*Maria*     

     I run down the stairs towards the kitchen and I see faith sitting on the counter and jax was leaning against her legs and her arms wrapped around his neck from behind. I smile at them and I say "we need dresses for the masquerade ball". She gasps and hops down off the counter jax sends her a confused expression and she says "we gotta find dresses we gotta go now". She grabs my hand and drags me away from abel and she squeals "we're going to try on dresses guys we will be back later". She stops and I run into her back and then goes back to jax and leaves me hanging and she kisses him on the lips and he smiles at her and luke walks over to me as I am putting on my shoes.

He hands me a credit card and I shake my head at him "no it's okay I was just gonna use my card". He raises his eyebrow at me and he replies while moving closer to me "listen I spent sixteen years of your life not knowing about you maria let me do this for you". I flash him a smile and he returns my smile and he holds out the card for me and I take it from his hand and I ask "what's my limit?". He chuckles and he says as I put the card into my pocket and he says "money is no object but please don't break the bank okay? I still gotta send you off to college". I giggle and nodd at him and he stands up with me and before we leave I hug him and then I hug abel and he asks "what color you going with?".

I smile at him and shrug "probably gold wear a gold tie" he chuckles and crosses his arms over his chest and he teases "oh so i'm your date then?". I flash him a smile and I say "oh you didn't wanna be my date okay i'll just go stag". His smile fades and he says "I would go with you but I already have a date I don't wanna go back on my word". I send him a fake smile and I say "good luck with harley" faith drives off and I cross my arms over my chest and I look at faith and I say "your gonna help me find a killer dress that will have everyone's eyes turning". She smiles at me and holds up her fist and I bump my fist against hers and she says "game on harley game on".

~Friday~

I pick up my phone when I hear it beep as faith helps me with my hair and I see it's a picture that abel sent to me of a gold tie and gold in his pocket. I sit my phone down and check my makeup in the mirror and faith was smiling at me through the mirror. I check my hair over and smile when I see she did an amazing job and I hug her and she giggles when I see she added flowers to make it look vintage and she gave me a half up half down hairstyle and the curls cascade down my neck. Faith's hair was very curly I had put the curlers in her hair last night and she slept in them. I help her into her dress which was absolutely breathtaking she had on a beautiful gold and light blue dress and it was a fit and flare it made her look really tall.

I smile at her when my hand glides over the gold lace sleeves and the gold fades into black at the skirt and there was hints of gold sparkle in the top. After she got into her dress she helped me into my off the shoulder gold satin ballgown and it went all the way down to the floor and had a beautiful train. Faith she gasps when her eyes fell onto the train and she pulls the skirt and let the air fill up my train so it went as far as it did. I smile in the mirror and the top had hints of sparkle here and there and she says "luke wanted to give you something before we left". I nodd at her and she tells me he's in his office and she waits for me downstairs and I see him standing in front of his desk and once he turned around and his eyes fell onto me his eyes widened and then a smile crosses his face.

I walk towards him and he says "hey you look beautiful" I smile at him and I reply "thanks". He grabs my hand and he says "you know when you laugh I at first thought you had your moms laugh but the more I listened the more I realized it's my laugh but". He walks over to a box off to the side of the room and once he opened the box he brought a beautiful gold tiara "you have the beauty of your mother cheryl". He places the tiara on my head and I smile at him and I look into the mirror on his desk and he stands behind me and the tiara was beautiful on top of my head and it was like it was meant to be there. I turn around and smile at him and he says "your mom won that in the thornhaven beauty pageant".

I smile at the tiara and I go over to him and hug him and he wraps his arms around me and he kisses me on the forehead and I whisper "thanks dad". He releases a breath and then we walk downstairs and faith is by the door the guys told us they would meet us at the ball which was in mayor scott's estate. Once we arrive and as soon as we open the door and give the guy our invitations faith walks down the stairs and jax was at the foot of the staircase. But the only guy that mattered to me was the bright blue eyed adonis standing beside him and as soon as his eyes fell onto me and everyone eyes was on me. Dad turns around and smiles at me I adjust my mask and I hear harley say from the back "love the dress hate her".

Abel walks up to me and the reason I know it's him is because his eyes always made me melt. He kisses my hand and he says "you look breathtaking maybe I should had ditched harley for you". I smile at him flirtatiously and I reply "maybe next time abel" I walk past him and inside the ballroom and see everyone either dancing and drinking. I smile at faith as we keep dancing around the room and faith was getting drunk and dancing and then a slow song comes on and I recognize it's the song 'All I Need' by Within Temptation.

