Clan of Redemption (36 page)

I could tell things
weren’t going very well, but I remembered what everyone had been
telling me.

“Ok, I will take my place
in this family…with one condition. I want to go to school, it’s was
important to my Mother and it’s important to me,” I said as I slid
my hand in my jeans pocket, trying to seem comfortable.

“That’s out of the
question, you have a choice to make right now and if you give up
that choice your done.” Grandmother Catherine seemed totally ok
with my decision, almost as if that’s what she wanted.

“If I’m asked to chose
then my answer is no, but I have a friend…” I started to voice my
concerns about Sully and I looked over at Logan’s Dad and he slowly
shook his head at me.

“What is this about a
friend?”

“Nothing,” I said on a
sigh.

“Then it’s settled, you
are to give up the ring and necklace to me immediately and leave
Ocean Park for good. If you show your face again you will be killed
on site no questions asked,” she said as she waved her hands to her
guards who started to approach me.

“I’m not giving you my
ring, or this necklace. The ring is from my Mother, and the
necklace well that came from a friend so you have no right to it,”
I said as I slapped my hand on my neck in a defensive
way.

“That ring is the right to
the head of our clan and you are not part of our family, you have
no right to it.”

The two guards slowly
slunk towards me like predators, coming at me from two sides. One
of the guards got about three feet from me and couldn’t go any
farther, the second guard tried to jump at me and was thrown back
almost twenty feet.

“This is ridicules, just
take the jewelry off and then you can leave.” Grandmother Catherine
was moving away from her seat and around the table.

“I will not take off this
jewelry and it’s apparent that whatever magic is behind this won’t
allow you to either, so I guess that settles that question,” I said
as I took my hand out of my pocket just in case I needed to run, or
something.

Were we getting to the
death match.

Yikes.

“Do you really think that
you are stronger than me, half breed? I have been Queen longer than
you can imagine and I can squash you where you stand. Give me the
ring and necklace and leave before I hurt you. I don’t want to have
to do that, but I will,” she said as she slowly approached
me.

I wasn’t sure what to do,
I wasn’t going to give her the ring or the necklace they were both
gifts from people that mean a lot to me. My mother gave me this
ring, would she want me to give it up so easily, why did she have
it, why did she give it to me, and the necklace, Sully’s parents
hid this for a purpose and they were taken from her. I could try to
run, but how far would I get. What if I transformed into a jaguar,
I bet I could run fast, but I can’t leave without Sully, and what
about Logan? I looked around to all the faces of the people that I
could have known and I saw what looked like sympathy on their
faces. Was no one going to stop her, was she truly going to hurt
me, how could a grandmother even think about doing that do their
own granddaughter, her own flesh and blood.

“What do you want with
them, why are they so important to you. You’ve survived this long
without them,” I said as I tried to think of what I could
do.

“It’s not for you to
concern yourself with child, just know that I will kill even with
that magic on. Guards take her down, weaken her and I will finish
her off.”

The two guards continued
to approach me from both sides, hoping one would get me while the
other distracted me. The dark one with long curly hair was a tall
and burley guy, like a line backer, he changed right before my
eyes, into the biggest black bear I’ve ever seen, and he was
stalking me from my right side. Its teeth were as big as my fingers
and wet like a dog that hasn’t eaten for days. The second one was
coming at me from my left with his short spiky blond hair and short
lean body. As I looked away I caught out of the corner of my eye a
flash of a man changing into tiger. It was so mind blowing that all
I could do is watch these changes taking place and not think about
my safety. The both were fully changed and started to creep towards
me, when the tiger leaped into the air and was inches from me,
Logan slammed into him and they rolled into the crowd of people
that were watching. I heard a few noises, but I couldn’t see
anything through all the people. I heard Logan scream and I knew he
was hurt. Was he going to fight a tiger while he was in human form?
Why won’t he change, I wanted to put my hands over my eyes, but I
still had the bear to deal with that was coming after me. He was
swiping his claws at me I think to try and scare me and it was
working. Each claw was as long as one of my fingers and looked like
it could rip through me with one swipe.

I could try and run, but
there were too many people around me, someone else might get hurt.
Was I actually contemplating leaving Logan while he’s fighting for
his life to save me?

“I give up, please don’t
hurt him,” I yelled louder than I thought possible.

The bear coming at me
changed back to human form with a blink of an eye, and started
walking towards me. I put my hand up.

“I will give you what you
want, but no one else is going to be hurt….or…or the deals off,” I
stated.

Several people moved back
and I could see Logan in his wolf form with the tigers jaws
clenched around his neck with drips of crimson blood pooling on the
ground.

Without a thought, he
changed back to his human self and pleaded with me not to do
it.

“You cannot give her what
she wants; my life isn’t worth everyone else, including yourself.
Please Jayden I’m ready to die.” Logan started to try and talk
more, but the tiger started to bite down harder and I could see
Logan trying to not scream out in pain.

“If you don’t get your
beast off Logan I will change my mind. If he dies I will not give
you these…these stupid things,” I said as I took the necklace and
ring and wadded them up, ready to give it all up for Logan. I
pictured myself at the lake again and the pain in my chest came
back. Living my entire life without Logan didn’t feel like
something I was ready to give up.

“Catherine, it looks to me
like you have an opportunity to get what you want. Release Logan
and I will not have to interfere,” Sydney yelled right before she
transformed into a bird and flew into the middle of the chaos. She
hovered over and I thought I saw her wink at me. Like a slight
explosion without the sound she was herself again, standing with a
very somber gesture she asked Grandmother again to release
Logan.

