Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

8. The Vampire, The Witches, and The Stones

Or not. Apparently, one does not simply drive into Council Headquarters.

It can't be reached by any conventional means of transportation, and on second thought, it probably isn’t even in Oregon like I assumed when Tian said earlier that it would be our next stop. He explains after we’ve been driving for a while that there are a few things he wants to show me, but it will be on our way to a hotel about three hours from Black Moon where he intends to have us check in and park our vehicle so he can teleport us to our actual destination.

I have a feeling that traveling with my ancient vampire dad is going to be an experience in itself. He has too much fun keeping me on my toes trying to figure out what he’s up to at any given point.

Once we make it to the hotel and up to our room, he instructs me to use the bathroom and freshen up if I need to because it might be the last opportunity for a while. I smile thinking of how many years he’s been saying things like that to me, but I also take his advice knowing that he’s rarely wrong about these things.

“Ready,” I tell him when I emerge, hustling over and into the embrace he has waiting for me.

He really only needs to hold my hand or touch my shoulder, but I’ve always insisted on hugging while teleporting. It’s not as disorienting that way.

I close my eyes and lean my head on his shoulder as the familiar vibrations take over, plugging my nose to fend off the offensive smoke. I hope he doesn’t have many more teleporting adventures planned for today, because that smell is starting to make me a bit queasy.

“Oh, Tian!” Anya shouts, seeming startled by our sudden appearance across the room from her.

“Hello, old friend,” he greets her, not even the least bit apologetic about suddenly being where she didn’t expect him.

“I thought we had agreed to meet out front in about a half hour,” she protests, though she’s more amused than annoyed.

“We did, but Anna Jade and I arrived to our destination a bit early, and I thought it might be nice for her to have a glimpse of what it’s really like to work at Council Headquarters,” he explains.

“Well, if I’d known, then I would have taken a minute to clean up and prepare a little,” Anya argues, glancing around at her disorganized mess.

“Then it wouldn’t be a very realistic glimpse, now would it,” he teases her. “I think it’s important for her to see this. Understand, Anna Jade, that Anya is normally a neat and organized person. She takes extra care with her appearance and likes to tidy up her spaces. But the work she does is messy, and that’s what you see around us.”

Not wanting to make Anya feel more self-conscious than she already does, I have been making a point of not looking around too much. Not that I’m not curious, because I most definitely am, but more for her comfort. But now that he’s basically inviting me, I can’t resist.

There’s stuff everywhere. There are various sacks and satchels strewn about the table where she appears to have been working, and stacks of papers cluttering up one of the two chairs in the room. She has one of the cabinets behind her open and seems to be taking what she needs from it at will. Its contents seem to be partially spilled out over the nearby counters.

“But at the end of the day, when she’s finished whatever projects she’s working on, this will all be tidied up again and ready for a new day,” Tian goes on explaining.

“Yes, he obviously knows me well enough to be right about all that,” Anya admits. “I can’t find fault with anything he’s saying. And anyway, I guess since you’re already here, there are some things I could show you if you’re interested.”

“Yes, of course,” I agree readily.

I’m always eager for the things she can show and teach me. She’s the only other witch I know besides Aunt Lizaine, and the things my aunt has shown me are questionable at best, but mostly just unsettling. Her tricks and illusions are kind of cool, but a lot of her other magic is dark. I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to because it would corrupt my magical essence. Of course, Emerick never cared about that, and that’s why Aunt Lizaine isn’t allowed to visit Black Moon anymore.

“I actually have a question for you, if now is a good time,” I add a moment later, remembering not long ago when I tried to heal myself but couldn’t.

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” Anya asks with intrigue, gazing across the table at me expectantly.

“How does a healer heal herself, assuming she even can?” I ask her, watching her eyes widen slightly with surprise. I’m guessing she didn’t expect that question.

“She can, but it’s not a simple task,” she begins to explain. “I know you already know this because you’ve experienced it before, but healing requires a connection between the healer and the person who needs the healing. How well you can heal someone, and how much of your power it takes, depends on the bond you have with the person. For a complete stranger, you can connect with their life force and heal them based solely on the fact that you can’t stand to see another person suffering. For a friend, it’s easier and less draining. You can do more with less because you know that person, and it gives you better insight into how to help them. And though we healers hate to admit it because it makes us look just selfish enough to choose favorites, we care more about the life of a friend than a stranger. A healer is more willing to give more of herself to heal a friend.”

She pauses for a moment, smiling with fondness though I can tell it’s not at me. She’s smiling about whatever memory or thought is going through her head.

