Do you remember the saying be careful what you wish fore, you might get it? Well for me I found that out the hard way. Let me tell you how it happened. You see my name is David and I’m only fifteen years old. I enjoy comic books and writing stories about made-up superheroes I create for role playing games. I also enjoy playing these games with a group of friends of mine. We get together on the weekends and play either Marvel superheroes or some other role playing game. Like most teenage boys my age, when I see a sexy female super heroine I drool over her. I wouldn’t mind seeing what she would look like without her costume on. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have their abilities to do the things like they do.

I know it sounds silly, but I think it would be fun to have their abilities and to live their life, instead of my own. You see my life isn’t the best in the world. My parents work all the time and never have time for me. They are more concern about their career then they are of me. Sometimes I wonder why they ever had me. Most of the time I think my parents would have been happier without having me around.
Some of the older kids at school tease me because of how smart and geeky I am. So, I spend a lot of time alone at home by myself. I lose myself in my drawing and writing my stories. Sometimes, I wonder how it would feel to be the opposite gender at times. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a girl, but it seems to me that girls have it a lot easier than boys do. Anyway, I love going to yard sales and thrift stores looking for back issues of comic books and such.

On the way home from school today I spotted a yard sale going on. They had a variety of neat stuff and so I thought I would look around and see what they had. My parents had just given me my allowance just the other day, so I had some money to spend. They had a lot of things that they were selling. Some of them were like antiques and such so; I didn’t find any comic books or games that I was hoping to find.

Instead I found an old necklace that I thought my mother would like. It was dull looking and had a large crystal clear diamond like item in the middle of it. I knew my mother loved old things like this, so I asked one of the people that were selling the stuff how much they wanted for it. They told me I could have it for five dollars. I dug in my pants pocket and handed them a crumble up five dollars bill I had on me. I knew my mother wasn’t going to be home when I got there, but just to be on the safe side. I slipped the necklace into my pants pocket.

I didn’t see my mother’s car when I got home, so I went ahead and headed to my bedroom and took the necklace out of my pants pocket and laid it on my desk and changed out of my school clothes and into some play clothes. I caught a flash of a bright light out of the corner of my eye and looked over towards where it came from, but the only thing I could see was the necklace I had brought for my mother. I walked over and picked the necklace up and examined it. It was a nice piece and would look even nicer once I cleaned it up. I took the cleaning kit out that my mother uses to clean her jewelry and started cleaning it. I had some practice using it, because she would let me help her sometimes. I was hoping I could get it looking nice for my mother.

I found out that once the necklace was cleaned, it was made of silver. It also had several more gems that were grimy, but shined when I cleaned them up. As I turned the huge gem over to examine the other side of it. I notice that there was some sort of weird writing inscribe on the back of the huge gemstone setting. I couldn’t make out what type of writing it was, but it wasn't English. That much I could tell. Some compulsion made me want to put the necklace on. I tried to resist the urge to wear it, but I couldn’t. Whatever was forcing me to wear the necklace was too strong for me. It had a slight glow to it as I slipped it around my neck. As soon as I closed the clasp of the necklace, I felt a strange energy go throughout my body. I could feel it as it penetrated every pore of my body. It felt as soft and warm as it went through my body, causing me to glow. The only thing I could do was just stand there as the strange energy course through my body.

“Choose!”

I close my eyes tightly and try to understand what I just heard.

“What do you mean choose? What am I choosing?” I felt that energy surrounding me swirl inside of my body.

“Choose that which you desire most!”

“Choose that which I desire most?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What was it that I desire the most?

I stood there and tried to think of what I desired the most.

Then out of the blue it hit me. I finally realized what the voice was asking me. It was going to grant my greatest wish. It was going to give me what I desire, but what was the cost for this? What was the voice getting out of this?

“What is the cost for granting my greatest desire?” I wanted to know what I was giving up, to have what it was giving me.

“You’re giving up your current life for a new one. Once the wish is granted, you’ll no longer be you. Your life as you know it, will cease to exist.”

The voice sounded female to me when it spoke.

“What If I don’t want to choose?”

“You have no choice. Once the necklace is placed around your neck you must make a choice. If you don’t choose, then I will change you into the last person that wore me.”

“Why must you change me? What is the reason behind that?” I wanted to know what I was dealing with.

I watched as a female spirit appeared before me. She was beautiful. You could feel the power she posse about her. She had long flowing black hair that fanned out behind her body. Her skin was as white as a porcelain doll and flawless. She was wearing a sheer white gown that silhouetted her body. She looked like one of the Greek goddess of legend. The ones you only read about and think aren’t real. She looks directly at me with her white glowing eyes.

“That necklace you wear is only meant for women. It was made to protect women that have been mistreated by males. As punishment, any man that wears that necklace or anything that is made from it is turned into a woman. That is the curse for which the creator of the necklace placed on it. Any man that has evil intention in his heart to hurt a woman is killed. Those that are pure of soul will be granted their greatest desire. Once the desire is granted, your life will change, for better or for worse, depending on what your desire is.”

I stand there and stare at the woman thinking about her words. Who would I want to be for the rest of my life? She already told me I’ll be changed into a woman.

“Is there a limit to what or who I can be?”

“Yes and No, your choice will determine if it will be granted and what conditions will be placed on it.”

“Fine, I have made my choice.” I look directly at her when I say this. Her glowing eyes don’t change at all.

“What price will I pay for what I want?”

“For the choice you have made, you’ll need to learn how to control the forces you are asking to use and the knowledge to know when to use them. Are you sure you want that? Magic can be a hard thing to learn and use properly. You’ll need to keep the public from finding out about your abilities. No one must know real magic exist. Once this is granted, there will be no changing your mind.”

“Yes, I’m willing to pay the price for my choice.” The choice I made was going to be a new adventure for me in more ways than one. The first way was because I was going to be a fourteen-year-old girl. The second way is because all those years watching my favorite witchy television shows and movies were going to pay off. I will have real magical abilities with a little semi-immortality thrown in as well.

“Very well, your choice has been made and you have been made aware of the conditions. When the change is over, you’ll awake somewhere, where you’ll get the training you’ll need in order to use your gifts. All existence of your past will be erased and everyone that knew you will forget about you.”

“Fine, I’m ready when you…” I didn’t get a chance to finish my statement, before the glow around me got as bright as the sun and every atom in my body busted apart and I lose all forms of feeling.

It was like my spirit was hovering nearby. I could even feel my spirit being reshaped along with my body. So that both were changed at the same time so that they both match if someone was to read my aura. I was totally conscious of the change being done to my body and spirit. It was like I could feel the world around me and the ley lines that surrounded the Earth. I felt the energy increase and then nothing at all.
Blackness surrounded me and then sleep.

I slowly open my eyes and wonder how long I had been out. It looked to be early morning and I was lying face down on some grass. I slowly rise off the ground and stood there looking around. Taking in my surrounding and seeing where the heck I was. The air had a slight chill to it as I felt it against my warm cheeks. I looked down at myself and notice I was wearing an old fashion cloak like the women from the Middle Ages and its hood was covering my head. It surrounded my body keeping me warm from the chill in the air. In addition to the cloak, I had on a matching pair of leather gloves that matched the deep cobalt blue color of the cloak. The clothes I had on underneath the cloak that surrounded me, was a full-length dress of a soft material that was a lighter shade of color of the cloak and a pair of light color leather sandals. The sandals didn’t feel tight around my petite feet.

I knew I wasn’t in my original body any more. I had watched as it exploded and was in the process of being reformed when I blacked out. I felt the weight of something hanging around my neck. I reached up with my leather covered hand to feel what it was. It was in the shape of some sort of bird, but what it was exactly I couldn’t tell just by touch along. I felt another weight on my hip hidden under my cloak. I reached down and felt the handle of some sort of knife resting in a sheath against my waist. I stand there and wonder why I had a knife that felt like it was as long as a bowie knife my friend’s father uses to own?

I turned my attention back to where I was. A light mist covered the ground and it looked like I was in some sort of field or pasture. The clouds in the sky were dark gray and there was the feeling of rain in the air. There were only a few trees spread out in the field to provide cover for the horses I saw off in the distance from me. I couldn’t see any road or fence, so I figure I must be far in someone’s field. I reach up and lay the hood of the cloak back, so it was resting on my shoulders to get a better view. A few strands of my hair fell into my eyes and I notice it was as red as blood. I don’t mean dark red, but bright red. The redness the blood gets when it is carrying oxygen, not the darker red blood gets when it is carrying carbon dioxide or waste from your body. I wonder what else the spirit did to my new body. I could already tell, I was shorter then I use to be and petite as well. I mean an eight-year-old girl could wear the clothes I had on right now. I look around some more and wonder in which direction I should start heading. If there were horses near me, then that meant that there was a house or barn nearby, right?

I start walking east of my position, after putting my hood back up to protect my head from the light chilly breeze that had sprung up. The breeze brought freshness to my sense of smell. It confirmed that I was out in the country and that I was heading in the right direction. There was a hint of wood smoke in the air in the direction I was heading, along with the smell of fresh baked bread. My stomach rumbled and my mouth started watering when I smelled the baked bread. I must be hungry, as I wonder how long I have been out, since that spirit changed me and where she had placed me to get training in the use of the gifts she gave me.

After about thirty minutes of walking, I spotted a house off in the distance. You could see smoke coming up out of the chimney and was three stories tall. It was like something out of the past. It had a brick red tile roof and it looked from where I was to be a creamy white color. It wasn’t of a modern design, but something that looked like something you would find from the old colonial days. There was an old fashion brick red barn just behind and to the right of it. I also spotted several people looking towards me standing on the first-floor porch. They seemed to be watching me as I walked closer to them. There were at least five of them and only two of them were wearing cloaks similar in design to mine. Their hoods were up, so I couldn’t see their faces. The others I could make out as I got closer. There was a huge tall man with dark tanned weather skin standing near one of the cloaked figures. He was a good foot or two taller than the other person he was standing next to. His hair was a dark color and cut in a military style cut. He had on a red flannel shirt and was wearing blue jeans. His face and build is what made me pay close attention to him. He looked like someone who might be a lumber jack or truck driver type of person. He didn’t have a beard, but his face was that of a person who spent a lot of time out in the elements every day.

The other person was a male as well and was shorter than the first one. He had lighter color hair, but wasn’t as built as the first guy. He looked more like my father. He wasn’t as intimidating or threatening as the first guy. His build was average and he had maybe brown or reddish brown hair that came down halfway to his ears. It was style the way my father kept his, which meant business like. The shadow of the porch made his hair look darker then it was. His skin was tanned, but not as tanned as the other guy. He was very observant of me thou. It was like he was watching every move I made. How I stepped and how I moved. He reminded me of a police officer. The way he was dressed was the same style as the way my father dressed on his days off. He had on a dark gray short sleeve t-shirt and blue jeans.
The other person was a woman. Her hair was short and only came down to her shoulders. The hair color was like that of my mother’s hair color dark auburn color. She was watching how I moved as well, but not like the way the guys were. She was observing me the way my teachers in school would. I couldn’t see any of their eyes, so I didn’t know what hers was, but she stood a little shorter then both the guys. She was slim and had a medium sized chest on her. She was only a few inches shorter than the second guy and a good foot, foot and half of the first guy. The two cloaked figures were about her height. Give or take an inch or two. She had lightly tanned skin, like that of someone who spent most of their time indoors. She was wearing a dark blue short sleeve t-shirt that had a scene of a forest with an eagle flying off on it. She was wearing blue jeans as well, with a silver belt buckle.

I stopped a good five feet from the house and look towards them. I could tell all of them were paying close attention to me as well.

“I don’t know how I should introduce myself to you, but I was told that I could receive training for gifts that have been given to me.” I was nervous and a little scared. I didn’t know how I was supposed to speak to these people.

One of the cloak figures steps forward and looks down at me “who sent you to us?”

I try to stop shaking under my cloak and address the person who just spoke to me. The person sounded like she was a woman.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but it was a spirit. I’m not sure what her name was, she never told me. However, she said that she would send me to someone who could help me develop the gifts she was giving me.”

“What do you mean the gifts she was giving you?”

I look towards the shorter guy that had spoken to me.

“She granted me the ability to use real magic. I don’t mean tricks or any sort of illusion. I mean god given magic.” Somewhere in my head, I knew I already posse some skill to use enough magic to show these people.

“Can you describe this woman that sent you to us?”

I look back towards the woman that spoke to me the first time.

“I can do better than that ma’am.” I raise my hands out in front of me and say a few words in a language I knew I never even spoke before. I watched as the image of the spirit I spoke to appears before me and them.

“This is the spirit that sent me here. I just woke-up in your field in that direction” I point off in the direction I just came from.

I stand there and watch as all of them came down a set of stairs to look at the image of the spirit I just made.

The woman with the dark auburn hair looks over at me “you say she granted you the ability to use true magic and then sent you here to be trained by us? Why did she grant you the ability to use magic?”

I look at her and then at all the others who had stopped to look at me as well.

“It might be better if I explain all of this to everyone that should or needs to know all at once. That way I won’t have to explain myself repeatedly.” I was starting to feel tired and my stomach was growling even more.

“Fair enough, what is your name?” The taller gentleman looks at me, like my father use too.

“Yasmin, sir, I don’t have a last name or even a middle name.” I wonder how the spirit came up with that name.

“Well Yasmin, if you promise to obey our rules while you are here. You may come inside and join us for morning breakfast. You can explain everything to everyone tonight at our coven meeting.”

The woman who first spoke to me lowers her hood and looks at me with her piercing gray eyes of hers. I have never seen anyone with gray eyes like hers before. She had a kind, motherly face and looked to be younger then my own mother. I knew my mother was in her late forties, because she had me after she had become a manager at the company she works for now. This woman’s skin was lightly tanned as well and she wasn’t wearing any make-up at all. She was foot taller than me. Her long straight strawberry blonde hair came all the way down to her waist and was braided. I lower my hood as well so everyone could see my face clearly. I watched their reaction, because I haven’t had a chance to see what my new body looked like. The expression everyone had on their face told me one thing. They couldn’t believe how young I looked. I removed my gloves and felt the cool morning air as it hit my warm exposed tanned hands. I already known my hair was blood red and I felt it at the middle of my back.

I followed behind the woman who had been talking to me, followed by the taller older gentleman. Behind him was the other woman who had on the eagle t-shirt, followed by the other woman who had lowered her hood as well and then by the gentleman who had the light brown hair.
I was leaded into an old fashion styled kitchen, where a wooden kitchen table had been set-up for breakfast and escorted to a seat just to the left of the woman I was following. Just as I was taking my cloak off and handing it to the other gentleman, he looks down at my waist and notices the knife there.

“Weapons aren’t permitted at the table.” He holds his hand out for the knife.

“Yes sir.” I pull the knife and sheath off the belt around my waist to hand it to him, when I notice that the handle was made of silver and had the head of a wolf on it. The eyes of the wolf head were rubies and the handle fit the grip of my hand like it had been custom made for it. I made sure to hand him the knife carefully and then took my seat.

We all made small talk around the table and enjoyed the food. Most of the conversion was directed at me. They all wanted to know about where I came from, how I got here and who the spirit was that I showed them. I learned that I was no longer in Richmond, Virginia, but in the northern part of Massachusetts. The woman I was sitting next to was High Priestess Aerona of the Silver Crescent Coven and her husband and High Priest of the coven was named Esras. Their maiden or second Priestess was named Bennu and the other Priestess was named Emuishere and she was the wife of Gahiji. He was the gentleman that took my cloak and knife. Gahiji was Esras second and sort of the guardian of the coven. It was his job to protect the coven. I understood what each of their names meant and how in some ways it suited them.

I look towards Aerona “is there a bathroom with a full-length mirror in it that I could use please?” I wanted to know what I looked like now.

“Yes, you can use the one down stairs. It has a full-length mirror in it.” Aerona looks over towards Bennu “would you mind showing Yasmin where the bathroom is, please?”

“Yes, my priestess.” Bennu gets up out of her chair and looks towards me.

I stand up and follow behind her as she leads me to the bathroom.

“Thank you Bennu, I won’t be long.” I walk into the bathroom and close the door.

I look around the bathroom and notice that the mirror was on the back of the door. I look at my image in the mirror. Looking right back at me was a petite girl that looked to be about ten years old with long bright blood red curly hair that stopped at the middle of her back. She had lightly tanned skin and deep emerald green eyes that looked innocent and youthful. Her eye brows were thinly shape and matched the color of her hair. She had a light splattering of light brown freckles under her eyes that went across the bridge of her nose. Her cheeks had a natural blush look to them and her lips were perfectly shape. The features of her face made her look angelic and made her look like she was of Irish or Scottish ancestry. The dress was floor length and belted around her petite waist by a crafted leather belt with a Celtic cross belt buckle. The dress was a light blue color, where the cloak had been a cobalt blue color. It had silver trim around the collar and around the sleeves of the dress with a deep ruby red phoenix necklace hanging around her neck and resting against her lightly tanned skin. The sandals she was wearing had silver thread lining right above the soles of the sandals and around the opening of the sandals. The colors of the sandals were the same color as her dress.

I stood there stun. The spirit had done an excellent job of taking the image of the character I had created in the superhero’s game I normally play and gave her the prefect look. I lift the dress up to see if everything underneath had been changed as well. I couldn’t believe what I saw underneath my dress. The plumbing that made me a boy was now replaced with the plumbing that made-up a young girl. I had no idea how I was supposed to do anything. I open the door to see if Bennu was still outside waiting on me, but I didn’t see her. I head back to the kitchen and found all of them sitting at the table waiting on me. I stopped at Aerona’s seat and lean in to whisper to her my problem. She turns her head and looked into my eyes to see if I was telling the truth. I felt embarrass asking her for help, but I didn’t know the first thing about being a girl or how they went to the bathroom.

She stands up and takes my petite hand in hers. Aerona looks towards everyone “I’ll be right back. I need to help Yasmin with a little problem.”

We walks back to the bathroom and comes in there with me to tell me what I need to know to do my business. I felt like a child with her explaining everything to me.

Aerona places her hand on my shoulder and looks down at me like a mother looking at her little girl.

“You don’t need to be embarrass, Yasmin. The spirit that changed you, should had at least given you the basics of what it means to be a woman. If you have any more questions, you can come to me and ask me.” She gives me a motherly smile, as she walks out of the bathroom to let me do my business in private.

I stare up at the ceiling in the bedroom I was given as my own. Tonight, had been a very interesting night to say the least. All thirteen members of the Silver Crescent coven showed up for their coven meeting tonight and I had to explain everything that happen to me by the spirit to all of them and why she sent me to them to be trained. I answered all their questions afterwards and even demonstrated some of my abilities to them. I freaked out three of the members by revealing things they didn’t want anyone to know. I also learned that Aerona’s real name is Lydia Ann Quinn and that Esras real name is Ryder Allen Quinn. Bennu real name is Lily Nolan and she doesn’t mind me knowing her real name, mainly because I’ll be under her tutelage to learn the basics. She and Lydia said that once I have the basics down, Lydia would start teaching me more advance stuff. All three of them said for now their names were all I needed to know till the other members trusted me enough with their real names.

Ryder ran the farm here. It had several Apple orchards, strawberries, pumpkins and even blueberries here. He was a horse breeder as well. He was a retired Marine that had been wounded over in Pakistan while fighting the Taliban. Lydia owns a small occult shop and sells occult supplies to different covens and the public. She has real magical abilities like mine and now understands why I was sent to her for training.

Lily is like me and Lydia, but not as strong as the two of us.

She is more of a conduit that can direct and harness magical energies. She can sense where powerful ley lines are. As for the others, I don’t know much about them. The only reason I know about Ryder, Lydia and Lily is we spoke after everyone left the meeting. Some house rules were explained to me. One of those rules were that I wasn’t to use any magic till I have had the proper training. The only time I could practice my abilities was under the supervision of one of them. Ryder told me that the abilities I have are so strong, that I could end up blowing myself up or destroying something on the farm. As for schooling, they were going to home school me for now, till I could control my abilities. Lydia said I needed to learn how to act like a girl since I knew nothing about being a girl. She said that I needed to become comfortable with my new body and how to do the things most girls learn early in their life. Which meant to me that I had to not only learn how to walk, talk and act like a girl, but also about the other things girls my age go through each month, because I had a feeling that I would be starting mine soon. I close my eyes and slowly drift off to sleep.

“God, I hate this.” I rush to the bathroom to change my pad.

“You’ll get used to it Yasmin, I promise.” Lily smiles as she watches me run for the bathroom.

“Easy for you to say, you’ve been a girl since the day you were born and grew-up with this little nuisance. It’s all new to me.” I shut the door and drop my blue jeans and underwear, so I could change my pad.

My period started two weeks after I arrived here. Lydia hadn’t even gotten finish showing me how to get ready in the morning before this problem arrived. I couldn’t believe how bitchy and cranky I got since it came on. I change the pad for a fresh one and clean up afterwards. I get redress and head back out to the kitchen were Lily was waiting for me.

She’s been doing my home schooling, while Ryder was out doing farm work and while Lydia was running her shop. Lily was patient with me and I really like that about her. She knew how hard it was for me to get use to my new situation. We worked for a little while longer on the math I had to do today. Once that was done, we headed down stairs to the practice room that Lydia and Ryder built for me to use to practice my abilities. So far so good, I haven’t blown anything up that I wasn’t supposed to. Today, Lily was teaching me how to form what I wanted my magic to do and how to direct it.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Lily coughs to clear the smoke she inhaled.

