Chapter 8

It didn’t take long for everyone to start packing the things we would take, only what was necessary, the trip would be by car and we didn’t want to draw any attention to the road. Unfortunately Grandma Blanca’s house was much further away from the center of Salem, it would take us four hours to get to the club, if we were lucky and had no unforeseen on the way.

 "Don’t worry, it’ll be all right." Alice tried to reassure me when she got in the back seat between Flora and me.

 "Peta will be waiting for us, don’t worry." Flora joined her, giving me a wide smile.

 I wanted to ask why Peta would be waiting for us and not Parker? What happened between him and Alice? And how far was he involved in making me sleep with Parker?

 Even if she didn’t assume that it was all a setup, I was sure that our night had been orchestrated from the beginning. I never believed in fate and I wasn’t going to start now, especially when there was an evil force that wanted to keep me and Parker from being together.

 I laid my head against the bench and faced the landscape outside, Agnes drove in a hurry, did not want to risk leaving me open like this without protection. She did not show her indignation at me agreeing to go after Parker, in her opinion I should have stayed in the house and the others would go out for protection.

 We didn’t talk much on the way, Grandma Blanca was sleeping next to Agnes, Alice was concentrated on her cell phone and Flora as I watched the empty streets. It was not a typical day to have many visitors, the Rain Sign drove people off the streets.

 We were almost close to LYNC, the nightclub the other night, which according to Flora was where Parker lived, when a bird quack sounded louder than natural, I faced them confused and the fear in everyone’s eyes made me stay alert.

Before I could say anything, something crashed into the glass next to me, we all screamed at the impact, and Agnes sped as Flora approached the window trying to see what might have hit us.

Then again the sound came followed by the body colliding in the same place, but this time there was no pause, one after the other the crows began to throw themselves against the window next to me.

 I was screaming scared and Alice pulled me to her place, the glass began to crack and no one seemed to know what to do.

 "Ventus, Ventus; averte omne malum!" Alice began to speak and joined her fingers, her irises lost their color and became sparkling white. "Ventus, Ventus; Obstavi malum!"

 The birds stopped hitting the glass, but continued to throw themselves towards us. It was then that I understood what she was doing, with her powers Alice created a barrier around the car.

 "Hurry up! He won’t give up that easy!" Blanca exclaimed scaring me even more. Who was He?

 Agnes stepped on the accelerator, while I tried to stay calm and breathe, the despair was palpable inside the car, if Alice could not stand there I had no idea what would happen to us all, but I knew that it would not be anything graceful and painless.

 As if Grandma Blanca’s words had power, a black cloud formed in our path, coming towards us at great speed.

 "Alice, hold on!" Agnes screamed from behind the wheel and I could tell, it was not a cloud but hundreds of crows together.

 "Open the door!" Flora yelled at me. What the hell did she want to do outside?

But without discussing the door was unlocked and she threw herself out of the car at speed. I turned against the bench trying to see her through the back window, but I did not see her, there was only a huge wolf on the road, running trying to reach us.

 "There is a wolf..."

"Wolf dear, this is Flora in her wolf form." Grandma Blanca clarified and I faced the wolf even more fascinated.

The wolf, or Flora, ran at high speed, her golden hair swaying with the wind as fast as she moved. She looked at the car continuing her race as Agnes slowed down quickly, the tires burning on the asphalt with the sudden braking.

 Alice began a new wave of words, now focusing on the cloud of crows. The animals began to struggle without getting out of place, their wings beat as if they were confined in an invisible box.

 I stared at my friend and saw her nose dripping with blood, her white eyes flickering and the magic seemed to lose strength, as some of the crows began to flee.

 "She can’t take it!" I yelled at the two of them quietly in the front seat. " Alice arrives! You’ll die if you keep this up."

 The noise of something heavy jumping over the car made me scream, but I was the only one, they seemed to know what was about to happen. Flora stood on top of the car and jumped, picking up momentum to capture the ravens confined in Alice’s magic.

 Their huge tusks tore several birds apart, while their sharp claws shattered wings and bodies. It all seemed in slow motion, but it actually lasted only the second she was in the air.

 When his body fell to the ground the birds that remained returned to attack us, there were not many of them and Flora continued to fight with them.

 "Go! There are more of them coming!" Grandma Blanca screamed leaving me in panic and Agnes did not think twice before accelerating. "We are close now, as soon as we enter the reserve we will have reinforcements."