I smile when abel walks up to me and holds out his hand and the chorus hits with the song 'when you hold me in your embrace don't tear me down'. He pulls me closer and my hand drifts up his neck to his cheek and his other hand tightens around mine and as we glide across the dance floor his eyes not once left mine. I smile at him and he leans his forehead against mine and I couldn't help but fall more in love with him. I couldn't bring myself to look away from him how did I fall for him? I fell quickly and suddenly. After the song ends I walk away from him and faith was drunk off her ass and I love drunk faith and I roll my eyes when I see her dancing with jax on the dancefloor.

I giggle and across from the ballroom I was looking through the collector's item's and then my eyes fell onto a gold pocket watch in a glass case that belonged to 'Brody Lockwood'. He was harley's ancestor I go to the next glass case and a smile crosses my face when I find a picture when my mom won miss thornhaven. Mayor lockwood harley's mom was placing the crown on top of my mom's head she had won the year before and she was mad that she got runner up that year. She plastered a fake smile on her face my mom was absolutely breathtaking it was when she was sixteen. My thumb glides over the glass and I read the bottom and see it was '1990' because two years later is when she had me.

I jump when I hear a throat clear behind me I turn and see it's my mom she removes her mask and she walks over to me and she tells me "two years after that you were born". I nodd and keep my face straight I don't smile or talk to her and I ask "why is the crown that i'm wearing different?". She giggles and moves closer to me and she replies "because that crown was from the year before I got runner up and I was upset of not getting the crown that's the year harley's mom won and your father went and bought me one and he said you'll always be a queen to me". I smile and she walks over to me and she stands in front of me and she says "sweetheart can I ask you something?". I nodd at her and she takes a deep breath and she pushes my hair over my shoulder and her gloved hand glides over my cheek and she asks "when did you start growing up? how did I not notice?".

I remove her hand and I say "like you care" she sighs and her eyes have guilt in them and she says "hey it hurts me that you think that I don't your my baby I love you maria but being a witch is this something that makes you happy?". I smile and nodd and I say "i've been practicing with dad he's been teaching me how to control it and I can almost get my permonitions on command now they're not perfect but I still get them from time to time but dad says it's something that I won't be able to control but I know I can". She smiles at me and grabs my hands and she asks "how did you get so strong?" she wraps her arm around me as we walk out of the room "from you".

We walk out of the room and down the stairs and see the guys already there and so was luke and jax was carrying faith bridal style but she was passed out. We get inside the truck and before we leave luke turns around he was talking with my mom and I had the window cracked open so I still hear them. Luke smiles at her and he says "i'm gonna teach maria tomorrow morning about twelve if you wanna join us at the house if you wanna see what she can do". I bite my lower lip and abel says from the driver's seat "your mom wants to decline but she knows she won't because the feelings she thought she buried all those years ago are coming back". I giggle and hit his arm and abel leans across the console and he says "she said yes".

~The Next Day~

I slip on my tank top and slide on some shorts I brush my hair and then tie it up into a ponytail and go downstairs and grab a granola bar and some water. After my fast lunch I go out the front door and see my dad and mom on the porch and I see abel on the ground and on the porch you can see everything we are doing. I take a deep breath and focus all of my energy and I lift up my hand palm up and I try to levitate abel towards me. But he's focusing so hard that I can't pick him up and dad says "focus maria you can do it". I shake my head and I say "I can't do it" my mom stands up and leans over the porch and she says "you can do it just focus hard find something that makes you angry and then do it".

I take another deep breath and everything that's happened and then abel says "think of harley kissing me". I growl and then I close my palm and abel makes a choking noise and I pick him up off his feet and bring him towards me. When I brought him closer to me I hear my dad die laughing and he falls back and I see his feet peak up onto the railing and he kicks back and forth. Mom sends me a raised eyebrow and she says "don't hurt him maria". I drop him to his knee's and he turns to me and he sends me a smile "you are an amazing woman".

I send him a smile and I hear Jax's truck pull into the driveway and faith she gets out and she's wearing Jax's sweatpants and his shirt. He grabs her hand and leads her over to us and faith says "oh are you practicing? lift me up". She stands where abel just was and she removes her sunglasses even though she's most likely nursing a hangover. I pick her up and I see she's levitating and I pull my hand closer to my chest and pull her closer to me and she giggles when I pull her to me and she hugs me and I hear my mom start to clap. I hug faith and we go inside and my mom rubs my shoulder as she follows behind us and I grab a water bottle from the fridge.

I go through the book in the living room and my feet was in abel's lap as I read through the spells and my dad says from the recliner "just don't read them backwards then it will bring back a demon your ancestor vanquished". I nodd at him and keep reading but I don't read out loud and then I come across the spell to cast onto a ring for a vampire to walk into the sunlight or protection. I remove the locket necklace and hand it to my mom and I smile at her "it belonged to you first". Her eyes widened and she smiles and I look at my dad and he smiles at me and nodds and she puts the locket back onto her neck and my dad helps her put it back on.