“It’s extraneous to the point I’m making here, but there was one exception for me. There was one stranger who I wanted to help with everything I had almost the moment I met her,” Anya reminisces.

I’m about to ask her who she means, assuming she’s telling me because it’s someone I know, but Tian beats me to it.

“Kylie,” he states, smiling warmly at his old friend, and I realize he must have been there when it happened because they seem to be reminiscing about the same memory.

“My mother? You healed her?” I can’t help asking, wondering why I’ve never heard this story before. “I thought her wolf healed her.”

“She did, but I did try first,” Anya admits. “All I was able to do was patch her broken arm, but I wanted to do more. That was a special circumstance, though. It wasn’t a plain old disease or injury, but a very powerful curse that had yet to be broken.”

“But the point is that it only happened once that you were willing to give everything you had to a complete stranger?” Tian asks, directing her story back on track. “But a special stranger, to be sure,” he can’t help adding on, smiling the way he always does whenever he talks about his mate.

“Correct, that was my point,” she confirms. “And considering the rarity of meeting a person like that, I would expect that to be an experience you’ll never share with me, Anna Jade. But I suspect you know what it feels like to be willing to give it all to help someone. That’s the way your power was awakened, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You mean Uncle Pete,” I offer the answer to what she’s alluding to.

“I do. You, a newborn caster, somehow managed to do what I thought impossible, and it nearly killed you,” she tells me.

Her tone is gentle and motherly, but it’s what she says that rips through me. She may think it only a statement of facts I already know, but it’s a revelation. No one ever told me I almost died after healing Uncle Pete. I do my best not to react to it, though. I want to hear the rest of what she has to say.

“Which tells me he’s someone very special to you. That’s a powerful bond you’d need to achieve something of that magnitude, and with your bare hands at that.”

I feel like I’m missing some greater point she’s driving at there from how expectantly she’s looking at me, but I also detect a hint of awe in her tone. She’s impressed, which is not news to me since she’s told me that before, though I’ve never heard it quite like this.

But she’s also avoided talking about what I did for Uncle Pete most of the other times she’s visited, though she would never say why. Maybe it’s because she didn’t want to give away that I’d nearly died doing it.

“We attributed it to her being so inexperienced,” Tian chimes in. “She didn’t know the risks, or how to control it.”

“No, that’s not how it works,” Anya insists. “Even the first time a healer heals, it’s a process that she’s cognizant of the entire time. There’s intuition and instinct involved, yes, but I suspect that Anna Jade felt what it was doing to her. She could have stopped. But she also felt that she wasn’t finished and wasn’t content with only making his ailment better. She wanted it gone because he’s special to her, and that’s just how a healer’s heart behaves.”

She’s not wrong about any of that. I remember that day vividly, up until the point that I blacked out. I didn’t know that it could kill me, but I was well aware of how sleepy I felt and how it felt like I was fading away, but she’s right that I didn’t care. I had to fix Uncle Pete, that was all that was going through my head.

“Uncle Pete didn’t know though,” I feel a need to make sure they understand that he didn’t choose to let me drain myself. “He wouldn’t have let me if he had. I never told him anything was wrong, but I also didn’t know it could kill me.”

“I suppose you were a bit young to understand that,” Anya acknowledges. “Most casters don’t have access to their power until they’re around fifteen or sixteen, some not until they’re eighteen.”

“Do you think I’m the reason why Emerick’s power awakened before he was ready to handle the responsibility of it?” I can’t help asking her the question that’s been on my mind ever since I heard my parents discussing it quietly one night shortly after it happened, late enough that I was supposed to be in bed.

I distinctly heard my father say that a warlock was never meant to have power so soon, and it’s already bad enough when they’re teenagers who suddenly have access to it. But with what she’s saying about bonds and connections and how they’re related to a healer’s power, I can’t help wondering whether it’s my fault. Emerick and I are connected in a way that only twins can be, and maybe worrying that Uncle Pete was going to die somehow awakened my power prematurely and Emerick’s by extension.

“I’m not a practiced liar, which is why I’d rather not answer that question,” Anya responds uncomfortably. “But since that in itself is probably an answer, I suppose I should. In short, yes. I do think that, but it’s not a simple thing. I also cannot know it for certain.”

“It just seems like from all you’ve been saying, whatever connection I have with Uncle Pete might have been the thing that awakened my power in the first place,” I voice my thoughts. “I thought he was going to die, and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him there to go get help like he asked. It was my fault anyway. I shouldn’t have made him go out there, and I was walking too fast.”

