Hi folks sorry about this chapter taking a bit long, but a shoulder injury kept me from being productive. I have since caught up and will also be posting Natalie's story, Trial and Heiress. I'm hoping to keep a chapter of Bloodlines every two weeks and two chapters of Trial an Heiress every week until it catches up with Kayla's story and then I'll be running both alongside one another.

Thanks as always to EoF for giving us such a great Universe to play in and to EoF, Maggie F, and Donjo for their input.

I laid in the bed in my new bedroom bored out of my tree. It was late Saturday morning and there wasn’t much to do so I looked around my room for some sort of inspiration. Other than my bed there wasn’t much in the room yet. The bed was queen sized and solid oak and had a matching dresser which stored most of my clothes. The rest of my clothes, including my Gothic Lolita dresses, were carefully hung in the closet. In addition there was a matching vanity with a large mirror that could double as a desk if needed, with a comfortable chair, and a bedside table with a lamp. Other than that all I had was my laptop. There were no posters or personal items, nothing to make the room looked like a teenaged girl lived here. That would have to change.

I reached over to the bedside table and picked up my new smartphone, apparently that is a must-have for every teenage girl. I quickly looked through my rather limited contact list and selected Natalie’s number. After three rings I heard Natalie answer, “Hello?”

“Hi Nat,” I responded, “Its Kayla. I was wondering what you, Sarah and Jason were up to today?”

“Nothing much, we were about to call you and see if you wanted to come over and do something here since Jason couldn’t get the truck today,” she explained. “Did you have something in mind?”

I smiled to myself, “I was thinking I need to do some shopping to make my room more personal and maybe get a few other things too. You think you all might want to come? I can handle the transportation.”

“Just a sec, I’ll ask.” I heard her muffled conversation with Sarah and Jason for a moment before she spoke again, “Sure we’re all game, Sarah is eager to do some shopping and Jason and I don’t mind tagging along while you both do your thing.”

“Awesome! Give me ten minutes and I’ll be over.” I hung up and got off the bed to quickly check myself in the mirror. My purple hair was mostly down but with ponytails on the sides held in place by black hair ties adorned with skulls, my eyes were a nice dark violet to match and I was even wearing a little make-up; black lipstick and a few shades of eye shadow to give me a smoky eyes look. For clothes I wore a purple and black corset, black leggings, and my favorite black leather boots with the steel buckles all up the sides. I quickly added a black jacket and deciding I was presentable I put my phone in my purse, and grabbed my keys before heading downstairs.

As I passed by the living room I called out to Genevieve to let her know where I was going and then I was out the door. The weather that greeted me was cold and wet, and sadly not all that uncommon on the island. I was mildly disappointed by the rain as I had been hoping to drive with the top down. With a sigh and a shrug I got into the Mustang and started it before taking off to the Poole house. Well within the ten minutes I pulled in front of the house and honked the horn, climbing out of the car to lean against the door while I waited.

Jason was the first out the door and after catching sight of me leaning against the Mustang he stopped short in the doorway. This of course prompted complaints from Sarah and Natalie who were stuck behind his large frame. After a moment he seemed to snap out of it and slowly made his way to the car, giving it a good once over with his eyes. “Is that a…”

I grinned at him, “A 1965 Ford Mustang convertible with a 289C V8 engine, fully restored. Try not to get too much mud in it will you?” Jason took a slow walk around the car, drinking it in with his eyes. It was funny; I never pegged him for a classic muscle car fan. Natalie looked suitably impressed as well, while Sarah didn’t seem to care so long as it got us from point A to point B. She dragged Natalie into the back seat with her after they made an effort to get most the mud off their shoes. Jason followed suit, climbing into the front passenger seat while I got behind the wheel.

Once we were all inside the dry car with the heat turned up to a comfortable level, I put the Mustang in gear and started toward town. Jason couldn’t keep quiet any longer, finally asking, “Where in the world did you get one of these?” His fingers ran along the dash as if testing the reality of it.

“It’s mine,” I answered as we turned onto the road into town, “Dad and I spent a lot of time when I was growing up restoring this baby, and he gave it to me. Dad always had a thing for classic muscle cars and I grew up learning from him so I kinda caught the bug. Are you into the classics too?”

