Raven's Blood

Chapter Four

Michael woke up before Chella. They had decided to stay at the apartment over night, that way as soon as Raven got back, they could ask her about her date and whatnot. Michael just wanted to know what had happened. Well, not really. He didn’t want to know anything that she did with Darrien. Chella, however, was interested on how well Raven’s date had gone. He turned over on his back and stared up at the ceiling.
Chella made her way down the small hallway and went into the bathroom. She didn’t bother turning the light on and just sat down on the toilet. Her head was pounding and she felt as if she hadn’t showered in days. When she was through using the toilet, she climbed out of her clothes and turned the shower on. She took her lighter and lit the seven candles that were scattered about the bathroom. Wax was caked on the top of the sink and the back of the toilet from previous candles and on a shelf that hung right directly above the toilet. An incense burner was sitting on the same shelf above the toilet along with a box of lavender, sandalwood, and cypress incense. She took out a stick of lavender, lit it, and placed it in the tiny hole of the ash catcher.
Chella climbed into the tub and let the hot water from the shower rain over her body. She inhaled deeply and smelled the lavender incense. It would help her pounding head. At least she hoped it would.
Michael rolled back over on his side and stared blankly at the closet door with a poster Raven loved dearly. It was an abstract painting of a cello with music notes swirling around it. The apartment was furnished with three bedrooms. The bedroom he had slept in was mainly decorated with purple and black tapestries of Celtic knot work designs and astrology glyphs. It was his favorite bedroom. Many nights, after he and Raven had gone club hopping, they’d share the double bed in this room. He smiled to himself and grabbed the pillow that Raven always used. He buried his face deeply into the pillow and inhaled the perfumes, shampoo, and aromatherapy oils Raven used religiously. He heard the shower running in the bathroom right across the hallway from the bedroom. Chella must be up, he thought.
He climbed out of bed and pulled his jeans on over his boxer shorts. His pack of Camels was sitting on the nightstand next to the bed. He took out a cigarette from the battered pack and lit it.
“Well I suppose I should brew a pot of coffee,” he mumbled with the cigarette hanging from his mouth. An ash fell on the floor and he used his sock covered foot to rub the ash into the rug.
He left the bedroom and walked up the hallway. He stopped at the third bedroom door that was closed and gently opened it. There, lying on the bed, was Raven, sound asleep. He wondered when she got back. A surge of jealousy swept through him as he remembered that she had gone out with that Darrien character after the show. He didn’t like Darrien one bit. He knew that Darrien was dangerous. That’s why he had tried to stop Raven from going out with Darrien last evening. Something wasn’t right about Darrien. He didn’t want Raven to date anyone other than himself; of course that’s what the problem was. He was too damn shy to make the first moved. Perhaps one day he’d tell Raven the truth about how he felt about her, just not this day.
Quietly, Michael shut the bedroom door and continued towards the kitchen. He put a teakettle full of water on the stovetop, knowing Raven hated coffee. Then he prepared the coffee machine with his favorite French Roasted coffee.
Chella was finished with her shower and joined Michael in the kitchen. Wrapped in a white terrycloth robe, hair spiked out every which way with molding gel, and her favorite pair of fuzzy pink slippers covering her tiny feet, she sat down at the little dinette table.
“Good morning,” Michael said to her. She looked up at the wall clock and smiled. It was almost two in the afternoon.
“Do we still have that bottle of Feverfew?” She asked thinking about her pounding head.
“No, but we do have some Excedrin,” Michael said and opened the cupboard that held all of Raven and Chella’s New Age remedies. He grabbed the white bottle of Excedrin and handed it over to Chella. “Raven hasn’t gone to Aimee’s Herbal Shoppe that I know of to buy any of her herbal pills and aromatherapy oils. She’ll probably do that tomorrow.”
