The Raven Saga Box Set

Chapter 43

As the three of them unpacked the back of the car, Moira unlocked the front door and switched on the light. "We're home my lovelies!" she yelled as three cats came running towards them at full pelt.

"Welcome home," said Moira quietly with another tear in her eye, as December stepped over the threshold to a whole new life, the cats purring loudly and brushing up against her jeans.

As December looked around, she noticed the bright white painted hallway was full of photos in all kinds of different frames, wooden, iron, even feathered ones. The majority of the images were of December as a baby with her father and Moira. They looked like such happy times. Times that she couldn't remember.

"I'll tell you about all these wonderful times we had together another day," her mom said as she noticed her looking sadly, "but now you must be beat. Let me show you to your rooms."

Climbing the long steep white staircase, Moira led Monty to his room first before showing December to hers. As she pushed open the white wooden door, she could have cried. Her mother had clearly spent hours and hours decorating the room to meet her tastes exactly.

"But how? How did you know my tastes?" she said, after a few moments of just standing with her mouth open in surprise.

"We're witches December. We just know," she laughed as she placed one of her daughter's suitcases on the floor.

"You have your own bathroom through here, and a small walk-in closet just here," she added as December followed her to see a pretty little bathroom complete with bath and shower all in white and blue mosaics.

"It's beautiful," she whispered as she peered into the walk-in closet fit for a princess, "it's perfect. Just perfect. Thank you."

"I'm sure you just want to go try and get some sleep now, honey, so I'll leave you to it. I know I'm beat!" she said as she took her daughter in her arms and gave her long, loving hug.

Pulling away, she looked into December's eyes and smiled.

"I can't believe I've finally got my baby back home."

"I can't believe it either, Mum," she said after a rogue tear escaped from her eye and fell down her cheek. Moira brushed it away with her thumb and hugged her once more before she let go.

"It's going to be so much fun... together at last! Now get some sleep, you must be exhausted! Goodnight, honey."

"Goodnight Mum."

And with that, she gave December one last long hug and a kiss and walked out of the room, closing the bedroom door behind her.

Sitting herself down on the bed, December looked around at her surroundings and smiled, forcing herself not to squeal with delight.

All the wooden panels on the walls and ceiling were painted white, just like the floorboards beneath her feet. The wall behind the dressing table had been papered with a shabby chic pink floral design to offset the pretty distressed white table and mirror in front of it. The bed and a small chair in the corner matched the table beautifully, and both were covered in cushions in a multitude of floral and striped patterns. The bedspread matched the pink floral wallpaper, and the rugs on the floor matched some of the striped cushions. It was totally eclectic, totally fun and totally December.

Before she got herself ready for bed, December switched on her laptop, saw that there was a Wi-Fi internet connection and sent a brief email to Lilly, just to let her know she was in Washington State, finally with her mother at last. But that was all she revealed.

As she fell asleep that night, all thoughts of the weird and frightening occurrence at her old school and in the park had drifted entirely from her mind. She slept like a princess, probably because she felt like one for the first time in her life.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A day after Lilly and the family had returned from the Elders, she got the surprise of her life. An email from December revealed that she was no longer living in London, but she was with her mother and Monty near Blaine, Washington, mere miles from Powell River!

"I've looked it up on the internet, and it would probably take less than three hours to see you!! Woo Hoo!!" she wrote.

Lilly was absolutely speechless, she had no idea. It had all happened so fast. But it was also a little worrying... how could she keep her biggest secret from her best friend? She had never wanted to keep a secret from her, but her family had warned her that she must keep it from everybody. The only ones who could know were the supernatural ones and, currently, Lilly didn't know if December had a gift or not.

Running towards the kitchen to tell Tabitha her news, Lilly ran straight into Wyatt, her father's brother.

"Whoa easy there, Lilly!" he laughed as she apologised, red-faced to her uncle, unaware that he was even at the house.

"I just popped by to borrow a couple of Gabriel's books," he said as she noticed an old heavy hardback in one hand and a lighter paperback in the other. "You look excited about something," he said, picking up on her enthusiasm. Nodding, she told him about December's email as they walked into the kitchen together and took a seat at the table. Tabitha, who was making a pot of tea, couldn't help but listen to the conversation.

"Well, that's fantastic news!" she gushed, as she placed the pot on a tray with five cups and a jug of milk and carried it to where they sat.

"Zoltan, Sammy... a cup of tea!" she yelled to those in the rest of the house, before adding, "that means you can go visit her and see if there is more to her than meets the eye. Some of us could go with you to give you a second opinion if you like."

Wyatt smiled and nodded, "that's not a bad idea, actually."

Lilly's excitement was not easily contained as a grin spread almost from ear to ear as she let out a squeal of delight.