“I didn’t know that it was going to do that.” I was coughing along with her. The fireball I had formed and caused to explode downstairs had filled the room with smoke.

Thank goodness for the wards Ryder and Lydia put up to contain any spells I cast downstairs or the whole house would be filled with smoke right now.

“Maybe next time I should wait till we practice outside to try anything like that again.” I collapse down in a chair in the kitchen.

“I think you’re right. We better let the practice room air out, before we go back downstairs to clean-up.” Lily looks over towards me when she says that.

I get up and walk over towards the cabinets and get down two glasses and fill them up with ice water.

“Here you go Lily.” I hand her one glass as I sit down with my glass and drink some of the ice-cold water.

Lily looks at me after drinking some of her water “do you regret being changed?”

I take a sip of my ice water and then look at Lily “not really. I didn’t have much choice in the matter Lily. It was either I choose what form I took or the spirit did. She said that she would turn me into the last person who owned the necklace.”

“But you choose to have magical abilities and such, why?” Lily takes another sip of her water.

“Because, I have always wonder what it would be like to posse real magic and do the things I’ve seen some of my favorite actors and actresses do or in some of my favorite television shows and movies.” I take another sip of my water and swish it around inside my mouth to rinse the taste of the smoke out of it.

“Well, I hope you’re ready for the rest that comes along with having real magical abilities kiddo. The world you have become part of is a whole lot bigger then you realize. There are things out in the world that are dangerous to mankind and sometimes we have to get involve either to stop them or act as emissaries.” Lily finishes up her ice water.

“Okay, that was something I didn’t know about. What exactly is it that I have to worry about?” I look towards her now and wonder what I have gotten myself into.

“Right now, the only thing you need to worry about young lady is learning how to control your abilities and how to act like a proper lady. Once you master them, then we’ll let you know more about the other things you need to worry about. You still carry yourself sometimes like a boy and act like one as well at times.” Lily just looks at me with a serious look on her face.

“I know, I know. Lydia has been saying the same thing to me as well. It’s just hard to overcome fourteen years of being a guy to learning how to act like a normal ten year old girl.” I close my eyes and try to remain calm. My emotions were playing havoc with me.

“Well, let’s go downstairs and clean the practice room up. It should be cleared out by now.” Lily gets up and heads towards the stairs that lead downstairs to the basement.

I follow behind her watching how she walks, so I could copy her style of walking. It still felt strange to be a girl, but I was starting to like it.

We spent about an hour and half cleaning up the practice room and then headed back upstairs to fix lunch for everyone. Today’s lunch was a homemade soup I got to make from scratch this morning. Lydia and Lily took me grocery shopping yesterday and let me pick out all the ingredients for the soup yesterday. I got too met a lot of people who knew Ryder, Lily and Lydia. Those who ask who I was, we told them I was Lydia’s niece that came to live with her, because my mother passed away. We weren’t lying exactly. When Ryder searched my cloak, he found a hand-crafted fancy leather bound case in a secret pocket in the cloak with a birth certificate, medical records, social security card and a letter saying Ryder and Lydia were my legal guardians, since I was still under age. There was a death certificate in there with the names of my real parents on it. We did some more digging and found out that they had died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. I had a bank account in town in my name and was allowed a couple of hundred dollars every month from another account I couldn’t fully touch till I was twenty-one years old.

There was a check with Ryder and Lydia’s name on it so that they could buy any clothes and items I would need. So, Lydia, I and Lily spent three days buying me a complete wardrobe and other items I would need or wanted. I had responsibilities around the farm I had to complete every day. We also found out that the cloak and gloves I arrived in would change color to match whatever outfit I had on. Lily brought me a few more cloaks like the one I had that were non-magical.

As for the knife that had been on my waist. We found out that it was silver and titanium mixed blade, meant to kill any supernatural that was allergy to silver or iron. The blade itself was enchanted to produce flames around it. So, I could kill any creature that could only be killed by fire. The magic of the knife only responded to me. No one else could use the magic of the blade. We also found out that I could have another one appear if I needed it. I could make a total of four knives appear and once I didn’t need them any more they would merge back with the original.

I stir the soup and ladle some into a huge bowl we could take from to fill our bowls at the table. Lily puts a basket of fresh baked bread she made this morning on the table and a dish of honey butter, which I have become addicted to now. I listen as Ryder comes up the back steps that lead to the kitchen.

Just as the back door opens “clean your boots off before you come in dad.”

I stop and look towards the back door with Ryder standing there looking at me with a surprised look on his face. I couldn’t believe I just called Ryder, dad. I didn’t know why I did it, but it felt right for some reason.

Lily looks over towards me when she hears me say that as well and a smile appears on her face.

“You heard your daughter Ryder. Clean the mud off your boots before you step into this kitchen.” Lily gives Ryder a teasing smile.
Ryder steps back outside and knock the mud and dirt off his boots. He couldn’t believe Yasmin called him dad. He was still getting use to the fact that she was here and that she had been sent to him and his wife. It didn’t bother him at all that she called him dad. Actually, it made him feel proud. He steps back inside the kitchen after he knocks all the dirt from his boots.

I watched as Ryder stepped back out onto the back porch. I still couldn’t believe I called him dad, but it felt right to me. In the past two weeks since I arrived here he’s been more of a father to me, than my birth father has ever been. I finish setting the table for lunch and when Ryder comes walking back in I watch him to see if he dislikes me calling him dad.

Ryder walks over and just ruffles my hair.

“You can call me dad or father any time you want to Yasmin.” He continues over to his seat and sits down.

I just smile and start filling my bowl up with the soup I made. We make small talk at the table about things that needed to be done around the farm and the upcoming Halloween party we were going to put on this year. I already knew a little bit about Halloween about how it was the celebration for the dead and how the barrier between us and the dead is the thinnest around this time of year, but I didn’t know it was also the day that most Supernatural's came out and mingle with the public.

Ryder and Lydia were going to allow me to attend the Samhain celebration the coven did with the other covens in the area. Both of them told me to be careful and not reveal too much about myself to the others. Most of the other covens were made up of actual witches that posse true magic and then there were the ones that didn’t, but posse other types of gifts. Some covens didn’t posses any magic at all, but followed the Wiccan tradition. When lunch was done, Lily and I cleaned up the kitchen, while Ryder or I should say dad now went back to work out on the farm. Lily was going to work on the quit she has been making since I got here. I grab my jean jacket and head out to the pasture to get my horse and saddle him up.

He was a beautiful looking stallion. Ryder and Lydia gave him to me to ride when it was discovered I didn’t know how to ride. They taught me how to ride. We found out that I had a natural talent for horseback riding. I whistle for him and watch as he comes running up to the fence. He was a solid dark brown color except for a four-inch strip that ran down the middle of his nose. I saddle him up and head out for a nice relaxing ride.

Ryder, Lily and Lydia owned a total of two hundred acres of land. At least fifty acres was used for growing apples, peaches, blueberries, hay, strawberries and pumpkins. Lily and Lydia had a greenhouse where they grew all sorts of herbs and flowers. The other hundred and fifty acres were used for raising horses and cows. It gave them plenty of room to roam. The grove where the Silver Crescent coven did their rituals and meetings during the warm months was just twenty feet behind the barn. The path that leads to it is hard to find, unless you knew where to look.

Yasmine was heading out towards where she woke-up when she first arrived here. It has become her favorite spot on the whole property. It allows her to see nothing but land all around her. You couldn’t even see the fence or the road from the spot. She sat there on top of Charlie and just looked around. She takes a deep breath and fill her lungs with fresh air. There was never anything like this back in Richmond, Virginia.

Everything here smelled so fresh and cleaned. Yasmine felt Lydia’s presence as soon as she crossed over the boundary of the property. She could also feel three other presences with her. Yasmine turns Charlie in the direction where the road is and rides down towards the fence that separates the driveway from the pasture. The drive way cuts right through the middle of the property and connected it to the main road.

Yasmine waves at Lydia when she gets close enough and follow her silver suv back to the house.

“Welcome home, mom.” Yasmine stops Charlie a little away from the suv. She had found out he doesn’t like cars at all.

Lydia just looks up at her daughter and smiles. She liked being called mom.

“Where’s your father at?”
“I think he’s in the back of the orchard with the rest of the crew. Do you want me to go and get him for you?” Yasmine smiles down at Lydia.

She liked thinking of her as her mother, just like she liked thinking of Ryder as her father.

“Yes, tell him that Lady Blair, Lady Clara and Lady Moria are with me and if he could come up and join us in the living room. Also, where is
Lily?” Lydia knew where her husband was. She could feel him through their bond. She figures this would give Yasmin something to do.

“She’s on the side porch working on that quilt she’s been making, mom.” Yasmine gives Lydia a smile when she called her mom.
Lydia notices Yasmin’s smile “okay, go fetch your father please.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Yasmine turns Charlie around and head towards the back part of the orchard, where she knew Ryder was.

Yasmine spots Ryder or she should say dad helping one of the laborers that work for them.

“Dad, mom wants to know if you could come up to the house. Lady Blair, Lady Clara and Lady Moria are up there right now with her.” She had no idea who they were.

Ryder looks up at Yasmine when he hears her call him dad again and listens to what she said.

“I’m on my way, Yasmine.” He looks towards the guy he was helping and tells him to finish up this row and do as much as the next row before they leave today.

Yasmine watch as her dad heads over to his four-wheeler and drives back towards the house. She heads off out towards the pasture and spend some time riding, before she needs to head back to the house to help fix dinner tonight. Yasmine was lucky, because her chores are easy. All she had to do was clean the stalls in the barn each morning and feed the horses. She also took care of the tack room as well. She feed the cows and milk them if they need milking. Lily normally helps her with the milking. She collects the eggs from the chickens and fixes breakfast along with her mother helping her. Lily and her shared the lunch duties, because her dad was normally out in the orchard taking care of it or doing other things around the farm. Yasmine and her mother do the laundry together. If the weather is nice, like it has been for the past few weeks, they hang everything outside on the clothes line. If the weather is bad, they take them upstairs to the attic and hang them up there to dry. The house duties were split between the three of them, because her father is always working outside. Yasmine has the bathrooms, the living room, and the study to keep clean. Her mother does the kitchen and her father’s office, the dining room, the coven room and Yasmine’s practice room. Lydia and Ryder reinforce the protection wards on the room, so none of Yasmine’s magic leaves that room or blow her up. Lily does the library, the den, the sewing room, the spare bedrooms and her office. She runs an on-line quilt and reenactment clothing store.

Yasmine stops and look at the fence that separated their property and their neighbor’s property. There was a broken broad on it that she would have to tell her dad about. Yasmine turns Charlie in the direction that the fence went and followed it all the way down towards the road, where it began. They lived out in the country, away from the city and the roads back here were quiet. Every once in a while you would see a car or truck, which was why it seemed suspicious that a black suv was sitting on the side of the road not that far from the driveway entrance to the property.

“Yasmine wonders who or what they are?” She sat there on top of Charlie and watch the black suv. She knew they couldn’t see her, because she was hidden by a few trees that grew next to the road. The fence went around them, because they were part of their property.
Yasmine closes her eyes and point her hands at the suv. She wanted to know who or what they were and the spell she had in mind would let her know. She forms the spell in her mind like Lily taught her and sends it towards the black suv.

What the spell did is let her hear what they were saying inside the van.

“Are you sure that the people here are witches?”

“Yes, I’m sure. One of them owns an occult store in town and her husband runs this farm. The couple is the High Priest and High Priestess of the coven that meets here. The other woman that lives here owns an on-line business that specializes in homemade quilts and reenactment clothing. We know she is a member of their coven, because she has been with them from the beginning. What about the girl we saw last week? How does she fit in with them?”

“I don’t know. She’s an unknown variable. We haven’t been able to learn much about her past, because she is home schooled here and what we do know is that she is passing herself off as their niece. We did a background check and it’s true that Lydia Quinn has a sister, but there’s no mention of her having any children the girl age. She looks like she is about ten years old, so it’s hard to say.”

“Can we get someone out here to get close to her and find out about her?”

“We’re working on it. Right now, we’re having problems out west with the supernatural community because one of the HSL agents went to the other side and told them all our secrets. All our resources are stretched thin right now. That’s why we’re only doing recon and avoiding all possible contact with this group.”

Yasmine opens her eyes and think about what she just heard. She needed to get back and tell her mom and dad, but she was going to make it, so these guys wouldn’t get far. Yasmine concentrates on their back tires and give her hands a little flick. Their rear tires exploded like a hand grenade. Yasmine turns Charlie around and rush back to the house to tell her mom and dad what she just learned. She knew her mother was going to know she used magic, because any magic used on their property is automatically reported to her mom and dad. Yasmine’s magical energies have a unique signature to it, so they will know she just used magic.

Yasmine urges Charlie on and as they got closer to the house, she saw her mom and dad come rushing out to the porch.
Lydia looks towards Yasmine with a stern look on her face “Okay, young lady explain why you just blew something up.”

“I didn’t blow anything up mom. Well not exactly, per say. There’s a black suv parked on the side of the road about a quarter of a mile down from our entrance with four guys inside and they were talking about you, dad, me and Aunt Lily.” Yasmine stayed seated on Charlie’s saddle.

“What do you mean they were talking about us?” Ryder looks towards Yasmine when he asked that question.

“I used a little spell to see who they were. It allowed me to hear their conversion and they knew everything about you, mom, me and Aunt Lily.
Well, not everything about me, but they knew a lot about you, Aunt Lily and mom and about the coven. They mention that they were only allowed to do recon right now, because their resources are stretch thin because of something that happened with a group called the HSL with one of their agents and the Supernatural's out west.” Yasmine felt a little tired from casting those two spells. She still hasn’t built up the reserve most spell casters have.

Lydia looks towards Yasmine “go put Charlie’s tack away and come inside and tells us everything that happen.” She then turns towards Ryder.

“Why don’t you go and peek at what our daughter did.”

“I’ll make it look like I’m heading to the store to get supplies.” Ryder leans forward and places a kiss on his wife.

Yasmine walks Charlie back to the stalls to cool him down and put his tack away. She saw her dad kiss her mom, before heading towards his pick-up truck and head out towards the back entrance.

Once Yasmine was done with Charlie, she heads inside to tell her mom everything they said and what she did as well. The three ladies that arrived with her mother listened to what she tells her mom. Yasmine looks at them and her mother afterwards.

“Mom, who are those men and why do they know so much about us and what is the HSL as well?” Yasmine sits down on the floor in front of her mother.

The three ladies look towards her mother and then back towards Yasmine.

“The HSL is known as Human Supreme League. They are the sister organization of a group called the Hunter Organization. Both organizations serve the church and hunt down supernatural creatures and groups like us. They believe that the world would be better off without our kind in it. They were why so many witches were burn in Europe during the witch trials and then over here in America in Salem. They staged the whole event, so they could track down and kill witches and other supernatural creatures of the time. The Organization has suffered some major setbacks, but they still won’t stop coming after us. That’s why I was concern about you. They will kill you and they don’t care if you’re a child or an adult.”

Yasmine could see the concern in her mother’s eyes for her. It made her feel loved. Yasmine real mother never looked at her like that.

“I promise not to do anything again mom.” Yasmine meant what she said to her mother.

She gets up and walks over and sits next to her mother. Lydia and the other three women continue their conversation about the upcoming Halloween party and the ritual afterwards. Yasmine sits quietly by her mother’s leg and listen to the conversion.

“Well, Yasmin was right. They were members of the Hunter Organization. One of their other members showed up to help them out.” Ryder says as he comes walking into the living room thirty minutes later.

He looks over towards Yasmine “you, young lady need to be a little bit more careful.”

“Oh? What did she do?” Lydia looks over towards her husband.

“She nearly blew the back of the suv off. The tires and rear axle were lying in the middle of the road.” Ryder looks down at Yasmine.

Yasmine cheeks turn red from embarrassment.

“I thought I only used a little bit of power. I didn’t know I blew their rear axle off.” Yasmine shift uneasy next to her mother’s legs, where she had sat down.

“I think you need to practice a little more on control, sweetie.” Her mother just pats her on the shoulder.

“It was as she said. They were doing recon work. I waited till they left to search their suv and found the equipment and their notes they had on us.” Ryder walks over and sits down in his favorite chair.

Yasmine looks at him and then lay her head against her mother’s leg. The rest of the afternoon is spent talking about security for the Halloween party and where the ritual was going to be conducted on the property.

It’s was raining the next day when Yasmin got up early. Normally, she didn’t get out of bed till eight thirty, but this morning she woke-up at six o’clock. Yasmin heads to the bathroom to do her morning business, which is a different routine for her now. Like the fact that
She needs to sit down to relieve herself, instead of trying to aim half asleep with a major stiffy. Once she was done doing her morning business, she heads downstairs. Her mother and father were in there already drinking their morning coffee. She walks over and give each of them a good morning hug, before taking a seat and resting her head on the table. Her curly red hair covered her head like a mop. Her mother gets up and walks over to the refrigerator and pours a tall glass of milk and brings it over to her.

“Here you go sweetie.” Lydia places the glass of milk near her.

Yasmin lifts her head up off the table and reach for it. She takes a couple of sips of it and set it back down on the table. Now she was brought up on milk that you brought in the store. The milk they drunk at the house is raw milk that has come directly from the cow itself. The taste and texture is totally different. They only have a few cows and they keep their stalls and everything totally clean, so the milk is safe to drink directly from them.

“I put your rain boots outside on the porch by the door, Yasmin. Your rain jacket is hanging up in the closet.” Lydia looks at her poor baby who was barely awake right now.

“Thanks mom.” Yasmin looks at her mother and take another sip of her milk.

Afterwards she gets up and walk over towards the refrigerator and grab the milk again and get a bowl and her favorite cereal down out of the cabinets and head back over towards her seat and fix herself a bowl of cereal.

“Do you think those men are going to come back again?” Yasmin looks at her parents to see which one of them was going to answer my question.

“I doubt it sweetie. They know their cover was blown yesterday when you blew their rear axle off. Since they didn’t see you, it’s a good chance that they will think we are aware of them. I’m just curious why they have taken an interest in our coven. We have always been low key about our activities.” Lydia takes a sip of her coffee while she thinks about what she just said.

“Could it be because of me?” Yasmin looks at her mother when she says that.

“I don’t know why. You look and act like any normal ten-year-old girl, even if your fifteen years old. The only thing that is different about you is your hair color, but that could be just hair dye. I’ve seen some teenage girls do that to their hair. I don’t think it’s you, sweetie. There has to be another reason why they are watching us.” Lydia takes another sip of her coffee.

Ryder has been thinking the same thing. Why have they taken a special interest in their coven?

“Could it be because of what that one guy, said about one of their agents defecting too our side? Maybe they think we might act against them because of the information that agent gave the group it defected too?” She was thinking this was starting to sound more and more like a spy movie.

“That could be a possibility. However, we don’t know anything about an agent going over to the other side. Did they mention any names or anything about this agent when you listen into their conversation yesterday?” Ryder looks towards me.

Yasmin look towards her father when he asks her “no sir. They just said it was out west and that they were a member of the HSL group out there.”

“I’ll contact the heads of the different supernatural’s groups in the area and see if they might know. If the Hunter organization or HSL organization is getting ready to take any sort of action against us, then we need to know why, besides the standard prejudices stance they normally take.” Ryder finishes his coffee up and looks at his wife.

“Do you want me to ask Larry and Carol to come out to the shop with you today?” Ryder was worried that the Hunter’s might attack his wife.

“I called Carol last night before I came home to see if she would like to work today. She’ll be up there with me. I’ll tell her what is going on and we’ll play it by ear.” Lydia leans in and places a kiss on her husband cheek.

Yasmin sits there and just watch her new parents. Her old parents never showed this type of affection towards each other much.

“So? Does this mean I’m forgiven for what I did yesterday?” Yasmin looks at both her parents hoping they will forgive her.

“Yes and no young lady. I want you to spend a few extra hours for the rest of the week working on control. If your magics are like what you told us when you first arrived, then that would mean they are tied to your emotions and since you are having your monthly cycle. You’ll need to learn how to have better control when your emotions are at the extreme like they are right now.” Lydia just smiles at her adopted daughter.

“Now I understand how Piper Halliwell felt on Charmed.” Yasmin leans her head back and then look towards her parents.

“You’re the one who model your abilities after a television show and the other witchy movies you like so much.” Lydia gives her a teasing smile.

“I didn’t know any better mom. I didn’t think any of this was real. I always thought it was fiction, like superheroes and such.” She didn’t know any more.

Lydia smiles at her adopted daughter “well now you know better. At least the spirit had the knowledge to send you to us to get trained properly.
I also think at the same time, it was answering a prayer for us at the same time, by sending us a child that we can be parents too. Because from what you told us of your former life, you needed parents that loved you and wanted you.” Lydia gets up and walks around the table towards her adopted daughter.

Yasmin wipes a tear that was starting to slide down from her eyes when she says that. It was true. She wanted a true family. One that care about her and would love her, not one that thought she was a pet or a burden to them.

Lydia wraps her loving arms around her and pulls her close to her body.

“You’ll always know love in this house and with us sweetie, I promise that.” She places a kiss on Yasmin’s cheek and just holds her.

Yasmin leans her head against my mother’s shoulder and wipe away a tear that had started to slide down her cheek.

“Alright, now finish your breakfast and start on your morning chores.” Lydia ruffles her daughter’s hair and head to where her coffee was.

