Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 5 (6 page)

"Huh?"

"C'mon," Saul stated,
"tearing down a forest like this would usually take years but the
way you used your powers today you could demolish it in one swift
swoop."

Aradia's ears perked up at
the mention of tearing down a forest. "What do you
mean?"

Saul said nothing, he just
tilted his head towards his right. Aradia looked and her jaw
dropped. From the direction she had just come from, she saw nothing
but charred remains of trees and foliage. In fact, the scene was so
bad that it looked like a wildfire from hell had torn right through
the Salem woods.

"Oh my God," Aradia
whispered, "what the hell have I done?"

Saul just shrugged. He was
amazingly calm while Aradia was overwrought with depression. She
sank to her knees again and covered her face with her hands. Saul
then noticed the quivering of her shoulders and rightfully assumed
she was about to cry.

"Hey c'mon now," Saul
crooned, "don't be sad. It's really no big deal..."

"No big deal?!" Aradia
snapped. She quickly stood up and pointed to the remains of the
forest. "Look! Look what I have done! How can you say it's no big
deal?"

Saul turned his head
casually, surveying the damages. "It really is no big deal because
you can fix it."

"What?" Aradia asked, her
eyes growing wide.

Saul smiled a little. "You
don't really know that much about your powers do you?"

She shook her head slowly.
"I mean I know I can do plenty of things but I don't..."

"Well," Saul interrupted,
"the thing of it is witches of the hidden race can do all kinds of
things. Most people don't know this but the real reason witches
have covens is because their power is greater in groups. Their
power was their energy after all and more energy means more power
am I right?"

Aradia stared at him in
disbelief, she knew some things about her people but not that much.
"How do you know this?"

Saul shrugged. "I am a bit
of a historian of sorts. I research races and their past, but my
particular favorite are the witches."

"You do realize," Aradia
sneered, "that the witches are all dead right?"

Saul nodded his head sadly.
"Yes. I know about all that. It was such a terrible tragedy what
happened to all of them. They had such history, such
power..."

"You mean you know about
them?" Aradia asked, finally intrigued.

"Of course I do!" Saul
laughed, "I am after all a historian. I know all about their
history, their powers, and..." he trailed off for a few seconds. "I
know that they could easily make a forest re-grow itself in a
matter of seconds."

"What?"

"By concentrating their
energy and visualizing the result, witches were able to regrow or
actually make entire forests bloom out nowhere in probably five
seconds flat," Saul explained.

Aradia's expression was that
of delight until her distrust of strangers kicked in. She then
folded her arms and glared at Saul. "Why should I trust you hmm? Do
you have any proof that what you say is true?"

Saul looked uneasy.
"No."

Aradia then nodded with
satisfaction at least until he said, "but I can show you how it is
done."

"What?"

Saul then swooped in and
took hold of Aradia's hands. Instinctively, she fought to break his
grip but he held tight and spun her around towards the burnt
remains of the forest. He then held up both her hands, palms
forward.

"Now," he whispered in her
ear, "don't focus on what remains of the forest. Focus on how the
forest should look. Visualize in your mind the greenness of the
trees, the rocks with no burn marks, and the dirt filled with life
once again. Don't try to force all your power out though, that
takes too much of your energy."

"Helping recreate this
forest might drain me permanently," Aradia pointed out with her
voice shaking.

"No," Saul whispered, "it
won't and I will tell you why. What gave the witches power was
their energy. People believed that once they were killed their
energy would disappear. It didn't, because you lived their energy
and their power came to you. You are the last witch, the only one
capable of receiving their power. It came to you. It is inside of
you."

"Why should I even believe
you?" Aradia snapped.

"Let me show you how to heal
this forest," Saul crooned, "and you will see."

Aradia sighed heavily, but
her curiosity to know if Saul spoke the truth got the better of
her.

"Do I have to close my
eyes?" She asked.

He softly shook his head but
still kept his cheek next to her's. "Just focus, visualize, and see
what you can really do."

Aradia sighed once again.
Closing her eyes, regardless of Saul's instructions, she visualized
the forest before she had started her rampage. She imagined the
thickness of the leaves and branches, the wet smell of the dirt,
the gray color of the stones, even the small patches of moss
growing at the foot of the trees.

"Take a deep cleansing
breath," Saul instructed, "and try to steady your thoughts and
heartbeat."

Aradia did as he
said.

"Now hold on to the thought
of making this forest beautiful again,"

"And then what?" Aradia
inquired.

"You'll see," Saul said in
an overconfident voice.

In spite of her eyes being
closed, Aradia rolled them. Still she spread her fingers wide and
did as Saul had instructed. Slowly, she began to feel her summoning
power coursing through her veins. This sensation was nothing new
except this time instead of feeling like it was forced the
summoning of her power seemed to be flowing through her body like
currents of water. Beads of sweat did not appear on her forehead,
she had no loss of breath, but most of all she felt omnipotent.
This was something she had never felt before, and strangely she
found it thrilling.

"Open your eyes," Saul
suddenly said.

"Why?"

"Just do it," he stated
flatly.

Aradia exhaled through her
nose. However, it was when she finally did open her eyes her breath
seemed to leave her completely. It was just as Saul had said, the
forest looked just as it had before. Nothing remained of the damage
Aradia had inflicted on it either on the tree bark or on the
ground. There wasn't even any smoke drifting in the air. The grass
was just as green had been before, the stones had been moved back
to their original spots. Aradia couldn't believe it! She rushed
forward to verify what she was seeing and was shocked to feel the
grass she was touching feel wet and alive.

