The Call of War: The Watchers Chronicles

Chapter 8

“From my understanding, she needed to build her tribe that would help her win the war that threatened to end everything. Most of you were not created yet, when your soul was created and placed, that’s when her life thread would work it’s way back into the Fates weaving. There were many lives in between though that her soul seem to think necessary. The Fates wouldn’t even know it was there until she reclaimed her weapons.” Sophia said taking a second to look at me. “Then when she came back as twins in one life, that throw us all for a huge loop. When the weapons went from Zoe to Diana though, it carried the rest of her soul with them. What we weren’t aware of the reason why until after Diana died in battle. Zoe was pregnant and the weapons chose to protect the child.” I almost jumped off Marcus’s lap. My memory for Zoe is short, I thought she had died when I became Diana fully in that life, now I know why.

“Yes that wasn't a good idea on the weapons part for sure.” I say shaking my head.

“Why is that Ianna?” Kane asks looking at me like he already knows the outcome of my confession.

“Diana was a Rogue, her gaining the weapons was a mess waiting to happen. Although, she behaved better than I expected.” Tara says laughing.

“What?” Helix’s eyes are bugged out of his head.

“Ianna, bad girl!” Meena says giggling. I shrug like it wasn’t that big of a deal, I would hate to tell him what Charis did.

“What are the other expertise of the memories that have been awoke?” Vlad asks with a raised eyebrow and giving me a look that says, “spill or I’ll beat it out of you.”

“Oh boy. Well Charis was a mercenary and thief, Zoe was a gladiator, Diana was a Rogue and Elizabeth was a Royal guard in King Arthur’s personal legion.” I say twiddling my thumbs still being held by Marcus, who's trying to hide his snickering from Helix. Helix looks like he want to ground me for the rest of my life or lock me in my room, whichever comes first. Just as he was going to give me the lecture of my life, the door to the board room opens and food is brought in.

     Dinner was loud and fun, it was like having a huge family gathering. Rabbit and a few other demons that I knew came back to eat with us and tell stories from when we spent time together. Thank the gods most of my time with them was spent much later in my lives. Poor Helix just about had a heart attack when he learned of the many things I did as Diana and Charis. Really those where the two lives I would have liked for him not to hear about.  Tanner and Eli came and gave us the heads up about the Ogre that was hired to grab me. He was sticking around the coven’s territory and asking questions about me. That's going to be fun dealing with that when I get home.

     Speaking of home, we're set to leave after dinner. Marcus wanted to get home and start putting protections in place to keep as many safe as we could. Matthias actually left this morning after talking to the council, he was told what was going to happen and the rulings for Maxum, Franny and Uncle Stephan. So he headed back to start getting the coven ready for its new leader. It will be just Helix, Marcus and I heading back, maybe Kane will give us a ride back instead of taking a car.

“Hey kid, you ok?” Kya asks causing me to come out of my thoughts and blank stare.

“Yea was just thinking of what could happen in the next few months. Something Uncle Stephan said has put me on overload. I've been going through everything and anyone I've talked to in the last couple of years. I can’t think of anyone who would betray us like that.” I tell her scrunching my eyebrows when a thought goes through my mind. I grab my phone and look through the messages from the unknown number.

Unknown: Well it's finally nice to meet the famous Atlantean Battle Warrior. You look quite different from our first lives together. If I didn’t know better I would laugh and not fear of you, but I do know better and underestimating you would be deadly. I hope our visit goes well, maybe we can take a cruise around the city and talk about the old days.

Unknown: I can’t believe you ran right to Kane Adams for help! Wow you never learned from the first time you trusted a demi-god. You are the biggest sucker there is out there. I hope the heart break from his betrayal will work in ending you.

Unknown: Very disappointing that you wouldn't come as requested to see me, but my friend will be there to bring you whether you like it or not. Sooner or later you will lose.

Unknown: Do you feel better now Aretha? Killing the man that hurt your precious Hyda? And to think you aren’t even going to see the one who is going to hurt you most until it’s too late. See you soon Battle Warrior.

“f**k!” I yell and slam my phone on the table killing the lively conversation.