Jason nodded, “Hell yeah! I love classic cars, I didn’t picture you as the type to get all dirty and greasy working on them though.”

I giggled a bit at that, “I thought the same thing about you, but I did used to be a guy remember?”

I could hear Sarah giggle behind me, “It’s easy to forget that sometimes Kay, you’re so girly sometimes. Not like some guys-turned-girls we know.”

“Hey, if I’ve got to be a girl I’ll do it on my own terms.” Natalie muttered, “Nothing wrong with being a tomboy.”

At this point we were entering town so I asked, “Where to first Sarah? I want to make my room look like a teenage girl with a bit of history lives there, and maybe get some casual clothes we didn’t get at Oh My Goth.”

“Okay, let’s go to Denman’s first,” Sarah answered. Denman’s was the locally owned department store; it had pretty much everything from power tools to lingerie and everything in between. I nodded and took the next turn in that direction. Soon we pulled up in front of a worn old building that was bigger than most the other buildings in town. We piled out of the car and dashed inside and then we got to the serious business of shopping.

We spent at least two hours in Denman’s, but we got almost everything I felt was needed and then some. I got several pairs of Jeans, most of them in black and some spaghetti strap tops, baby tee’s, sneakers, and some warm clothes for wet and rainy days. After we got the casual wear covered we got some sleep wear while Jason and Natalie made themselves scarce. After that we reunited to get some little things to decorate my room: picture frames (which we planned to put photos in later), some fantasy novels I liked the look of, some video games, some extra bedding, camping gear, and a few stuffed animals.

The stuffed animals were Sarah’s idea as she felt every girl needs at least one. I liked the skelanimals, stuffed animals made to look like skeletons and yet still managed to be adorable, so I bought two of those, a cat and a penguin. Jason also bought a stuffed moose which he gave me and I could have sworn he was blushing. Once finished our shopping we stuffed it all in my trunk and headed to Sally’s so everyone could get some lunch.

At some point during lunch Dandelion and Verbina showed up and talk drifted to the possibility of going to the cabin later that afternoon to maybe spend the night and have some fun before school started on Monday. We were in the midst of making plans and figuring out how to convince the parents when my phone rang. I checked the call display as I hit the button to accept the call, “Hi Gwennie-bee.”

“Hi K, do you think you can swing by The Book Mark today?” She asked. “I have some books I think you’ll find useful for Healing and I have a favor I wanted to ask.”

“Sure Gwen, we’re at Sally’s right now so we can be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Great!” she replied enthusiastically, “I’ll see you soon then.”

I disconnected the call and put my phone back in my purse, “Do you all mind if we go see Gwen at the bookstore before we head out? I’ll need to eat something before we go anywhere anyway and Gwen has some books that she thinks will help me with my ‘gift’.”

“Sure thing, it’s your car we’re in, I don’t mind if…” Jason began.

“Oooohhhh! A gift?! Is it wrapped in pretty paper?” Dandelion interrupted, her attention now focused on me rather than sharing my milkshake with Verbina.

It was then that I realized that I had yet to tell my friends about what I had learned the night before, and I smacked my head, “I can’t believe I forgot to tell you all!”

“Tell us what?” Natalie asked over a mouthful of burger.

“It turns out I’m not a Witch.” I shrugged, “I can’t use magic worth shit.”

“But…” Sarah began.

I shook my head, “I’m something different, I can’t use magic. Aunt Helen and Gwen said I’m a Healer.” Five pairs of eyes suddenly looked at me very intently as I said the H word. “Umm yeah, apparently there’s not many of us but my family sometimes has girls who become Healers instead of Witches when we turn sixteen. Genevieve thinks my power may have been latent when I was Keith and getting turned triggered it and may have caused my age regression.” I started to get uncomfortable at the intense looks, “What?”

Natalie sighed, “Queen Titania is going to want to know about this. Vina can you go tell her and meet us at the cabin later? I think we found our excuse for going.” The blue haired pixie nodded and flew out the window toward the forest without a word.

I turned in my seat and looked at the three now somber faces, ignoring Dani for the moment who seemed uncharacteristically subdued, “Does someone want to clue me in?”

Natalie looked at me sadly, “Queen Titania told me that I was led to the Glove because at some point soon it would be needed but she couldn’t guess as to when. It could be me or it could be one of my children that need to use it. The Sacred don’t really have the same sense of urgency about time that we do.”

