Nathan Poole is ready to become Sarah's Warden, but a long lost family heirloom changes his life and future.     Trial and Heiress Chapter 14 By Amethyst

Thanks as usual to Eof for a great universe to play in and to Eof, Maggie F and Donjo for their input. Thanks to my readers for reading what I put out here and being patient when new chapters are delayed.

The morning after my date with Sarah, I awoke in an extremely good mood. It was perhaps the best that I had felt since I had found Titania’s Glove, all seemed right with the world and I was finally comfortable in my own skin. The little Nathan in the back of my mind argued, as he always did that I shouldn’t be comfortable like this, that I wasn’t born a girl. I promptly bound, gagged, and tossed him to a forgotten little corner in the back of my mind. I could be comfortable like this, last night had proved that, and it was time that I started looking at the good things about my transformation instead of trying to get back something I no longer needed.

When I thought about it there were a lot of good things that had come from my transformation. First I was learning to use magic and my mom and I had become much closer as a result. Secondly, I was a lot closer to all of my friends. Nate had been so focussed on being a great future Warden and as a result he kind of distant from people except for Jason and Sarah. I had much stronger friendships now and new friends like Kayla and Moriko that I probably wouldn’t have been as close to otherwise. And then there was Sarah. We were closer than ever and I felt that if our relationship could survive me being a girl than it could survive anything.

I gave a little yawn and stretched as I slipped my legs over the edge of the bed and made my way to the bathroom for a nice long shower. When I was finished I wrapped a towel around me and headed back to my room to find something to wear. Once I had opened my closet I stood there for several minutes just staring at the scene inside. “Holy shit… everyone is right. My wardrobe really is made up of only jeans and grey hoodies. How could I have never noticed that before?” I could smell breakfast cooking so I rushed downstairs to the kitchen “Mom!”

Mom looked up as I entered the kitchen and was quick to scold me, “Natalie, get some clothes on, you can’t just walk around in a towel.”

“But mom, I have nothing to wear,” I complained. “I wore my new skirt and the peasant blouse yesterday while I was out with Bailey and I can’t wear the same thing two days in a row.”

My loving and sensitive mother just stared at me for a moment before she burst out laughing. She managed to get control of herself and was about to say something when I raised my hand to stop the words about to come from her mouth. “Don’t say it. I am well aware of the state of my wardrobe. I just never thought about it before now. I can’t just wear jeans and grey hoodies all the time, it’s ridiculous. Why didn’t someone smack me upside the head and tell me how stupid I was being?”

Mom turned off the stove and guided me back toward my bedroom. “You were so resistant to being female. We all wanted to give you the time that you needed to adjust. I figured that sooner or later this phase was going to end but I wanted you to make that decision so I wasn’t pushing you. That’s why I was so happy when you asked me to help you shop for clothes earlier this week. You still have two tops that we bought the other day so just wear one of them with a pair of jeans. You can go clothes shopping today; you hardly spent any of the money that the Coven provided you with for a new wardrobe.”

“But I was supposed to help you at the shop today,” I argued, “And you were going to teach me water scrying if we got finished with inventory early.”

“I can manage the inventory by myself,” she assured me, “And you having a day off from your lessons isn’t going to kill you. Why don’t you call Sarah and a friend or two and you can all make a day of it. Don’t be too long getting dressed though, breakfast is nearly ready.” We were in my room now and she left me to find something to wear while she went back down to the kitchen to finish making breakfast.

By the time I had slipped into a bra and a pair of panties Dani and Vina were awake and asking me excitedly about how the date with Sarah had gone. I gave them all the juicy details as I searched for a pair of jeans. There was one pair that Mom had gotten me for Christmas but I hadn’t worn yet because they were white low rise jeans and at the time I had felt they were way too girly. I shimmied into them and they fit nicely, though they just barely reached my hips. Then I looked through the other two tops that mom had bought me when we got my dress and decided on the dark red halter crop top. I was going to be showing off a lot of my midriff but I knew that I was in good shape and after last night I was realizing that I didn’t need to be ashamed of my body.

I brushed out my hair and was pleased that some of the curl from last night still remained, giving it a wavy look. I parted it at the center as it had been the night before so that it framed my face. “How do I look?” I asked my small friends.