Yasmin just smiles and finish up her breakfast. Afterwards she heads back upstairs and put on her work clothes and grab her rain jacket and put her rain boots on and tend to the animals. She’s lucky she gets to work in the barn. It is pouring outside right now. It’s like someone turn on a faucet and left it running. It doesn’t take her long to clean the stalls or put fresh hay in them, after checking them to make sure there were no worms or mold.

Yasmin stands at the door opening and look out into the pasture and watch as the rain continues to pour down from the clouds. Wondering if the choice she has made was the right one.

Yasmin knew there was no going back. That necklace she brought was nowhere in her clothes and such. Even her own silver Phoenix necklace was enchanted with magic for her. She had examined the back of the necklace to see if that same writing was there, but it wasn’t. Her necklace looked like it had been made by a master jewelry maker. The design was in an old-world style design, nothing modern about it. It was made of pure silver and had deep ruby red eyes. She normally doesn’t wear it every day, because it tends to get in the way at times, but she does wear it.

Yasmin stands there and just watch the rain as it comes down. She could see all the way down the long drive way that lead to the road. If a sniper set his equipment up, that would be the perfect place. There were trees in the way on either side of the property that didn’t give you a clear shot to the house, but the drive way gave you one. You could hit someone like her standing in the open doorway or someone going up the front steps. Once they were on the porch, they were protected by the magical wards the house had on it.

That was why the coven members when she first arrived stayed on the porch at first. They knew they were protected and she couldn’t have hurt them. Yasmin skipped back to the back steps and stay outside on the pouch. The rain felt nice and the porch was one of those wrap around types. It even had a swing that you could just sit and watch the rain as it came down. She sits down on the swing and close her eyes and extend her senses outwards away from her. She could feel the magic that the coven used to cleanse and protect these grounds and the house. Also, there was something else, just at the boundary of the property. Something didn’t feel right. She forms a red small bird in her hands and then guide it towards the boundary of the property.

It was weird looking through something else’s eyes, but it allowed her to extend her range. She watches as the bird banks and soar, which is unusual for a bird to do while in a down pour. Something wasn’t making sense out here. She causes the bird to fly a couple more miles away from the property and spot what she was looking for. It was another black van monitoring them again. Yasmin have the bird land on top of the van and listen in on what was being said inside the van.

“The rain is making it difficult to monitor their conversation. We’re getting to much background noise. The girl looks to be just sitting on the porch meditating.”

“What do you mean just meditating?”

“She’s just sitting on the swing with her eyes close cross legged and looking towards the pasture. There was a red glow in her hands earlier, but it’s not there now.”

“We need to get out of here. She’s sent a scout out to look for us.”

“How would she know we are out here, Smith?”

“You’re new, aren’t you?”

“Yes, why?”

“She’s a witch in training, stupid. It’s the first thing they learn how to do, besides summoning a familiar to them.”

“We don’t know that. She hasn’t demonstrated any magical powers.”

This was a voice Yasmin hasn’t heard before talking now. The others seem to know more about her or what was going on.

“If she is seeking this coven out for training, then that means she has magical abilities.”

“We don’t know that. She could be like that blind girl that is the daughter of the group leader of our southern branch.”

“She’s not. Plus, there’s no record of her anywhere. We haven’t been able to dig anything up on a girl like her. You would think that someone with bright blood red hair would stand out. That hair color isn’t humanly possible.”

“Maybe she’s a half-breed? Part Fae and part human, we know children of Fae blood lines can have unusual hair color and eye color.”

“True, but normally there would be some sign of her Fae parent. This girl isn’t showing any.”

“It doesn’t matter, we’re leaving now.”

Yasmin watches as the van drives off away from the property. She summons her little scout to her and open her eyes once it lands on her lap.

“Now I wonder who they were referring to when they were talking about me?” Now Yasmin’s curiosity was up. She’ll have to ask her parents about what she just heard.

“Mom?” Yasmin went into the house looking for Lydia.

“I’m in here sweetie.” Lydia had been in the living room reading a book.

“Mom, what do you know about a special blind girl down south being the daughter of someone?” Yasmin was curious who this person was they were comparing her to.

“Where did you hear about that?” Lydia closes her book and look towards Yasmin.

“Hear about what?” Lily had walked in on part of the conversations.

“Yasmin was asking me about Angela. Cassandras new adopted daughter.” Lydia looks towards Yasmin.

Lily turns to face Yasmin “why would you want to know about Angela?”

“Because we had visitors again and they mention something about part fae and part human having my hair color. Than they were comparing me to this girl you’re asking me about. They said she was the blind daughter of their operative down south.” Yasmin walks over to her favorite chair and sit down.

“Angela used to be the daughter of a Preacher in a town called Sulfur Springs. Her parents are members of the Hunter organization whose job it is to eliminate people who are consider freaks in the churches eyes. They were the ones working behind the scenes of the Vatican church to eliminate witches. They started the witch trials and when the colonies started forming over here they instigated the Salem witch trails here in Massachusetts. The Hunter organization has two branches in it. The first one is the one that wants to see anything that is unnatural like supernatural, people who posse psionic abilities, people who can weld real magic like us or are part fae and part human. There are rumors of demi-gods from the old pagan gods still walking among us as well that the Hunter organization would like to see gone. Because they feel everything I just mentioned goes against god will and must be destroyed. Now, their sister side is different. They try to help train and protect those I just mentioned. They believe that the charter of the Hunter organization has become corrupted since it was first formed back in the middle ages. They also believe the Vatican is responsible for the corruption of the Charter. The church has always tried to control people, countries and Kingdoms through religion.”

“There are real Fae beings out there?” Yasmin couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, there are real Fae creatures and beings out there.” Lydia knew of one that was part Frost Fae and human. She meant her once at a Pagan gathering.

“So why were they comparing me to this girl?” Yasmin was curious.

“Well Angela is unique in the fact that she possesses three psychic abilities. The other thing is she has a very special familiar protecting her as well. On top of that she was the daughter of that preacher in Sulfur Springs. Now she is the adopted daughter of Cassandra and her husband after she left her parents to find them. She needed help with her abilities. She needed them to train her in the use of her abilities, just like you were sent to us for training. The draw back to all her abilities is she is blind and that was caused by her parents. They made her drink contaminated holy water that resulted in the loss of her sight. They thought that by making her drinking holy water she would stop hearing voices because it was coming from the devil. They didn’t understand their daughter was born with a special gift.” Lydia met her once when they went to visit Cassandras coven.

“So, this Hunter organization and HSL organization want to kill people like us?” Yasmin looks to Lily and Lydia.

Both nod their heads yes to her question.

“Why doesn’t the Government do something about this?”

“Where do you think they get their support from? If the government can prove magic really exist; do you know much you would be force to use your abilities to make the government more powerful? They already have been experimenting with breeding and improving psychic powers by using the studies done by the Germans during the Second World War human experiments. Luckily, most of the people they had weren’t very powerful and managed to fool their handlers. However, the government keeps track of them and who they have children with and do blood test and other things to see if those people are breeding a more powerful psychic. That’s why you were told to keep your magical abilities hidden and quiet.” Lydia was starting to see a problem forming. Both organizations were keeping an eagle eye on her and her coven.

Yasmin wonders if the stories of vampires and were-wolves were real.

“Lily, are the stories about vampires and were-wolves real?” Yasmin wanted to know.

Lily looks towards Lydia since technically she was her Priestess and Yasmin adopted mother.

Lydia nods her head yes to the unspoken question.

“Yes, they both exist. However, they aren’t friendly towards people like us. There are only a few powerful ones that will treat us as equals. One of our kind did marry a were-wolf Alpha, but she was half Fae and half-human. Her family kept marrying and remarrying into and out of Fae and were-wolf lines. There are even were-cat clans out there as well. Only one Native American clan has ever married into that family that has married and remarried into Fae and were-wolf clan. That’s the Vreeland clan and they have were-wolf, were-cat and Fae in their bloodlines.”

“God, what have I gotten myself into. This is sounding more and more like Charmed, Wolf Lake, True Blood and other supernatural series all thrown together. No wonder that spirit asked me if I was sure when I asked to have magical abilities. I should have my head examine.” Yasmin couldn’t believe what she has gotten herself into.

“Sorry Yasmin, but you did ask. I was hoping this would never come up because it is a lot to deal with. All you can do now is to learn as much as you can and hope you never run into any of them. They aren’t all bad. Some groups are friendly and once they make you friends of the pack or pard you’re their friend for life. Also, they try to keep what they are secret. If the truth got out, there really would be problems.” Lydia knew the vampires were talking about coming out of the coffin to the public.

Yasmin gets up out of her chair and walks over and curls up on Lydia’s lap. She just wanted Lydia to hold her.

Carmen was on her way to talk with the Priest and Priestess of The Ancient Oak Coven. Lately they have been having problems with the HSL and The Hunter organization. Justine had come with her to make sure nothing happened to her. Not that she couldn’t protect herself, but because Dave was taking no chances on her getting hurt again.

“So, did you inform Lydia and Ryder that you were coming?” Justine was stuffing his mouth with a chill dog he had picked up at their last stop.

“What is it with you and chill dogs?” Carmen hasn’t been able to figure out Justine additions to chill dogs.

“I luv chilly dogs, Snowflake.” A mischievous look appears on his face.

Carmen just shakes her head “I hate it when you call me Ice Queen, Snowflake, Ms. Frost and so on. Also, to answer your question, yes I called and informed them I was on the way.” Carmen was driving Dave’s Jeep Wrangler and didn’t want to have an accident.

“You only hate my little nick names for you when you are tired and or when you know they fit you.” Justine stuff another chilly dog into his mouth.

“I swear if you start farting from eating all those chilly dogs. I will shove a butt plug into you.” Carmen couldn’t believe Justine was on his eighth chilly dog already.

“Promises, promises” Justine stuffs another chilly dog into his mouth.

Carmen watches as the farms goes by and figure they will be pulling into the Quinn’s ranch around eight p.m.

“Mom, why are we setting the table with two extra places?” Yasmin had been asked to set the dining room table for dinner. They were eating a little later than normal.

“Because were expecting two guests from the Bloody Claw Pack tonight, Yasmin. Their shaman and her body guard will be arriving soon.” Lydia had gotten a call from Carmen informing her that her and her body guard were coming out to talk to them about some information pasted onto them about the HSL and Hunter organization.

Yasmin sets the table and brought out two pitchers of tea. She was allowed soda occasionally, but mostly she either drunk water, tea or juice.

Lily brings out a huge salad bowl filled to the brim of freshly made salad. She looks over towards Yasmin.

“Did you bring the salad bowls in kiddo?”

“No one told me we were having salad, Aunt Lily”

Yasmin rushes into the kitchen and grab the salad bowls and forks for everyone. She puts the bowls in front of every one’s plates and add the salad forks to the silver ware already on the table. No sooner does she gets done setting the table again.

“Yasmin, go answer the door. Our visitors have arrived.”

“Yes ma’am.” Yasmin heads towards the front door and opens it just as a middle age man dress in dark blue jeans and a light blue shirt and wearing a black cowboy hat. Behind him stood a woman with a pale complexion, baby blue eyes and shoulder length auburn red hair.
“Hi there youngster, I’m Justine Baker and the walking Ice Queen behind me is Carmen Rogers. I believe your folks are expecting us.” A friendly smile appears on Justine’s face.

“Hi I’m Yasmin. Mom said that you would be arriving. Please, come in.” Yasmin steps aside to let her parent’s friends in. When the red hair lady walks by her, it feels like cold air just breezed by her.

Yasmin shivers when the coldness hits her warm skin.

Carmen had notice the bright red hair girl shivered when she walked by.

“Sorry about that kiddo. I tend to radiate cold.” Carmen closes her eyes and concentrate on bring the field that surrounds her back closer so it doesn’t bother people.

“There, that should do it.” Carmen opens her eyes and look towards Yasmin.

“Go ahead and touch her kiddo.” Justine looks towards Yasmin.

Yasmin reaches forwards and touches Carmen’s exposed skin. She didn’t feel anything other a slight iciness to her skin. Yasmin looks at her.

“What are you?”

“I’m part fey kiddo. My father was a powerful frost fey. So, I inherited some of his species traits.” Carmen smiles at the young girl.

“Carmen, Justine. It’s good to see you again.” Lydia, Lily and Ryder come over to the three of them.

Everyone hugs and shakes hands. “Well, I hope you guys are hungry. I have a nice dinner made for you.”

Carmen glances towards Justin.

“What, I still have room for dinner. I only ate twenty-five chilly dogs.”

Yasmin’s jaw drops “only twenty-five chilly dogs? I can only eat two before I’m full.”

“He’s a were-wolf, Yasmin. When they are in their human forms they normally can pack away about four or five meals to only one that a normal person can eat.” Lily knew Justine didn’t mind his secret being let out. They have been friends for a while.

Yasmin just looks at Justin and notice his eyes flash gold and turned back.

“Is she one as well?” Yasmin was looking at Carmen.

“She wishes she was as cool as me.” Justine was having fun with this little girl.

Carmen just looks at him “you wish. I enjoy being what I am.”

“I can’t become a were-wolf Yasmin. My fey blood won’t allow it.”

“Oh!” Yasmin was surprised at that bit of information.

“Why don’t we all adjourn to the dining room and have some dinner.” Lydia escorts everyone into the dining room.

Yasmin takes her seat next to her mother, while Carmen sits next to her and Justine sits across from her next to Lily. Yasmin couldn’t believe
how much food Justine was putting on his plate.

Carmen leans next to Yasmin when she notices Yasmin watching him.

“Trust me kiddo, you don’t want to be around him later. He’s worse than a garbage disposal. He’ll eat that and come back sniffing for more.” Carmen winks at her.

Lydia shakes her head. She couldn’t believe the way Carmen and Justine were behaving in front of Yasmin.

“Oh, come on Lydia. It’s all in good nature. I trust Justine with my life and so does Dave. You know how important I am to Dave himself.”

“I know Carmen. He sees you as his daughter.”

Ryder and Lily had been quiet and watching their friends. It’s been a while since they have seen each other. The last time had been a pagan festival where Carmen’s coven the Silver Moon coven had come.

Small talk is made during the meal and Yasmin just watches as Justine packs the food away. Yasmin helps clearing the table and putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Afterwards she is sent upstairs to get ready for bed.

“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.

Yasmine couldn’t believe tonight Lydia and Ryder were going to allow her to attend a New Moon coven circle meeting tonight. They said if she did good on this, she’ll be allowed to attend a Full Moon circle. A new robe had been made for her and her instructor Carmen was going to be in the circle tonight with her. Since Carmen was a High Priestess of her own circle, she would be standing on Ryders right tonight in the circle.

Yasmine had gone out with Lily and clear away all the debris in the circle area. She helped Lily cleanse and purified it like they did her training room. She helped setup the altar and the candles for the quarters. She checks the incense burner and charcoal brick for the sandalwood and frankincense incense mixture. The fire pit in the middle of the circle was stock with wood to burn during the New Moon ritual.

Normally the circle had thirteen members in it on a regular base, but tonight they were going to have fifteen people in the circle. She takes a nice soothing bath with her bath water filled with magical energies from Lily, Carmen and her mother. There was a glow to the water as she slides down into it. She could feel their energies mixing with the ones inherit in her body and enhancing her femininity which made her feel closer to all three women and to the female spirit that made her.

Lily, Carmen, Ryder and Lydia went down to the circle first to cast the circle and call the four quarters. Yasmine could feel the Earth as it gave of itself as the magical energies flowed into the circle to form it. As far away as she was from the circle she could feel the magical energies in and around the circle. She shivers as a cold wind blows in from the East. She feels the heat as flames jumped from Ryders hand onto the candle. She felt the moisture pulled from the air when the West quarter was called and the warmth and smell of flowers from the North quarters.

When it was her turn to enter the circle, she could see the doorway that had been cut to allow others into the circle.

Ryder points his athame at Yasmine heart “how do you enter the circle?”

“With perfect love and perfect trust in my heart.” She had felt his power and it was like a nuclear furnace as he challenged her.

Once everyone was inside the circle. Yasmine watches as Ryder seals the doorway he had made for everyone to enter through. She watches as the magical energies that had been cut away fill in the doorway. She also notices that Ryder walks clockwise back to his spot in the circle left to right.

“Tonight, we have a special guest visiting us from the Silver Moon Coven. High Priestess Dancing Deer will be substituting for our High
Priestess Lady Aerona tonight.”

Carmen walks around like Ryder did and takes Aerona’s spot as she walks towards the spot vacated by Carmen. The lesson tonight was simple, but informative. It was all about centering and grounding. Yasmine knew what to do because of her mother and Carmen. The others did too, but some hadn’t gotten their grounding perfect and Yasmine could feel it. She had sent some of her power out and felt that they weren’t properly ground.

Ryder gives her that fatherly look which all dads have when they notice their children doing something they shouldn’t be doing. Yasmine just smiles at him and bat her pretty eyes.

Ryder just smirks as he monitors others in the circle. Yasmine sends her astral self out of her body and look down at everyone. She could see them sending their magical conduit down into the Earth to ground any energies sent towards them. As she looks at her father and Carmen she could see power. There was some strong power between the three of them. She felt her mother’s magical power mixed with Ryder’s. Which made sense, since the two of them were married and combined their magical energies. You could tell the difference in the male and female energies between them. It was a perfect balance between the two of them.

Once the lesson was done and everyone was back to normal per say. Yasmine felt the quarters release and watched as Ryder and Carmen release the energies. It returned to the earth from which it came. Yasmine felt energized and brimming with magical energies after everything was said and done. They had set out a feast for afterward the circle meeting.

All the members of the coven have gotten use to Yasmine and enjoyed having her around. She brought life back to the coven because of how young she was. Most of the members in the coven were in their late twenties and mid-thirties. There were a few that were in their forties, but not older than that. Since Yasmine looked to be about ten years old, all of them felt that she needed to be educated and taught the way they were.

Yasmine didn’t mind, because she had never experience what it was like to be in a group like this. Her days normally consisted of coming home from school, playing either on her computer or reading her the comics online or even playing her PS3. Her parents were never home or around and if they were they kept to themselves.

Yasmine walks over and sits on her mother’s lap and lean against her.

“Did you enjoy yourself tonight?” Lydia wraps her arms around Yasmine’s body and holds her.

“Yes, ma’am I did. I never knew or experience anything like this. They never showed anything like this when I use to watch all my favorite witch movies and shows.”

“Well, now you see why that spirit sent you to us. This way you learn how to use magic responsibly.”

“Well, I’m happy that I have you, Lily, and Ryder as my parents.”

Yasmine just closes her eyes and place her hands-on Lydia’s as she held her close to her.

Yasmine stops and looks around the pasture. Something was bothering her and she couldn’t put her finger on it. There was a strangeness in the air and it was bothering her. Even her horse felt it. Ryder told her that animals were sensitive and she should be aware of what they felt.

She hears a whistling sound coming towards her and then the ground exploding in front of her.

The explosion knocks her off her horse as she lands behind him on her back. She lays their stun as another explosion happens near her.

Her ears were ring and she was hurting. She notices a group of people in black armor coming towards her.

Yasmine summoned her knife as she slowly gets up off the ground. The men lower their guns towards here and starts firing.

Yasmine throws up her shield to block the bullets. Her head was still ring from being blown off her horse. She starts getting angry and summon a blizzard like Carmen did against her. She causes huge hail stones to pelt them as the snow gets high around them. She already sent out her senses to find her parents and they were under attack right now.

One of the men fire a rocket at her. She turns it into a snowball before it can hit her. She redirects the snowball back at him and turn it into ice. She turns the blizzard into an ice storm and start freezing the men into frozen popsicles. She feels a blast from behind her and glances at towards the area behind her.

Yasmine stomps her foot down and cause the ground to roll like an Earthquake just happened. She could feel her magical energies being used up fast. She concentrates on their weapons and cause them to explode in their hands, even if it meant killing them. Yasmine hears a roar and the next thing she see is two Were-wolves, a Dingo and a Canadian lynx. She had felt a surge in the magical energies around the ranch, but didn’t expect to see a cinnamon color huge wolf, a golden color Dingo and a grayish color Lynx appear. She watches as they change into their hybrid forms and go hand to hand with the soldiers.

Yasmine reduces the ice storm as she watches the reinforcements force the soldiers back. The lynx hybrid she noticed is tossing magic around like it was nothing. She had never seen a witch do that before. Yasmine had to draw a little bit of magic to support herself. She was bone tired and exhausted. The area in which she fought looked terrible. She was doing what she could to stay standing.

She notices the Hybrid lynx come walking over and change forms from a Lynx to a short girl with short black hair and Native American features.

She catches Yasmine as she is about to fall to her knees.

“Easy there young one. Sorry for being late to help you.”

Yasmine looks up at the woman “who are you?”

“A friend is all you need to know.”

The woman picks Yasmine up in her arms like she weighted nothing and carry her towards the house. All the ice and damage Yasmine did starts to either disappear or return to the way it was.

“Are you doing that?”

“Sort of. See that Dingo over there?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“He’s from my pack and his specialty is the ability to control Earth. He’s an elemental.”

“I didn’t know that there were Were-Dingo’s in the United States.”

“He’s the only one in the United States. They normally don’t leave Australia because of how few there are.”

“Oh, Who’s the deep cinnamon female were-wolf?”

“That’s my wife. Her name is Courtney the teenage girl with shoulder length black hair standing next to Carmen is my sister Kelly.”