“What’s wrong Ianna?” Marcus asks, he’s by my side in seconds.

“Theron, has my number. So that means he's been tracking me. He also hinted at Kane’s betrayal both past and present. So Demi-god, let’s get this out of the way first! What the f**k did you do and what is he talking about now?” I say moving from Marcus and both my blades are in my hands ready to draw blood. Kane looks like his heart is breaking over and over.

“Ianna, I was the one who let the Picts in during the invasion at Hadrian’s wall. I could have saved Alexandrea but didn’t, I was told not to by the Fates. I tried to go against their will, but Apollo and Athena kept me away from your home. I'm so sorry Ianna, I should've tried harder.” Kane says, and I back up into Marcus as my memories start playing like a movie in my head.

“If you were being kept from saving my little girl, I can’t blame you for that, but what betrayal is he talking about now?” I say looking at him as if this is the first time I have ever truly seen him as a person.

“That I don’t know, other than helping you get the last of your weapons, the Fates said I was to stay out of it. This is your battle, and you have the strength to win.” He says not understanding what else he could be blamed for.

“I know what he is talking about, but what Theron doesn’t know is Kane never did as he asked. The dart gun in the museum, he was one of ours and was ordered there by Kane. He was supposed to take you out, but Kane switched places with him. So when the darts were fired, they were fired with intentions of you being able to get out of the way and someone else took the hit.” Kya says looking like she was the one to betray me.

“You’re working with Theron? Why Kane? I have known you for at least 5 lives! I trusted you!” I say trying not to let this break me. I hold everyone in my lives at the highest respect and this feels like pure hell.

“No Ianna. Remember what I did to get Athena’s owl, when she challenged me?” Kane says looking pale.

“You spent time with her, taking measurements and studying the fine detail of her mechanical owl.” I say trying to break through my pain.

“That’s right and what did I do with that information?” He asks trying to help me see where this is going.

“You made one that was almost exactly the same. It just didn’t have a voice, but it still moved and flew. When it came time for the end of the challenge, you had somehow switched them.” I say looking at him realizing it's how he got the Wave of Poseidon replica to look exactly like the sword in the museum. He was playing Theron.

“Smart move nephew, you used your wits to make Theron help you, but the end goal was to unite Ianna with her sword. I am impressed! I would have never thought of that.” Sophia says with a smile.

“So how did he get my number? The only people who would have it would be here in this room …” I say as my eyes go huge.

“What is it Ianna?” Kane asks. He looks like he thinks he's getting blamed for this one too.

“He said I wouldn’t see the one who is going to hurt me most until it’s too late. He gave it away, it’s Dede!” I say looking to Marcus.

“What? Why would your best friend do that?” Helix asks. I dial Matthias, I know he has been keeping track of her. He told me a long time ago not to trust her, she use to be best friends with Franny and then one day she wasn’t anymore. No one knew why; it wasn’t until a year later that she and I became friends.

“Hey Ianna, I was just going to call you. You aren’t going to be happy, but you were right and so was I.” Matthias says. I have him on speaker, so we all know the players in the game.

“Hey yes and I owe you $20 too. What has Miss Dede been up to? Theron just gave it away that she's an inside plant.” I say looking at Vlad when he snickers.

“Well she isn’t the only one we needed to worry about. But her first, she was with the new teacher for your history class, Dr. Soren Thaddeus and when I say with I mean you couldn’t tell where her p***y started and his d**k ended. Also High Witch Elianna told me, that Dede asked about reversing a memory awakening. So she's looking to block your memories.” Matthias says and Ika looks confused.

“She can’t, only the one who awoke the memories can do that, and there's no way in f**k I'm going to do that to Ianna or Elizabeth. She fought for my life, just before I was executed by the King’s guards. I could never asked for a better friend and family. I'm honored to have her in my life.” Ika says looking angry.

“That may be, but she awoke Aretha, and if she gets the information then she can take Aretha away too.” He answers before continuing, “The other person that we didn’t suspect was Isabelle.”

“What the hell are you talking about, she died three years ago from cancer! I know I was there.” Helix says getting angry at Matthias.

