Volume 1.14: Haunted

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: Sonja, Warrick
Word Count: 3447

Glossary: Mystik Dust-a magical reagent used virtually for everything in "good/white" magic.

Warning: nudity, adult situations

I believe in you

I'll give up everything just to find you

I have to be with you to live, to breathe

You're taking over me...

Taking Over Me-Evanescence

The day after Luca and his clan left, Cadence stayed in bed. She refused to leave her room, refused to eat too. 

Sonja left her alone, giving her all the space she needed. She didn’t like that Cadence was skipping school, especially so close to her exams. But she understood that her daughter was mourning the loss of a relationship, a relationship that was doomed to fail had she not intervened.

She didn’t think Luca was worth crying over, and she could give her daughter a long list of reasons why she was better off without him. But she was once Cadence’s age, and she’d gone through quite a few heartbreaks before she met Warrick so she understood her daughter’s pain all too well.

The mere thought of her husband reduced Sonja to tears. She left the sofa and scurried to her room. She’d spent the evening alone, had dinner alone too because Cadence was on a hunger strike. Chances of her leaving her room were slim to none, but still, on the off chance that she did venture out, Sonja didn’t want her to see her in tears.

She threw herself on her bed and buried her face on her soft downy pillows; her loud sobs filled the empty silence.

She’d cried and grieved a billion times over the last twenty years for the loss of her soul mate, but Cadence had never seen her heartbreak because she hid it so well.

She wondered if she’d ever get over her loss, if her heartache would ever go away. She didn’t think so. She never got a chance to say goodbye to him. And she never had a funeral for him because there was no body to bury.

The rational part of her knew he was dead; no human would have survived that long locked away with several enraged Vampires. But another part of her, the sentimental side, the one that refused to let her move away even when Luann and the others had begged her to leave town and start afresh, couldn’t help but wish and hope he was still alive.

Some days she liked to imagine he’d transitioned and she’d often wonder what he’d look like as a Vampire. Warrick was roguishly handsome as a human, as a Vampire he would have broken thousands of hearts.

Sonja laughed at how silly she was, acting like a school girl and fantasizing about Vampires.

With tears flooding her eyes, making it hard for her to see, she rose from the soft mattress to rummage through her closet. A second later she drifted back to the bed and plopped up her pillows.

She knew she shouldn’t. Looking at the photographs always did more damage than good, but with Cadence shutting her out, she desperately wanted to remember her past with Warrick.

She leafed through the album, smiling and crying at the same time as each flick of the pages transported her back to certain moments in history, moments when her life was enchanted with love and magic…

She met Warrick Kent on her fortieth birthday. Luann had insisted on throwing a small birthday party for her at Barb’s Diner, she’d said only about ten people or so would be there, twenty at most.

But Sonja had almost gotten a heart attack when she walked into the diner and the whole town, or what would fit of it, cried ‘Happy Birthday’. Everyone had showed up to celebrate her milestone, even Hannah and James, Luca and Julian’s parents. The brothers were there too, with April and a few Vampires from their clan.

She’d made her escape as soon as she could after accepting the thousands of warm wishes from the party goers; she was a private person, preferring small crowds over big groups.

When she sneaked out back, to the kiddies swings, she hadn’t expected to find anyone else there because no one in their right minds, unless they were weird like her, would have traded the warmth inside the diner for the blistering cold outside.

But Warrick was there, blissfully swinging along and watching the stars.

There was only one swing. The other had been broken for years, and Bob, Barb’s husband, had never bothered to fix it, so Sonja stayed on the sidelines and waited her turn. But after thirty minutes of him hogging the swing set, she finally grew a pair and demanded to play too.

“I was starting to think you can’t talk.” Those were his first words, simple and boring. Not the greatest conversation starter. But she was hooked. It was the voice that had gotten her. Smooth and deep, not as deep as Romulus'.  But perfect. Like ice-cream on an unbearably hot summer’s day.

She didn’t remember what she said to him, but she must have croaked something because the next thing she knew she was on the swing and he was standing behind her, pushing her higher and higher with his strong hands, seducing her with his gentle voice to reach up and touch the moonlit sky.

