Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (23 page)

As Aradia waited for him to join
her she rattled off her list of suitors in her mind and noted what
was holding her back from choosing one of them. With Roy, she
determined, it was his jealously issue. As for Lamont, he was
obviously a player, Tristan was an egotistical son of a bitch, but
he was still cute. Then there was Dax...Aradia did not know why she
could not commit herself to Dax because in her mind he was
perfect.

"It's because you are young and you
like your freedom. Often when you are in a relationship your
freedom is the first thing to go," Dax said as he finally reached
her.

He shoved his hands in his trunk
pockets, and then leaned against the large gray rock. Yet another
trait Aradia loved about him was the ability to know what she was
thinking which made her wonder...

"Dax, can you read my mind?" Aradia
asked him.

He chuckled. "No, I just know you
so well."

Aradia raised an eyebrow as if she
doubted he was telling her the truth.

Dax shook his head and said,
"Seriously I cannot read your mind. It's true that as a vampire one
of my abilities is to control minds but I cannot control or read
yours."

"I wonder why that is?" Aradia
asked more to herself than him.

Dax answered her regardless. "It's
because Rai, you are the last hidden witch and if there is one type
of creature I have no experience with when it comes to my mind
control power it's a hidden witch. When I was turned your people
were already gone, and I had never dealt with any of them. I could
never practice and vampires can only control a creatures's mind if
they have practiced. It took me about twenty years, but I was able
to get practice with my mind control power on humans. However, I
never got practice or experience in controlling a witch's mind
neither did I learn how to recognize them either."

He then paused, began to look
thoughtful, and added, "Come to think of it, I don't know if
vampires or anyone for that matter could ever control or read a
witch's mind."

"Why do you suppose that is?"
Aradia asked him.

“I don't know love," Dax
answered.

The two of them were silent until
Aradia finally asked, "What else do you suppose I can
do?"

"What do you mean?" asked
Dax.

“Well being the last witch I
already know I can do a lot of incredible things," said Aradia.
"But like my mind being unreadable to all other hiddens and
uncontrollable to vampires it makes me wonder what else I am
capable of?"

Dax shrugged. "Well Aradia, love I
guess you'll never know until you try something that no one else
ever has."

Aradia thought for a moment, but
she then heard Roy shout something at Phil and remembered that Roy
had told her that Phil was the uncle who had accidentally attacked
his wife. Aradia also remembered his poor wife's face, hideously
disfigured and scarred.

Chapter
Thirteen

"Hello Aradia, how are you today?”
Lupe said as she opened the door to reveal a smiling
Aradia.

"I am alright Lupe, but I was
hoping to come in and ask you a question," asked Aradia.

Lupe hesitated, but then stepped
back and let Aradia into the house.

"So," Lupe said, "What do you want
to ask me?"

"A couple questions really," said
Aradia.

"Okay," Lupe said sighing, "What
questions do you want to ask me?"

"First, do you have any pictures of
the way you looked before the accident?" Aradia
requested.

Lupe stiffened. "Yes
why?"

Aradia sensed the tension in Lupe,
but went on with her plan regardless. "Has your husband told you
what I am?"

Lupe nodded.

"Well," Aradia said slowly and
trying to sound sensitive, "I would like to try a little experiment
on you."

Lupe could not help but ask, "What
kind of experiment?"

After Aradia acquired a picture of
the way Lupe looked before her husband had attacked her, which was
ironically her wedding picture. Aradia then sat Lupe down in the
bathroom, and locked the door. After taking a few deep breaths,
Aradia looked Lupe right in the eye.

Lupe gulped. "Are you sure you know
what you are doing?"

Aradia did not want to lie, but she
knew she had to make Lupe feel better so she compromised with her
conscience by nodding. Aradia took one last look at the photo,
whispered a little prayer under her breath for God's grace and
luck, and placed her hand on Lupe's face. After one blinding flash
of white light, Aradia opened her eyes. Her first thought was that
she was relieved she had not fainted. She then lifted her face to
look at Lupe's. It took one glance for her to gasp
aloud.

"What?" Lupe cried out, "What is
it? What's wrong?"

Aradia did not answer; she merely
stepped aside so that Lupe could see her reflection in the mirror.
Lupe's mouth dropped open as she slowly made her way towards it.
Cautiously, Lupe placed one hand on the mirror to see if what she
was seeing was real. After a few seconds, Lupe slowly opened her
mouth, and screamed.

It was as Phil was getting a drink
of water at the construction site he worked at that he noticed his
wife's car pull up. Ever since the accident, Lupe never went
anywhere yet there was her car in the middle of the day. What was
more amazing was when she stepped out of the car wearing
sunglasses, a baseball cap, and her eyes on the ground.

Phil slowly walked towards her.
"Baby, what's wrong?"

When she was barely a foot away
from him, Lupe suddenly raised her head and ripped off her glasses
and cap. Phil then gasped and leapt back. His wife's face that he
had attacked, and mutilated beyond recognition no longer bore any
scars or marks of injury at all. Looking as youthful and as
beautiful as she had on their wedding day, Lupe stood facing her
husband and smiling.

"How? How?" He finally gasped, "How
did this happen?"

Lupe shrugged and said, "A
miracle."

Phil was dumbstruck.

After a while of awkward silence,
Lupe frowned. "You mean you aren't happy about me being normal
again?"

"Happy? Happy?!" Phil cried out,
"Honey, you have no idea how long I have prayed for this! It's a
miracle, a true God given miracle!"