Gabe comes walking up still in his hybrid form.

“You know boss, if you keep carrying cute girls like you are. Your wife is going to get jealous.”

“Courtney knows I love her.”

The hybrid Dingo walks with Yasmine and the black hair woman.

“I think this young lady belongs to you Lydia.”

She hands Yasmine to her mother.

“How is she Ava?”

“She’s fine. Her magical energies are low, but other than that. She could use a good rest to restore her energies. “

“How about you squirt?”

Ava wraps her arms around a teenage girl about her height.

“I’m doing alright, sis.”

Yasmine looks at Carmen and her mother.

“Let me introduce you to members of the Chattan Pride and Hipamika Clan, Yasmine. The young lady that was carrying you is Ava Vreeland and she is a member of the Chattan Pride. Her mate Courtney is from the Hipamika Clan and Gabe is an employee of Ava’s and doesn’t belong to any clan or pride.”

“Ya, he’s lucky. He only has to answer to the cute Native American chic there.”

Carmen elbows Justine.

“The young lady you saw Ava put her arms around is her sister Kelly. She’s half fae like Carmen. Ava is a were-lynx and can use magic like any witch. She has fae blood in her veins. Her bloodline is the only bloodline that has fae and Were in it.”

Yasmine looks at Ava like she was strange.

Ava looks around “do I have something strange on me?”

“No, but Yasmine is wondering why you are so special.”

“Trust me kid, its more trouble than its worth.”

“How did you guys know we were in danger?”

“I sent them a message asking for help.” Lily was holding her side.

“Courtney” Ava nods her head towards Lily.

“Gotcha.” Courtney walks over towards Lily and examine the wound.

“It’s a clean shot.” Courtney knees and use her special talent to heal Lily’s wound.

“Why did they attack us?”

“That’s easy kid. They hate supernatural and you must have done something to piss them off to use this type of fire power against you.”
Gabe had spoken and was looking at Yasmine.

“We didn’t do anything bad against them. All I do was blow-up one van by accident.”

“Well, something got them on edge kiddo.”

“Gabe, you know as well as I do. That the HSL organization doesn’t need a reason to kill our kind.”

Kelly was keeping quiet while she stood with her sister standing behind her. Yasmine was only a few years younger than her and there was
something unique about her. Like she has been touched by some divine power.

Yasmine notice the one name Kelly looking at her with her tricolor light blue eyes.

“Carmen, are your eyes like Kelly?”

“Nope, mine our one color. Kelly and her mothers are tricolor. We’re from different types of fae.”

“You’re busted sis.” Ava just hugs her adopted sister.

“We’re getting off track here.” Justine looked at everyone.

“I know Justine. Let’s go inside and sit down and talk about this.” Lydia leads everyone inside the house.

Yasmine looked tired when she came downstairs for breakfast. She had stayed up late last night talking about striking against the HSL and the Hunter organization. Ava and Courtney were all for it. Ava’s sister Kelly thought they should talk with her mother and the council. Justine sided with the teenage girl on that as well. So, all the heads of the different packs, prides and covens were going to get together to discuss the problem and make some sort of battle plan to attack them.

She had helped Kelly make a portal to their home last night. She was still feeling the effects of the drain of magical energies she had used yesterday during the attack and helping Kelly late last night. Ava and Gabe had reinforced the magical defenses on the house and strengthen the perimeter alarms and defenses.

Lily comes walking in looking a little paler then she normally did.

“Rough night Lily?”

“Yes, I’m surprised you are up right now. I thought you would had stayed in bed to recover after everything last night.”

“I wanted too, but my body had a mind of its own. My bladder was threatening to burst if I didn’t get up fast. As a guy, I could had held out a
little longer, but as a girl, I swear my bladder is smaller.”

Lily just giggles at that.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’ve always had a girl’s body.”

“To answer your question sweetie.” As Lydia comes walking into the kitchen.

“Is yes. Women have smaller bladder compare to men.”

Lily looks surprised at that.

“Mind explaining why, oh mighty High Priestess?”

“Because of the position of our uterus. A person’s bladder expands when it gets full. Since men down have a uterus, they can store more then
we can. They have more room for their bladder to expand, where we don’t. So, when you became a full functional woman, Yasmine. You gave up some of the benefits to being a male.”

“You mean not having to remember to take my birth control pills and being able to have a bigger bladder?”

“Yep, beside. Being a woman is a lot funnier than being a male. You get to experience a lot more things than you do as a male. You also have more choices of clothing you can wear, where as a male you don’t. You can only make men’s shirts and pants so many ways.”

“So, what brought this line of conversion on?”

Lydia fixes her coffee.

“Your daughter was complaining about having to get up and use the bathroom this morning, when she wanted to sleep in.”

“Well, if you want to Yasmine. You could always wear baby diapers to bed. That way you could sleep longer and not have to worry about having to get up.”

“Yuck, no thank you mom. I rather get out of bed and use the toilet like a big girl.”

Yasmine shivers just from the thought.

“Good, you’re a little big to be carried around. Even if you look like a ten-year-old girl.”

“Well, I guess I could be to blame for that mom. The witch I made for a game was older, but look young. I was basing the characters looks off a girl I saw in school and didn’t know she was ten years old.”

“Ah, that explains things now. So, how are you feeling today?”

“Like someone plugged me in and drain all my magical energies. I can’t even form a scout.”

“Making portals does take a lot of energies out of you. The way Kelly did it last night using two trees standing next to each other is the way the Fae do it. Considering who her teacher and mother is, it’s no wonder she did it that way.”

“I didn’t know Maggie had a daughter or a niece.”

“Ava is Roger’s daughter, Maggie’s twin brother. As for Kelly, she is the off-spring of another fae that was killed and sold into slavery by her
human mother. Ava and her life partner Courtney fought him and took Kelly from him. So, now she is part of the Vreeland family.”

“Isn’t it against the rules for other fae’s to challenge the Vreeland family?”

“Why would it be against the rules?”

Yasmine was curious now.

“Because the Vreeland family are the direct descendants of Titania herself or the Queen of the Fairies. They have Royal Fae blood running in their veins. To attack one is to ask for the entire clan to come after you. That is why Fae are forbidden to challenge a Vreeland. Because, if the person they challenged doesn’t get you. The whole family clan will and that will cause a Fae war. The Vreeland’s have at least six different Fae family bloodlines in their blood, along with Were-Cat and Were-Wolf. It is rare for one of their children to be born normal, but it does happen. Victoria Brown was a prime example, till a were-wolf attacked her and activated her latent genes.”

“Who’s Victoria Brown?”

“She’s the wife of an Immortal council member and the third cousin of Ava’s.”

“I remember her. She’s told the council to kiss her ass when she married Tom and if I remember right. Tom told them to take a long walk off a short bridge. When Vicky became a Were-Wolf and the council member of the wolves try to stamp his control over her, it flowed off because she is protected by her husband.”

“Actually, it was because any one that has Vreeland blood or is a descendant of a Vreeland can’t be controlled by anyone. They are too wild and unpredictable. Plus, Vicky is protected by Mistress Selena.”

“Who’s Mistress Selena?”

Yasmine was getting frustrated. Here was stuff she needed to know about, but haven’t learned yet.

“Mistress Selena is THE Royal Vampire here in the states. She is the oldest and the most powerful of the vampires. The reason Vicky is protected by her, is Vicky saved her life and the life of her pet, Kitten. Kitten is a prime example of playing with magic more powerful than your able to weld. She tried to summon the Goddess Bast and the way she went about it, pissed the Goddess off. So, the Goddess turned her into a half-human/half-cat person. Sometimes, some of her humanity peeks through, but mostly she acts like a cat. Mistress Selena keeps her as a pet and really does care for her. Any of her vampires or other caught drinking blood from her is killed, no question asked. The same goes for Victoria as well. No vampire can attack her, unless she attacks them and even then, they better run away.”

“So, don’t piss off Mistress Selena then?”

“You might get away with it, because your abilities are god given. However, I recommend you talk to her first. She can be helpful and a good resource. Another thing you need to know about Yasmine is Ruby, and Sapphire dust.”

“Okay, what is Ruby and Sapphire dust?”

“Ruby is dry crystalline vampire blood. The dust gives you the abilities of a vampire, depending on how old the vampire was that it was made from is how powerful you'll be. The older the vampire, the more powerful the dust. The drawback is, the more you use it. The more dependent you become, the more hooked you are on it. It gets to the point that you will die from taking too much or you become a mindless vampire. Which, at that time it’s the vampire’s problem to put you down before you become a problem. Sapphire is the opposite of Ruby. Sapphire, is made from Fae blood and makes you extremely desirable and beautiful. Once you start taking it, you’re hooked. It laterally destroys your self-confidence and makes you want to be beautiful all the time. If your old, it turns the clock back ten years and halts your ageing for a while. The drawback to it, besides being hooked on it, is getting it in the first place. It can only be made from the blood of a fae. The second problem is, when you stop taking it and get over the drug itself, your body starts ageing till you get to the age you should be. So, if you take it when you are twenty years old and use it till your fifty. You’ll still look like you are twenty, but if you stop taking it. You make up all those lost years and you don’t know what will happen. Your body might not be able to withstand the stress of ageing so fast. So, most people who take it. Take small doses of it. You can mix Ruby and Sapphire together and get the effects of both, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Wow! Can people who are half Fae like Carmen and Kelly’s blood be used to make Sapphire?”

“Yep, but it will only be half as strong and you’ll have some pissed off half-faes after you. I would rather face a pissed off vampire then those two. Fae’s can be very vengeful. That’s why it’s hard to get Sapphire. Some vampires make their own Ruby, but not Fae unless you want to be in debt to them for the rest of your life. I wouldn’t try it with any one that is a true Immortal like Vicky’s husband Tom. His blood was drunk once by a Roman Emperor and it drove him insane.”

“Okay, so when are we going to be meeting with everyone about the HSL and Hunter problem?”

Yasmine wanted to get revenge for what they did.

“Next Wednesday. I just got word before I came down here to get my coffee. We are meeting with the leaders of every Were, Witch, Fae and Supernatural group in existence. That includes a few Gargoyles that are still around.”

“Wow, that’s unusual for Gargoyles to get involve. They normally, stay out of other supernatural affairs.”

“I know, but the one that is Victoria friends is going to be there. She’s their representative.”

Yasmine drinks her orange juice and wonders what she has gotten herself into. She gets up and walks around the table and climb onto her mother’s lap.

“To much for you sweetie?”

“Yes!”

“Welcome to the club, Yasmine.”

“Yasmine, do you have your bags packed yet?”

“Not yet mom. I’m looking for my black 2” heels. Do you know where they are?”

“Did you look under your bed for them sweetie?”

Yasmine looks under her bed and spots them pushed halfway under her bed.

“Thanks, mom.”

Yasmine uses a little bit of magic to cause her shoes to come closer to her hands. She hates being short and looking like an eight-year-old. She was supposed to be a ten-year old, but her breast hasn’t even started developing yet. She also hated that she had the mind of a fourteen-year-old, but stuck in the body of a ten-year-old girl. The meeting had been set and they were traveling to a compound owned by the council. It was an abandon campground in Waverly, Tennessee that the council had taken over and refurbished. Her mom told her to take her bathing suit with her. They had an indoor swimming pool and gym. There was a private airfield so people could fly in.

“Mom, I’m ready.”

Yasmine magically transport her three bags down stairs along with her pillows and teddy bear.

Lily comes walking in with her two bags and adds to Yasmine’s stuff.

“You ready to meet some more people, Yasmine?”

Yasmine just looks over towards her aunt.

“If they are nice, I don’t have a problem with meeting them.”

Lydia and Ryder come walking in carrying their bags.

“Well, it looks like everyone is packed and ready to go.”

Ryder saw all the bags waiting for him to load the SUV with the luggage.

“I’ll help daddy.”

Yasmine walks outside with a few bags in her hands. Ryder takes a few with him and leaves them by the steps. He walks over to the garage and gets the SUV they were going to drive to Tennessee. He pulls it around to the front where Yasmine was standing waiting on him. He opens the back so him and Yasmine could load-up the cargo area with their luggage and cooler with sandwiches and drinks in it. Yasmine was bringing some snacks she had picked up the other day to take on the trip.

“You used the bathroom Yasmine?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Yasmine went before she packed her stuff.

“Alright, lets load up.”

Lydia waves her hand at the house while saying a chant in Latin. There was a glow to all the windows and doors on the house. It disappears
after a few minutes.

“Okay, we can leave now.”

Lydia takes the front passenger seat, while Lily and Yasmine take the backseat. Yasmine takes her tennis shoes off and curls up on the backseat with a book she brought with her to read. After a few hours on the road, Yasmine falls asleep.

“Looks like our little girl falls asleep easily when she is traveling.”

Lily covers her up with a travel blanket she brought with her. She sits back and watches a movie on her Ipad she brought with her. Ryder had some Irish music playing and Lydia was working on a ritual. They let Yasmine sleep till they stopped for dinner and refueling.

“Yasmine, it’s time to wake-up sweetie.”

Lily shakes Yasmine’s shoulder gently.

Yasmine slowly opens her eyes as she discovered they weren’t moving. They had stopped at a gas station.

“Come on sweetie.”

Lydia opens Yasmine door and carries her inside to the ladies’ room. Yasmine goes to the bathroom and washes her hands. She walks out with her mother and Lily.

“Where are we mom?”

“We’re in Virginia sweetie. We should be there by tomorrow morning.”

Lydia brushes some of Yasmine’s hair out of her eyes. They walk back to the SUV and Yasmine crawls back on the backseat and gets comfortable again.

“Do you want to sit back here with your daughter Lydia?”

“Sure, I’ll trade places with you.”

Lily and Lydia trades spots. Lydia helps Yasmine change position, so she could lay her head on Lydia’s lap. Lydia just strokes Yasmine’s hair as she slept. Soon, she falls asleep herself. For the next five hours, it was just Lily and Ryder awake.

“You know, I have never seen you and Lydia so happy since Yasmine came into our lives.”

“It has been different with her in our lives. Believe it or not I have been enjoying it when she calls me dad.”

“I know, I see it every time she calls you and Lydia mom and dad every time. Do you think she’ll be able to handle meeting all the different types of supernatural?”

“I think she can handle it. She’s a strong teenager, even if she acts like a little kid sometimes.”

“Well, I know she is enjoying herself right now.”

By five in the morning Ryder pulls through the main gates of the campgrounds that the council owns. He’s stopped at the check in station.

“Hi, I’m Ryder Allen Quinn, High Priest of the Silver Crescent Coven. I like to know which cabin has been assigned to my family.”

“Cabin D2 has been assigned to your family Mr. Quinn and welcome to Emerald Forest Campgrounds.”

“Thank you.”

Ryder accepts the key to the cabin.

“Lydia, wake-up. We’re here.”

Lydia slowly comes around as she saw they were driving down a tree lined road. Ryder pulls the SUV up in front of the cabin they had been assigned.

“Yasmine, wake-up sweetie. We’re here.”

Lydia shakes Yasmine gently to wake her up. Yasmine slowly sits up as she looks around. She saw that they were parked in front of an old fashion log cabin.

“My poor baby.” Lydia caresses the side of Yasmines face.

Lydia opens her door and escort Yasmine inside the place.

“Go sit down sweetie. Lily and I will help your father unload the SUV.”

Yasmine walks over to the sofa and curls up on the sofa. She watches her father, mother and aunt unload the SUV. The cabin had three bedrooms. Lydia and Ryder was going to take one, Lily was going to take another and Yasmine had a room to herself.

“Why don’t you go and cleanup sweetie and we’ll have breakfast up at the main building.

"Yes ma'am."

Yasmine finds the bathroom and washes her face and makes herself little more presentable. She was nervous and excited about meeting new people. Once she is done, she heads out of the bathroom and walks with her family to the huge log cabin built building. The whole place was constructed out of logs. When they walk in Yasmine is amazed at how high the ceiling was and how many people were already there. It was a buffet style breakfast that had been set-up. While they were standing in-line to serve themselves, Yasmine spotted a middle age woman walking around with a pixie standing on her shoulder holding a lock of her hair.

"Lily, who's that?"

Lily looks over towards the lady Yasmine was pointing too.

"That's Sophie with her daughter Lexi. Lexi use to be a normal human, until some fey blood and magic turned her into a pixie. Sophie is the only Were I know of that started off as a witch like us and was turned into a Were by a Were that went rough. She works for the council along with two others. They are the council's investigators and trouble shooters. There job is to investigate any trouble that is Supernatural related. She's also a member of Cain's pride."

"Who's Cain?"

Lily looks around and spots Cain with a short young girl, Lady April and Lady Joyce.

"He's over there with his niece, his wife Lady Joyce and his sister-in-law Lady April. He is the Alpha Pride leader of the Montana Pride of Were-Cats."

"His niece is a Were-cat?"

"Not exactly. Not much is known about her. All people know about her is, she is mute and that she is the most dangerous person in this room right now. The Vreelands are the next most dangerous Were."

"No were not."

Lily turns around to look behind her and sees Ava, Courtney, Maggie, Kelly and Tabitha standing a good ten feet back.

Yasmine turns around to see Ava. She notices Kelly was standing in front of a woman that looked like Ava, but a little older. Then there was an oriental woman standing in front of Kelly dress all in black leather looking like something from a bondage movie. Yasmine could tell she was a woman you didn't want to fuck with. She had two sword handles sticking up from behind her back and a few other weapons on her waist.

Lily notice the woman that Yasmine was staring at.

"That's Tabitha. She's Maggie's wife and body guard. Also, the most feared woman among the vampires. No vampire leader wants to mess with her or have her come after them. Her and three others like her destroyed a whole vampire family."

"What do you mean her and three others like her?"

Yasmine looks at Lily with a puzzled look.

"Tabitha and three others like her are the last of a pride of Were-Panthers. Her Pride was ambushed by a vampire coven and nearly wiped out. Only four survived and they took their vengeance. They killed every vampire ever made by the leader of that coven. They even killed the one that made that leader as an example of what will happen if they come after them. You can't make a Were-Panther like most Were-cats can. They have to be born from a Were-Panther. Tabitha is the last female Were-panther there is. Her true mate isn't a male, but a female. So, she can't have any children. Unless you find your true mate, you can never have children. That's how it works among the Were's. They can only have children from their true mate."

"That sucks. But couldn't they take one of Maggie's eggs and fertilize it with someone else sperm and place it inside of Tabitha?"

"Only if that person is related to Maggie. If her twin brother was still alive they could do that. It has to be a close relation like brother or sister or aunt or Uncle or even first cousin. "

"Oh!"

They move up and start loading their plates with food. Yasmine did notice that there were two different sizes of Plates. One was normal sized and the other was large pizza sized.

"For the Were's?"

Yasmine nods her head towards the plates when she asked Lily.

"Yep, Were's have a huge appetite."

Once everyone has their plate, Ryder finds an empty table for them to sits at.

Yasmine was slowly eating her breakfast and watching as more people came into the restaurant of the lodge. She nearly choked when a good-looking man and woman walks in. They were being followed by a younger woman behind them. The man had long dirty blonde hair and looked like a Greek statue that had come to life. He was at least six feet tall and had impressive muscle build on him. The woman standing next to him had long blonde hair and was almost as tall as he was, but was shorter by only a few inches. She had a body that most models and famous actresses wish they had. She had a deep bronze tanned skin and was dressed in painted on jeans like the man next to her and both wore matching shirts. The short dark hair girl following behind them had on a leather collar that was at least four inches wide and had a huge D-ring on the front of it. There were small studded spikes covering the rest of the surface. She had on a white gazed blouse with a tight matching leather corset and painted on blue jeans and ankle boots that matched the boots the man and woman were wearing.

“Lily, who are those three?”

Lily looks over and spot Neil and his wife and slave.

“That’s Neil Jones and his wife Clair Jones with their servant. They are the leaders of the Chattan Pride. The young dark hire girl following behind them is Jessica, their servant/slave.”

“Why is she a slave?”

“Because, of the type of life she had.”

Ava was walking by when she heard the question.

“May Courtney and I joined you?”

Yasmine looks towards Ava’s aunt and sister.

“Don’t you want to sit with your family?”

“Please, have a seat Ava.”

Lydia had answer her and motion to the two-empty seat at the table.

“Thank you, Lydia.”

Both Courtney and Ava sit down in between Lily and Lydia.

“To answer your question Yasmine, I figure it might be best if I sit with your family and help answer your questions. Some people have found you amusing and some are wondering why you are asking so many questions.” Ava snatches a few slices of bacon off Courtney’s plate.

Courtney growls at her mate and tries to stab her with her fork.

“My bacon, eat your own.”

Courtney grabs a few slices off Ava’s plate.

A smile appears on Ava’s face at her wife’s antics.

“To answer your question about Jessica. I had the same reaction when I first met my Ardri, that’s his title among the Chattan Pride. Jessica enjoys being their servant/slave and she needs it. When she was first turned a very bad person abused her all the time. Neil and his wife Clair freed Jessica and tried to let her live a normal life. However, they found out that Jessica is happier being some one’s servant/slave. She can’t function without someone telling her what to do or how to act or stop her from seriously hurting herself. Since it is the Ardri’s responsibility to look after all the Were-Cats in his pride. They took Jessica as their own personal servant/slave. Neil and Clair are into the BDSM scene, but they don’t force it on anyone else. Jessica will do anything for them and enjoy it.”

“Will she kill for them if they tell her too?”

“Yep, she will.”

