Chapter Twenty-One
Melinda
Waking up was a different experience.
Every sound, every smell, every sensation, it was as if I was experiencing them for the first time unfiltered. I could hear someone pacing downstairs while someone else was running water over a plate. I could even hear the food slide from the plate into the sink.
The dust in my room danced above me through the sunlight coming through the curtains, like a flurry of snowflakes. I honestly should have dusted more, I thought to myself as I followed the flurries in the sunlight.
I could feel the warmth of the sun and the soft wind that blew the curtains around with each passing breeze. Moving slowly felt foreign, but I pushed through the uncomfortable sensation to walk over to the mirror in my bathroom instead of running.
My gray eyes were gone, now replaced with a similar gold to Isadora’s. My freckles seemed lighter and stood out more against my perfected skin. I moved my upper lip up to stare at my teeth, but saw no difference beyond how much whiter they appeared.
“Your fangs will descend once you’ve first fed.
From there you can retract them at will,” Lucien informed me.
I had heard his footsteps as they delicately passed over the wooden flooring, which had kept me from being startled by his sudden appearance.
He was no longer able to sneak up on me and I chuckled at the realization.
When he stepped into the bathroom, his fingers brushed against my cheek and left a tingling feeling in their wake. “I thought I was too late.”
“You were exactly on time,” I assured him, reaching up to cup his cheek. “ My mom, she took over for me. She knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him and she made sure it was done for me.”
“I wish I could have had the chance to meet her. To thank her for bringing you into this world so that I could stand here with you. Now and for eternity.”
“Do you believe in a heaven and hell in Shadowhaven?”
Lucien pursed his lips in thought before nodding with an answer, “There is a similar notion for us. You die and can either ascend to a higher plane or descend to a place where your sins will be done unto you threefold. Everything you give comes back threefold, it’s the very foundation many Shadowhaven inhabitants live on.
Your mother is no doubt in a better, higher plane with those who also ascended.
She is watching over you as she always has. ”
I nodded, glad that there was a better place for her. That there would be a place for me to return to find her after I lived all the life that was meant for me. In my thoughts, the sound of a car pulling into the gravel entered and pulled me from my mind.
We exchanged confused glances before making our way downstairs. Isadora was standing in the doorway with a familiar suited man on the other side. He was the one Gene had pulled a gun on a few weeks ago. He noticed my golden eyes and his business facade fell away to a more casual appearance.
“I see that things have unfolded as predicted. Then I take it that the owner of the home has passed?” he asked.
Lucien stepped forward, arms crossed. “Master Dumas, I do not have any ill intent here. The higher ups have been trying to take this land from that family for many decades. We were aware of the rituals that would take place and hoped that human greed would win out so we could take the land back.”
It was my turn to step in front of Lucien as I opened the door and stepped onto the porch. “You knew? Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“Shadowhaven law forbids us to speak of it in mundane company. I was unsure what you knew, even with your heritage. Therefore, I was forced to resort to mundane means of retrieving this land. You found out the falseness of our documents, which your father had been quick to inform us about. That day we met, I knew he was aware of the ritual.”
The man paused as the others joined us on the porch. I wasn’t sure what he was, but he definitely was intimidated by their presence. Lucien said there were humans in Shadowhaven, maybe this man was one of those humans.
The man looked back at me and shook his head. Before he could say anything, Ambrose was the one to reveal his identity, “He isn’t a human. He is a garden pixie, just like that deputy in this town. It seems they wanted a soft bellied fae creature for the job.”
“You can have the land,” I said. Eyes turned to me and I sighed. “I now have only painful memories in this house. I also don’t want to have this tethered to me any longer. Do with it what you please. I’ll sign whatever I need to.”
The man eagerly pulled out a piece of paper, holding out a fancy fountain pen to me. “Just sign at the bottom and you relinquish the land to my employer. The land will be cleansed of the curse and no mundane person will face the consequences of the founders of this place.”
I took the pen, signing the bottom without bothering to read the rest of the paper.