“And what does that have to do with me?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“She also mentioned Healers to me,” she answered. “She said they’re harbingers of a sort and she believes that they are born when they are most needed. She said if a Healer is born on the Island then there is a good chance something big is going to happen here in their lifetime and they will be needed.”

Sarah took Natalie’s hand in her own as she spoke up, “That means whatever Queen Titania is so worried about will likely happen in our lifetime, possibly soon.”

“So what’s that mean for us then?” I asked, not quite sure I wanted to know.

“It means we need to be ready.” Natalie said, squeezing Sarah’s hand tight. “So we all need to work our asses off to make sure we’re the best we can be at what we do and be prepared for anything. “

Jason nodded, “I think we’ll need to warn the Coven and the Council.”

“And tell them what?” Natalie snapped. “That I have a bad feeling that something is going to the Island? We don’t exactly know what is going to happen or when.”

“The Coven already knows something is coming, probably the Council too,” I said. “I heard Gwen, Genevieve and Aunt Helen talking. Aunt Helen said she finds it unnerving that both the Glove and a Healer re-appeared so close together and she was going to inform the Coven. And with both her and Genevieve on the Council now, it’s a good bet they’ll know soon too.”

Jason shrugged, “Not much else we can do then until we know just what it is we need to prepare for except to work together, try to learn what we can and keep our eyes open.”

It was a quiet drive to The Book Mark after that, not even Dani saying much. Soon though, we were all walking into the store and up to the counter where Gwen sat leafing through a book and minding the pretty much empty store. She looked up from her reading at us, “Hi gang, thanks for coming by.” She looked up at the pixie and smiled, “Hi Dani, I was wondering when I might be seeing you again, is Vina not with you all today?” She offered a plate of cookies to us all.

“She went to go tell Her Majesty about the Healer.” The yellow-haired pixie replied, her attention now on the cookies.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at that but nothing more and she gestured to a two foot tall stack of books on Biology, Anatomy and even Medicine and First Aid. “These are what I found that might be useful for you K. They’re all yours.”

I regarded the tall stack of books with interest. “A little light reading huh?” I joked before taking the books and passing them to Jason with a grin.

Gwen chuckled as Jason wordlessly took the stack, “It’ll keep you from getting bored K.”

I nodded, “Or having time for much of anything else. You mentioned a favor when we talked earlier?”

She gave me that pleading look from when we were kids, the one that always ended up with me conned into something I’d later regret. “Well K, the store is doing some good business now, contrary to current evidence, and I’m having trouble running the place by myself. So I thought to myself that I should hire a girl to help out after school and maybe on the occasional weekend…”

“How come I get the feeling I’m not going to like where this is going?” I asked as my friends tried not to laugh.

“…So I tried to think of any young girls I knew who might need a job,” she continued. “You know to help pay for gas and insurance for their new car and spending money for shopping and the like. And it wouldn’t hurt if she were pretty…”

I groaned, “And naturally you thought of me.”

“…so naturally I thought of you,” she grinned at me evilly, continuing as if I hadn’t said anything. “You’d be doing me a huge favor K, and you’d be making some spending money too.”

I sighed as I considered it, though I knew I’d probably end up doing it anyway. The truth was that with all the shopping for new girl stuff and the car to keep fueled and insured I was coming close to the end of my meager savings. And since I didn’t want to be completely dependent on Genevieve I would need to find a job sooner or later. At least here I could get some reading in when it gets slow and it would help out Gwen. “Fine Gwennie-bee, I’ll do it.”

Her grin broadened, “I knew you’d say yes! Thanks K, you start Monday.”

Jason chuckled at that, “She’s got you wrapped around her finger Kayla.”

Sarah responded without missing a beat, “Says the guy carrying Kayla’s books.”

I dropped everyone off at home and then headed home myself to put away my books and everything from my shopping excursion. Once everything was packed away but the camping gear and a change of clothes I went back downstairs to find Genevieve organizing the den. The den, like the rest of the house was coming along nicely with thick dark curtains to keep out the sunlight, a large desk with a computer for her records, enough comfortable seating for four people and some well positioned lamps to give proper lighting. I took a seat in one of the chairs as she finished hanging her framed credentials on the wall behind her desk.

