Happily Never After Could Happen to Us

Leo

I took a glanced at Cassie as mom gulped down the blood I had given her. Dad joined me by her side as he handed her another full cup and took the empty one from her. I walked towards Cassie and realization dawned on me. First, I had to get her as far away from my mom as possible, at least until she learned to control her blood lust; and second, Cassie wasn’t what I thought she was.

As this realization dawned on me, I couldn’t help but to wonder why she didn’t stop all of the bad things that happened to her. Was she not powerful enough? Did they use stronger magic on her? What else could she do?

“Cassie,” I whispered, “we need to talk.” She nodded in agreement.

I looked towards my father, and I said words only he could hear before I grabbed Cassie’s hand while turning to leave. We walked out of the front door to one of the many random cars that were parked around the house. The keys were in it, and I drove to the airport. Unfortunately the ride was silent, but fortunately it was only a twenty minute drive.

She kept her eyes on me the entire way to the airport. I was waiting for her to speak, but she didn’t say a word. I parked the car and I turned to face her. I tried to wrap my mind around one question at a time but there were too many. So, I settled for the most obvious question. “Who are you?”

Her lightening blue eyes bore into my deep ocean ones. The sky seemed to darken above us, and I could feel the electricity of the building storm above us. She stood there in front of me for a moment, and I wondered if she was breathing.

“Cambridge,” she whispered in an unsure tone.

“Do you remember anything except what you’ve gone through?”

“No.”

“Did you know you could stop my mom like that?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you stop those people who tortured you?” Her lips tightened into a thin line and she didn’t speak. Her facial expression changed from blank to hatred.

“My step father,” she hissed, “was not what he said he was. He knew I didn’t know, and by the time I found out what I was I couldn’t use my power because there were too many traps for people who used magic in the places where I was sent.”

“I’m sorry. If it helps I can relate a bit to having secrets kept from me,” I tried to reassure her as we stood in the parking lot. She glared even harder.

“How can you understand? You have a mother, a father, and you have a family,” she hissed. “I don’t have anything!”

“I can understand because until a few weeks ago I thought my mother was dead, I didn’t know I had a twin sister let alone a cousin,” I yelled at her. “And you do have something; you have me!”

Cassie’s eyes widened. She took a step back as her breaths became shallow. I tried to step towards her but she stepped back. She shook her head back and forth as if she was trying to shake the thoughts from her head. I wondered what was going on when she started fading in and out as if she was a ghost.

“Where are you going,” I yelled as she faded.

“Back to your house, I guess,” she whispered as she disappeared.

I jumped in the car and sped down the highway towards my house. When I got there Lydia and T.J were standing in the yard. A slight circle was formed with T.J, Lydia, Regan, Kegan, and Sophie. Mom was tied tightly to the porch but she was trying desperately to get to the circle. I knew in that instant that Cassie was surrounded.

T.J began to growl slightly as he stood in the circle. He was standing just a little too close to Lydia, and that’s when I remembered what Rosie had confided in me. They were ‘together’, and no one but us knew about it.

“She is a Cambridge for sure,” Lydia seemed to be agreeing.

“What are we going to do about it,” T.J growled once again.

“My son loves her, so we won’t do a thing about it,” Kegan hissed at T.J.

“We will train her, and love her as if she is one of our own, and in return she will not try and kill any of us,” Regan suggested.

“I think we should ensure her not killing us,” Sophie hissed.

I walked towards the circle and saw that Cassie was sitting in the middle of them. She couldn’t control her shivers of fear, but she was staring them down defiantly. She might have been scared but she wasn’t going to let them get the best of her. I saw T.J slowly start to change from his human form to that of the golden wolf that he was. Cassie stood up slowly and stared him down. He began to growl at her like a rabid dog. He leaped towards her in an attack, but she waved her hand and stopped him just as she had stopped mom. Only this time it seemed to be causing T.J pain. She moved her hand so that he was on the ground instead of in the air. Lydia stepped between them in a protective way.

“You will not kill him,” she hissed. Cassie glared at her.

“You will not attack me,” she screamed. She waved her other hand in front of Lydia and somehow my aunt began to get even paler than normal. I realized at once that she was slowly killing them, and there was nothing that anyone could do.

T.J laid on the ground his muscles going through spasms that shook him from the inside out. Lydia had turned into what looked like a granite statue, and she wasn’t moving any more. I walked up to Cassie and I put my hand on her shoulder. “That’s enough,” I whispered in her ear. Both her arms collapsed by her sides as she fell to her knees. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed widely.

“They’re dead,” Sophie whispered to the crowd. Mom seemed to scream as she looked at the golden wolf that was spread out over the ground. She couldn’t seem to look at the Lydia statue, but she managed to use that ‘new vampire’ strength to break loose from her ropes. She ran towards T.J, and she seemed to grow from young to old within seconds as she sobbed over the wolf.

I watched my mother for a moment before I even glanced at my father. His face was twisted with hatred for the girl I had fallen in love with, and jealousy over a dead wolf. He walked towards Lydia and he placed his hand on her cheek. “Bun deget mic soră,” Kegan whispered. “Move her into the house. Put her in her old room!”

“Dad,” I stared. He turned and with one glare he shut me up. I nodded as I took Cassie’s hand.

“We have to go,” I whispered to her. She nodded once again and allowed me to lead her to the car.

“Where are we going,” she questioned.

“I’ve always wanted to see Venice,” I stated as I drove back to the airport.

“Funny, my mom lives in Venice,” Sophie laughed as she popped up from the back floor board.

“How did you,” I started and then shook my head.

“I like my dad and all, but he’s too obsessed with your aunt Abigail.”

“Italy it is then,” Cassie whispered as we pulled into the airport. It wasn’t hard to get tickets and together Sophie and I persuaded the security guards to let us pass without making us go through those ex-ray machines. Soon we would be safe in Europe, and things would hopefully calm down here. I just prayed for mom because dad might kill her out of jealousy.