Forsaken

Episode 7

While Harper was opening yet another bottle of wine, Nylah sat in a lounge chair facing the sofa, her attention glued to the vampire couple and their conversation with Chaz. Apparently, they knew each other quite well. She was fascinated by their interaction, because she had always thought vampires and werewolves didn't get along well. But these three definitely did. She took a sip of her own wine glass, happy to just be a silent observer instead of the center of attention.

"You like to watch people." Harper stated matter of factly.

"You can learn a lot from observing others. And they don't know how well you suddenly know them, without them knowing you." She answered without taking away her gaze.

"I have already learned that the couple don't go too far from each other and their movements are almost synchronized. They are in perfect sync with each other. They would die for each other. They seem to want something from Chaz other than his company, but they are very subtle. Chaz is chatting and making jokes, but he is a lot smarter than he leads on. He knows they want something. So he is fishing to find out what it is, and they are trying to make him spill something, without him knowing he is doing it. It's like watching a dance." Nylah said, continuously taking little sips of the wine, the taste growing better with each one.

Harper just looked at her with awe and a bit of a crooked smile.

"I knew you were smart, but you are even smarter than I thought", The witch gave her a nod of approval.

"I suppose it is in your alpha genes to be so observant. To know everything you can about a given situation." She continued.

"It helps me relax when I know what is going on around me." Nylah said.

"Alright Chaz, let's cut to the chase already." Theodore spoke.

"What do you want to know?" Chaz asked.

"The land owned by your alpha outside of your pack lands. What are his plans for it?"

"Well, as you might know, he recently started to patrol it." Chaz answered.

"That is what concerns us." Alicia said.

"Why?" He asked.

"Let's just say it is a meaningful place to us", Theodore said in a vaguely manner.

"It is private property, and always has been. I think my Alpha is planning on expanding his territory to include it, and the area in between." Chaz continued.

"That's what we feared." Alicia said, while looking at Theodore.

"The area in between is known as a sacred spot for our vampire clan. It is also our hunting grounds. If the Alpha seeks to include it in his packlands, we might have a war on our hands." Theodore stated resolutely.

"That would not be a beneficial turn of events for any of us. I can't speak for my Alpha, but he has implied that there would be no trouble expanding into this area. I wonder if his intentions are as good as he claims. He has been manipulative towards pack members before." Chaz thought out loud.

The mood in the room had quickly gone down a notch during their conversation and everyone had eventually stopped their own chit-chatting as soon as the word 'war' was uttered.

"Enough political dark stuff! We are here to have fun today. You can hold a meeting in the morning about your troubles." Harper said, in order to save the evening and provide privacy for the parties involved. There was no need to let everyone know about it, since words might spread. The three people on the couch all nodded in agreement and scheduled a meeting later in the week.

Nylah felt odd when listening to a conversation about a possible war. She hadn't been involved with anyone since her childhood and she didn't know everything could turn so serious so quickly. Life in packs and clans and covens seemed to be a lot more complicated than living on your own.

"Evangeline, please tell us about your latest trip!" Harper asked the traveling witch in order to lighten the mood and change the subject. Evangeline instantly broke into a big smile.

"Oh, it was fascinating!" I went to Serbia to investigate some witch hunts that have been going on in the shadows. Turns out there is a whole cartel of some mafia like people hunting us and burning us as a sacrifice to the devil. They are a big cult who has been living under the radar for quite some time now!" She excitedly told the group about her findings. Harper directed her eyes to the ceiling, mumbling:

"Oh dear God, can't I catch a break today?"

Her warlock friend snorted at that, and started to reassure Evangeline that she hadn't done anything wrong when talking about her latest trip. Luckily, it resulted in Nylah giggling a bit as well, quickly joined by Chaz and the vampire couple. Soon the whole mood was lifted and the conversation flowed naturally back to happier topics.

