Nathan Poole is ready to become Sarah's Warden, but a long lost family heirloom changes his life and future.     Trial and Heiress Chapter 9 By Amethyst

Thanks as usual to Eof for a great universe to play in and to Eof, Maggie F and Donjo for their input. A bit late this week due to being sick, possibly from lack of proper sleep. Thanks to my readers for reading what I put out here and being patient when new chapters are delayed like this time.

The door was answered by Mrs. Roseberry’s maid. I think her name was Julia or something like that. “Hello again Miss Poole, it’s been a while since you’ve been here. We’ve been expecting you, you’re here for Kayla right?” she asked with a smile. I nodded and she let us in to wait in the foyer. I had almost forgotten how huge this house was. To think Rick would be living here once he and Gwen were married. At least he had finally managed to ask her, though I think he was still a bit down that I couldn't be his best man. I hoped they managed to find his buddy Keith so he could do the job.

I was distracted from my thoughts by the girl who had just come down the stairs. She looked to be about fifteen with long hair, dyed purple of all things, and bright blue eyes. She even dressed like a Vampire; wearing a pleated red plaid skirt with something poofy made of black lace underneath, a black and blood red corset that looked really painful to wear, torn fishnet stockings, fingerless black lace gloves, black knee-high leather boots with buckles all up the sides, and a black lace choker with red ribbon and a polished red gemstone in the shape of a teardrop hanging from it. She also had a black leather jacket slung over her shoulder, though she didn’t look inclined to put it on at the moment.

Overall the girl was gorgeous and that body did not belong on a fifteen year old. I doubted she had any problems luring away male victims. If I weren’t still head over heels for Sarah I may have considered it as well. She seemed to be giving us all the once over with her eyes and I really hoped at that moment that she wasn’t hungry. I gave her a nervous smile and saw from the corner of my eye that Sarah was doing the same, though Sarah really did look happy to meet this girl. Jason was just staring, completely enthralled and maybe drooling a bit and as a former guy I was a bit embarrassed by his behavior. As she approached he caught her scent and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose slightly before looking at her again. I wondered briefly what she had smelled like to him.

She walked up to us and smiled, “Hi I’m Kayla, thanks for offering to show me around. Just so you know I can’t spend a lot of time in direct sunlight, maybe an hour at most.” She seemed almost as nervous about this little outing as I was.

I nodded trying to meet her eyes with my own but I was nervous and I kept looking down at my feet. “I’m Natalie and this is Sarah and Jason. We were just thinking of showing you a few of the important things and let folks see you a bit and then we were thinking about going to Gino’s, it’s open even with the holiday today and we can get a booth in the back where it’s dark.”

The Vampire girl smiled at that and seemed to actually perk up a bit at the mention of Gino’s. I wondered if Gwen or somebody had mentioned it to her, it does have a pretty good reputation on the island. “Sounds good, can we get going then?” She looked around, fidgeting nervously and gave an almost longing look toward the front door, “I’d really rather get out of here before the other guests show up.” What was it about these ‘other guests’ that made her nervous? If they could make a Vampire nervous then I really hoped not to meet them myself.

We all headed out to Jason’s dad’s truck and climbed in, Sarah and Kayla taking the back while Jason drove and I rode shotgun. We had just gotten on our way to our first destination when suddenly Kayla said, “So Natalie, I don’t remember Risk having a younger sister, but I do remember that his brother Nathan would have been about your age.” I gasped and heard the others do the same as I swung around in my seat and looked at her wondering just how she knew so much about my family. “W-what?” I replied, too nervous to give much more of an answer than that while I went over my options in my head.

She raised her hands, hopefully to show that she meant no harm. “Don’t worry I’m not here to cause trouble, in fact I’d like to avoid it. Do you know why Gwen was in Toronto?”

Sarah answered since I was still trying to figure out just how much this girl might know about me, and how. “She was looking for her missing cousin and Rick’s friend Keith. Most of the Witches on the island, including my mom, have been looking and turning up nothing. My mom is starting to worry he might be dead.” I knew all this of course since I had done some searching of my own.

“Well she found me,” Kayla said with a shrug, and she gave an awkward half bow in the back seat.

I tried to process what she meant by then and then I gasped as it hit me. I just stared at her as I replied, “You’re Keith!?!” This was Gwen’s cousin who had been going to University in Toronto?!