“I’m going to go today,” Raven said as she entered the kitchen. She plopped down in the seat closest to Chella. Her crimson curls were all disarrayed from sleep and she was wearing her favorite t-shirt of The Cure with their album logo of “Head on the Door,” a pair of black satin pajama bottoms and a pair of cotton candy pink and glitter fuzzy slippers. “I feel like total shit and I need to get my monthly supply of goodies. I already called her earlier to place my order.”
Chella and Michael looked at Raven and waited for her to say something about her date with Darrien. She didn’t say anything. Instead, she stood up and went over to the cupboard above the sink and took out three mugs and placed them down on the countertop. She then reached into the freezer for her instant Chai’ Tea. Since she didn’t live at the apartment, she always stored her tea and Michael’s favorite coffee in the freezer to keep it fresh not to mention a carton or two of cigarettes. Even the supply of cigarettes was low. Just a few lonely packs sat on one of the shelves.
The teakettle let out its horrible shrill and Raven went over to the stove to take the kettle off the burner. Michael began to pour coffee for Chella and himself, and then sat down on the other side of Chella. Raven made her cup of Chai’ tea, added hazelnut creamer and joined them.
The three of them sat in silence sipping at their steaming mugs of coffee and Chai’ tea. Finally, Chella couldn’t stand it any longer, she asked Raven how her date went with Darrien.
“Oh, Chella, he’s such a gentleman. I’ve never in all my life met a man like that. And his house! It’s magnificent! It actually looks like an old Medieval castle. He claimed it’s been in his family for 300 plus years.”
“What did you guys do?” Michael dared to ask.
“Nothing really,” Raven said after she took a sip from her mug. The hot hazelnut and vanilla flavored tea tasted like Heaven. It warmed and gradually woke Raven’s body up. “we rode around in this old carriage and then he took me back to his place.”
“What the hell did you do there?” Michael questioned. He was getting irritated hearing Raven’s discussing her wonderful evening.
“We just talked the entire time, and well, I got a little drunk off a bottle of vintage burgundy wine. God, I wish we could get some of that wine. Too damn expensive for my poor ass, but not taste, that’s for sure. You know, I can’t even give you an estimate on the cost of that particular burgundy. He told me it was made back in the late 1800’s, so it was pretty potent. I only had two glasses of the burgundy and a glass of champagne.”
“That wine must have been potent to get you drunk, considering your consumption of Absinthe all the time.” Chella said. “What did you guys talk about?”
Michael got up from the table and poured the remains of his coffee down the sink and washed his mug, setting it off to the side in the dish drainer.
“I hate to do this to you two, but I have some important things to do today, so I gotta run,” he announced.
Both Raven and Chella looked at him strangely. What sort of important things did he have to do on the day after Halloween? Chella felt he was just making an excuse to get out of there so the two girls could talk. She smiled at Michael. Raven didn’t look up at him. Michael took that as a cue to head out. “Well, I’ll catch up with you two later.”
“Okay,” Chella replied.
“Yeah, sure. See ya later,” Raven said, still not making eye contact with him.
Michael went into the living room, grabbed his backpack, disc man, and headphones, and then went back to the bedroom to retrieve his costume and cigarettes. He left without saying a good-bye to either Chella or Raven.
“What’s up with him?” Raven asked as soon as the door to the apartment closed shut.
“Who knows? Forget about him. Tell me more about your evening. I know you’re hiding something, girl. I can see it in your eyes. You guys did more than just talk.”
Raven blushed. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Michael.”
“I could tell. So?”
“Okay, from the beginning then,” Raven started. “we did talk quite a bit, even when we got back to his castle-like home. He introduced me to his butler. Real nice elderly man. Darrien claimed that Jackson, that’s the butler’s name, worked for not only him, but his father and his grandfather! We were going to have a late night dinner, but after I drank that one glass of that burgundy I mentioned, I began to get all dizzy and kinda sick. Darrien asked me to stay over. At first, I thought he only wanted to have sex with me when he invited me to stay over. But that wasn’t why he wanted me to stay. He was worried about me and offered a room for me to sleep in.”
