Legend Has It Book I ~{COMPLETE}~

Chapter 2 Janet and Sophia

Janet was waiting for us when I pulled into her drive. I wasn’t expecting that. Had Sophia called her?

“You made it,” she sighed in relief, pulling me into a bear hug as soon as I opened the car door to step out. “But of course you did. You have an excellent driving instructor.”

“You knew we were coming?” I asked.

“Of course! This has been planned for a while now.” Seeing the puzzled look on my face, Janet added, “Let’s carry these sleeping beauties inside and then I’ll explain as much as I can before you have to go.” Mary, Catherine and Francis had fallen asleep in the backseat.

“Where are we going?” I was growing even more puzzled.

“Come now. Quickly. Help me get them inside.”

Janet somehow managed to scoop up Catherine and Francis leaving Mary to me. All three were out like lights. Janet’s hurried steps didn’t allow me to ask questions and I knew enough then that I’d just have to be patient.

“They were given a mild sedative this morning,” Janet explained, moving quickly towards the house, a quaint cottage in pastel yellow with sky blue trim that I was too young to truly appreciate at the time.

When we were finally seated at the kitchen table with cookies and milk, Janet finally began to speak.

“Juanita wasn’t really my aunt, at least not by blood. She was a highly sensitive Empath. The Willow Tree was a cover for rescuing orphaned human children with special abilities and non human creatures.”

My eyes widened.

“Oftentimes, a child’s actual abilities aren’t known until they begin to age. It doesn’t matter if the child has basic or strong superhuman powers, or is a different species.”

I was dumbfounded and couldn’t find my voice. Her tone suggested now was the time for listening, not questioning anyway.

“Juanita was empathic enough to sense that a child was special and often accurately guessed what the child’s abilities would be. She could then begin preparing each child and pair them with the appropriate homes. Like she did for me and hundreds of others. For over half a century.”

By now, my jaw was nearly on the table. Was Janet feeding me some fictitious story? Could this day get any crazier?

::Listen carefully. There’s not much time:: The voice in my head was tired and weak, but somehow, comforting.

“I was one of Juanita’s orphans. I am an Empath and a witch, but not very strong in either category. It took quite a bit for me to sneak into Willow Tree this morning and leave the sedatives for Sophia to slip in the girls’ drinks.” Janet paused, as if trying to decide which part to divulge next.

“I am not strong enough to protect you here. The humans are becoming suspicious and there are rumors of attacks. We don’t have much time, so I will let Sophia tell you how she fits into this story and skip to the next part. You four girls are the most powerful, but your actual powers are still a mystery. You have mind shields or something up, whether subconsciously or perhaps placed there by your birth parents before Juanita found you. You will be going to Juanita’s younger brother’s orphanage. Jack has the same empathy as Juanita and runs an almost identical home, but for boys. He’s readying a room for you now.”

I suddenly felt a weird ping and heard the crunch of gravel. My face must’ve shown it.

“What do you hear? I felt my security shield breached.” Janet looked in the direction I realized I was looking.

“The crunch of gravel.” I answered.

“Hopefully it’s Sophia.” Janet closed her eyes as if concentrating on something.

::It’s Sophia:: I heard her voice in my head as Janet relaxed and said out loud what I’d just heard inside my head.

Janet stood and walked around the table to me. She reached down, which wasn’t all that far, considering my height, and pulled me into a tight embrace.

“You are going to be fine and I will come visit,” she promised. “No tengas miedo.”

Do not be afraid. I suddenly began laughing hysterically.

{~>*•*<~}

I awoke in the passenger seat of Sophia’s car with a mild headache and a stiff neck.

“Ahhh,” Sophia said softly. “Sleeping Beauty is awake.”

I think I groaned. Sophia reached into the console and pulled out a small travel cup, handing it to me.

“Drink this. It’s herbal tea and will help with your, uh, hangover.”

“Hangover?” I grumbled.

“You had a little meltdown so we gave you a sedative.” I remembered bursting out into laughter and then, everything faded to black. My mouth was dry, but I eyed the cup suspiciously.

“It really is just herbal tea. No more sedatives, unless you start breaking down again.” I caught a hint of lilacs coming from the cup. Flowers weren’t drinkable! Were they?

