ARADIA

Chapter 7:Findings

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Xavier's pov

My wolf was pissed, no he wasn't pissed he was raging, he was fuming, he was about going mad, and in the process he was making me mad as well. I clawed at my head dragging my hair and almost ripping it apart. My wolf was howling, growling in anger, what was making him so upset I didn't know and it was driving me crazy. It was as if my wolf knew something I didn't.

It felt like a part of me was missing, It was driving me nuts. I strode to the biggest couch in the park house living room and flung it with the superhuman strength that my werewolf possesses. As I saw nothing was there, it was as if my wolf got even angrier, I had slammed every door in the entire house, ripped apart every bed, raised every chair, destroyed every closet, I even pulled apart the innocent kitchen cabinets, I was in a continuous search for something I didn't even know.

But what I did know is that as I searched and found nothing my wolf got even more agitated. It wanted blood, of who I do not know. It was in a perpetual search, for whom I cannot even believe to fanthom. My mother had cast some sort of witch spell that restrained me from going to the outside world.

To prevent "hurt on others" she said. I fumed more thinking about it. My wolf was driving me insane, being closed off from the world was driving me nuts. I needed to find what my wolf wanted, I needed peace!. Father and mother walked into the living room and walked towards me where I crouched over in pain. I was clutching my sides, it was as if my wolf could not bear the rage anymore so he was despairing.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. "Stay away from me mother, father. I don't want my wolf to tear you apart just to satisfy his urge that whatever he's looking for isn't there." "Xavier " my mom's soft voice whispered my wolf seemed to calm down at the sound of her voice. I peered up to her knowing my eyes were filled with an unending rage.

Father was holding her to his side and seemed to be urging her to speak. They were communicating with their minds. A gift every mated werewolf was blessed with. Mother seemed to finally agree. This time she left father's side and urged closer to me. I inched further away from her not wanting to hurt her and I could see the slight pain that caused her.

I'm doing this for your sake mother, I don't want to hurt you. I'm not in control of my mind right now. She inched even closer and grabbed my warm body. I was burning up I knew. To the untrained eye It would seem like just an extraordinary fever but to those who knew it was the rage if a werewolf, an angry Alpha werewolf. She placed my heavy aching head on her laps and laid a soothing palm on my cheek.

I started to feel suddenly better. I looked up at father and saw he still had a worried look etched on his face but he seemed to be concentrating wholeheartedly on what mother was doing to me. I believed it was a spell of some sort.

I don't know. "Xavier..." She whispered "son... I need you to look into my eyes" she said more loudly and much forcefully this time. I was compelled to look up. "I know why your wolf is restless, I know why it seems to be in a constant search for something...or someone" she muttered lower than before. " Hmmm" I mumbled lowly my brain was getting groggy I felt tired all of a sudden now.

My wolf seemed to have calm down as well, it didn't feel like there was a raging storm and impending tornado inside my head anymore. "Did you find out from your crystal ball, mother" I mumbled and drew even closer to her letting her freshly washed hair flutter over my face and tease my nostrils. She shook her head slowly and I had to focus on her "No son, your friends are here, they told me".

My head shot up at that Aradia was here?, Claire, Leo, Aradiaaa? At the thought of her all sorts of grogginess faded off. I chuckled I don't think the spell was strong enough to hold my mind down when it came to thoughts of Aradia.

At the thought of her my wolf purred back to life and with it came the disastrous headache again. "So why are they still outside mother, let them in. Let Aradia in." At that my mom shook her head slowly. "That's what I'm trying to tell you son, Aradia is missing; your wolf realized it first before you as a result of the mate bond and it has been in a constant search to find her and you not knowing was frustrating it, this is why your wolf has been restless all morning seeming to look for something.

He was looking for not a something but a someone, he was looking for his beloved, he was looking for his mate". My wolf was unleased and all hell broke loose charm not withstanding as I lunged for my own mother's throat. And I gripped it till her veins almost popped out.

Aradia's pov

I awoke with a splitting headache I grabbed my head with both arms and squinted my eyes trying to adjust them to the unusually dark room.

What had happened?

My memories seemed foggy and I felt unusually weak. My body felt like it wasn't mine. They refused to work of their own Accord. I looked around and suddenly I realized I wasn't alone.

I felt thousands of eyes pricking my skin, you know that feeling you get when people are watching you from behind? Yes that was it but this these ones, the eyes seemed to be everywhere, they seemed like they were in hundreds, in thousands. But yet there was not a tiny word said.