In twenty minutes they’d traded their life stories. 

Sonja learned he was recently divorced. He had no kids from the failed marriage and he’d just moved to Twinbrook to start over. She also found out he was Julian’s literary agent and they were very close.

“What about you? Besides being the birthday girl, what’s your story?” Warrick had suddenly stopped her momentum and held the swing in place. His intense chocolate brown gaze on her gave her butterflies and she’d blushed like a school girl.

When she shook her head and told him there was nothing to tell, he’d mercilessly tickled her ear with a small blade of grass till she agreed to tell him at least one thing about herself.

The one thing had led to twenty things and before long she’d summarized her whole life story. He wasn’t shocked that she was a Witch, he’d seen crazier things working for a Vampire.

He was surprised though that she wasn’t married, she had never even walked down the aisle, and that she didn’t have any kids.

His question when he’d asked if she batted for the other team had made her laugh, but she’d assured him she didn’t; she just hadn’t found the right man.

A strange silence had settled between them then, and as if it was the most natural thing to do in the world, he’d leaned down and kissed her, it was so soft, so fleeting, she’d thought she’d imagined it.

“Happy birthday,” Warrick had smiled at her when he pulled away and she’d stupidly grinned back at him, tongue tied and pleasantly amazed at his boldness.

Soon after that they’d drifted back inside the diner and didn’t run into each other for the rest of the night.

Two weeks passed, and then three, without hearing from him, or bumping into him around town. By the fourth week she’d put him out of her mind and chalked him down as one of her many ‘could have beens’.

And then out of the blue, on a hot summer’s morning, Warrick had showed up at her house unannounced. She was outside, hanging the newly washed laundry on the clothesline and she’d stopped mid-action to stare at the vision of perfection climbing out of the old 1950 Ford F1 Pickup truck.

Her heart had lurched to her throat just as her brain grew numb, rendering her silly and girlish for a few minutes: Warrick looked suave in his faded blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a brown Stetson hat.

When he pulled her in a warm embrace she didn’t resist, instead, she’d wrapped herself tightly around him and greedily took in his overpowering presence.

While he finger combed her hair with one hand and cradled the curve of her ass with the other, he’d explained that he’d gone back to Hidden Springs to finalize his move. He didn’t have her phone number so he couldn’t call her. But since he was permanently in Twinbrook he wanted to see her often.

Sonja had blushed and stuttered an incomprehensible string of nonsense. But it had made sense to him because the next thing she knew she was sitting beside him in the truck and they were singing along to Rolling Stones all the way to the beach.

Their first date was magical.

They’d goofed around in the sand, drank wine, ate strawberries and cream and built sandcastles.

Warrick also gave her a crash course on fishing and she’d squealed like a fan girl when she caught her first gold fish.

Later, just as the sun was setting in the horizon, Warrick had stripped down to his underwear and went for a swim in the ocean, and she’d drooled all of his chiseled body, wondering what it would feel like pressed up against hers. She didn’t have to wonder long, when he came out of the water and joined her on the picnic blanket, they’d shared their first real kiss, and it took a mere fifteen minutes for him to get to second base.

He’d felt like heaven on top of her, with the bulge in his damp underwear firmly pressing on her thigh, her moans, as he’d stroked her breasts and teased her nipples, had been louder than the gentle waves slapping at their bare feet.

The sudden sounds of laughter had forced to them to pull apart. A small crowd of teenagers had run down from the pier to their secluded alcove. She and Warren had spent the rest of their evening watching the stars and sharing intimate looks and secret jokes.

Sonja never thought she’d find love at forty and at first she’d felt strange about going on dates and doing things young kids do, but Warrick had  soon fixed that. With his spontaneity he’d kept her on her toes and made her feel young again, their dates were always an adventure and they rarely did the same things over and over.

Each outing with him was different; he’d take her picnicking, to the movies, the concert, the theatre, the flea market, virtually everywhere. And it wasn’t long before she realized, it wasn’t the activities she liked so much, it was the company she loved. If he’d taken her to clean stables or pick up dog poo, she would have gladly done it because she loved spending time with him.