"I did it," she said softly,
"I really did it!"

"Of course you did," Saul
stated while folding his arms. "It doesn't surprise me one
bit."

Aradia turned to look at
him. In a rush of gratitude, she ran forward and flung her arms
around his neck.

"Thank you, thank you, thank
you so much!" Aradia cried out enthusiastically.

Saul smiled and clung to
her, happy for the close contact. Aradia didn't know if it was the
spur of the moment or something else but suddenly she tilted her
head back and kissed him. Almost as quickly, she jerked back and
stared at him in shock.

"I am sorry," she
stammered.

Saul, however, looked far
from offended. "Don't be."

Aradia chuckled softly, not
realizing that in spite of her apology her arms were still around
him.

After thanking Saul for
helping her, she had thought about going back home. However, she
became less enthusiastic about it after checking her cell phone and
hearing all the angry voice messages from her father.

Saul had noticed her
hesitancy.

"You know, you can always
come to my place," he suggested.

Aradia raised an eyebrow. At
first her instinct was to shout one hell of a huge refusal but
whether it was from desperation or just plain aggravation she
didn't. She had merely nodded and let Saul take her by the hand. It
had been a long walk but eventually they made it to the city. Using
the back alleys, Saul had led her to a tall dark building that
stood ominously near the pier. He then lead her inside. Aradia
didn't know what she had been expecting but it hadn't been what she
had seen the moment Saul flipped the switch. Thick lush red carpets
lay from corner to corner on the floor, crystal chandeliers hung
from the ceiling, with paintings of landscapes were on the red
walls. The furniture consisted of vinyl black sofas and black
chairs, four of them in front of a roaring fire, and several oak
wood tables. Further back, a huge iron black winding staircase led
to another floor where Aradia could easily see a huge red and black
velvet bed. She blushed slightly once she noticed that.

"Here," Saul said as he
tossed a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt to Aradia, "get out of
those filthy clothes and put these on."

Aradia raised an eyebrow.
"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

Saul grinned as his gaze
swept her from head to toe. "I would have thought you would hate
wearing dirt stained clothing but if that's what you
want."

Aradia gazed down and
realized what he was saying. Aradia's light blue blouse had
blotches of dark brown dirt and light green grass stains all up her
front. Her jeans were completely caked in mud along with her shoes.
Much to Aradia's astonishment she had even tracked mud all the way
into Saul's loft.

"There is a bathroom over
there," Saul pointed out and extending his whole arm. "So you can
change freely."

"Yeah right like you
wouldn't peek," Aradia teased.

Saul smirked. "No. I
wouldn't. I maybe a vampire but I am a still a
gentleman."

"Living in America? Now that
would be a first," Aradia chuckled.

Saul chuckled as well and
their gazes locked for one brief solid minute. However, seeing his
blonde hair shimmer in the light made Aradia think of Dax and
thoughts of Dax brought on a streak of bitterness. Aradia then
broke the gaze, spun on her heel, and stalked towards to the
bathroom. One would think that after hearing her slam the door,
Saul would be upset. He wasn't, in fact, he shook his head softly
chuckling. Just then his cell phone went off.

Saul flipped it open and
said, "talk to me."

The voice on the other line
spoke, "progress report please."

Sunlight slowly peeked in
through the windows of Saul's loft and disturbed Aradia's slumber.
The windows were all thickly boarded up with black painted wooden
boards so it was only a slimmer of light. Still a slimmer was all
it took for Aradia's eyes to drift open. Yawning and stretching her
arms above her head, Aradia looked around. She gazed around, still
drowsy, but nevertheless still surprised at the place she had slept
at. She wasn't the kind of girl to spend the night at a strange
man's house let alone sleep in his big red bed. Aradia stared down
at the sheets, smirking slightly as she remembered the argument she
had had last night with Saul.

It had been about the
sleeping arrangements. Saul had insisted on her using his bed but
Aradia had argued that she should sleep on the couch. Saul had then
argued persuasively that since she was his guest she was entitled
to the bed. He pointed out that by accepting that she would be
confirming his belief that he was a gracious host. However, if she
kept refusing he would feel bad about not being able to accommodate
her.

"And you don't want me to
feel bad now do you?" Saul had said, pouting his lip
slightly.

Aradia had laughed softly,
but in the end she had agreed to sleep in the bed. Saul had looked
elated at winning the argument so much so that Aradia's pride was
beginning to prick her. Until he had turned away and said in a loud
enough voice, "besides its not like I need to sleep in the bed
anyway being a vampire makes me more incline to sleep in my coffin.
If I want to get a good day's sleep at all."

Aradia was confused. "But if
you don't use the bed to sleep in then what do you use it
for?"

He had then stopped and
looked over his shoulder.

Grinning, he said, "What do
you think I use it for?"

Aradia couldn't stop herself
from blushing.

She was actually pretty
amazed that she got to sleep at all that night and when she awoke
she felt perfectly rested.
And
hungry
, Aradia thought as her stomach began
to rumble. She then got out of the bed and walked down the cold
iron steps to the kitchen. She hesitated before opening the door
fearing that there would be nothing in there but bags of blood.
Amazingly, she saw it was fully stocked with food, and drinks.
Foods from eggs to roasted chicken and drinks from orange juice to
Sierra Mist. Aradia was also surprised to find plates, cups, and
cutlery in the cabinets. In addition to mixing bowls, pots, and
pans. She was so surprised that she began to feel a little
suspicious.