4 Chapter Four

As predicted, the night was not at all easy. Flashes of the past haunting me through the night, along with the unavoidable conversation I was going to have to have with Amber when she sobered up. I had no desire to answer the questions I knew she was going to ask, but deep down I knew never telling anyone was secretly killing me.

My past with Elie was more than a passing romance, or a forbidden fruit sort of thing. We were blood bonded, and even though I had managed to keep that a secret for this long, lying to Amber at this point would only make things worse.

Before I could touture myself with more unhelpful thoughts, I went down to the basement where we kept a small library filled with our history. I figured if there was anything to find that might point me in the direction of Phenelope, starting in our history books would be a good place to start.

As I was flipping through the pages, nothing seemed to jump out at me, other than the similarities between my cousins Amber and Phenelope and two of our most powerful ancestors. Between the powers that they have and the eerily similar past experiences they all had, I couldn't help but compare all four of them.

Apparently, our great, great aunts had most of the same problems that Amber and Phenelope have had in the past. After reading about my aunts in the past, I never really thought anything more about it than a scary story to keep the species separate. I remembered the stories that my mother used to tell us when we were young, and trying to match them up to the history books were harder than it should have been if it was indeed our real history and not just some scary story.

From what I could tell from the actual book was that our aunts, Mistella and Astrid, had the same gift of foresight and insight that my cousins do. The only real difference that I could pick out was that our aunt Mistella was blind, and could only see through her sisters eyes through insight. Mistellas gift of insight gave her the advantage to take on their enemies and keep them both safe through the years.

After the last passage, the story seemed to just cut off, almost as if the story wasn't completely done yet, or the sister were still out there just not making themselves known.

I had to hope with everything in me that Amber and Phenelope would not go through the things that our aunts did. After all, for all we knew, right now Phenelope was being held somewhere beyond our senses. Somewhere we wouldn't be able to reach, at least no in time to save her. Shoving those thoughts deep down I slammed the book shut and put it back onto the table.

If there was something I knew for sure, there was a very long list of enemies when it comes to the witch covens. Finding and rescuing Phenelope could me literally going to another dimension, although rare, from time to time a rescue party would bring a young witch back from the outer dimension beyond this world. A place where time stands still and the dead never rest, humans often refer it to a kind of limbo, or an 'in between' place, but to the world of the supernatural it is just another of thousands if not millions of dimensions Metaxy.

The Old Gods made the way from them to us a very twisted and treacherous journey, if anyone would even dare to attempt that road, most would likely die or even get lost and never return. Which is why it's important to have certain rescue teams, only High Priestesses and higher ranks of other species can actually travel through realms and come back, even with another person.

I decided the cup of coffee I had wasn't going to be enough and decided to switch tactics and search for some sort of liquor. With Amber and I coming here often enough, there was bound to be a bottle of something. Crossing the hall into the dinning room I eyed the large chestnut armoire sitting in the far corner of the room. I could almost smell the tequila coming from one of the drawers at the bottom, and sure enough, there was a bottle with maybe a quarter of liquid still in it. Taking it to the bed room adjacent to Ambers, I sat down on the bed. Taking a very long burning swig on the liquid, I let out a long sigh and tried to relax my stiff shoulders for the first time all day.

After taking another long swig, the liquor quickly disappeared, yet I got just what I wanted, and a wave of tiredness hit me like a brick wall. Replacing the cork on the bottle

I kicked my shoes off and stood up, pulling off my jeans, I switched shirts with a plain white t-shirt that had been cleaned and stocked just like the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught my reflection in the mirror, and the tattoo caught my attention. I thought back to the day that Elie and I got them together, and had to fight back the tears, we were so happy then, invincible, so high that nothing could touch us. One moment, one mistake, changed it all. Through our blood bond, I silently reached out with my mind to Elie, and in the quickest response, Elie was there. Right in front of my eyes, his scent filling the room engulfing me in an almost intoxicating way.

"Willow," he said quietly "are you okay?" he finally asked,

All I could do was look at him, all I wanted to do was run into his arms and stay there, never leave and live safe and loved forever.

"I didn't call for a check up doc." I said in a husky voice, our bond thick in the air, it was hard not to just rip his clothes off right where he was standing.

"So I see," he said, looking me up and down, he walked slowly over to where I was standing and reached out and grabbed my tattooed arm. Tracing the ink with his thumb he pulled me much closer with his other hand on my back "well, let not waste time shall we?" playing with the rim of my shirt, in one moment we were standing together, and the next he had me on the bed undressing me in a hurry.

