Ash And Ember The Wolf / Witch Hybrid

Chapter 9

The morning seemed to have come too soon, and Ash was still exhausted from the day before. Sharra had come in and woken her up at 6A.M. as usual, and as usual Ash begrudgingly got out of bed. At least she knew that there would be a strong coffee for breakfast this morning. Ember still had the block up, so Ash knew better than to try to talk to her this morning. At least someone gets to sleep in this morning, she thought to herself as she stepped into the shower, trying to wake up the rest of the way. When she was finally awake enough to no longer be considered a walking zombie, she got out of the shower and quickly dressed in sweats and wrapped her hair in a towel.

As Ash walked into the dining hall she was met by Marlin. He handed her a black insulated coffee mug that had 'No Talking' written in white bold letters at the top. This was her absolute favorite coffee cup. The black paint was thermal changing paint. The lower the coffee level was, the cup would change from black to white and there were different little sayings about the safety of talking to the person drinking from the cup. Marlin and Sharra had bought it as a gag gift for her 18th birthday, but she absolutely loved it. She smiled brightly at him as she took her coffee from him.

"When you are done eating and drinking your coffee feel free to join us in Vladimir's study again. We have a lot of work to do." Marlin said, wrapping her in a quick hug and then left before she could say anything.

She went to her usual spot at the far end of the table, but to her surprise, Tomas and Jason were sitting there waiting for her. Usually no one would sit with her during meals. Also, to her surprise, there was more food piled in her area. Large platters of bacon, scrambled eggs and sausage were there along with 3 full stacks of chocolate chip pancakes and a full pot of coffee. But before she could sit down, Tomas ran around the table and gave her a big hug.

"Good morning, Ash." He squealed in delight that she had finally come down to breakfast.

"Good morning, Tomas. How are you feeling today?" She asked as she returned the hug.

"Great. I haven't slept that well in a long time. Can you thank Ember for me?" Tomas finally let go of Ash and ran back to his seat. He then began to fill his plate with food.

"Good morning, Ash. You look like hell." Jason said as he placed a plate full of bacon and sausage in front of her.

"Gee, thanks." Ash sarcastically replied as she sat down and slid a stack of pancakes over beside her other plate. "I doubt you would look any better after the week of training I've been through."

"You're right, he would have been comatose after that," Abigail said as she walked over and set a plate of six over medium eggs and four slices of buttered toast down in front of Ash. She then took a seat beside her.

"Good morning, Abigail. I'm starting to think that you guys are trying to fatten me up." Ash laughed. She knew that she could easily eat everything that was on her plates, but she wasn't used to this much attention.

"I know how hard Vladimir pushed you over the week and Marlin said that you were going to have another busy day today. So, after finding out that Jason and Tomas are our resident wolf experts, I tasked them with making sure that you are at least eating enough." Abigail told her while she fixed her own plate.

"Well then, thank you for helping me." Ash looked at them and was truly grateful to have friends.

"I know that you are going to be super busy today so I figured we could answer some of your questions about your wolf-side while we eat." Abigail got straight to the point. She then stuffed a bite of pancakes into her mouth.

"Are all alpha wolves pure of heart?" Ash asked, thinking about the prophecy.

"Unfortunately, not. There are a few that are wicked and rule over their packs with iron fists. But those are rare and usually it happens after they lose their mate," Jason answered.

"Oh." Ash was hopeful that they were all pure. "Are wolf mates like a witch’s fated one?"

"Yes and no." Jason answered, stalling so he could find the right way to explain it.

"Oookayyyy......." Ash was hoping to get more than that out of him.

"Well, the Wolf Goddess matches wolves that will help each other grow and cherish one another. But sometimes a wolf takes a different path than what she had hoped and rejects their mate. The Goddess is kind and gives them both a second chance mate in those rare instances. But the bond can't be faked like a fated bond and once a wolf accepts their mate, they cherish each other for the rest of their lives. It's actually very sweet, like a fairy tale." Jason blushed a little with his last sentence.

"Awe, that is sweet," Ash said, smiling. "So, are there a lot of female alphas out there?"

"Not really. Pretty much all of the packs in the U.S. have male alphas and their mates are called Lunas," Tomas answered. "But I like the sound of Luna better than alpha. It's prettier."

Ash chuckled at that. He was right though. Luna does sound prettier than alpha.

"So, wolf packs are patriarchal?" Ash asked.

"Yes, it's because male wolves tend to be more dominant than female wolves," Jason stated.

"Last night you said that alphas are black, so why is Ember a deep red?" Ash asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. It could be because you're a female or because you are part witch?" Jason frowned.

"We need to let Ash go and see Marlin now. He will be expecting you soon." Abigail said before Ash could ask any more questions.

Ash knew that Abigail was right, but she really wanted to learn more. When she looked down at her plates they were empty and so was her coffee cup. She let out a disappointed sigh and stood up.

