Chapter 23 - Asher
“How is it going with Hazel? Is she getting anywhere?” Brandon asked as he looked up from his papers.
We were in the middle of our weekly meeting. Kaleb was sitting to the right of him. Westley was seated to the left of me. All eyes were on me.
“She’s been looking through all of her books for the past couple of days. She left today to head over to the healing center and put her head together with Chelsey over everything she’s read. Hoping for something good.”
I watched Brandon’s jaw tighten. I knew that he was getting antsy, his fingers tapping on the table.
He had extra hands on lookout. Even with the barrier up, he wanted to make sure there was no way the hybrids could get in.
There were more spotted around the area, trying to figure out how to get in.
“Well, hopefully she finds something. We’ve been seeing them circling the pack, and it’s making everyone nervous.”
I knew that. I’d been on nights a few times, and I could see them lurking. They were pacing around trying to find a way in. I knew that everyone was on edge, and we all didn’t know what was next. We were all waiting for Hazel to find something.
Brandon always knew what was going to happen next. We planned for every possible outcome when we set out to do a mission. This entire situation had been one thing after another that we weren’t prepared for. Nothing has gone as planned.
My phone vibrated, and I glanced at it. I noticed that it was Chelsey calling me. I grabbed my phone. “Hello?”
“Asher, are you able to come down to the healing center?”
I frowned, feeling my stomach drop. Her voice didn’t sound panicked, but it wasn’t calm either. “Is something wrong? Did something happen to Hazel?”
“No, we’re okay. Everyone is okay. We think we might have found a breakthrough, though. I also think Hazel might need a break. So, can you come swing by and listen to what we found?”
I nodded, pulling myself up. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute.” I shoved my phone into a pocket and smiled. “I think we got our break through we needed.”
I drove over to the healing center and rushed inside. The center was busy with people in the waiting room. Most of the tables were filled, and the other witches were moving around quickly. I couldn’t find Hazel or Chelsey anywhere, though.
“Asher.” Marie froze when she spotted me. “They are in the back. You can head on down.”
I gave her a nod as I moved past the row of beds toward the back area.
I headed into a small office where Chelsey was sitting.
There were books everywhere and papers all over the walls.
I’d seen Chelsey’s office, and it was normally clean, which told me this was all the work that Hazel had been doing.
I knocked on the door, and Chelsey looked up. “Hey, you made it.”
“Yeah, where is Hazel?” I looked around the room, not finding her.
“Storage room.” Chelsey pulled herself up. “We found out that we can actually see into the past with objects that have been cursed.”
My eyebrows went up as we walked down the hallway. “Seriously? That’s a thing?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s hard because it requires a lot of concentration and energy, but it’s possible. So, if we try hard enough, we should be able to see who put the curse down in the first place.”
Chelsey pushed open the storage room, and I could see Hazel sitting cross-legged with the gem in her hands. She had her eyes closed, her eyebrows knitted together like she was trying hard to concentrate.
“Hazel?”
Her eyes snapped open, and I could see just how tired she was. Her eyes were red from lack of sleep. I wondered when the last time she’d slept decently and not a few hours to break her eyes away from reading. I’d hardly been home at night, so I had no idea if she was sleeping or working.
“How long have you guys been standing there?” she asked, her voice weak and shaky.
“I just got here. How long have you been in here?” I glanced at Chelsey, wondering why she hadn’t called me sooner.
“Only a couple of hours.”
Chesley frowned. “Hazel, you’ve been in here since last night, which is why I called Asher. You need to go home and sleep. You’re starting to get burnt out.”
She shook her head. “No, I need to focus. I am so close to figuring this out. I can feel it.”
Chelsey’s lips pressed together, and she looked worried. “I understand that, but if you try too hard, you’re going to pass out. And you’ll be no use to us like that. We are already extremely busy, and I don’t want you using up a bed if you don’t need to. Go home and rest.”
“I can’t rest, Chelsey. The entire pack is depending on me finding out the answer. And I can feel it. I’m close to knowing how to fix everything. I can’t stop now.”
I could hear her desperation. Chelsey looked at me, lowering her voice. “She needs sleep, Asher. I’m not saying she can’t figure this out. But she’s a walking zombie right now.”
Chelsey gave me a tight smile before turning away. I stepped into the room, and Hazel pulled herself up. She waved her hand at me. “Do not ask me to go home and sleep.”
I placed my hands up. “I’m not. Just….sit down.”
She sat back down, and I sat down next to her. I patted my lap, and she narrowed her eyes at me. I could see bags forming under her eyes.
“Just rest your eyes for fifteen minutes. That’s all I ask.”
“Asher, I don’t have time.”
“Please,” I asked softly. “Just for me. Just for fifteen minutes.”
She sighed, but lay down resting her head in my lap. I placed my hands under her head, rubbing my thumbs along her temple. Her eyes closed, and she sighed. I could see her entire body relax as I massaged her head.
“Do you know how proud of you I am?”
“I haven’t done anything.”
“Yet, but I have no doubt you will.” I kissed her forehead, pressing my forehead against hers. “You are working so hard because of how much you care.”
I ran my fingers through her hair, listening to her breath. I could feel her falling asleep. Her head grew heavier against my lap. I couldn’t help but smile. I let her sleep, watching her face relax.
I knew that she had been giving up sleep, but I didn’t realize how much. I’d even lost some sleep since all of this. I’d found her late in the middle of the night, deep in a book. I’ve watched her flip through these books over and over again early in the morning.
I could hear her on the phone with Nora and Jade, asking them what they knew. I was so fricken proud of how hard she was trying and how deep she was looking. She wanted an answer more than anyone else did.
