Finally, meeting his last beast

I close my eyes, trying to convince myself it’s not happening. I know the south is on their way, they’ve mindlinked me and I immediately passed it through to the Luna. She asked me to stay calm and be quiet. Mom is holding me tightly, although she never teached me about vampires, I know Ted is a monster. His powers are scary and I’ve experienced it myself. I know enough of them to know they’re incredibly good ‘smellers’. Their scent is amazing. If you thought werewolves have good senses with their nose: you’re wrong. Compared to vampires it’s nothing.

Seriously, because the sight of them is not great, especially not when the moon is shining brightly, they’ve to count on their scent. And because I’m a Chosen One, I know I stand out with my aura. I can imagine I do too with my scent, in some kind of way.

I feel stressed, but then I got a mindlink incoming:

*Eve! I’m coming, I’m on my way…*

Adam! “Oh thank Goddess, Adam: he is still alive.” I say, softly, making a big mistake but I didn’t realize it on this point. I feel how the tears of relief start to fall down my cheeks. I want to mindlink him back, but the big eyes in front of me does make my heart stop beating. I freeze. I minlink her: *Mom? What’s wrong?*

But she doesn’t need to answer my question. I feel his appearance, he’s right behind me. The sound of my voice was enough to trigger him and he found our location.

“Well, hello. There you are, beauty. You were naughty the last time I saw you, didn’t you? Hmmm?”

I force myself to turn around and look over my shoulder. Ted. He’s still as fragile-looking as he was before. But now his eyes are blood red, he’s hungry. He’s not shy anymore, the look in his eyes is ferociously. “Hi Ted. Long time, no see. I have to say: I did not miss you.” I try to sound solid and fearless. But I’m not sure if that works.

His face is only a few centimeters away from mine. I try to create some space between us, to crawl a bit backwards.

“What’s up, beauty? You don’t like my face, huh?” he says.

I don’t say anything, I look up and down his body and I notice he’s floating. He’s not walking, standing. He’s just a few centimeters above the ground and his feet aren’t touching the floor. He’s wearing a long, black dress with a purple band on his waist. The sleeves are long and a bit flared, his hands are covered.

“What do you want?” I ask.

He laughs. It’s the most terrible laugh I’ve heard in my entire life. I can’t help it, my face just crunched in a terrible way; showing me how annoying it sounded. He stops laughing, immediately. “Well, ‘cause you don’t like the way I sound, I would love to let you know how I feel. But I’ve tried that before, and it didn’t work out, did it? I’m not going to make that mistake again.” He’s referring to my big, golden aura that explodes in his face - the moment he wanted to touch me.

I smile. “Yeah, you didn’t see that one coming, did ya?”

I can tell he doesn’t like my attitude, but I don’t care. So I continue, while I stand up: “So, tell me exactly, Ted. Why are you here? You know you can’t win. You know I’m never letting you touch me. Never.”

His eyes narrow and he’s gliding around the little kitchen, his feet still above the floor. “Interesting. Well, I’ve figured: I don’t need your child. It’s just easier to take the powers from you. It’s faster, too. Especially now the hunters betrayed us.”

Wait. Explanation, I need an explanation. “Well, I’m not following: hunters? Betrayal? Can you enlighten me, please?” I ask, sarcastically.

He looks at me and for a moment I thought I messed up but he says: “Well, you know I’m such a forgiving creature. You’re going to be dead in a few minutes, so why not?” He clears his throat and says: “First, we tried to convince the hunters to work together. It worked! It was much easier when James was able to talk and gave us all the inside information, but well, it appears we didn’t need him after all.”

This triggers my mom to speak. “You said James? What about him? What’s he got to do with all this?”

“Well, hello woman. I almost forgot you were here too. Glad you’re asking, because that’s an important part of the story! He was the one that tipped us in the first place! He sent us letters about Thomas’ child, a Chosen One. Because the letters were so detailed, we knew it must have been the truth. He thought he could betray his own Luna, but that plan didn’t work. Tragically, he was overpowered by his Luna and the Hunter’s son was killed. Too bad, we had to start all over again.”

