Mark Of Change (Firemoon Book 1) Read online

  Like an oases in the desert, a welcoming light from a drive-thru hotel shines in the night. Whew... A good place it seems.

  I get in and the warmth from the motel is so inviting that I don’t mind or care about letting a little tendril of my persuasive magic to the lady behind the counter and taking the key she gave me— instead of paying a thing which these humans use. Something called money.

  I take the key with a sigh and leave the lobby entering the dimly lit corridor. Many of the rooms seem occupied. I take a left in the branching corridor and slide the key into the second room.

  The scent of oak trees assails me. Home. That is the first feeling I get. My home had a lot of this kind of woody furniture. The room has a queen sized bed in the centre, a red couch, a lot of posters showing nature. But most of the room is made out of red and pink.

  Err... Maybe I took the key of a room meant for couples.

  I shake my head at the sight. Ignoring the view, I throw the only little bag I have onto the couch and strip off my sweaty clothes. I look through the closet and grab towels. With two towels in hand I step into the bathroom and find it to be pink with a lot of hearts... I don’t even bother thinking of what had happened in this bathroom before.

  Eww.

  I shake my head again to clear the thought and step into the glass shower. When I turn on the hot water and step under it, it is the best feeling of my life. I always liked these kinds of showers. My favourite time of the day is also shower time.

  I take my time in showering the sweat off of my body and hair, which might have taken longer than today’s if my body wasn’t this exhausted. I turn off the shower and step out, wrapping a towel around me and another towel around my hair to let it dry.

  Without bothering to dress in whole, I wear my undies and climb into the bed wrapping the comfy blanket around me. Sighing in relief, I let my muscles relax into the comfortable and mushy bed trying to doze off.

  The thoughts of my family... my stalker... my fate... comes back to haunt me like it does every day.

  Stupid memories.

  When I was but a little girl of five or so, I was forced to quit the private school and my family home-schooled me. I got zero education about outer world. My father didn’t agree with my Mom on that decision...

  But can a Beta stand up against an Alpha? Nope. My father was disciplined after that and so was I. My father knew that my mom is a fickle bitch and is as cruel as one can get, but being a part blood isn’t easy in my kind.

  Part bloods are the result of my kind mating with the normal humans. The part bloods are weak, yes. But depending on the parents, the gender plays a major role in their strength. If a female mates with a human male, then the daughters alone will bear the mark of sanguine. If the opposite occurs, the sons will bear the mark of sanguine. Thus, in all other cases, the blood will become weaker and they will be forced to use either Luna or sol magic to lesser extent than pure blooded supernaturals. Lesser control. More price. Etcetera...

  After the blood becomes thin and thinner if it continues, it will one day totally be absent and the child will have no control over any magic particle.

  Still my case is different... I am a daughter of a powerful sorcerous woman and I must be as powerful— even more than my mom— like my sister...

  What will I do...?

  I don't have any skills required to survive in the human society. I may not succeed in this feat, but living like my father is not what I want to do. I will fight till the end of my time to save myself from a fate similar to his.

  After some time in midnight, I finally doze off into sleep. But...

  I feel like being chased. And I feel uncomfortable. I am supposed to be in a bed, but I am running. I feel a bit fat...

  Wait... is that a bump in my stomach.

  What in the seven worlds! Am I pregnant?

  My breath starts coming out in pants and it suddenly seems tough to breathe, maybe because I am freaking pregnant. I don’t know what the matter is, or what I am running from. But...

  Something is chasing me. The familiar silhouette of a very tall person I always see chasing me. But why am I pregnant? Is that because I thought about my family and my childhood? Does that even make sense?

  I keep running...

  It doesn’t matter if I am pregnant or not, I don’t have a wish to get caught.

  Suddenly I am not pregnant. It feels like a huge weight from my body is suddenly absent.

  What the hell!