Dani gave a playful whistle and giggled while Vina smiled, “You look very nice. Are you planning on going out again?”

I shook my head, “I’m going shopping for some new clothes but I think that’s about it. I’m going to see if Sarah, Bailey and Kayla want to come along, and of course I’ll want you both there. I’ve been having the feeling like I’m being watched lately so I want you both to keep your eyes open okay?”

“We will be on our guard,” the blue haired pixie replied seriously.

Dandelion gave an energetic nod in agreement as she flew up to land on my shoulder. “We can still help you pick out clothes though can’t we?””

“Of course, maybe with your help I’ll be more appropriately dressed the next time I get visitors from the Summer Court, they always seem to catch me at the worst times,” I joked.

I headed back downstairs where my parents and Rick were already at the table. My brother got one look at me and nearly spat out his coffee. When I was seated and he had sufficiently recovered from his coughing fit he looked me over carefully, “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

I rolled my eyes as I finished my sip of juice. “Very funny Rick.”

Mom gave me a nod of approval, “You look very nice dear. Don’t tease your sister Rick, you should have seen her last night.”

“He probably will,” I pointed out. “You certainly took enough pictures of me last night.” That of course had Mom running off to fetch her digital camera to show Rick and Dad documented evidence of the previous night’s girliness. It had been late once I had finally gotten home from dropping Sarah off and everyone had been asleep but both Rick and Dad made sure to get any teasing that they may have missed. Mom was still showing them pictures when I finished my breakfast and picked up the kitchen phone to call Sarah.

“Hello?” Sarah’s voice came alive on the other end.

“Hi Sarah its Nat.” I said.

“Hello there gorgeous,” Sarah purred, “I really had a good time last night. I enjoyed getting to show off my sexy girlfriend.”

I chuckled at that. “I must admit I kind of enjoyed being showed off. How would you like to show me off some more around town today? I was hoping we could go shopping for some clothes, maybe invite Bailey and Kayla along.”

“You had me at shopping.” I could almost feel her smiling on the other end. “I’ll call Bailey and be over in a bit. We might want to wait a bit before calling Kayla though; she mentioned wanting to sleep in today last night and I’m not sure I want to go shopping with a grouchy Vampire even if she is my best gal pal.”

“I thought I was your best gal pal,” I pouted into the phone.

“You got promoted to sexy girlfriend so I had to find a new one,” she replied.

“Does sexy girlfriend get paid more?” I joked back.

“No, but I think you’ll enjoy the benefits. I’ll talk to you soon beautiful.” We both hung up and I turned around to find Rick and both my parents trying to hide smiles. I didn’t even bother trying to explain and instead headed up to my room to put on some light makeup before Sarah and Bailey arrived.

Sarah and Bailey arrived around mid-morning and of course once they heard how much money I still had set aside for clothes they started talking about a whole new wardrobe. I don’t think either of them was too surprised that I was wanting to broaden my fashion horizons after last night and we spent the remainder of the morning discussing what looks would suit me best. I of course wanted to make sure I would still have some freedom of movement in case I got attacked by the Winter Court or something but other than that I was pretty open to suggestions. I began to worry though that the pair might go a bit overboard so around noon I called Kayla.

Sadly Kayla was supposed to be meeting someone with Genevieve during the afternoon so she wasn’t able to come with us. I sighed and shrugged as I told the others, “Looks like Kay has to meet with someone today. We made tentative plans for next weekend though and I’m almost glad she can’t come.”

Bailey seemed pretty disappointed about it. “Aww that sucks that she can’t come; I was hoping to get to know her better today. She seems nice and has a great sense of humor. Why wouldn’t you want her coming though?”

“It figures that you would love Kayla’s sense of humor. Just wait until she starts in on the Vampire and death jokes. For a Goth she is really good at seeing the positive side of things. It’s nothing against her; she just threatened to take me into Oh my Goth for a makeover.”

An evil grin spread over my girlfriend’s face at that. “You know Nat we should get you one Goth outfit as a surprise for Kayla. With your pale skin and dark hair you could really rock the whole Goth look.”

“And just think about it,” Bailey put in, “the short skirts like she wore last night are sexy and you’ll be able to move in them. And she did mention the virtues of steel toed combat boots last night.”

