Shadow Breeds

Chapter 12

Ashe

"What the hell, a warning would've been nice at least," Oakley groaned at us. I rubbed the back of my head and sent her an apologetic smile as we shuffled to our feet. At least we landed on the carpet this time.

"Who's here?" I heard Magna's stern voice call from outside of the cabin. I'd nearly forgotten about her. August groaned before calling out to her, "Ashe and I are back with a friend." As we were dusting ourselves off and rubbing any soreness from the fall away, Magna walked in through his bedroom door with her big motherly smile.

Oakley took a step towards me, her eyes radiated anxiousness so I grabbed her hand again and gave her a slight nod with a smile to assure her that she's safe. "Hello, dears! Welcome back Ashe, it's good to see August's ignorance didn't scare you away." Magna spoke with a laugh, "my name is Magna, you're safe here young one," this time she was speaking to Oakley, who simply nodded in return. August spoke up, "you wouldn't happen to know where Clovella is would you?" He asked.

Magna tilted her head at him and then shot a glance at the still nervous Oakley before smirking, "playing matchmaker are we August?" She half-joked before walking into the hallway, "I'll give her a call after I brew some tea for the girls, is mugwort alright with you two?" I looked at Oakley who shyly nodded, I spoke up for both of us "that'd be great, thank you."

"Okay so where are we and who exactly was that?" Oakley asked quietly, her tone clarified that she was still unsure of everything. With a sigh, August started, "that's my teacher and caretaker, Magna, she's a vampire and werewolf hybrid." Oakley's jaw dropped and then she started laughing, "this has got to be some big prank, there's no way-"

I cut her off, "it's true, it's all true, in fact there's more then what you even thought to be true." There was no point in sugar coating anything now that we were here, "and there's another thing." She tilted her head forward, waiting for me to finish. "We're on Gateway Island."

She stumbled a few steps back while shaking her head, "are you trying to have me killed? I can't be here, people die here!" Pain surfaced on August's face and I shook my head as I reached for her, "it's not what you think, just hear us out please." I spoke softly, attempting to keep her calm. She shook her head again and sighed, "I don't know..." she spoke hesitantly.

"The only people that have died here are people that came with intentions to harm our kind." I added emphasis on the last part in hopes that maybe telling her none of us were human would make the rest of the information easier to swallow. She lifted her head quickly and furrowed her brows, "our kind?" I nodded slowly and pursed my lips. "None of us are human and you specifically are half vampire," I kept my tone soft, but genuine. "How am I supposed to believe that every person who's ventured out here had intentions to harm? That's a lot of people.." she asked, understandably. I remember having a similar question.

"Because the people who did have good intentions had their memories of coming here swiped before getting back to the shore. It's one of the only ways to keep the beings of the Shadow safe and to avoid war," I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was having trouble believing it all, I did too at first until... "I can prove it if you still need me to," August spoke up finally, "I'm sure Ashe would enjoy introducing you to Chip."

Her eyes bounced between the two of us before she dragged a hand down her face with a heavy sigh, "okay fine, I'll give all of this a chance, but only because of Ashe." She spoke sternly. The mentioning of Chip sent some excitement through me, it was certainly the highlight of the tour August had given me and I was sure he'd cheer Oakley up.