I looked down at the gem, feeling a dark pull from it. I picked it up, turning it over in my hand. I wondered why the gem was chosen as the object. It was about the size of my hand, a deep ruby color. It was raw, unpolished.
I frowned, wishing we could get rid of it. I didn’t like how my hair stood up when I was around it.
I don’t know how long I sat there letting her sleep. I knew it was longer than fifteen minutes.
I could hear how busy they were in the front, but it was quiet back here. We were in our own little world.
Hazel’s face scrunched up, and I stiffened, worried I was pulling on her hair. Hazel jerked awake, her eyes snapping open. But she didn’t look at me. She looked like she had seen something, and her eyes were looking through me.
“Hazel?”
She blinked a couple of times before her eyes moved, looking at me. I rubbed my fingers along her cheeks. “What’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I had another dream.” She slowly sat up and turned around. She looked at me, frowning. “They were moving around. They were talking about getting the gem back. They seem on edge about it being gone.”
She glanced over toward the gem. “They said something about making sure the body was still buried. I don’t know who they were talking about, though. But I think it’s connected.”
I knew there was no getting Hazel to go home. So I stayed and decided to help her. I looked through one book while she scanned through another. We’d moved from the storage room to Chelsey’s office.
The center was quiet now. It was late into the night, and Hazel sat in the chair across from me, munching on a Twizzler. I sat at the desk, trying to understand. But the more I read, the less I did.
I looked away from the book toward Hazel. She was turning the gem over in her hands, looking at it with a perplexed expression. “I wonder if the person they spoke about was always evil.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, tilting my head. “What do you mean?”
She glanced at me. “Do people just turn evil, or do they have good reasons to be that way?”
“I’ve seen a lot of evil in my life. Some people are just that way, and others…others had reason for doing what they did.”
She frowned. “You’ve probably seen a lot.”
I nodded. “I’ve seen enough evil and wrongdoing to last me a few lifetimes.”
She looked back at the gem, and suddenly her entire body froze. I watched her eyes grow wide, but she wasn’t looking at me. It was like she was watching something. Her eyes flickered back and forth, and for a solid moment, I thought she was having a seizure.
“Hazel?” Panic grabbed at me, and I moved closer to her. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. But I realized she was having a vision. I’d seen Jade and Nora look like this many times.
I felt like I couldn’t breathe as I waited for her to come back. Her eyes suddenly blinked, and she looked like she was going to vomit. I cupped her face. She was white as a ghost and cold to the touch. “Hazel?”
She pushed me away and went crawling toward the trash can. I turned as I heard her vomit. Her entire body was shaking as she shoved her head into the can. I could hear myself starting to sob.
I moved closer. “Hazel?”
“I saw it.” Her voice sounded so broken as she leaned back, wiping at her mouth. She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I saw it all.”
I swallowed. “What did you see?”
She closed her eyes, leaning back, and pressed her head against the wall. “That area….where we always end up. That wide open pasture.”
“Yeah?”
She opened her eyes. “He used to live here. He was a sorcerer. A very talented and powerful sorcerer. He was married with a son. They lived away from everyone else and were just happy. They had no worries in the world. And she was beautiful. His wife. She was... breathtaking.”
She blinked, sadness crossing her face. “A traveling pack was camping near their home. They found the house and…” She paused, wetting her lips.
“They raped his wife. Torched the house and beat him. He managed to keep his son away from it, but he couldn’t save his wife.
They killed her. Slit her throat in front of him. And they laughed as he broke apart.”
I reached for her, cupping her face. “Hazel….” I wiped at her eyes, knowing what seeing can do to a person’s mind. “This was a vision.”
“A terrible one,” she whispered. “How could they do that? How could….how could you treat them like that?”
I kissed her forehead, feeling her shake. “He was so angry. I could feel the shift in the air. That space was so peaceful and calm. They didn’t have a care in the world. They were so happy. And this pack just…ripped it apart.”
I pulled her closer, holding her tightly against my chest. She sniffled.
“He uhmmmm….he put a curse on the members and the land. It’s why it’s so strong when you go there.
He raised his son to hate shifters. Raised him pretty much to hunt and kill.
” She wiped at her eyes. “The gem…it’s how they shift.
He had a witch put a curse on the gem. It was his wife’s.
It allows all of the vampires to shift into their horrible form. ”
She swallowed. “He did it all because of her. He wanted revenge, and over the years, his hatred grew and shifted into something even more evil than it was at the beginning.”
She looked up at me. “He raised his son to hate, and it only grew from there.”
“Obviously, this man is dead right?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he’s buried there. Deeper in the rocky area we were in. That’s why the gem was there.”
“Okay, so does that mean if we break the gem, we end the curse?”
She shook her head. “No, they go together. Breaking the gem won’t end anything. The gem is just a build off of his curse. It’s only part of the problem. We have to find the body.”
“And do what exactly with it?”
She frowned. “Burn it. It’s the only way to end it. Pull the curse from his remains. Magic doesn’t just leave your body. It stays within you.”
I nodded. “Sounds like we have some hunting to do.” We would need to inform Brandon of everything. We’re going to have to set up a group and head out and find the body. If what she said was true, this was going to be dangerous.
“I need to call Brandon and let him know what you just told me. I’m sure he’s going to want to have a meeting.”
She nodded her head as I slipped free. I pulled my phone out and quickly called Brandon. I looked over my shoulder at Hazel as she grabbed the gem, turning it over in her hand.
“Hey, Asher.”
I rolled my shoulders. “Arrange a meeting. We got the info we needed.”