Chapter Twenty One
The vision hit me two nights later.
At first, I thought it was a dream. More like a nightmare, really, but then I realised that the pain and the emotion and the horror I was feeling was all too real, all too solid, to be just fragments of imagination my sleeping state had conjured up.
And the timing was impeccable, of course.
In the vision, I saw the black haired woman - my great, great, great grandmother - and at first, it was only her, standing on a beach, looking out over the ocean. The scene would have looked peaceful, serene even, if a cold, gut clenching feeling of dread wasn't lapping at the edges like the waves were on the sand. Her dress was the same one in the first vision I'd had, but the ends of the fabric that was pooled around her feet was sandy and wet.
What came next in a flash of colours was an image of many children, all looking frightened and scared. They were clutching things in their hands, like comfort blankets, an old toy, each other. They all looked scared of something, but the knowledge of what was going to happen was evident in their eyes.
Their eyes, which were exactly like mine. Blue, with the gold weaved in between.
My great, great, great grandmother was standing in front of them protectively, and it hit me then. They were the children that held the Ether blood. They were the ones she hid to protect their fate. I watched as the vision changed into a montage, moving almost too fast for me to watch, of these children getting smuggled and hidden and taken away from the beach, getting moved to safe, secure places.
Then, the terror hit me. The sand, once a nice soft gold colour was stained with blood. Bright, glowing werewolf blood, and there was screams. Screams of pain, agony, horror. Screams of killing.
The water was turning a dark red, the blood mixing with the salty texture of the sea water, blending together in an ugly mix. My stomach turned when I realised what I was watching. The slaughtering of the Ethers.
Forcing the panic down, the image flickered again, this time to my great, great, great grandmother again. She had her hands held over her head, her eyes weak yet determined. Saddened, yet triumphant.
And that's when I noticed that there was a different colour of blood staining the once beautiful, picturesque beach.
The blood was thick, and dark blue. But it glowed, faintly, yet light still emitted from it. And the stench wasn't like the metallic smell of the werewolf blood. It was mixed with a sort of spice, as if someone had gone and mixed the metallic scent with cinnamon, or a spicier herb.
And I knew she had died that day, my ancestor. But the way she had died, it resembled an inkling of hope. That the loss was not for nothing, and that's when I felt the weight of what ran through my blood settle on my shoulders.
It wasn't until I was waking from the vision in a cold sweat that I realised throughout the whole thing, one sentence had been on repeat in my great, great, great grandmothers musical voice.
Savour the gift, or release the curse.
* * * *
I was gasping in my room when I came to. The vision left my body like I was getting drained of something important, leaving a slightly stagnant smell in the room. The sheets that had tangled around my legs were wet with sweat, the damp, cold moisture making my skin feel dirty and sticky.
The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon, and I realised it was Friday, thankfully. The last day of school for the week. The last day where I had to pretend that James wasn't trying to kill me in class, at least until Monday.
There was a feeling deep inside me that I would see him before Monday, anyway.
I got out of bed, pulling the damp sweat sheets off me and padded into my small bathroom, turning the shower on and slipping out of my greasy tank top and shorts. The steaming water felt good on my skin, exfoliating my pores and ridding my skin of any remains of sweat, or the vision.
It was weird that it hit me then, there was no warning. Last time I'd fainted, but since I was already asleep it probably didn't matter. And it felt urgent, like someone was stepping up whatever was going to happen and I needed a warning. I felt a little reassured when I remembered that my ancestor was watching out for me, but I knew I had to talk to Violet. Immediately.
Stepping out of the shower, I quickly dried myself and once in my room, dressed in a pair of running shorts and a blue sweatshirt. Tying my still damp hair in a messy ponytail, I slipped on a pair of runners and grabbed my phone, jogging down the stairs and into the main living area of the quiet pack house. Since it was only about 7.30 AM, most of the pack members were still in bed, so I could sneak out of the house without getting caught, luckily.
Once outside, I quickly set off at a faster then human run, whipping through the trees and jumping fallen logs effortlessly. I felt different. Not bad different, or good different. Just...not the same as I did yesterday. As if the vision I'd had earlier had woken me up a little from a dream, and sent me into a deeper story of reality, where the danger was getting higher and my time to figure out what to do about James was getting shorter.
I already knew what was happening with him, though.
He was going to get killed, that I knew for a fact.
Once I reached the vine opening in the forest, I darted through and found the bungalow a few minutes later. Panting to a stop, I knocked on the door rapidly, it swinging open seconds later, and I was peering down at Lydia's face.
"Oh, morning Lydia." I smiled, but it felt quick and forced, and she noticed straight away. "Is Violet here?"
"Yeah, she's in her room." Lydia said, opening the door wider and letting me through. I stepped into the bungalow, the magical feel of the place momentarily taking over my concentration before I refocused on what I came here for.
