“Come on kid, let’s see what you got.”

Carmen was outside practicing with Yasmine. She was showing her how to absorb a spell and change it into something different.

“Ready?”

“Yes ma’am.” Yasmin was standing her grounds as she faced off against Carmen.

Carmen releases a stream of ice towards her.

Yasmine catches the ice being sent towards her and concentrated on changing it into water. Carmen told her to think of different ways of changing the spell. So far, she has changed the ice to water. Now she needed to change it again into something she could use against Carmen. Yasmine concentrates and turns the water into fire and redirects it back towards Carmen.

“Good, that was very good Yasmine.” Carmen causes the fire coming back towards her to turn into flowers.

“Now, I’m going to up the ante.” Carmen turns the ice she was sending into a hail storm.

Yasmine smiles to herself. Lily taught her how to protect herself with her magic. She forms a magical shield in front of her to block the hail.

Carmen smiles and redirects the hail storm to attack from her exposed areas.

Yasmine quickly realize what Carmen was up to and created a dome of shielding around her. Then she takes the hail storm and channel it into a funnel and send it back towards Carmen faster than before.

“Oh, that was sneaky. Your dome shield was a good idea, but you should make sure the dome is perfect all the way. I can see problems on certain points of your dome.”

Carmen takes the incoming hail and turn it into a blizzard and directs it towards Yasmine’s shield.

“Look where the snow is hitting your dome. Now watch as I hit those areas with ice.” Carmen directs ice spears towards the weak points in Yasmine’s shield.

Yasmine watches as Carmen’s ice spears penetrate the weak areas of the shield. She images a rounded glass bowl turned upside down to reform her dome.

Carmen had watched while still directing the blizzard towards Yasmine. She watched as Yasmine reformed the dome and redirected her storm back at her. She had to admit the girl had power to spare.

Yasmine turns the blizzard into a mystical energy bands to surround and trap Carmen.

Carmen tried to protect herself from the bands, but they just bypassed her defenses and encircled her body by pinning her arms to her side. Carmen tries to break the bands, but is unable to. She looks towards Yasmine as she lets the dome protecting her drop.

“Neat trick kid. How did you do this?” Carmen was curious about the bands.

“I image unbreakable bands surrounding you and bypassing your shield. The bands appeared just like I image them.” Yasmine was proud of herself.

“Good job, now can you make them disappear?”

“Sure” Yasmine waves her hand and the energy flows back to her.

Yasmine looks where they had been practicing. The area had snow and mud everywhere. Lucky for them that they had put a circle down around the area to contain their practicing.

“I think I need to fix this area or my mother is going to have my butt.”

Yasmine looks at the area and images the land like it was before they started practicing. She let her magical energies out to rebuild and clear the area back to what it had looked like before they started.

“Very good Yasmine. You have restored the land back to what it looked like. Your control is getting better.” Carmen was impress with
Yasmine control. When she first asked Yasmine to do something, her control wasn’t the best, now if she had to do the task she was asked to do. Her control was a lot better.

“Thanks Carmen. Your suggestion helped. Now, I understand what mom and dad were trying to tell me. I did what you suggested and stored some of my magical energies in the crystals mom gave me. Especially the clear quartz and the Smokey quartz crystals. I’m thinking about making a wrist band I can wear that allows me to pull the energy out like a battery and use it.”

“That’s a good idea. That way you’ll always have some magical energy to use.” Carmen was proud of her student so far.

“Now, let’s go and help you mother fix lunch for everyone. Because if I know that bodyguard of mine. He’s sniffing around the kitchen for food.”

“Carmen, how did you end up with the Bloody Claw pack?”

“Me and the current alpha go back a way. He has always looked after me. We met when I was working at a strip club. I wasn’t equipped with what the men there were interested in, so I became a waitress. One night while I was working, I was almost raped right there in the bar. The security bouncer was new and he thought all the girls that were working there were whores. So, he allowed a few men to grab me and pinned me against the table top. Just before they got my shorts down. I was pushed to the floor and Dave was confronting the man that was about to rape me. During their scuffle, they almost stepped on me. The next thing I knew someone kicked the side of my head and knocked me out. When I came too, I was traveling with Dave in his Rv and we were heading towards a motorcycle shop he had brought from a friend of his. He asked me if I wanted a job and I said yes. So, I have been working with Dave since then. Both as the high priestess of my coven and as the shaman for his pack. I even took a knife through the chest for the big lug.” Carmen remembers that day.

A werewolf under the control of an evil fey had controlled of him and he ordered the werewolf to stab Carmen. The reason he did that, was because she could undo what had been done to that were.

“Do you find it strange to be surrounded by Were-Wolves?”

“To be honest with you. I was never afraid of the supernatural. I was always more afraid of the normal people. They scare me more than any supernatural creature can. When I was born, my mother died giving me life. So, I was raised by my aunt who loved me dearly. She always put my needs before anything she did. She didn’t let my strange appearance frighten her or come between us. As I got older my aunt met a guy and I was so happy for my aunt. She had been so busy raising me, she put her own life on hold. Well, at first everything was fine. This guy was nice to me, gave me presents, loved my aunt. He was everything she had been looking for and so they got married.

