Happy Reading
**Edited as of Sept. 21**
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Michael’s hideout turns out to be the old, run-down cabin on the east side of the lake. It has been our place since I was transformed forty years ago. However, I haven’t visited in sometime. The cabin seems to be falling apart, the once strong brick walls crumbling brick by brick. The roof is caved in on one side and vines snake along the outside, dripping with water as the frost melts; March is upon us.
Beyond the cabin, Lake Michigan’s waters tumble over each other as the wind blows the waves towards shore. The sun is hot against my skin and I regret wearing the thick wool vest I had picked out earlier this morning. Michael looks uncomfortable as well in his navy-blue sweater. He seems lost in thought, his eyes distant. I walk beside him, feeling slightly out of place as we pace along.
“I come here all the time,” Michael tells me suddenly as we circle the grounds, running his hand along the uneven brick walls. “To think about things, how the world is turning out.” He pauses, glancing over at me. “The Coven is changing, Sophia. Have you noticed?” I stop, my words catching in my throat at this blunt statement. What in the world does Michael mean by that? I try to retrace the last few weeks in my mind, looking for some sort of sign or signal to discover the meaning behind his words. When I find nothing, I slowly shake my head no. He sighs deeply. “Guessed not. You’ve been too busy with your new human friend to notice what is happening in your very home.” His voice is harsh, and I flinch away from him, taking a step back.
“What is happening, Michael?” I question, angered by his narrowed eyes. “What could be happening that I missed. I sleep there every night, I spend my afternoons there after school, I—“
He cuts me off. “Do you? Or do you just wander these halls like a zombie, too absorbed with Isaac to care?”
Grinding my molars together, I stare steadily at him. Is it true? Have I become a zombie? “I-I…” I trail off, my defensive side weakening as I see the truth. “You’re right. I haven’t been very…social lately.”
“We are your family, Sophia, your Coven. We are the ones that care about you, that love you. Not this Isaac guy.” Michael tries to make me see reason.
I shake my head. “Isaac is my friend. He cares about me just as much as you do.”
“How can you say that?” Michael explodes. “I, who have known you for forty years, compared to Isaac, who has known you for little over two months?”
“Michael, I—“
“Save it,” he grumbles, stepping away from the house. “I didn’t come here to argue with you. I came here to give you the news.” He rakes a heavy hand through his curls, leaning his upper body against the wall of the cabin. “Philip is being challenged for leadership.”
I gasp, my mind hurrying to catch up with what Michael had just said. “Who would do that? Philip has kept us safe for over a millennium…who would dare say that he could run it better than him?”
“She, actually. You remember Rebecca from your last run-in with the law?”
I snarl softly. “That snickering female?” The memory of that laughing female the last time Carmen and I had fought sends my limbs shaking at her audacity.
“The same one. She thinks that Philip is loosing his touch, that he isn’t as wise as he was years ago.”
“I don’t get it…how could I have missed this?” I sigh, yanking on my hair. Have I really been that oblivious lately that I haven’t even seen the changes happening right in front of my eyes? I know the answer to that without even thinking. Isaac has been my main focus, his laugh echoing in my dreams. I try to concentrate on what Michael is saying. “Has she challenged him openly?”
“Last night was the first time. You were already sleeping when Philip was having a meeting with the Council. He was warning us about the up-coming vacation spot of Lake Michigan. How we had to be cautious of all the new humans coming in only a few short months.”
“Nora showed you the vents, didn’t she?” I ask coyly with a raised eyebrow.
Michael shrugs sheepishly. “How else would I be able to know what is going on?” I laugh softly as he continues. “Well, when he said this, Rebecca had jumped to her feet, angered that he was reminding them of the same thing he did every year. She said she was sick of his repetition, of words and no action. She called him out on every rule and I guess Philip just sat there and took it.”
“Wow,” I pause, glancing apprehensively at him when I see his sudden stiffness, “There’s more, isn’t here?”
“Yes,” he hesitates, “One of the rules she did call him out on was the rules of Human Confrontation and Interaction.” I freeze. “She said that it was a stupid rule, and that it wouldn’t hurt anybody if we took one, maybe two tourists a year. She said that murders happen every day between humans. What’s the difference if we did them?” His voice is now a growl.
I lean against the cabin, my knees shaking. “I-I can’t believe this!” I remember when Rebecca lashed out at me because of the murder I had committed. Now she is suggesting we do more of it…I clutch at my head, the information too much for me to comprehend.
“And that’s not the half of it.”
“There’s more?”
“When she said these, a few from the Council agreed. They told Philip that resisting their natural instincts was like going against what they were. They said that he was holding them back.”
I shake my head, shivering in the breeze. “What are they thinking? If we did do what Rebecca is suggesting, one or two wouldn’t be enough for a whole Coven. We would need ten, eleven humans to cover us! And wouldn’t the humans eventually come to investigate these disappearances?”
“I don’t know, Sophia. Rebecca says that humans’ are too blinded by their own selfish needs to see what is right in front of them.”
I growl. “We were humans, once. Were we blind?”
Michael nods in agreement. “But she has followers. And when that happens, she’s endangering Philip. The more followers, the easier it will be to overtake the Coven.”
”I can’t believe this is happening! Philip won’t allow this.”
“I hope not. But he is older, nearing his thousand-year mark.”
“Don’t say that,” I snap, then sigh heavily. “Sorry, but it’s just so…unbelievable.”
“I know. That’s why I thought you should know.”
“Thank you, Michael,” I say, lifting my lips to smile at him.
“No problem,” he grins back. I start walking again towards the dock on the lake. The wood planks shudder under my weight but I press forward, my mind swirling and giving me a headache. I can hear Michael behind me, pursuing silently. I ignore him, too absorbed in my own thoughts to care.
When I reach the end of the dock, I halt and gaze out at the immensity of the lake. Ducks quack from above, returning for the spring. I can see a deer nibbling on the new buds from the tree branches in the distance and a family of rabbits emerging for a taste of that new-grown clover. I close my eyes, letting the wind catch the strands of hair around my face, blowing them away. Michael’s shoulder brushes mine and my eyes flutter open. His face is grim, his jaw clenched, brow furrowed. I can feel the tension emitting from him and place a consoling hand upon his shoulder. He starts at my gesture and looks down at me. “I’m worried, Sophia. I’m worried about what is happening to our Coven, to our way of life.” He shivers as the breeze blows through his orange hair, ruffling the curls sitting there.
“I know. I am too.”
* * * *
Michael’s words ring in my ears as I lay on my back in bed. Nora snores loudly on the other side of the room but even that can’t drown out his statement. I’m worried, Sophia. I’m worried about what is happening to our Coven, to our way of life. It just gives me the shivers to think of what would happen if Philip is overthrown. He is our rock, our safety net, our one and only leader. He is the one that Bonds Blood Mates, approves Births, and gives advice to those who need it the most. Wasn’t he the one who was always there when I was either lost or confused? Wasn’t he always the one who gave us food when are canines grew inside out mouths? He kept us safe. He put us before himself.
He was selfless.
But Rebecca seems to think otherwise. She calls him old, unwise, and weak. She thinks him a traitor of our natural instincts as if we were turning out back on our way of life. I shudder to think what would happen if she ever came into power. She would destroy us. It would return to the way things were long ago when humans had fear of us—of werewolves and witches and vampires. It was said in their history books that humans had killed thousands of innocent people because of stupid assumptions.
Oh, how wrong they were…
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