My Birth Right

Chapter 11: Covens

*Lilith P.O.V.*

               “Dad” tears were threatening to come out, it had been so long since the last time I saw my dad, I thought he was dead, and here he was, standing in front of me. I ran up to him, and he ran up to me. We met each other halfway and he lifted me up in a hug, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and let out a cry. He broke the hug first and took my face in his hands to look at me. His eyes were full of tears as well, “oh my Lilith how I’ve missed you” I grabbed on to his arms to steady myself “Dad, I’ve missed you so much. I thought you were dead.” A man that had similarities to my grandfather approached my dad and put his hand on his shoulder, my dad looked up at him then back at me. Uncle Derek came up to us and took my dad in a hug of his own, “brother, how is this possible?” uncle Derek asked my dad after they broke the hug, “we have so much we need to talk about” my dad finally said.

               We walked inside the castle to a conference room, it was better suited to fit a bigger group of people. In the room there was a big circular table, aside from myself joining us was: Adrian, my dad, my uncle, Dominick, Raven, the vampire dude, Odalis, Cathy, Darrion, and Wesley. Odalis was so happy to see my dad again almost as much as I was, she shed some tears of her own. After we all got settled in our seats, we were ready to hear whatever my dad wanted to talk to us about. “As you all know since Ciaran has been after my daughter, my mate and I had to take some precautions to keep her safe. Not only was he after her but my mate and myself as well. During the time we were erasing Lilith’s memory, Ciaran attacked killing my mate Ciara, and the entire Crow coven, except for Raven who I managed to save with the help of Cole, and Dominick.” He pointed to the vampire dude giving him a name, thankfully, now I can stop calling him vampire dude. “After they helped me escape, it was best decided that I too would go under a protection spell to keep me hidden from Ciaran. I have been asleep for the last 10 years” he paused for a little bit to take a drink of water before continuing, “Cole here is Ciaran’s younger brother as most of you know by now” my eyes widened with fear and looked over to Cole. “Cole has been helping us during this whole time, keeping Lilith hidden, including myself, with the help of Dominick. Many of you are probably wondering why Ciaran’s own brother would help us out. As you all probably know by now my mate Ciara was also a Gemini twin, born to the vampires, and it is believed that Ciaran killed his own children to take their powers, but they were not his…” I looked over to my dad, he was speaking directly to me now. “Cole is actually the father of my mate, meet your actual grandfather Lilith.”

               I was speechless I didn’t know what to say, “What!?” Adrian growled and stood up from his chair, “you didn’t think of telling this to us years ago? Cole” Adrian was mad “of course I thought about it, do you know how much it hurt to lose both of my daughters and the possibility of losing my granddaughter!?” Cole yelled back at Adrian. “I had to keep the secret from Ciaran, if he found out I wouldn’t have been able to keep Lilith safe!... when he took my blood to look at my memories I was afraid that he would look into that too, but thankfully I had Dominick seal those memories away until recently” Cole seemed like he was heartbroken “I want to get rid of Ciaran as much as you all do, maybe even more, he has caused me too much pain” Cole stood up from his chair and started to walk out of the room. I stood up from my chair and yelled after him, “Cole! Wait” I ran up to him and embraced him in a hug taking him completely by surprise, it took him a sec to register what was happening, and he hugged me back. “Lilith, you look so much like your mother” tears started running down his face, “Thank you grandfather” he was not expecting me to call him grandfather and was taken aback, but he quickly smiled at me. “Let’s go back to our seats.”               

               As I was walking back to my spot, Adrian grabbed my wrist and pulled me to sit on his lap. He hugged me tight and put his nose on my neck so he could inhale my scent to calm him down. I let out a breath, not realizing that I had been holding it and inhaled Adrian’s scent too, calming whatever nerves I had. I relaxed into his chest, damn I missed being in his arms “me too” Ilene and my shadow said in unison sounding like they were purring. I started thinking of those nights we spent together in the time space; I could feel myself getting wet, Adrian adjusted himself in his chair and let out a small growl while nipping at my neck, “I can smell your arousal” he said through the mind link, I could feel him getting hard under me. “Well that’s pretty much all I have to say” My dad spoke bringing my attention back to the room, f**k! I thought to myself and Adrian let out a small laugh, I glared at him which made him even more amused.  “Why did Ciaran think that your daughters were actually his?” Darrion spoke this time directing his question at Cole, I was actually very curious to know this as well. “After my father killed his mate, Ciaran would f**k any girl that would cross his way, whether it was consensual or not. A girl I was dating at the time had just told me the news that we were expecting a baby. One day she came to visit me in the castle and accidentally crossed Ciaran’s path, and he raped her, his anger towards my father was consuming him. She had moved in the castle with me and I had kept her safe from him in case something like that happened again. She eventually started to show, Ciaran thought that she was pregnant with him. She died during childbirth and handed the girls over to me, he never wanted them from the beginning, knowing they were mine I took them without telling him anything. But as they grew up, he noticed they were not like any vampires. One day he randomly attacked the youngest of them and drained her of her blood, afraid that he would do the same to my eldest one I urged her to run away and never return. I never got to tell them that I was their actual father.”