Jason slammed on the breaks, jarring us all in our seats, and turned to stare at her. “You were a guy?! Damn, first Nate and then you, no offense to any of you but I’m really glad I’m not from a Witch family right now.” He looked Sarah over and grinned, teasing her by adding, “You sure you were born a girl?” Sarah just punched him in the shoulder as he turned and started driving again.

While we continued on to the first stop on our tour she told us how she as Keith had met a beautiful woman named Genevieve who had turned out to be a Vampire. She had turned him not only into a Vampire but also a fifteen year old girl. The girl part was apparently done on purpose via some sort of spell but the age part was not. Her Maker still had no idea why she had regressed in age though there were a few theories. She told us about Genevieve and her fellow Vampire Carly and how they treated her better than her own human mother ever did. She looked ready to cry when she told us about Carly’s death at the hands of the Hunters.

I reciprocated by telling her a carefully edited version of how Nathan had become Natalie. I felt bad about all that happened to her but she was a Vampire and I didn’t know her well yet so I wasn’t going to trust her with all the details, especially about my connection to the Sacred and Titania. We all promised to keep these stories between the four of us as we arrived at the edge of the woods outside town.

We all left the vehicle and Jason gestured to the forest, “Growing up here you probably heard the stories of people getting lost in the woods and never coming back right?” Kayla nodded and he continued on, “Well most of those stories are true. If people get lost we’ll launch search parties and try tracking them but not even Unseen will search the Valley, people who go into the Valley usually don’t come out again.”

Sarah nodded sadly as she put in, “Yeah search parties won’t go that far, the people of the Whitefeather tribe think the Valley is some sort of holy ground and the Unseen here don’t like to enter the Valley without permission from the Sacred.”

“The Sacred?” the Vampire asked, looking a bit uncertain.

I made an attempt at smiling at her as I thought of my involvement with the Sacred during the past several months. “That’s what we of Witch blood call them; some people call them the Fae or other things. Believe me they exist and there’s good and bad ones.” I shivered at the memories of Ly Erg.

“Okay so don’t enter the Valley, got it.” she said as she looked out into the woods. “Anything else I should know while we’re here?”

Sarah pointed up in the air above the forest, toward where the Crossroads was. “Well there were several reasons our town founders chose this island to settle on. One of them is up there.”

“Fresh air?” she asked. It looked like her mother really had kept everything about the Unseen a secret from her. We would have to change that if she was going to be living here.

Sarah just laughed at the unintentional joke. “No, up there is a Crossroads. Five ley lines intersect there making this island a bit of a hotspot for magical energy. That’s why your ancestor Sorcha Roseberry and Aaki Whitefeather, the Nui-chal-tulth Shaman at the time chose the island. From there John Whitlock chose the site of the town for the hunting and fishing available.”

“I thought the town was founded because the Nui-chal-tulth and the Irish settlers were tired of British colonial rule?” she asked having possessed only the Norm version of the island’s history.

I shrugged as I decided to field the answer to that. “That story works well for the Norms and it’s mostly true except that the Irish and the natives weren’t the only ones included, Weres, Witch families and some other Unseen were a big part of it as well. In fact all four of us are from some of the major families which founded the town.”

She seemed to go over that in her mind for a moment before replying. “Okay so I get the three of us are from Witch families but what about you Jason? You said you weren’t.”

Jason gave her a silly looking grin, “I’m a Were, a Moose to be exact.”

She just looked at him confused and then gave him a dirty look when she seemed to figure he was messing with her. “A were-moose? Seriously?”

He just nodded, completely serious. “If you want I’ll show you one day when we’re not pressed for time.”

At that we all returned to the truck and Jason drove again until we reached the ocean and a good view of Sorcha Bay. There was a large group of seals and Selkies sunning themselves out on the rocks. We all piled out of the truck again and moved close enough to watch the seals from a distance. I pointed out to the bay and the ocean and told Kayla, “This is Sorcha Bay, do you see all those seals?” I figured the seals would be pretty hard for her to miss if she really had grown up on the island.

Vampire girl nodded as she answered, “Yeah, I see them.”

I replied, “I bet almost half of them are Selkies. A large portion of the Irish settlers who came here were Selkies. We have a Nereid family or two here as well. The island is almost the perfect location for them. A lot of us Unseen here on the island know each other and can be ourselves when we’re with other Unseen. Just remember not to mention anything about Unseen matters around the Norms.” Having not known about the Unseen before, I felt it very important that she know to keep our existence a secret.

