Unbound: The Call of Power

Chapter 11

Maya stared into her coffee, watching the steam swirl about. She had slept for nearly seven hours, and she was thankful the headache had gone away. Andrew and Sam had left earlier, saying that Dean Chinh had wanted to see them regarding the incident. Andrew had been reluctant to leave, and Maya knew it was only a matter of time before she had to work through her feelings about him.

No one seemed to know much about the attack, except that seven rogue vampires had been taken out in total. How they got in, and why they were there on school compounds was still a mystery. She took in a deep breath and refused to think of the image in her head. The bloodlust-filled, crazed eyes of the rogue kept popping in her mind, and it took all her willpower to not turn into a mess for having killed someone. Or something.

Needing to switch her focus, she looked down at the charm on her wrist. True enough, it was missing a bead. She still couldn’t understand how the woman could have possibly undone a part of the charm spell in a dream.

Who was that woman anyway?

Maya closed her eyes and leaned back into the sofa. Things had not been going her way ever since she had come to this school. So much for wanting to run further away and keeping a low profile. She felt a familiar tingle at the back of her mind, one she hadn’t felt in a while, and she walked over to open her door to let Ellie in.

So that was the ability that got released, she thought.

Ellie was looking at her with eyes wide open, her hand in mid – air; poised and ready to knock. Maya moved aside to let her in. She had a nagging feeling Ellie knew more than she was letting on.

“I managed to get some food, but the place is still swarming with the SN police and the security team”, Ellie set the food down on the table before making herself a cup of coffee. Maya walked behind her and started to set the table as Ellie brought over her cup.

“Can’t believe it was just last night”, she sat down and inhaled the aroma.

“Has anything like this ever happened before? You know, while you have been here?”

Ellie shrugged. “No, this is the first time there’s been an attack on here and I have been here five years”.

Maya nodded as she took a bit out of her pasta. Ellie watched her and they sat in silence as they ate. The air was heavy between them. Maya was nervous and wary while Ellie was experiencing a myriad of emotions. Last night had been intense and overwhelming for several reasons and both the women were feeling the weight of it.

Finally, Ellie cleared her throat and looked up at Maya.

“I just wanted to say I am sorry for last night. I couldn’t sense the rogues in time”.

Maya stopped mid – bite and frowned at her. Of all the things she had been expecting, this was not it. “Ellie, that was not your fault. No one knew there would be an attack, let alone us”.

“I know, but I just felt so helpless last night. There was a spell of some sorts that was cast around the school that threw my sensing off”.

Maya could feel the waves of guilt coming off her friend as she continued, “I was so completely incapacitated that you nearly got attacked. If it hadn’t been for Andrew…” She shuddered as she trailed off, her eyes glistening with tears. Ellie did not want to think of what might have happened.

“Look, this is not on us okay? Someone tried to attack the school and we just found ourselves at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she grabbed Ellie’s hands. “Do not beat yourself up over this”.

Ellie gave her a small smile, but Maya could sense that she was still feeling upset about it. She tightened her hold on her hands, and Ellie looked up at Maya in surprise.

“I know, when the time comes, you will do what you can to protect me. Just know that I will do the same for you”.

Ellie held her gaze and she could see in Maya’s eyes that she was not lying. She smiled, feeling a little better. Maya smiled back at her, relived that her best friend was not drowning with guilt. Sure, Ellie had made a self – declaration that she was her best friend, but she cared just as much for her.

“I know you can sense me Maya, as much as I am able to sense you now”, Ellie said slowly. She was a little hesitant, but she had to broach the topic.

Maya figured this would come up as Ellie, with her telepathy and empathy, would have been able to pick up on the fact that she could too. It suddenly dawned on her that she was a little afraid that Ellie might not take it too well. What if she hated her for it?

“So, you are an Empath as well?” Ellie asked gently. She could pick up on Maya’s trepidation and she did not want to push her any more than what she was willing to share, if at all.

Maya took a deep breath. Ellie was her friend, and in the last few months, she had been nothing but kind and giving. Even now, more than anything; she had been upset she had not been able to help her in time during the attacks. She knew she had to come clean with Ellie and let her decide if she wanted to be continue being in her life.

“I guess I am an Empath. I just have a sensing of things and people around me. Like for instance, I can pick up on emotions as well as their presence. For instance, I would know if someone was lying, you know. I cannot read minds or thoughts though the way you do”.