“What’s up Kayla dear?” She asked as she turned around and took one of the other seats. “Did you need to talk about something?”

I shrugged, “I just wanted to let you know Gwen asked me to work at the bookstore so I’ll be doing that after school some days.” She nodded, not seeming all that surprised as I continued, “And I wanted to see if it’s okay if I go with Jason and the girls to the cabin overnight. They have something to do out there and they thought it might be fun to have a night out there together before school starts.”

My Maker looked pensive for a moment before nodding, “As long as their parents are alright with it I don’t see the harm. You’d be in a group and you might be needed if anyone gets hurt. ” She paused to reach out and take my hand, “Just make sure you feed before you go and be careful out there.”

I nodded, smiling to try to reassure her, “We’ll be careful. We don’t plan on going any further than the cabin and Natalie and Jason know the area very well.”

An hour later I was freshly fed and dressed for camping. I wore a pair of black jeans tucked into my hiking boots, a thick sweater, warm jacket and gloves with my camping gear in a large backpack slung over my shoulder. I got to Natalie’s house to find that she and the others were waiting and dressed similarly. Natalie was also carrying a shotgun. I gave her a curious look at that and she shrugged, “We’re going to be out there at night and you never know what we might run into. I don’t like to rely on magic too much since we’re only Novices. I sent Dani ahead to check for anything dangerous though.”

I nodded, “I’m a bit surprised your parents were all okay with this.”

Sarah smiled, “Mine didn’t like the idea but I convinced them that you and Jason would be there to protect us. Nat’s mom approved it once she knew that we were going to talk to the Sacred about you.”

“Wait, that’s why we’re heading out there? To meet these Sacred?” I asked, now a bit nervous.

Natalie nodded as she shouldered her pack, “That’s the idea, they may send someone to talk with you or they might just send a message with Vina, you never know. Queen Titania is usually kept too busy with her own matters to see us mere mortals personally unless it’s important, but at least the possibility gives us an excuse to head to the cabin.” With that she started walking, leading us through her backyard to the woods and the cabin.

The walk through the woods was quick as we attempted to get there before the light faded. We didn’t run into anything except a few small animals and dusk was just settling as the cabin came into view. After Dandelion approached and told us everything was clear we all entered the cabin, placed our packs by the door and got out of our wet outer clothes. Natalie set about starting a fire in the fireplace while Jason and Sarah got out the cooking gear and started preparing to make dinner. I felt a bit unsure of myself with all of them immediately starting a task. Even Dani was doing something as she helped Natalie by bringing her some dried leaves and twigs from a box reserved for kindling. “So, is there anything I can be doing to help?” I asked.

Natalie looked up from her fire-making, “You’ve got pretty good night vision right?”

I shrugged, “Well duh, I am a creature of the night. Pretty much all my senses are heightened. So yeah I see really well in the dark.”

She nodded, “Great, can you keep an eye outside in case we get any company?”

“Sure, I’ll keep my eyes peeled.” With that I headed to the window, taking a seat in one of the chairs, to look out at the woods for any movement. Soon the fire was going and there was a pot of stew heating in the flames but as of yet there was no movement outside. I kept a careful watch though for any kind of movement as I wasn’t quite sure what I should be watching for.

Dinner was almost ready when I saw a bit of movement out in the darkened woods. I thought I may have been imagining it at first but there was something definitely out there and it was coming closer. One flicker of movement became a pair, then a half dozen, then enough that I was having trouble keeping track of them all. There were many smaller forms and two larger ones making their way toward the cabin. “Ummm guys, I think that company may be arriving.”

The smaller forms were of course Pixies, led by Verbina, about two dozen of them from the looks of things. “Damn that’s a lot of Pixies,” I muttered to myself. The larger forms looked human at first glance though it was hard to tell as they were both wearing hooded cloaks to protect them from the rain. I stood and made my way to the door as Natalie and the others did the same. Natalie was the first to the door and quickly opened it, motioning for our mysterious guests to come inside, “Please come in and get out of the rain.”