“How about you? If they tell you to kill someone?”

“They can’t and they know I won’t listen to them. It’s not in my nature. They also couldn’t tell my wife here to do it, because her allegiance is
first to me. Because I am her mate and second it is with her father who is the leader of the Hipamika pack/clan.”

“But don’t you belong to the Chattan clan?”

“Yes and no. Yes, I am a member of the Chattan clan. All Were-cats in the Cairo area are required to seek out the Ardri to inform him that they
are in his territory. Now, if they plan on staying or hunting in his territory. They are required to join the clan or leave his territory. That’s how he keeps strays from intruding and causing problems in his territory. If a member has a beef with another member, he has the right to challenge them. There’s a pecking order in a clan and pack. If you want to go up from the status you are to a higher status. You need to challenge the next highest person in that status. Neil and Clair are the alpha leaders of the Chattan clan. Tabitha and I could challenge them for leadership if we wanted too. I don’t want to because I have a clan of my own back on my ranch. Tabitha doesn’t because she is my aunt’s body guard and is an instructor to me, Courtney and to my little cousin/sister. Tabitha prefers being what she is and I enjoy being what I am. Courtney could challenge her father for his position of the Hipamika pack if she wanted too and win. However, she prefers to help me run the clan on our ranch. We answer to both clans, but in the end, we still do what we want to do.”

“So, your saying that you belong to a clan, but you don’t do what the Ardri tells you?”

“Nope, the Ardri and his wife know that it is a common trait of my family. We also, insist on following certain traditions that both clans have forgotten about or chose to ignore.”

“So, if that is the Ardri.” Yasmine points to Neil.

“Where is your father, Courtney?”

Courtney looks around and spots her mother and father talking to another pack leader.

“Over there talking with Dave. He’s the leader of the Bloody Claw Pack.”

“Isn’t that the pack Carmen belongs to?”

“She’s their shaman.”

“Your father looks like the guy off the Brawny commercials, Courtney.”

“If you think he looks handsome in his human form, you should see him in his wolf form. He looks impressive in that form as well.”

“Cool, what is the title of your father in his clan?”

“They call my father the Zupan. He goes by that title, instead of alpha. It means the same thing technically. Dad, just enjoys the title more.”
Yasmine looks at Courtney and then Ava.

“So, that makes him not only your leader, but your father-in-law.”

“Yep, he’s my father-in-law and my Zupan as well. So, how did he handle finding out that you were Courtney’s mate?”

“Let’s just say none of the leaders liked finding out Courtney and I were mates. We performed the mating ritual the first night I met her, instead of waiting till we were of legal age.”

Yasmine jaw dropped along with everyone else at the table.

“You got to be kidding me? You and Courtney performed the mating ritual on your own without your Alpha’s permission on the first night you two met?”

Lydia, Lily and Ryder couldn’t believe it.

Ava just smiled at their reaction.

“I think you broke them, sweetie.”

Courtney had a smile on her face.

“How old were you two?”

“I had just turned thirteen and learned that I was a were. Courtney was fifteen at the time and it was only the second time I met her. I had been shot-up by some Hunter agents on my way to her house for my first meeting with her father. We were outside on the porch swing when my cat realized that this beautiful woman was my mate. Her older brother Brad challenged her to have the right to mate me. I couldn’t stand seeing a brother and sister fight. So, I challenged him and fought him. I was still weakened at the time, but I won. I paid a price for it afterwards. While we were up in her bedroom, we performed the mating ritual. My cat wanted her mate and nothing was going to stop her from claiming her mate.”

“Once my wolf got a good sniff of Ava’s scent. She wanted her mate as well and I wouldn’t have been able to stop her till she had her mate bind to her. So, we did the ritual and it quiet both our natures.”

Courtney was looking at everyone at the table.

“Your natures must be very powerful if they couldn’t wait till you two came of age.”

“They are Lydia. Ava, woke-up my wolf and me. I was never very confident or felt like I was special compare to the rest of my family. Sooner or later I would had taken my life. It wasn’t till Ava came along that I realized that she was what I was missing in my life. Being the daughter of a powerful Alpha pair sometimes is very hard and having an abusive older brother can do things to you. However, when a certain bloody half Native American newbie cat came into my life. It brought be back to the living and made me realize she needed me and I needed her.”
As they were talking, A beautiful Native American woman glides in and up to the line waiting to get breakfast.

“Who’s that?”

Ava looks towards the direction Yasmine was looking.

“That is Amy Wolf. She is the daughter of Wolf himself.”

“What do you mean the daughter of Wolf himself?”

“She means my dear daughter that Wolf refers to the Native American Wolf spirit?”

Lydia looks towards Ava to verify what she said.

Ava nods her head yes.

“How can she be the daughter of Wolf, if he is a spirit?”

“Sometimes, the spirits assume an animal or human form to walk among the people. The last time he assumed an animal form. A rogue government scientist managed to trap Wolf and performed experiments on him. One of those experiments were conducted on the teenage daughter of an MP that got to close to finding out their secret. So, they had her parents killed and took her. They used her for the experiment. According to what was found during the investigation into the matter. They had drained all her blood and transferred his blood into her body several times over. The last transfusion they did of his blood into her body, it killed her. However, what it did was make her look like she was dead. Wolf’s blood was slowly changing her to what she looks like now. She has his god like abilities. She is truly, the daughter of the wolf now.”

“How much does the government know about the supernatural?”

“Enough to be dangerous. Amy wasn’t the first experiment that went wrong. Ginny over there.”

Ava points to a dark hair young girl standing with a group of men.

“She was another experiment that didn’t go as planned. A veterinarian wanted to see if he could change an ordinary animal into a Were. He injected the serum he developed into a coyote/wolf hybrid and it escaped from his lab. One day while she was pulling parts at a junkyard in the desert. She was attacked and got bitten by that coyote/wolf hybrid. She can turn into an ordinary coywolf any time she wants. She has some traits of a werewolf, but she isn’t a true werewolf. Her coywolf form is the same as any normal coywolf form.”

“So, there are pixie’s, Were-wolf, Were-cats, Immortals and…??”

“and me.”

Yasmine, Ava, Courtney, Lily, Lydia and Ryder all turned to look at a middle aged Spanish woman standing before the table.

“Hi Emygdia, I didn’t think you were coming.”

“Ava, you should know better than that. If the threat you guys are facing makes all of you nervous. Then it matters to the gargoyles as well.
Since, I am the only gargoyle able to move around during the day time.”

“I know, you’re going to represent them.”

“Bingo, plus I’m your little cousins godmother. Where ever he goes, I go. Since your cousin Victoria is here with her husband. I’m here as well.”

“You know, she hates being called Victoria. She prefers being called Vicky.”

“I know, but I never call people by their nicknames. I always call them by their given name.”

“Also, you like to give her a hard time as well.”

“She is my favorite wolf.”

“Is there a Were-dragon or Dragon?”

Yasmine figures it couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Yes, and no. There are Dragons, but none of them are here anymore. The last one that stayed here died a few years ago out in California. So,
there aren’t any more Dragons on Earth.”

“Dang, I would had loved to meet one.”

“You would never know you met one, Yasmine. They don’t reveal what they are to anyone. You have to be very skillful to look through their disguise.”

“Well, I still would had liked to have met one.”

“Maybe one will come back to this dimension and you’ll met them.’’

“If you’ll excuse me everyone. I’m going to go and check on my godson and see how he is doing.”

Everyone watches as Emygdia walks over to a woman in her early thirties with long blonde hair and light tanned skin holding a bundle in her arms.

“You know, the council may be mad at me for giving Vicky what she wanted, but I don’t care.”

“Why would the council be mad at you for giving her what she wanted?”

“Because, Vicky’s baby is an immortal Were-wolf. He’ll never die. He’s just like his father. Her and her husband were never meant to have
children. He’s immortal and they can’t have children.”

“So, immortals aren’t permitted to have children?”

“Nope. The magical energies that make them immortal require a price and that price is normally Immortals sacrificing the ability to produce off-springs. I have another form that is the accumulation of all my family line traits that is capable of granting wishes. However, I can only grant one wish and it needs to be something you are willing to sacrifice anything for. In Vicky’s and Tom’s case it was a child of their own. So, I granted their wish. Three months later, Vicky found out she was pregnant and was carefully watched the whole entire time she was pregnant. You should had seen her husband, Tom. It was so funny watching him treat Vicky like a porcelain doll. It drove her crazy.”

“So, why do you have a second form Ava?”

“That is a question even I can’t answer, but my second form is someone you don’t want to meet. It could be considered good or bad.
Sometimes my second form will help you if you need it or it could kill you. It all depends on the reason why it was called forward. I can’t call it forward any time I want either. There has to be a reason it needs to be here.”

“So, you can’t control it?”

“No, it comes when it is needed and the situation requires it to be here.”

“Oh,”

Yasmine looks confused by what Ava told her.

Courtney noticed the confused look on Yasmine’s face.

“Trust me Yasmine, it’s better that you don’t know. Even I don’t know why she has a second form and I’m her mate. All I do know is, Ava’s second form only listens to me and sometimes my father, but mostly to me.”

“Yasmine, whatever questions your aunt or parents can’t answer for you. Feel free to come to me or my aunt and ask us. My aunt might be the best person to ask, because everything I know I learned from her.”

“Thank you for the offer Ava.”

“You’re welcome. I know what it is like being thrown into a world you didn’t know existed. I was brought up in a vanilla family and found out the hard way I was a supernatural. When my abilities first manifested I attacked my real mother and hurt my older brother.”

“Don’t forget about being shot at and thrown through a window either.”

Courtney smiles at her loving partner.

Ava just shakes her head.

“You were shot at and thrown through a window?”

Yasmine couldn't believe someone would do that to their own child.

“Yep. The man I thought was my real father shot me with a shotgun and then tossed me out the window when it didn’t stop me. He was really my step-father. My real father had been killed when I was just six years old watching over me. The thing is, he seduces my mother while her husband was away and got her pregnant. The family kept it quiet and made everyone believe including me that I was really the man I thought was my father. I didn’t know anything about my real father until I moved in with my aunt and he visited me a few times in ghost form. So, when I first changed it was a shock to me and to my family. I’ve managed to patch things up with my mother and brothers, but my step-father still hates me.”

“Why does he still hate you?”

“Because I put my grandfather in jail for trying to kill me. He was the regional director of the Hunter organization and with help from the Zupan, the Ardri and the High Priest of my aunt’s coven, a few friends and my girlfriend. We took the Hunter organization down in Cairo, Kentucky.”

“Wow.”

Everyone at the table looked shocked.

Courtney snatches a few more pieces of bacon from Ava’s plate.

“Hey, that’s my bacon.”

A little growl escapes Ava’s throat.

“Turnaround is fair play.”

Courtney leans over and kiss Ava’s cheek.

Yasmine just smiles watching them.

They all finish eating their breakfast. Yasmine still looked around, but now she had a better understanding of people there.

“LEXI! Get your little firefly butt back here right now and turn my hair back!”

Alex was chasing after their smallest team member and Sophia’s daughter. The pixie had turned his hair a bright neon pink color. Even in his wolf form, his fur was the same color. It wasn’t just a strip of fur that was pink, but his whole body.

Lexi giggles as she dodges between people avoiding Alex. He shouldn’t have made the sexist remark he did when she was changing her dress.

Yasmine was walking behind her mother to the outside amphitheater where the meeting was being held at. When out of nowhere something comes flying between her and her mother. It passed inches in front of her face.

She turns her head when she hears a male voice yelling at whatever it was that flew in front of her face. She notices a young man with bright neon pink hair chasing after the thing that flew pass her. She steps back so he didn’t run into her. She had to laugh as he ran pass her. His hair was pink all the way down to his roots.

“That’s Alex who is chasing Lexi. He’s one of the troubleshooters that work for the council.”

Lily watched Alex trying to catch Lexi. She was giving him a run for his money.

“I wonder what he did to Lexi to piss her off enough to turn his hair pink.”

“Knowing Alex, it had to be a sexist remark. Alex considers himself to be the answer to ever woman’s dream. You know that song, I’m too sexy?”

“I’ve never heard it before.”

Yasmine had no idea of the song Lily was talking about.

“Remind me when we get home to expend your knowledge of music. Anyway, Alex doesn’t know when to watch what he says around women.
I’ve seen him get his face slap several times.”

“Isn’t Lexi, Sophia’s daughter and on the same team with him?”

“Yep, that’s what makes matters worse. Sophia is protective of her daughter.”

“I can see why. She’s so small.”

“Don’t let Lexi’s size fool you. Pixies are powerful little things and it’s hard to undo their magic. It might be easier for you, because your abilities
were given to you by a goddess.”

“If you say so Lily. Remember, I’m still inexperience compare to you and mom.”

Yasmine knew she still had a lot to learn about magic and how to use it.

“You’re doing fine. Just remember what Carmen and what we taught you so far and you’ll be okay.”

Lily and Yasmine sit down near Lydia and Ryder. They watch as everyone else starts to come out to sit down as well.

“Excuse me, is this space taken?”

Yasmine looks up at the person who just spoke to her and notice the voice belonged to a girl that looked like anime cat girl. She had Long
flowing black hair and was wearing a thick leather collar with three silver bells in the front of it and small silver spikes going around the collar itself. She also had on a thin platinum choke collar that looked to be a solid ring. There was a necklace dangling from her neck that had a medallion with some sort of crest design on it that had a slight glow to it. She had white tuffs of hair coming out of her cat ears and a white fur on her belly and chest area. The rest of her body was covered in black fur.

Her eyes were the brightest blue she has ever seen before.

“No one is sitting here. Please sit down.”

The cat girl sits down next to Yasmine.

“Thanks, I’m Karen Shakrana by the way.”

Karen holds her hand out for Yasmine to shake.

Yasmine shakes her hand.

“I’m Yasmine Quinn.”

Yasmine could feel something different about this girl. It was like she wasn’t human or cat either.

A playful smile appears on her face.

“Confused?”

“Yes, what are you?”

“I’m complicated. Let’s just say I started off like you and over time I was changed by people trying to either kill me or trying to save me.”

“So, this isn’t your normal form?”

“Yes and no. Like I said, I use to be a normal human girl just like you until certain circumstances force me to decide what I wanted. I asked my
wife to turn me into this form. I like being like this so much, I asked her to make it permanent. You must have liked your current form so much to make it permanent.”

“You can tell I’ve been changed?”

“Yep, but your change was done by something very powerful.”

“How can you tell?”

“Like I said, I’m complicated. I’m part human, part dragon, and part Fae.”

“Your part Dragon?”

“Just a little bit. I was changed by a Dragon before she left. I was dying because someone did something to me and unless what they did was
removed from me. I would had exploded and killed hundreds of innocent people. So, she put a little bit of herself in my body and made it so I could survive what had been done to me. Later, I found out I had the essences of a powerful Fae in me. That was the reason I would had exploded.”

“How did the essence of a powerful Fae end up inside of you?”

“It was placed there by the Fae who it belonged to. I used to be a sex slave that got passed around and sold to different people. I was sold to
the Fae that placed his essence inside of me, because he wanted to experience the full effect of cocaine. He was sadistic and enjoyed inflicting pain on me. Unfortunately, he didn’t count on the purity of the cocaine he injected into himself and me and it ended up killing both of us. The only reason I didn’t die completely is because of his power being in me.”

“Wow! You are complicated.”

“Yep, the thing is, I’m happy now and I like what I have become.”

“Where’s your wife?”

“She’s down there with the council. If there are any Fae, other than the Vreeland family here in this realm. They have to inform my wife.”

“So, she’s a council member?”

“Yep, she didn’t want the position, but I talked her into it. The last Fae rep went back to the other realm.”

The two of them look down at the council members as they sat and waited for everyone to show up. Yasmine spotted another cat girl being lead on a leash by a young woman with pale skin.

“Do you know who that is down there being lead?”

“Yep, that Mistress Velvet and her pet Kitten. She’s the Vampire Queen of the East coast.”

“How can she be out during the day? I thought daylight was dangerous to vampires.”

“It is dangerous, but since this meeting involves everyone, a special design magical dome has been constructed by some of the most powerful
people here. They talked about having it at night for the vampires and a few other races, but it wasn’t practical. Because some of the races here don’t like the night.”

“So, they came up with a new spell that could protect vampires during the day.”

“Yep, but only certain council members and powerful witches know the spell.”

“Ah, well that’s good I guess.”

Yasmine spots a group of bikers walk up to the council members.

“Who are they, Karen?”

“They are the Dark Fangs. They answer to Velvet and the council. They are like Sophia, George, and Alex over there.”

Karen points to the three people who she just named. Alex still had neon pink hair. They could see Lexi’s head sticking out from Sophia’s cleavage and George was standing near a young teenage girl. She was standing near a gentleman looking at a video on a laptop.

“That guy looking at the laptop. That’s Cain, right?”

“Yep, and the young teenage girl standing near him is his niece and personal assistant. He’s very protective of her. The brown hair woman holding the baby sitting next to the black hair military looking guy is Vicky and her husband.”

“Ava didn’t say her aunt was on the council.”

Yasmine spotted Ms. Vreeland with Tabitha standing behind her. She notices Tabitha didn’t look to happy.

“Tabitha doesn’t look to happy.”

“Oh, she isn’t. My wife said that she wants to kill Riker. I heard her student almost killed him by accident.”

“You mean Ava or Courtney?”

“Ava. I don’t know the story, but I do know he is careful when he is around her. He tries not to get to close to her.”

The military haircut guy stands up and comes center stage.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to begin in ten minutes. If there is anything you need to ask during the meeting, please wait till the end to ask your questions.”

He walks back to his spot and sits back down next to Vicky.

Cain stands up and approaches the podium. His niece stands next to him with several folders in her hands.

“Ladies, Gentlemen and other gather genders. Lately, all of us have been having problems with the HSL and The Hunter Organization. They have been performing experiments on some of our people and creating special soldiers and weapons to fight against us. I have in my
possession the names and location of all their members and their special operation centers. Included is where they take our people they find or capture to be kept. For us to combat this. Six special teams are going to be created to send against these locations. Each team will be led by a respected member from our community. The person selected is to be obeyed as if you are addressing your own leader.”

Cain looks out at everyone to see how they were accepting this. Since there weren’t any objections so far. He continues.

“Alright, will the following people come to the stage. Tabitha Lin, Ryder Quinn, myself, Carmen Rogers, Council Member Tom Brown, Council Member Lady Betty Shakrana. These are the team leaders.”

“Way to go dad.”

Yasmine was proud of her father. She turns to look at Karen.

“It looks like your wife was chosen as well.”

“Ya, but I feel sorry for whoever she chooses to be on her team. She’s very demanding and will train them hard.”

“Won’t she select you?”

“Nope, I told her as much as I love her. I don’t want her to select me. I’m to much of a distraction to her.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Not unless you like hot steamy sex. I’m like a succubus in a sense. I need sex to recharge my magical energies. I don’t drain you like a real succubus does, but I do take what I need to refuel my magical energy levels. I do enjoy a lot of different sexual things.”

“Okay.”

Karen just smiles at Yasmine’s reaction. They listen to questions being asked and how many people will be on each team. Where they will be
operating out of.

Yasmine was standing next to her new friend Karen when she felt someone tug on her hand. She looks to see who it was and notice a little girl.

She had blonde hair that went down to her butt and bright blood red streaks in it like her own hair. Her skin was pale like it hadn’t been exposed to sunlight.

“What are you?”

She had her head tilted to the side looking at Yasmine.

“What do you mean. I’m a normal teenage girl.”

“No, you’re not. Your different than your mother.”

Yasmine’s aura appears around her body.

“See, your aura is different than your mother’s. It’s more like my mommy’s aura.”

Yasmine was surprised at how bright her aura was.

“Who’s your mommy and who are you?”

“I’m Hokee and that’s my mommy over there.”

Hokee points to a petite teenage girl with long straight blood red hair that came down to her ass. It was secured in a ponytail. As Yasmine
continued to look at the teenage girl, she could see a cloak surrounding the teenage girl and the outline of a sword handle on her side. The cloak reminded her of the type worn by grim reaper’s.

“Holy shit, you’re the daughter of a grim reaper.”

“Yasmine, watch your language.”

Lydia looks at her daughter with a disappointed look on her face.

“You said a bad word.”

Hokee was looking at Yasmine too.

“Sorry mom and Hokee. Mom, is that woman over there a grim reaper?”

“Yes, and she is also the female Alpha of the Asha’man clan. Her husband is Daigh Asha’man and is one of the most vicious Were-wolf fighter
and Alpha around. His wife’s name is Sparrow and she is over three hundred years old. The little boy holding onto Daigh’s back is their son Seamus.”

Yasmine looks down at Hokee and then at the little boy. Neither one looked anything alike. Hokee had long blonde and red hair and Seamus had short black hair. His skin was darker then Hokee’s.

Hokee holds her arms up for Yasmine to pick her up.

Yasmine picks Hokee up and let her rest on her hip. The red streaks in Hokee’s hair were as red as her own hair. They were bright blood red.

“Is your mom here to collect on a soul?” Yasmine looks at Hokee when she asks that question.

She shakes her head no.

“Mommies here because our daddy is here.”

“She got you there, Yasmine.”

Karen was smiling. She causes her tail to tickle the little girl.

Hokee giggles when Karen’s tail tickles her on her side.

“Pretty kitty.”

Hokee taps the silver bells hanging on Karen’s leather collar.

Karen purrs for Hokee and lean close so Hokee can scratch her between her ears.