Ugh! My mouth was so dry.

“It’s ok, Genevieve. I know you’ve had an extremely long day and it would be quite concerning if you didn’t freak out a little. Do not be afraid.” She didn’t use the Spanish version.

“What’s in this?” I croaked. I could also smell honey and lemon along with a couple other ingredients I couldn’t separate.

“The base is oolong tea. There’s quite a few dried herbs. My mate teases me that I wait for him to mow the grass and collect the clippings for the rest.”

My head throbbed and my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. I twisted the lid to reveal the opening. The mixture of scents that wafted up my nostrils smelled delicious and I cautiously took a little sip.

Oh wow! This is good! I decided I didn’t care if it was poisoned and took another big gulp.

“Yay!” Sophia exclaimed happily. “Someone else likes my tea!”

The tea was actually really good. Its warmth soothed my throat and seemed to be making my headache lift.

I noticed the sun was going down as the days events began to surface in my mind.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Eagle’s Nest. Juanita’s brother’s place. The other three are asleep in the backseat, without a sedative, so we’ll have to keep our voices down or mind link.”

“Mind link?” I questioned.

“That’s what I call talking in our heads.” Oh, yeah. THAT.

“So I DID hear you in my head?”

“Yes. Which surprised the hell out of me. Oops, sorry. I shouldn’t swear in front of children.” Sophia was talking about a crazy, unbelievable thing and worried about swearing??

Sophia then bagan to try and pick up where Janet had left off. For some odd reason, I wasn’t too surprised by anything she said, even when she got to the part about werecats and her suspicion that I was either a very gifted Empath, or another creature. I was a bit concerned that I wasn’t surprised.

“Do you know how I came to be at Willow Tree?” I asked.

“I do not know your full story. But what I do know is most of Juanita’s family are empaths with various abilities and can sense “magic,” as Juanita called it. It’s not the kind of magic you think a witch or a mage might use, although, someone did place some pretty sophisticated shields around Willow Tree and Janet’s place. I would not have sensed them if I hadn’t known the shields were in place.”

“Back to Juanita’s family,” she continued. “Not all of the family members run orphanages—homes, as most family and friends prefer to call them. Orphanage sounds a little offensive.” Sophia shuddered slightly.

“A good chunk of the clan trains daily as warriors,” she continued. “I prefer Guardian. That’s what we usually refer to Peacekeepers as back in my realm. I think that’s the universally accepted word used in treaties, too. Very important children find their way into Juanita’s family and so they must be able to defend themselves. The family is frequently under attack, which is why Juanita’s home was set up amongst ordinary humans.”

Ordinary humans?

“You and the three cuties in the back were each dropped off at one of Juanita’s relatives without notes. She named you each after saints, by the way.”

I must’ve been in shock. Juanita had never hinted that any of us were not “ordinary” humans.

::That’s not entirely true:: The voice was faint in my head.

I thought about things for a minute and remembered Juanita did often call us her “special girls.” I just thought she meant we were special to her.

“Were you one of Juanita’s girls?” I asked Sophia

“No. I was raised by my parents in a realm of other werecats. We shift into snow leopards.”

I had read a few books about werewolves, which I now know, all these years later, were part fiction, part truth—a few having been written by real werewolves. I realized I had read other books about what I previously believed were fictitious characters and creatures. Perhaps Juanita stocked our library with them on purpose.

“I came to earth with my mate as a Guardian. He serves, too,” Sophia smiled at the mention of her mate. “Because humans with superpowers and other creatures often like to hide out amongst ordinary humans, several realms have treaties and provide protection. Becoming a police officer is a practical way for us Guardians to do our duties. Juanita sensed me after I joined the local police force and we hit off immediately. She was a natural Guardian, you see.”

Sophia continued to explain she believed that I might be a werecat, but suspected werewolf more, based on my height. She also thought I might be of Alpha blood because most shifters could only mindlink with their own species, within their own clans and usually, not until they were closer to 18. This could also explain how I had come under the protection of Guardians. Alphas were quite powerful, but not all had strong clans. My parents could have been killed in an attack and a loving, but much weaker clan member had left me somewhere safe.

There were a number of scenarios but Sophia didn’t want to speculate.