Chella got up and went back to the coffee pot and poured herself another mug. Raven handed Chella her mug and she made her another mug of tea and handed it back to her. She sat back down, took a cigarette out of the pack that sat on the table and lit it. Raven did the same.
“And then?”
“I don’t know,” Raven said shaking her head from side to side. “everything that happened after I drank that glass made me feel like I was in some kind of a dream.”
Chella looked worried, “You’re telling me that you don’t remember what happened after you got drunk off of one glass of wine?”
“No, that’s just it. I do remember exactly what happened.” Raven reached over and took Chella’s hand. “Chella, I lost my virginity last night.”
Chella gasped. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy or to be worried over the whole situation.
“The strange thing about the whole sex thing was I wanted it to happen. I kept thinking to myself that I shouldn’t do it, but I couldn’t control my body.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Chella said.
“Something happened while we had sex, Chella. Something scary, yet it was amazing!”
“That’s called an orgasm, dear.”
“You’re funny. I know what an orgasm is, dummy! It’s not like I haven’t masturbated before.”
The two girls giggled.
“Well, what happened then?”
Raven looked down at her mug. Both hands tightly clenched around it. She wasn’t sure if she could tell Chella. Hell, she wasn’t sure if what she had done and had seen really happened. And then there was the vision of Chella dressed up like some exotic Goddess that somewhat frightened her. The past two years, Raven had been having precognitive experiences. Each and every single one of them had come true. Some took longer than others to happen, but they always happened and Raven couldn’t do a damn thing to change the Fate of these visions. She began to wonder if seeing Chella while she and Darrien had had sex was something of the future or the past or the present, or if it was truly real.
“Raven, what’s wrong?” Chella asked. Raven looked up from the mug and looked Chella in the eyes. “I don’t know if something’s wrong or not.”
“What on earth do you mean?”
“I think I know my destiny, Chella. No, scratch that, I know what my destiny is.”
Chella nodded. The time had finally come for Raven to discover her true destiny.
“I always knew I was different, but I didn’t know how different. All my life, Mama kept this secret of who I am or what I am. I once overheard Mama and Papa arguing about me. It was during that argument when I heard Papa yell at her, ‘There are no such things as vampires!’ I never had enough courage to ask her about that argument. As I began growing up, my so-called powers changed. They grew more powerful and more intense,” Raven stopped. She lit another cigarette with trembling hands.
“Chella, I think I’m half human and half vampire.”
Chella smiled. “Raven, I have something to tell you.”
“I bit Darrien while we were having sex and he bit me,” she said not paying attention to her friend. She was in shock. “I drank his blood, Chella! I drank his fucking blood and I liked it! No, I loved it! I needed it!”
“Calm down, Raven, please,” Chella pleaded with her best friend.
“It doesn’t have that taste like you’ve been sucking on a penny. It’s sweet and exotic!”
“Raven, please, I have to tell…”
“I’m a goddamn vampire!” Raven interrupted. “I saw things while I drank from Darrien.”
Chella kept quiet and sat there waiting for Raven to tell her about what she’d seen.
“I saw Darrien with his arms wrapped around this woman. She looked somewhat like me, but her eyes where really dark brown and her hair was jet black. Then I turned and I saw you!”
Chella held her breath.
“You had extremely long blonde hair and you were wearing this sheer blue gown. You had some kind of crown on your head and you were holding a staff! There was this bright blue gemstone at the tip of the staff and it was glowing. And the crown you had on looked like one of those crowns that Wiccan priestess’ wear. You know the ones with a crescent moon cast in the very center? The same crescent moon was on the staff as well. Do you understand what it all means?”
Chella nodded. “Yes, I know exactly what that was all about. I know a lot of things that you don’t know.”
“What does it mean?” Raven asked.