“I hope my little monkey isn’t causing you girls any problems.”

“No, she’s a sweetheart.”

Karen looks at Sparrow and notices her hair was as blood red as Yasmine’s.

“You too, must have the same genes. Your hair color is as red as Yasmine’s.”

Sparrow just smirks at that statement.

“No, I don’t think either one of us has the same genes. Yasmine is god touched and my hair was changed by a demon.”

“But you’re a Grim Reaper. How can a demon touch you or do anything to you?”

Yasmine was confused.

“I wasn’t always an agent of Death. At one time, I use to be a normal human boy who loved his sister very much. However, because of how
women use to be treated, she used that love to change my life. This body I have now use to be my sister’s body. She switched bodies with me and ended up getting killed by the demon she was running from. The demon in turn took me as her payment and changed me into what you see now. I managed to kill the demon, but not before him and his kind did things to me that would had broken most people.”

Sparrows eyes did flash red when she made the last statement.

Hokee holds her hands out to her mother. Sparrow takes her daughter and holds onto her.

Hokee buries her face against her mother’s neck and hugs her tight.

“I’m alright sweetie. I’ve had over three hundred years to overcome what has happened to me.”

Hokee still stayed close to her mother.

“Besides, if it never happened. I would had never ended up with you and your brother.”

Sparrow tickles her daughters side, which brings a giggle from her.

“Sparrow, do you miss being normal?”

“To be honest with you. No, I don’t miss being normal any more. I enjoy being a mother to two beautiful children and being the wife to a
wonderful man. As for my job, I enjoy it as well. You can never have life without death. Because, for every life I send on their way. A new life takes it place. There needs to be balance in life. The ones who cause problems are the people who want to live forever. They don’t realize how that upsets the balance.”

“So, your saying people who are turned into vampires, Were-wolves or become immortal do it on purpose to cheat death?”

“No, not all of them. Some of them are destined to fill those roles for a reason. Just as I was destined to become a grim reaper, a mother and a
married woman. Sometimes, it’s an accident for them, but most who do it are trying to run away from their life or trying to hold onto everything they have built for themselves and don’t want to give it up.”

Yasmine had to think about that. Was it meant for her to be Ryders and Lydia’s daughter? That was why she had found that necklace and
chose the form she did?

Sparrow smiles at Yasmine. The light bulb had finally come on inside Yasmine’s head.

“The answer to your question is yes, Yasmine. You were always meant to be Ryder’s, Lily’s and Lydia’s daughter. Fate just did it in a weird
way. I try not to interfere with Fate’s plan. She’s a fickle goddess.”

Yasmine felt herself hugged by Lydia.

Sparrow looks towards Lydia “unfortunate Lydia, I must visit your coven and take the soul of one of your members. Her time has come and I
am forbidden to extend her time. I thought I would tell you, so she can get her things in order before I come to take her.”

“Let me guess, its Angie Williams?”

“Yes, I wish I could extend her life, but I was told her time is now. I know she just had a baby, but she knew the risk when she decided to have
the child.”

“How can you take a mother from her new born baby?”

“Remember what I said Yasmine when I said a life is created each time a life is taken? Well, Angie decided to have the baby, after she was informed about what might happened to her. She gave her life, so her daughter could live. That’s the choice all mother’s make when they decide to have children. My children are adopted, but if I could had given birth to them. I would had made the same choice. Angie will live on through her children and will be reborn one day from them. All she is doing now is taking a break and relaxing for a while.”

“It just doesn’t seem fair is all.”

“Life isn’t meant to be fair, Yasmine. Life is like a poker game. You have to play the hand your dealt and hope it beats the odds.”

Karen had stood silence as Sparrow spoke.

“Sparrow, was I meant to have the type of life I had?”

Sparrow had a sad look on her face when she looked at Karen.

“No, you were never meant to have that type of life. Someone cheated and changed their destiny. So, you ended up paying the price for it. I
am sorry you had to experience what you did. I will tell you this tho, your mother, father and brother are proud of you and can’t wait to meet you when you finally do pass on. Which, I hate to say won’t be for about a few thousand years.”

Hokee looks at the pretty kitty.

“Now if you’ll excuse me girls and Lady Lydia. I have another person I need to speak too.”

“Bye, pretty kitty.” Hokee waves at Karen as she is carried off by Sparrow.

“I’m going to go and talk with your father Yasmine. So, do you think you can stay out of trouble while I’m gone?”

“I’ll make sure she stays out of trouble Lady Lydia.”

Justine had spotted Yasmine and her group. So, he decided to go over and talk with her.

“Hey Karen, I love the new look. Are you keeping this one?”

“Yep, I asked my wife to make it permanent since I can’t. Speaking of wives. How is your wife doing?”

“You mean Carmen?”

“Yep, you two acts like your married all the time.”

“We’re not. She’s to flakey and cold for me. I love her like a sister.”

“That I can vouch for. You should had seen them when they came to visit my mom and dad.”

Yasmine had enjoyed their visit.

“Oh, you will be visiting us soon Yasmine. Carmen is asking your mother for permission to take you on as her apprentice and to be on her
team. Our pack and the Were’s staying at Ava’s ranch. Plus, the team she is putting together have been chosen to go after the center holding our people. Between you, Ava, Gabe and Carmen the four of you are the magical defenses and attackers. My pack and some of the Were’s from Ava’s ranch lead by her wife will be attacking the personnel and freeing people.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have Sparrow come with us? She is a Grim Reaper after all.”

“She’s forbidden to take someone’s life early, unless it is their time or in self-defense. If they are controlling her, then she can take their life. If
she breaks that rule, then she has to face death and he doesn’t like it when a reaper breaks the rules.”

“How can you control an agent of death or death himself?”

“There are magical artifacts that allow you to do it. Sparrow use to be controlled by one. I wouldn’t try to control death or his agents, because once they get free. You will regret it. Just asked Sparrow what she did to the vampire that controlled her.”

“No thank you. I want to stay on her good side.”

Karen just shivers at the thought of trying to control death or his agents.

“So, whose team am I going to be on?”

“You’re on Ryder’s team. Your wife recommended you to his team.”

“Oh boy. I get to corrupted some new people.”

Karen rubs her hand together.

“Good luck on that one. Most of the witches in my mom’s coven are married.”

“So, that just makes things even funnier.”

Karen walks off.

“Come on Yasmine. Let’s go and meet up with my pack leader.”

Yasmine follows Justine.

Yasmine had a hard time sleeping with the storm raging outside their cabin. Justin had introduce her to Dave Martain. She couldn’t believe he was an Alpha Were-wolf. He looked like a typical old style biker. He had tattoo’s that covered his body and wore a single earring in his ear. He was bald and had a blonde beard that hung down from his face. There was a scar that went down the middle of his right eye.

She puts her house robe on and slip her tennis shoes on. Something was drawing her to go outside. She grabs her raincoat and steps outside the cabin she was sharing with her family. She was drawn to an open field not to far from the cabins. A huge bolt of lighting comes out of no where striking the middle of the field. The force from the lighting knocked her on her ass. As she was picking herself up off the ground. A huge pitch black horse with electricity crackling in its eyes comes walking up to her. It had come from where the lighting had struck in the field.

“I am Arion and I have been sent here for you.” He nudges her with his nose.

“What do you mean that you have been sent here for me?”

“I have been sent by the goddess for you.” Arion was told he was going to be sent to a young girl to be her familiar.

Yasmine slowly stands up and looks at Arion. She runs her hands on his smooth neck. His hair felt smooth under her touch. The rain had slack off some since she came out and since his arrival. He had a black saddle already on him, but no bit. After several tries, she manages to climb up into the saddle. Her legs barely came down to the middle of his chest. He was so muscular and tall. She didn’t feel the rain while she was sitting on top of him. She goes for a ride for the rest of the night. He was so swift and every time his hooves hit the ground it was like thunder going off. Yasmine rides him up past the campground entrance. The guards at the entrance couldn’t believe what they were seeing when Yasmine rode past them.

They heard the sound of thunder coming towards them and then something pitch black rode right past them. Yasmine stops before she gets to the main road they had turned off of. She couldn’t believe how fast they had moved. She could enter into a horse race and win instantly with Arion. She notice he wasn’t even breathing hard right now.

“How fast are you Arion?”

“It would only take me a couple of hours to get to the other side of this country.”

Yasmine turns Arion back around and head back to her cabin. She stops in front of it and runs inside the cabin.

“Mom, Dad, Aunt Lily you need to come outside and met Arion.”

Ryder comes rushing out of the bedroom followed by Lydia and finally Lily.

“What’s going on Yasmine?”

Ryder was looking at their daughter and notice she was soaking wet.

“Why are you wet?”

“You have to come outside, Dad.”

Yasmine runs back out to Arion. He was still standing where she had left him.

All three adults rushes outside behind Yasmine and come face to face with a huge unknown pitch black stallion. They could see energy crackling in its eyes.

“By the goddess, what are you?”

“He’s called a Thunder Horse.”

Maggie had been woken when she felt the release of of so much energy near them. Even Kelly had felt it. Kelly and her had come out to investigate what caused the release of so much energy. Tabitha, Ava and Courtney hadn’t felt it. Ava should had, but looking around she wasn’t outside.

Arion looks over towards the woman that had spoken and could tell she was part-Royal Fae. The young girl standing next to her was part-Fae as well, but not of royal blood. He did see the bind that was there connecting them as mother and daughter.

“What is a Thunder Horse?” Yasmine was curious and so was the rest of her family.

“Why don’t we go inside and talk.”

Yasmine looks at Arion “are you going to be alright out here?”

“I’ll be fine Yasmine. Go ahead and go inside with your parents and that lady.”

Yasmine hugs Arion and heads inside the cabin with everyone else.

“Would any one like a coffee or anything?”

Yasmine looks at everyone.

“I would like a hot chocolate if you have any.”

“Yep, do you want marshmallows or whipped cream?”

“Marshmallows please Yasmine.”

“No problem Kelly.”

Yasmine whips up a hot chocolate for herself and Kelly and coffee for everyone else. She gives Kelly her hot chocolate and sits down next to
her mother.

Maggie had been watching Yasmine. She reminded her of Ava when she first came to live with her.

“So, what is a Thunder Horse?” Lydia was looking towards Mrs.Vreeland.

“A Thunder Horse is a fabled ancient Elven war horse. They were breed to fear nothing. The thing is, the more frightful a creature is, the more angry a Thunder Horse gets. They can generate an electrical field around itself to protect its rider and when it is running or galloping, it sounds like thunder. They come from another dimension and there aren’t very many of them. Actually, they were rumor to have gone extinct according to an ancient scroll I read.”

“So, why is Arion here?”

Yasmine was looking towards Mrs. Vreeland.

“What did he say to you when he appeared?”

“He said he was sent by the goddess for me.”

Both Lydia and Ryder look at each other. Even Lily was looking at her.

“Well, I guess he is your familiar now.”

Yasmine heard some laughing in her head.

“He’s outside laughing at me.”

A smile appears on Maggie’s face.

“I wonder if I’ll ever get a familiar?”

Kelly was looking towards her mother.

“You will one day sweetie.”

Just as Maggie says that. There’s a popping sound and a legendary Blue and Gold color Thundered Bird appears above Kelly’s head. It flies down and lands on her shoulder.

Yasmine just giggles.

“I think you got your familiar Kelly.”

Lydia was looking at Kelly with a smile on her face.

The Thunderbird chirps at her.

“I think it wants you to stroke it?”

“No, she’s saying her name is Ariana.”

“Ah!”

Yasmine leans against her mothers legs and just watch the Thunderbird. It was a pretty bird, but she liked horses. She figures that was why the goddess sent her a Thunder Horse as a familiar.

Kellys stroke her Thunderbird on its chest carefully with a feather she summoned. Yasmine slowly drift off to sleep.

Yasmine woke-up early the next day so she could go for a ride after breakfast. The conference was still going over what the plans were and what each team was going to be responsible for during their attack. She had gotten permission from her parents to go for a ride, but she needed to stay within the boundaries of the property of the campground. Her and Arion agreed to her parent’s conditions and explored the campground. She was loving riding Arion and enjoying how he respond to her commands and such. It was like she and him were part of each other.

Yasmine finds a nice clearing and slides down off Arion’s back. She walks for a while with him following her.

“Why did the goddess send you to me?” She was rubbing his neck as they walked.

“Because she felt you needed protecting. She knows your coming along with your magical training, but having some extra power comes in handy. I can share my abilities with you, but I will warn you. I control the Earth and Air elements. You’ll need to learn how to control those elements, before you can use any of my magical energies.”

“I can already change ice which is water. Carmen was one of my teachers.” Yasmine was still petting Arion. She was finding his presence
comforting.

“She’s the daughter of the Winter King. I notice her aura when I arrived. If that court ever decides to allow half-breeds on their court, she’ll be the first they recruit.” Arion would love to see that.

“So, you said the goddess sent you to me. Are we talking about Freya?” She wonders if she was still looking after her.

“Yes, we are talking about Freya. For some reason, she has taken a liking to you. However, I do know she wants you to be protected or she wouldn't had never pulled me from my dimension.” He did, but he was forbidden to tell her.

“You know hiding what you are is going to be difficult. I wonder if a glamour spell will work on you.” Yasmine pulls an apple slice out and hand it to Arion.

“You don’t have to worry about disguising me. To everyone who looks at me, I look like an ordinary Arabian horse.”

“Wow, is that something that is common with your breed or is it magical?”

“The goddess placed the spell on me. It’s part of who I am now. If anyone ever saw the true me, they would be very afraid.” Arion was enjoying his time with his person. He could tell she had been changed by magic. That was part of her aura, but you would need to know what you were looking for to see it.

“Arion, why did Kelly Vreeland get a legendary Thunder Bird. I thought only Native Americans get them for familiar?”

“Because when they did a blood bond between her and her mother Margaret. The Native American blood in Margaret’s blood mixed with
Kelly’s. For all intense and purposes, she is related by blood to Margaret Vreeland.” He had sense a blood tie between the two of them.

“Is there any other super natural familiars like you here on this plane of existence?” Yasmine was curious if there were other like Arion.

“Yes, but none like me. I am the only one of my kind here.” Arion didn’t mind. He was sent for a purpose and he’ll make sure Yasmine learns and stays safe.

The two of them walk for a while and enjoy getting to know each other. Yasmine found out that Arion loved apples covered in honey and that
he loved water as well. He was the son of one of the original Thunder Horses that had been created a long time ago. Back when this plane of existence was dangerous to come too, because of all the wild magic and energies that made this world up. Ripples had been felt even into his dimensions. It was those ripples that helped his kind to be made.

Yasmine looks at her watch and notices that they needed to get back. She couldn’t take anything that was electronic on Arion because he tended to give off a static charge. If she did, she would need to remove the battery out of the device. Her watch was mechanical and had been given to her by her new mother. She swings up into the saddle and trot back to where the cabins were.

As she is heading back, she hears a scream. Yasmine changes her route and gallop over towards the sound of the scream. There were several people dressed in black combat uniforms trying to take the daughter of one of the here at the campground.

Yasmine says a few words and rocks around them start pelleting the group. Arion rears up on his hind legs and comes down hard striking the ground hard. A loud thunder clap fills the air as lighting crackles in his eyes.

Were-wolves and Were-cats come running out of the woods. Yasmine jumps forwards still on top of Arion and scoops up the young girl. She puts her in front on the saddle.

One guy tries to strike Yasmine, but he is hit by lighting coming from Arion’s eyes. The guy is shaking as every bit of ammo he had on him explodes.

Another guy tries stabbing Arion in the flanks, but ends up with a powerful kick to his chest sending him backwards towards one of the wolves coming.

“We better get out of here Arion.” Yasmine could feel Arion moving when she said that that.

The huge stallion jumps over all of everyone as he races towards Yasmine parents cabin. The young girl was having fun as she rode in front of
Yasmine. She held onto the saddle horn for support. They get to Yasmine’s parents cabin and there was a long blonde hair waiting for them.

“Mommy!” Kristen slides down form the saddle with Yasmine’s help.

She runs towards her mother and is scooped up off the ground.

Yasmine swings down from the saddle and walks over to her. Kristen turns towards Yasmine when she gets near her.

“Thank you, Yasmine and thank you, Arion.”

“You’re welcome Kristen.”

June looks at Yasmine with tears in her eyes “thank you Yasmine and your familiar as well.”

“You’re welcome June from both of us.” Yasmine stands there and watches Kristen and her mother.

“You did good kiddo, both of you did.” Lily, Ryder and Lydia walk up to Yasmine.

“Thank you. By the way, who were they and how did they enter the campground?” Yasmine was curious about that.

“They had help from White Witches and the group of men you stopped are retrievers for the Hunter Organization.” Lydia looked at her
daughter.

“I thought we were white witches?” Yasmine was confused.

“White Witches are witches who believe their power comes from their belief in god. They use biblical verses out of the bible to help form their
spells. It’s just how we use chants or form the spell in our heads and send it out. They believe God is giving them their power. Once their belief is shaken, it’s hard for them to relearn they were the ones providing the power.”

“Wait a minute, are you saying mom that the Hunter organization and the HSL have magic users of their own and they let them live?” Yasmine
couldn’t believe it.

“Yep, as far as most of the Hunters and HSL are concern, god is giving them the means to destroy others. Now, not all the Hunters leaders like the idea of magic users of their own. So, they have a dedicated priest that controls them.”

Yasmine looks at the group as they are brought by the cabins. One retriever looked really messed up from getting hit by Arion.

“Why were they after Kristen mom?”

“Her father is a high-ranking church member and support them. He found out his wife’s secret and didn’t like it, that the courts gave her full custody.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t buy the judge off.” Yasmine figured he might have tried.

“He did try to have one of their whites to implant a suggestion into the judge’s head, but the judge’s secretary saw the left-over energy of the spell and broke it.”

“Oh, I bet that didn’t go as planned.” Yasmine knew what happens when someone was under a spell control came out of it. They remembered everything they had been forced to say and do.

Yasmine just watches the people caught escorted to the main meeting lodge. She kind of felt sorry for them.

“Don’t feel sorry for them Yasmine. They brought this upon themselves. If they didn’t believe the crap their preachers sprouted at them, they wouldn’t be in this mess.” Arion felt everyone was responsible for their own actions. No one forces someone to do things.

“Maybe.” Yasmine summons Arion’s grooming kit and starts grooming him.

She learned how to remove the saddle that came with him. It was of an older designed that reminded her of a Western saddle. She takes really good care of it, just like she does Arion.

When she is finish caring for Arion and her saddle. She heads into the cabin and help her mother fix dinner for everyone.

Yasmine was watching out the back-passenger window as they headed towards Cario, Kentucky. Her parents had rented a horse trailer to move Arion. She had informed her mother and father that Arion could carry her to Ava’s house in Cario, Kentucky. Her parents wanted to keep everything normal and that meant renting a horse trailer and transporting Arion like a normal horse.

“You’re quiet Yasmine, what’s on your mind?” Lily was looking over towards Yasmine.

“I was just wondering why we were staging things at Ava’s property?”

“Because her property is isolated and well protected.” Lily just watches Yasmine as she thinks about what she just mentioned.

The rest of the ride to Ava’s ranch was quiet. Arion was napping in the horse trailer, Yasmine was munching on a bag of trail mix and Lily was reading a book. Lydia was working a crossword puzzle and Ryder was driving and listening to Clannad.

After a few hours of driving, they pulled into the Half Moon Ranch. Yasmine was amazed at the layout of the place as they drove up the long driveway. Carmen and Ava were waving at them as they pulled up to the house. Ryder stops near the house next to an old Ford pick-up truck.

Yasmine steps out of the car and stands near Lydia.

“Welcome to Half Moon Ranch everyone. I hope you enjoyed your drive from the campground.”

“It wasn’t bad. You have a nice place out here.” Ryder was looking at Ava’s ranch layout.

“Thanks, my father left it to me. His mentor Zeke took care of it for me, until I became of age.”

“Well, it looks nice. You don’t mind if Arion runs around on the property, do you?”

“Not at all, Ava. I’ll have Charles take him to the pasture.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, now if you will come with me. My second wife Sara has prepared a lunch for us.”

That raised some eyebrows. Yasmine looks at Ava.

“You have two wives?”

Yasmine notices that Carmen had a smirk on her face.

“Yes and no. Officially and legally, I only have one wife and that’s, Courtney. Sara is our second wife. Both our natures wanted a third person in
our relationship. Sara was drawn to us.” Ava was leading them up the steps to the front door of the house.

They head inside the house. It had a combination of old and new design to the place. Yasmine could feel the magical energies protecting the place. It had several different flavors to it. There was wolf, cat/fey, Earth and witch to it. The house construction itself was old. The house had an old country feel to it, just like her home in New Hampshire. Ava leads everyone into a huge dining room.

“Please have a seat.” Yasmine sits down next to Carmen.

“I hope you don’t mind sweet tea.” Ava takes her seat.

A late twenty-year-old woman with short brown hair and wearing a nice maid outfit enters the dining room and start setting plates down on the table. The large platters she was setting down had freshly cut cold cuts, lettuce, tomatoes and a few other things for everyone to make their own custom sub sandwiches.

“Everyone, this is Sara. She’s the assistant house keeper and my friend.”

“Hello.” Sara smiles at everyone and heads back into the kitchen to get the rest of the stuff.

“Ryder, Lydia I hope you’ll be spending the night before you head back to Hampshire.” Ava was looking at the two of them.