I feel how the puzzle starts to come together. But mom is having troubles, she isn’t believing it. “So you think that James, my husband, betrayed his own daughter? That he would give up his pack for, for, revenge?” Bonnie says.

“Right. So you’re the mother? Interesting, again. Well, lovely - technically she is NOT his daughter, remember? Besides: all he’s interested in is power. He wanted to be the Alpha. So we thought: Allright, betray your Luna and prove to us that you’re fitted to fill in the Alpha-spot that comes free when she’s dead. But he couldn’t. So, yeah. When he almost cleared the spell his Luna gave him, he ran towards us and begged for a second chance. Well, the Shadow Pack doesn’t believe in second chances.” Ted explains.

“So, he’s dead now?” Bonnie asks.

“Uhh yeah. But that isn’t the important part of the story, so let’s continue. After the first, failed, plan we had to come up with a second one. We now knew of your existence, so we captured you. Well, I did, to be specific. Because I’m part vampire, I’m technically dead. That’s why I didn’t appear on your security system. There was no body heat that could be displayed. Besides, when it’s dark I’m almost invisible. So, it was pretty easy to kidnap you. But we all know how that went: that plain failed too.” I can tell Ted’s getting frustrated, but I’m feeling victorious: I won that day.

“So, now I’m back. But the moment the hunters discovered that I was taking all of your powers, they betrayed us. They want to have a share in the powers, as well. But I’m not letting them. So, I found a way to distract them and kidnap you again. I brought an army, they can be here any second now.” Ted steps closer to me, and I’m not going to let him touch me. I start to let my aura burst, and I feel how the strength is filling my veins.

“Ohh, you’re going to fight, huh? I was anticipating it.” Ted says. He reaches in his dress, and pulls out a little knife. I look at the end of it, and I can tell it’s not good. It’s the same as the arrows the hunters had in the coup my dad tried to do. “You stole some of the hunters, huh?” I ask. “But that’s not going to help you, Ted. You’re not going to cross my barrier.”

“Well, let’s test that.”

I look around me, I try to find something to defend myself with. I’m in a kitchen, come on! There has to be something?! I look over my shoulder and grab the first thing that I can reach: a scissor. I notice the two warriors are on the same spot on the ground as before. Completely stunned by the weird magic that Ted controls. I know the feeling, I’ve been there before.

Well, it’s now or never. I feel how Ted comes in my inner circle and a barrier starts to form. First, I thought the barrier was going to close and protect me, but the barrier is going to have some troubles with the point of the knife that is facing my way. Shocked, I look at his way.

“Yeah, that’s awesome, right?” Ted answers my shocked face. “I’ve noticed that this powder is neutralizing all the powers of yours. But when I use too much or enter your barrier to fast, it’s either killing you or giving the barrier the impulse to shoot me back again, like you did before.”

I’m stuck between Ted with his knife and the kitchen counter. What shall I do? I start to panic. I close my eyes and try to send all my powers to the barrier. I feel how my eyes are starting to light up and my senses become extremely sensitive. I hear voices, dialogues of multiple people around me and I try to shake them off: it’s not the time!

I can see Ted’s having troubles, the barrier is slowly closing and pushing the knife back.

“No! This can’t be! You little slut, you will be mine!” Ted yells, and I can feel his powers are getting stronger too.

And then, out of nowhere, I hear an enormous growl. It’s not the growl I know, it’s not a werewolf. But I can’t think of it any longer, before I can blink the outerwall is ripped away and I feel the fresh wind rushing inside.

Ted’s as surprised as I am. He immediately turns around and faces the one who interrupted his scene.

I stare in the same direction. Two, well-known, green eyes are staring back. But it’s not in the body I used to see. I’m staring at the body of a bear. An enormous, big, black bear; surrounded by an amazing bright golden aura.

It’s Adam.