The smaller of the two larger figures shook off her hood revealing a very beautiful face with long blonde hair, slender arched eyebrows, deep green eyes and slightly long pointed ears. Underneath her dark green cloak she was wearing bronze ring mail and had a long slim sword strapped to her hip. “Thank you, I am Lisianne, this is my husband Paul…” Paul shook off his hood to reveal a human man in perhaps his mid-thirties with graying brown hair. He also revealed that he was carrying a child and Lisianne added, “And this is our daughter Marie.”

I think that Natalie made introductions at that point but it was all a bit of a blur as Marie had captured my attention. Not because her name was the same as my middle name, not because she was apparently only half human and not even because she was an adorable baby. She was very sick; I could feel it like some sort of black aura of utter wrongness calling out for me to make it right. She was maybe a year old at most with her mother’s features and it struck me as wrong that one so young and beautiful should be so stricken. Worse, something felt wrong about the illness itself, like liquid death was running through her veins. Suddenly it came to me, and I spoke aloud in shock. “She’s been poisoned.”

All eyes were suddenly on me, various degrees of shock and outrage showing on the assembled faces and even the squadron of Pixies were fit to be tied. Lisianne gave me a searching look, “Are you certain about this?”

I nodded, “I may be new to this whole Healer thing but whatever has her sick does not feel right. I think if it were an illness it would feel more natural to me and closer to an injury, but this just feels wrong. It doesn’t feel like it’s throughout her body or in any specific area, but more like it’s running through her bloodstream and tainting everything in its path. How long has she been sick? Any symptoms?” I motioned at the cabin’s lone bed, “Please lay her down on the bed.”

Paul placed her on the bed as he answered, “She started getting a high fever about three days ago and she’s got a bad cough. Can you heal her?”

I sighed, wringing my hands nervously, “I can try. But I’ve only known I’m a Healer for a week and I’m still new at this. At least I have a good idea what the problem is and that should make things easier. I’m going to need some blood afterwards though.”

Paul looked at me confused, “Blood? For what, a transfusion?”

I shook my head, “No, I don’t think I’ll need to be poking her with needles and such. You see I’m a Vampire and my Healing ability takes a lot of energy since I’m still learning. So unless you all want a hungry Vampire in your midst I’ll need to feed once I’m finished.”

He paled at that but quickly nodded, “If you can heal our daughter my life and blood are yours.”

“I’ll gladly take your blood Paul but your life is yours to keep. I don’t kill my meals.” I tried to smile reassuringly at the pair, “And I would heal your daughter regardless.” I took a moment to try and examine Marie and get a better feel for the poison and what it was doing to her. The others watched quietly from around and above the bed as I gently laid my hands on her. I almost recoiled from that touch as I got a good feel of the poison. The mere thought of this being done to a child made me sick.

I closed my eyes as I rested my hands once more on her little chest. I was angry and sickened at this and I could feel my power wanting to explode outward to do something about it, but I knew that would only make this harder. I needed to focus. I took a deep breath and focussed as my mother taught me, picturing my power as a huge body of water at the back of my mind. I quickly erected a dam to hold it all back. Next I pictured a faucet on it and turned it just a little bit so that my power was trickling out slowly.

I fed that power into the girl’s small frame, picturing it flowing into her heart and flowing out from there to burn through the black ichor I could sense making its way through her bloodstream. It wasn’t enough so I turned the faucet and added more power, sending small waves of it through her body. I could feel the poison relenting and kept slowly feeding my power through her until every last drop of it was consumed.

I opened my eyes slowly as I turned off the power and I could see a white light already starting to fade from my hands and the infant’s body. I was very hungry, but not ravenous, and I had managed to stay conscious. With that and the fact that Marie seemed to feel healthy to me now I was thinking of this as a success. I smiled tiredly, “She’ll be fine now I think, she just needs to rest and she’ll be hungry when she wakes up.” I turned away from the baby to find every eye in the room focussed on me. I was a bit unnerved by it and pointed to the window, “Look! A distraction!”

Sadly only Dandelion and a few other Pixies fell for it, with Dani looking about frantically, “Ooooh! Where?!”

I sighed, “Soooo, could we all do something besides staring at the hungry Vampire? Explanations would be a good start. An even better start would be a bite to eat.” I looked at Paul hoping he’d catch the hint.