My goal when I started was to stick to explaining why I asked what I did without letting my emotions get the better of me, but like what always happens when I think of the moment when Uncle Pete dropped on the ground right in front of me and couldn’t catch his breath, eventually the tears take over and I can’t explain myself any further.

I feel Tian wrap his arms around me and pull me tightly against his chest, so I turn and throw my arms around him and let him hold me as I blubber and cry about it just like I did when I was a child. I still harbor a lot of guilt about that day, even though I ended up curing him of the sickness that had clung to him for over a decade, and sometimes, I even wonder if I’m why he left Black Moon. And now add on the possibility that it’s also my fault that Emerick has turned out the way he has, and it’s just too much.

Once I’ve composed myself a bit better, Anya steps over and places a gentle hand on my shoulder, giving me a kind, grandmotherly smile.

“The reason why I didn’t want to answer your question is because though I do believe that the awakening of your magic and your brother's are connected, and that your connection to Pete may have been the catalyst as you say, I do wish you wouldn’t hold yourself responsible for your brother’s decisions or actions. There’s a natural darkness to a warlock, and whether his power awakened at ten or twenty, that would likely have been the case. All I think could have been prevented with a little extra time to mature are a few pranks and tricks around your home pack. Most warlocks know better than to be so disruptive in the place they call home.”

“But as she said, Emerick has made his own path,” Tian agrees soothingly, gently stroking my hair and placing a soft kiss on my cheek. “You were no older than him, and you knew to restrain yourself. Rules apply to everyone, including warlocks, and he chose to violate them all on his own.”

“But I suppose we’ve gone pretty far off-track from answering your original question haven’t we,” Anya reminds us all. “My original purpose with this discussion of bonds and connections was to point out an important difference between oneself and others.”

“I did wonder that,” I admit. “I thought the problem might be that in order to heal someone, I have to create a connection between my mind and their body, and maybe there’s nothing to connect with when it’s myself. But at the same time, it makes no sense. I shouldn’t have to connect with my own body. My mind and body are already connected. My magic should already know where to go.”

“That’s sound logic,” Anya compliments me, smiling at me approvingly. “But it’s not the connection that’s missing. If you think back to when you healed Pete, who was the last person you were motivated to help and protect in that moment?”

“There was only Uncle Pete,” I argue against the premise of her question. “He was the first and last person I thought of because he was the only one there.”

“First, do yourself a favor and stop calling him your uncle,” Anya demands, far more scoldingly than she has ever spoken to me before. “I’ve stayed quiet about that, but I cannot let it go on. He’s not your uncle, and you are no longer a child.”

I’m too stunned to say anything, so I just stand there, glancing over at Tian to see what he thinks of her outburst. He only shrugs unhelpfully.

“She has a point,” he admits.

“And secondly, the fact that you’re unable to recognize that there were two people involved in that exchange only demonstrates my point,” Anya continues in her normal, gentle tone. “We healers have a tendency to ignore ourselves and our own needs in favor of serving and helping others. Some call it benevolence, others refer to it as altruism, but I’ve lived long enough to finally see it for what it is: our potentially fatal flaw, the cost of the powerful magic it takes to heal.”

“So, I can’t heal myself because I don’t want to?” I ask her to clarify what she means by that.

“Sort of. It’s more like a subconscious aversion to healing yourself because spending that power on yourself would mean not having it available for someone else,” she explains. “Unless you are seriously hurt, it won’t work. But there is a workaround.”

She reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a stone I’ve seen her use before. It’s small, smooth, and a marbleized mix of turquoise and a pearly white color.

“This is my channeling stone, and I’m bonded to it,” she reveals. “I use it to channel my healing abilities because it helps normalize all the variation in my connections to others. I get a more predictable result in both the amount of healing I’m able to achieve and how much power it takes because I channel it through the strong bond I have to this stone. I’m still going to be able to heal my friends and family more effectively than a stranger, but the difference is less noticeable with this.”

“So, if I get one of those, then I’ll be able to heal myself? Because my magic will respond to the bond with it?”

“That’s almost correct, other than one thing,” she answers. “You can’t ‘get’ one in the way I think you’re picturing. A channeling stone can’t be purchased. It must be made, and you must be the one to make it. You’ll do that as soon as you come for official training with me here.”

“That makes sense, but I do wonder why I have to wait? I’ve been healing since I was ten,” I remind her, not meaning for it to come out sounding as conceited as it might have sounded.

I just don’t understand why I’ve been forced to use more power than necessary to heal. Maybe if I had a channeling stone, my mother wouldn’t have banned me from using my magic at the hospital.