Violet must have sensed I was there, because she came bursting out of the door that led to the bedrooms moments later, a look of stress plastered across her face. "Katie, you had a vision, didn't you?"
I nodded, glad I didn't need to explain. Violet would already know in a few seconds when she had finished reading it in my mind.
As expected, her face became even more drawn and she padded into the room in her socks. "She showed you the blue blood this time?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "What does it mean?"
Violet bit her lip, frowning. "It's hard to explain. I was hoping I wouldn't have to until later, because you were just getting your head around the organisation. But she showed you, so she wants you to know now." Violet murmured mostly to herself, her purple eyes following the wooden floorboards as she began to pace back and forth. "Do you have to go to school today?"
I shook my head, because this was much more important than any maths homework.
"Good. Call Max and Kade, they need to hear this too."
"What about Emeli?"
Violet shook her head. "She'll find out about James if we bring her here. We can't let her know yet. It's bad enough he knows you're onto him."
I shuddered slightly when I thought back to two days ago when he practically told me in his classroom he was looking forward to 'disposing' of me.
"Okay, give me a sec." I said, pulling out my phone. I sent Max a text, telling him to meet us at the bungalow ASAP. When I put my phone away, Violet raised her eyebrows at me.
"What?" I mumbled.
"Kade too, Katie. He needs to hear this."
"Why? I don't need him for this!" I started to get annoyed, and Violet held her hands up in surrender.
"I know you think that, and you're wrong, but this has gotten bigger then just you. And because he's a future Alpha, he deserves to know about the Engel Wolves."
I stilled. The name was familiar, but not to me. My subconscious knew what it meant, but I had no idea, and neither did my wolf. But her fur prickled at the name anyway.
"What's an Engel Wolf?" I asked, and I knew I was about to learn something extremely important, and possibly life changing, when Violet spoke again.
"They're werewolves, like us, but only half. The other half of them is angel blood."
* * * *
Max arrived in twenty minutes with his tangled mess of hair looking as though he'd just rolled out of bed and ran straight to the bungalow. His eyes slid to Violet first, then me, then Levi and Noah and Lydia, who had joined us in the lounge. They all wore identical grim expressions, and Max felt the darkness of the mood instantly.
Kade stepped through the door three seconds later.
"What's this about?" He asked, and I tried to ignore the fluttering in my stomach when his voice filled my ears and made me feel the littlest bit safer.
"Katie had another vision." Violet said, standing in the middle of the room and she gestured to the couches around her for the two to sit down. Max sat in the one closest to her, and Kade took the empty seat next to me. I tried to fight the pull that threatened to move me closer to him, and managed to restrain it enough to focus on what Violet was about to say.
"Why do I have the feeling that when I leave here I'm going to view the world differently?" Max asked, his tone indicating he was trying to joke, but it was only half hearted.
"Because you are, my friend." Noah murmured, his head propped up on his hands.
"You better start explaining, Violet." Levi said calmly. "They're going to need a while to get used to the idea."
Violet took a deep breath, and Kade glanced at me quickly. I met his eyes, my wolf purring at the nearness of her mate. I tore my eyes away and focused back on Violet when she started to speak.
"An Engel Wolf is a cross between shape shifter blood and angel blood." Violet said, getting straight to the point. Before she could continue, Kade scoffed.
"Excuse me? Angel blood? You've got to be kidding me." He said, looking at the others face in disbelief. They were all set with so much seriousness I almost wanted to laugh.
"I know it seems like it's not possible, but it is." Violet said. "I use the term shape shifter because although Engel's have werewolf blood in them, most of the time they can't shift into a wolf because the change is either dormant or hindered because of the mixing of blood, or because some don't actually possess a wolf."
"This sounds like some sort of bad fantasy world." Max muttered, shaking his head. "Are you going to tell me faeries are real, too?"
Violet shot him a look. "Werewolves are real, Max. Faeries aren't just in children's picture books."
"Wait, faeries are real?" I asked, surprised. "Since when?"
"For a group of werewolves, you guys are awfully uneducated in the world of other supernatural beings." Noah said in an amused tone, stretching out on the couch he was sitting on. "Learning about the organisation is only scratching the surface to, how did you put it Max? The bad fantasy world. Faeries, shape shifters, warlocks, they're all real. Just like us. They're just better hidden in this world then we are."
"We're getting off topic," Levi piped in, his big body taking up most of the room on the two seater he was lounging on.
"Okay, so now we know faeries are real," Violet said, "we can continue on with my explanation."
"Get ready kids, this is going to be the best history lesson you've ever had."
"Shut up Noah." Violet said, glaring at him. "Anyway. Thousands of years ago, when the first werewolves were created, do you know what made them?"
