BLOOD LEGACIES
Chapter 454: What The Voices Say

Chapter 454: What The Voices Say

"So she screamed and you had your ass thrown across the road?" Henry muses before breaking into a pearl of laughter and I wish I could screw his mouth shut right now. A sharp headache found my head and I groaned, pressing the ice bag on my head further. My vision still blurred and my body felt numb, it was like I was hit by an electromagnetic wave.

"What have you found?" I asked with gritted teeth hoping the pain would just stop. The ringing in my ears stopped but the aftereffects were still shocking. I didn’t know a banshee scream was this powerful until now.

"Still working on it," he said typing through his laptop. "I really wish you grabbed something of hers, it would have just been easy to trace her with her spell.

"Of course forgive me for not having the fucking opportunity to grab anything of her while I was blasted by her fucking voice!"

"Whoa Whoa! Calm down" he chuckled and I just mumbled facing out of the car window. I will admit he’s right it would have been a whole lot easier if we tracked her with magic. But tracking spells only works when we have any of their possession so now it was just a good old-fashioned tracking with the little info we gathered.

I groaned, pressing the bag more and I closed my eyes. I could picture her sad eyes after she threw me across the road. She didn’t mean to and I knew that. Maybe my approach wasn’t that good.

I appeared as a stalker to her and it scared her.

"Okay that’s strange"

"What’s strange?" I asked, opening my eyes and glancing at Henry’s way.

"She’s not too far away, just at the park"

"The park?"

"Yeah, strange isn’t it?"

I nodded only as I dropped the ice bag and stepped out of the car.

"Where are you going?"

"To her, just wait here" I slammed the door shut.

"Just don’t scare her away!" he called back.

If she’s scared she wouldn’t have stayed this close by, I get a feeling she wasn’t running anymore or possibly did not view me as a threat.

I crossed the road and strolled through the pedestrian lane with my hands in my jacket pockets. Just a few more blocks I spot her across, sitting on a bench and watching the view. Swallowing hard I walked closer and hoped I didn’t seem creepy.

"You came," she said without bothering to face me.

"You knew I would come?"

She faced me and those aqua eyes were on me again. "If you were truly a stalker you would"

"I am not a stalker!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah sure prove me wrong" she mocked. "Look it’s weird but you don’t seem scared and confused that I blasted you with energy from my scream"

"Is that what made you come back?"

"Maybe"

I cautiously took a seat on the bench but kept a good distance so I wouldn’t freak her out further. I didn’t want her running out on me now that I had grabbed her attention.

"What are you?" she asked suddenly in a serious tone, bringing her eyes back to me.

"A warlock," I said casually.

Suddenly she laughed, the sound echoing across the park. I scowled.

"You know I am not joking right?"

"Yeah I know, which only makes it more hilarious. I knew there was something wrong in this town, I just didn’t know what" she rasped. "Everyone just suddenly forgot about her... it freaked me out. She was the only one who knew I came to Juneau"

"Who are you talking about?"

She faces me. "What is your name?"

"Owen. Owen Sherman"

"Sherman, you own literally almost all the bookstore here"

"I don’t wanna brag I own all of them"

"Give me a reason to trust you. You’re the only one who knows what I am and like me"

"I came to look for you because I think you might be the last Juneau"

She nods. "My mother told me about our family here, but I don’t know much"

"I can tell you all you need to know about them, down to the roots"

"Is that a way of convincing me to come with you?"

"Is it working?" I mused and she rolled her eyes.

"I have spent five years in this town and now I grab your attention"

"I think our ancestors have their reasons. Hayden"

"Ancestors?"

"Our kind has much connection to them, it’s where we draw our magic. You know in the past when the gods reigned and affected our lives. We once lost our magics but the founders found a way to reconnect that magic drawing it from one of our ancestors and so the magic came back"

"Wow, like a whole fairy tail, it makes being a banshee easier"

I narrowed my eyes. "How did you know exactly? Did your mom tell you?"

"No, she didn’t, I had no idea what that was... I was always different. Gettings whispers and predicting things"

"Is that how you predict I wasn’t a danger to you?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. My friend told me about what I needed to know" she said with a sad smile. "She was the only one who understood"

"What happened to her?" I asked as curiosity got the better of me.

"Death took her" Her voice was shaky and she sounded like she was gonna cry but swallowed instead and sniffled. "Death is my friend, but I hate her sometimes. She takes without giving back"

Her?

"I see her now, you know?" She faced me with a sad smile. "Hanging beside me like a dark cloud. But don’t worry, she doesn’t greet you but she will eventually"

"All these years alone... how did you handle it?" I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she had to go through after she lost her friend who knew about her. The loneliness of having powers you don’t understand, and constantly having death hanging around you. My dad told me stories about the Juneau’s before they were extinct, their friendship with death, it wasn’t exactly a friendship but they take you too later on. They act like a messenger and their fate always hangs around a dark cloud with nothing but death and pain.

I reached for her hand but she flinched away and faced me with a puzzled look.

"Don’t worry, you’re not alone anymore. The witch Clan and yours were once close and we know how to relate to your struggles"

She narrowed her eyes at me as if thinking. "The voice in my head said there’s something I shouldn’t trust about you"

Confusion formed against my features. Voices? Does that have to do with her powers too?

"At the same time, you’re my one-way ticket. If I can get closer to what I really am, I will trust that" she declares.

~

"Really? You found her?" Vanessa was stunned as I explained everything to her.

"Yes," I sighed. Thankfully the migraine is gone but something else bugged me. It was Hayden’s words when she said there is something she doesn’t trust about me and it made me wonder what kind of impression I have on her. I don’t know why I care what she thinks about me, I never cared about anyone’s opinions, but with her it’s different.

"That’s great! How is she holding up?"

"Good. Taking notes about her roots and all. I think the ancestors showed you that vision so that we can bring her in. She has been alone all these years" I can’t help the pang I feel in my chest at the mere thought of it.

Vanessa nods in understanding. "I am glad we could find her, Owen, really... but what about the other girl I saw, with the blood magic?"

I completely forgot about that and right now I had eyes on Hayden in the garden, walking around as she observed everything. She stood in front of the wind chime hanging against the tree. She opened her mouth and her eyes went milky white.

I heard no sound but the wind chime shook from the invisible vibration of her voice.

"Oh I know that look"

I snapped my eyes back to Vanessa who grinned at me ear to ear. "What?"

"Nothing," she chirped. "She will need all the help she can get, help her"

"I will," I said, still confused. "And about what you told me about that other girl. I think I met her"

"Really," Vanessa said with wide eyes. "Where?"

"The Devereaux mansion"

Her face paled. "You think she’s a witch?"

"I don’t know... but whoever she is I think she’s important to Dace Devereaux"

She nods mindlessly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I am good. Just confused"

"I am confused just as you are"

"D-Do you ever feel like something is missing? A hollow part of yourself that’s incomplete? Vivian feels that way too and she always cries herself to sleep, I can’t explain it" she faced the view back.

"Sometimes... but not as you said," I said with narrowed eyes.

"How do you feel then?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I don’t know how to explain it either... but sometimes it feels like I made a mistake" I mumbled to myself.

Is that what Hayden senses? What do the voices tell her? I have lived with this feeling for a whole five years not knowing where it comes from.