  Never mind. I will never get caught. I will keep running from this silhouette. Even though my lungs are burning from lack of oxygen, I keep pushing my body to my limits. Out of the blue, someone bumps into me, knocking me down. And even though as I fall down, electricity tingles through me... making me happy.

  “Mine” My mind claims the one who bumped into me.

  Before getting down from the happy feeling I got, the silhouette jumped on me from behind and pinned me down on the ground, and suddenly... I am naked. My clothes are gone.

  What. The...

  Without another thought or another blink of eye, the silhouette ravishes me. Hard. I scream out loud, wishing somebody to help me. I scream again and again, struggling against his hold on my hands and weight of him on my body... and the weight of... his... on my centre...

  I feel the life force seeping away from me... as darkness claims me.

  Away from the darkness, I feel my hands and legs shackled and my body being violated. Every orifice of mine has some kind of disgusting goo pouring from it... My butt and breasts feel swollen and whip marks along with bite marks cover them. The men violate me hard...

  Little by little, I feel my edges blacken again, and I give into the welcoming darkness. The pain... the agony of it all... death is more welcoming than it... than this....

  Good death.

  I wake up from my fluffy bed, panting heavily. I wipe the sweat off from my forehead, and groan loudly. That was the nightmare I have been having ever since I met this big bad alpha. Mickelson. Why... Why this has to be so tough... Why do I keep getting this nightmare?

  Well. I was pregnant this time for some part of the dream. That is really new and really... awkward. I mean I am still innocent. How can I have dreams of me being pregnant?

  Another change in today’s ‘night buddy’ of mine is something weird is that I bumped into someone and fell down feeling happy. Yup, you heard that right. I fell down feeling happy. What is with that type of emotion? Still, I kind of just lost the fear and panic when I bumped into that mystery man. I felt... happy... in a nightmare.

  This is really getting into my head... or maybe I really am going insane.

  I push off the bed and get dressed into the only other pair of sweatpants and t-shirt. I throw the sweaty one into the washer and slunk onto the bed. When the nightmare first hit me, I cried for the next whole day. Now, I just feel kind of sad and angry for having it all the nights. If I find what is causing this, I will definitely destroy it. If it is a psychic of my kind, I will definitely kill him or her for this. No matter what the reason is.

  I push those negative thoughts aside. Taking deep breaths always seems to help my mind. One. Two. Three. Deep breaths.

  I will cross that bridge when I come across it.

  Finishing my laundry is very important to me because I only got two sets of sweats. That too was from an acquaintance of mine. Well, I really want to call her a friend of mine, but I normally don’t. Because, what if it put her in danger because of me. That would be awful considering she is the only person in my life, who helped me.

  She is also of my kind, but has a really non-power-hungry and a nice, handsome mate. Not the normal mate. They share a soulmate bond. It is kind of cool for her. Most marriages are not between soulmates. In fact, soulmates are always being hunted for their mutual sharing of power

  The powerful alphas think that women are destined to be lower to them... that women are only there to provide the men with their energy... that they are only slaves
to their whims.

  That is so wrong.

  I will definitely not submit to them. And I will never become one of their slaves. And of course, I will never choose to be their harem girl, as an Omega.

  Soulmates are kind of a fate thing. It is like one’s soul looked into the other’s soul and decided that it cannot live without the other. The other half of their soul. That kind of bond is mutually beneficial and the woman doesn’t get weak. So it makes them both pretty powerful than normal. And that is why they are being hunted. Well, that and also the fact that it goes against the men, as they say. What if every female finds their soulmate and the power-hungry alphas don’t get any other powerful females.

  That would be a big blow to them and their pride, and especially their pack authority.

  The night is still young. I check the clock to find that I have only slept for 3 hours. That is better than the last days, so I just finish the rest of my laundry and pack my things.

  I wish my life was normal. I don’t need a soulmate thing to keep me normal. Just being a normal woman who goes for the work in the morning and sleeps well in the night with a cat and a dog in her bed... that is what I want.