I was able to drink my fill from Paul without coming anywhere near draining him, though I had to get him to take off his broadsword and chainmail shirt first since the latter covered his neck. I also had to take him outside as I was a bit self-conscious about feeding in front of others, especially my friends. I really didn’t want them seeing that side of me. Once I was pleasantly full we rejoined the others inside the cabin and the explanations began.

Lisianne explained to us that she is one of the Aos Sidhe. She and Paul had met several years ago when he wandered into the Valley. He had been half starved and exhausted when she came across him. She took him home and cared for him and the pair had grown attached to one another. They weren’t officially married as many of more hardline members of the nobility seemed to have trouble with the idea of an Aos Sidhe and human pairing, even if the Aos Sidhe in question was a commoner.

An actual child being produced from that union caused a bit of upheaval but they and Marie were at the very least tolerated. Queen Titania had taken an interest in the child so even most of the hardliners were keeping their opinions to themselves. The Winter Court had gotten wind of the situation and was of two minds about Marie. One side felt she was some sort of danger to them while the other side thought of her as a valuable pawn. Lisianne was convinced that it was a member of the Winter Court behind her daughter’s poisoning. When Titania had learned of the presence of a Healer on the island she arranged for Lisianne and Paul to bring Marie, both to test me and to attempt to save the baby, and had sent the Pixies as a guard.

Jason frowned as Lisianne finished explaining things, “But why would anyone see a baby as a danger? I could see maybe wanting to use her as leverage against your Queen, but why view Marie herself as a danger?”

Dani, who was currently sitting on Natalie’s shoulder, responded absently. “Oh, they probably think she’s the Eochair-.” This caused her to be on the receiving end of a number of glares from her fellow Pixies.

“The Eochair-?” I asked, suddenly curious.

“Somewhere in the Sacred Grove there’s supposed to be a vault, hidden and protected by Her Majesty’s magic,” Lisianne replied. “The rumor is that only Her Majesty or the Eochair- can get into the vault and there are powerful magical artifacts inside. Nobody has any idea who or what the Eochair- is though so often people think when Her Majesty takes an interest in a person or thing that it must be the Eochair-.”

Sarah looked at the baby on the bed, “So because she’s something of a rarity and Queen Titania’s shown an interest in her people think she may be this Eochair-?”

Paul shrugged, “I doubt she is, it could be just about anything she’s shown an interest in. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. Because of the possible existence of the Eochair- though people are always going to assume a connection whenever she takes an interest in a person or object.”

Natalie muttered, raising her hand, “Like a certain Glove?”

Lisianne nodded solemnly, before looking at me, “Or even a Healer.”

Natalie scowled, “Well they’ve come after me before it wouldn’t surprise me if they come after you too Kay. Even if you’re not this Eochair- they’re looking for you’ve got to admit that your healing ability would make you a pretty tempting target for them.”

“Just great,” I growled, needless to say I wasn’t too thrilled about being somebody’s prize.

Jason looked around, “We might want to stay in town for a while. As nice as it is to be out here, right now the town is probably a lot safer for both of you.”

“You’re probably right Jason,” Natalie replied, “Though we’ll have to be careful even in town I think. At least I have Vina and Dani. I can send one of them for help if I get into any trouble.

At this point there was a Pixie huddle with much whispering and shortly we were being introduced to all of them seemingly at once. There were only two who really stood out in my memory. One was a violet-haired Pixie named Azrhea who was the Keeper of Names, whatever that meant. The other was a wispy green-haired Pixie named Thymhelia, their Clan Leader. Finally the last introduction was made as a Pixie with red hair was pushed forward by the Clan Leader. When I say red I don’t mean ginger, I mean fire engine red, curly, and long enough that I was wondering how she flew without her wings getting tangled.

Thymhelia pushed her toward me and she seemed very shy and a bit frightened, “This is Silphia, she is still young but she is our fastest flyer. She will serve as your guardian Healer Kayla.”

I groaned inwardly at the thought of my own personal Pixie protector, as I thought I could handle myself fairly well if I needed it and resented the thought that I may need protection. I was tempted to refuse outright but since the tiny girl seemed as nervous about this as I was I shrugged and gave her my best I’m-really-not-going-to-eat-you smile. “Nice to meet you Silphia, I don’t know if I’ll need much protection but I’m sure you’ll be a big help if I do.”