He then rushed forward, took his
wife in his arms, and twirled her around in the air screaming
happily. Roy, who was bringing his uncles and cousins food from the
diner, ran over to see what was going on. After seeing Lupe's face,
he and the rest of the workers all started hollering in
joy.

However, it was only Roy who
noticed Aradia quietly slipping out of Lupe's car. He stopped
cheering, and looked back at Lupe. He then gasped loudly and ran to
leap over Lupe's Ford Explorer as easy as a track star would leap
over a vault. Once he cleared that, he grabbed Aradia's
arm.

"Hey," he practically shouted in
disbelief. "Aradia did you...did you...Lupe's face...did you do
that?"

"If you are trying to say thank you
Roy," Aradia said sheepishly, "then you're welcome."

Roy grinned in blissful elation,
swept Aradia into his arms, and twirled her in to the
air.

If Aradia had not been a marvel in
Salem before she sure was now. Of course, some humans had all kinds
of questions of what happened to Lupe's face. Lupe either avoided
answering those questions or ignored them all together, and after a
while, the questions stopped. Amongst the hidden, however, the
truth spread like a blanket over a child.

Although most hiddens had amazing
swift healing powers there were some injuries that not even their
own special type of healers could help. Facial wounds were a good
example because they never healed. No one knew why, but no medical
science either hidden or human could help heal the person once his
or her face was injured. These poor people would then have to have
to walk around for the rest of their very long lives with these
hideous injuries. However, with only one use of her "summoning"
power Aradia had changed all that.

After the shock had worn off, more
hiddens started approaching her asking her to help heal them as
well. However, as appreciative as the hidden community of Salem was
now towards her; this latest development also stirred up feelings
of anxiety amongst them. They had been unsure what to make of
Aradia before, but when Lupe walked around in broad daylight
everyone was able to see solid proof of what she could really do.
Therefore, whenever Aradia walked through the halls of her school
people still turned to stare at her, but now they would either look
at her with nervous anticipation or growl like an animal backed
into a corner.

Chapter
Fourteen

"Did you hear about what happened
to that werewolf Lupe?" Saul asked Keon who merely grunted in
response.

They were both hanging out in what
they preferred to call their bachelor pad. However, if one were to
see their coffins, the dimly lit lamps, and various stolen objects
that littered about the place the best word used to describe it
would be lair.

"No I haven't," Keon snapped, "And
I prefer to keep it that way!"

Saul sighed. "You are never going
to excel at our assignment of watching the last witch if you don't
listen to the gossip about her."

"Yes well," Keon muttered as if he
flipped a page in the magazine he was reading. "Our assignment is
not going to last for long, I can assure you of that."

Saul immediately looked
worried.

"What do you mean?" He asked
Keon.

Keon chuckled darkly. "The thing is
all we are supposed to do is watch her right? However, if somebody
finds out about her and wants to use her as a tool for
power…”

He then paused and shrugged. "Well
it is not like we are suppose to protect her or anything. Am I
right?"

Saul just gulped.

"What did you do Keon?" he finally
dared to ask.

Keon's grin became wider and more
sinister. "Let's just say there is a definitely an upside to
working for the Sovereign as long as I have."

"What upside is that?" Saul
inquired further.

"The opportunity to meet psychos
with a taste for wanting power and who are willing doing anything
in order to acquire it."

Aradia sighed bitterly. "To think
in Arizona, I would complain about either being harassed or
ignored."

Dax smiled wryly. "Well you know
that all the celebrities say once they achieve their longed for
fame it's never what they thought it would be."

Aradia just grunted in response and
the two of them walked side by side towards the lunchroom. They
pushed the double doors open with a loud crash and all the hiddens
turned to look at them. They took a few steps towards their usual
lunch spot where Rhonda, Roy, and the others awaited them both.
However, once they got to the middle of the cafeteria Aradia felt
the feeling of fear towards her so grow thick and unbearable that
after only a couple of minutes, she could not take it anymore. She
then turned on her heel, and walked out into the parking lot with
Dax following her. She was too quick though, and as soon as he got
out Aradia was already gone. As he sniffed the air, he sensed where
she was.

"You better hope to God nobody
thinks you're a jumper," Dax said as he joined her on the school
roof.

Aradia, who was sitting near an air
duct, looked over at him and gave him a dry chuckle. "I am sorry I
bailed, it is just..."

"Hey," Dax interrupted, "You make
it sound as if I could not sense the tension in the room
too."

He then shuddered. "My god, it
smelled like the boys locker room after the homecoming
game."

Aradia chuckled. "That bad
huh?"

Dax nodded and chuckled as well.
For a while, the two of them just sat looking into each other's
eyes.

"Hey," Aradia suggested slowly.
"What say you we ditch for the rest of the day, and go...amuse
ourselves?"

"In the middle of the school day?”
Dax asked incredulously. "What about your classes?"

"I have turned in all my things
early," Aradia answered in a heartbeat. "And I made friends with
all the smart kids in my classes who would be more than willing to
let me borrow their notes. Plus, I am on good terms with my
teachers so one little unexcused absence won't hurt."

"In other words," Dax added
grinning. "You are covered."

"Like an ideal Obama health care
plan!" Aradia quipped.

"I wish we had some music to play!"
Aradia shouted over to Dax after she leapt from one tall tree to
another.

"What?" Dax shouted
back.

Aradia tried to shout again, but
Dax still could not hear her. He was far away in another tree, and
so with a grunt and a sigh Aradia leapt over to where Dax was. She
then dug her fingernails into the wood and climbed her way to the
branch he was sitting on.