Every time in Warrick’s arms was like awakening to a new day full of wonder and excitement and she knew she’d never tire of making love with him.

He became her drug very quickly. They’d make love every chance they get and anywhere they could too. So finding out they were expecting Cadence two years into their relationship didn’t come as a surprise.

A week after discovering they were expecting, Warrick proposed and she accepted. To avoid their day being turned into a Twinbrook circus, three days later, on a cold winter morning, they were married at City Hall, Luann and Julian were their witnesses. Later that day, when the Delacroix’s heard about their nuptials, they were kind enough to offer them their vacation home in Barnacle Bay for their honeymoon and they’d gratefully accepted.

The little they’d seen of Barnacle Bay was gorgeous, but they knew it wasn’t as breathtaking as the days they’d spent holed up in the cabin, enjoying their newlywed status.

In the months leading up to their daughter’s birth Warrick was a great husband and an even better soon-to-be father, he was attentive to her needs and he’d catered for her every whim.

It was a blissful period for them. Things were perfect, not only within their marriage, but with the coven and the relations between the Vampires, Witches and the Wolves of Twinbrook. The only thing missing was Cadence and they couldn’t wait to meet her and love her forever.

But then tragedy struck the Delacroixs. Luca and Julian lost their parents. Hannah was brutally murdered and James died of a broken heart from losing her. Julian took his father’s place as the clan’s leader and Luca returned to his residence in Hidden Springs, but he’d make appearances at the monthly Courts Julian insisted on hosting in memory of his father’s legacy.

With Luca gone and their parents dead, Julian had relied more and more on Warrick, he wasn’t just his literary agent anymore, he was his best friend, and had Warrick been a Vampire, he would have been his right-hand man too in running the clan.

Warrick did his best to balance his work and home life, and Sonja was patient with him, she understood he was the only person Julian could count on. She also knew that the kind of salary Julian was paying Warrick would go a long way to securing their daughter’s future.

On June 21, 1991, with the help of her coven, Sonja and Warrick welcomed Cadence into the world. Julian gave Warrick a month off to spend time with his new daughter.

For six blissful days Sonja had Warrick to herself, and they bonded with their new daughter. Sonja had loved to watch him cradle Cadence and sing to her, he was gentle and protective of his only child, jumping at the slightest of her cries, eager to put a smile on her tiny rosebud lips.

The whole time he was home with her Sonja kept thinking her life was too perfect, too good to be true, and something bad was bound to happen.

And it did. Exactly one week into Cadence’s arrival.

She was feeding Cadence in the living room, and Warrick had just started the fire in the heath when they heard the commotion outside. They’d ignored it at first, thinking it was the just rowdiness from the Vampire Court, and it was normal. But when they heard bloodcurdling screams again and again moments later, they knew something was terribly wrong. 

Warrick went to check on the commotion, but not before he dropped kisses on his daughter and wife and promising them he’d be back shortly. Little did they know it would be the last time they see each other, the last time he’d hold and kiss them.

Sonja had locked the doors after Warrick left and she’d put Cadence in the crib before she drifted to the window in the living room. Nothing would have prepared her for the chaos she saw when she looked outside.

It was brutal, blood and gore everywhere, bodies strewn all over the marsh. She remembered thinking Armageddon had arrived, and she should do something to help her neighbors screaming past her house in futile attempts to get away from the bloodthirsty fledglings. A small voice inside her brain had screamed for her to run out and drag Warrick back home, but her feet had betrayed her and she’d stood dumbly on the spot until Cadence’s cries in the bedroom couldn’t be ignored anymore.

The knock at her front door just as she picked up Cadence from her crib had startled her, but she’d quickly rushed to get it, thinking Warrick was home safe and sound.

A shocked gasp had stayed lodged in her throat when she saw the look of pure horror in Luann’s and Carmella’s eyes.

Without getting into detail, her coven members explained the town was under attack, Julian’s fledglings had to be stopped, they had the Chaos Star, the words to a banishing spell and all they needed was a virgin’s blood.