“I think it’s time you and I had a heart to heart talk.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Michael sat in his bedroom at his desk. He needed to take his mind off of Raven and Darrien. It was so hard for him to concentrate on playing his computer video game, The Sims. It wasn’t often that he’d play the game, but he didn’t want to play his guitar. He didn’t want to write poems. He didn’t want to write in his journal. Nothing was working, so he turned off his game and shut down the computer.
Michael went over to his bed and sat down. He wanted to cry, but crying was for girls, that’s what they always say. Try as he might, the tears came anyway.
“Why’d you have to come back?” Michael asked. He wasn’t talking to anyone in his room. He was talking to someone who was dangerous. It scared him that Raven’s destiny was finally coming true. He knew the day would come when all the secrets would be revealed to her. How horrible it must be not to know who you are and who everyone in your life really is, he thought to himself.
The phone on his nightstand rang. Michael looked over at the Caller ID machine, it was Chella. He reluctantly picked up the black cordless phone and pressed the “talk” button.
“Hello?”
“Michael, it’s happened!” Chella exclaimed.
“I know. I felt it when she sat down with us in the kitchenette earlier. Did you tell her anything?”
“I had no choice. I didn’t tell her everything. I just told her about me. She had a vision of me when she drank…”
“Please, I don’t want to know about what she did. What was in the vision?”
Chella was silent for a moment. He could hear her close her bedroom door and then turned on her stereo. Michael knew things were happening way too fast. Plus, the way Chella was acting, he knew that soon, Raven would begin the transformation.
“Chella?” Michael said softly.
“Sorry. Mom’s downstairs and I didn’t want her to hear this conversation. I know she’s not listening on the other end of the phone. Be that as it may, I think it would be wise to meet at the old mansion. Everyone else is meeting us there.”
“You’ve already contacted everyone?” Michael asked feeling a bit jealous that he was the last to know.
“No, but I’m calling them after I hang up with you.” She replied.
“Oh. Well, I need to go and get cigarettes and then I’ll see you and everyone else at the mansion. I knew this was coming. I felt it when I saw him.”
“I know you did, Michael. I didn’t right away, then I had this dream last night after we had gotten drunk and stoned and I knew Raven…well, I won’t talk about it, since I know how you feel about her.”
Michael sighed. “I’m scared for her, Chella.”
“Don’t worry, Michael. Everything will be okay.”
“I sure hope so.”
“I’ll see ya later then.”
“Yeah, see ya later.” Michael said then pressed the “end” button on his phone. He wanted to throw the phone across the room. He was that pissed off and scared.
“Why now? What do you want me to do?” He asked looking up towards the ceiling of his room.
Michael got up, grabbed his black leather jacket and car keys, and then headed down to the garage. Thankfully no one was home to bother him. He loved his parents, but they could really be nosey sometimes, especially lately. He walked through the empty house and out the side door from the kitchen and into the garage. He got in his poor battered up metallic black Chevy Blazer and started it. Music blasted away from the car stereo and he turned down the volume. Soon he was heading down the road to the small convenience store to buy a carton of Camels.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I went back to the bedroom and gathered up my costume, cello, and used the outside entrance to leave. I didn’t want to run into Mama or Papa. All I wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and go back to bed, but I had to stop at Aimee’s to pick up my order. Maybe after I picked it up, I’d go home and get some more sleep. Too much was going on in my head and Chella just made matters worse by telling me about what I’d seen in the vision when I drank Darrien’s blood.
“My God, this is really happening, isn’t it?” I said.
I walked over to my red Toyota and hopped in. I put my favorite CD in my portable CD player then backed out of the parking lot behind our family restaurant. I felt like I was in a daze or something. I didn’t even realize that I was parking my car along the street in front of Aimee’s store.
I got out of the car, locked it, then went up to the door to the herbal shop. I could already smell the various herbs that Aimee sold before I opened the door to her store. I could also hear the peaceful music she was playing on the store’s little sound system. The chimes on the door twinkled as I opened the door and entered the store.