I sit back down and faith and jax was in his room most likely probably cuddling on his bed because when she's got a hangover all she wants to do is cuddle. Abel grabs my hand and he leads me upstairs to his room no doubt and he tells me to sit down on his bed. I sit down and remove my shoes and cross my legs and he goes to his closet and brings out a jewelry box and he brings out a beautiful necklace it was the same color as his ring a beautiful blue. My finger glides over the blue stone and he says "the old spell might had worn off so you might need to bless it again". I grab the necklace and close my eyes and focus all of my energy onto the necklace and remember the spell word for word.

When I recite the spell in my head my dad stands behind me and he whispers "just so I can help you if you need it". I nodd and start to refocus and then I feel the necklace get hotter. I open my eyes and see the locket glowing gold and once I stopped chanting inside my head the glow went away it was like sand. The sand fell from my fingertips and I look at my mom and her eyes are widened and she says "your really strong". I smile at her and abel says "your eyes went back to normal" I look at him and he places his hands on my cheeks and he smiles at me. I put the necklace around my neck and I walk away from him and I go outside onto the porch and I hold up my hand and remember what it felt like to feel the gold sand cascade down my fingertips.

I don't let the power go to my head as I close my eyes and focus my energy trying to summon it and then I feel my fingertips get hotter and hotter and then I see the sand come back and cascade down my fingertips. I smile being able to do it by myself and without help from my dad I feel something wet drip from my nose. I furrow my eyebrows and place my hand under my nose and see I gave myself a nosebleed. I wipe it away and I walk off the porch and into the woods that separates my dads house with mine. I keep walking through the tree's and I go in the opposite direction of my house and I focus my energy on finding the lake that wasn't far from here.

I keep going through the tree's and then I hear a crow's call I look up and see it's my bird he flies down a row of tree's and then lands on a branch it was like he was leading me somewhere. I smile at him and then I follow his lead and he leads me past the lake and once I get to the clearing. I look across the field and see my crow sitting on a branch and once my hand glides across the tree in the middle of the field. I gasp when I feel myself being transported back and I look around me and see I see innocent women being tied to this very tree. Then I see my great grandmother temperence being hung on the tree and I scream in pain when I feel like my body was being set on fire.

Her eyes soften and she screams in pain as they set her body on fire so this is where she was murdered? I fall to the ground as they I look beside her and see an exact replica of my cousin 'Faith' but she's not a witch. I scream in pain when I feel like I am being burned from the inside out I could feel everything that she felt. This premonition is different I have never been hurt in one I turn around when I hear faith's ancestor scream "no jax stay away". I feel temperance's eyes fall onto me and she says "take care of abel" as soon as she said that it was lights out for me. When I open my eyes and look around me I see i'm still in the field but everyone was around me my hand finds my side and then blood falls onto my fingertips I look at abel's worried face beside me my hand glides across his cheek.

His eyes soften and he says "are you okay?" I nodd and when I try to stand I feel my legs feel like jello he picks me up bridal style and he runs and leaves them behind and when I look out in front of me I see we are running in vamp speed. I turn to look at him and we make it to luke's house in record time and he sits me down onto the couch in the living room. His fangs pop out and he bites his wrist and then he says "it will help with your side". I take his blood but only a few drops and then my side was all healed. Then once everyone gets back and faith sits beside me and I say "I could feel everything she felt her pain her suffering my body felt like it was on fire".

Faith's eyes water and I say "how is it that she looks like her ancestor?". Jax's eyes widened and faith asks "what are you talking about maria?". I grab her hand and then I have another flash of jax and abel saving faith's ancestor from the stake and jax turning her into a vampire. I gasp and jump from the couch and I drop the teacup I had in my hand and the cup shatters into pieces and abel says "what did you see?". I run my hand through my hair and my mom grabs my hand and I say to them "I saw you and jax turning faith's ancestor into a vampire what was her name? I can't keep calling her faith's ancestor".

Jax's eyes soften and so does abel's and abel says "I tried turning temperance but she was already to far gone jax was faster than I was he got to her before I did her name was katerina pertrova we call her kat". I hear sniffles behind him and faith says "she looks just like me?" I nodd at her and jax says "faith you may look like her but you both are polar opposites your personalities are different katerina is cold and lifeless and she hates love she thinks it makes her weak that's the complete opposite of you". She walks away from him and I grab her in a hug and she whimpers and screams "then why did you turn her? I have been begging you to turn me and you won't even do that".