  Normal is overrated anyway.

  I grab my bag and leave the room. Nobody ghosts the corridor now. It is deserted. I make my way through it and throw the key into the counter, and leave the place. The once welcoming motel now feels like a confining prison to me. The night’s peacefulness is very welcoming than the fluffy bed. I check my reserve of magic to see that it has replenished well enough for me to evade another attack if it comes to that.

  The birds of the night are singing ever so slowly and I walk through the aisle to the next place. I don’t know what direction I am going in, but I am going in the opposite direction of my home.

  I may not have a home. I maybe am travelling away from my birth family. But, the moon and the stars are my family.

  My mind is my friend.

  My body is my partner.

  I am December Ann. And I will change the fate of the women of my kind.

  That is what I say every day. But I have no idea what to do...

  I push the negative comment of ‘my friend’ aside and keep walking into tomorrow.

  I Am Dead

  *December*

  The morning comes with the night running off and ‘my family’ disappearing. Yup, I know they are just there in the sky and I can sense them. But seeing them is different from feeling them. On thinking about ‘my family’, the real family of mine comes to my memories, and suddenly I feel sick to the core. They might hate me... but they are still my family...

  The pole star of my life is still at the same place, and is providing me comfort— maybe telling me that she will be there for me, always. I used to think of that pole star as our goddess Nyx.

  She is the dark sorcerous whom my kind worships— well worshipped... before the men banished her from worshipping just because she is a girl. I, by default, look up to her, after knowing about her from my aunt. In secret of course.

  In my kind anything related to, the night is referred to as female and, the day is referred to as male. I keep walking down the aisle. So Nyx, a god of darkness is the womanly goddess for us. Nyx means ‘nothing’ and my aunt— my tutor— said that she is everywhere and nowhere, she is dark and light, she is good and evil. Everything.

  Back to reality, today seems peaceful. The nature is beautiful in its own way as the trees start to shed their leaves. Little drops of morning dews are spread out on the some still-green leaves like beads of a necklace. The fall this year is going to be really exciting. Seeing the beauty of the nature, the beauty of fall season especially makes me happy.

  Today, it seems peaceful. There ought to be some morning runners out here, but no one is out here and it is eerily quiet.

  Wrong. My gut goes wild about this.

  Something is very wrong.

  I pour everything into my magic perspective and survey the place.

  Uh-oh.

  A large cluster of Luna magic is approaching me from my front. A really powerful sorcerous...

  Damn. Damn. I am so dead.

  I turn the opposite way and start running. The magic vision shows that the person has also increased her pace. Ugh... I am not going to lose.

  That is when I find myself unable to move. A huge amount of Luna magic is surrounding my body, keeping me still. The person seems to be coming behind me and they are close.

  No. No.

  I close my eyes and prepare myself for the inevitable. I lost the battle... I am going to be a slave... I am going to be a child-bearing machine.

  Unhappy forever...

  “December Ann. What a surprise this is.”

  The person... oh my god... my sister. Delilah.

  “Hello, sister.” I reply to her with my voice even, even though my mind is trembling.

  She comes in front so that I can see her face. She is still the same. Beautiful. Brown hair. Pretty face with slanting cheekbone. Green eyes. Gorgeous form. She is the kind of girl men would kill to be with. She also got an aura of arrogance. And... She looks... Happy? Pleased? I can’t place it.

  “My, my, sister... You have grown a lot. How is life?” She has a smile on her face, mocking me.

  “It was good... Until someone decided to catch me and turn me in just now. Still, yeah, I am fine” I can’t help the sarcasm edging into my words.

  “Ouch. That hurts, sister. I will never do that to you.”

  Wait.

  She is not going to turn me in?

  “What do you mean?” Now, I feel a little bit of hope. Hope that my sister is not here to catch me, but I feel she is here to not help me too. Maybe she is here to taunt me and brag about her powers.