Aimee was with a customer telling them something about one of her essential oils. The chimes hanging from the door made her look towards me. She gave me a warm smile and then returned to the customer. At the back of the shop, Aimee had a small supply of Wiccan books, talismans, incense, and other pagan trinkets. I walked up to the bookshelf and glanced at the titles of the books. I was looking for something about vampires, but I was out of luck. Maybe I could ask her if she knew where I could acquire any books on vampires. I’m sure though, the only books out there were fictional. I was still having a hard time believing what had happened to me at Darrien’s.
Just the very thought of him made me blush and tingle. Maybe what happened was a dream. Even though my heart and my body were telling me it wasn’t a dream. It was all real. Now everything would change. Not just myself, but my life.
“Hiya, Raven!” Aimee greeted me. She saw I was looking at her small collection of books. “Looking for anything in particular?”
“Actually, yes. I wanted to read up on any books about vampires. And I don’t mean like Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”
“I figured you didn’t mean fiction. You sure are obsessed with vampires, aren’t you?”
“You could say that,” I said.
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t carry any books about vampires. Just your average ordinary Wiccan books. Oh, and books on Gods and Goddesses.”
I hadn’t even given that a thought. “Do you have a book on Goddesses that you recommend?”
Aimee nodded and ran her fingers along the spines of the books. She took out a book and handed it to me. “Why the sudden change in reading material?”
“Oh, nothing, you know I love reading just about anything.” I looked down at the cover of the book. My eyes grew wide when I saw the cover. There, as plain as day, was a woman with long blonde hair wearing a crescent moon crown.
“I love that picture!” Aimee said. “It’s supposed to be the moon Goddess, Diana. I sure as heck wished I looked like her.”
I smiled. Poor Aimee had been picked on all her life for being overweight, so I felt close to her in a sense that she was a victim of cruelty like I had been.
“Do want to buy that book along with your order?”
“Sure.”
Together we walked over to the counter where her antique register sat. She grabbed a bag and a box from underneath the counter and placed them next to the register. There was an order form taped onto the box that Aimee took off and began ringing up the total of everything. While she rang up the items, I flipped through the pages of the book.
“Your order comes to $157.95, the book is free.” She said with a smile.
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to do that. I can pay for the book.” I told her.
“I already gave you a discount and that book needs a good home to go to. I know you’ll like it. Maybe you should talk to Sissi about Wicca. If you’re interested in practicing witchcraft.”
Sissi was a frequent customer as well. She was a practicing Wiccan and practically lived day by day by taking advice from her beloved tarot deck. Maybe I should talk to her. She might be able to tell me what this whole business with Chella was all about.
I handed Aimee my credit card and waited for her to process it. She had to use an out of date credit card machine. The kind that you place a credit card on a manual metal device, then put a carbon copy slip over the card and slide the roller across so the numbers printed out. She wrote the total of items and the total, along with her special V.I.P. discount then handed me the receipt to sign. She handed me the carbon copy and my credit card. I folded the receipt and put it and my credit card back in my pink vinyl messenger bag.
“You need some help carrying all this stuff to your car?” Aimee asked.
“Nah, I got it. Thank again!”
“Hey, no prob', Raven. You’re one of my favorite customers. Next time though, don’t wait until you run out of your supplies. It’s just like taking medicine, if you skip a dose, everything gets all fucked up.”
“Yes, Dr. Aimee,” I said with a smile. “Well, I better get going. I’m absolutely bushed from partying too much last night.”
“Speaking of last night, you guys sounded great! I forgot to tell you that when you called me. You should really check out some record companies or something.”
“I didn’t see you last night at the restaurant.” I said changing the subject.
“That’s because you were distracted by a charming Victorian man.”
The thought of Darrien brought back the tingling sensation again. I smiled. “Yes, he is charming.”
“I’ll say! He’s all that and a bag of chips!” We both laughed.
