Coven of Wolves (12 page)

Anna sighs and says, "Well, I'm really glad that you've finally told me but Devin there's really no reason to apologize. I understand the anguish you've probably been going through these past few weeks. When we found you on the bed unresponsive, I used my vision to see what was happening to you. I was able to see bits and pieces of your travels...which included you seeing your father. The resemblance is very strong so it was pretty easy to figure out who he was to you."

Confused, I say, "So you knew all this time?"

Anna warmly smiles and says, "Not really. I had my suspicions but wasn't able to discern exactly what it all meant. Without a physical item to make contact with, my visions are just that: visions of what has been, is, or will be. I needed you to fill-in the pieces."

I think a moment and say, "Couldn't you just fill-in the blanks with a tarot card reading or something?"

I hear a gasp come from Mika and a slight snicker come from Tobias. Confused, I look to Anna to see why they would react this way. The look on her face tells me that I must have said something slightly insulting without knowing it.

Anna says, "Devin, one thing you should know about divination is that there are amateurs and then there are true practitioners. Lots of people see movies and TV shows of old Gypsy women waving their hands over crystal balls and telling people's fortunes with tarot cards. Some of this is based in fact, but others are completely false wives tales. Crystals, as you know, do help amplify a witch's craft in certain situations and spells, but they are useless if someone were to try to stare into them to see the future. Reading the lines on your palm or finding out what outcome your life has for you by reading tarot cards are other invented stories non-witches created to help make them feel special or different. You might have a better chance of seeing a person's future in a game of Go Fish. It's only the select pre-disposed few who have the unique gift of being able to tap into what most people consider magic. True witches like us...only we can truly see into a person's past, present, and future. Some, like me, can see these visions quite easily. Others like Mika and yourselves have the potential for divination, but need practice in learning how to access that craft properly."

I start laughing and say, "So you mean to tell me my mom and I paid $50 each for a tarot reading when I was a kid for nothing?"

Anna breaks into another subtle grin. "I'm afraid so. If it makes you feel any better, on the rare occasion I'm called to "see" for a normal person, I charge quite a bit more than $50. Sounds like you got a deal on what ultimately is a lesson learned."

"Ha! I guess so." I say with a mixture of foolishness and honest humor. "Well, there's not much else I can share. I was hoping maybe you could tell me more. Is there any way you could use your sight to show me more about my father and why he's with the werewolves? I can pay if..."

"Pish-posh! Your money is no good here. Devin, I told you that you are family now and I meant it. Save your money for a rainy day when you need it."

Anna stands up and motions for us to follow her. Mika, Tobias and I fall in line behind her as she walks over to her hidden room housing her goddess temple. She waves her hand before the bookcase and it moves aside with ease, revealing the warm golden room inside.

Anna then turns to me and says, "What you are about to experience is something that once started can not be stopped. Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Without hesitation I say,"Yes, I do. If not for myself, than for Tobias' sake. I won't let us go into this blind. We need to know the truth."

Anna nods and walks into the temple. Once she does her clothing morphs into flowing white ceremonial robes. Her entire aura changes when she turns back to face us. She becomes as regal as Sekhmet and seemingly as powerful as an ancient High Priestess. I notice her cameo has changed as well. It morphs into a choker around her neck in the shape of a cat's eye. This surprises me as it has a feeling of being a devotional amulet but I know that her amulet was transformed into her familiar many years prior. She motions for us to come into the temple. As we do, an army of cats follow us in. They strategically take their place around the temple walls. Ms. Whiskers winks an eye at me as she passes me by, taking a position among the others. Sekhmet sits at Anna's side, looking back at us with wide eyes.