“I know Helix but believe me. I saw her with my own eyes, and I took a picture because I couldn’t believe it. I'm sending it to you now. I went to the hospital and the morgue to get information just in case. They have no recorder of Isabelle Granton even being there for chemotherapy treatments, let alone her death. I also checked the city recorders, the M.E. that signed off on her death certificate, was charged with misconduct and falsifying recorders. He got caught trying to help someone evade law enforcement. All documents bearing his name are being looked into and Isabelle's one they have determined as fake.” Matthias says just as Marcus’s phone pings and he opens the email. His eyes go blood red and his fangs out as he hands the phone over to Helix, and he goes the same way.

“I'm so sorry Helix. I never meant to cause you to hurt like this.” I say looking to the vampire. He looks at me and smiles. It scares me because if he is smiling while blood thirsty, it's not good for the person he has set his sights on.

“This has nothing to do with you my child. She knew from the first day she held you, who you are. This is on her. She is a protector; her job was to protect you and she has failed.” He says to me and is still smiling. Well damn that's not good.

“Ok, I got to go and get the coven security in place. The program's up and running, thank you Tanner for that. See you all soon, be careful Ianna. They plan on attacking you during your travel home.” Matthias adds.

“And how do you know that?” Kane asks laughing like he already knows.

“Your hacker boy got into their communication, and I have everything that they have planned for the last five years. Oh Ianna, keep your phone, yes they have it traced but if you leave it or get rid of it that will alert them. Anyways see you all soon.” He says and then hangs up.

“Ok, well we know what's going on now and who the major players are. What are we going to do?” I ask looking at everyone in the room.

“I need to do a re-awakening on Aretha. If I do that, then even if she reverses it, you don’t lose anything. It’s almost like backing up a computer just in case of a system crash.” Ika says. “Plus, Medea wasn’t a strong witch. She was an enchantress, that’s why Jason lost interest and fell in love with someone else. Her spell didn’t stay in place.” She finishes. Damn I am impress with Ika’s knowledge of Medea.

“Ok then how do we back up her memory?” Tara asks looking a little confused.

“Her first memory should have been awoken in battle or by a blood ritual. It was how she earned her title and if she remembers she has had to do that in every life.” Ika answers.

“She awoke my memories when Franny was going to attack me in the cafeteria but that wasn’t life or death. I also told her I would need her to do a ritual, but it never happened. So what I do have back isn’t a complete awakening. That's the only way she can reverse it. If Ika does the ritual then it won’t matter, and a few people are going to wish we didn’t figure this out.” I say looking to Helix. His smile grows and I can see Marcus, Vlad and Meena all have the same smile. s**t a lot of blood is going to fly.

     Ika walks over to me grabbing my right hand again, instead of using my short blade, she uses a dagger Ares hands to her. She slices my palm again, looking straight into my eyes she starts the ritual.

“I call forth Aretha, The Atlantean Battle Warrior. The pride of Atlantis and honored daughter of Hyda of Corinth. I call to you Aretha, your skills are needed, your knowledge is sought to bring an evil to rest, to give justice to Hyda and peace to those who have come afterwards into your many lives. What say you, do you heed THE CALL OF WAR?!?” Ika yells the last part as an energy pulses through me, and both of us are sent backwards from each other.

“Holy f**k that hurts!” I curse as I bring my hand to my head. Realizing Marcus caught me, and Helix caught Ika.

“I would say that's a yes.” Marcus says laughing as I get to my feet. I look around the room and then at the people standing here with me, some of them hit me like a ton of bricks. All my lives I have lived come rushing back into my head and it f*****g hurts like no other.

“Pegasus you backstabbing little b***h!” I yell at Kane and he starts to laugh.

“Yea she’s back. Hey Aretha, long time no see! Glad you still haven’t changed.” He says with a raised eyebrow.

“You owe me a f*****g horse! And not just any horse, I want my fully trained chestnut Seglawi Arabian War horse by the end of the year! Do you hear me?” I say through gritted teeth. He left the paddock gate open, and my war mount escaped with five mares. Let’s just say I have been after him ever since; it’s how we know the awakening is permanent and done right.