Voices could be heard laughing and chatting as the two men of the house opened the kitchen door and walked in, at the same time as Jo came into the house via the back door, removing her coat. She didn't look happy.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to put that visit on hold," she said sadly, "there's been another attack."

This time the savage attack had not happened deep within the forest like before but in someone's home and it hadn't been at the hands of Frank Jensen, either.

As soon as the group had returned from the mountains, Carmelo and Jo had immediately gone over to Frank Jensen's house to talk to him... and restrain him. Carmelo had no choice but to tie him up with heavy chains and lock him in the basement of his own home until they were ready to head back to the Elders. Frank had not attempted to flee. He just slumped in a seat and let them tie him up. He was disgusted with himself, and he'd said to Carmelo, "I just want to die."

"You won't feel that way soon, Frank. This hunger will pass. You will still need to feed, but we can provide you with what you need without resorting to such brutal attacks. I promise you, Frank. We will look after you."

In the meantime, Wyatt, John, Rose, Jo and Carmelo had taken shifts to watch him, just in case.

The man had begged for forgiveness, telling them it was like a hunger he had never experienced before. That hunger for blood had left him wanting his own death.

"I didn't know he was a man... I thought I could just feed on the bear. Where's the harm in that?" he asked, "I didn't know, I didn't know..." he sobbed in between the sudden bursts of violence when his eyes shone a deep shade of red, and his fangs visibly appeared as he fought the monster within.

Frank was fifty-six years old and had lived in Powell River his entire life. He had always been a sweet man, well-liked, but since the death of his wife and their sixteen-year-old daughter in a car accident twenty years before, Frank had become something of a hermit. Hiding him from the public was, therefore, not a difficult thing to do.

More Elders had arrived to help watch him for a while, just in case he broke free of the chains during a violent episode.

The news of the second attack had come as a shock. It was so soon after the first, and because it had happened within the town, news of the gruesome event was spreading fast.

Lilly and Tabitha decided they needed to find out what people knew, so they headed into town to find out what rumours were circulating. There, they met up with Rose and Meredith and walked in and out of shops, supermarkets and cafes to listen in on other people's conversations.

"They're saying it's a bear gone mad."

"I heard a mountain lion is on the loose."

"That poor woman never saw it coming... an attack so savage. It had to have been a hungry bear."

Relieved that everyone seemed to be blaming wild animals, they ended up at the local police department to see if they could find out more, but they were told much the same thing. It appeared that old Mrs Murray had been the victim of a starved wild animal. Her seventy-year-old body was currently undergoing an autopsy, but that's what they thought would be written in the report.

Satisfied that no suspicions had been raised about any kind of supernatural activity, Rose decided to head to Frank's house to speak to Carmelo, while the two girls went for a much-needed coffee in the local Starbucks.

Once they'd ordered their Pumpkin Spiced Lattes and found a free table to sit down, they tried to talk about anything other than the vicious murder of poor old Mrs Murray. It wasn't easy, though, as that seemed to be on the mind of everybody that walked in. It was the first thing customers mentioned, even before they'd ordered their coffee.

When their order was up, Lilly hopped off her chair to fetch the two large tasty hot coffees and was nearly knocked over by a young man wearing glasses carrying a laptop under his arm, a coffee in one hand and pen and paper in the other.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm such a klutz. I didn't make you spill your coffee, did I?" he asked kindly in an unusual foreign accent.

Lilly smiled and shook her head, "no, it's okay. Don't worry about it," she said as she turned her back on him and went and sat back down with her second cousin.

"Well? What was THAT all about?"

"Huh? Oh, he just bumped into me, that's all."

"That's all, huh? I don't think so. He can't take his eyes off you. He's still staring now," giggled Tabitha as she watched him.

Suddenly aware that Tabitha had noticed, he opened his laptop and pretended to work.

She laughed to herself and told Lilly, "he's kind of cute, actually. A bit old though, too old for you, anyway. I'd say he's about...erm, what, twenty-two?"

"Will you stop staring at him, Tab, it's embarrassing."

She shrugged her shoulders and continued to take note of the stranger, aware that he just didn't seem to belong in Powell River. From his shoulder-length, curly, chestnut brown hair to the intensity of his green-eyed stare, something about him just seemed off somehow.

"Maybe he's a student," she said to herself, "although he doesn't really look like he's studying. There's something about him though. Not quite sure what..."

"You have a funny way of not staring at somebody, Tab. Can you talk about something else?"

Tabitha rolled her eyes and took a long sip of her coffee. "Mmm... good choice, Lilly," she said, finally changing the subject.

"Did you meet Tiffani up at the caves?" Lilly asked.

"The fairy? Yes, briefly. She's breathtaking, isn't she?"

Lilly nodded, "you heard what happened to her, then?"

"Yeah, weird. She's from somewhere with white forests or something and she just sort of ended up here, lost. The Elders have no idea what happened either. They're not entirely sure where these white forests are."