(Saturday Night) Red, it was all red – blood red. Why was there so much red? It hurt to look at it. Everywhere you turned it was red. And the feelings of the place, malice, pure unadulterated malice filled every single crevice. Even the hardest of souls would shiver in fear in such a place. And, oh goddess, in the middle, covered in red…it was…no…it couldn’t be…but it was. Dead, all dead, and the worse of them was the outsider. The new one, part of them but deliberately kept apart from the innermost secret. Keeping it secret had led to this, had led to death…if only they could go back…if only. And the laughter kept going on incessantly…why wouldn’t it stop? Ceaselessly it kept on and on…evil laughter that caused a listener to scream in fright and hide unto oneself. It was over, the prey had been taken…all was lost. In two separate beds, two people in Willow Oaks sat straight up with a scream dying on their lips. Both turned and looked at the clock…1 a.m. Goddess above, two nights in a row, at the exact same time, the exact same dream that always ended right at the end of the Witching Hour. This wasn’t something that could be ignored…they had to talk about this…all of them. It was coming now…they didn’t know what it was…but if they weren’t careful it would destroy them all. ********************** “You owe me twenty bucks,” Leigha remarked to Jessie Monday afternoon as they waited by their lockers for the twins. “What does she owe you twenty for?” Trent asked as the two of them came up to the girls. It had been three days since the movie, and finally Jessie was starting to acknowledge him again. “Stupid bet,” Jessie mumbled as she fished the twenty out of her pocket and handed it over to the quiet, yet gloating girl. “What did you guys bet on?” Ryan asked as the four of them began to make their way out of the school and down the main road towards the beach. The best thing about Willow Oaks was that it was a costal town. “We bet on how long Maria and Michael would hold out at the theatre,” Leigha said with a superior smirk. “Jessie thought that Michael wouldn’t last five minutes. And I told her that neither of them would last the first hour, but that it would be a drawl.” The others all turned to her and stared. “Oh come off it guys,” Leigha continued with a laugh identical to her cousin’s. “I’m new but I’m not blind. Maria and Michael are both too stubborn to ever give in first, even to each other, but they’d never last a whole two hours of sitting together without spontaneously combusting. It’s logic to reason that the two of them would both cave at the same time.” “Maybe I should have spoken to you first,” Ryan said with a grin as he casually took Leigha’s hand in his and began to walk again. “Trent made me pay him cause he said that he was closer to the actual time limit than I was.” “What did you guess?” Jessie asked Trent as she looked at Ryan and Leigha’s hands pointedly. This was a new development. “I said that he would be able to hold out an hour tops, but no more than that.” Trent shrugged. “He’s a Guerin, our stubborn streak has to count for something. And,” he too was staring at his twin and Leigha, “why are you two holding hands?” “It seemed like the thing to do,” Ryan told his brother seriously. “Don’t guys usually hold the hands of girls that they like?” Trent stared at his brother in shock, Jessie giggled in delight, and Leigha blushed but squeezed his hand. “Oh yeah,” Ryan said with a smirk, “I forgot. This is you, you show girls you like them by being all overprotective and cavemanish. Come on, we’re going to be late. The others are probably already there.” ‘Just what the hell did Ryan mean by that remark?’ Trent asked himself as the foursome made their way to the beach. Trent began to formulate a plan in the back of his mind. It looked like it was time to have a T.T., twin talk, with his brother. “You’re late,” Michael growled at his brothers when the four of them finally made it to the beach. Sitting on the sand in a lose group was Michael, Maria, Isabel, Tess, and Alex. The twins, Leigha and Jessie all moved to join the others. Ryan and Leigha sat together, never releasing hands, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the group. “We got caught up in detention,” Ryan grumbled. “Well, Trent and I did, and Jessie and Leigha waited around for us. Why are we meeting anyway?” “Tess,” Michael said with a sigh and an angry glare at his brothers. “You called us for this last night. What’s up? What do you have to tell us?” “Wait,” Isabel said seriously from where she sat beside Alex, his arms wrapped around her. “Alex and I have something to say first.” The others all looked at them and rolled their eyes. “I think we understood that you two were a couple when you attacked him in the theatre sis,” Michael smirked at his sister and glared at Alex. Earlier that morning he’d had a talk with Alex about the whole thing, and the two friends had reached an understanding. If Alex hurt