Mika, Tobias and I similarly take different stations around the central alter table. Around the alter is a circle of protection, similar to the one I crafted in my last coven battle. This circle though uses the symbols of protection against negativity and devotion to the divine. The sweet holy smell of incense fills the room from strategically placed censers. Multiple colored candles begin to light on their own. On the alter are the various items used to represent nature: a pentacle marked plate holding bread, representing earth; an athame dagger, representing fire and will; a short wooden staff, representing air; a golden chalice, representing water; and twin white candles, representing the divine. One candle is marked with the symbol of Isis, and the second marked candle depicts the symbol of Bastet. I look to Anna for instruction on what's to come next.

On cue Anna says, "I'm going to need an item of yours, preferably something with ties to your father."

My mind immediately goes to a photo of my father I have in my wallet downstairs. I close my eyes and find my spiritual center. I hold my hand out and will the photo to manifest in my hand. When I open my eyes it is standing between my displayed hand's fingers. I extend it to Anna, who gently takes it from me to examine.

"Yes, this will do nicely. Normally I can call upon my visions through concentration alone but here in the temple with the aid of Bastet's children I can access a higher level of power. They augment my gifts to a vast level." Anna reaches for her choker and removes it from her neck, placing it and the photo of my father in the center of the altar. "This amulet is the Eye of Bastet. At times my visions can overwhelm me, giving me too much information at once. The Eye channels those gifts and allows me to take them in at my own pace or not at all if I wish. Here in the temple though, I allow my gifts free reign. Are you ready to begin?"

After I nod my head yes, Anna raises her arms and a mysterious breeze swirls around the room. The door to the temple closes behind us as the room takes on a golden glow. Strange hieroglyphs appear and disappear in the air around us and I know the ceremony is about to begin. Mika leads by example and raises her arms into the air, facing her grandmamma. Tobias and I follow suit. Anna offers up thanks to her gods and reaffirms her devotion to their service. We each in turn also honor our own gods and devotion to their service, and add a special thanks to Isis and Bastet for their welcome circle and support. I'm surprised to learn that Mika's devotional gods are the twin Olympian gods Artemis and Apollo.

Once formal introductions of thanks are said, Anna joins us around the alter. Anna stops at the westward station near the chalice. This water position makes perfect sense to me as it is the location for intuition and divination. A seer of Anna's level would be most comfortable in this station and will be at their most powerful. I turn and look at Tobias and see he is near the pentacle plate and bread, at the north position. A devotee of Gaea, this earth position also falls in line for him. Mika is stationed near the wooden staff or wand, the eastward position of air. This position of mind and intellect suits Mika as I've learned since my time with her, she is very knowledge centered and focused on self-improvement. Near me in my station is the athame dagger, the fire symbol of the south position. Part of the fire position's traits are the overseeing of animals and their fiery spirit. My newfound werewolf ties definitely put me in line with this trait. I then look over and see that Sekhmet has positioned himself near the candles, sitting between Anna and Mika's east and west positions. This location is usually reserved for spirit or the divine. Again, this seems the perfect location for Sekhmet as he is a divine spirit in his own right.

Being that no one has instructed us to take these positions beforehand and that we've all come to them on our own accord makes me feel that our Wiccan union is meant to be.

We then begin our chants of focused meditation. Anna speaks in what sounds to be ancient Egyptian, while Tobias, Mika and I chant in everyday English. Our words begin to take on a life of their own as the various chants leave our mouths and travel around the room under their own power. The sheer strength emanating from the words initially takes me by surprise, but the look of determination on Anna's face tells me to continue my attention on the ritual at hand.

The sounds of the various chants begin to reach their crescendo. As they do, I see the Eye of Bastet rise from the center of the alter table and begin to spin in place. As the sound of the chants grow louder, so does the speed from the Eye quicken to a matching pace. The photo of my father also begins to rise, taking on an unearthly glow. When the chanting has reached its peak Anna's eyes turn stark white. Seconds after they do I see Sekhmet's eyes and those of every cat in the temple turn stark white as well. The Eye of Bastet then stops it's spinning at once and I'm overcome with a feeling of blacking out.