 I wanted to help in some way, I wanted to be useful, but all I could do was fear more and more for my life. A loud howl reached us and I could only think of my nightmare, and that did not come close to the tone I heard in the dream.

 "We must go back! We cannot leave it behind!" I cried angrily, where we were I could not see Flora, there was no sign of her or the crows.

 "Flora is warning the pack that we are near the reserve and under attack." Blanca explained with a naturalness that scared me, I wanted to be able to keep calm just like her. "Don’t worry dear, we’re almost there."

 Alice’s body fell next to me and I held it carefully, when I turned her face towards me I saw that she was still holding the shield around the car, her nose continued to bleed and even being visibly weak she did not stop.

 "We entered the reserve! Now we are safe!"

 The trees around were much taller and I could say that the green here seemed more intense, I had not noticed the difference with the rest of the city the first time I came here, at least not until now.

 There it was busy, people ran everywhere, some buildings seemed to be halfway through, others just starting, but people were abandoning their posts and running to the way we came.

 It wasn’t long before LYNC appeared in front of us and I spotted Peta outside, surrounded by security guards as strong as him. The man did not wait even to park the car, already jumped the stairs and came in our direction, opened the car door as soon as he reached me and pulled me out.

 "Let’s go fast, inside!"

 "Alice, she needs help," I said before he dragged me into the building.

 As soon as I told him, one of his friends slipped into the car and pulled out her limp body. Agnes and Blanca were already beside us, as he pulled me by the arm inside.

 "God, she’s just a child." I heard a whisper followed by "She’s carrying the Alpha’s son."

 "She’s the one who broke the curse."

The men who followed us couldn’t keep their mouths shut and I just wanted them to be quiet, I’d been too crazy for a single day. Peta stopped when we reached the main hall of the club.

 "You will stay here, the building is protected by a powerful spell, nothing and no one will attack you inside..."

 "I’m not worried about that." I dismissed his words with a hand gesture. "Flora! She’s alone and needs help!"

 "We already have others with her, no need to worry, she’ll be fine."  He could say that because he hadn’t seen the birds go crazy.

 "Then they finally brought Scoundrel here!" I heard that deep, deep voice, which caused a stir inside me.

 I looked up in time to see Quanah Parker approaching the second floor parapet of the club.

 His face now very different from that night we met, there was no more fascination or desire, only anger. He called me what? Scoundrel?

 It is my suspicions were correct, he did not know of the frame and believes that I deceived him.

 "Brother, look how you speak..."

 "Look how you talk to who? To the witch who crawled into my bed with lies to get what she wanted?"

 "Quanah!" Peta spoke in a warning tone, but the brother did not seem to be intimidated.

 "If we go to talk about who was deceived in this story can be sure that I will win!" I raised my voice, if he thought for a second that I would stand in the corner listening to his insults was very mistaken "You at least knew who you were, knew the stories and the curse. I found out this morning that I’m a witch and that I’m carrying a child, that somehow broke an ancient curse."

"I don’t believe anything that comes out of your mouth, I doubt you didn’t know. Why else would a virgin girl crawl into a stranger’s bed? You’re gonna say you didn’t know you were a virgin either?"

He went around, down the stairs to get close to me, I could not deny that the man was beautiful, a god of war. Now that I knew who or what he was, it made a lot of sense.

But I couldn’t lose focus!

 "Did you expect me to wait for Prince Charming, fall in love and then give myself my virginity? Some of us don’t believe in love." I told the truth about what I believed. "I didn’t see you complaining when you took my virginity, either. An experienced man was expected to know when the girl wasn’t."

 The buzz around us only grew, but I did not care if he wanted to treat me like this in front of people would hear me there too.

 His golden eyes sparkled, shining like molten gold and he opened his mouth to say something, but anything he was going to say was interrupted as they entered carrying Flora in their lap and other wounded.

 I made mention of running towards them, just like the others, but the big, heavy hand held my arm, preventing me from advancing. His eyes focused on the place that touched me and I’m sure he felt the heat spreading, the waves that seemed to erase the rest of the world around us and accelerate our breaths.

 "Let it be clear, I do not want you here, what prevents me from throwing you on the street is this child!"

 "For your information I didn’t want to be here, anywhere was better than having to look at your face!"

I pulled my arm from the grip of his hand and ran to the other people, ready to help take care of the injuries.  They were like this because of me, because they protected me, the least I could do was help.

Helping and finding a way out of there without putting my baby’s life at risk. I needed to get out of there fast, couldn’t hold Quanah Parker for long.