"As much as I don't want to, I have to go. Hopefully we can talk more about this later?" Ash asked.

"Definitely, I'm happy to help you any way that I can." Jason said.

Ash walked around the table and gave Tomas a hug. "And thank you for helping me too. I'll see you later."

Ash waved goodbye to her friends and then headed to Vladimir's study to start working on finding answers to the questions that they all had. She couldn't help but feel like there was a missing component in all of this. She knew that this would just add more work, but she needed to know how a dark witch would protect her sanctum from outsiders. Would Brenda be arrogant enough not to have some kind of spell in place? She needed to bring it up with the group before she got distracted.

When Ash finally arrived at Vladimir's study, she could hear that there was an argument before she even opened the door. Marlin, Vladimir and John were not agreeing about something. She waited for a moment, wondering if she should knock. Before she could decide, the door opened and Sharra grabbed her arm, pulling her inside. Ash was shocked when she looked at what was happening. It looked as if there was about to be a fist fight between John, Marlin and Vladimir. Angel and Tonia were standing back-to-back in the middle of the three men.

"Please, Ember. We need your help." Sharra whispered into Ash’s ear. Then ran back into the middle of the group, helping the other two women keep the men from beating each other.

Ember immediately woke up, dropped her block and came forward. She didn't know how, but she knew what she needed to do. Ash just stepped back and let Ember have full control. As soon as they shifted into their wolf form, Ember growled low in her throat. When she noticed that no one was paying any attention to her, her anger flared.

"You three men sit down and be quiet." Ember commanded in her alpha tone. She was pleased when the three of them sat down on the floor and were looking at her completely bewildered. "What is going on here?" she demanded.

"Trying to find a temporary council member." Tonia said.

"Usually, it doesn't get this out of hand. I really don't know what got into them." Sharra admitted.

"Really? That is what this is about? Something is wrong here." Ember said as she walked closer to them. She suddenly had the urge to sniff everything and everyone in the room.

"You don't think that someone put a spell on them, do you?" Angel's eyes widened as Ember continued to sniff the air.

"I'm not sure, but nothing smells out of place. The room is exactly as we left it." Ember said.

She then decided to make sure that everyone was who they said they were. She went up to Sharra first, breathing in her usual scent. Then she went to Tonia and Angel. Both of them smelled the same as they were supposed to. She decided that it wasn't any of them, so she turned her attention to the three men that were still sitting quietly on the floor.

When Ember sniffed each of them, she noticed that they had their usual scents, but also Marlin and Vladimir had the faint scent of something rotten, while John had a stronger rotten scent. She started to wonder how she had never noticed that smell on him before. She laid down in front of John and looked him deep in his eyes. There were his normal brown eyes, but they were a little darker today.

"There's something wrong with you, John." Ember told him. "I'm not sure what it is, but we will fix it. I promise."

Ember stood and looked at Vladimir. Out of everyone in the room he knew the most about dark magic. And right now, she needed his help the most.

"Vladimir. Come help us find a way to help John." Ember used her alpha tone to release him from the trance that she had put him and the other men under.

Vladimir shook his head to finish clearing the fog from his mind. He looked around the room and was confused by why he was sitting on the floor.

"What happened?" Vladimir asked.

"John has been cursed and the darkness is spreading." Ember replied. "I don't know how to stop it."

Vladimir quickly got to his feet and started grabbing a few books.

"We need to find the source of the curse and soon. His anger is only fueling it." Vladimir stated. He was looking for Angel's books but not having any luck.

"Are you looking for these?" Angel asked. She had her books beside her on the couch that she was sitting on.

"Yes! I need the book of counter-spells." Vladimir exclaimed. He didn't even notice that everyone, except for Angel, was looking at him confused as he took the book Angel was handing him.

"Is it safe to release Marlin and John now?" Ember asked.

"What do you mean?" Vladimir asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"When I came in, you three were about to start throwing punches and the only way I could stop you was to put each of you into a trance." Ember admitted, feeling guilty for it.

"Oh. That's why I was sitting on the floor. It should be safe to bring Marlin out of it but leave John. Your trance is actually helping contain the darkness." Vladimir said. "And I'm sorry that you had to do that."

"Marlin, I need you to come help us," Ember said. She was starting to not like her alpha tone anymore. Even though she knew that this was necessary.

"Why am I on the floor?" Marlin asked himself out loud. He looked around and saw Vladimir walking toward him with a hand extended to help him up. "What happened? The last thing that I remember was John getting angry."

Everyone looked at one another, not knowing how to explain it. Vladimir pulled Marlin to his feet and put his hand on his shoulder.

"John's curse is getting worse. That's all we need to know." Vladimir stated as he walked back to the couches and started looking through the book again.