I rub her back and it's very seldom when faith cries she's usually so strong and well put together and he says "the reason I turned katerina is because I was this freshly new vampire I didn't know what I was doing and the reason I keep not wanting to turn you is because I was reckless when I turned katerina and I was cold and I was only thinking about myself I wasn't thinking about her or if she would survive I was thinking about myself I was detached and I had no light in my life or love". I feel faith's hand creep into mine and she whimpers "do you still love her?" his eyes softened and he moves closer to us and she pulls back and when she pulls back she pulls me back. My hand tightens around hers and she squeezes in return to know i'm there.

He shakes his head and he replies "no i'm gonna say it again faith until I met you I had no meaning or love or light into my life you brought that into my life and when I told you everything about me you didn't look at me like I was a monster you looked at me like I was just a regular guy". I feel abel's eyes on me and I hug faith as she cries into my neck and I whisper "I believe him". She nodds at me and I kiss her on the cheek and I whisper "it's okay faith". Jax walks over to us and pulls her closer and I look at abel and I go up to his room and I sit down and he leans against the threshold and he sits beside me and I lean my head against his shoulder. His arm tightens around me and I relax under his touch and I whisper "I promised temperance that I would take care of you".

He chuckles and rubs my back and I look up at him and find his crystal blue eyes already on me and I ask "I also have a question are you only friends with me because I remind you of tempy?". He sighs and then he looks away and he turns back to me and he replies "in the beginning yes I was but now? no I don't look at you and see temperance I see you maria". I smile at him and I feel paralyzed under his watchful eye and then I break away from him and I bite my lower lip. I feel his hand grab my necklace and I look back at him and his eyes get lost into mine once again. I feel the butterflies fly around in my stomach his eyes lowered to my lips and his face gets closer to mine.

I gasp when his lips crashed onto mine my hand glides across his cold cheek and his kiss sent me into overdrive. I break the kiss and then he goes in again and he pushes me back and leans over me I run my hands through his jet black hair. We get interupted by a crow call by his window we both look up and he chuckles and I raise up and my fingers glide over the crows feathers and I ask "did you know I would get a vision? is that why you lead me to there? you wanted me to see what happened to my descendant right?". Abel stands beside me and the crow leans his head into my hand which brings a smile to my face. I sit down in front of the window and abel says "I think he's your familiar every witch must have a animal as a pet whether it be wild or not at all most witches get cats".

He hops down and onto my shoulder and abel chuckles and he rubs his feathers like I did and he pecks abel's hand and he says "really?" I snicker and he says "your familiar are enchanted creatures". We stand up the bird staying on my shoulder and when my dad see's the bird he chuckles and I say "I think I found my familiar". The bird flies to the table and stays there and my mom hands me the book and I open it up and I read out loud "familiars are enchanted creatures who follow and guide new witches to protect them while they learn the craft". I smile at the crow and I stroke it's wings once again and he looks like he's enjoying it if he didn't enjoy it he would probably squak or something but he never does. I continue to read out loud "While they are often cats, other animals like dogs,rabbits,horses ands snakes can be familiars as well familiars are naturally attuned to the seasons and the phases of the moon".

He hops back onto my shoulder and I smile at him and continue "and also can be helpful in teaching the young witch a heightened awareness of her environment". I look at the crow and he hops onto my hand and I stroke his feathers and I sigh "okay so your my familiar what shall I name you? I can't keep calling you my bird". He squaks and I hear my mom start to giggle from beside me and then faith walks in and she says "what a beautiful bird maria is he your familiar?". I giggle and nodd and she flops down onto the floor and pouts "I think my familiar is fancy she's been with me ever since I was little and we've been through everything". I snicker as abel pulls me into his lap and I tease her "so has honey and you don't see me thinking she's my familiar she's been with me ever since I was a little girl".

Jax laughs as she pushes him away when he tries to tickle her and mom and dad walk down the hall and she asks me "you coming with me or are you staying with dad?". I look at dad and he smiles at me and winks at me and I say "I think i'm gonna stay here you gotta work tomorrow?". She nodds at me and abel's hand never stray from my waist and it was the greatest feeling in the world. She kisses me on the forehead before she leaves and I say "I gotta come up there in the morning and train abigail". She smiles at me and she turns around and says to me "don't forget tomorrow we go shopping for dresses for miss thornhaven beauty pageant it's friday".

I nodd at her and she stands behind faith and she asks "you going with us? we need to get you a dress too". Faith smiles at her and nodds in agreement with her and when my dad shows her out. Faith sends me a raised eyebrow and I do the same thing and we double wink at each other. My dad returns and he says "okay kids i'm going to bed see ya'll in the morning" before he leaves he kisses me on the forehead he does that every night before he goes to bed that's something a father does. I go to the room I had claimed as my own and I flop onto my bed and I draw some more and I draw until it makes me tired then I cut the light off after I get situated into the bed and right as I fall asleep I feel abel slip into the bed behind me.

A smile crosses my face and I turn over and before it was lights out for me he kisses me on the lips and the forehead.