“Yes I know and at some point I will get it for you. It just won’t be trained because horses aren’t used like that anymore. But I will get you your horse.” He says shaking his head knowing I will hold him to it.

“Something isn’t right Ika isn’t breathing!” Helix says and he looks worried.

“Turn her now or she will be lost!” Sophia says, causing Helix to look at her.

“Helix do it now!” Vlad commands and Helix bite down causing Ika to suck in a breath. After she does he places his wrist to her mouth and slices it, as soon as the blood hits her lips she starts to drink, and the change is immediate. Usually, she would have to drink first and then be killed, but with the situation and the blood ritual being performed her body will go into the same state of suspended animation as if she drank his blood already before dying. Funny how this s**t works sometimes. After feeding both their eyes have gone back to normal from the blood thirst red, and Ika's looking over herself.

“What happened? Why did you turn me?” She asks looking almost hurt that it happened.

“Because this is your fate, there's a reason Helix went with Ianna to the museum. He was to find you and turn you when you died from overpowering Dede’s bindings on Aretha. Hades says enjoy and see you in about 600 years.” Ares says looking at the new vampire. Ika turns to Helix smiling, she intertwines their fingers as they hold each other. Helix kisses her head softly and it’s almost like seeing him with the love of his life.

“Ok so how the hell are we getting back home? I don’t want to take the hover plane, that would be expensive if they attack us on it. They will be watching the roads and looking for the cars, so how are we doing this?” I ask looking at Marcus and Kane.

“The old fashioned way.” Vlad says, chuckling at me when I give him the “what the f**k” look.

“We run, is what he meant Ianna. Our vampire speed means we can be home in roughly two hours, and for those of us experienced enough we can take people with us. In Vlad and Meena’s case they can take like ten or twelve people at one time.” Helix says looking at me. I don’t know if we will need that many to help with this war right off, but I do know of one person I'll take care of as soon as we get home.

     We make arrangements with Demon King Dagdred. He said that the hive near our territory have  noticed things changing, they decided to keep track of the influx of new people coming in the area. He told us he'll send the information to Matthias, so preparations can be made for the battle to come. With that in place we leave Chateau Bellevue and head home with the help of some every old vampires. To say it was a pleasant feeling would be laughable, after traveling at like Mach 6 I feel like I am going to hurl. I can see the same look on a few of the Hunters faces too, Tanner and Eli look like it was a roller coaster ride, and they want to go again. Stupid boys!

     When we got back into the coven house, it was swarming with activity. Both Demon Lords of the nearby hives are here, along with six Alphas of the closest packs, and Matthias said at least another eight are getting ready to leave to come this way. As we start to walk towards the amphitheater for coven meeting, nine of the 13 High Witches from around the world pop in and Elianna's one of them. She looks pissed and I can only imagine it has to do with Dede and Ika being turned. Once everyone's in the amphitheater, Matthias takes center stage and starts with the changes in leadership.

“Leaders, it's a great honor to have you all here and coming to help in the battle for our world. The first announcement I have for you is the formal welcoming of New Crimson Star Coven Leader Marcus Valarian!” Matthias says and the room erupts into cheers and applause. Marcus walks up beside Matthias and bows to the audience.

“I'm humbled and honored by your acceptance of my taking leadership of the coven. After the coming war, I hope to build and maintain alliances of mutual benefit, as well as come to your peoples aid when called on.” Marcus says and again the amphitheater is roaring with cheers. He steps back to let Matthias continue with introductions.

“I would also like to present to you a warrior of legend, surpassed by none and always giving of herself to help those in need. I give you Aretha, The Atlantean Battle Warrior Reborn!” Matthias yells and the audience damn near brings the building down cheering when I step out onto the stage. I hold up my brace and it sends them into a frenzy of excitement. For many I was like a superhero growing up, not that I have anything special about me but the fact that I fought for the innocent no matter what species made me a hero. Once the excitement starts to settle a bit I walk back to Marcus.