“N-n-nice to meet you Healer Kayla. I will do my best,” came her stammered reply.

“Just call me Kayla please. Or you can call me Kay, most my friends do,” I offered another attempt at a smile.

With my new guardian assigned and the Pixies setting up a watch around the cabin I stepped outside for some fresh air while Natalie, Sarah and Jason doled out some vegetable stew for themselves and for our guests.

Sometime later my pondering was interrupted by the cabin door opening and closing. “I’d like to thank you Kayla, I owe you a debt for healing my daughter,“ was spoken softly by the Aos Sidhe as she moved to stand beside me.

I shrugged and turned to give her a tired smile, “I would have done it regardless, you don’t owe me anything. If you or she ever need healing again you’re welcome to find me, I’m happy to help.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that, but I do owe you a debt.” She paused, her expression darkening. “My people take debts very seriously.”

I nodded, my own face grim. “I suppose you owe a debt to whoever poisoned Marie as well. If you ever find out who the monster was who did it let me know. I’ll be more than happy to help you collect.”

“I appreciate your offers Kayla and I will consider them. But if I may offer you some advice?”

I considered for a moment before nodding once again, “Sure, I’m all ears… ummm, no offense.”

She managed a melodious giggle at that, “None taken.” She paused and spoke once again seriously, “Your Vampire nature may make you an efficient killer, but anyone can take life. You though have the power to give it. That power may be needed soon by those you care about. Don’t be afraid to choose your battles to preserve that power. Don’t jump into fights you don’t need to, and if you need to run or call for help do it. Me and mine will come if you call.” With that the Aos Sidhe gently squeezed my shoulder and went inside.

I spent the next few minutes thinking about that as I stared up at the nearly full moon. Who was I really? Was I a killer or Healer? Did I even care which of my natures won out? I thought about Carly and Genevieve. I had seen them both as very efficient killers, but only when it was needed. Any other time they tried to live their lives to the fullest and cared about others. Genevieve had even chosen a profession that allowed her to help others to heal. That is who I want to be, giving when I can and only taking when necessary, living any other way would make Carly’s death meaningless.

The door opened once again and I was joined by Sarah, Natalie and Jason. Natalie slapped me on the back, “So how does it feel to have your very own Pixie babysitter?”

I groaned as I looked past them to the cabin door where Silphia was inside most likely sharing a meal with her clan mates. “Ask me once I get to know her a bit. I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to Genevieve. It’s kind of hard to keep secrets from someone you can’t lie to.”

Natalie shrugged, “I don’t see the harm in telling her if the topic comes up. I mean Gwen, my mom, Sarah’s mom and your Aunt Helen all know about my little friends. Just be careful not to mention any of the Sacred except to Genevieve or those already in the know. The Sacred are not known of even among most of the Unseen and we don’t want to out them unless it’s their choice.”

“I guess you’re right. I’ll tell her if I have to, but nobody else who doesn’t know already.” I took a quick look around, “So what do you all think of this Eochair- business?”

Sarah was the first to answer. “I don’t think you, Marie, or Nat are it. Queen Titania is smart and powerful and she would have to realize that anyone or anything she takes an interest in could be suspected by people. For all we know you all may be red herrings and she’s setting up protection for you because she knows somebody will take the bait.”

Jason nodded, “I have to agree with Sarah on that, though you both still need to be careful. Someone will eventually take the bait plus there’s the fact that you already have something about you that makes you attractive.” He blushed at that and quickly added, “As some sort of tool or bargaining chip.”

Despite the darkness we all noticed his blush, though Natalie was the first to comment on it as she chuckled, “C’mon Sarah let’s go inside. We should probably leave these two alone.”

Sarah grinned and took Natalie’s offered hand, following her inside and calling out over her shoulder, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

I was suddenly glad Vampires can’t blush. Jason seemed to be blushing enough for both of us anyway. “Well that was awkward,” I ventured as I looked up at the moon.

“Yeah, just a bit,” he replied, standing beside me. “So that was pretty cool seeing you heal Marie. You were amazing.”

I turned to look up at him, wondering how I didn’t notice he was that close. I had to look up to speak to him, but then as he stared down to look at me I couldn’t speak. We just stood there for long seconds as we stared at one another uncertain what to say, and then our lips met.