The Witch's Vampire (New Adult Paranormal Romance) (Mystery Springs Series) (16 page)

“And me?”

“You’re creating turmoil in your life over my passing, I couldn’t stay silent any longer. You need my guidance, and I need to explain to you why I made the choices I made. This seemed the best place to help you.” Her hand ran through the mirrored surface of the cloudy water. Sophie was fascinated with watching the way the water slid through her mother’s fingers, and found herself wondering why she could manipulate matter of any kind. The answer had to be in the fact they were dreaming.

“So you haven’t crossed over?”

“I needed to make sure you were safe and on track for your destiny. Demeter visited you in my place and she decided to give me the strength to see you myself, to visit you in your dreams and help you get things settled.”

“Demeter?” Sophie remembered Chelsea mentioning Demeter was the mother of all witches, but she’d never met anyone by that name.  The confusion must have been clear on her face as her mother went on.

“She visited you while you were working with Tiffany. Delivering flowers to both of you.”

“Dee? Oh, my gosh! She was a goddess?”
I met and spoke to a goddess? She brought me flowers?
The mere idea of the notion was ridiculous, fantastical, humbling, and completely unbelievable. She looked like a human. Her mother had to be mistaken. There was no way Dee was some ancient deity.

“She doesn’t like to take the title of goddess anymore.”

A light breeze ran over Sophie, chilling her skin. She sank back into the warmth of the water. She wanted to hug her mother, but some unknown force made her keep her distance. She was afraid if she touched Regina the illusion would shatter, and she’d disappear forever. So instead, she asked the question that had been raging in her mind ever since she learned she was a witch. “Why didn’t you let me help you?”

Regina shook her head. “Chelsea already told you that you couldn’t help me. It was my time to go, simple as that.”

Sophie found a little comfort in the idea her mother was watching over her. “But…”

“You need to hear me, Sophie. There was nothing you could do.” Her face was stern driving the message home. “My time is short with you, and we shouldn’t waste it discussing something that can’t be changed.”

Sophie felt like she was seven years old being reprimanded for doing something wrong around the greenhouse. It was her mother’s warm smile that brought her back. “But you may still be able to save Tiffany with my help.”

“Okay, how?” Sophie asked pushing down the briefest amount of anger that her mother didn’t allow her to help her when she was alive. There was little she could do about that now. At least Regina was here now, for however long, and she was thankful for the gift. Thankful that Regina might be able to help her save someone else. Sophie was tired of death and needed something good to happen.

“You’ve connected to Tiffany in her mind. You need to foster that connection. It will open a link between you both that will give the girl hope. While you’re helping her there I’ll continue to help her here.”

Sophie seemed shocked at that. “She’s with you?”

“She’s in limbo while her soul decides which direction it wants to take. The girl is ready to move on, but she is also frightened that she’ll become a vampire. It’s the only thing really keeping her in a coma. Sooner or later the vampire blood will leave her system. If she recognizes that the magic in the blood is gone, she’ll let go. We have only a small window of time to bring her back before she lets go completely. At that point, even the most talented witch doctor couldn’t save her.”

Sophie nodded, “okay so you’re the reason she is still in a coma and not dead?”

Regina offered a smile of pride. “We both are. As well as her knowledge of the supernatural.”

“Why is her body not healing itself? I would’ve thought the vampire blood would heal her?”

“The vampire blood won’t go into effect until after she has been reborn. Her body is in a kind of stalemate right now against her mind. Her injuries are being maintained by her immune system, but the actual healing needs to take place in both her mind and body. Right now, her mind is in shock. As I’ve always told you, most of the body’s healing happens in the mind. She isn’t willing to accept what happened, or forgive her brother.”

Suddenly the wind picked up around them, dark, angry clouds rolled in overhead. With the sudden change of the environment came a sense of dread.  “They’re coming.” Fear crossed through her mother’s blue eyes.

“Who?” Panic began to seize Sophie as she noted the fear that held steady with her mother. Regina was a strong woman. If she was frightened, Sophie would be smart to feel the same.

“The weavers. Sophie you need to tell the witches that Mystery Springs is under attack by the nephilim hunters and dream weavers. I want to tell you more, but there isn’t time.”

“Why?”

“Because they want access to this spring. Whoever has control of this spring has great power in their hands.”

Sophie wondered how true that was. There were hot springs all over Colorado. It was a magical, special place, but it wasn’t that powerful. If it had been, it would’ve healed her mother. “I don’t understand.”

“You’ll understand soon enough. Chelsea will help you sort through all the important details. They can’t know I’m here. It isn’t safe for you or me if they do. I have to go, and you need to wake up. Wake up now, Sophie.”

“Wait!” Sophie jumped out of the pool. She wasn’t ready to let her mother go. “Please, mom!” she ran after her mother’s retreating figure. Just when she thought she’d catch her Regina turned around, “I’ll be back. Wake up.” And with that she disappeared in a flash of light which was in great contrast to the darkness that was rolling in and surrounding her.

Sophie crumbled to the ground as the sadness of losing her mother hit her again with the force of a punch to the gut. She wasn’t going to leave; she couldn’t leave if it meant she might see her again. Tears pricked the back of her eyes. The cold breeze brushed against her bare skin which reminded her she was still in her bathing suit. She rushed over to dress as the clouds continued to roll and rage around her. She managed to get on her shorts, socks, and shoes just as the clouds overhead slowly began to take the shape of a face. Two faces, then three. In moments she was surrounded by five cloud face images staring down at her. Lightening gave their eyes a menacing look. Her shirt was forgotten.