I knew I was probably going to regret it but I gave in. “Fine, but only one outfit. One full time Goth in our group is enough.”

We went to Oh My Goth first and it turned out that we bought about two full outfits in a style that Kayla would approve of, but I could probably mix and match them with one another or other clothes for a variety of outfits. I did have to admit that I did like the knee high combat boots with the one inch heel that we got. After that we planned to go to Danica’s, Kiss and Make-up, Soul Train, Denman’s, and Inside Out for a variety of other clothes and accessories. Bailey and Sarah tended to want to get the sexier clothes for me and I really didn’t need much convincing with my newfound confidence regarding my body. Come school the next day my classmates were going to see a whole new Natalie Poole.

Maorg watched the three girls from a safe distance. She had been fortunate to take possession of a teenage boy who had fallen asleep in the place the humans referred to as Sena Island Library. The boy had fallen asleep over a book and was ironically dreaming of Titania’s witchling wearing some manner of red dress. She left the small building and reached out with her senses and soon caught the girl’s magical scent. She found her target with two other girls, the other Witch and another that she had seen with the witchling with the previous day, and casually followed the trio into a large shop called Denman’s.

Those pesky Pixies were going to be a problem, Maorg could feel it. They had nearly sensed her other hosts twice before and at the moment they seemed to be keeping an especially close eye out for trouble. If she were at her full power she would not need to be concerned about the Pixies, the girl or her friends. She was not though and so must use stealth rather than merely taking over the girl by force. She would not be watching this girl at all if Ly Erg and Sarric were not pressing her for information.

No, Maorg knew that the girl in black with the purple hair was the real prize in this human town. She would rather be watching that one and finding her weaknesses. The girl was a predator, Maorg could sense it but she must have her weaknesses and she intended to exploit those weaknesses. She must have desires, or people that she cared about. The Healer would be hers and she would be powerful once again. Then Sarric, Ly Erg, and perhaps even Titania’s witchling would all do her bidding.

She shook off those thoughts; boredom was causing her thoughts to stray. Didn’t these girls talk about anything but clothes? Occasionally the girls would stop and whisper something else but the body that Maorg currently inhabited was too far away to hear what it might be and she dare not get any closer for fear of catching the attention of the Pixies. Once they were finished their business in Denman’s she followed them outside, down several side streets and into a store that seemed solely devoted to lacy garments in various colors that would be shameful as anything but undergarments. She had just realized this when the three girls began walking deliberately directly toward her current body. The witchling wore an angry look upon her face and seemed about to say something as Maorg fled her host and opened her eyes to her own bedroom.

The sleepwalker cursed and closed her eyes once again to find one of her assigned host bodies within Prince Sarric’s home. The eyes she opened belonged to a human Sclabhai: a beautiful young woman with honey blonde hair and bright blue eyes. This came as no surprise to Maorg, she had used this host before and Sarric had forbidden her from taking over the bodies of anyone in his home but his pleasure slaves. He claimed it was because the minds of the Sclabhai were so broken that she could possess them even when awake but Maorg knew better. Sarric wished to put her in her place when she came to his home and the lovely bodies of his pleasure Sclabhai did that and served a cruel reminder of what her now broken and withered form once was.

Maorg had been one of the great beauties of the Winter Court in her day and had the power to rival even Prince Sarric himself. Then she had helped Sarric to slay Titania’s husband Oberon and to bind their daughter Sephrene as his own Sclabhai. Sarric, that devious bastard had gone into hiding and made sure that all blame would fall on her when weeks later an enraged Titania came seeking both her daughter and her vengeance. Titania’s wrath had been swift and sure and the curse she had laid upon Maorg twisted her body and stripped her of most of her power.

The Sleepwalker pushed those thoughts aside as she sought out Sarric. She found him in the sun room of the large mansion and knelt in submission when she approached. Someday soon, she thought, our roles will be reversed and it shall be you who bows to me. The mansion was in North Vancouver and overlooked the water of Vancouver Harbour and city of Vancouver itself on the other side. Sarric seemed to take great pleasure in her kneeling before him and took his time before acknowledging her. “Maorg, don’t you look lovely today? You have good news for me I hope.”

