The Alpha Princes Duty

Alloa Scotland circa 1750’s His kiss takes my breath away, I know we shouldn’t have snuck away from the village alone at night but it was only two weeks until we would be wed and I canny resist his handsome face and twinkling eyes. Hidden under the leafy oak tree lit only by the twinkling of the stars above I can just about make out his auburn hair and light blue eyes but his features are carved on my very heart. “Una my love , run away with me tonight I canna wait any longer, I need ye” He murmurs against my lips before claiming them again. I know he is talking nonsense in the moment but his want for me makes my head spin. “Kier Campbell behave yersel!” I pull back and cry out in mock annoyance and his deep beautiful laughter echos through the still night. As he moves to claim my lips once more that calmness is shattered by the distressed neighs of a horse and the cry’s of a man. “The demons are coming! The demons are coming!” Instantly we’re on our feet and running towards the cry’s not away from them. The sight before my eyes is frightening. Trying to belt his way from the Alloa Kirk is old Tam himself astride Meg his horse. Hot on their heels are more than a dozen of the very demons he warns of. Except they are not known to us witches as demons they are vampires and they look determined to make a victim of old Tam and Meg. Just as Megs hoofs land on the old bridge over the Doon I see one of the vampires launch forwards and grab hold of Megs tail just as I send a huge gust of wind their way, knocking all the vampires back off of their feet with the force of it and giving them time to get to us at the other side of the bridge. I pull the water from the river and create a barrier across the bridge to slow the vampires progress as Meg comes to a screeching stop before us. “Lassie what are ye doing out so late! It isnae safe! I’ve just witnessed the demons making sacrifice in the ruins ae the old Kirk! They’re coming for us all!” Keir and I share a knowing look a dozen vampires is not an easy fight. I am stronger than most witches as I can control all four elements, most only have one and Kier can control fire. We are strong but a dozen is too much for just us, they are faster and physically much stronger than us. He kisses my forehead “Get on Meg my love and warn the village! I’ll hold them back!” I grab onto his shoulders “No Kier! I am more powerful, I’ll hold them back!” He just shakes his head and lifts me from around the waist where Tam helps take me from him and pulls me up behind him. Tears stream down my face, I know this is a suicide mission and so does he. “Please Kier come with us! I canny live without you!” “My life for everyone else’s is a small price to pay! I would never want to walk in a world that doesn’t have you in it! I would die a million deaths to know you were safe! Now hurry save them all my love!” And with that he slaps Meg on her rump and she shoots to life running like lightening away from the afray. I dare to look back as my wall of water drops and I see him create his own wall of fire in front of him. Already they are trying to push their way through. I send a prayer to the goddess Brigid to help us all on this unearthly of nights. We tear into the village of Brigadoon, my home where everyone else I have ever loved is sleeping soundly in their beds. Meg screeches to a halt before the great bell and I tumble off of her in my rush to raise the alarm. I grasp the heavy rope and pull with all of my might the bells shattering the peace of the slumbering village. In moments all of the witches have gathered and somehow between Tam and I gabbering they understand the coming danger.. We gather around the village well and channel our magic chanting to Brigid, we draw in the mist to hide the village from all dangers and ask the goddess to bless us with her protection. Hide us from this coming danger. I feel the pull of the magic and mist drawing me into a slumber and before my eyes close I swear that I see Kier running with all of his might towards the village boundary. I break the circle to reach for him and try to move my heavy limbs towards him but nothing moves and the world goes dark. … I wake from the most awful of dreams and rush to open my eyes to put it behind me. As they open I am confused I do not see the roof of my cottage but the open blue sky and bright sunshine of the outdoors. I reach out with my hands and touch grass beneath me. Panic rises in my chest was this not a dream? Sitting bolt upright I notice everyone else strewn around the well still sleeping soundly. Desperately I look to the boundary to see if Kier made it in time but there is no sign of him, I let out a sob. “Now my child I know you are feeling a great loss but I must ask more of you this day!” I turn looking for the enchanting voice that has just spoken and my eyes widen. Floating above the well is the goddess Brigid herself. She saved us! Luminous in her beauty. “Goddess thank you for hearing us! Did? Did my beloved get to safety?” my tone full of hope but her sad eyes tell me it is misplaced. “I am sorry my child but he did not and he has done something that is considered abhorrent to all witches. Instead of killing him they turned him and he has chosen not sacrifice himself before the change could complete as is the way of the witch” I find it hard to breathe, to swallow, my universe has turned upside down. No witch has ever allowed the change to complete, at our very core the idea of being a vampire is abhorrent to us, we live by nature, the seasons, our connection to the earth, the belief that all things should live and then die. One word is all I can manage “Why?” Her eyes are sympathetic and I know in my heart what she is going to say “His love for you is too deep, even now he searches desperately for you to turn you to be with him forever” “No! No! I canny bear it!” Floods of tears pour from my eyes. She floats over to me and wraps me in her majestic embrace but her solace can not reach my broken heart. “I must ask more of you my child, he has unsettled the very balance of nature and he will become something dark, powerful and unrecognisable. Only you can stop him but it will not be easy and it will require more sacrifice than I have a right to ask of anyone. It is a journey of many lifetimes, a lonely and painful path for you to walk. I foresee the only way to restore balance, when you will be strong enough to win the final battle, when you are one with the great wolf, fighting with you, only when your heart is healed. Then you will find your true power” I absorb her words and wipe my tears, this is my responsibility and no matter the sacrifice I will make it. “You said lifetimes? How can this be possible without becoming what he is?” Another sad smile is granted “That will require a willing sacrifice greater than just your own” she waves her graceful arm and the others begin to rise from their slumber. I sit in a daze as the others waken and hear voices but they sound so very very far away as the goddess speaks to them. Eventually I feel a gentle hand on my arm and it pulls me back to the present. Kier’s mammy wraps me in a tear filled hug “we will give you anything just please save his soul” she whispers and I know her heart is a broken as my own. I realise they are all looking to me expectantly and I stand “I do not know the sacrifice you have been asked but I will give anything to right this wrong” I hear the murmurs of that’s a lassie and aye she’s a good girl. I look to the goddess and she puts a Cairngorm Quartz into my hand and closes her own over mine. “We must charge this now to connect you to the power of this place. Your village will sleep for one hundred years, reappearing for one day only before they slumber again. This stone will allow you to walk the Earth and you will only age on that day that they walk the Earth with you.” My eyes widen in surprise, I had no idea that magic this powerful was even possible. To age only one day every one hundred years, she truly believes that it will take many lifetimes before he can be redeemed. The enormity of the task ahead does not escape me. “Will they be safe?” I ask suddenly, worry for the others washes over me. That reassuring smile again “Of course my child, they will simply slumber like a normal nights sleep and Brigadoon will disappear into the mist never to be touched by the world, they will live and laugh on their day and return happily to sleep again at night. Until you rebalance the scales and then simply destroy the stone. The magic will be undone and everyone will restart their lives once again. The world will be a very different place by then I must warn! But all will live” I nod my agreement and she urges everyone to connect hands in a circle and we follow her instructions chanting and charging the spell. I gather some belongings and coin to help my journey and when it is time the goddess sees me to the boundary. “Good luck my child! You must stay strong and true, there will be more pain and loss than you can imagine but if you endure you will triumph!” No more words are needed. I take a few more steps and turn to watch as my home vanishes into the Scottish mist like it was never there.