Blood and Spells

Elena’s POV

Challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

All my seventeen years of existence on earth has been filled with trials and quest thrown my way irrespective of whether I’m prepared or not.

As the rightful and legitimate heir to the great Marshalls, the overall ruler of the vampire kingdom and leader over all supernatural realm in Los Angeles, I always remain a target to spite my family, split us apart, or die unjustly.

It is quite alarming that all my life, right from when I was an innocent fetus, people always try to kill me. The witches tried to use magic, the vampires attacked my pregnant mom, the alpha. The ancestors were also against me like I was some big mistake or an abomination that doesn’t deserve to roam this earth. Even just bearing the surname ‘Marshall’ means inheriting my Father’s enemies and as a result of that, My father entrusted his best and loyal soldier, Hilda to watch over me right from birth, train me once I was of age, and die for me when the need arises.

As a hybrid with special powers, I learned I’m supposed to unlock my werewolf strength once I clock eighteen on a full moon. So I only have vampire strength and my magically untrained power to protect myself.

I’m a young teenager with no existing love life because my father has chosen to kill any guy that picks interest me. He has serious trust issues and has lived up to his threat by murdering a young kind human who once tried to keep me company because I was a lone bird who was burdened by supernatural secrets and still had to act normal around the human faction. He lived in the neighborhood and we used to meet at a pastry and confectionary where he worked at. He would teach me different recipes to make a much more fluffier doughnut or how to make pizzas that could rival with Pitfire pizzas while we discussed sweet nonsense till nonstop and during Saturdays, we would spend the day bouncing and struggling for a basketball at the nearest gym center. His death wasn’t only hurtful and gruesome but it broke me totally and I swore never to endanger anyone again but who was I kidding? I am a freaking magnet for trouble.

He also drained a bartender who was once hitting on me at the age of sixteen. Axel was a teenage orphan with no guardian to help with finances. It was just a harmless flirt, a crush at most but my ruthless father still ended his life one late night after he had rounded up his shift. Ever since that incident, I told myself staying a single pringle to protect others was a price I was willing to pay. Although my heart skips a beat for a childhood friend who happens to be a vampire.

Gosh! I know I said the plan was to shield my heart from catching feelings and all but who would blame me for having a secret crush? I mean after all, we don’t get to control our emotions or choose who to fall for. But thankfully I have a brain at a corner of my skull and can control my actions. So in summary, I’m a teenage vampire and witch who is also a virgin, yay! somebody throw some balloons to celebrate my pathetic sorry life.

The dead brown decomposing leaves rose in swirls and fell to the soil weightlessly like that of a feather. I guess the cold misty weather did that to the forest. As I venture into the thick, abundant forest, I can feel my heart pounding ferociously at what I’m about to do — but I can’t afford to back down now because I have summoned up the courage to inform Hilda about my truest desire.

The forest is eerie quiet but I know this is the only place to find her because her life revolves around the quarter and this forest and if she isn’t home then she must be out here feeding on an unfortunate prey or training to sharpen her skills.

As my footsteps approach, crunching the twig and fallen leaves, my instinct tells me someone is watching quietly as I picked up a scent. It definitely is a vampire.

I crouched, bending my legs and ankle behind a tree to steady my balance while I scanned the forest. The scent I picked earlier is gone, meaning the vampire masked the scent, a smart move but I’d be damned if I let the vampire kill me.

While waiting for the creature to strike, I bought out my black daggers pinned around my waist and held them delicately. My heart plummets to the ground at the same time when a silver arrow penetrates the air faster than the wind can travel. I dodged the dagger and it stabbed the tree.

“Come out right here, bloody coward, let me feed you to the vultures.” An authoritative voice that I will always recognize anywhere called and finally stepped out from the woods.

“As much as I would love to obey you, that will mean wishing yourself a painful death because father won’t take it lightly with you.” I folded my arms to my chest and smirked.