The lovely face that Maorg now wore frowned at the compliment. “Titania’s witchling is well watched. It grows harder for me to keep a close eye on her. Titania gathers the Queens soon for a meeting, perhaps that is the time to strike, when her attention is elsewhere.”

The Aos Sidhe considered the suggestion for a long moment before finally nodding. “You may be right. Keep an eye on the witchling as best you can until Titania’s attention is elsewhere and inform Ly Erg when the time is right for him to claim the prize. Do not fail me Maorg, I want the Eochair.” His cold blue eyes focused intently on her and she knew just what the price of failure would be. She would not fail, she would have the Healer for her own and leave the witchling to Ly Erg and once she was powerful once again they would all belong to her.

We were at Denman’s when Dani and Vina warned me about the boy following us with a whisper in my ear. I carefully positioned myself in front of a mirror and held a green poets blouse up in front of me to see how it would look on me. My position relative to the mirror allowed me to see the boy they were talking about in the reflection. I called Bailey and Sarah over by asking, “What do you girls think of this top on me?” Then once they were close enough to compliment my taste I whispered, “Don’t look now but we have company. Dani and Vina said he’s been following us and watching me since we came into the store.”

Bailey just smiled and kept on talking like nothing was wrong, “I saw that same top in black and I think it will look a lot better, the style suits you but green isn’t really your color. Let’s put this one away and I’ll show you the black one.” As we headed toward the clothes rack bailey had indicated she whispered, “Yeah that’s David Kelly, he’s graduating this year and he’s definitely got his eyes on you. I think I saw him at the club last night. He’s usually a really nice guy, it’s not like him being all creepy and stalkerish, maybe he wants to ask you out but he’s afraid or something, he is pretty shy.”

“I think Sarah made it pretty clear last night that neither of us is interested in boys,” I whispered back causing Sarah to blush as I returned the green top and took out the black one. “You’re right Bailey this one is much more my color.

“So what do we do?” Sarah asked quietly as she handed me a white nearly sheer halter top that made me raise my eyebrows at her. My girlfriend just blushed and said, “That’s more for me than you, you’ll look awesome in it.”

I looked over the top and it really would look great on me so I added It to the other clothes I had as I replied, “Okay, I’ll get it for your sake Sarah.” Then quieter I added, “We’ll keep shopping for now and make like we don’t notice him. It could just be a coincidence or he could just be really shy about approaching me. Dani and Vina are going to keep being extra cautious and try keeping an eye on him.”

We kept shopping at Denman’s for another hour and the whole time David was somewhere nearby watching me. “Well, I think it’s safe to say it’s not a coincidence,” Sarah finally mentioned quietly as we made our way to the checkout. “He hasn’t’ taken his eyes off you the whole time and I can’t think of any normal boy who could watch three girls shopping and talking about clothes for this long without getting bored out of his mind and leaving.”

“Just great, so either I have a stalker or something else creepy is going on,” I muttered. I finished paying for my clothes and we put them in Bailey’s car then I grinned at the other girls and said, “We were planning on going to Inside Out next weren’t we?”

Bailey nodded as she took a casual look around to see if our new friend was still following us “Yeah we were but given the circumstances I’ll understand if you don’t want to.” She looked disappointed for a moment and then her eyes lit up as she seemed to catch my meaning. “Oh Nat, that’s just perfect.”

“I grinned at her and Sarah and nodded. “If he follows us in there and keeps watching me then there is definitely something up, and Chloe’s mom won’t take to kindly to a guy following a girl into her shop and staring at her.” With that plan in mind we walked along a couple of side streets to make our way toward Inside Out where we paused in front of the door where Vina and Dani joined us.

“He’s still following you,” Vina pointed out. “But he’s been keeping his distance and it’s like he can see us and is actively trying to avoid our notice.”

We stepped inside and told the owner, Lessa Freemont, what was going on. Then as she went into the back to watch the surveillance cameras for us we made our way to the back of the shop where a lot of the more risqué items were kept. I definitely saw a few things there that I wouldn’t mind seeing Sarah in and I think she was feeling the same way about some of the things she was suggesting for me. Bailey giggled at the looks on both our faces and set us both to blushing as we heard the bell above the shop door ring. David entered the shop and we made like we didn’t notice him as we laughed and looked at more lingerie and chose some that would work well with my new wardrobe.