I was free of this house and now I could leave without anything to hold me back.
The land would be cleansed as he said and I wouldn’t have the burden of this curse passing to anyone else.
The man took the pen back as he filed away the paper in the folder he held.
“I will give you time to pack and can give you a ride back to Shadowhaven. It’s the least I can do for being so late. Had we known what he knew, we could have used more force and stopped it all from ending as it had. I’m sorry for your loss as well, Miss Hardgrave.”
Isadora went inside with me to help me pack what I wanted to take while the other three conversed with the pixie downstairs.
I didn’t have much I wanted to take with me, which made for a quick return to the group outside that seemed to have multiplied with familiar faces.
Taffy, Bryon, Dorian, Lance and Hugo were all there, waiting.
“Why are you all here?” I asked as Isadora took my suitcase from me to put into the van.
Taffy was in tears already and rushed to pull me into a hug.
I hadn’t realized my hunger yet until her throat was centimeters from my mouth.
As if remembering my change, she suddenly stepped back to allow me space.
“Sorry, I just got excited that you are alive and now you’re leaving. Maybe I’ll visit Shadowhaven one day to see you. It’s not going to be the same without you here, Mel.”
Bryon was next, the stench of his werewolf blood made it easy to keep my hunger at bay. I was starting to understand some of the distaste that vampires had for werewolves as the scent wafted around me.
I heard Lucien snicker from the porch, having heard my thoughts. Dorian hugged me next, making me promise to let him know when I arrived and told me that his daughter would be there.
“Tell her that I love her. Mel. I hope you two find each other there and you’ll have one more friendly face in that place. I’ll miss you, kid.”
Lance didn’t hug me, but shook my hand and congratulated me for putting an end to the killings.
Hugo said nothing as he remained observing all of us.
After his stunt and teasing of Lucien, I didn’t care enough to say goodbye to him either.
That concluded farewells and now I found myself teary eyed with them.
“I’ll miss all of you. Thank you for everything you have done for me,” I smiled through the tears that slipped from my eyes. Taffy held onto Bryon, crying in his arms while Lance and Hugo waved to me one last time.
I looked over at Ambrose, who stood resolute by the van. I walked over to him, pulling him into a hug. He stiffened for a moment before embracing me back. When we parted, he looked up at me. “I am going with you. What’s with the hug?”
“I know what you sacrificed for me. Lucien told me before about what this kind of sacrifice meant for you. The gold in your eyes is gone. I know that it must have taken a lot to make that decision. Thank you for that. I promise not to use this gift lightly,” I told him.
The cold exterior he put up wavered at the compliment.
Ambrose’s cheeks blushed and I smiled at the innocent appearance it gave.
Embarrassed, he turned away from me and got into the van without a response. Chuckling, I returned to Lucien’s side where the garden pixie was still speaking with him.
Lucien’s arm wrapped around my waist absentmindedly, his focus still on the pixie in front of us. They were talking about what had happened with Lucien giving a full summary. He was just now on the part of the story where the coyote was left at their doorstep.
Knowing this would take too long, I began physically pulling Lucien away from the conversation. “We can talk about this all in the car. I’m eager to get out of here and get to Shadowhaven.”
Lucien helped me into the van after that, taking my hand in his and the twins sat in front of us with Isadora taking the passenger seat. I took one last look at the house I grew up in.
The memories flashing of every moment shared in that house.
Gene had taught me to throw a ball in that front yard.
He had taught me about the farm in that barn that now was only a burnt remnant of what was.
My eyes fell on the broken fence where I had run into it while learning how to drive for the first time.
Gene didn’t want to fix it to show how far I had come from that moment.
Despite the lies that had been fed to me, I knew those moments were genuine and I wanted to continue to carry them in my heart.
“Ready?” Lucien asked as we backed out of the driveway.
“As long as you are beside me, I am ready for anything that comes our way.”
Nothing could have prepared me for the road ahead, for Shadowhaven. The place where monsters reigned and humans remained either sheltered to their existence or were unlucky enough to know of it.