Rejected Mate and Following Fate

“We’re here… may as well. Just don’t let your guard down and don’t hesitate to use your gifts.” She hisses under her breath and I scoot up right behind Carmen to fall back in line, flanked by two femmes and still unsure this witch is a friend at all. Sierra told us she was, but this doesn’t feel like someone who is willing to bend over backwards to do anything for anyone except herself.

We make quick work of following close to her, aware of the pitch darkness and I start to wonder how the hell we’re meant to stay out here if she ups and leaves us now. We don’t know this terrain; the truck is far enough away that we’ll encounter a fight if vampires come upon us, and I have no mental space, or physical energy, for any of that. My adrenaline is firing high and I’m already exhausted. Missing Colton has become the biggest drain on my soul, craving him, needing his touch, his presence and I seem to start of the day already fatigued, no matter how much I sleep.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Carmen’s haughty tone cuts into my thoughts and I blink up and look over her shoulder as a tiny derelict cottage comes into view, offering little to no protection from any outside invasion, a fire burning within its tumble-down walls. Smoke trickling through the hole of the disintegrating roof, glowing from inside and highlight the lack of solid foundations, or full walls on each side it has. I realize this is where she wanted us to go. Exposed at night, sat round a campfire in a strange place, of a ruined building, with only a witch we don’t know if we can trust. Not a good move and I glance skywards and prey the fates know what they’re doing this time.

“What? Afraid of things that go bump in the night? I thought you were big bad lycanthrope… never took you for being afraid of the dark. Don’t worry wee lassies, the scariest thing out here is me.” Leyanne mocks us from her slight distance ahead with that amused tone and wanders into the cottage casually, using the completely absent side wall as her path in, to go perch herself on some positioned logs settled around the glowing flames. It seems this is her resting place and is already set up to sit by the fire to see the darkness out.

She watches with amusement as we three follow slowly, glancing around in high alert, and timidly place ourselves close together on the other side away from her. We keep our backs close but spread so we take in three angles to keep watch through the fallen stones, aware, and looking around with caution.

“Aren’t you afraid of being out here?” Carmen is the one to question it, always so verbal with her thoughts, but Leyanne shrugs nonchalantly. She relaxes onto her log and stretches out her legs, exposing laced up knee high Victorian boots and adjust her skirts.

“Why would I be? Any creature stupid enough to tackle me deserves what they get. Who should I be afraid of? Nothing can kill me! I know, because they’ve all tried.” She kicks up some dirt at the flames with her heel, causing instant green sparks and crackles to ring through and I jump, on edge and antsy. “This is just a temporary resting spot for you wee fellows to rest; I have something I was doing before I intercepted Sierra trying to locate me. Needless to say, I like solitary abodes and I only had short notice to detour.” She picks up a large black kettle that had been nestled beside her feet and hangs it up on a metal bar sticking out across the fire at an angle where she props it. Seemingly not phased at all and making boiled water, while we gawp and sit stiff as rods, observing her.

“So that’s how you knew about us? Sierra somehow alerted you with the locator spell?” my interest is piqued as I home in on that detail as she nods. Remembering I was meant to give her the vial around my neck, but it seems she doesn’t need the proof of my connection at all.

“When you try to use magic to find someone like me…. I know about it. Especially when you use the spell I wrote for the purpose. So then, naturally, I had to investigate the why, with the help of my birds. I may know a lot about who you are and why you’re here, but I don’t have all the details. My little gossip mongers are only good for Chinese whispers of things they actually witness. It’s a long trek from your mountain to here and ears and mouths of passing crows are not always reliable.”

I glance around at the birds flocking the trees to watch us and squint and her term for them. A visual of birds enjoying drama and storytelling and spreading it through flocks across the land. I guess mine and Carmen’s conversation by the trees that day was reported along the line, with every single time we spoke freely in the grounds of the homestead. It’s weird and makes me feel we should be watching all those innocent creatures back home if this is the truth of what they do for witches. If it is, then Tawna running, they would have known fast that she did if the birds were messengers. Our forest is teaming with them and they are always around, day and night.