“Sydney, you might have a
few tricks up your sleeve but you are not stronger than me, and I
have lost my patience with your impudence,” Catherine said as she
flung her hand at Sydney.

At that moment Sydney
grabbed her abdomen and screamed out in pain.

I ran to Sydney and put
both my hands on her and instantly she stopped and
smiled.

“I’ve been waiting for you
to embrace your gifts from the Goddess.” she said as she touched my
face. “You look like your Mother right now, I wish that I could
see, I miss her so. She was like a daughter to me.”

“Well let’s not doing
anything rash, let’s just get through this alive,” I said as I
lifted her to her feet.

Sydney bent down close to
my ear, "I need to tell you something Jayden, but you must not say
anything to anyone.”

“Right now in the middle
of my Grandmother going crazy you want to tell me
something?”

“Yes, this is the best
time to tell you, but first you need to get Logan and Blake next to
you,” Sydney said as she scanned the room to locate
someone.

“And how exactly do you
expect me to do that. I guess I’ll bargain with this jewelry.” I
started to open my hand and Sydney grabbed me hard enough to bruise
my arm.

“Please, please don’t do
that. All of these people depend on you to keep what was given to
you. The Goddess doesn’t help those that throw away gifts. We have
waited for many generations for someone like you, your Mom knew
that you had the power to do it. Your Mother is counting on you,
she is waiting for you. Remember what I gave you, it’s
time.”

“I have grown tired of you
granddaughter, give me the jewelry now before I have my guards
crush his wind pipe,” she said as she brushed a few strands of hair
out of her face.

“Ok, ok, please don’t hurt
him. I will give you what you want, but I want Logan and Blake by
me first before I give up my bargaining tool,” I said as I watched
Grandmother contemplate my intentions.

“Fine, Darious, Temple let
her friends go,” she said as she waved them off.

Logan fell to his knees
and choked for a few minutes while Blake pushed through the crowd
and grabbed Logan under the arm and dragged him behind
me.

“Now you have your boys,
now give me what is mine,” Catherine said as she started to walk
towards me.

I took the necklace and
ring, prayed that I was making the right decision and through them
at straight as I could hoping they would smacked her directly in
the face.

I put my hand on the
pouch, “Ok, now what?” I said out loud.

“Pray child, pray,” Sydney
said.

“Pray, I haven’t prayed
since my mother died,” I said as I thought of her and how much I
missed her.

As I started to pray to
whoever was listening, my Grandmother pulled out a dagger and flung
it at me. Sydney threw herself in front of me and the dagger
plunged into her chest.

“No!!!” I screamed, and
that was the last thing I saw before everything went
black.

Artemis

I had the sensation of
falling, or more of being swallowed through the air. Once I could
focus my eyes again, I put my hands on my knees and started to deep
breath. A wave of nausea billowed up through my stomach and I fell
to the ground dry heaving. I could hear voices but couldn’t make
out what was being said. All that was going through my head was
where were Logan and Blake and did Sydney die?

“You are not to interfere
with them Artemis, this is their own matter.”

“I gave them this power,
am I then to leave them to their own devices, if that were so they
would parish and so would I. Brother, what would you have me
do?”

“I think your project is
coming around, I’m going to leave so that I don’t know enough to
get you into trouble. Hear me sister, your slope is getting
slippery.”

I looked up to see a flash
of light that blinded me for a moment. “Who are you?” I said as I
looked and saw a woman, well young girl, standing in front of
me.”

“So you don’t recognize
where your magic comes from, well that is close to an insult,” she
said, as I tried to make out her face. I could see that she was not
wearing much in the form of clothing. What she did have on reminded
me of a Native American, with a halter-top made out of what could
be deerskin and a skirt to match. Her skin was creamy like eggshell
with not visible blemishes of any kind. Sully would really get a
kick out this outfit, good thing she’s not here. She’s still
missing.

“I apologize if I’ve
offended you, it wasn’t intentional, and I’m just a little fuzzy
about how I got here and where I am at. My
friends…where.”

“Your friends are fine,
they are with my warriors; let’s get you fixed up first before we
bring them in.” She moved towards me with her hands out but I was
still on my knees. I started to scoot back from her, I wasn’t sure
that I wanted this woman to touch me.

“No offense really but
please don’t touch me, I really haven’t had the best experience
from strangers trying to help me.”

“If I wanted to hurt you,
I would have left you where you were which I could do if you would
like. Let me help you deal with the after affects of your travels,
it can be, what did you say “Fuzzy”. She moved close enough to
touch the top of my head and within a few seconds my nausea was
gone and I could see clearly.

“I don’t know what you
did, but thank you.” I got back on my feet, the feeling of nausea
didn’t return, I actually felt good. I looked around and realized
we were in a room that seemed to be alive and mutating in subtle
ways; the color of walls would change from white to a clear and
back to a white.

“What is this
place?”

“This is just a
juxtaposition place that is safe, at least for awhile anyway, we
don’t have much time, but I wanted to talk with you about what is
happening and I feel that you are not as prepared as you could
be.”

When she talked it was
strong and scary but with a hint of sweetness. Part of me wanted to
be back dealing with my Grandmother trying to kill me because I
felt like this person in front of me was more deadly. In the corner
of the room was a large intimidating panther or at least I’m
thinking it’s a panther.