               I never would have imagined a story like this, it was horrible what that monster did. “At the beginning I had agreed to help my brother get rid of our father, he made us suffer too much when he was awake. Ciaran had told me that he would gain power of his own to defeat him. He failed to tell me that that power consisted of killing others, throughout the years I came to learn that my father had done the same thing Ciaran did; what my father did was much greater in number though, it wasn’t just the Gemini blood that he was taking… he was taking the blood of just random creatures, that’s how he became so powerful. We have to find a way to seal him forever before he wakes up. If he awakes, we are going to have much more trouble than Ciaran.” My uncle exchanged worried looks with Dominick before he spoke, “How much more trouble are you talking about exactly?” he cautiously asked “He’s been desiccating for almost a thousand years, he’s going to want to regain his strength, and that means drinking blood, lots of it. Many people are going to die. If he learns about Lilith, he’s going to stop at nothing to find her.” Every wolf in the room growled at what Cole had just said, I just hope that the creature we saw before we escaped was not him.

               My uncle’s color left his face and worry spread all over his face, “Is everything alright Alpha?” Wesley asked concerned for his wellbeing, he had just woken up from being drained not too long ago. “I’m afraid he’s already awake” Cole wasn’t pale at all, but he did have light skin, but after hearing those words come out of my uncle’s mouth, all color left his face. Adrian tightened his grip on my hips, and I thought I couldn’t get closer to him the way we were sitting, but I was wrong. “How is this possible?” Cole finally managed to ask, “Lilith’s wolf came early, we think that the power that escaped from her at the time might have woken him up early. We barely managed to escape him” Dominick was the one to explain. I was just listening to them talk, I had nothing to say or add to all of this, it didn’t make sense. “It’s because he drank Gemini blood” I heard my shadow say. “What?” I asked back, “He’s absorbed Gemini powers throughout many years, and the blood of their children, all Gemini are connected in some way, so when your wolf came out and you shifted for the first time, a wave of power was released from you, strong enough to stir him awake.” She said “Hey uncle? When you guys went to rescue me, did you feel anything?” I asked directing my attention to him. “Now that you mention it yes, we were in the middle of attacking when I felt this great power coming from within me. It gave us the opportunity we needed to break through so Adrian could get to you.” He said, “I see.” Everyone looked at me with questioning looks and I wasn’t particularly paying attention to them.  

               For some weird reason it made sense, “Is there a reason why you are asking?” my dad looked over at me, I brought my shadow out and asked her to explain what she just told me. Everyone jumped back at the sudden image of her suddenly leaving my body, except for Raven and Dominick, they’re facial expressions were neutral. “When Lilith shifted for the first time, a wave of power was released. Gemini’s can feel when the others get their powers for the first time since they are all connected in one way or another. Because that man has absorbed so many Gemini’s he was able to feel it as well, stirring him awake.” Everyone just stared but didn’t say anything. “Lilith when did that thing show up?” Raven asked, my shadow didn’t like being referred to as a thing and quickly appeared in front of Raven pissed off at the way she referred to her, “If you must call me something, at least call me Shadow or Lilith’s shadow.” “You’ve developed a personality of your own, I can see now how you were able to get out of the time space without having me or Dominick come to get you” Raven’s tone wasn’t her usual self, she sounded like she didn’t like the shadow at all. My shadow smirked at her and went back inside my body. “When did she first show up?” Raven was now talking to me, “well I’ve been seeing shadows since a long time ago, she introduced herself in the time space right after Adrian marked me, two weeks ago. She said that she’s the power that resides within me, she’s been trying to break the spell that was casted on me since the moment I got it. With so many years being blocked off, she eventually developed a conscience of her own; but she said within time we can merge back together if it’s what I want.”