I was right earlier on, it was a female vampire. There was a deep richness to her black skin; a typical example of an ebony beauty. She has on leather spandex that hugged her wide hips graciously and gave her that dangerous, edgy look. Her hair was cut short and it curled like that of a newborn’s hair. Her brown irises gave out the mild anger she felt from inside. Warm, yet dangerous. A large tattoo covered her entire arm and back and a nose ring sat comfortably on her nose.

Her heels echoed around the forest as she stepped forward to interrogate me. Her black camisole complimented her outfit. It has a V-neck design that hung dangerously low and left her full cleavage on display.

“What are you doing here?” Hilda’s strong baritone snapped at me.

“I’m here to learn.” I smiled sheepishly.

“Very well, you should be in school and not in a dangerous forest.” She scoffed and hijacked me by the elbow, leading me back home.

My head jerked up at her response, I didn’t come all the way here just to be shunned. I think it is time to finally spill the beans.

“Hilda, stop!” I pulled my arm and halted our movement.

“Elena, here isn’t a good place for you, you have to leave now.” She furrowed her brows and smashed her boot on a crawling snake head.

“Woah! I didn’t see that coming.” My voice came out trembling. The cold atmosphere did nothing to calm my racing heart.

She cocked a brow up and stared at me in amusement. “Where is Susan?”

A musical whistle came from behind us and muttered, “Right here.”

We turned simultaneously in a fighting stance. Susan leaned her back against the bark of an old tree, wood covering with growing lush green moss and bugs with the size of tiny pebbles crawled up to where they drilled a hole for their nest.

“Did Susan come with you?” Hilda’s gaze shifted between Susan and me.

“Nope, I simply teleported. Perks of being a witch.” Susan winked and walked towards us while I smiled in response.

Susan is my second guardian, a witch. I inherited her from father as a birthday gift at the age of thirteen. She helps with monitoring and controlling my powers because they can get too overwhelming sometimes. She swore allegiance to father when he saved her from the cold, grip hands of death. Father sired her by giving her some of his venoms and she became a half-witch and a half-vampire.

Susan is the total opposite of Hilda. She is cherry, nice, friendly and a whole package of sunshine and rainbows. But the only Achilles heels Susan has is sleeping with everything that has a tail in between their legs. Susan is the definition of a whore or slut in a good way.

“Hey sugar plum, have you finally let the mouse out of the bag?” Susan seductively licked her lollipop and nudged her head towards Hilda.

I scrunched my face in confusion and whispered into Susan’s ears, “Don’t you mean letting the cat out of the bag?”

Susan scoffed and twirled her blonde hair around her slender porcelain finger. “Whatever! Be it cat or mouse, we still need to get the goddamn animal out of the bag.”

“Are you guys going to talk or not because I’m still here watching this tomfoolery.” Hilda hissed.

I let out an exasperated sigh and faced Hilda. “I think it is high time you taught me how to protect myself.”

Hilda’s face went from furious and stiff to smile and mockery as she barked out a menacing laugh. “You are joking!”

“Hilda, you need to cut her some slack, she isn’t a baby anymore, we need to help her grow.” Susan’s face was becoming too white and pale from the cold.

Hilda gasped, feigning shock and stared at Susan with wide eyes. “Oh really?”

“I’m stating what is obvious and we both know that.” Susan gave Hilda a stare down.

“We are good enough to protect her, she needs no training. She should go read some physics book and train her brain instead.” Hilda slammed her fist on the branch of a tree, leaving the tree to pull from the roots and collapse.

My heart sank immediately, what was I expecting? Hilda can be very stubborn and hardly bulges to a person’s opinion.

The both of them began to raise their voices and attack themselves and like a premonition, I knew that wish was too good to be true, I mean who was I kidding? Hilda is a tough nut to crack and getting her approval matters a lot.

One lesson I learned from being a Marshall is that enemies will always be around the corner, watching us as a hawk while planning our downfall so I have to be prepared to be attacked at all given cost, and giving the DNA I share, I refuse to be caught easily.