Maya paused. Ellie was beaming at her. It was not quite the reaction she thought she would get out of her.

“FINALLY!” she clapped her hands together, “I am not the only senior Empath on campus”.

Maya could not help but chuckle. She should have known that Ellie would have seen it in the most positive way possible. She couldn’t relax yet though. More questions were coming, and she was not sure if Ellie could maintain this positivity through.

“Empathy aside, what other powers do you have?”

“Well, I am able to do most of what witches can do. You know, basic stuff like scrying and conjuring,” Maya glanced down at her beads.

“But my active power is, well, it’s telekinesis,” Maya blurted out.

Ellie blinked rapidly, struggling to process what she just heard.

“Maya, that makes you a hell lot of powerful than a lot of the witches here. There are so few pure-blooded witches around anymore who are gifted with that kind of an active power. You should not even be doing the mentorship for Sam’s programme. You would be an amazing witchcraft teacher,” Ellie was excited. She had always known Maya was someone special, from the first day she met her.

She stopped, however, when she caught Maya’s expression. She was looking at her nervously, and she was subconsciously twirling the bracelet on her wrist. Ellie got reminded of the vision that she had the first time she met Maya, as well as the one she got pulled into the night before. Her excitement slowly faded as she realised there must be something more.

“But that’s not just it, is it Maya? There is a reason why you keep your powers bounded”.

Maya glanced at Ellie in shock. No one was supposed to be able to tell that it was a binding charm, one that was used to bind the SN’s powers. At one glance, everyone would think it was a protection charm. That was how it was designed. How did Ellie know?

“When I first met you, I had a vision of the two of us. Something bad was happening, and your bracelet was glowing blue. In the vision, you looked like you wanted to take it off and I told you if that’s what you wanted to do, you had to do it now or else”, Ellie recalled the vision. The sounds of fighting had been all around them. "I know I had told you about it before, but this was the full extent of it". 

Back then Ellie had only mentioned that she had seen Maya in her vision, without giving her much details of the vision itself.

“Wow! That’s… Intense,” Maya’s brows furrowed, as she wondered what a vision like that meant.

Ellie shrugged. “Yeah, I am not sure what that means either, but I guess we will know soon enough?”

Maya looked at Ellie, pensive. She was not sure she wanted to know either. It would be great if they could avoid that altogether.

“Also,” Ellie continued, “last night, I got pulled into your vision. I saw that woman, whoever she was pulling one bead off your bracelet. After you woke up last night, I was able to sense you”.

Maya’s eyes widened as she realised how powerful the vision must have been, for Ellie to have been pulled into it as well. She suddenly felt like she had more questions now than before. What did these two visions mean? And how did Ellie fit into all of these?

“So, it was a vision?”

Ellie nodded, “It was very strong magic”.

“That means someone cast a spell that was powerful enough to not only draw me, but also you into the vision just so that they could release one of my powers?” Maya speculated out loud. “That means they must know what my powers are”.

She let out a frustrated sigh.

“Look, we will figure this out okay? Together, we will figure it out,” Ellie reassured Maya.

If there was something powerful at play that involved both of them, then Maya knew there was no sense in hiding anything from Ellie anymore. She was not prepared to lose another friend. It could be nothing, but she was not about to gamble on it. Maya squared her shoulders and looked back up at Ellie.

“Truth is Ellie, for the most part of my life; my powers have always been kept bounded. My parents made it very clear that no one outside the pack was to know that I had any powers. For the rest of the world, I was just a human kid adopted by a werewolf family”.

Ellie listened intently. She just knew that Maya needed to do this, and she was willing to give her all the support she needed. Ever since the attacks and the vision the night before, Ellie’s gut had been tingling with a bad feeling she could not ignore. If knowing the secrets that Maya kept was the key, then she would listen to all of them.

“I was trained on how to use my powers and I was pretty formidable to beat, even for the werewolves. But my parents always made sure I was trained in absolute secrecy and the binding charm always went on my wrist afterwards. As I got older though, I used to wonder why I had to keep my powers hidden. All the other SNs were free to be who they were in the community. Why was I the only one forced to be living a lie?

My parents, they never really gave me any answers except that it was for my own safety and that they were trying to protect. From what or whom, I never knew.

When I was doing my degree in university, I decided that I was not going to have my binding charm on as frequently. I thought I had my powers under control, and I was so sure I knew what I was doing. Back then, Sam and I used to be friends with a few other people. One of them was my childhood friend, Mira. She was the daughter of one of our pack members and we grew up together.