Instead of falling to the ground I find myself in a city alleyway. Standing beside me I see Anna, Tobias and Mika. Anna is still wearing her flowing white ceremonial clothes but her eyes are now no longer white, but their usual deep green. The four of us are staring at a stretch limo that pulls into view. It stops, allowing a large middle-aged Italian man to step out of it. He is dressed in a custom designer suit. He's joined by two more men from the limo who look and act as bodyguards. I'm surprised to see one of the bodyguards is my father, only younger than I've ever seen him. He's dressed just as finely as the man he's guarding. I can clearly see he and the other bodyguard's gun holsters under their jackets. None of the men notice us as they continue with what they're doing despite our close proximity. The large man bangs on a door leading into the back of one of the buildings. After a few moments it opens. As they step inside, the world around us shifts and we suddenly find ourselves inside the building.

Inside is a large factory. The noise is deafening but no one in the group seems to mind as they continue with their business. The large man kisses the cheeks of another man inside, signaling a sign of friendship. The new gentleman then picks up a black briefcase and opens it for the large man from the limo. Inside are stacks of neatly placed hundred dollar bills. The large man smiles and pats his friend on the back in appreciation. The two then move over to a railing to look over the factory's mechanics. Upon closer inspection I see workers below putting small bags of white powder inside various children's toys before packaging them up in boxes and sending them down a processing line.

With their backs turned, the two men don't notice my father grabbing his fellow bodyguard's head and twisting it in place, thus snapping his neck. The sound of the now dead bodyguard falling to the ground goes completely unheard over the sounds of the various machines being used. Two more men come running from the either side of my father in order to attack him in retaliation. My father shoves his palm into one man's face, sending shards of bone and flesh into his brain. The man goes down instantly. As the second man swings, my father crouches down to avoid impact. On the way back up my father gives his attacker an upper-cut punch that sends him flying into a protruding pipe, thus impaling him. He dies immediately. A third man then appears from behind my father ready to cut him down. Somehow my father senses him and spins around to face him. As he does, my father's hands morph into claws. He slashes the attacker in mid-swing, deeply into his mid-section. Looking at his face, I see

my father's features change as well into the subtle werewolf trademarks of mine and Tobias' previous attacker in the woods. Like Nicholas before him, my father's fur is a dark coal color and his eyes turn a bright yellow. The third attacker falls to the ground dead as well.

My father then turns to the two Italian men still overlooking the factory before them, unaware of what has just happened. My father raises his claw into the air and is just about to take out the large man he arrived with when suddenly my mother appears. Like my father, she is very young and quite beautiful. She appears to be somewhere in her twenties. She had just come up a set of stairs to greet the two men when she sees my father. She is shocked at the sight of the dead bodyguards on the ground, but when she sees my father in his sudo-werewolf form she covers her mouth in horror. My father's response is surprising. Instead of finishing his task he stops and reverts back to his fully human form. He backs up as if he is suddenly ashamed of what he is doing in her presence.

The large mob boss sees my mother appear, smiles at her and opens his arms to greet her. Once he sees the look of horror on her face though, his expression changes as he turns around to see what she is looking at. Spotting the dead bodyguards on the ground, both the large man and the man with the briefcase pull out guns from their own holsters. Before they can fire, my father punches the large man in the stomach, then spins and kicks the man with the briefcase in the stomach as well. His movements are lightning fast, becoming a blur in his actions. The two stunned men drop their guns and fall to their knees as the wind has been knocked out from both of them. My mother rushes over towards them but my father stops her, holding her by her shoulders.

"You weren't supposed to be here Victoria."

My mother's eyes begin to water as she says, "You were going to kill my father? How could you? After all we've been through together? What kind of monster are you?"

Still out of breath, the large man on the floor reaches for his gun now beside him on the floor. He fires it in my father's direction but his unsteady hand causes him to miss his target. He collapses trying to regain his rhythm of breathing. The gunshot was loud enough to be heard over the machines however, and several of the workers below run out of the building while the rest begin pointing at my father and shout 'Murderer'.