“Ummm what are Selkies and Nereids?” she asked. I felt bad for her that she had grown up in the most influential Witch family on the island but had been kept completely ignorant of her heritage.

Jason shrugged, “Nereids are a bit hard to explain but Selkies are a lot like Weres. They’re people who change into seals like my family changes into Moose.”

For the next half hour, we drove her to all of the island’s historic and important Unseen spots and taught her about the history of the island and about the island’s Unseen as well as Unseen in general. Finally we made our way to Aaki Square where we planned to go to Gino’s for a bite to eat. I shuddered as I thought about what ‘a bite to eat’ meant for her and wondered if she could eat human food at all anymore. Well, human food as in food humans eat not as in ‘human food’ since technically that was probably all her new diet consisted of.

When we entered Gino’s Kayla got a lot of curious looks. People could tell she was new in town and her clothes kind of made her stand out anyway. So we were doing a good job of getting her seen by the townsfolk. At least people would leave her alone if she was with us, expecting us to introduce her if it was necessary or appropriate at the time. We sat at one of the booths in the back where it was fairly dark. It was pretty quiet due to the holiday and we were the only ones sitting in the back so at least we were able to talk openly, even if we had to do so quietly. The four of us talked as we ate and Kayla seemed to open up a bit as she got comfortable with us.

“I remember Gino’s pizza tasting so great.” Kayla said, sounding disappointed as she placed her barely eaten slice of meat-lovers back on her plate. She took a sip of her coke and sighed sadly. “It’s a pity I can’t eat much, and that I can’t taste it. Usually this pizza would be to die for.” Kayla had a pretty morbid sense of humor and I noticed that whenever something about her situation seemed to upset her she would make a joke related to death or children. I thought I had it bad just getting the whole gender switcheroo but she had that plus nobody would take her as the adult she was now and she was probably going to be like that forever or until she died.

I ignored those thoughts and smiled at her joke as Jason and Sarah did the same. Jason took a quick look around to make sure nobody was in hearing range before saying, “I was wondering about that, you seemed to be eating well enough.”

She shrugged, her response quiet, “I can eat really small amounts, it helps me appear human but I can’t eat very much and it doesn’t really do me any good. I need blood to survive.” I swallowed hard and looked away nervously before she quickly added, “Don’t worry I can control myself and I only feed on guys. Plus I think feeding on another Unseen might be some kind of taboo, though I’m pretty new at all this.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe Kayla wouldn’t be all that bad after all. She suddenly looked concerned and asked “What’s wrong Sarah?” I turned to see that Sarah was frowning and looked toward the entrance even as Jason turned in his seat beside Kayla to do the same. I frowned as well as I saw Eric and hoped he wouldn’t notice us in the back. Sarah grumbled, “It’s Eric Peters. That arrogant jerk has been after me ever since ‘Nathan’ left the island. He’s a Norm and he figures with Nathan gone he can move in on me.”

I grumbled as well, almost a growl as I took Sarah’s hand in my own and added, “Yeah the asshole didn’t wait very long. And then when I started back at school as Natalie he tried hitting on me too. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women.” Then I saw that he noticed us and sighed loudly over the sure trouble I felt would come out of this, “Damn he’s coming this way.”

Eric swaggered confidently up to our table, his attention on me and Sarah. He didn’t even seem to see Kayla or Jason, or just felt them beneath his attention as he gave us that stupid grin of his. “Hello ladies, how about I join you? I know you’ve both probably been missing me with school out for the holidays.”

Jason was beginning to get fed up with Eric’s actions over the past several months and started cracking his knuckles, “Listen Eric, they’ve both asked you repeatedly to leave them alone, besides the table is full. Take off so we can finish our meal in peace.” He may not be able to beat some sense into Eric at school but from the look on his face it wouldn’t take much for him to try it here.

Eric turned his attention to the other side of the booth and its occupants, his attention now on Jason. “I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to…” And then he saw Kayla. I heard her groan and figured that she knew as well as I did that he was about to hit on her. He wasted no time in doing so. “Hey there gorgeous, I haven’t seen you around here before.”

Kayla looked at him as if he was something unpleasant that she had just found on the bottom of her shoe as she said, “No you haven’t.” My opinion of her went up several notches at that. The girl had moxie.

