The Witch of Willow Lake

Chapter 18

    "No, it's not possible." The older man shook his head in doubt. "No, no, take her out of here, Masato, that's an order."

    "Dad!" Masato protested with narrowed eyes and a slacked jaw.

    "Now, son!"

    "Thomas? Thomas Pope?" I spoke, almost too scared to say his name.

    Masato snapped his eyes to mine with his mouth wide open, "How do you know my dad?"

    "He's your..." I gasped as I looked between the two right before realizing what it meant, "Masato, you're a...oh god."

    My hands gripped the side of my head, my fingers circling my temples as I tried to process what was happening.

    I thought I was the only one left alive from that day, ever since then I'd been without my old best friend, coven, and family only for it to turn out that Thomas had been alive this whole time.

    "Hallie Davenport? How the hell do you still look like you do?"

    "What the hell is going on?" Masato insisted, looking confused and bewildered.

    "How did you survive?" Out of all the questions flooding my mind, that was the only one I could voice in my shock.

    He was younger than I when we had to flee, only eleven, I thought for sure he was gone, the Pope bloodline was one of the weaker ones as it was, let alone him being so young.

    "Hello? Is anyone going to tell me what's going on? Or am I invisible right now?"

    Thomas looked between Masato and I before he sighed. "I think we better fill Masato in and start explaining things to each other. I got a million questions for you. Let's go into the lounge."

------

    "Thomas, how are you alive? I thought I was the only one left." I asked as I took a seat on the white fabric couch in the middle of the small lounge.

    "Your mother. She helped me escape, right before..." Thomas paused before his face saddened, "Right before they took her, along with your father and brother too. I don't know what happened to them. She told me to run to your cabin to find you, but I got lost and I couldn't find it, I looked for days."

    A knife sliced through my heart at his words. The Vampires had taken my family, and my mind could only phantom what had happened to them after that.

    "What happened to you after that, Thomas?"

    "I ended up stumbling into a small town to the west of Willow Lake. A young couple took me in; that was until about two years later, they found out what I was. They swore not to tell but told me to run away, so I did." Thomas paused for a moment, allowing himself to catch his breath.

    "Are you okay, Dad?"

    "Yes, yes, I'm fine." He smiled before he carried on, "Sometime later, I found myself in Japan, where I met a pagan coven and that's how I met his mother. When we were older, we got married and then had Masato. I didn't use much before that, but I needed to train Masato, and you know what happens when we cast our magic."

    "You age." I nodded as I glanced over to Masato, who was watching wide-eyed and in wonder before looking back to Thomas.

    "Eventually, well, I became this." Thomas continued, "In all fairness, I am ninety-five. We moved here a little over two years ago. Japan was too busy, in my old age, I was struggling too much. After a few months, I told them to tell people I'd died and go live in the main town, make a life for themselves. And, well, here we are."

    My head turned to Masato, who'd been sat silently as Thomas spoke.

    "You're a Warlock. You're a Pope. You were going to tell me that today, weren't you? That's why you were so nervous and insistent that I was safe with you, that you wouldn't hurt me. Because you think I'm human."

    Masato nodded, "Yeah, but clearly, I was wrong. You're a Davenport! But wait, I thought none of the men fathered girls. Only one boy? I remember you telling me about a Hallie dad, but you never said that she was-"

    "Well, Hallie, here was the exception. For many years our coven was terrified of her because of The Rogue One. However, while her twin brother developed powers, she never did. So, they welcomed them back, and her father took his place as the coven leader."

    "Except..." I held out my hand and allowed the blue static to dance between my fingers. "On my sixteen birthday."

    Thomas gasped as his head tilted, inspecting the flickering electricity. His eyes were full of curiosity and a hint of confusion, "Why is yours, blue?"

    "I think it's my turn to explain." I sighed as I lowered my hand and began to tell them everything.

------

    "Well, one thing is for sure; that was the last thing I expected from the way you were acting." I laughed in disbelief as we climbed into the car.

