Chapter 43- Whispers In The Wind

Levi opened the door. The smell of blood hit him instantly. The sweet and intoxicating smell made his tongue and lips tingle. It was overpowering and sent his wolf wild. He turned and looked at Ruby who stepped back in fear. Closing his eyes slowly her opened them letting out ragged breathes. The beast within him wanted to hunt and play, he had to force him back down.
“It’s true. You’re a monster,” she whispered.
“We are all monsters Ruby, just in different ways,” the terror vanished from her eyes and was replaced by curiosity. The Hudson’s really were something else. They lacked fear and were strong and independent.
“Your eyes are yellow,” she replied in awe. To Levi it was a curse, nothing to be memorized about. It was his demon he had to fight daily. To others it was fascination.
“Listen to me Ruby. He has no heartbeat,”
“How do you know?” she asked snapping her eyes away from his and to the body on the floor.
“As you have so kindly pointed out. I am a monster who as increased senses. I would have heard his heart by now,”
“Ohh” was all Ruby said.
“Get changed and go out. Surround yourself with people and get yourself an alibi. I will get rid of his body and clean up,” the last thing Ruby needed was a witch hunt, one where she was responsible for the murder. She had already committed one crime that was punishable by death she didn’t need another one added to the list.
He felt sorry for her. She had lost so much in a short space of time. She looked shy and timid. He hoped she would pull through the guilt. He knew from personal experience how it eats you up from inside. Makes you doubt yourself and those around you.
“Why would you do that for me?” Ruby asked.
“Let’s just say I have a situation on my hands that I will need Crystal’s help with,” that wasn’t true, and he knew it. He saw himself in the sacred girl. He had lost that innocence a century ago. Maybe if he had the help, friends to fall back on then he may have been different. After all the past divines your future.
“You can never tell Crystal about this,” Ruby pleaded.
“Don’t worry she never has to know. Go, act normal,”
“Thank you,” Ruby whispered before heading up the stairs and changing.
Levi waited until he heard the door close.
Perhaps he should have asked her what had taken place. Yet he didn’t care. He had seen a lifetime of bloodshed, hate and murder. It wasn’t anything new to him.
He looked around at the mess that Ruby had created. He had a lot of work to do. The evidence was laid out in plain sight. First, he had to get rid of the body.
He rummaged around the house until he found a large duffel bag. He squeezed Greg’s body inside with great difficulty and threw the bag over his shoulder.
Levi was thankful for his werewolf strength and speed, which allowed him to race through the community without being seen, nor heard.
He ran deep within the forest and stopped beside the lake that ran through the woodland connecting all the four covens. He pushed rocks into the bag and then tossed it into the lake. He watched the bag sink to the bottom before leaving to clean up the evidence.
As he made his way back to Ruby’s home he contemplated if what he was doing was right. For all he knew Ruby could have easily been a mass murder. Yet something deep inside him told him that wasn’t true.
She held a look of innocents with an inner struggle.
Once he got back, he took care making sure that every spot of blood was gone. He used chemicals in which he knew would mask any evidence of blood even from magic.
TCP mixed with white vinegar. It smelt vile so he opened up all the windows to let in fresh air. An hour later he was done. The house looked normal; no one would ever know that a murder had taken place only hours beforehand.
He sprayed the house with air freshener to get rid of the last bit of the lingering smell of TCP and called it a day.

***
Ruby walked around the enclosed community. She felt claustrophobic and trapped. Even though the coven was large and more like a small village settled within a large town, she still felt hot and sweaty like she couldn’t breathe and needed air.
She walked for hours, questioning what she had done. Who had she become? She didn’t know. Who was she?
She paused outside her mother’s home which was still alive with people bristling in and out. They wouldn’t stop searching for her father. Her mother would make sure of it. She thought about confiding in Jeanette, but the thought quickly disappeared.
Her mother would never understand. She killed a man. Why? Ruby couldn’t really settle on why she had done it. There was no excuse for what she had done.
Deep down she was glad she had done it. It was like a chain had snapped and she was free. Yet another part of her, the sweet part pushed guilt into her heart.
“They will kill you if they find out,” the good Ruby whispered in her mind.
Ruby gave the house one last look. It was a beautiful white structure. Yet inside it only held misery. The coven wasn’t her home nor her family. It was her prison. One she had to break out of.
She smiled as she caught a glimpse of Crystal manoeuvring round the back of the house. That girls name should have been trouble. She was always up to some kind of mischief. Even as a baby she broke every rule and stamped her chunky feet in protest.
Ruby looked up at the stars as Crystal disappeared from view.
“Dad I will be back, but for now I must go,” She whispered to the brightest star. She was sure he would understand.
She wouldn’t forget about the dairy but first she had to find who she was and protect her baby and herself from her mother’s wrath and the coven’s old rules.
“I will be back for you,” she whispered as she disappeared into the shadows of the night.
***
Crystal peeled her damp clothes from her body and dumped them into the laundry basket. Pulling her P. J’s over her head she listened to her mother’s raging voice.
“What is done is done,” Crystal smiled at herself in the mirror. She had stopped her mother destroying her father in death. There was nothing she could do now. Banishment would be a pleasure and not a punishment. There was nothing for her to be afraid of.
Pulling back the covers she groaned as she saw the red glowing numbers on her alarm clock.
12.45 am the digital clock read. When morning light came it would be her first day back at school since Halloween and she hated the place.
As she lay in bed staring at her ceiling she wondered where she fitted in. At school she was nothing but a loner. No friends. She didn’t fit in with any of the clinches. At home within the community everyone gave her a wide birth. Crystal Hudson a disgrace to the name Hudson and the head of the starlight witches. She broke rules. She didn’t like the way they lived and did things.
She was alone. No one to turn too. Then she smiled. She had Ruby, hadn’t she proven that she was on her side? Even if she hadn’t voiced it, the look in her eyes and the love she had given her gave her all she needed to know. Somehow Crystal knew that Ruby had seen Jeanette for what she was. A woman made of pure evil who owned manipulation and lies. She could tell a lie and believe that very same lie herself.
***
Levi crept through his own coven community. His father was ruthless, and he knew what he was planning to do could see him dead. But didn’t he owe Beth? After all he had broken her heart at his father’s wishes. What else was he to do?
It was Crystal. Before he had met her, he would have said no and walked away. No guilt or any other feeling would have crept into his heart. Yet she had taught him that everyone had rights. Beth had a right to have her mother.