               Raven looked at me like she was studying me, probably making sure I was telling the truth. “It’s not heard of for a shadow to come out like I just did, in the witch world it isn’t considered a good thing” Shadow said, “You didn’t think of telling us this before?” Ilene growled at her, shadow just rolled her eyes and went down for a nap in the back of my head. “When you first came to me you asked if I could tell you about shadows that you had been seeing, I didn’t think of anything then. Now that I saw. Her. It’s different, from the looks of it, she has been making trips outside of your body for years, the reason she has such a strong personality is because she has been feeding off of human energy.” “So, what does that mean?” I asked with curiosity, I wanted to know more about this shadow of mine. “It means she’s using people energy” Dominick cut in. we all turned to him so that he could explain what that meant. “OK?... you didn’t exactly explain that part before, you just said it was rare and that we didn’t need to discuss the subject” Did he forget that he told us that or what? “I didn’t think I would need to get into it, it is a magic that hasn’t been used for years, thousands of years to be exact. Feeding of the energy of people was considered a bad thing.” Dominick said his face still neutral; I was starting to get mad; he was dragging this on “OK. You’re still not explaining what that means” I raised my voice just a little bit, showing him that I was getting impatient.

               He took a deep breath and sighed. “Vampires need blood to survive, some vampires learn how to control the hunger. Others are driven by it, killing people just so they can get a taste of it, it’s like a drug. When you take on the energy of a person it can get addicting too, a person holds many elements within oneself making a combined powerful energy. Because of its power it becomes like a drug, the more you use it, the more it controls you instead of the other way around. Using too much of it can make you evil.” “Are you saying that my shadow is evil?” I was starting to get concerned “Not necessarily, but if she continues doing that she can be. She has a personality of her own, she’s been going in and out of your body without you even knowing it. She could end up absorbing you” wow I was not expecting that. I leaned back on Adrian, I needed him to hold me. “My wolf hasn’t felt danger whenever she is around though, in fact it seems like she’s attached to Lilith and seeks for her approval.” “What form did she take when you first met her?” Raven asked this time, Adrian thought for a second before he answered “She was split into multiple shadows, one was looking at me with curiosity moving her head back and forth in a really creepy way, another was shy and brought us clothes to change into, and others brought us food.” “It seems like your shadow found a way, to not get consumed. Looks like we might not have to worry about her” Dominick sighed in relief.

               Talking about all of this was exhausting me, I was scared for a minute before thinking that my shadow could cause me to become evil. “There are so many things you don’t know about me, but you’ll learn in time” she smiled and disappeared in my head before I could ask her what she meant. I was too exhausted to summon her though. “Well I think this about covers what we needed to catch up on. Starting tomorrow, we will get in contact with other packs letting them know of the threat that we face, Raven if you can contact other covens that would be great too, and Cole if there are any vampires that would be on our side please talk to them. We are going to need all the help we can get if we want to defeat our enemy. You can all go now.” And with that my uncle dismissed everyone from the room. Cathy walked up to me “So? The Shadows you’ve been seeing was her?” she asked curiosity written all over her face with a hint of excitement in her voice “apparently.” We all headed to the kitchen to get some food, it had been a few hours since the last time we ate, and I was pretty hungry. While we ate Cathy introduced me to her mate Darrion who is Adrian’s Beta, and I introduced her to Adrian, it was nice and relaxing eating and talking with friends.

                                                                           ~~~~~~~

               *Raven P.O.V.*

               After everyone exited the room I stayed behind with Dominick, it seemed like he had the same worry I did. In the room Blake and Cole also stayed behind, probably to discuss what to do after we got everyone on our side. “Raven, was there something you needed to talk to me about?” Derek asked me “Lilith’s shadow worries me, we have never seen anything like this before, what Dominick said earlier in the meeting was to not spike worry on Lilith” “well, it doesn’t seem dangerous for now, but do you think you can find more information on it?” Blake Lilith’s father was the one that spoke this time. “I can try asking the other covens” I said not sounding too sure “perfect, we’ll see if we can find anything on it too.” I nodded my head and exited the room.

               Dominick followed me outside, I had come to enjoy his company and I was hoping that he would want to go with me to see the other covens, it would make it so much easier for me having someone around that could help me. Not only that, I had grown to really like him, I blushed and smiled at the thought of us being together. “What Is going on in that little head of yours that has you blushing like that?” I tripped on my feet and would have fell to the ground if it weren’t for him using his super speed to catch me, I looked up at him while he held me, his eyes were amazing, and I was getting lost in them. I heard him chuckle and woke up from my zone, I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment, I quickly got away from his arms and hid my face from him, I could feel him smiling at me though. Why can I feel him smiling? I thought to myself. once I felt that my face wasn’t hot anymore I tuned to look at him only to find him checking me out with a very sexy and mischievous smile, damn he was so sexy, wait no, stop thinking like that. I cleared my throat to grab his attention “So where do you think we should go first?” I asked. He blinked twice realizing what he was doing and blushed, “um, we, we should talk to the covens that are closer to this area first. They would be the ones more at risk if this war breaks out.” I nodded in agreement and teleported to the nearest coven.  