“Ouch, that hurt, don’t be so cold baby.” Eric replied, trying to come off as smooth, but it sounded more like whining to me.

Kayla narrowed her eyes at that, and I could only imagine what she was probably wishing she could do to him right then. I was worried she might flip out and make a scene and I was about to come to her rescue with a command spell when she looked straight into his eyes and spoke very slowly and deliberately as if addressing a particularly stupid child. “You’ve interrupted our meal and your advances aren’t welcome, you’re very rude. I think you should apologize.”

“I’m sorry, I was very rude,” he answered, sounding like he was in a daze. I looked at my right hand in confusion for a moment but I was absolutely certain that I hadn’t used the spell. Was this something she was doing? Was the Jedi mind trick some kind of Vampire thing?

“I think you should go eat and forget you talked with us,” she told him, still looking into his eyes and using that slow and deliberate speech. “You saw us in passing but you never spoke to us. You won’t even think about having seen us until we are gone.” Then he just left without another word and went to one of the bar stools at the counter to place an order like everything was normal. We all just stared at her for a moment as she smiled, “Well I’m finished, I’ll eat something a little more filling later.”

Sarah suddenly burst out laughing and grinned at the purple haired Vampire saying, “I have got to learn to do that.” I barely heard her because I was laughing as well; this girl might be fun to have around.

It was dark when we dropped Kayla back off at Roseberry Manor. I promised to call her the next day so that we could do something else. Then we took off for home to join our respective families for dinner. Rick was thoughtful as we all ate dinner together. Finally he looked at me over the turkey and asked, “You spent the day with that Vampire kid right Nat? Did anything strike you as odd or familiar about her?”

I thought about telling him that the Vampire girl in question was his best friend but I decided it wasn’t my place to tell. I also didn’t want to be the one to break it to him. Gwen was supposed to be coming over tonight for a visit so he could ask her then. “Odd? You mean other than being a Vampire and dressing the part? No not really. She actually doesn’t seem that bad once you get over the blood drinking and all that, and she told me she doesn’t feed on Unseen.” He didn’t seem happy with that answer but didn’t push it and remained quietly pensive throughout the rest of the meal.

After dinner Mom got me back to work on my magic studies to make up for the time I spent with Kayla and company. It was sometime later as I was in the workroom with Mom, Verbina and Dani that I heard Rick’s voice roar, “She’s Keith!?!” I just chuckled and returned to my work. I noticed Mom was chuckling too. We all returned what we were doing, which was playing hide and seek. Basically Mom was having me practice the locator spell using as little power as possible while Dani and Vina took turns turning invisible and hiding somewhere in the house. Finally, after I found Dani in one of the kitchen cupboards nibbling on a cookie, Mom decided we were done for the night.

I quickly wrote my cell number on a piece of paper, then with Dani and Verbina sitting on my shoulders I headed out to the living room. I grinned at Rick who was sitting on the couch with Gwen, “So Gwen told you huh? Are you planning on talking to your Vampire friend?”

Rick glared at me, “You knew?! And you didn’t tell me?”

I shrugged, “She told me today while we were out, but I didn’t figure it was my place to tell you that you are going to need a new best man. Now are you going to talk to her?”

He nodded, “I’ll be going over in the morning to help Gwen get them settled in. Tanner just called to let us know they are going to be allowed to stay, provided they follow some rules that they agreed to with the Coven.”

I handed him the slip of paper as I replied, “Cool. Make sure you give this to her so she can call me when she’s ready to go out. We’re all supposed to get together again tomorrow and we’re going to show her some stuff in the woods.”

He took the paper and pocketed it, “Sure Nat.”

“Okay,” I said with a grin. “I’ll leave you lovebirds alone to discuss china patterns or whatever you were talking about before I came in. I’m going to get some sleep.”

Gwen laughed and Rick gave me a dirty look as he said, “Good night. Don’t let the Vampires bite.”

I awoke late the next morning after a poor night’s sleep with some disturbing dreams. I worked at untangling Dani from my hair and then headed into the shower to prepare for the day. Once I was clean and shaved in the right areas I got dressed in a white bra and panties, a pair of jeans, a long sleeved sweater, hiking boots and a warm flannel jacket. Then I went downstairs to call Jason and Sarah and have a bit of breakfast before Kayla called. She called around mid-morning and once I was off the phone with her I quickly prepared a backpack with supplies we might need.