“War is coming. I won’t beat around the proverbial bush about it. Human’s that are souls reborn from Aretha’s first life have come and tried to take her weapons. They also tried to kill her, we were able to link former leader Maxum Valarian, former Watcher Stephan Foster and a Doctor Travis Thaddeus to this cause of a worldwide supernatural human war. These three men are now dead, punished for their actions and we have a great deal of information on others that could still initiate it. This war would create mass slaughter of both supernatural factions and of the human population.” Matthias says stopping to let some of the visiting leaders ask any questions they need too.

“What of Francesca Delarosa? We all know she was having f*****g Maxum, shouldn't we be worried she will take his place in this war to come and lead?” One of the Alpha’s asks. Actually that's Dane’s father, Alpha Abraham of Black Granit pack.

“Francesca Delarosa, as of midnight was bound to her betrothed and a transversion ritual done to change the ties of the unborn child she carries. As soon as King Roglan's done filling his physical needs, she'll be taken straight to Alden.” One of the Demon leaders says in response. Causing a lot of shock to show on many faces.

“Actually, he's meeting those needs in Alden. I just came from there. I did the transversion ritual and it was successful. She will remain there indefinitely.” High Witch Elianna says, then she looks at me scowling. “Why would you save Morgana Le Faye again?” Just as I'm about to answer her, two of the High Witch’s guards bring in Dede and throw her at the witches feet.

“Because the plan was for Dede to reverse my memory she brought back. Aretha, so that the enemy would have my activated weapons. She’s been f*****g Theron. Was it for the last few months or was it while you were still friends with Franny that you started? After all it never did add up why you two stopped being friends.” I say looking from the pissed off witch to the stressed out girl on the floor.

“Ianna, I never meant for this to happen. I was trying to warn you, but you never answered my text. I didn’t know Soren is Theron, until after I accidentally awoke his memories.” She says trying to cover her ass.

“That's why I protect Morgana, she may have done horrible things for love, but she never once lied to my face or tried to have me killed. She even used her death as way of me keeping my title.” I say giving the High Witch a glare that has her backing down.

“Dede, you can stop lying. We know everything, we hacked your phones, your emails, and your memories. You shouldn't be like Franny and keep your legs closed. That vamp was only f*****g you to gain access to your mind and you gave it to him. Bonus for us, but a downfall for him. He wants to burn his skin off from letting you touch him. He truly hates you.” Matthias says, his eyes have gone red with blood thirst. Guess Matthias is as pissed as Marcus.

“So what's it going to be High Witch Council? Because regardless of your agreement or not, she’s a traitor and that’s a death sentence.” I say looking back at Elianna. I have pulled both the long sword and short blade from my boots and they are at their full length. Gasps are heard and I look to Dede when she starts mumbling to herself.

“s**t, that means this was for nothing. He promised that I would have the Wave of Poseidon. It responded to me; I just couldn’t pull it.” She continues to mumble as one of the High Witches to Elianna’s left jumps down in front of Dede. She looks at her and shakes her head, without warning the witch rips out Dede’s heart. Once Dede is dead, the witch comes to me and giving me the same look, but this time she smiles. With a blood soaked hand, she draws the symbol of the Atlantean bar on my chest.  When she finishes it starts to glow bright blue.

    Suddenly an energy wave wash over me and I watch as memories pass by, but they're not mine. I watch from the eyes of someone else. But what I see isn’t preparations for battle. I see Octavian and Orion being murdered by their own men and Theron leading them. I see the faces of the men that were involved, and I soon realize that I killed many of these men during the battle of Troy. I had come up on them without being noticed, I wanted information about what happened that both Octavian and Orion had been killed. I watch as I see me sneak in behind to hear everything. I then watch as I kill each of the men that I found talking about it, making a kill list of the others. The whole time I am watching this, I see me look at me four or five times and give me a nod. The only one that I remember I didn’t get the opportunity to kill was Theron himself. He ran and hid when it was discovered that he betrayed his King and legion. This is why I was reborn so often, to find Theron and deliver him to Hades myself.

“What the hell was that?” Elianna asks looking at me.