Chapter 39: Chapter 39
TYLER POV
I sat outside with Tessa for a while but hearing her talk that strange language was something that was completely weirding me out. Every time she would create something new she would write it down immediately. I think she was creating her own spell book. Which I thought was a brilliant idea. She was experimenting and practicing so that she wouldn’t go against the Shadow witch completely unprepared.
"What’s going on?" Aria asked standing next to me in the courtyard while I was watching Tessa from a distance.
"She’s just practicing and experimenting." I say.
"No. There’s more to it. What is it?" Aria asked. So I turned around and I sat down and let out a deep breath.
"We always hear of witch’s going to the dark side. I’m just afraid that all of this power that Tessa has might become addictive. That she might like it too much. She’s making her own spell book right now. Making up her own spells. She told me that the ancient language she is speaking is coming from the earth. It’s telling her what to say." I explained.
"Listen, I don’t know Tessa anywhere near as well as you do. But I really don’t believe that any part of her would be turned to the dark side. She’s going to kill the Shadow witch and Josiah, and we’re gonna go home. And then you two are going to get married." Aria says.
"Do you know the signs to look out for when a witch starts to go bad?" I asked.
"You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?" She asked.
"Yeah. I can’t let it happen to her. The second she starts to show signs then I am pulling her out of it." I insist.
So we went inside and Aria pulled out her laptop and we got on the dark web. We started researching witch’s turning evil. And there was actually a lot more than we thought there could be. Witch’s got addicted to power all the time. And it changed them, permanently. They were forever evil. They never reverted back to their old ways.
"So, what are the signs?" I ask as we are scrolling through some information.
"Alright. This article says that a witch using the fire element had made the fire turn black. That was her losing control and turning back. So, look for black fire. And this other one says that her sister was a powerful witch. She was in a battle against a demon once, 45 years ago, and her hair turned from red to black. And it stayed that way. So look out for Tessa’s hair turning black." Aria read from these articles.
"Alright. So far we need to look out for anything black. Is there anything else?" I asked.
"Yeah. I’m still looking. Alright, there one here that says her mother started developing a skin problem. She didn’t know what it was at the time but she also didn’t know that her mother was a witch. The skin irritation were black veins all over her skin the more she became addicted to using magic." Aria read out.
"Again. Black." I say.
"Well, it is called the dark arts for a reason." Aria says.
"Yeah. I guess so." I say. " Tessa was forced into this power. A coven in town gave her a little bit of their power each and now she’s more powerful then all of them. Angelo didn’t want to wait for her to develop her powers on her own. That’s why i’m so worried about this. She had no power, and then a huge amount of power. And she was really proud of herself when she trapped that witch in her fireball. I don’t know if Tessa can handle this." I whisper to make sure that no one who might be lurking can overhear me.
"He actually did that to her?" Aria asked.
"Yeah. And she screamed in pain. It hurt her like a motherfucker, and he wouldn’t let me anywhere near her while the witch was doing it to her." I explained.
"That asshole." Aria scoffs. "No wonder you don’t trust him." She whispered back.
"That and he’s a fucking vampire." I say.
"Alright. Let’s keep working on this. Now that I know it’s a real possibility. I thought she just got her powers on her own. Not that they were forced on her." Aria says turning back to the computer and we kept looking through articles.
We found articles about first signs of witch’s going bad by them distancing themselves, but that didn’t help us, Tessa has been known to do that from time to time, and they start showing the traits of basic humans who have an addiction. Lying, sneaking away, disruptive behavior.
We just knew that we needed to keep an eye on Tessa no matter what. She wasn’t going to turn evil on me. I couldn’t handle that. And I know that deep down inside she would hate herself for it too if she hurt innocent people. We needed to be extra careful and pay close attention to everything that she did. But we had to make sure that she didn’t know that we were watching her or she would be pissed.
Over the next few days we had people coming in on almost every flight into New Orleans and they were staying at various hotels and motels and boarding houses around the city. There were a lot of them. Some would travel alone and some in groups.
They never came to the mansion and we never went to see them. We didn’t know who was watching us at any given time. But I did call them and if they were close enough we were able to mind link and it was a lot of going back and forth through people but it was necessary at this point. We had to take every precaution out there.
Josiah has proven that he is not one to be messed with. He had himself an army. And although we’ve handled one lot of his vampires, taken down more vampires in the city because they were pissed at Angelo, we didn’t know how many more he had. And if he only had some in Phoenix. What if he had more stashed at a different location.
I walked into the bedroom one day after a long day of training in the yard with the guys when I saw an envelope sitting on the bed.
’My sweet Tessa. Why don’t you just come with me, so I don’t have to kill your mate and all your friends. I know you think that you are powerful. But you won’t beat me. LOVE JOSIAH.’
I growled when I read the last part of that letter.
"It was sitting there when I got here before. So, one of his minions had to have put it here." Tessa says from the windowsill where she is having a cigarette.
"I wish you didn’t see it at all." I say walking over to her.
"He knows that I can’t bare his children so why is he still hell bent on having me?" Tessa asked. And I sat on the windowsill right in front of her and held her hand.
"I think it’s become more of an obsession now. He just needs to have you." I try to explain.
"He’s going to do it again. He’s going to hurt me again." Tessa mumbled.
"Hey, look at me. That is never going to happen. Do you hear me? No one is ever going to hurt you like that again. I will have people with you the whole time you are in that town. They will not leave your side. I’m gonna be one of them." I decided right there on the spot.
"You can’t be. You have to get the vampires under control." She says looking confused.
"There’s plenty of people for that. They can do that. I’m staying with you. The whole way. I promise." I say leaving forward and kissing her cheek.
I could feel that she was almost breaking inside. She wasn’t retreating. She wasn’t turning evil like any of those articles said that she would. She was getting depressed. The same way she was after the attack at my packhouse when they almost killed her.
She was terrified that was going to happen again. And I don’t know why, but that thought never occurred to me. He admitted that he wanted her to bare his pups. How else was he going to do it. She wasn’t going to willingly have sex with him. so of course this would be another case of rape. How the hell did I not figure that out?
I was having second thoughts on Tessa even coming on this mission now. But I know that if I leave her here alone then she will be vulnerable. I need her to be where I am. So she can be protected at all times. And no one is willing to protect her more than I am. That I am sure of.
I pulled her into my chest and started stroking her hair and I could feel her lightly sobbing into my shift. I didn’t care. She needed to get this out. Once she got this out then she would be fine. She would be ready to fight. That’s how Tessa was.
She went through all these emotions and yet she still picked herself up at the end of the day and did what needed to be done. But right now, she just needs someone to be here for her. And I’ll be damn if that’s going to be anyone else.