Ten minutes later he was still near the front of the shop watching me and I got fed up. “Okay girls, time to find out what the hell is going on.” We all turned and walked toward him and I let just how pissed off I was show in my expression. His eyes suddenly went wide as he realized that we were on to him and then he fell to the floor in a heap. “What the hell?” I muttered as we raced toward him and I checked his pulse. I felt something and the Glove tingled in response before the feeling was gone. “Did you feel that Sarah?”

Sarah nodded as she knelt on his other side. “Some kind of magic but it was there one second and then suddenly gone and David is fast asleep.”

Chloe’s mom came out from the back of the shop looking worried, “What happened girls? He was standing there watching you one minute and then he just seemed to pass out.”

“Whoever that was following us I don’t think it was David,” I said with a sigh.

“Maybe we should wake him up and see if he remembers anything,” Bailey suggested.

I shook my head as I considered that. “No, Sarah can you make sure he stays asleep? The Coven is going to want to know about this. Mrs. Freemont would you mind closing up a bit early?”

The Nereid smiled and said, “It’s no trouble Natalie, but I would like to know what’s going on.” She stood up went to the entrance to lock it and when she returned she asked, “So what does the trouble seem to be this time?”

I gave a nervous laugh in return as I looked in my purse for my phone. “You make is sound like we’re always in trouble. If I had to make a guess though, I think somebody is using some sort of magic to spy on me. David has been following us around and watching me all afternoon and from what Bailey said this is not like him at all.”

“No, it’s not,” Bailey agreed. “He’s shy but he would never do anything that he would think could make someone else uncomfortable.”

I managed to retrieve my phone and called my mom’s cell phone first. Mom picked up on the third ring. “Hello? How’s the shopping going Natalie?”

“It was going fine,” I replied. “Unfortunately we seem to have run into something that I figured the Coven might want to know about.” I quickly recapped what had been going on all afternoon finishing with David falling to the floor and the feeling I had gotten from him.

“You’re right; we needed to know about this. If someone is watching you we will need to start taking more precautions. I’ll call the other Coven members and we’ll send someone over to try to piece together what’s going on. You and the girls stay there; Lessa won’t let anything happen to you.” She disconnected the call and I sat down with the others to wait.

Twenty minutes later Sarah’s mom showed up and she had Genevieve with her. Once Mrs. Freemont had let the pair in I quickly apologized to the red-headed Vampire. “I’m sorry if this interrupted the meeting you and Kay had, I didn’t think they would call you in on this.”

She shook her head and patted my shoulder gently, “It’s alright Natalie, we finished up before Gwen called me. I would have brought Kayla with me but she had already left the house to help out a friend with something. The Coven wants to make sure that this boy is telling the truth when Katherine questions him.”

I would not have wanted to be David when Sarah’s mom woke him up. Not only did she look very pissed off but Genevieve was there too and that woman is gorgeous but you to not want to see her angry. The boy in question opened his eyes and looked very confused. “Where am I?”

“That is not important right now,” the Coven’s Inquisitor said, “What is your name boy?”

“David Kelly,” he replied. Not only was he uncertain where he was but he was starting to look scared as well.

“Why were you following these three girls around and which one were you spying on?” she asked, gesturing to Sarah, bailey and me and ignoring his obvious discomfort. I had never seen her doing her job as the Inquisitor before and it was like she was a totally different person from the sweet and caring woman I had known my whole life. This was a woman with a purpose.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said in a panic as his eyes darted around wildly looking for some kind of help. “I wasn’t following anyone or doing any spying, honest!”

Sarah’s mom sighed and asked, “What is the last thing you remember David?”

“I was studying at the library and I think I fell asleep because I was dreaming.” He tried backing away from her but Lessa Freemont was behind him and was holding him by the shoulders so he wasn’t going anywhere.

The next question was, “What were you dreaming about David?”