I rubbed my head with my groggy arms and my memories rushed flooding in. The woods...the girl...blue eyes... running... falling... falling unconscious....I let out what I thought to be a strong scream but was just instead a little murmur

"who's there, come outside, what do you want from me, where am I"....

the questions kept pouring out of me in whispers and my voice grew stronger as I spoke I realized. There was a loud cackle. It seemed to come from behind me. It sounded really eerie in the quiet, dark room. I tried to crane my neck so I could see who the sound was coming from but my body just chose to betray me.

My body wasn't functioning properly but it was obvious my mind was. I realized I wasn't tied up. I tried to assimilate the number of the people in the room as it was dark and I couldn't exactly count so that if the opportunity presented itself I would escape

The voice finally responded and with it came trembling. It was as if the whole room shook at her presence. "Lights" she said and a bright white light suddenly laminated the entire room. I recognized this voice, I recognized the woman. She was the lady from my dreams, the woman who constantly called me Meredith, the lady who was constantly laughing, at me in my dreams.

My eyes shone with recognition and a wide smile came across her abnormally red lips. Her skin was pale, it was white as silk and smooth like porcelain, she had bright eyes that looked too pretty to be human. She looked like a child figure olden day barbie doll.

A white wrap like dress adorned her body from top and it swept across the floor with what look like bloodstains on the bodice. She looked really Young. Not much younger than me actually but with her presence I sensed great power. I felt the urge to kneel at her, worship the ground she stood and kiss her glass like feet. Those thoughts all stopped when she grabbed my chin aggressively. And spat into my eyes

What? Eeew?"what's wrong with you" I asked and scrunched my face in disgust.

I tried to pull my jaw away from her but her fingers held on firmly. I felt like they were drawing blood off my skin. Her nails were a blood red and they looked sharp enough to do just that. "You look just like your mother" she hissed. Stood up and turned away. That had my ears turning on edge.

The porcelain looking woman looked at me and sneered her face pinched into an ugly scowl, she turned to me and hissed a long screeching sound that made me grip my ears to block the sound out.

"You don't even know anything, tsk, tsk" she murmured lowly "you have so much power at your finger tips and yet have no idea" she spoke with more strength now and I preened my ears to listen .

This was my only opportunity to find out more about my mother and I was not going to pass that up. "Your mother was a witch as i guess you have figured out by now, she had s****l intercourse with a human male which is not exactly forbidden but then she got pregnant for you " at this she slithered her tongue as if tasting a very horrible drink and spat at the floor scrunching her face in distaste and apparent hatred. Feeling's mutual honey but of course I didn't say that out loud. I did want to leave here alive after all.....

The porcelain woman flicked a strand of her beautiful hair behind her and her red lips formerly curved in distaste went into a firm line as she looked to be lost in thought. She bent her head to the side and stretched out a hand to touch my face, I ducked, my eyes seething with pain and undescribable rage.

"The coven took her powers of immortality as punishment, she is no witch anymore just as human as any other person, so she is prone now to human diseases. Schizophrenia, Cancer, Alzheimer's.....she might have even got hit by a bus and died" here she burst into a wretched laughter .

Cackling and ear deafening. I looked at her and noticed the smile did not reach her eyes. She looked pained, she looked like she was hiding something. But what would an immortal witch queen be hiding from?

She looked at me and reached out caressing my neck, I had no strength in me to fight her anymore, hearing all the things that could have happened to my birth mom had totally weakened my spirit.

I cannot imagine how it would feel being the alone and pregnant in this cruel world especially discovering that the child in my womb was at a constant risk of survival. I worried for how she must have died.

If she'd felt alone, abandoned, unloved.... She reached towards me and tried to drag the talisman of my neck with a force that was clearly inhumane, I was sure that that particular pull could have rendered a normal human decapitated.

I didn't fight back but somehow, someway she pushed me to the floor with such force I think I heard my head crack open. She retreated her hands like she had been burnt or electrocuted severely burnt. I looked at her in time to realize her fingers were actually smoking and her eyes had turned as dark as coal.

She looked very very angry and I couldn't seem to fanthom why. I hadn't done anything to her. She suddenly pulled me by my shirt and dropped a harsh slap across my face, this also I didn't say anything to. I touched my cheeks after the slap believing her strong nails might have drawn blood because I was feeling a searing pain across my cheeks and along the line of my collarbone.

She looked at me

"why can't I take it off?"

"Take what off?" I replied stupidly.

"Take the damn talisman off".she retorted harshly.

