Chapter 28

“Reece what a surprise,” Paige’s Melanie said eying the man suspiciously.
“I have come here today to seek your help,” Reece moved closer to the group of shifters and bowed his head.
“That’s rich. We have only been searching for you for the last decade,” Paige spat as anger rose from its hidden depth. They had followed every lead they could find and always came up empty handed. The man had just vanished, and the Sherman’s had then placed them at the bottom of the list. For a shifter that was unwelcome news. It was where the un-trusted were placed.
“I am sorry about that Paige. Please forgive me?” Paige scoffed and then her eyes grew wide.
“How do you know my name?”
“Ah you see, I have contacts too,” he gave her big toothy grin.
“Now, the reason I am here is that I fear my daughter will be the one to wake the queen,”
Paige laughed and Reece gave her an angry glare.
“Cassidy, let her mother out. I have heard the stories. There is no way,”
“Now Paige. I never mentioned Cassidy. Rather my daughter Jessica,” Paige’s whole family let out shocked gasps.
“Why do you think this Jessica girl will wake the queen?” Kobe asked looking at his family who all mirrored his expression, doubt.
“Cora as something that belongs to the Druids and….”
“Hold up a second. The Druids are dead. Gone. Extinct so whatever game you’re playing….”
“I assure you Kobe this is no game. Jess is the last of the Druids. When Cora burned down their village and killed its residents a child survived my daughter Jessica. Now before her grandfather Alico died he implanted vital information into her mind. The mission and soul purpose of the Druids. Jessica will not stop until she has done what she came here to do. Now in doing so she will have to enter the cave. You get where I am going?”
“How do you know it will be Jessica. Maybe it will be some random human. If she is a Druid then the curse states a human, even Druids carry the blood of a watches’,” Paige said, and her family nodded in agreement.
“Druids are human. They have just been infused with a fraction of the power of the gods. Plus, a keeper told me what was going to happen,”
“A keeper they are nothing but a myth,” Jack stated.
“No, they are real, but only run in the line of Edina,”
“How?” Paige’s mother who had been silent up until then asked.
Reece raised his eyebrows just as confused as the rest of them.
“How did you become the father of a druid child?” she explained.
“Okay, that doesn’t matter. What matters here is that the human race is at stake. Jessica will wake her and when she does, we will all be in big trouble not just the humans. Remember her own people betrayed her.”

***
Claire’s eyes flickered open. She tried to move her hand to brush a stray lock of hair out of her face to find that her hands were tied to a chair.
Panic settled in her stomach and her heart began to beat erratic. Her eyes darted around the room. First, she saw three brick walls then her eyes came upon a metal door. She was in a garage.
Claire’s feet had gone numb when she glanced down, they also were tied with rope.
She heard footsteps and closed her eyes. A kick to her chins made her eyes snap open when they did, she gasped at the person in front of her. She didn’t know his name, but she had seen him around with Jenna.
“Who are you?” her voice was croaky.
“Never you mind. Claire,” he laughed and the screech of metal on concrete floor made her body shudder. He sat backwards in a chair and leaned his chin upon his crossed arms.
“So, tell me Claire. How does it feel being tied up? Shame I couldn’t find a cage eh,”
Claire spat at the young man who wiped the spit from his face with the back of his hand he slapped Claire hard across the face. Her head whipped to the side with the impact, and she let out a little whimper. Determined to be strong even though inside she was terrified.
What had Jenna done? Her mind asked as she starred at the man.
“Your father will be looking for you. I know let’s take a picture and show him just how good it is to be held captive,” he said with glee pulling a phone out of his pocket.
“He his dead,” Claire said between gritted teeth.
“Marcel!” he yelled.
“Find out if Mason Jenson is indeed dead?” the young boy nodded and left the room.
Claire gulped as the images of the man flashed in her mind. He was the same young man who had been in the lab tied to the bed in the picture with Jenna.
***

Jess ducked behind a dumpster as the tiger left the garage. He was accompanied by another shifter. A young wolf around fourteen years old, something wasn’t right.
Since the witches of De’Mar had been cursed and banished to earth they couldn’t live together in their new forms. The animals within them wouldn’t allow it. All fighting to be the leader.
Yet the tiger and wolf were in deep discussion about a young woman named Claire.
Jess grinned as a plan formed in her mind. The shifters didn’t know it yet, but they had done all the work in order for her to carry out her mission. All she had to do now was wait for the right time.

***
Reece left the tigers. He knew that they didn’t believe him. Why would they? He had kept Jessica’s existence a secret. Anyone who had discovered her he made sure they were no threat to her life. Now he needed help. The last option he had was to find his daughter Cassidy. He knew she was in town.
He had always tracked her and ensured her safety. However, the last time he had seen her hadn’t gone well.
Cassidy had gotten herself into some trouble. She asked him for help. But what could he have done? The whole town knew she was a witch and so the Salem Witch Trials began. Many people lost their lives. Then decades later she was discovered again, only that time the Sherman’s stepped in and made sure a volcano erupted and killed the entire town.
Yet he knew revealing his secrete to her would serve the final hit to their relationship.
Cassidy would never forgive him. That he was sure of. He had failed both his children. However, he would not fail in keeping Cora asleep. If she woke, then the human race would be wiped out. She would seek revenge killing everything in her path.
The Cora he had once known and loved was gone. Replaced by a power-hungry monster, which would destroy the world.
He had no choice. He needed Cassidy’s help, not just for him but the town they both once called home.
He made his way to the house that had once been his home. A home that Cora herself had created for her people.