Aimee walked ahead of me to hold the door open for me. I told her I’d see her around, then went back to my car. I opened the passenger door and placed my order on the tan bucket seat and went around to the driver’s side and climbed in. I wanted to read the book on Goddesses right away, but decided to head for home, take my shower, then read it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chella was the first to arrive at the once abandon old Victorian mansion. Everyone in the band wanted to buy the place since the day they found it. So, Marcus went out of his way to find out everything about the place. All they needed to do was pay the back taxes on it and it was theirs. They raised the money from all of their shows and went ahead and bought the house. Now the old Victorian mansion was where they hung out and began building a recording studio in the one of the largest rooms on the first floor. There was still a lot of stuff that needed to be fixed up, but other than that, the place was perfect. The closest neighbor was at least five miles down the road, so there wasn’t anyone around to complain about the noise they made while they practiced. The studio was just about finished and soon they would be able to record their very first CD properly.
Chella went straight to the kitchen and opened the fridge to get out a bottle of vanilla coke. They practically lived there when they didn’t use the apartment above Raven’s parents’ restaurant, so there were plenty of food and drinks stored in the antique refrigerator and a pantry located in the right hand corner of the kitchen. Last winter, they had trouble with mice getting into the pantry and even in the music studio, but that was quickly taken care of when Sissi adopted two longhaired black kittens that were advertised in the newspaper. Sissi adored cats. In fact, she was famous for taking in strays. Her mother loved cats just as much, so it never bothered her. It was always a plus, considering that Sissi’s mother was into New Age things and claimed that the stray cats that came to live with them protected them from negative energies. At least Fred and Ginger, the two kittens Sissi brought to live at the mansion and named them after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, were well behaved and didn’t get into too much trouble. The big plus was they were excellent mousers. They more or less owned the place and knew better not to disturb the expensive equipment, amp and microphone cords and their instruments, when the band left them there.
Chella opened her bottle of vanilla coke, took a big gulp, and then went to the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink to get out the large plastic container of dry cat food so she could feed Fred and Ginger. The two cats heard her pouring the dry cat food into their dishes and came running into the kitchen.
“Hey you two!” Chella said and bent down to pet the both of them. They began to purr and meow and wind themselves around her legs. After Chella was done feeding and loving them she stood back up, grabbed her bottle of vanilla coke and went back out to the main room to sit down and wait for the rest of the band to show up. She wasn’t sure what she was going to tell them, so she tried to think of ways to break the news gently to them about Raven. She was more afraid of Michael discovering that Raven was no longer a virgin. He had told her last night while they had gotten stoned and drunk that he wanted to be her first. Chella wondered for a moment, did he mean he wanted to be her first lover or her first victim. She bit her lower lip and shook her head. Everything was happening way too fast. She always knew what Raven’s destiny was, but she didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
Michael’s Blazer pulled into the dirt circular driveway. Chella could hear Nine Inch Nails blasting from the stereo speakers. Even though Michael’s Blazer was a piece of shit, it had an awesome sound system. Chella got up and went to the front door. She was happy that he had shown up first.
Michael turned off the ignition and the engine coughed like an old man with tuberculosis for a few seconds. He saw Chella standing in the doorway and waved. She tried to give him a smile and waved back, but Chella’s smile looked more like a forced smile to him. Whatever she had to tell him, he knew it wasn’t good, especially if it had to do with Raven.
He got out and shut the car door. No one else was there other than Chella. He figured the others would show up soon, so he hurried up his pace and went to Chella. She wrapped her arms around Michael and gave him a very sincere hug. That was warning enough to send shivers up and down his spine.
“Let’s go inside,” Chella said. “I want to talk to you before everyone else gets here.”
Michael closed the door behind him as the two entered the house. He went directly to the kitchen and Chella followed him like a lost puppy. He figured he was going to have to get a drink before the horror conversation began. He found a bottle of vodka and grabbed it. To hell with a shot glass, he thought and twisted the cap off and took two huge swallows of the horrible tasting burning liquid. He let out a small cough as the vodka burned his throat and entered his stomach.
