well, Sunny knew what he was, she undoubtedly knew more about vampires than
Zora did herself so she needed to stop worrying about her friend (who may or
may not be something more than human). Axel chatted easily with the fairy
guard, and although they were all clearly on their best behaviour around him
they did seem relaxed. Then again they were the fairy Queen’s guard so
presumably were frequently in the presence of royalty. Powers sat beside her
and mostly watched the byplay between the guests. Zora too was quiet, trying to
hide the exhaustion that had crept up on her.

She was
startled when Powers took her hand, the tingles she always seemed to feel at
his touch distracting her for a while from what was happening. But when she
felt the exhaustion lift and energy start to return she realised he was
siphoning off his strength to her and pulled her hand free. At his questioning
look she said, “I’m just tired, a good night’s sleep is all I need. Please
don’t drain yourself for that.”

Sighing,
Powers took her hand again, saying quickly at her warning look, “I’m not going
to give you strength, I’m just holding your hand. Is that ok with you?”

She
shrugged, “I’m serious, it must surely drain you to give me strength so please
don’t do it unless absolutely necessary.”

“Zora, I’m
a shape shifter, I’m not exactly human. I have far more energy at my disposal
than you do. Giving you a little every now and then is not going to do me any
harm, I promise. And it’s what I’m supposed to do as your Guardian. Basically,
I’m just doing my job.”

“Ok, I
guess, but I don’t feel comfortable with you doing it when I’m just a bit tired
and there’s no danger here at the dinner table.” Even as she spoke Zora was
amazed at her own words. No danger with a fairy prince, five fairy guard, a
vampire, a shape shifter and a more than human in some unknown way friend. Her
definition of danger sure had changed in the last few days.

Axel of
course had noticed the byplay and leaned across the table to speak to Zora.

“Little
Zora, it’s ok for you to go to bed, you have pushed your body today and you
need rest. Tomorrow we will begin our travels to the next site so it will be an
early start for you.”

This
reminded Zora of something that had occurred to her earlier, but with all the
excitement of the fairy guard arriving it had gone to the back of her mind.
“Axel, you and the fairy guard and Marcus, you can travel in that mist thing
you summon. What about Powers, is there something similar for a shapeshifter?
And if so, do Sunny and I travel the conventional way and arrive later than
you?”

“A very
good question little Zora. Actually you are correct, we the fairies and Marcus,
we can travel almost instantly wherever we need to go. But Powers you and
Sunny, you cannot. I can transport you, at least within this country I can.
Should we be required to travel over the ocean I will be sorely pressed
accomplish it. But here, yes I can transport you and Marcus can transport
Sunny. Powers will travel with Samantha. That way we can keep ourselves off the
radar and also of course expedite travel times.” He leaned back and smiled
cheerily at an open mouthed Zora. Sunny too was wearing an identical gob
smacked expression. Looking at Powers Zora was not reassured to see him wearing
a resigned and slightly unhappy expression.

“Powers?
You have travelled this way before?”

Sighing
again, Power responded, “I have, it is certainly a feeling you will never have
experienced before, but it is of course the most time efficient way of getting
around.”

Marcus
snorted with amusement. “That’s a very diplomatic way of putting it Powers.
Ladies, travelling our way is going to feel most, um, fractured for you. But
you will recover swiftly and the more frequently you do it the easier it gets.”

Even less
reassured Sunny and Zora exchanged glances. Clearly there was no arguing with
the fairy prince, indeed from the cheerful expression on his face it had not
even occurred to him that they would not appreciate travelling in this way. But
of course, thought Zora, it was not a holiday. It was a mission to stop a rogue
werewolf and a little discomfit was nothing to quibble about. Looking at Sunny
it was obvious that she had reached the same conclusion. A new experience
coming up then.

“What
about luggage? We will need our things with us Axel.” Sunny had brought up a
very good point that Zora had not even considered. So did they take luggage, or
did they need to buy new clothes and toiletries at each place? Zora looked at Axel
with interest, relieved to see him smiling.

“Of course
you may bring luggage, we have sufficient power to transport a bag or two,
especially with the rest of the fairy guard available.” Well, at least they
would have their own things, there was some comfort in that for her and for
Sunny, judging by the slight smile on her face. Rising from the table Zora
began gathering up plates.

“Leave
them little Zora, the fairy guard will clean up.” Axel glanced at the fairy
guard who leapt to their feet as one to do his bidding.

Cameron,
the guard closest to Zora, took the plates from her. Feeling uncomfortable at
this mundane use of what undoubtedly was five lethal killing machines Zora
tried to wrest the plates back, simultaneously protesting that she was fine to
clean up. Cameron however remained firm and she had no choice but to step away
from the table.

Seeing her
unhappy expression Samantha smiled gently at her. “Really Zora, we enjoy being
able to do things like this, we rarely get the chance to do family things. You
and Sunny please rest, tomorrow will be a big day. Where did you say we are
going Lord Axel?”

“We are
going to Brisbane, it was the first murder. The second took place in Sydney, it
really makes no sense.”

Marcus
steepled his fingers in the habit he had when he was thinking. “So from
Brisbane south to Sydney which has to be what, about 900 kilometres? And then north
to here which has to be roughly twice that distance. And then south again to
Melbourne, and that’s even further. It seems to be random selection, like the
werewolf closes its eyes and stabs a point on the map to decide where to go.”

Zora
winced a little at the mental image of one of those claws stabbing a hole in
the map at random. That would surely make it far more difficult to make an
educated guess as to where it would go next.

“And that
is why you are so important Zora, you alone can say exactly where it is going
next.” Marcus smiled at her over his fingers as Axel continued. “Without you we
would really be searching in the dark.”

Zora
smiled uncertainly back - she was sure he meant to reassure her, but she felt
nervous and unsure of her ability. It was so much responsibility, what if she
was wrong, what if the werewolf went somewhere else. Her only use as far as she
could see was her ability to sense the werewolf and know where it was going.
But if she was wrong, if she didn’t actually have that ability, what use was
she? If they couldn’t tell where the werewolf was going how were they ever to
get a step ahead and destroy it?

Sensing
her distress Powers came to stand beside her and laced her fingers between his.
It was only when she saw Sunny’s raised eyebrows that she realised how quickly
she had come to depend on the strength and solidity of Powers instead of being
annoyed by him. She gave Sunny a look that she hoped conveyed her own confusion
at this change in their relationship. Sunny shrugged in reply, a response that
could have meant anything Zora thought. Oh well, maybe they would have a chance
to talk about this whole thing later. After all, Sunny knew more about this new
world than Zora, talking to her was probably overdue.

“Come on,
time for you to sleep.” Powers tugged her hand gently and led her out of the
room. “You too Sunny,” he called over his shoulder. Zora didn’t see whether
Sunny complied, but she was sure that Axel would make sure she did. Powers left
her at the door to her room with only a murmured goodnight but Zora was so
tired she barely noticed. Feeling crushed by exhaustion Zora prepared for bed
in record time, she had never been happier to collapse into a soft bed. She lay
in the darkness, the events of the day swirling in a confusing montage inside
her head as she drifted off to sleep.

Perhaps
that was why she dreamed of the werewolf, standing in what seemed to be desert,
staring directly at her with so much malice that her blood ran cold. Zora woke
from the dream with her heart pounding and goose bumps raised all over her body
even though she was drenched with sweat. She realised she was sitting bolt
upright and lay back down slowly, adjusting tangled sheets as she did.
Replaying the dream in her head she drifted back to sleep, a troubled sleep
fractured by images of yellow eyes and sharp teeth.