Most of the fledglings were killed by the Wolves, but there were still others, along with Julian and some senior members of their clan in the cellar, plotting Lord knows what.

Sonja had just stood there, unable to process their words.

“We need Cadence’s blood,” Luann had cried, clapping her hands in front of Sonja’s eyes to get her out of her daze.

“I have to find Warrick; I think he went to Julian. I have to find him,” Sonja had cried over and over until Luann slapped her across the face.

“Warrick is fine,” Carmella had nodded her red head then.

“Did you see him? Where is he?” Sonja had asked. And Carmella had told her he was with the Wolves, helping the people who could still be saved.

“Are you sure?” she’d asked shrilly.

Again Carmella had nodded, but the look in her pale blue eyes had said what her lips could not. She wasn’t sure. She had no frigging clue where Warrick was.

Luann had stepped in again with her demands and Sonja had dazedly agreed to give them Cadence’s blood, they needed a few drops.

She’d closed her eyes, wishing she could block out her daughter’s screams when Luann pricked her tiny finger with a sharp blade and milked the crimson drops into a small vial.

Her sister and Carmella had set off soon after that, and she’d made them promise they wouldn’t seal the door until they were absolutely certain Warrick was as far away from the Delacroix manor as possible.

What happened at the Delacroix manor after her sister left, Sonja heard from different sources, including her coven members…

The three Youngblood Witches had used Mystic Dust to cloak themselves and enter the Delacroix manor undetected.

When they reached the basement, the cellar’s doors were closed; they couldn’t tell how many Vampires were inside. But they recognized Julian’s voice along with Melanie’s. They were caught up in a heated exchange with the rest, discussing ways to clean up the damage.

The majority of their group had wanted to get the hell out of Twinbrook. Julian wanted to stay and fix the mess. Others wanted to stay too, but they had revenge on their minds, the senseless killings of their fledglings couldn’t go unpunished.

And when Sonja’s coven heard this last proposed course of action they’d needed no further convincing that banishing Julian’s clan was the right thing to do.

For an act so powerful, the Witches were surprised it had taken less than ten minutes to magically seal the cellar’s door with the Chaos Star and the words to the banishing spell, and reinforce the bind with Cadence’s blood.

They left the Delacroix manor soon after the Vampires’ enraged cries (when they struggled to open the door) confirmed the bind had worked.

Luann and Carmella had returned to Sonja’s house to give her a full report. They couldn’t tell her anything about Warrick, but they assured her he was fine, someone had seen him with the Wolves.

Morning came. Bodies were hauled to the morgue. Fathers returned to their families. Mothers stayed strong for their loved ones. And Warrick didn’t come back.

Having looked everywhere for him, Sonja and Luann went down to the morgue as the last resort to look for his body. She’d cried with relief when Dr. Baker, the town’s only coroner, confirmed Warrick’s name wasn’t on the list of casualties.

They’d returned home and waited even though they knew it was pointless. Warrick would never walk through the front door because he was locked in the Delacroix cellar. They all knew it, but none of them would ever say it out loud because they’d be admitting they’d had a hand in Sonja’s heartbreak.

When the shock wore off, grief and rage moved in. Sonja had unleashed hell on her coven gathered at the community hall, preparing the venue for the mass memorial service.

“You promised me he’s okay. You told me he’s okay. You let him die in there with those bloodsuckers! You have Romulus and I have no one. No one!” She’d screamed at her sister over and over.

And Luann had feverishly begged for forgiveness, explaining the cellar’s door was closed when they got there and they had no way of knowing Warrick was inside.

“You should have known he was. He’s Julian’s best friend, that’s the first place he would have gone. He would have gone there to try and reason with him. You should have known! You promised!” Sonja had refuted her sister’s apologies and the coven had watched the sisters tear each other apart until they couldn’t watch anymore.

For hours a terrible storm had raged outside while she and Luann went at each other with their lightning bolts and fire orbs. Only Cadence’s cries (who until that moment, had been sleeping peacefully in her bassinet in the corner of the room) had pulled Sonja away from the fight…