"Ok. Then why is he sitting there smiling?" Marlin asked irritated.

"I had to put him, you and Vladimir in a trance before you three became physically violent with each other." Ember said softly, staring at the floor.

"Oh, my dear. I'm so sorry that you were put in that position." Marlin said as he walked up and hugged her. "But thank you, I'm a little too old to be scrapping with these two youngsters." He said, giving her a wink.

"You're welcome." Ember leaned her head down and rested it on top of his head. She was finally starting to feel a little better about what she had done.

"Now we need to go find that sanctum." Marlin said while walking towards the door.

"Wait. Ash has some questions that she needs to ask before we go." Ember told him, then looked at Angel. "Could you please help me with clothes again?"

"It would be my pleasure. Ready when you are." Angel smiled knowingly at her.

Thanks, Ash said to Ember as they traded places and shifted into their human form. Ash was wearing the same purple sundress and sandals as last night. Angel must have really liked this look on her, she mused to herself.

"Thank you, Angel. I greatly appreciate it." Ash said, smiling at her.

"Not a problem, considering I'm sure the guys don't want to have you running around naked." She chuckled as Vladimir and Marlin blushed a little. "But after all of this has been taken care of, I will teach you that spell. I can see how important it will be for you."

"That would be great." Ash smiled at her, then looked at Vladimir. "I really hate to ask this Vladimir, but did you have a sanctum when you were practicing the dark arts?"

"I did, unfortunately." Vladimir sighed heavily. He knew that someone would wind up asking about his past.

"Ash. You shouldn't pry into his past. He is not Brenda." Marlin said sternly.

"It's ok, Marlin. I have been racking my brain with remembering, but all of the information seems useless to me. Maybe, her asking will help me get some answers from my experience." Vladimir stated. He truly wanted to help John and he should be more helpful than what he has been. "Go ahead and ask away, Ash."

"How did you protect it from others?" Ash decided to just ask, she could see that he was really thinking about it now.

"I had conjured a shadow demon that devoured anyone who tried to enter that wasn't me" He grimly stated.

"Is that a common practice with the dark arts?" Ash continued.

"Yes. It is, but if you know that you are in proximity to another dark witch or warlock then you would also have a spell or two in place. Shadow demons are no match for a trained warlock." He stated, now realizing that Ash was able to help him after all.

"It's safe to assume that she knew about your past with the dark arts. So now we just need to know what kind of spells she would use. But would she still use the shadow demon?" Ash wondered.

"Most likely she did." Vladimir said dryly. "If I'm being honest, she's predictable. If I would have actually looked at her actions, then I would have realized that she was a dark witch decades ago."

"Hey, you put that part of your life behind you. There's no shame in not constantly being on the lookout for others like that." Tonia softly said. "I love you no matter what."

"I love you too." He smiled and gave her a kiss.

"Alright, enough mushy stuff. How do we find out what spells she used?" Ash interrupted quickly. She wasn't a big fan of public displays of affection.

"I bet Melony would know. Brenda has probably been training her for a while now on what spells she used." Vladimir said.

"Well now, that will be interesting. Do you really think that she would turn against her mother like that?" Ash scoffed. She was still pissed and wanted nothing to do with her.

"She already has. That's how we found out about John's curse and Brenda's sanctum." Marlin chimed in. "But we might need John to go get her for us, so nothing looks suspicious."

"But It's not safe for John right now." Ash protested.

"Actually, it will be. The entire dungeon is made of void stones, including the conference room down there. The darkness can't spread while he is down there." Angel informed her.

"What is void stone?" Ash had never heard of this before.

"It's a powerful stone that is linked to the void. Any magic used around it is immediately sucked into it and the stones turn it into energy to charge themselves." Angel said.

"The void? Like the nineth plain of existence?" Ash was having trouble understanding how the stones were connected to a plain of darkness and nothingness.

"Exactly. So as you can see, John will be perfectly safe there." Marlin chimed in.

"OK. I just need a place to shift. I don't want to ruin this dress again." Ash looked around and noticed a small nook that she could at least undress in.

"Just have John open the door when you are ready to come out." Sharra said as she started shooing everyone out of the room.

As soon as everyone was outside and the door closed, Ash quickly undressed and shifted into her wolf form. When Ember looked around her heart fell. John was sitting in the middle of the floor alone. He had a small smile on his face and the light in his eyes was shining again. How could she take him away from whatever was making him this happy?

"John, we need your help. Come join us." Ember commanded and John looked at her still smiling.

"I know who my true fated one is now." He softly told her. "Thank you for helping me."

"I'm not done yet, John. We still have to break Brenda's curse." Ember said apologetically.

"There is that." John's smile faded. "How can I help?"

"First, I need you to open the door. Then we need Melony."

"Oh. OK, let's go to the dungeon then." John said with a newfound determination as he opened the door for Ember.