“If it’s alright with you.” Ryder had already planned on staying, before he headed back towards their ranch.

Yasmine was looking around the dining room and notices several nice-looking art.

“Those are nice pictures, Ava.”

“Thank you, but I don’t know much about them. My father got them.” Ava knew some history of the house, but not all its secrets.

“Where’s your second mate? Isn’t she going to join us?” Lydia was curious.

“Right here.” Sarah comes walking into the dining room.

Sarah was taller than Ava and had long blonde hair and a slim build about her. There was a silver choker around her neck that had a wolf and
cat head in the center of it. Yasmine could already tell she wasn’t a Were. Yasmine saw her aura and could identify what her nature. She notices she was a witch just like her mother and herself. She walks over and takes a seat next to Lily.

“So, Yasmine. How are you and your familiar getting along?”

Yasmine looks over towards Carmen “I’m getting along with Arion, just fine. He has been telling me a lot about his species.”

“I did some research on Thunder Horses and I have to say, they are a unique breed.”

“Arion told me how his breed was created. It was interesting to say the least. He said they were partially constructed by the magical energies
from here when the world was first forming.”

“I’m going to have to tell my aunt.” Ava takes a sip of her sweet tea.

“Where’s Courtney?’ Lily was wondering Courtney went.

“She’s working at a construction site for her father. He’s is planning on stepping down for a while, to let her take over.”

“What type of work do you do, Ava?” Yasmine takes a bite of her sub.

“She’s a full-time mommy.” Sarah answered for Ava.

Yasmine looks over towards Sarah and then towards Ava.

“I didn’t know Ava was a mommy.”

Sarah looks towards Ava “you didn’t tell them?”

“No, I didn’t think it was important.”

“Oh, it’s a good thing I already knew about it.” Carmen had a Cheshire smile on her face.

Lydia and Ryder look towards Ava “How many children do you have Ava?”

“I have two sets of triplets in all. I have four girls and two boys. They are two and one-year old.” Ava had a proud look on her face.

“Are they Were like you?”

“Yes and no. I have two that magical abilities and the other four are Were’s like me and Courtney.”

“Wow!” Yasmine was impress.

Carmen enjoying her lunch. She already knew that Ava, Courtney and Sarah had children together. She hopes one day that she meets her
special someone. They enjoy the rest of lunch and afterwards go horseback riding. Arion didn’t mind Ava riding him for a little while. Yasmine did warn her not to have any electronic devices near him, because he tends to short them out.

Yasmine enjoys herself as they all rides out on the property. Even Carmen looked like she was enjoying herself. After about thirty minutes of riding, Ava traded horses with Yasmine so she could ride Arion.

Yasmine had woken up early and gotten dress. She goes down to the pasture where Arion was grazing with the rest of the horses. Most of Ava’s horses, except the two fey bred ones were keeping their distance from Arion. Ava had told her that the two Fey bred ones had been a gift from her Fey great grandmother.

“Good morning Arion, I hope everything was okay last night.” Yasmine was petting Arion on the side of his neck.

“Everything was fine last night. A few of the Were’s on the ranch went out hunting last night.” Arion had watched as the one known as Gabe and his girlfriend had gone out and didn’t return till early this morning. Just before Yasmine had come out to see him.

“I don’t want to know what they were up too.” Yasmine had some ideas, but she preferred not to know.

“Come on, let’s go for a ride.” Yasmine summons Arion’s saddle and climb up on him.

Arion taught her how to summon her saddle and gear to him yesterday, after they had come back from their ride.

Her and Arion head out into the early morning just enjoying the morning foggy air and each other’s company. The fog was rolling in off the river that ran next to Ava’s property. They were deep in Ava’s property just riding when Arion stops near the river bank.

The next thing Yasmine feels is Arion’s electrical field surrounding them as a bullet bounces off it.

“Hold on Yasmine!” Arion turns away from the river and runs towards the house.

As Arion was turning to run back towards the main house, Yasmine spots a speed boat heading towards the spot they just left. The air around
Yasmine and Arion start becoming thick and heavy. Just as Arion was jumping a fallen tree, Yasmine feels herself grab by something invisible and yanked right out of her saddle.

She lands on her back hard as she hits the ground. She takes a few minutes to gather her thoughts and recover from hitting the ground. She was trying to call Arion, but the air was getting so heavy. She could feel the air being charged with electricity. Two men in black outfits appear from the mist coming towards her.

Yasmine springs to her feet and automatically go into a combat stance. Her father had taught her how to fight. She summons her pure oak Bo staff to her. She didn’t bring her knives with her, but she could summon her Bo staff any time she needed it. It was one of the first lessons Lily showed her.

The two guys point their rifles at her.

“Give up little girl. You’re outclass.” One of the guys in black had spoken.

A smile appears on Yasmine face as she snaps her finger and the ammo inside their guns explode. Using the guns as a distraction. Yasmine swings her Bo staff and connects with one of the men’s heads. There was a loud thunderclap as her Bo staff connected with the helmet. She
uses her Bo staff for support as she swings around and connects her foot with the other guys covered face.

Yasmine knocks him backward as a lightning bolt appears from nowhere and strikes the other guy.

“Holy Crap!” Yasmine steps back away from the guys.

She had felt the energy discharged from the lightning bolt. She looks behind them and notices a very pissed off Arion walking through the mist and his energy field was burning away the heavy mist that was concealing them. His eyes were a bright red glow and he no longer looked like a normal horse, but something out of a nightmare. The guy that Yasmine had kicked in the face had stumbled backwards. He looks where his partner had been standing, but all that was there was a pair of smoking boots.

“I think you better surrender or my familiar behind you is going to fry you.” Yasmine had her Bo staff pointed at the guys throat.

The guy tosses a grenade towards Yasmine, just as a lightning bolt struck him. Yasmine summons magical energy from the earth to protect her as the grenade goes off, sending her backwards and onto the ground. The magical shield she had summoned into existence rather quickly had protected her from being killed, but the explosive force had knocked her off her feet.

She starts coughing “Arion, are you alright?”

Yasmine looks in the direction from where the explosion was and sees Arion walking towards her like it was nothing.

“I’m fine Yasmine. Let’s get you back to the house.” Arion stands near Yasmine so she could climb up into his saddle.

Yasmine body protested as she climbed up onto Arion’s back. Both of them could feel the ground rubble underneath them as they started
back towards the house. They could hear growls and roars that sounded like they were coming from large angry cats and wolves. As they got closer to the house, Yasmine and Arion saw more men in black uniforms being held in columns of Earth or fighting a Wolf or some large cat.

Yasmine spots her mother, father and aunt holding off six men.

“Giddyap!” Yasmine urges Arion on faster.

She summons some of Arion’s electrical discharge to her hands and directs it towards the men fighting her family. She burns the palm of her
hands, because she wasn’t used to handling Arion’s magical energies.

She does it three more times striking the men with the energy. By the time she stops near her family, the skin covering her hands was blackened and she couldn’t move her fingers or feel anything.

Lydia had heard thunder coming towards them and saw lighting being directed by Yasmine towards the men they were holding their ground against.

“Lydia, get over here now! Yasmine has burned her hands using my lighting.” Arion had felt Yasmine drawing on his energy and directing it.

He could feel that she had burned her hands tossing his lighting. She was prepared for dealing with his magical energies. He was concern that she might have permanently damaged her hands.

Lydia rushes over with Lily and lower Yasmine down off Arion’s back. She could see wisp of smoke coming from Yasmine’s blackened hands.

Lydia tries to do some healing, but she didn’t have the healing talent. Neither did Ryder or Lily. A red wolf comes over and changes rather quickly.

“Here, let me heal what I can.” Courtney kneels next to Yasmine and lays her hands just above Yasmine’s.

She draws on her mate’s energies again and manages to repair some of the damage. Courtney does what she can for Yasmine.

“That’s all I can do for her. This is magical damage and my healing talents don’t do too well on them. She won’t lose her hands now, but she’ll need time to heal normally.” Courtney looks towards Lydia and Lily.

Yasmine could feel her hands again and flex them, but they still tingle and hurt.

She looks up at Courtney “thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Since you have a familiar, your recovery time should be cut in half. Once you are healed, I think you should practice using
Arion’s magical energies. This way this won’t happen again.” Courtney stands up and walks over to see what she could do to help a few other Were’s that had been hurt.

Yasmine looks towards her family “I’m sorry. I..”

“It’s okay Yasmine. I know why you did it.” Lydia places a kiss on her daughter’s forehead.

Ryder picks his daughter up and places a kiss on her forehead as well.

He carries her towards the house followed by Lily and her mother. She’s taken to Dr. Julia King’s office to have her hands looked after. She
was Ava’s head vet, that also double as the doctor on the ranch. She wraps Yasmine’s hands up after applying a special healing salve to her hands that would help with the pain and healing.

Lydia takes Yasmine to the room she had been sleeping in and lay her daughter down to rest.

Yasmine sat on top of Arion as she and several other witches protected the others from magical attacks from the white witches of the HSL and the Hunter organization. They had made their move early in the morning and set off a non-magical alarm. They were attacking the holding facility where the captured were taken and held. A few of the captors were study and dissected. There were rumors that some of the captors were experimented on.

“How are you holding out Yasmine?’ Arion was concerned because Yasmine’s hands were still healing.

“I’m alright. The healing salve I put on this morning is numbing my hands and has speeded up the healing.” Yasmine had seen the skin that had grown back on her hands this morning.

Her mother had given her a pair of silk gloves she had enchanted to speed up the healing and to protect her hands. Yasmine raises her hand and blocks an attack that had been directed towards some nearby Were’s.

“Arion let’s get closer and give them a taste of your thunder and lightning.” A smile appears on her face as she thinks about a scene from Run Down.

Arion starts charging towards the white witches that had sent the spell they had blocked. He made sure they heard his thunder as he charges towards them. He let loose with a few lightning bolts of his own towards a group of white witches. The lighting strikes the group and a few of them drop as it strikes through their protective shields.

“Do it again Arion.” Yasmine starts chanting as Arion lets loose another bolt.

Just as it strikes the group again, a loud sonic boom sounds and all the mages that had been standing were laying on the ground smoking.
None of them were moving as they laid there.

Yasmine was smiling as they rode up to them. She hops down off Arion and secure them. There was a deep wide cater where Arion’s lightning bolt had hit. She had increased the power of it to the point their personal or joint shield couldn’t protect them.

“You need to use that spell more often.” Arion had been impressed by the power he felt.

“Maybe, it takes a little out of me.” Yasmine walks back over to Arion and swings back up into her saddle.

“Hey Yasmine, we need a door made. You think Arion can do it?” Jerry looks at Yasmine to see if Arion could do it.

“Let’s see what we can do.” Yasmine and Arion walk over towards the wall.

“Be careful Yasmine. The wall is reinforced and protected.” Jerry moves away from the wall.

“Not for long it isn’t” Yasmine backs Arion up towards the wall.

“Alright partner, let the wall have it.”

Arion leans forwards and brings his hind hooves up and kick at the wall. Sparks fly as his hooves hit the wall and explodes as his hooves go right through the wall. He retracts his hooves and step towards Yasmine.

“Is that big enough for you?” Yasmine looked at the hole Arion just made. It was big enough for a person to walk through, but not Arion.

“Yep, I would say so. Are you going join me inside?”

“Arion, will you be alright out here guarding the hole?”

“Go on. I’ll be alright.” If he could feel Yasmine, he will know where she is.

Yasmine follows Jerry inside and couldn’t believe the condition some of the occupants were in. As they pass the cells, she was seeing cells that the occupants were in their own filth and others that were so scarred and bandaged up. Yasmine felt sick to her stomach. She had to run back to the hole she came through and throw-up.

“Are you alright, Yasmine?” Arion nudges her.

“How can people be so cruel to others?” Yasmine looks at Arion with tears in her eyes.

Jerry had seen Yasmine run off with her hand covering her mouth. He gives her a few minutes and heads back towards the hole they had come in through. He couldn’t believe what they had seen and forgot that Yasmine was only ten years old. He walks through the hole and see her hugging Arion.

“Are you alright, Yasmine?” He could see she had her face buried against Arion’s shoulder.

“I’ll be okay. Why don’t you get one of the others to go with you Jerry?” Yasmine looks to him.

“I think you’re right. I’m sorry you had to see what you saw, but now you know what we are facing, Yasmine.”

“I know, Jerry. I’m going to go and find Courtney.” Yasmine swings up onto her saddle and ride off to find Courtney and Ava. She knew if one was nearby, the other was too.

She finds Courtney and Ava in their hybrid form facing off against a group of people wearing armor from the middle ages. They had some weird insignia on the cloth armor overcoat. They had a shield with the same insignia. Yasmine could feel the magic embedded in the armor. She pulls her knives out and throws one at the head of one guy. Her aim was true, and the knife went straight through the guys helmet and into his head.

“I didn’t know my knives were that magical.” Yasmine looks at her knife and forgot that it was magical. It had the head of a wolf as a handle.

Yasmine watches as one of the knights turn around to face her. He starts running towards her and Arion. The electrical field springs up around
Arion as the Knight gets closer. He swings his sword and Arion actual felt the sword cut through his field and hit his skin. Even Yasmine felt as the sword cuts into Arion’s skin.

Yasmine tosses her other knife down at the guy, but he blocks her throw with his shield. Her knife lands on the ground behind the knight. He goes to attack her, but she slips out of her saddle, put Arion between her and the knight.

Arion steps forward and brings his legs down hard on the knight’s foot, crushing from his strength. Yasmine uses her saddle to swing under

Arion and slam both her feet into the knight’s other leg. Yasmine jumps back up into the saddle and look down at the knight as he lays on the ground. She pulls another knife and throw it at his chest. Instead of bouncing off his armor, the knife sinks into his chest.

“I think he’s dead, Yasmine.” Arion couldn’t detect a heartbeat.

“Duck, Yasmine!” Courtney was tossing one of the knights in the direction Yasmine was.

Yasmine lays flat against Arion’s neck as a body goes flying over her. She felt the person pass right over her back. She sits back up and look behind her and saw the knight laying on his stomach.

“I think you broke him, Courtney.” Yasmine summons her knives back from the bodies and the one laying on the ground.

She looks back towards Ava and Courtney and saw Ava’s fist go through the knight’s armor and pull his heart out. Yasmine just shakes her head as she walks closer to Ava and Courtney. She slides down off Arion and looks down at the knight by her feet.

“Who are they?” Yasmine kneels to look at the armor.

“They are the Knights of the Hunter Organization. Normally, you don’t see them, but because Ava pissed them off. They have been coming here to the States to take her hide.” Courtney looks towards Ava.

“So, why are they here?” Yasmine was curious.

“They were guarding this place. They know more about the supernatural than any other Hunter or HSL member.” Courtney walks over and picks up the one she threw towards Yasmine and drag him back to the others.

Yasmine helps where she can for the rest of the day. They managed to take the facility and help the ones that had been capture. Yasmine helps serve and feed the all the occupants. There were a few that had to be knocked out, because their mind was to mess up from what was done to them. It was going to take all their healers to heal everyone they found. Yasmine stays busy helping and saw that some of the people they freed were children. Yasmine goes and finds Arion and just hugs him tight. Her parents were in another group and the only people she knew here were Carmen, Ava and Courtney. She could see that Ava was pissed. Courtney was doing everything she could to calm Ava down. Carmen wasn’t showing any emotion, but when she got close to her, the air was colder.

Yasmine skips dinner and just go and take a soak in the tub. She wishes one of her parents were here right now with her. She couldn’t understand why people would do what they did to the people they freed. Are people so stuck-up with their religious beliefs that they can’t understand they are doing more harm than good?

She gets out and dry off and head straight to her bedroom and just lay down and cry.

Yasmine and Arion were out riding on Ava’s property. She needed the time to herself after what she saw yesterday when they freed those people. She tossed and turned all night last night and woke-up in a cold sweat. She wanted her mother, but she was with her father on another team. She could use Arion to run over to the team where her mother was, but she wasn’t going to do that. Instead she got up early and went for an early morning ride.

Yasmine looks out from on top of Arion at all the open space blanketed with snow that Ava owned. The place was bigger then her parents place. She’s already been to the other end of the property three times this morning. She had let Arion run and burn off some of the energy he had pent up.

“We’ve got company.” Arion had picked up on the Were-Dingo running towards him and Yasmine.

Gabe had gone out for his morning run, when he felt Arion’s unique magical energies out near the river that ran next to the property. He wasn’t looking for him, but wonder why Arion was this far out away from the other horses on the ranch. As he got closer he noticed that Yasmine was outside sitting on top of Arion. She was wearing her cobalt blue cloak for warmth. It had snowed heavily last night and the snow covering the ground was at least three feet deep. He heads towards Yasmine and changes into his hybrid form. He walks up to her and Arion. His connection to the Earth, made him immune to the cold.

“How are you feeling this morning, Yasmine?” He knew she was affected by what she says yesterday when they rescued the people that were prisoners of the HSL.

“To be honest, Gabe. I want my mother or my Aunt Lily here with me. I want to be held by mother.” Yasmine just wanted her parents here to comfort her.

She may be fourteen years old mentally, but physical she was ten years old. Her emotions were those of a ten-year-old girl. Even though she was older mentally.

Yasmine felt warm under her cloak and the gloves she was wearing. They were the same clothes she had shown up in when she arrived on her parent’s property. She wasn’t wearing the dress that went with the cloak, but a sweater that matched the color of the cloak. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and her brown knee-high cowboy boots.

“Have you talked to Ava or Courtney about how you feel or your friend Carmen?” Gabe knew Yasmine was good friends with Carmen.

He had seen her outside this morning wearing a bikini and drinking her coffee. He knew the cold didn’t bother her at all. If nothing else, it just made her skin color look paler.

“No sir. Ava was pissed yesterday, and Courtney was ready to kill some people. Carmen was pissed as well and the air around her felt like you were in the artic.” Yasmine had gone to Carmen, but when she got close to her. The cold emitting from Carmen almost froze the air in her lungs.

Gabe stands there and wonders who else she could go to for comfort and Maggie’s name pops into his head.

“Why don’t you go and see Maggie. I know she wouldn’t mind you visiting her.” Gabe knew Maggie wouldn’t mind Yasmine dropping in on her.

Yasmine thinks about it. She wouldn’t mind, but she didn’t know Ava’s aunt that well and didn’t want to intrude on her. Yasmine would rather be with her mother.

Gabe could tell Yasmine didn’t want to go to Maggie’s

“Look, why don’t you go to your parents? I’ll let Ava and Carmen know.”

“Are you sure?” Yasmine looks down at Gabe.

“Go ahead kiddo. I’ll let Ava and Carmen know. Just be careful.” Gabe had already let Carmen know and she was fine with it. He was letting
Ava know now. He felt that Ava was busy with Courtney.

“Thanks Gabe.” Yasmine gives Gabe a hug.

“Any time kiddo.” Gabe just smile and returns the hug.

Yasmine opens a portal in front of her that went back to her parent’s farm. She could tell it had snowed there as well. She steps through the portal towards the barn.

Gabe watches as Yasmine walks through the portal and as it closes behind her and Arion. Once Yasmine was inside the barn, she gets down from the saddle and start taking her gear off Arion.

“Arion, do you want to be in the barn today, or run around out in the field for a while.” Yasmine was brushing him down.

“I think I’m going to run around for a while. Why don’t you go ahead and lay down with your mother and aunt?” Arion walks out of the barn and out into the field.

Yasmine heads into the house and hangs her cloak up. She goes upstairs to her parent’s bedroom and open the door slightly. She spots her aunt, and her parents still in bed asleep. Yasmine slips her boots off and crawl into bed next to her mother.

Lydia wakes up when she feels Yasmine crawl onto the bed. She lowers the blankets so, Yasmine could crawl in between her and Ryder. Once she was settle between the two of them. She gathers Yasmine up in her arms and hold her tight as she feels Yasmine cry against her. She just let Yasmine cry as she held her in her arms. She does wonder why she was here, instead of with Ava and her group.

Yasmine buries her face again her mother and let the emotions she had been holding back pour out. She feels her mother wrap her arms around her tiny body and hold her. She buries her face against her mother’s chest and snuggle closer. After a few minutes, she cries herself to sleep.

Lydia feels Yasmine stop crying and fall asleep against her. She had been informed by Ava last night on what happened and how it affected Yasmine. She was thinking about visiting her baby, but it had snowed heavily last night there and in Kentucky. So, she was surprised when she was woken-up by Yasmine crawling onto the bed. Once Yasmine was situated against her. She held her and let her cry against her chest.

Ryder had woken up when he felt someone crawling on the bed and was surprised to see his daughter. Lydia had told him what happened with her and the two of them wanted to visit her. However, the fallen snow had complicated things. He listens to Yasmine as she cries herself to sleep against her mother.

Lydia just holds Yasmine as she slept. She looks down at her and was thankful that the goddess had sent her to them. They were losing hope that they would ever have children. Both her and Lily loved children. Her husband loved children as well and was tickled pink when Yasmine showed up that day as well. She closes her eyes and go back to sleep, holding Yasmine.

Yasmine stands on the back porch and look out at the snow as it covered the ground. She had her warmest clothes on and a different cloak then the one she originally showed up with. They had more snowfall last night and she had to feed the horses this morning. She had a hard time getting through the snow to the barn this morning. She made it and feed everyone and made sure their water wasn’t frozen. Arion rubbed her cheek and said that carmen said to stay here with her parents. Everything they needed her for was taken care of.