Dani and Verbina were a bit concerned about us going onto the woods without their protection but I told them that they could follow us at a distance and remain unseen. If they felt that we were in danger of an attack from the Winter Court they could come to warn us. Jason and Sarah were dressed similarly to me, ready for a walk in the woods, when we met at Jason’s place. I teased Jason as we climbed in his father’s truck. “Are you ready to spend another day with the hot Vampire girl?”

He shrugged, “She is really hot but she smells like a graveyard. It took a little bit of getting used to yesterday. She does seem pretty nice, though I doubt we have much in common.”

Soon we were at the doors to Roseberry Manor again and being greeted this time by Kayla who was dressed in a similar style as the day before, only instead of a corset she was wearing a long t-shirt with a skull on the front of it. She was also wearing a gold chain with a crescent moon pendant on it, and her eyes seemed a darker blue than the day before, almost violet. I shrugged it off as we all climbed into the truck.

We mostly just made small talk on the ride out to the woods. She told us that Gwen’s mom had made her the pendant she was wearing so that she could spend as much time in the sun as any other teenager. I was relieved to hear that, since limited time in the sun might make it difficult for her to blend in. We also talked about school a bit and Kayla confirmed that she would be joining us when we returned, though none of us was looking forward to it.

She also told us something we didn’t know about Vampires, that each one has a unique ability. Her maker’s ability was that nobody could lie around her. That was certainly nice to know in advance. Kayla had discovered hers before the Unseen Council meeting. It seemed that she could change her eye color at will. She even demonstrated it for us and it was pretty cool, even if it wasn’t very useful. I think she was a bit disappointed in it since even she admitted there were far better Vampire abilities out there.

We had just arrived at the edge of the woods when Kayla suddenly blurted out, “Natalie would you be interested in being a part of Rick and Gwen’s wedding?” She shrunk back a bit as if the question would make me suddenly explode or something.

I tried to reply calmly and not let my disappointment show. “Well Rick said before that he was thinking about having me be his best man but that there was another choice. I don’t really know how else I could be involved now.”

Her reply was to giggle, “Yeah I was the other choice.” Then she calmed herself and added, “But Gwen asked me if I’d be her maid of honor instead given my current situation. We were kind of wondering if you’d want to be one of her bridesmaids. It would mean a lot to Risk having us both involved somehow, and it would mean a lot to Gwen too.”

Sarah grinned and put her hand on my shoulder, “You should do it Nat, it could be fun and then Kayla won’t have to suffer all alone.”

I didn’t like the idea at all, but Kayla seemed willing to do it and it would mean a lot to them both. Plus I couldn’t refuse Sarah much of anything especially when I could feel her touch. I so wished we could do more than just casual touching and holding hands. I wished she wanted more. “I guess so,” I answered, “It’s not really my kind of thing, but if it’ll make Rick happy I suppose I can handle one day in an ugly dress.” She and Sarah both hugged me tight and I suddenly felt really awkward. I think I may have blushed a bit.

Then Kayla suddenly turned to Jason with a grin, “Risk’s 0 for 2 with his best man choices. You should volunteer for the job Jason; I bet you’d make a cute girl.” I had a very hard time not giggling at that.

“Oh very funny Kayla, I’m very happy as a guy thanks.” He replied, rolling his eyes at her. He stared at her for a moment before frowning, “And would you stop changing your eye color like that, it’s a bit creepy when you do it while I’m watching.”

She punched him softly on the shoulder, “Well if you’d stop looking at me like that you wouldn’t have to watch it. You poor boy, you just can’t take your eyes off me. Now speaking of changing wasn’t there something you were going to show me?” I laughed quietly to myself thinking that Jason really couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d been stealing glances at her since they met.

The three of us girls walked through the woods following Jason in his Moose form. The look on her face when he changed was priceless and I was wondering just how she would react when he changed back into a naked guy. Jason probably wouldn’t do that in front of her though, as shy as he was. Sarah and I were explaining things about Unseen on the island and telling her about some of the herbs and such that we knew when we passed them while Jason kept alert for danger. Our first stop was the cabin. Sarah explained that the Unseen Council kept it stocked for those lost or wounded in the woods and as a base of operations for search parties. We also showed her where all the supplies were stored in case she needed them in the future.