    Thomas and Masato had taken my news fairly well, which surprised me. Masato freaked out for a moment, upon hearing that I was half Vampire, but I'd expected that. In fact, I'd expected him to lose his mind completely to hear his girlfriend of two years harbored a secret like that. However, after he'd had his moment of pure bewilderment, he calmed and allowed me to finish.

    "So, all that panicking I did was for nothing." Masato snickered as he turned the engine on. "I could have just been like, Hallie, I'm a Warlock. And you'd have just been like snap me too!"

    "I can't believe you're a Pope, nor can I believe you're a Warlock. But hang on, Thomas is ninety-five, so how old are you exactly?"

    "Human age? Twenty-seven now, so we say. Supernaturally? Thirty-nine, I look good for a man who's nearly forty, right?"

    "Hey, I'm like one hundred, so I think I've aged better." I laughed as Masato grinned. "So, you're okay about the whole half Vampire thing?"

    "Yeah. If you'd told me that before I knew you, I'd of opted to stake you. But I know you, and I'm okay with it now the shock of the news has left. You've had a million chances to bite me, and you haven't. Well, not like that anyway." Masato shoot my a tongue in teeth grin that made me blush.

    "Don't tempt me to bite you like that." I teased as I playfully slapped his leg.

    "Hallie, you don't have to move now."

    I sighed as I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach, "Yes, I do. You might know who I am and be okay with it, but the whole town? We don't age, Masato, and we're already getting questions about it."

    "Good point." Masato's smile dropped, knowing I was right, "But Hallie, you can't go. You've just found Thomas again, and, well, me. And f**k sake Hallie, I love you. I'm in love with you and I can't just let you go."

    A lump formed in my throat as I looked at his grief-stricken expression and saw the tears beginning to form.

    "I'm sorry, I have too because it's not just my safety, Masato. I can't leave Alicia and Emmett, they're my family, they've been with me since the day I found them in the cabin."

    "Then I'll come with you then. Please, Hallie, after all this, I know I can't let you go. So, if you have to go, then I'm coming with you."

    "No, Masato, your Mom, and your Dad, you can't-"

    "You saw my dad," Masato interrupted with a serious tone, " You know at that point, one spell can kill him. And as for Mom? She'd probably be glad to get rid of me, I mean come on, I'm an almost forty-year-old who still lives with his Mom. She'll probably move back to that farmhouse to live out the rest of dad's years together."

    "We don't even know where we're going yet. And we have to move around every six to eight years."

    "I don't care, as long as I'm with you. Please, Hallie, do you want this to be the end when we can be together? For real? And be ourselves instead of the selves we pretend to be?"

    "Of course, I don't want this to end, Masato. But I can't expect you to leave your family, especially when I wouldn't leave mine."

    "That's my choice and mine alone. Please, I love you too much. I won't let you go without me."

    "But what about when you eventually age, and I don't? I don't think you're looking at the bigger picture here, babe, I will lose you one day."

    "We'll figure that out later, just let me come with you." He reached his hand out to take mine in his as he looked at me with pleading eyes, "If it makes you feel better, I'll talk to Dad and Mom first. I'll even come in and speak to Emmett and Alicia about it."

    "You really want to come with me?"

    "More than anything."

    I took a deep breath and smiled, "Okay. But only if Thomas and your Mom say it's okay, and we need to talk more about it, later, before you decide for sure."

    His face broke out into a wide grin before he captured my face in one of his hands and crushed his lips against mine, "I love you, so much."

    "And I love you. Come on, let's get back. I got a whole heap of explaining to do."

    "Sure." He held out his hand, the static red dancing around his fingertips.

    The blue danced around mine as our fingers linked, an overwhelming sense of electricity and power-filled me as our eyes locked.

    A bloodline survived, I wasn't the last Warlock, and I found one in the man I loved. It gave me hope that maybe others survived too, we just had to find them.