               I was very well known by all the witch covens. Word of being the only survivor of the most powerful coven got around fast, and lots of covens had asked me to join theirs. I respectfully declined, I liked being on my own with Jack running my café/bar business. That way I was able to learn magic from different covens instead of just one; as long as I didn’t become a dark witch, there were no objections within the leaders of the covens. Learning from different types of magic, and having my people’s magic stored in my necklace, I felt deeply knowledgeable and confident that I was a strong and powerful witch. I had earned the respect of many witches and warlocks.

               we didn’t teleport directly to the coven as doing that could get you instantly killed, instead we teleported about a mile away and walked over to the entrance where we would be greeted by some guards. This coven was only about an hour away from Darkwood by car, a house was surrounded by a wall made of logs, two guards at the entrance stood in front of the gates. “Raven, welcome back” they held some spears with them and pointed them over to Dominick, “State your business” one of them demanded “My name Is Dominick, I am here accompanying Raven. We need to speak with your leader, it is urgent that we see him right away” one of the guards looked over at me and I nodded my head in agreement. They put down their spears and opened the gates, a bright blue light flashed before our eyes, we walked to it, entering through a portal leading us inside a village. The outside might of seem like it was just a regular house with a log wall surrounding it, but the inside was completely bigger. We were in a village made of cottages where witches and warlocks lived, throughout the streets there were posts, markets and vendors selling supplies for spells, or just a regular food market. This place always reminded me of old movies with knights, kings, and queens.

               We walked over to an open field where the leader was currently giving magic lessons to young witches and warlocks, the kids all seemed to be having fun, it reminded me of when I was that age learning with my mom. “Hello Demetrius” I said casually as we walked up to him, he turned around and smiled, “Hello Raven, it is so nice to see you” he came up to me and put both of his hands on my shoulders and gave a small vow with his head, I vowed back, then he let go. He looked over to Dominick “and hello friend of Ravens?” he said with a question and proceeded to do the same he did to me. This was the way they greeted each other here, “Dominick, it is nice to meet you Elder Demetrius” Demetrius smiled at Dominick and looked between me and him a few times smiling bigger each time, what is going on with him? I wondered.

               “So, to what do I owe this visit?” he turned his attention to me, “Is there somewhere private we can talk, this is urgent business and we need to get to other covens when we are done here” he frowned at what I said and motioned for us to follow. “If it is urgent, why don’t we just request the other Elders to join us?” he suggested “We can do that?” Dominick beat me to asking, “Of course, they can’t be here physically, but they will project themselves here” “Yes, please if you don’t mind, this will save us so much time” I blurted out. Demetrius smiled at me and chanted into and orb he took out from his pocket, when he was done small blue lights took off into different directions. “The message has been sent, now while we wait, Raven, you didn’t tell me you found your mate” my eyes widened at what he just said “m-my What!?” I almost screamed and Dominick almost choked. “Did your mother never to tell you?” he asked smiling at me, “tell me what?” my voice sounded in urgency.  

               We made it to a bigger cottage than the other ones and took a seat on a couch that was in the living room. “Did you think that werewolves and vampires were the only ones that had a destined mate?” he raised his eyebrow at me, “well yeah” I said without hesitation. “Us witches and warlocks also have mates of our own. Werewolves smell their mate, they become the sweetest smell they have ever experienced. For vampires…” he turns to look over at Dominick, “the smell of blood becomes sweeter, and their hearts will stop beating for a minute when they first meet. For us witch folk, we see a small faint light surrounding our mates, and when we look into their eyes, we feel like we could get lost in them.” I never knew this about our kind, I smiled thinking how I had learned something new about my culture. Then it hit me, I looked over at Dominick and just like Demetrius had said there was a faint purple light surrounding Dominick, and earlier when I looked into his eyes, wow I had found my mate. He probably knew this whole time and didn’t say anything. He just sat there looking at me with a big smile on his face, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked in disbelief. He scratched the back of his head embarrassed, “well I didn’t know witches also had mates, I thought I could make you fall for me on my own since I didn’t know if you could feel the mate bond and then tell you afterwards that you’re my mate” he blushed, he was so cute, I laughed at his silliness.