A couple of months after their marriage. He started asking me to try on different type of clothes and model them for him. I didn’t know any different and so I did it to please him. What I didn’t know the clothes he had me wearing weren’t clothes little boys and girls should be wearing. He had been taking pictures of me and posting them on a child porn site.

Then he had been making me wear my panties he had jerked off in every day. I didn’t know any better, because at the time I wanted to please him because he was my new father and he made my aunt happy. Well, one thing lead to another until my ninth birth day. That’s when the truth came out about what he had been doing to me. My aunt had left to go to work, since my father normally worked from home. Well, he waited till my aunt had left for work and we were alone. He…” Carmen had tears coming from her eyes and the temperature around her got colder.

“You don’t need to finish Carmen.” Yasmine touches Carmen’s arm and frost started to form on it.

“No, I do.” Carmen wipes the tears away and pull back her coldness.

“He raped me and did some serious damage to me. My Aunt had forgotten something important that day and came back home and heard me screaming louder then she had ever heard me. She came to my bedroom and found her husband inside of me while I was laying in a pool of blood. She knocked him out with a chair and rush me to the hospital as fast as she could. According to my aunt, I died on the operating table for a few minutes because of blood lost. The hospital couldn’t match my blood because of my mixed heritage. So, my aunt connected herself to me and gave me her blood. Since genetically she was so close to my mother’s type. My body accepted my aunts blood and they managed to revive me. Now you know why I don’t trust normal people. Inside of all of us are two wolves fighting for control. There’s the evil wolf who wants to hurt and destroy everything and there’s the good wolf. Who only wants to protect and help you grow and become wiser. At least with some supernatural you can see the animal inside of them. However, with normal people you can’t. Because they can hide their intentions.” Carmen couldn’t believe how painful that memory still was after fifteen years.

“Do you blame your aunt for what happened to you?”

“No, I don’t blame her at all. She is always the one person I can go to when I need someone to pick my spirits back-up or to get away for a while. There’s nothing I won’t do for my aunt. All though she did say she hates me now. It seems some of my blood influenced her body. She’s younger then she should be for someone her age and her appearance makes her look like a knockout. Most modeling agencies have called her to represent them as their model. Some of my blood had enter her body during the transfusion and it’s has changed her in subtle ways.” Carmen smiles as they walk. She loved her aunt dearly.

“Its good things are right between you and your aunt. I was lucky to be given a second chance by the spirit of that necklace I bought. It tuned me into what I am today.”

“Your mother did tell me about that necklace. Do you know what happen to it or remember what they spirit looked like?” Carmen stops before they head into the house.

“Ya, I remember what the spirit looks like and what the necklace looks like, but where it went I have no idea about.” Yasmine brings up a magical image of the spirit and the necklace.

“Can you clear the image up some and the necklace please?”

“Sure” Yasmine enhances the spirit image from what she remembers and the necklace as well.

“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.” Carmen couldn’t believe what she was seeing and it fit as well for this coven.

“What?” Yasmine looks towards Carmen with a puzzled look on her face.

“Nothing, I need to talk to your mother.” Carmen walks up the back stairs leading into the house.

Yasmine follows behind her wondering what she saw in those images. She follows Carmen till they find Lydia in the dining room setting the table for lunch.

“Lydia, do you know who sent Yasmine here to you?” Carmen was looking at her friend.

“Yes, I know who sent her to us.” Lydia looks back at Carmen.

Yasmine was standing next to Carmen confused watching her mother and her teacher.

“Are you going to tell her, or should I?”

“Tell me what?” Yasmine still didn’t understand what was going on.

“The spirit you saw that day when you first arrived was the Norse Goddess Freyja and the necklace belongs to her. She’s also the patron Goddess of our coven.”

“So, you’re saying a Norse Goddess did this to me and place me with you?” Yasmine was confused.

“Yes, she must had seen how unhappy you were in your previous life and made sure you got that necklace. Then when you made your decision to be like all the witches you liked so much from your favorite tv shows and movies. She answered mine and Ryders request for a child we could raise and love at the same time. I can’t have children at all Yasmine and neither can Ryder help produce them due to an accident he had been in. She sent you to us to be your parents.” Lydia didn’t know how Yasmine was going to take this news.

Yasmine looks towards Lydia and wonders if she should be mad at her, but then realize her former life wasn’t the best in the world and she did get what she wanted. Ryder, Lily and Lydia have done nothing but welcome her into their lives and treated her like a daughter. She had found out after her first few days here that Lily, Lydia and Ryder were in a three-way marriage. All three loved each other.

Yasmine just walks over and hugs Lydia. She’ll have to hug Ryder and Lilly later. Yasmine feels Lydia returning the hug.

“Aw! Isn’t that sweet.” Justine had heard everything and chose that moment to step into the dining room.

Carmen just smacks him.

After a while all five people sit down to eat lunch after Ryder comes in and cleans up.