Yasmine takes a sip of her hot chocolate and just watch the horses as they leave the barn. She could tell Arion was enjoying the snow as he gallops and ran around the field. The trees in the grove looked bared and ghostly. She just watches as little flakes fell from the sky.

“Enjoying the scenery?” Ryder had spotted his daughter standing out on the back porch drinking her hot chocolate.

Yasmine turns her head and saw her father dressed warmly “Yes sir. Where I came from originally. We barely got any snow at all.”

Ryder walks over and stands next to Yasmine. He puts his arm around her shoulders and pull her tight against him.

Yasmine leans against her father. She felt safe and protected standing there with him. She’s never felt like this before.

“Carmen told me what happened and why you wanted to come home. How are you feeling, now that you are home?” Ryder looks down at his daughter.

“I feel better that you, mom and aunt Lily are here with me. I couldn’t deal with what was done to those prisoners by the HSl and the Hunter
organization.” Yasmine shivers just from her memory of what she saw.

Ryder felt Yasmine shiver and held her to him.

“Now, you know why we do what we do and why we tell you to be careful about using your magic. I know, all of this is all new to you, but now I hope you understand.”

“I know daddy. I just didn’t think the HSL and The Hunter organization would be inhuman about how they treat people. It makes them no better than how the Nazi’s were. How can anyone justify what they do in the name of Religion?” Yasmine just stay by her father’s side and after a few minutes. Both head back in the house.

Yasmine hangs her cloak up and tuck her gloves into the inside pocket, so she doesn’t lose them. She walks over to the big pot on the stove and step up on the step stool. She stirs the stew she helping her mother make for dinner tonight.

“Come on kiddo.” Ryder picks her up and carry her into the living room.

Yasmine just smiles as she is carried by her father and dumped by her mother. She moves out of the way as Ryder sits down next to her. She curls up between her two parents and just watch a movie her Aunt Lily puts in the DVD player. The movie was one she never saw before, starring Sandra Bullock.

As she is sitting there enjoying the movie, Arion ask her what she is doing. She lets him see what she was watching.

“That is interesting. Moving pictures. I have never seen anything like that before.” Arion looks around the pasture.

“Maybe one day, I’ll bring my laptop out, so you can see what a movie is.” Yasmine figure she could do it, when it warmed up.

Yasmine watches a few movies with her parents and her Aunt, before she has to go outside and feed the horses again. She puts her boots, cloak and gloves back on and go feed the horses again. She makes sure all the horses are in the barn. She walks over to Arion to groom him.

“Arion, why did you choose me to be linked to?” Yasmine brushes his side.

“Because I was asked to. I think you have a lot of potential to be a powerful witch. When the goddess Freya remade you, she added a little extra to you.” Arion had sensed it when he first joined with her.

“She gave me a choice of what I wanted to look like. At first, I thought she was some Greek Goddess. Then as she became more solid, I notice how different she looked. So, I chose the character I created for a table top game, based on Piper from Charm. Piper was supposed to be a charmed one and she was older than her sisters who were charmed like her. I think Freya sensed that in me and decided to make me a little bit more powerful, than she normally would.” Yasmine brushes Arion’s side.

“Do you miss being a normal fourteen-year-old boy?” Arion could tell how old Yasmine really was.

“To be honest, Arion. I like how I am. It’s a pain at times to pretend that I am ten years old, but looking like I am eight is what really bothers
me.” Yasmine may be ten years old, but she looked like she was eight years old.

She finishes grooming Arion and makes sure he has plenty to eat.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Arion.” She gives him a hug and head towards the house. She makes sure the barn doors were closed and trudge her way back to the back steps.

Once she makes her way onto the back porch, she turns around and just out at the property. It looked so pretty covered with snow.

Yasmine couldn’t believe it was Christmas Eve already. It’s been several months since the supernatural community had attack the HSL and The Hunter organization. They dealt a serious blow to each group and most of their organization were in tatters. It was going to take them a few years to rebuild.

Her bond with Arion has become stronger. She could use his lighting without hurting herself and draw upon his energies to power her spells. They each knew what each other was doing or where they were. Her body was finally maturing. She was finally developing breast and she grew a little bit taller. She no longer looked like she was eight years old any more. She was wearing her Christmas dress that mother had handmade for her.

All her aunts and uncles on both her mother’s and father’s side of the family, plus relatives from her Aunt Lilly’s side of the family. They were either staying with them for the holidays or were just here today for the family dinner tonight. She heads into the crowded kitchen, being careful not to get anything on it.

“Yasmine, can you take this plate to the table please?” Lydia hands Yasmine a large platter with cut ham slices.

“Sure mom.” Yasmine takes the platter and carefully make her way through her family members.

She makes it to the huge dining room table. The adults had a table and the kids had their own table. There were only four teenagers and like six or seven kids under the age under seven years old.

Yasmine makes her way back into the kitchen to help some more. All the women were in the kitchen, while the men were watching a football game or talking. The younger kids were in the den watching a movie or playing the play station with the teenagers. Some were outside on the swing bench with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

Yasmine stayed busy helping the adults and setting the tables. She told by her mother and father to keep her abilities under wrap. Some of them knew about real magic and some of them don’t know. So, she was to keep her magical talents quiet till they left. Even Arion was using his magic to disguise himself. He was using a glamour spell to appear as a normal horse.

By the time dinner was ready and everyone was sitting down around the table enjoying the meal. She already felt exhausted. It was hard for her to act like a normal teenager, when she knew there were other things. She tries to enjoy herself as a blessing is said and everyone starts digging into the meal.

Yasmine joins in when Christmas carols are sung with other family members. By midnight, those family members that were staying started turning in for the night. Yasmine was sharing her bedroom with several of her cousins. She snuggles up with her teddy bear as she shares her bed with a cousin of hers. She had two more cousins sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags.

Christmas Morning:
Yasmine wakes up from all the noise of her cousins getting up and heading downstairs to see what gifts they got. She comes down and goes over and sit next to her aunt and mother.

“Merry Christmas, sweetie.” Lilly hands Yasmine a gift from her pile from under the tree.

“Thanks Aunt Lilly.” Yasmine opens the gift and notice it was a hand knit sweater from her mother.

She gives Lydia a hug “thank you mom.”

“You’re welcome sweetie.” Lydia returns the hug.

Yasmine kneels on the floor and dig for her gifts to her parents and Aunt. She hands a silver wrapped one to her aunt Lilly first and then a green one with candy canes to her mother and finally a blue one with snowmen on it to her father.

The gift for her father was a leather belt she crafted herself and decorated. The belt buckle was made of silver in the shape of an apple tree, which was their signature symbol for the farm. The decorations on the belt were done by her by hand. Lilly, taught her had to carve in leather.
The gift for her mother, was a handcrafted cabinet made of oak and had crystal quartz’s and copper veins running through the wood. The hinges were made of brass that she made herself and put protection runes on the hinges and the cabinet itself. The doors had a hand carved scene on them that her father had shown her how to do. The whole cabinet was protected against any magical or physical attack form all the runes and protection crystals and spells she put on the cabinet. She had burned her mother’s old magic cabinet by accident, she Yasmine wanted to make a new one for her mother.

Lydia looks at the cabinet and at Yasmine “it’s lovely sweetie.”

She reaches over and gives Yasmine a hug.

Yasmine returns the hug “thank you mom. Dad helped me cut the wood and put it together.”

Lilly opens her gift from Yasmine and it was a handmade cloak, just like Yasmine’s cobalt blue one with matching leather gloves. The color of the cloak was her favorite color aqua green. There was a necklace in there as well, that went with the cloak.

“I know how you liked my cobalt blue cloak Aunt Lilly, so I made you one just like mine with matching gloves. Mom, helped with the gloves and you might find a few blood spots where I stabbed myself with the needle.” Yasmine had stabbed herself a few times hand sewing the fur lining in the cloak.

“It’s okay sweetie. Thank you.” Lilly places a kiss on Yasmine cheek.

Yasmine received clothes, books, items for her horse and a handcrafted athame made by her father. He had bought the ingots to craft the
athame for her and one for his wife. The difference between hers and Yasmine’s, was the wood the handle was made of. Yasmine’s had Rose wood, while her mother had Oak for hers.

After the gifts have been exchanged and opened by everyone. Yasmine helps her mother and aunt in the kitchen to fix breakfast for everyone. Afterwards, she gets dress and heads outside to feed the horses and to see Arion.

“Merry Christmas, Arion.” Yasmine gives him some apples and carrots.

She knows he loves apples and carrots. She also knows he loves some of the other vegetables and fruits they grew here on the farm. She gets his brush and begin to brush him down.

“How was your Christmas, Yasmine?”

“It is nice so, far.” Yasmine brushes his legs.

Yasmine stays outside for awhile taking care of Arion.

“You better head back inside, Yasmine. Your relatives are wondering where you are.” Arion nudges her.

“Okay.” Yasmine gives him a hug and heads inside.

So, far her Christmas has been wonderful.

Yasmine leaned against her mother as they went for a sleigh ride. She had helped her father hitch the horses up to the sleigh. They had brought a heavy blanket and hot freshly made cocoa as well. Yasmine wasn’t too cold. She had on her cobalt blue cloak, gloves and scarf. She was sitting between her mother and her Aunt Lilly.

Arion was out running around in the snow. He was having fun as he enjoyed himself.

“It looks like our little girl is enjoying herself.” Lilly just smile as she observed Yasmine snuggled against Lydia.

Lydia just looks at her little girl as they traveled down the road. Lydia thought Yasmine would enjoy an old fashion sleigh ride. Ryder was driving the sleigh as they traveled.

“Did you enjoy Christmas Yasmine?” Lydia looks down at her little girl.

“Yes ma’am. It’s the best I have ever had.” Yasmine thinks back on all the Christmas’s he had when he uses to be a boy with his original family.

None of them had ever been like what he experience this year. Except when he was very young. After that, things changed in his original family. He doesn’t recall when it happened exactly, but things changed as he got older. The snowplow trucks couldn’t get up where they were.

Most of the farmers near her could clear the road if they wanted too.

Ryder just takes them around and visit a few neighbors of theirs. They drop off some home-made soup and muffins that Yasmine helped her Aunt and mother help bake and make. Yasmine had met some of her neighbors and they knew she was Ryder’s and Lydia’s niece that had come to live with them.

They spend most of the day out sleigh riding and when they get back to the house. Yasmine checks the stew they had left cooking. It was ready. She gets a corn muffin mix down and whips up the ingredients. she pours the mixture into the cup cake cups and put them in the oven.

While they were baking, she sets the table. She makes sweet tea and set it on the table.

“Mom, Dad, Aunt Lilly. Dinner is ready.” Yasmine scoops up the stew and put it in a serving bowl and put that on the table.

She takes her place and watch as the rest of her family join her.

“It smells good sweetie.” Ryder loved what he was smelling.

He takes his seat at the head of the table. Lilly sits across from Yasmine and Lydia takes the other end facing Ryder. Yasmine gets up quickly
to pull the muffins out and set them out on the table in a basket.

“Did you enjoy your sleigh ride, Yasmine?” Ryder looks at his daughter.

“Yes sir. I really enjoyed it.” Yasmine had never been on one before.

The one they took was enjoyable. She wouldn’t mind doing it again with her family. There is small talk at the table as they eat dinner. When Yasmine is done, she is sent to take her bath, while her mother and aunt take care of the dishes and left overs.

Yasmine heads upstairs to the bathroom and run a bath. She adds in some bubble bath as the tub fills up. She strips out of her clothes and when she is naked, she gets into the tub. The hot water felt nice against her skin. She plays for awhile and then wash her body and shampoo her hair. She drains the water and dries off. Yasmine wraps the towel around her body and heads towards her bedroom to slip her night shirt on and get her slippers. She goes downstairs to spend some time with her parents and Aunt.

She puts in Despicable Me 3 and watch it with everyone. She got the movie as a Christmas gift. Lydia covers her up with a throw blanket as she lays her head on her mother’s lap. Yasmine doesn’t even make it half-way through the movie, before she is sound asleep.

“I think we wore her out.” Lydia strokes Yasmine blood red hair.

Ryder just smiles as he walks over and picks her up off the sofa and cradle her against his chest. Lydia gets up and follows him up to
Yasmine’s bedroom and lay her down in bed. Lydia tucks her in and place a kiss on her forehead.

“Sleep well, my daughter.” Lydia puts Yasmine’s favorite teddy bear next to her.

Ryder bends down and kisses her cheek.

“Sleep tight my little fire top.” Lydia and Ryder back out of Yasmine’s bedroom.

They head towards their bedroom and change into their night clothes.

During the night, Yasmine wakes up in a cold sweat. She sits up in bed as the images of the people she saw at the holding cells haunt her
memory. She grabs her teddy bear and head towards her mother, aunt and father’s bedroom. She walks in and crawl up in between her mother and father.

Lydia wakes up when she feels Yasmine crawl between her and Ryder.

“Had a nightmare?” Lydia holds Yasmine close to her.

“Yes ma’am.” Yasmine snuggles close to her mother.

Lydia holds her as she feels Yasmine slowly drift off to asleep in her arms. During the night, Yasmine stays close to her mother. She buries her face against her mother’s chest.

Throughout the night, Lydia feels Yasmine tremble and snuggle closer to her body. Lydia just holds her and uses a little bit of magic to calm Yasmine down.

Lydia falls back asleep, once she feels her baby is asleep.

Yasmine stares out into the yard as the snow fell from the sky. She had an afghan wrapped around her shoulders as she stood and just watched the snow flakes fall from the sky. She had shared with her mother everything she had seen at the holding center. Her mother had said there was two ways she could handle what she saw.

The first choice was for her to learn how to deal with it and overcome how it affects her. The second choice would be for her mother and father to either block the memory or remove it from her. If they removed it, she would more than likely forget everything that happen that day. She would have a blank spot in her mind.

She decided to learn to overcome it. Her mother, aunt and father said they would help her. Just like Arion said he would help her. She watches as Arion comes trotting up to the back porch. He leans forward over the rail, so she could pet him. She always felt better when she touched him.

How are you feeling?
“I’m doing better. I still have nightmares about what happened.”
It takes time to heal from trauma. There are those that will never overcome what they have seen, but I know you will. You have a good heart and have been god touched. Plus, you have me and I am not going anywhere. I will never abandon you.
Arion rubs his head against her body.
“Thanks Arion.” Yasmine hugs him.

She holds onto him for a while, before she starts shivering. She releases him and heads inside the house. She notices that Lily was standing in the kitchen with a nice mug of hot chocolate.

“I thought you might want this, with as long as you were outside.” She hands the mugs to Yasmine.

“Thanks Aunt Lily.” Yasmine takes a sip of her hot chocolate.

“You’re welcome pumpkin.” Lily watches her niece as she drunk her cocoa.

She stirs the stew she had started for dinner.

Yasmine watches her aunt as she stirs the stew as she enjoyed her cocoa. The cocoa she was drinking was a special blend that her aunt put together. Her Aunt Lily imported cocoa beans from friends of hers in Africa, Mexico, and Brazil.

Yasmine finishes the last of her cocoa and rinse her mug out.

“Feel better now?” Lily knew Yasmine always felt better from drinking her special blend of cocoa.

“Yes ma’am.” Yasmine walks over and gives her Aunt a hug.

Lily returns the hug. She holds Yasmine and let Yasmine feel the love she has for niece flow into her. She knew Yasmine needed that more then anything else. She may have the mind of a fourteen years old boy, but she had the emotions of a ten-year-old girl.

Yasmine could feel the warm glow of her aunt’s energies enter her body and fill her up with nothing but love. She soaks it up and holds onto it.

Lily lets go of Yasmine “now off with you, youngster.” She kisses her forehead, as she releases Yasmine.

“Yes ma’am.” Yasmine felt better as she left her Aunt’s side.

Yasmine heads into the library and pull a book down off the self. She curls up in the big leather high back chair to read the book. The book was about The Adventures of Sinbad the sailor. Yasmine quickly loses herself in the story. She doesn’t even feel her mother when she comes in to check-up on her daughter.

Lydia knew Yasmine has been restless because of the nightmares and after their talk. She was proud her daughter wanted to solve this problem, instead of taking the easy way out of it. She had tracked her down to the library and found her engross in a novel. She didn’t want to disturb Yasmine, so she just stood at the doorway and watched her as she read.

After about twenty minutes of watching Yasmine read. Lydia heads towards the kitchen to start making the dough for the walnut bread she was making for dinner tonight. She finds Lily in there working on a ritual for their next meeting. They were going to change and replace some of the old rituals with new ones. That way, the rituals didn’t become boring or stale.

She doesn’t bother Lily as she goes about making the mixture for the Walnut bread. She preps the loaf pans and fill them up. By the time she had everything done, there was at least four pans filled and ready to go in the oven.

“I think that should do us. What do you think Lily?” Lydia looks over at Lily.

Lily looks up from the parchment she was writing on “yep, four should do us. One for Yasmine, one for Ryder and one for us to share and one left to have with our coffee.”

Lydia covers them up and set them aside. She walks over and sit down next to Lily and take a look at what she was working on. Since, she was the head Priestess. She would like to see what her maid had written for her.

Lydia picks the parchment up and reads over the ritual. She like how it flowed and channel the energies into the circle.

“I think this one is really good. I can feel the energies as I read the parchment.” She hands it back to Lily.

“Thank you.” Lily places a kiss on Lydia’s cheek.

Lydia just smiles. Her, Lily and Ryder have been in a three-way marriage since they were neophytes in their first coven. All three have exchange blood with each other and have each other’s blood flowing in their veins. It was risky when they did it, but because each of them had Fey blood somewhere in their ancestry. It tilted the odds into their favor. They were thinking about doing the same thing to Yasmine. Let her blood mix with theirs and theirs with her.

That way Yasmine could claim blood relation to her and they could claim blood relation to her as well.

When Lydia goes to find out what Yasmine wanted for lunch. She finds her sound asleep curled up in the chair she had been reading her book.
She spots the book on the floor next to the chair. She places a bookmark in it to mark the last page Yasmine may have read and grab a blanket from the downstairs hall closet and cover Yasmine up.

Lily was placing bowls on the kitchen table when she noticed Lydia walking in by herself.

“Where’s Yasmine?”

“She’s sound asleep in the library. She fell asleep while reading a book.” Lydia sits down at the table.

“Who fell asleep reading a book?” Ryder comes walking in from the back porch.

He had been out in the barn taking care of the animals. He hangs his heavy jacket up by the back door. He places his gloves in the pockets of
his jacket.

“Our wonderful daughter. She’s sound asleep in the library.” Lydia gets up and helps Lily with the stew from the stove.

The three of them sit down at the table and eat lunch, while they let Yasmine sleep.

Yasmine felt strange after sharing her blood with her mother, aunt and father. They had asked the local pack doctor to perform the ritual. All three of them had been connected to her. As they shared their blood with her, she in return shared her blood with them. They tried matching her blood type, but it didn’t match any known blood type.

She had inherited some traits from each of them, as they inherited some from her. Her hair was no longer as blood red as it used to be. It was more of a bright red now. Her eyes had stayed the same, but her skin had gotten a little darker. Her breast had developed more. She was just in the process of developing her own breast, but since she exchanged blood with her parents and aunt. They had developed further to a B cup.
Both her mother and aunt said she might get a little bigger as she got older.

Her body had filled out more. She was no longer looking like an eight-year-old, but more like a teenager. She noticed that her parents and Aunt had subtle changes to them. All of them seemed to look younger than they were. Their hair had gotten a little longer and brighter than they originally had. Her mother and Aunt seemed to be a little curvier than she remembered, and her father seemed to be more muscular than she remembered.

She didn’t know her blood would have this type of effect on them. She could also feel each of them inside her head. She goes to find her mother and knew instantly where she was. The same with her aunt and father.

“Mom, can you feel me inside your head, like I can feel you and everyone else?” Yasmine was looking at her mother.

“I could already feel them sweetie, the thing is. I feel you on a deeper level. It’s as if I carried you in my womb and gave birth to you.” Lydia walks over and stroke Yasmine’s cheek.

“Did anyone think, my blood would do this?” Yasmine wonders if everyone knew.

“Actually, we knew something’s would happen, but nothing on this level.” Lydia knew that they would feel Yasmine and add her magical ability to theirs, but nothing like she is feeling now.

She felt as if she had carried and gave birth to Yasmine. That she was her baby from the beginning. There was a bond there between them, that only a mother and child shared from the moment they formed inside the womb. She does realize now she’ll have to take Yasmine shopping and get a proper bra for her. She was no longer a developing girl.

“We’re going to have to go shopping tomorrow. I think the extra estrogen me and Lilly put in your system, has advance your development.” Lydia had noticed that after they did the Were style of adopting Yasmine.

Her body started maturing faster than before. She no longer looked like an eight-year-old, but more like she was twelve or older. She could see secondary sex characteristics changing Yasmine since they shared blood. This was something she never observed when Were’s did the adoption this way. Sure, the child inherited characteristics from each parent. She stops right there and wonder why she didn’t take that into account.

Yasmine inherited characteristics from all three of them. That was why she was developing faster now. Lydia just shakes her head as she walks over and hugs her baby.

Yasmine could feel her mother’s love and felt kind of confused on why she was hugging her, but she didn’t mind. This was her mother now. Ryder was her father and Lilly was her aunt. This was her new life and her family. The problem she has or had with what happened she was slowly accepting and getting over it.