“So, what’s going on?” He asked and turned to Chella.
“Why don’t we go out into the living room and sit. I would suggest sitting for this conversation.”
Michael raised an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?” Chella nodded.
They walked back into the living room. Fred and Ginger bounced up happily to Michael and gave him their cute greetings. He ignored them and sat down on the old blue and red plaid couch. The living room was somewhat decorated like the living room of the apartment. Only there were more posters hanging on the walls to cover up the old peeling wallpaper. The room was also decorated with Christmas lights and candles.
“Okay,” Chella began. “after you left the apartment today, Raven told me something that scared the absolute shit out of me.”
Michael nodded and dug into his front jeans pocket for his baggie of weed. Vodka wasn’t going to be enough, he thought, so he began preparing a joint. Chella just sat there and shook her head from side to side. She really didn’t want to tell him what she and Raven had talked about several hours ago, but she knew it was her duty to tell him everything. Including the part about Raven losing her virginity and drinking Darrien’s blood.
“Raven’s no longer a virgin,” she blurted out.
Michael looked up from the coffee table and the small pile of pot that he was breaking up for the joint. “Yeah, so what? Big fucking deal! She’s old enough to make that decision.”
“No, Michael, it is a big deal! I think something was in that wine that Darrien gave her. I don’t know what, but whatever it was, it…” she paused.
“Yes?”
“Raven told me that while they were having sex, she drank his blood and he drank her blood. Darrien is the man. He’s the one we’re supposed to protect her from.”
“Like I didn’t know that!” He yelled. He was so angry now that the very thought of killing Darrien made his heart race.
“But that’s not all that happened. She told me she saw something while she was drinking his blood. She claimed she saw Darrien in the arms of some woman that looked somewhat like Raven, only the woman had brown eyes and jet black hair.” Chella paused again. She was deathly afraid to finish what she began. Finally giving in, she told Michael the rest of Raven’s vision. “Raven then told me she saw me.”
“She saw you?”
“Yes, Michael, she saw me. In my true form.”
Michael stopped picking through the weed. He looked up and saw how scared Chella was. “You told her, didn’t you?”
“I told her about me. Not about you or anyone else.”
He returned to the weed and began rolling a huge joint. He didn’t care how high he was going get. Reality was what he didn’t want to face.
“What exactly did you tell her?”
“I don’t think she believed me. She actually laughed at me when I told her I’m a Goddess.”
He licked the rolling paper and finished making the joint. He took out his orange disposable lighter, lit it, took a long drag from the joint then passed it over to Chella. She didn’t hesitate to take it. She inhaled deeply, held the smoke in her lungs as long as possible then exhaled, sighing at the same time.
“I told her that long before she was born, I was given the job to protect her from a man who would transform her. Like I said, all she did was laugh. It just seemed like she didn’t believe me.”
Michael exhaled the spicy smoke and took the joint back from Chella.
“I more than likely wouldn’t have believed you either. You didn’t tell her anything else, right?”
“No,” she coughed. “I was afraid to tell her about any of us.”
“Raven may not believe you, so we have one advantage. We just have to be more careful now. Plus, we have to keep her from returning to Darrien’s lovely dungeon for the undead!”
“That’s going to be hard, Michael and you know it!”
“Well what the fuck should we do then? Lock her up?”
“Michael, you know it’s her Fate. I just hope she doesn’t have anymore of her visions. You know how powerful she’s becoming.”
“Yes, I know. That’s why we need to shield our thoughts when we’re around her. If we don’t, she might pick up on some information that she’s not supposed to know until the day she’s completely transformed into a vampire.”
The joint was nearly finished by the time the rest of gang showed up. Now it was time to tell them. Perhaps, with all of them, they could help her. Then again, like Chella had said, it’s Raven’s Fate to become a vampire.