It had taken us a few hours to get to the cabin so we decided to sit down and rest there for a while before continuing our walk to the Valley. Kayla had been carrying Jason’s backpack for him while he was in Moose form since she hadn’t brought one of her own and when we arrived at the cabin she had left it outside for him. Jason changed back to his human form and into his clothes outside where she couldn’t see, just like I figured.

Kayla had seemed to relax quite a bit since we started our walk and was no longer nervously touching her new pendant whenever she thought nobody was looking. Jason came into the cabin and handed us all cans of soda from his backpack. He smiled sadly as he looked around, “It’s been awhile since we’ve been out this far Nat, I’ve missed it.”

I nodded and sighed. I really missed coming out here and training but until we knew that the Winter Court wasn’t going to be a problem there wasn’t much I could do about it. After a longing look around the cabin I turned to Kayla to explain. “We used to come out here all the time. We’d check the supplies for the Council and do some training out here, sometimes we’d stay a few days at a time.”

“I guess your family must have put a stop to it when you got girlified huh?” was her reply.

I nodded at that, “Yeah, when I was a guy and training to be a Warden, it was encouraged for me to come out here with Jason to train. Afterwards…” I couldn’t finish that sentence. It would make it seem like only bad things had come out of my transformation. There were good things: my Pixie pals, my relationship with my mom, and I was even enjoying learning magic.

Kayla looked pensive before replying. “What were they worried about you being out here all alone with a boy? I guess I could see that since you two kind of gave off a vibe like you were a couple when we first met. I think you’re more close friends though.”

I nearly choked on my soda and just the thought of what she had implied was wrong on so many levels. Sarah just giggled as I made a face and made my displeasure at the thought known. “Ewwwww gross! No, my parents decided since I’m no longer training to be a Warden and I’m heir to the family’s magic I should be kept safe while I learn magic until I have a Warden of my own.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but I hardly knew Kayla and wasn’t sure I could trust her with the whole story yet.

Jason placed a hand on my shoulder, “Yeah we’re just buds, nothing more. I think your parents may let up so long as we go in groups, you and Sarah may not have Wardens yet but I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”

Kayla nodded, a determined look on her face. “You can count me in too. I haven’t known you all long but you’re good people. I won’t let anything happen to you while I’m around. We’ll keep you safe.” She bit her lip, looking like she could cry at any moment. “I… I wasn’t able to do anything to save Carly. But I promise I won’t let anything like that happen to a friend again if I can do anything about it.” She took a sip of her soda as she pulled herself together.

I suddenly felt really bad for not telling her the whole truth. This girl had been through a lot, she was a kindred spirit and I was treating her like she was a Winter Court spy. I told myself that it was needed until I knew more about her and could be sure she could be trusted. Sarah hugged her and I quickly joined in as Sarah said, “We’ll all look out for each other, that’s what good friends do.” She gave us a bright smile to try and lighten the mood, “Now let’s not get all mopey, we still have to show Kayla the Valley and it’s a hard walk.”

Kayla looked at her, seeming a bit confused. “I thought you all told me not to enter the Valley.”

I took another pull of my soda as I nodded, “You don’t want to enter without permission from the Sacred or you might never come back. We’re not going into the Valley though; we’re just going to show you where it is so you know when you’ve gone too far.” Who knows maybe Titania or one of her court would be nearby and could tell me if Kayla could be trusted.

After that brief break we began the walk to the Valley, heading up the increasingly steep slope. Kayla seemed to keep up pretty well and showed no signs of tiring as we climbed, even after a few kilometers when the slope was almost sixty degrees and heavily forested. We had to start being careful with our footing but she just kept going without signs of strain even when the rest of us were starting to tire. She did eventually ask, “How could someone not realize they’re heading to the Valley with a climb like this?”

Jason grinned at her as he climbed up beside her. “I know right. You’d think people would realize that if you want to get back to town you need to go downhill.”

Sarah nodded in agreement as Kayla helped her climb over a large rock, “Usually it’s local Norms or people not from the island who get lost. The local Norms think the disappearances are just to scare people and do it to prove how tough they are, and the people not from the island get lost and think civilization is just over the next rise.”

“It’s one of the many reasons we don’t encourage tourism.” I added. The last thing we needed on the island is tourists to get lost and never return and bring a media circus on our asses.
“I always wondered why we don’t promote the island to tourists; it could bring a lot of revenue into town,” she commented as she looked around, taking in the scenery. “A lot of people would love the island for vacations.”