  “Sister, I would wish you a happily ever after. But sadly, that is not possible for a halfie. I assumed that you have already been abused and is being passed on by the alphas. Seems you really are one of Rose girls. Stubborn. Determined. Just like me.” And I thought she was here because she cared a little about me.

  “So mom? Speed it up, I think you are getting too old that you forgot the thing you came for” I am getting impatient by this cat and mouse game. If she wants to do something, she better hurry.

  The magic particles around me vanish in an instant, and I fall face first onto the pavement.

  Ouch.

  Rude sister.

  “I am going to be marrying someone in the twentieth of next month. I am not here to invite you. Pretty sure mom would kill me— well she will at most try to— if she finds out about this. So, don’t come.” She is here to only say that she is going to get married? Pretty weird, but definitely sounds like my sister.

  “You may not wish me a happily ever after, sister. My wish for your wedding is that you get yourself a happily ever after.” I get up and dust off myself.

  Her face kind of falls sad. Wait... Is the great Delilah sad?

  Wow.

  I never thought I would get to see this day.

  “Good bye sister.” She murmurs before turning the other way and disappearing, literally vanishing in a second.

  That.

  Was.

  Weird.

  I turn the opposite direction and continue down the path. At least I am not dead now. I would literally kill everyone, including myself, if someone catches me and was about to force me into slavery. It is not tough. I can put my neutralizing magic in overdrive and it would pretty much turn into a death blast. In theory, at least. Nobody had tried to do that. But from some of the theories I heard, it is pretty obvious that it would be a kamikaze death blast.

  I shudder.

  I love my life more than anything. But if somebody takes hold of me and is going to force me into my nightmare, I won’t think twice about my option. I will not go into that life.

  Never.

  I try not to think about anything else, but only my sister occupies my mind. She was never a good sister. She never protected this weak me from the bu
llies I faced when I attended school for the kindergarten classes. She definitely didn’t stick up for me when I was forced into slavery. She totally didn’t feel sorry for me now. All because I am a halfie.

  She even is taller than me! I am just 4 foot 10, while she is almost 5 foot 9. Definitely, I got my father side genes... And my little sister got eleven inches on me!

  Apparently I am not a good enough sorcerous to be called her sister.

  I check my reserve in case my sister took away my magic particles from it and feel surprised. It is, after many months, full. Did my sister do this? Did she... just... provide me with her magic...?

  I let out a little bit of my barely-leashed tears flow free. “Delilah... I wish you well...” I murmur, knowing that she would hear it in moments, and will get kind of angry with me, or maybe feel sorry for me, or plan my capture, or really feel like a sister for the first time. Whatever.

  The tears fill my eyes and I just keep walking, keeping my head down and watching the pavement move in a blur. I’m too out of it that I literally bump into someone. The person must be a mountain, because I, the not so weak compared to a human girl, fall back from the force.

  Mine. My inner voice declares, feeling happy.

  Oh. My. Gosh.

  “December, is this you?” A deep male voice rumbles around me.

  I am shocked that he knows my name.

  Damn... Damn...

  Stupid. You are so stupid.

  I look up to see a massive figure standing before me. His shadow from the morning sun is literally covering my whole body. I feel so... small.

  So weak.

  He might be able to snap me like a twig. His silhouette... falling over me... triggers my nightmares. My instincts take over and I, literally, push him back with the wind using Luna particles and he falls back on his ass. It becomes hard to breathe.

  Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.

  The figure is down on his butt. And I am glad that his silhouette is not on me anymore. After getting my breathing under control, I look down at the figure to see him frowning.

  He is hot. Like too hot for a girl to find irresistible. He has dirty blonde hair which is cut too short. His eyes... oh gosh... he has blue eyes, which is not common and is really sexy. His nose is perfect. His cheekbones are high and give a look of toughness to him. His lips... wow... how good will it be to kiss him...