One day, while the two of us were out; we were ambushed by men in black suits. I think we were about to be kidn*pped and that was the day I did not have my charm on,” Maya stopped, her eyes closing at the memory. It always brought on a wave of guilt and regret she couldn’t control. Ellie took Maya’s hands and held them tight, offering up all the support she could muster.

She gave Ellie a grateful look before continuing.

“The men held Mira at knife point, and they wanted me to go with them. We were so overwhelmed by the situation and I was so afraid. Mira looked terrified and she couldn’t change into her wolf form because they were using silver knives. I was so afraid and so angry, I lost control for a moment. All I remembered was a strange sensation bubbling up from the deepest parts of my soul. I remembered hearing a deafening scream and being blinded by a bright white light that engulfed everyone around me.

When I came to, I was in the hospital. Everyone told me I had used my powers to take out the bad guys. Pack members had already been on their way to us because they were alerted of a k********g situation, so they brought us to the hospital when they arrived. I looked around for Mira but,” Maya choked up, unable to continue.

The weight of her pain and guilt hung heavy in the air as Ellie walked over to her and put her arms around her. Maya buried her face in her arms, as she tried to compose herself.

She sat down next to Maya, as she wiped her face.

“What happened to Mira?”

Maya looked at her with a grim expression.

“The force of whatever attack I did had knocked everyone off their feet. Mira had been flung into a tree with a terrible force. She ended up in a coma, with multiple fractures and broken bones. I saw her in the hospital, hooked up to all those machines and she was barely breathing”.

Ellie sucked in sharp breath at the feeling of pain from Maya that hit her.

“She never woke up, Ellie. She never did and I caused that. I lost control and I did that,” the tears started falling freely. “I thought I was protecting her”.

“That was why I left the pack and everyone I loved behind. I am afraid I would hurt someone else again and I don’t think I will be able to live with that,” Maya covered her face as she sobbed into her hands.

Everything started to make sense now. Ellie finally understood why Maya had always seemed to want to maintain a distance with her and Sam however she could, why Sam was so protective of the both of them, why she wanted to avoid Andrew at all costs, why she never wanted to interact with any one or why she never let loose and had any fun. She was afraid of losing control. She was afraid she would hurt someone.

Maya had always carried herself as strong and independent, and never showed any signs of weaknesses. Ellie felt a part of her heart break as she thought of all the pain she carried inside. She stood up and hugged Maya, never letting go for the longest time.

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“I am sorry for breaking down like that”, Maya gave Ellie a sheepish look.

After the saga, Ellie had made some tea while Maya had washed up. They were both lounging on the sofa, recovering from their previous conversation.

 “Thank you for being vulnerable with me,” Ellie turned to look at Maya. “I had always felt like you were keeping me away from you. Thank you for trusting me enough”.

 “Well, I guess you are now really my BFF. I am never letting you go,” Maya said, her tone deadpan.

Ellie laughed before turning serious, “You can try, but I am not going anywhere”.

Maya gave her a grateful smile, even though she felt a twinge of guilt. She felt a little closer to Ellie than she did before, and she knew she had kept her and Sam at as much of a distance she possibly could. Not that it ever worked, since Sam and Ellie felt no shame in freely barging into her life as and when they wanted. She was secretly happy though, that they did anyway.

“Listen Maya, I was thinking. Did your parents ever tell you who your biological parents are?”

“Nope, they never did. Every time I asked them, all they told me was that I was saved from a fire in a housing complex they lived in and they took me in because no one ever came looking for me”.

“I was thinking if we found your biological roots, we could figure out why your parents want you to keep your powers hidden so badly”, Ellie pursed her lips, deep in thought. “You are clearly powerful, and but telekinesis cannot be your only active power”.

“Also, from what you told me, it seemed like they only wanted to kidnap you. While telekinesis is a cool gift, it’s not that special. It doesn’t make any sense as to why your parents want to keep your powers hidden, and why those guys wanted to kidnap you five years ago”.

Maya cleared her throat, snapping Ellie out of her thoughts. There was one last secret she had not shared with her and it was the one that would determine if Ellie would still want to stay.

“I am not a full witch”.

Ellie raised an eyebrow, “Then what are you?”

Maya looked her dead in the eye. Here goes nothing.

“I am a half witch, half demon hybrid”.