Nylah woke up early the next day. She had slept in Harper’s spare room in a real bed. She felt more rested than she had in years and got up to take a quick shower before going to the kitchen to throw together some breakfast for Harper, herself and Chaz, who had slept on the couch. As the coffee was brewing, Chaz emerged from the living room with his hair looking ruffled and wild.

“You’re sure your human part is not half wolf or something? You do look a little fluffy this morning”, Nylah joked. It was quite a different sight from yesterday evening when his brown hair had been styled into perfection.

“Sometimes I actually do wonder if my wolf has done something, to give me a permanent mane on my head. It even matches his fur, so it wouldn’t be too farfetched”, he answered with a crooked smile.

“What is your wolf like?” Asked Nylah.

“His name is Winslow, and he is an old soul, I suppose. Quite wise, when he wants to be at least. He is fiercely loyal though, to me of course, but also to anyone he considers family. Our fur is brown as my hair, but we have a few black parts in our face, tail and paws. He is quite big too. Not alpha big, but almost. He is a bit of a gentle giant actually.” Chaz spoke fondly.

“I like that, he sounds really nice. Probably less big mouthed than Acallia.” Nylah chirped.

“Hey, that big mouth has saved you multiple times! You would totally have starved without it!” Acallia huffed in her mind.

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing!” Nylah retorted with a smile.

“Sounds like an Alpha”, Chaz said with a wink, and took a cup of coffee from the coffeemaker.

“What is smelling so good?” Harper asked and popped her head into the kitchen as well.

“Bacon, eggs and coffee, of course” Nylah answered and returned to the pans.

“If you do this every morning, I am going to pay you to move in here and then never let you go again!” The witch declared and received her own cup of coffee from Chaz.

“Heck, I might move in as well if she does that!” Chaz chimed in.

“What an odd pack we would be then”, Nylah laughed and turned off the stove.

“Odd indeed” Chaz said in a wondering manner.

After breakfast, everyone was feeling better from the late-night drinking and Chaz got his hair under control while Harper took care of the dishes. Nylah had decided to go back to the woods and break up her camp and pack her belongings. It felt a bit weird to leave it so sudden, and she was a bit sad to let go of the outdoors. However, winter was approaching and living in this way would bring some difficulties with the colder and wetter weather. Besides, she was really looking forward to having a bathroom again. And not just the shower, the toilet was definitely an attraction as well. She was thinking of flushing it a few times, just to relish in the feeling of being able to do that now.

Back at her campsite, she quickly had all of her belongings put outside of the tent. She already had everything stored in bags in order to keep it from getting wet, so the only thing she had to do, was to stuff all the bags into her hiking backpack and pack up the tent she had created. She easily took down the tarps she had used to create shelter and rolled them into each other. She did the same with the tarp that had been used to cover the forest floor, and then she strapped all of them on the back of her pack. She cast one last glance at her little primitive home, before she threw her backpack on her back and started the hike back to town.

Back at Harpers’, she quickly got her things settled into her new room and got a set of keys for the apartment. Things were finally looking up for Nylah, and she started to think about finding a way to finish school, now that she didn’t have to save a lot of money for an apartment. Chaz had already left when she came back, so it was just going to be a quiet night for her and Harper. Or so she thought until Harper received a rather peculiar message from her coven. Apparently, witches and warlocks could use magic to send messages to each other. It looked like a recording playing out right in front of them with a witch appearing from a small cloud of smoke. The image of the smoking witch emerged right in their living room and started to talk.

“Harper Willard. You are being summoned. Our coven head is dead, a new one is to be chosen. As a coven member of the Raven blood coven, you are required to participate. No one is to leave the coven until a new head has been chosen. You have 3 hours to announce your arrival at the great Willow Hall.”

The smoke dissolved itself without further ado, and both Nylah and Harper stood as statues while digesting the message. The room was silent for a few moments, until Harper suddenly broke it.

“Well.. S**t.”