“What do you want to know?” Meadow interjects, ignoring what she probably mentally summarized about the birds too and Leyanne ponders her for a long moment, quietly.

“Everything, but that takes time, and I can’t linger for long. So maybe I can see for myself with your permission. Condense, rapidly learn, and extract what is necessary from all the other boring tidbits of life.” Her words bring my eyes back to her in wide surprise, my mouth falling open, guessing she’s hinting at being able to pass mentally, like we can.

awed, unsure I have ever heard of any other species apart from ours that can even do that, but she just looks at me with a ‘please’ of sarcasm across her face. That air of boredom that we really seem to underestimate her

ignoring my question, she gets up and walks to me instead, gently laying her fingertips on my temple and I’m startled by the unearthly warmth and tenderness of her skin. It’s a gentle almost maternal touch that doesn’t coincide with her

I feel like warm rivulets of my body heat are flowing right out of my head. It’s almost

on mine, unblinking, glowing a little eerily, but not blue like Sierra. No, this witch’s eyes are darkest chocolate with glowing veins of honey amber threads around the inner pupil and I close my own to shut out the way my body trembles at the sight of them. It takes only seconds, this tugging, almost draining of my energy around my face. A sleepiness invading

Meadow, and then

tries to pull her attention, but Leyanne continues to stare at me in an unnervingly intense way. Her face poised, still, a slight frown over one brow and a hint of

of verbal’s when I have just given her god knows how much backstory. Unlike when wolves link and we can filter and control what we share, I had no insight into what she took, saw, dug into and she might

persona showing face, not that I blame her, and Leyanne smirks.

some from

hmmm, you don’t?” I chirp in, tenser by the second and honestly getting so sick of this. She’s so good

know what I have to do. Does that clear up your inability to understand the worldwide use of

all over, getting up to pace around behind me and shake off the obvious hostility that is making her stiff and frustrated. It’s this atmosphere, this holding on with bated breath and walking on eggshells as we try to suss this witch out. It’s detrimental to patience and Carmen has

rest. We have to travel back to your home tomorrow and see what needs to be done. Help yourself to tea, there’s blankets back there in that chest, along with the leaves, creamer…sugar, whatever you need. Try and not make a mess, I hate sloppy campers.” She rises gracefully, dismissing us so easily, acting like this is fucking normal, and I gawp at her my heart hitching in utter

gotten anything from her other than agreement to come with us and she’s dumping us out here in the middle of the night

here for you three, as I previously stated. I was on my own little mission and it happens to be as important, and maybe beneficial to your little predicament.” She starts moving

who has given us nothing at all to even trust!” that wolfish aggression comes through in waves of oozing anger and her eyes glow even brighter as her temper

truck, protected by MY magic? Do you really think a secondhand spell carried out by a half witch is more effective than any I have in place here?” She smirks and gestures around us with an airy-fairy wave of her hands. “Safe as houses, and a little warmer than a steel box. I’ll be back before sunup, with a guest or two. So be awake, ready to go, and have more hospitable attitudes, because he isn’t the type to take any kind of rudeness and dismiss it as graciously as I’ve done. You’re lucky I’m in

warming to this witch at all. She’s a strange one with an aura of something that makes you not really trust her, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, even if her words

coincidence. Now why I came here makes sense. Looks like the planets are finally aligning and your fates are sorting their mess out.” She smirks again, and I eyeroll at her use of word soup to tell us nothing at all once more. She’s evasive for sure, talks in riddles, and literally offers no insight while seeming like she is. Carmen inhales heavily to hold her own temper, slumping back down to sit and gives up, and I sigh realizing this is futile. I too fall back, let myself land heavily on

a lot like

of which… This one I’m afraid needs some words of caution.” Leyanne eyes me steadily, locking on like I’m the target and her face falls serious and stern. She nods down at the vial on the long chain I brought with me from Sierra that we didn’t need at all. As soon as she eyeballs it, it begins to glow with low, white, faded intensity, and she smiles a little wider as though it contains an answer, she needed to be sure of. “Don’t go turning anytime soon. I know you have, and you’ve been lucky up until now, so don’t anymore…. That little witch gift in you isn’t supposed to be lost.” She winks,