“As I told you, their new healer is weak.” A booming male voice echoed through the storm. The lips of one of the male faces spoke and his eyes turned to dark holes, devoid of all life. Sophie resisted the urge to punch the smirk that raised his cloud lips right off his face image.
What kind of damage could a cloud image do to me?
She wondered.

“She is of no consequence to us.” A female voice added. Her face didn’t look satisfied, she looked compassionate, and Sophie found herself taking an immediate liking to her. She still felt apprehension around them, but the female seemed like the nicest of all the clouds. Her eyes held the blue sky.

Oh my God! I’m rationalizing talking cloud heads! What is wrong with me?
Sophie stood up looking around at the faces surrounding her in the sky. “Excuse me?”

“If that’s the case, we don’t need to kill her.” Another male face said with finality.

“Kill her? Excuse me? Kill me? Why?” She couldn’t believe she was actually talking, even fearing bodiless, talking cloud shapes.

“I still think she is a liability.” The only other female voice offered.

“We agreed we’d avoid killing innocents.” The female cloud face with sky blue eyes spoke.

“Yes but the young witch is hardly an innocent.” The other female argued.

“Hello? I am right here!”  Sophie felt furious at being ignored. She hated it when people talked about her while she was in the room. It didn’t matter that she was talking to floating heads made of clouds. She was reaching her breaking point. First her mother’s death, then her father’s proclamation she was a witch, next her attraction to an ancient vampire prince, her ability to heal or kill dying people with supernatural powers, her mother visiting her dream, and now talking heads.  H
er dream? My dream!
That’s right, she needed to wake up because this was a dream. She needed to wake up, but how? She needed to wake up because her life was being threatened, and she didn’t have the power to protect herself. She’d find her mother again under less life threatening circumstances.

“We’ll let the weavers decide.” The compassionate woman spoke again.  

Lightning struck the ground with a crack, and when the smoke cleared a man dressed in white ninja garb was left standing before her. He pulled a katana sword from a holster on his back and raised it horizontally above his head. Sophie stumbled backward stepping onto a rock which almost caused her to slip.

Two more ninjas appeared behind her dressed in black uniforms. One of the black dressed ninjas tore her face mask off and said “Wake up, Sophie!”

Sophie looked at the ninja who spoke, she didn’t know the woman, but heeded her warning. She knew she needed to wake up, but how?

The white warrior charged towards her, Sophie screamed and put her arms up in front of her face as a defense. She had no weapon, no way to defend herself against someone with a dangerous looking sword. He’d slice her in half before she could run for help.
And who would she run to for that matter, her mother?

The girl dressed in black put her own sword up in front of Sophie just as the other warrior slashed his sword down. They clashed with a loud clang. It was deafening, or maybe that sound along with the seriousness of the situation was deafening. The sound of metal on metal seemed so strange to her. The speed with which the warriors were swinging their weapons was so fast she could actually hear the weapons cutting through the air, like cars whizzing past her ears.

Sophie was speechless as both black and white battled in front of her. Their movements were so fast it was like a blur. The second unmasked warrior woman dressed in black grabbed Sophie and pulled her backwards, out of the way of flying swords and kicks.

“Listen to me. There are more coming. You need to WAKE UP!” she yelled.

“I don’t … know how?” Sophie stated, fear seizing her heart. She had no idea how to wake up from a deep sleep.

“Fear or pain, which do you prefer?”

“What?” Sophie thought she was experiencing fear now, what kind of stupid question was that?

“Fear or pain is usually the fastest way to wake up from sleep. Which do you prefer?”

Another white dressed warrior appeared, and charged toward Sophie and her black dressed heroine. “Time’s up.” The girl in black picked up Sophie and tossed her off the cliff in one swift movement. She didn’t even hesitate. Sophie screamed as she went into a freefall down the side of the mountain. She tried to grab onto something, but everything; dirt, rocks, tree limbs were out of reach. She glanced down and watched as the ground fast approached, let out another terrified scream.

Sophie sucked in a breath, and sat straight up in her bed. Perspiration coated her skin. Her heart raced and pulse skyrocketed as she looked around the room. The terror didn’t disappear until she realized she was in the safety of her bedroom. She had a thousand curse words she wanted to scream, but her voice didn’t come because her mouth was dry from fear. She tried to slow her breathing. The dream seemed so real? As reality started to clash with her dream parts of it seemed to fade away. She grabbed a notebook from her desk and started scribbling thoughts she could grasp.

Dream weavers

Talking cloud heads

Fear or pain

White and black Ninja warriors

The springs

Nephilim

Witches

Tiffany – time is short

Mother

The last word gave her pause. That pause was all her mind needed to wipe her memory of the dream clear. She sat there for a few moments trying to remember anything else important. Her mind grasped at any remnant of the dream that still might remain with no luck. It was gone; whatever else might have been important was gone now. She only hoped she got everything that mattered. She took in a deep breath, pulled the hair sticking to her skin up into a loose bun on her head, picked up her phone and dialed Chelsea’s number. She needed to tell her everything before she forgot.