Chapter 14 - He returns

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Gosh, she is so damn pretty. I sit with my back against the old bark of one of the many gum tree's littering the bush around the shack. She sits in the grass a few meters in front of me, threading flowers into a long chain. All is quiet.

I can hear Mafi tinkering inside the shack. Castor and Pollux climb the tall trees on the other side of the clearing. Everything is calm. Tonight will be the full moon, Mafi says he bought a special treat for dinner, I hope its a nice bloody lamb.

As Willow isn't a true werewolf she doesn't go all wolfy during the full moon. She can shift between her wolf and human forms at will.

My stomach rumbles and I reach my hand into my pocket for a mandarin, peeling off the in one go. I tear of half the segments and offer them to Willow who takes them smiling. As I eat the fruit I gaze at the side of her head, so thankful that I have her. I mean, I'm obviously scared for the baby but I think If i get over myself maybe the child will have a better life than I did. And to be honest, I wouldn't trade their happiness for the world.

The day passes peacefully, a smile cemented onto all of our faces. Pollux, Castor and I race with Willow looking on excitedly. We climb a tree and find a family of birds resting in its branches. Mafi, Willow and I clean the 'house' and the old man's face flickered from his permanent frown to an almost smile. In short, it has been one of the best days in a while.

As the sun was setting over the trees we tucked into dinner, lamb as predicted. Raw for Mafi, the twins and I and Willow's cooked over the fire. Willow and I retreat out the back after dinner.

We sit on the edge of the deck, the crickets humming loudly into the distance. Willow's hand was placed on her stomach where a noticeable bulge was forming.

"Have you thought of a name?" I ask, looking at the horizon.

"Well I don't know if it's gonna be a girl or a boy yet" She shrugs.

"Well, What are a few you names you like?" I ask

"I like Sam, or Domonique. Maybe William for a boy" She smiles, leaning back and resting her palms on the old wood of the deck. I nod.

"What about a girls name?"

"Um, Maddi or Lilah, I like Daisy as well." She smiles peacefully.

There's a comfortable silence for about a minute before my sensitive ears pick up a noise from the edge of the trees. I stand quickly. The noise was too loud to be a possum and too even for a kangaroo. I strain my eyes, and see a figure of a man, pushing through the scrub.

Beside me Willow lets out a scream, her face white and eyes wide. She tries to stand but I push her behind me. I take a few steps before the man. He wears brown trousers, formal looking but they have grass stains around the knees.

His shirt is an off white colour with dirt and what smelt like alcohol stains down it's front. His hair is uneven, probably hadn't been washed in a few days. The thing that worried me the most was the mad gleam in his eyes. I also didn't like the way he was staring at my girlfriend.

"You" He laughs, pointing at Willow. I take a large step forward so his line of vision to her is blocked.

"She is carrying in a child" He smiles evilly. My fists bunch up, and the urge to smash this man in the face was overwhelming.

"She is carrying my child" He yells. At this point, Mafi and the twins had stepped outside and helped Willow into a chair but they didn't step forward. They could sense that I wanted to deal with him alone.

"It is not your child" I spat, all my muscles were pulled tight, ready to spring.

"Ha" he grimaces. "You need a man to create a child inside a woman"

"What makes a man is not his ability to create a child, its the ability to raise one" I scoff.

"And that's what I'm here for" he smiles painfully. "It's my child, I'm here to raise it" Out of the corner of my eye I see Mafi step in front of Willow.

"As if I couldn't be more disgusted" My vision narrows, I can feel my head heating, with anger.

Everything goes black.

* * *

The cold grass is pressed against my face. Everything aches. I hear the padding of fast footsteps coming closer. I put my hand under my shoulders and press myself up to a sitting position.

"Boy, how are you feeling?" Mafi's gruff voice sounded somewhere in front of me. My eye's felt to heavy to open.

"A, alright" I mumble. Two sets of hands wrap around my biceps, pulling me to my feet.

"That was extraordinary" Mafi laughs.

"What was?" I open my eyes slowly. I suddenly remember what's going on and my head snaps up and look around frantically.

"It's alright he's gone" Mafi pats me on the shoulder.

"Well" Castor speaks up on my left. "You sort of evaporated him"

I look at him and then at Mafi who rubs the back of his neck.

"Hush, we'll come inside, give you a drink" Mafi hurries. I walk back to the shack, it seems while everything was black I had moved about twenty meters almost to the edge of the trees. But the most peculiar thing was between where I was and the spot where I woke up was a trail of scorched grass, about two meters wide. 

"An ancient magic" Mafi says in the living room. Willow and I sit next to each other, her hand tight around mine and a blanket over my shoulders. Mafi paces a few meters away, looking at me every so often.

"Triggered by extreme emotions like hatred, joy or love. The wielder bursts into golden flames and the magic changes their intensity to what is required. Like if joy triggered the magic you would only give off a golden glow but like today, the flames could be just that, burning and destroying"

I like at my lap. this magic I remember glancing at it once in a dusty book in Mafi's library. 

"There have been less than ten recorded vampires in history to have this power. Be careful"

Mafi's ggrey eyes stare into my own, searching me. For the first time in a long while, I am scared

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