"The legend about Lycaon, and Zeus turning him and his sons into wolves, yes we know." Kade said, his arms spreading over the back of the couch as he got more comfortable.
"That's the vague legend, yeah." Violet said. "But there is a part to it that not a lot of people know. Zeus was known as a God, right? When he turned Lycaon's sons into wolves, he enlisted in the help of some of his followers, which were the angels.
One of the angels, a beautiful woman, had fallen in love with one of the sons, and was furious with Zeus when she heard what he wanted to do with them. She snuck in to his room one night, and in order to help protect him from what was soon going to be his fate, she shared her angel blood with him, thinking it would act as a sort of shield against Zeus. Making her lover immune."
"I'm guessing it didn't work?" I asked, and Violet nodded, continuing.
"When Zeus turned them, something happened inside the angels lover. Instead of turning into a wolf, he transformed in a huge ball of light, into a shape shifter. The attempted change from Zeus and the blood from the angel collided, mixing the new bloods together, and it created the Engel Wolf. Zeus was furious with this angel, of course, and stripped her of her wings immediately. She was banished, and so was the first Engel wolf, from Zeus' kingdom."
"So what happened to him?" Kade asked, now seemingly engrossed in the story.
"He fell in love again with a village woman, who turned out to be a werewolf, and they had offspring, which was the start in the long line of Engel's. The angel who shared her blood with him was so mad that he had fallen for another woman that she created a curse with the power she had left and mixed it in the blood of one of their infants, and that's where the evil started to appear. She cursed one son, and he passed down the evil to each generation after him."
"So there's two types of Engel? One good, one bad?" I commented, trying to wrap my head around the information. Violet nodded, and I opened my mouth to ask another question. "So the glowing, blue blood I saw, it's Engel blood?"
"Yes. Angel blood is a pure, glowing silver. Werewolf blood is bright red. For some reason when they mixed together, the blood turned blue. It's said to hold special powers, but I'm not sure how much truth is behind that." Violet said, and I nodded in understanding.
"So," Max said, "how does any of this fit into what's happening with Katie and the Ether bloodline today?"
"This is where it gets tricky, so you have to try and bear with me." Violet cringed. "Noah mentioned before about the organisation being only the first layer into the secret world of supernatural. He's right. Engel's tried to hide out in society for years until they realised that their powers could be used for good. Then the dark Engel's, the evil ones, realised that they could destroy things with their gifts. When the Ether bloodline evolved, they didn't take much notice, but when the other wolves turned against them, the dark Engel's joined the fight."
"So the war between the wolves also contained Engel's?" Kade asked slowly, trying to get his head around it also.
"Yes, and I know that they sometimes work with the organisation to help keep the Ether population down."
"Why?" I said suddenly. "The Ethers don't affect them in any way."
"They didn't like the thought of another type of wolf having substantial amounts of power, because that's what they had. The dark Engel's helped kill them for their own greed, their own enjoyment. The organisation use them as fighters sometimes, so it limits whoever their hunting's chances. The organisation use them for their power, and the Engel's help them because fighting's in their blood. The relationship between werewolves and Engel's has always been strained, but I think your great, great, great grandmother showed you their blood because the relationship is getting worse."
"So this whole thing is bigger then the organisation. Bigger then what we're dealing with." Kade said, and his face closed over into a hard mask. "This is huge."
"I know." Violet breathed. "And I've had a hunch for a while, but I think somethings boiling under the surface. Something like another war."
Suddenly, James trying to kill me didn't seem so important, not when the threat of a war was hanging over us. "What do you mean?"
"Not soon, it's too early to tell. But it's going to happen, a few years from now, or it could be longer or shorter." Levi spoke up, his rough voice bringing us back to reality. "But the main thing to worry about right now is not Engel's or another werewolf war, it's getting rid of this James guy. For good. And finding the organisation, so we can start taking them down."
Noah looked around the room, his eyes unusually serious. "Are you all used to the sight of blood?"
I gulped, shaking my head slowly. Noah flashed me a sympathetic look. "Well you better start getting used to it, darling."
* * * *
I know this seems incredibly mucky, but new information is revealed, and the fight has just gotten bigger! The action will start soon, and don't rule out the opportunity of new characters ;) Especially since one of them is already my favourite, misunderstood Engel. (By the way, 'Engel' means Angel in Dutch, just to show you guys the connection) :) I hope you could follow the explanation, and it will all make more sense in the next few chapters.
Plus, I don't know if you readers have noticed, but this story doesn't really contain a lot of werewolf pack rules and regulations, as such. I tried to write it so it was more in the modern day context where the Alpha wouldn't just bark out a bunch of orders and the pack wasn't all strict and such, but they're still the uniform sort of pack that can fight against attacks and stuff.
It's just...yeah. Bear with me. I hoped you like! :D
Vote, comment, etc :)
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