I didn't understand how that was possible. She reached forward again stubbornly and I even gave her optimum access this time. She tried to grab the talisman but she was jostled back. It was like an invisible force was pushing her back. Away as possible from the talisman. What was happening I wondered .

She sneered at me clearly getting angrier now. She drew her hand again to hit me but this time I held her wrist with a viselike grip. I looked her dead in the eyes. I was tired of being handled like a rag doll. I had done nothing to them but be born and I had been paying for it all my life, I would not accept this taking advantage and abusing me by a bunch of aged witches too.

"Look witch, I don't know what it is you want with me yet, but I will not be taking any more abuse from an aged witch, tell me what it is you want for both our interests or let me go".

I do not know where this courage was coming from, my whole life I had always been demure. A quiet, shy child who would rather retreat than go to war. Flight instead of fight. She looked at me and seemed to understand what I was saying and nodded.

"Well sit down then, this is going to be a long night for you. I will tell you what that" She sneered and indicated at the talisman on my neck.

"Signifies, the power it holds and why you need to hand it over or at least do As I say" she smiled a little frightening smile and looked at me.

I heard the sound of thunder outside. I looked to her, i wasn't backing down now. I nodded indicating for her to begin her story.

Claire's pov

I've been worked up over Aradia's sudden disappearance, I had gone to her home to search for her and I was beginning to get agitated. This was very unlike her, very unlike my best friend.

She hadn't been to school in days and Xavier hadn't been taking it well if the rumors I've been hearing are true. I say down on the floor and sighed, stretching my legs and rubbing my hand on my aching neck. I started to feel sort of dizzy and closed my eyes..

. _Aradia and I were holding hands and dancing in the flower yard that is behind her home we danced around and giggled like school kids. Laughing till our tummy's hurt with laughter. And our eyes filled with tears. Aradia began running down the path that led to the woods behind her home.

"Catch me Claire, catch me, find me Claire, find me" she kept saying, I chased her using the bright yellow sundress she was wearing as a trademark. I kept searching and searching the woods and couldn't find her even as she kept saying it"

find me Claire, find me"

the woods were beginning to spin and everywhere was starting to seem familiar as I looked. Her giggles had stopped now and the formerly bright sky was becoming now gloomy and dark._

_Aradia didn't sound happy anymore she sounded frightened and so was I.

"I can't find you Aradia, I can't see you; it's too dark" I screamed into the woods, I wanted us to go back, to go back home to the safety of her father's house, to the safety of sunlight and the comfort of the butterflies dancing all around us.

"Ahhhhhhhhh" I heard a loud scream, that was Aradia's voice.... and it had come from the woods._ I awoke with the loud thumping of my heartbeat and sweat droplets on my forehead. I quickly stood up from the floor and dusted the ass of my jean shorts I was wearing.

That dream had seemed too real, too scary. It had seemed more like I was there...in the woods, with Aradia. It had seemed like a _vision_. Aradia was trying to reach out to me. I knew where Aradia was, I would find her. _In the woods...._

Claire's pov

I don't know why I had this firm conviction in my heart, but I just believed that Aradia was trying to reach out to me. I don't know how possible but she was I just knew it. I was at the front of her apartment.

I squinted hoping, listening for any sign that she really was there, I had never been a fan of the woods, I truly never had or understood Aradia's love for it but for her I was willing to face my fears and risk it all. I let out a loud breath I didn't know I was holding pumped my hands into fists and marched on with firm determination to the place I dreaded most in the whole world.

I slapped branches out of my face, and slapped at my skin, mosquitoes were making a reddish mess of me. "ARADIA!!!" I Kept calling out "I know you're here, somewhere, I'm trying to find you" I kept screaming and searching and searching for hours.

The atmosphere was changing, it was becoming even more dark than it usually was here in the woods and it was windy. I reached into my pockets and hissed I regretted not coming with my phone in the end.

Well it's not like there would have been a signal anyway. I sighed, I was parched, hungry and my legs were already weak from moving about, not to talk about the fireflies that were making a mess off my skin.

I sat down on the floor and leaned into a huge boabob tree. " _ARADIA where are you? I got your message_ " I whispered into the air....My eyes wet with already forming tears. "Thump " I felt a sharp prick on my neck and tried to reach for it with my left arm but it felt to blurry.

A blurry figure of Blonde hair, blue eyes and a wicked smile were the last thing I saw " _sorry darling, but Aradia didn't send you a message here, I did"_ and those were the last words I heard before slipping into an unfathomable coma.