“As a hybrid, your bond will be unique,” she explains. “Your wolf will be part of it, and you need to wait for her to awaken before forging your stone. But if you’d like, we can get started on the first step today.”

“I’d like that very much,” I grin at her, all the tears of earlier now forgotten.

Anya walks over to the cabinet right next to the one she already has open, pulling out a key to unlock the padlock. It’s the only of her cabinets that is locked like that, and I can’t help wondering if that means that whatever she keeps inside is more powerful or dangerous than the rest of her materials.

“Come and look through these,” she directs me. “If any catches your attention more than the rest, pick it up. And if when you pick it up, you feel a tingle or vibration or any sort of sensation like that, set it aside. Go through all of them, though. There will be more than one.”

“I need to pick up all of them?” I ask, dreading it once I see that she’s talking about what look like raw minerals and gemstones, and there are many of them. Some look rather heavy.

“No, just the ones that seem to call out to you or draw you in. Some won’t interest you in the least, and you can leave those ones alone.”

She sets a stool on the floor beside me, and I step up onto it so I can see the top shelves. Scanning over them, nothing seems to jump out at me. They’re just rocks, some prettier than the others, but none seem all that special.

On the third shelf down, I finally come across one that is practically begging me to pick it up. It’s a vibrant green, and I’ve seen enough of it to know what it is. It’s jade, my namesake. I’m sure my father will have plenty to say about that.

When I pick it up, the sensation that surges through me is so powerful that it nearly knocks me off the stool. I imagine it feels a bit like what electrocution feels like.

“That was a powerful connection, and somehow, I’m not surprised,” Anya comments right along with what I was just thinking.

I try to hand it to her, but she steps back and pulls her hands out of my reach. “No, that’s yours now,” she insists. “You’ve already started bonding with it. Just set it on the counter.”

I put it down where she is indicating and step down from the stool. I can see the rest of the shelves anyway, and that encounter with the jade has me worried that the next one really might knock me over. It isn’t until I’m looking through the very bottom shelf that I finally come across a second one that calls to me. It’s a murky cream or white color and seems rather plain, but I pick it up anyway. It’s only a faint buzzing that I feel from that one, but she did say that vibration counts, and buzzing is basically vibrating, so I set it aside. There aren’t any others that call to me after that.

“Good, that’s a good combination,” Anya says when she looks over my selections. “Opal is part of my channeling stone as well, and it looked like the weaker of the two for you as well.”

“Does that mean something significant?” I wonder.

“It does. The more powerful connection represents your bond to others, and the weaker is your bond to yourself. We’ll have to come back and have you select a third once your wolf awakens, and that will represent her contribution to the connection. I’m not a hybrid so I haven’t experienced it, but I would predict hers to be stronger than yours but still weaker than the jade.”

“Do the specific stones that called to me mean anything?” I ask next.

She’s busy in one of the other cabinets, digging something out of a bottom drawer before she makes her way back over to me. I see it’s a wooden lock box of some sort, and she hands me a small key.

“Unlock the box, and then carefully place your stones inside and lock it back up,” she instructs me, watching as I do what she said.

It’s not until she places the box on the very top shelf of the cabinet where she keeps all the stones and has the whole thing closed and locked again that she finally answers my question.

“Yes, your stones do mean something. The opal, in particular, which tells me you’re a lot like I was at your age. Meek, compliant, submissive, content to let others push you around and reluctant to speak your mind. Patient and generous, even when others have done nothing to deserve these things from you. The opal heard your call, and your bond to it will help you find yourself in time, buried deep inside your heart and your mind but eager to be released.”

I can’t argue with the things she’s saying about me, though I have always attributed those traits to my wolf. It’s why I suspect she’ll turn out to be an omega wolf. I don’t know that a bond to some stone will fix that.

“So, could it be that my wolf will select opal as well?” I’m curious now. That would make sense.

“It’s not impossible, but it is unlikely. You’re the healer, Anna Jade, not your wolf. The more powerful the healer, the more submissive she tends to be by nature.”

Fair enough. I suppose it would be better to wait and see who she turns out to be and which stone she selects than to stand here and speculate. Besides, I’m still wondering about the other stone.

“And the jade? What does that mean?”

She smiles at me, placing a warm hand on my forearm and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Just more confirmation of what we’ve all suspected about you for a long time,” she answers mysteriously.

And I can’t get her or Tian to say more about it after that. Guess I’m going to have to do some research about jade when I get back to the hotel. It’s come up enough in recent weeks that I’m beyond curious now. What is it about me and jade?