               Then I started thinking “so if you’re half warlock, how come you didn’t know?” I asked curiously, shouldn’t he have known? “My parents died when I was young and never got around to tell me, When Cole took me in, I was mostly taught about how vampires lived. Various times he would hire a witch to teach me what I needed to know.” I turned my attention to Demetrius who was just smiling like a small child “so how did you know?” I asked him “Oh I forgot to tell you; your eyes sparkle whenever one of you looks at the other with admiration.” That was the end of the conversation, then thoughts of us being together swirled through my mind and I bit my bottom lip, Dominick glanced at me, his eyes full of lust. Oh, I couldn’t wait to get out of here and have him alone all to myself.

               The Elders started arriving, ten had arrived in total, these were the Leaders of the biggest covens, once we were done here then they could spread the message to the rest. “Welcome friends, sorry to summon you here in such short notice but we must discuss some matters of urgency… Raven.” Demetrius gave me the floor, I nodded my head in his way thanking him for the opportunity to speak to everyone here, “thank you everyone for taking time out of your day to be here, I am not sure if any of you know about the Gemini twins?” I asked “of course we do, it is a spell that went wrong thousands of years ago. A witch consumed by hatred accidentally transferred her powers to a pair of werewolves and vampires she had made, thinking that transforming them would keep them apart from each other. Instead she created the possibility of a hybrid child being made with unknown and unimaginable power” one of the witches told the short version of the story. “what does this story have anything to do with why you summoned us here?” a man spoke out in irritation, “a child like that, hasn’t been born since the first one thousands of years ago, even then the vampire king has made sure to keep them out of existence by taking their power for his own greed” another man spoke out.  

               This meeting was not going the way I wanted to and I was starting to lose my confidence, “the vampire king is an abomination, he must be destroyed before he wakes up and starts seeking more power again” a woman calmly said this time, my head bolted her way “you know about the vampire king?” I was surprised to hear that the witches knew about him. “Everyone knows about the vampire king; he’s been trying to get the magical powers from the Gemini’s to destroy us. So far, he has only succeeded in taking their strength and speed. If he manages to take the magic as well then all of the witch kind will seize to exist” all of the elders gathered agreed to the statement that was made by the woman. “so, girl, why have you summoned us here for?” oh right, I was too caught up in everything they were saying I almost forgot what we were here for. “The vampire king has awakened, we barely managed to get away from him. Unfortunately, he will be back. We are currently protecting… a hybrid child” I said the last part almost in a whisper hoping that they wouldn’t hear me, gasps were heard all over the room. “Did you just say a hybrid child?” Demetrius’ happy self had turned into a serios one. “Yes, she did, her father and uncle are currently alive as well.” Dominick cut into the conversation “A war is most likely going to break out soon, the vampire king is going to be looking for power and regenerate his strength. Every creature is in danger as of now. We are here to ask you to join us in this fight against him… also to protect Lilith and the last remaining Gemini twins from being taken.” Dominick was firm and instead of making it sound like a request, it sounded like an order. “All in favor of joining alliances with the werewolves say aye” Demetrius said while raisin his hand. “Aye” the rest of the Elders joined in. “Perfect we will meet within the Darkwood pack territory” with that the meeting was over and the Elders left.  

               I breathed a sigh of relief, who knew that talking to a whole bunch of leaders could be so intimidating. Dominick was perfect taking charge like he did at the very end, I think I was feeling admiration towards him. There was one other thing that was bothering me though. “Demetrius, there is one thing I wanted to ask you” I walked up to him, “yes, dear?” he turned to me. “Do you know of any magic, where one’s shadow leaves your body willingly and has a personality of its own?” I couldn’t hide the worry in my voice, Dominick walked up to me and hugged me from behind. “witches are known for manipulating their own shadows to do their will, but a shadow that does whatever they want is unheard of, I’m sorry I cannot help you with that. Why do you ask?” concern started showing on his face, like he was hiding something. “Lilith, the hybrid child. Her shadow has her own persona and I wasn’t sure what to think of it. She is not manipulating her shadow; the shadow just does whatever she wants” the worry was obvious in my voice now. “do you feel danger whenever she is out?” he raised his eyebrow at me. “No, she just seems creepy, and she’s been feeding off of people energy,” “hmm, people energy is not a good thing, but if you don’t feel danger then I’m sure there is nothing to worry about. It might just be one of the unknown powers that the girl possesses.” I relaxed a bit after he said she might not be dangerous; it lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders.