Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (12 page)

"You have an amazing truck, Roy! I can’t believe I
haven’t seen it yet."

Roy grinned. "Thanks, I earned this! It’s not second
hand, either. It's brand new. Well, almost new. It was new when I
bought it a year ago."

"You have your license already?" Aradia asked.

Roy looked at her skeptically. "If I didn't, I
wouldn’t be driving you to my house."

Aradia blushed and said, "Sorry."

"Nah, don’t be,” Roy replied. “I’m a little older
than you. You’ll have your license in no time.”

“I hadn’t even thought about it,” Aradia
admitted.

“It’s all I thought about, practically, while I had
my permit. I worked my butt off at the diner to earn the money to
pay for half of it, and I had to get all A minuses or better for my
Dad to put up the other half," Roy grinned relishing the memory of
his triumph.

"You did all that?" Aradia asked, sounding
astonished. "How did you pull it off?"

"Never underestimate the power of a guy's
determination to get a car," Roy stated matter-of-factly.

Aradia laughed, thinking back to what Rhonda had said
about guys and competition and cars. She said, "You know, Roy, I am
starting to believe I may be a bad influence on you."

He looked at her, puzzled. She rushed on to say,
“Before all you thought about was hard work. Now all you think
about is me!”

This time he blushed. After just a short moment, he
recovered, saying, “Actually, I think you may be rubbing off on
me.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I’m cracking jokes more
often.”

“There’s hope for you! They seem to be even as funny
as mine!"

"Really?" asked Roy, smiling.

"Well," Aradia added, cocking her head to the side,
"Almost as funny."

Roy threw his head back and laughed.

Chapter Five

"Why did the Sovereign summon you?" Keon asked. He
stayed seated as Saul approached, and did his best to hide his
nervous anticipation. He wanted to run to meet Saul the moment he
recognized that familiar shine of blonde hair, girlishly smooth
lips, and tall, thin build. He restrained himself.

Saul’s report had taken over an hour, so Keon was
very eager to have his answers and to leave.

Saul merely shrugged in response. "He asked me what
I’ve been up to, then just dismissed me. He did compliment you
though.”

“What did he say?”

“Not much. Had some nice things to say about you,
actually,” Saul replied.

“Oh?”

“That you’d trained me well, basically.”

“Nightshadows,” a deep, dry voice rumbled from behind
them. Keon turned to face the speaker and found a heavily built,
hulking, vampire with brown wavy hair that was threaded with
sliver.

"Damari! What are you doing here?" Keon demanded,
clasping hands with the much larger fellow.

"I am here to settle a legal issue with the
Sovereign. What is your business?"

Saul opened his mouth to speak, but Keon placed a
hand on his shoulder to silence him. Keon replied, "Nothing of
importance. Regular status update. Apparently I am doing a fair job
training my lackey here. Now we really must be going."

“Until we meet again,” Damari replied, but as Keon
and Saul began to move past him he said, as if an afterthought, "I
have been hearing some fascinating rumors about the place where you
have been posted. Where is that again? Oh yes, Salem! Salem,
Massachusetts, in the United States. I have heard some fascinating
stories about witches there."

"It is Salem,” Keon muttered sarcastically. “Where
else would you look to find witches?”

Saul chuckled. Damari politely joined him.

Despite Keon's sarcasm, Damari continued, "Really,
though, it’s the most fascinating rumor I have heard in a long
time. A hidden witch being alive, and living in Salem. The very
place you have been posted. I have also heard that this last witch
single-handedly solved a rather interesting set of werewolf
murders. I must say it all sounds amazing! Do you know if any of
that is true?”

"I really couldn’t say," Keon replied, “though if you
are interested, why not come find out for yourself? Imagine how
valuable the last witch might be.”

“From what I hear, you’re not the only one with that
idea,” Damari replied.

Keon was no longer in such a rush to go. “Oh?”

“Mmm,” Damari replied. “Three bad characters are on
their way now. That’s where I got the word myself. A lot of talk
about blood drinking and all that. You know how some of us can get
when they’re worked up.”

“Three, traveling together?”

Damari nodded.

“You don’t say,” Keon replied absently.

Without anything more in the way of a goodbye, Keon
motioned for Saul to follow him, and the two of them walked down
the hallway toward the exit from the complex.

"Looks like you spread the word well," Saul said to
Keon.

Keon nodded bitterly. "Easy job. What with that
little bitch Aradia making such a spectacle of herself, chances are
word of her existence would have spread to the four corners of the
earth by now with or without my help."

"What do you suppose will come of this?" Saul
inquired further.

"If the bitch is smart, she'll keep a low profile and
hope that no one believes she really exists."

"And if she does not?" Saul pressed further, prepared
to defend his curiosity as necessary to fulfill his orders, if
questioned.

Keon laughed darkly and responded, "If she does not,
and I believe she won't, the news of her existence will shift from
rumors to truth. The odds of her being targeted or killed will rise
dramatically."

"But," Saul pointed, "she did survive the massacre of
her people? Surely she can survive anything a few rogue hiddens
might do to her?"

Keon turned to look back at Saul, letting a few
seconds pass, creating a dramatic pause. “Her people didn’t survive
being targeted, Saul. What makes you think she will?”

The last time Aradia had been over to Roy’s, they’d
been alone, and he’d given her a rough primer on the main types of
hiddens in Salem. She felt just as overwhelmed with information as
Roy gave her a rough primer on the members of his family. It wasn’t
a small one.

Neither was Roy’s house small. It was quite large, in
fact, and rested in a tight clearing surrounded by the lush green
of Salem Woods. They bounced along a small, dirt road to go the
final leg of the drive. Aradia determined two things once they
arrived. One, Roy's family diner must be doing fairly well. Two, it
was probably their werewolf nature to crave a remote, natural
setting where they could shift and hunt. She knew that for safety,
they overpowered that instinct; also on her last visit, she’d seen
the series of high tech underground cells in their basement.

As Roy led her by the hand into the house, Aradia
added a third supposition to her list. His family was really huge!
She could rattle off most of their names from the quick run down
Roy had given her, but it didn’t really hit her how many people she
was about to meet until she saw the cars lined up around the house
and heard the racket coming from inside.

Five young kids tumbled out of the front door,
wrestling each other.

"I thought you said you only have four brothers,"
Aradia observed, trying to sound casual.

"Oh I do! Those are my cousins," Roy explained.

"You have five cousins?" Aradia asked astounded. “I
only have one.”

"Twenty actually," Roy stated.

Aradia's jaw dropped as she stared at Roy.

“What the heck, do werewolves have kids or
litters?”

He shrugged and gave a small sheepish laugh. “I guess
both, sometimes.”

"Your entire family lives here?" asked Aradia.

"No. Just my dad and my brothers," said Roy.

"Then why are your cousins here?"

"Every month my entire family holds a BBQ at my
house," Roy explained as they stepped into the house. They were
greeted by a tidal wave of sounds and scents. The smell of spicy
food was powerful and mouthwatering, and the loud chatter of
Spanish conversations left Aradia in a daze.

"My aunts and uncles bring their kids, their kids
bring their friends sometimes, my father hosts, and my brothers...
well, my brothers behave the same pretty much anywhere."

"You mean Al and D?" Aradia asked.

"I mean all of them," said Roy.

Aradia nodded and asked, "What are your brother's
names?"

"You already know Al and D," said Roy. "My younger
brothers’ names are Juan and Roberto. They usually go by Johnny and
Robbie."

Aradia took one long look around her, soaking in the
details.

"You know, Roy, when you proposed having dinner with
your family for a date, I did not expect all this..." Aradia
trailed off.

"Hey,” Roy replied, “I asked if you wanted to have
dinner with my family, and that’s what we are doing. Isn't it?"

“It’s just a little scary is all,” Aradia said
meekly.

“You’re not afraid to face off against a wolf form
werewolf,” Roy said, still grinning, trying to sound as reassuring
as possible. “A few human form ones won’t be too much worse.”

As they neared the kitchen, Roy suddenly yanked her
aside into a nearby closet and slammed the door. He flicked on the
light, and Aradia gulped, wondering if Roy knew or understood the
term 'fast.'

If she was expecting him to pull her into his arms
and kiss her passionately in an attempt to eliminate Dax from the
competition, Aradia was sorely disappointed.

Instead, Roy said, "Look, before we sit with my
family, there are few more things you need to know."

"Oh? You mean like werewolves are closer than they
appear?" Aradia joked.

Roy maintained his serious demeanor.

"There’s that. But also... okay, you know how when
you first found out about me being a werewolf, I wasn’t in total
control?"

"I’d certainly hope you weren’t," said Aradia. “It
was positively ungentlemanly if you were.”

"That wasn’t the first time a werewolf had lost
control and hurt somebody he cared about. Not just for me, but
other times for other people. It’s probably happened everywhere,
even in my family, and there have been... consequences."

"What do you mean, Roy?" asked Aradia nervously.
“What kind of consequences?”

"About three years ago one of my uncles lost control
in his werewolf form. His wife knew about him, knew his secret
about being a werewolf I mean. On a full moon, somehow he got free
from his bonds and just like people who collect exotic pets
something terrible happened."

Aradia's eyes grew as big as dinner plates.
"What?"

"He attacked her."

Her mouth then dropped slowly open.

"He attacked her?" Aradia repeated.

"The same way I attacked you," Roy said with a sigh.
"He almost killed her. It was bad."

“Is she okay?” Aradia asked.

“She survived.”

“As a werewolf,” Aradia realized.

Roy nodded. “That’s not the bad part, though. They
smoothed things out. Especially once she was a werewolf herself,
she understood it hadn’t really been him.”

“So what happened?”

“Shortly afterward, they went on vacation together. I
don’t really know the details, but I think it was a reconciliatory
thing. To celebrate their new relationship.”

“Uh oh.”

“They went to Washington. Washington state, I mean.
It was a beer and wine touring vacation. Apparently there’s lots of
vineyards and breweries there.”

“Roy, focus.”

“Sorry. There’s something else in Washington that
there is a lot of...Bears.”

“Didn’t see that coming,” Aradia replied. “Bears?
What about them.”

“Well, some story, different twist. This time it was
my aunt. They were in a new place, and that puts any of us off
balance. On top of that, she was a new werewolf. She shifted and
ran.”

“Wasn’t she tied down?”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t on a full moon. I told
you before, we can shift anytime if we want to, and when we’re
emotionally fragile, we might just shift any time. That’s what
happened for Aunt Lupe.”

“And where do the bears come in?”

“Just one bear that mattered. She got loose, roamed,
hunting. It’s what we do. She was new to being a werewolf and
didn’t have any experience, only instincts. She looked for
something to fight. She found it.”

“Oh,” Aradia realized. “A bear.”

“A grizzly bear,” he replied. “She picked the wrong
fight, and ended up hurt again, even worse this time. There were
scars.”

"What kind of scars?" Aradia asked.

"Bad ones," Roy stated firmly.

The two of them stayed quiet as Aradia's mind
processed the information.

"Why didn't she get plastic surgery or something?"
asked Aradia.

Roy shook his head, sadly. "Hiddens have many
advantages over humans. Most of us have more advanced healing
powers, we have special doctors, but just like in the human world
there are some things we just cannot fix. Facial wounds are a
perfect example. Nobody knows why, but for some reason whenever a
hidden is injured on their face the wound heals more slowly and
scars are permanent. Usually permanent. There are weird exceptions.
Unfortunately, my aunt’s not one of them."

Another moment of awkward silence passed before
Aradia asked Roy, "Why are you telling me this?"

Roy responded, "Because she is here and she is sort
of sensitive about it. So if you could just not mention it and act
natural around her, I would appreciate it."

Aradia smiled and said, "Sure thing, Roy. Anything
for you.” With a smile she added, “Plus it’s the obvious and decent
thing to do."

Roy smiled back. "Thanks."

"What are friends for?" Aradia asked
rhetorically.

Roy smiled even wider. "I know what friends are for,
but what about boyfriends?"