I frowned at that, my thought still on the possibility of disappearing tourists. “The Valley is one of the major reasons but there are others as well. One is that tourists bring litter and we would rather the island stay as untouched by man as possible outside of town. Another reason is that sleepy little towns with not a lot of visitors seem boring and the last thing people expect would be anything unusual so we Unseen can hide in plain sight. The less attention we bring to the island the less we have to hide,” I explained hoping she would see things that way.

She apparently did since she nodded. “That’s true, I grew up here and I thought the town was the most boring place on earth. I was a bit shocked by all this Unseen stuff happening right under my nose all those years.”

Jason gave Kayla a serious look. “There’s one more obvious reason. Tourism for a place like Sena Island brings game hunters. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those hunters shot the wrong fox, lynx or moose? Or what would happen if they saw one of the Unseen in the woods or while fishing? That could cause all sorts of trouble.”

She let that stew in her mind briefly before answering. “I guess knowing what I know now I have to admit that it’s better to be a sleepy little town. The less people who come here, the less people we need to worry about finding out about us.”

I waved my hands broadly toward the Valley as we stood atop the ridge. “The Valley is pretty big, it covers near one third of the Island and the Crossroads is right above it. We think it’s possible that could be part of the reason that most people who go in don’t come out.”

Sarah nodded in agreement, “It could be anything though, it could just be the size of the Valley, it could be something to do with the way being too close to the Crossroads screws with electronics, or it could have something to do with the Sacred.”
Jason looked up at the sky, “We should get going, it looks and smells like it’s going to rain, we might even get snow. Besides it gets dark early right now and we’re supposed to be back in town before then. Dad needs the truck back by then.”

I frowned at the thought of going down that slope in the rain. “Yeah we should get going home then. One of us really needs to get our own vehicle.” We were quick to start heading back down the slope toward the town.

It seemed like as soon as we started on our way down it started raining. It was a freezing rain and quickly started coming down in a torrent. Even though the cold rain didn’t seem to bother Kayla much, the rest of us were getting cold quick even in our warm clothes. We tried to be as careful as possible going down the slope. None of us said much, as we were too busy paying careful attention to where we placed our feet as the rain came down progressively harder. We were starting to get close to the bottom when Sarah slipped on a rock. I could hear a popping sound and she screamed in pain as she lost her balance and fell down the slope.

Suddenly Kayla threw caution to the wind and was practically flying down the slope after Sarah. I was stunned for an instant by what had just happened but then I too started to half slide down the hill recklessly with Jason at my side. When we got to the bottom of the slope, we found Sarah lying next to a tree, out cold. Kayla seemed to be checking for a pulse, and was looking her over. Sarah’s ankle was not at a good angle and she was bleeding badly from a wound on her head. Her hood and hair were covered in blood and I was so scared that I was going to lose her. Kayla looked really worried too as she said,” Someone needs to get help and medical supplies.”

Jason ran toward the cabin to get medical supplies while I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the emergency number, my hands shaking. Kayla tore a section off her shirt and started putting pressure on the head wound. Sarah had lost so much blood and I was worried about her ankle and that head wound. I was panicking and started cursing as I couldn’t get a signal. I knelt down beside them trying to think of some way I could help, but I didn’t know any healing spells. I reached out with my mind focusing through the Glove and called out to Dani and Verbina. Maybe one of them knew a healing spell or could bring help.

I couldn’t bear to lose Sarah, I was still in love with her. I opened my eyes and saw the light. Kayla’s hands were glowing with a pale white light as she held them and the scrap of her shirt firmly against Sarah’s head. The light grew brighter and she stared at her glowing hands in confusion as Sarah began to glow white as well. Then she and Sarah were both glowing so bright that it hurt my eyes to look. I cursed and shielded my eyes trying to see what was happening. And then the light vanished and Kayla collapsed atop Sarah.

I checked Sarah over. Her ankle looked a lot better, no bruising and it was no longer at that horrid angle. The wound on her head was gone, only a small scar remained on her bloody head, she was breathing steadily but I couldn’t wake her up. Hoping she was alright I went on to check Kayla. There was no pulse and she wasn’t breathing but she was a Vampire so that told me absolutely nothing. I looked again at the tiny scar on Sarah’s head in disbelief before looking back at Kayla. I stared at her as I waited for my Pixies to get there and for Jason to return and all I could think was, what in the hell is she?