I wasn't sure this was the best way to get some kind of closer, but it was all the same to Elie, and through the raging lust locking us together was driving me insane, this felt right. This felt real, this was more than just our blood bond, this was my fate. I knew I still loved him, and he was still in love with me, and after this there wouldn't be another goodbye. After this things would harder than ever, but I needed him, more than I could put into words.

No matter how much it was needed or how much we still craved each other, by morning, he was gone. And not in your typical one-night-stand 'ghostings'. He had a pack to take care of, and as much as I hated to admit it, I still had very large responsibilities for the coven.

With every passing day I can feel my powers deepen and grow stronger, in a way that I sometimes feared. I had to wonder if Amber and my other cousins felt the same way, if they feared their new powers as well. We all knew at some point our powers would grow, though hearing it and feeling it are two very different things.

Elies scent still lingered thick in the air, and even though I could envelope myself in it, explaining Elie and myself to Amber would probably be easier if it didn't smell the protection of an alpha wolf. So I made my way to the large window to the side of the room, unlocked the latch, and pushed open the glass for some much needed fresh air. Quickly I could tell the scent was fading, and in the moment realized I was still completely naked, so I put on the same clothes I had been wearing the previous day. Doing so might help mask Elies scent, I couldn't understand why I called upon him last night anymore than I could possibly explain to someone.

Making my way to the kitchen I could smell bacon already cooking, I suddenly looked at my watch and it was already 2 in the afternoon. And that was something I was really hoping she would just leave be, I've had a very inconsistent sleep schedule for quite a while now anyway.

"Oh my goddess that smells so good!" I said in a big sigh, and as I peeked around her to look at the counter, I noticed an assortment of pancakes, all kinds of sliced fruit, mostly pomegranate, eggs, toast, sausage and orange juice. "Um, how long have you been up Amber? You usually sleep later than this." I asked.

"Honestly I have no idea, I just got up this morning around 7:00 and was craving breakfast so bad." for what looked like the first time, she too a look at the buffet that she had created, "I guess I went a little far," she put the last pieces of bacon in the sheet of paper towel she had off to the side, "breakfast is served!" she said almost giddy about what she had made.

I grabbed a little bit of everything, I couldn't lie, I think I was about as hungry as Amber, but could burn boiling water, so I would never have attempted this. Sitting down with Amber at the kitchenette I took a huge gulp of orange juice,I could feel her eyes on me, and I knew I would have to come clean eventually, but the hunger took over and the next second I was scarfing down everything that I had put on my plate. Going back for a second was easy because Amber had made about enough food to feed a cafeteria of hungry children.

Getting about half way through my plate of seconds, Amber was finishing off her cup of coffee and still looking right at me. "Okay, go ahead, ask away." I said finally giving in to her prying eyes.

"So who is he? Are you guys a thing? I mean I always pegged you for a docile witch." she said. "You know you're still betrothed right? As am I and any high born witch, so you know how dangerous it is, so why?"

I thought about her questions, and thought about Elie. From the day we met I knew that he was the one, or at least the first person I had ever really opened myself up to. "It was a long time ago Amber, we were young and rebellious, and we were in love." I looked off to the side as if that was going to help her leave it be.

"Okay, it's obvious that you don't want to talk about it, but i suggest you either call it quits or go all in." all I could do was look at her in shock. "Look I know love when I see it and aside from our ancestors our power comes from our emotions, and we are going to be able to find Phenelope, then i'm going to need you to really be on your toes, and not be caught up in your head."

"Okay you caught me, what do you expect me to do, huh? My mother would break the treaty just to clip him like an actual dog, you know she hates the wolves, almost as much as the vampires." I played with the rest of my eggs, no longer hungry and more than a little on edge. "Look, you know what you need to know, but for right now Elie and myself is not your concern, nor is it mine. We need to get the next clue to find Phenelope, that is the main priority right now."

"Well when you decide to talk to me and let me in, I will be here, you know there's nothing you could do or say that would make me think any different of you. And on that note, I'm going to get dressed to take off, i've been tracking her scent all morning but i'm going to need help." she said taking a moment to choose her words wisely "Willow I swear to the Old god and the New, if we don't find Phenelope, I don't know if I can't live without her." she said, her aura dripping navy blue, as if something was draining her.

"Amber I promise you we will find her, and we will make whoever took her pay, you have my word." I said with a high steady voice, something my mother has always taught me.

"Then let's do this, we have a goddess to talk to."

I could only imagine what she was talking about, and if she was planning on really contacting one of the Old Gods, we were going to need more than a hearty breakfast to power up.