“I was dreaming about her,” he said looking at me with a panicked look in his eyes. “I saw her at Rave-olution last night and I was dreaming about her. She was in that red dress, we were kissing and she started to…’

“Okay, that’s all I want to hear about that. Next question please,” I swiftly interrupted as I tried to hide my blush and the fact that I was getting slightly nauseous. I did not need to know that this guy was having wet dreams about me, let alone the content.

Sarah’s Mom, Genevieve and surprisingly David himself all gave me an apologetic look. “Was there anything unusual about the dream? Any voices telling you to do things?” the Inquisitor pressed.

“No nothing like that, it was just a dream; I have dreams like that all the time,“ he said in a rush.

She sighed as she gave me a helpless look and asked, “So there was nothing telling you to spy on these girls or giving you a desire to learn more about them? Was there anything important that you can remember? Some details you may have missed before.”

“No! There was nothing like that she was just a hot girl that I was having a good dream about. I’ve had those types of dreams about a bunch of girls. I n my dream I didn’t need to know anything other than she was hot and she was…”

“And I think it’s time for that line of questioning to end… please.” Now I felt dirty and inadequate, this was shaping up to be a great night. I gave Sarah’s Mom a pleading look and she nodded.

“I don’t think we’re going to learn anything more by questioning him any further anyway. I haven’t detected any magical energy on him but given what you girls have described I would say that someone was definitely using this boy to spy on Natalie. You said he was only looking at Natalie correct?” She asked us all.

Bailey answered for us all. “Sarah and I both left her a couple times to get something and he didn’t seem interested in us.”

Vina left my shoulder and added, “Whoever it was also knew that we were guarding her. They were trying to keep their distance and not draw our attention.”

“There’s not much more we can do here,” Sarah’s mother admitted, “We’ll have to keep a better eye on you though I’m afraid. I want you to make doubly sure that whenever you leave your home that you have your phone, your Pixies and one or more Unseen that you trust with you until we find out what’s going on Natalie. You are not to be left alone anywhere for any reason.”

“Anything else?’ I asked morosely.

“Try to act like nothing is wrong. Be a normal high school girl for a few weeks if you can,” Genevieve advised. “If anything does happen we’ll deal with it then. Your family and friends will be there to look out for you.”

It’s pretty hard to be a normal high school girl when every other day there’s something attacking me, or spying on me or the Sacred wanting to talk to me about something.”

I wouldn’t worry about the last one for a while,” Dandelion provided cheerfully, “Queen Titania will be preparing to host the other Queens in a few weeks so she probably won’t need you for anything until that’s over.”

“What?” I asked before I quickly decided, “No, you know what, at the moment I’m too tired and creeped out to care about whatever Sacred royalty may be coming to the area. I’m just going to hope that for once I don’t get dragged into whatever they have going on.”

“I doubt it will affect anyone here,” Verbina pointed out. “Only the Queens and their entourages will have any involvement and I doubt any of them will leave the Sacred Grove.”

“Good, let them bother one another for once, I have enough problems. Are we done here?” I asked testily.

Sarah’s mother nodded. “Genevieve, I think we can send this boy home now.”

The vampire nodded and looked deeply into David’s eyes. A moment later she was speaking to him in a relaxing tone. “David, you will not remember anything that has occurred here. You will go home from here and when you get there you will remember only falling asleep in the Library. You were asleep there for several hours and when you woke you decided that you had enough studying and should go home.”

When she was done speaking David stood up and Mrs. Freemont let him out of the shop so he could go home. Bailey drove us home and she and Sarah helped me to take all my new clothes up to my room while Genevieve went out to eat and Sarah’s mom went to inform the Coven of what was going on. Sarah and Bailey offered to stay and hang out for a bit once all my clothes were put away so we went to the kitchen and worked together on something for dinner since my Mom and Sarah’s likely wouldn’t be home for a while. Then we settled down to watch a movie and talk about everything that had been going on lately until my Mom came home.

The next few weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day seemed to pass quickly. There wasn’t much going on in the Unseen world during that time and I was relieved as I was pretty much able to settle into the life of a normal teenage girl for a bit. We were being extra cautious though, with the possibility that someone may be keeping tabs on me magically. I still had magic lessons and I kept up with my combat training as well, but other than that and working after school I was able to spend more time relaxing with my friends, getting used to my sudden popularity at school, and preparing for possible trouble ahead.