Izzy in anyway Michael would kill him…it was a simple, and very understood agreement. “Not that,” Isabel said with an uncharacteristic blush on her cheeks. “But well, that’s true too. But it’s about the new kids, Max Evans and Liz Parker. Alex and I kept getting these weird vibes off of them all week so we started watching them closely. We think that they might be Hunters. They show all the signs, and well, that’s the vibe we’ve been getting.” “Good to know,” Trent said darkly. “We haven’t had Hunters to play with in a while. This could be lots of fun.” “You two will staying out of it,” Michael said firmly. “You aren’t old enough, or experienced enough to go out after Hunters.” The twins opened their mouths to argue but Maria stopped them. “We’ll discuss the Hunters later,” she said in a stern tone. She didn’t want to have to sit through yet another Guerin testosterone war. “Tess, what did you have to tell us? Then we can all discuss everything as a group and then decide on courses of action.” The others all nodded and turned to Tess, Maria, as the leader, had spoken and the others followed her as always. “A couple of things,” Tess said with a sigh. She’d been dreading this since early Saturday morning when she’d known that she was going to have to go through with this. “First and foremost. My dreams have been acting up lately, and well, Kyle’s in them.” The guys around the circle, all who thought of her like a sister, winced. “Not those kind of dreams you idiots,” she told them huffily. “Power dreams,” she clarified with a scowl of her own. “You know, the only dreams I have that I ever share with the group. But anyway, these dreams, well the message is pretty clear. Kyle, well he belongs with us.” “Don’t you mean that he belongs with you?” Alex asked with an easy grin. This wasn’t so bad. Beside him Isabel snickered and nudged him in the side. “No Alex,” Maria said as she looked at something far away. “She doesn’t mean that at all, well she does, cause he is her soulmate after all, but she means that he belongs here with us – with all of us.” “He’s not a witch Maria,” Isabel said as she sat up straight and moved slightly away from Alex, but her leg was still touching his. “He’s sweet, and obviously he belongs with Tess, but we can’t say he belongs with us without a doubt.” “He does though,” Tess argued. “He belongs with us, as in with us completely. There is one thing constant in my dream and that is if we don’t tell Kyle the truth, and soon, then we are in some deep trouble. It’s more than him needing us, or me wanting to tell him everything because of what he is to me alone, this has to do with us…with our survival Izzy. We have to tell him.” “Yes we do,” Maria agreed. She stood up and wiped off her pants. “And I don’t need the group consensus to do it either. I’m the leader, we voted it that way years ago, and for once I’m going to make a ruling. We tell him, either all together, or me and Tess, but either way, he will know.” Maria turned to Tess, “I’ve been having the dreams too. I don’t know why, but they started…” “Friday night,” Tess finished for Maria, and the other girl nodded. “Now that’s odd, we’ve never shared dreams before. Picking up the same odd vibe here and there, yeah, but never the dream thing.” “Well,” Isabel contemplated out loud for them. “Maria has always been the one with the most power, well her and Michael, they just have problems controlling it at times. So it isn’t odd that if there were a threat that one of them would receive warnings about it. And if the warning concerns Kyle, of course Tess is going to get it too. She’s his soulmate. And,” she sighed as she stood up and hugged Maria. “I’m behind you. You’re our leader, if you want to tell him the truth then we will. All of us.” “We’re behind you two,” Jessie said speaking for all the junior members of the coven. Usually they didn’t get a say in anything because their powers were too young, too undefined as of yet to really make a difference. But this concerned all of them in that it was their secret, their heritage…thus they had been invited to the talk instead of just being told the decision like they usually were. Beside her Trent, Ryan and Leigha all nodded their agreement. “I like the guy,” Alex said with a grin. “Even without the dreams, I would have voted to tell him. I think he’s one outsider that could handle the truth and not hunt us for it. Even if he wasn’t Tess’ soulmate I would trust him with it.” Isabel turned and grinned at Alex, love shining bright in her eyes. She reached out and linked her fingers with his, immediately linking her strength with his as well. “Since I don’t have a say in this what does it matter what I think about it?” Michael asked darkly. He was frozen solid in his anger now. They could all feel it wash across them in shivery waves. Maria paled at it, and then she straightened up taller in her stance. “Excuse us,” she said in the same cool tone he’d used as she yanked him down the beach where the others wouldn’t be able to hear them. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She demanded loudly. “It’s my decision to make.” “What am I angry over?” He asked incredulously. “Where the hell do you want me to start? First you are having freaky nightmares that you aren’t telling me about…nightmares that I’m assuming concerned all of us or it wouldn’t freak you out. Then you inform me…all of us…that a decision concerning our existence, our existence Maria, not Kyle’s, is not a decision that we get to play a part in. And now you expect me to be fine with the whole thing? And let’s not forget that you aren’t really the leader here…you were voted leader only until one of us managed to get the better control of our powers. And a leader is supposed to listen…not dictate.” “I didn’t tell you about the nightmares because I didn’t know how to,” Maria said softly. Her eyes clouded over in terror as her vision was filled with the red haze from the dreams. She swayed on her feet and if Michael hadn’t reacted quickly she would have collapsed. Instead she ended up being held in his arms. She stood there for a moment before taking a deep breath and stepping away from him. “And I was going to tell you after the meeting because I wanted to tell you first…only you because you would understand the most…but Tess didn’t give me that choice.” “Second,” she said her eyes flashing dangerously at him, “if I let you guys make that decision we’d never tell him anything. I know you Michael; don’t forget that, I know you like I know myself because in some freaky way we are the same person. And don’t you think I know you well enough to know that you, know matter how much you like him personally, would never put the rest of the coven, your family, at that kind of risk? Not even the dreams would have made that big of a difference to you in that respect because you don’t experience them well enough to understand them in their full horror. The decision becomes mine alone when I know that you’d die before you’d make the right one.” Michael opened his mouth to argue that point but Maria stopped him by walking away. She knew that he would have to come to the conclusion on his own, without her interference. All they would do was fight if she stuck around, so she would walk away. This was too important to argue with Michael over. Besides, he was her soulmate, it wasn’t like he could ever really hate her or live without her. He’d get over it, once he got over his stupid egotistical male pride anyway. She came up beside Tess and the others, her facial expression calm and deadly. “We meet here again tonight, midnight. Tess,” she turned to her friend, “Isabel,” she added to the other girl. “We’ll go try to find Kyle between now and then and break it to him together. He might handle it better coming from all of us. And us girls can be a tad more convincing in thinking of some reason to get him here.” The others nodded as the three girls began to walk slowly away. Alex grabbed Isabel before she was gone and pulled her to him. “If you need me for anything,” he told her. “Shh…” she said as she kissed him softly. “Kyle isn’t the threat. We know that, and I think we know that Max and Liz really aren’t either. We’ve handled Hunters before. I’ll be fine, don’t worry Alex.” “I…” his voice trailed off uncertainly. He knew that it was too soon to say how he felt. Isabel was just coming around. He didn’t want to send her running away in fright because he was already 100% in love with her. “I love you Alex,” she whispered in his ear as she hugged him close and then ran off to rejoin Tess and Maria. Alex was left standing alone, staring after her like a besotted idiot. Michael came up beside him. “Come on Whitman,” he growled, his anger with Maria still apparent. “While they’re explaining things to Valenti we have some things to do on our own. I think you mentioned some Hunters in the area. It seems we have a new threat to deal with…we know how to deal with that.” Alex nodded, his eyes hardening in response. Michael turned to Jessie, Leigha and the twins. “You,” he told them all, “get back to our house, all of you, and stay there until its time to go to the meeting. No arguments,” he said pointedly to Ryan and Trent, who both opened their mouths to do just that. “None of your powers are developed enough to deal with any of this so you’ll stay where we know you’ll be safe.” His voice didn’t leave room for argument and for once the twins complied with an order. Ryan took Leigha’s hand in his again and began to lead her back towards the Guerin household. Trent didn’t give Jessie time to move on her own, he quickly grabbed her hand, and with one last glare at his elder brother, he began to follow Ryan, dragging Jessie beside him…her hand locked firmly in his. Once alone, Michael and Alex grinned coldly at one another…now it was time to play…to go hunting…Max Evans and Liz Parker wouldn’t be a problem much longer. TBC

Part 17