Page 57 of Stalked

I huffed. “Well, she’s a witch, too, if that makes a difference.” I pressed my lips together. “Look, it doesn’t matter how I found out. But I now know, and Caleb, I don’t want that life from what I saw. I don’t want tokillpeople.”

“They’re not people,” he tried to explain, but I shook my head again and sat back on the couch, clutching my legs against my chest. He joined me, raising his hand toward my face, and brushed the hair from the side and away from my eyes.

“You’re not a murderer,” he whispered, raising my chin to meet his eyes.

“But I was,” I corrected. “Whether it was a vampire or a human, I still took a life.”

Caleb shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. “There’s more to this story,” he said.

“I’m ready to hear it. I don’t care if it’s good or bad anymore. I need to know everything. You need to tell me, Caleb.”

He leaned back into the couch. “Centuries ago,” he started, his voice calm and steady. “An angel named Tatyana came down to Earth. The Upper World sent her to stop a demon from destroying humanity. Instead, she fell in love with the demon and helped him create the very thing she was supposed to stop. Their union created a half-breed?—part demon, part angel.”

“A vampire,” I said. “Beauty on the outside, but with a dark and evil soul.”

“Vampires don’t have souls,” he corrected.

“Well, that’s unsettling.” A chill crawled up my back.

“Yeah, and they spread like wildfire. Vampires were creating more vampires, and the destruction was more than what the witches on Earth could handle. Our purpose in being born was to rid the world of these beings. After you died, we struggled to keep the balance. Our coven split. We each went on our own journey and did our best to kill as many vampires as possible.” He closed his eyes and drew in a breath. “It felt like there was an empty hole in my chest after the church hanged you, as if a part of me had died that day too.” He opened his eyes.

I was a vessel that was lost. That must have been horrible to my kind.

“Why didn’t the angel who created us just bring me back? Surely, she had the power to do so.”

He shook his head. “We couldn’t find your soul. It was as if your spirit died with your body. The first time I felt you after you were gone was when the spell worked with your mom. We don’t know where you went. My guess is, neither did the angel.” He grabbed my hand gently. “When you go through the Awakening, you’ll be a tool for all the witches in this world. You’re going to help them become strong again. We can’t do this without you.” He held up his hand, and instantly a flame appeared on the tip of his thumb. “When a witch draws the powers of fire, using my element, I give that to them, no questions asked.” He shut his hand, and the flame disappeared.

“What does the power of Spirit actually do?” I asked.

“Spirit is a little bit different than the rest. You bind all our powers together and amplify them. You control the power of healing, nature, and telepathy. When you died years ago, the power to heal someone was taken from Earth. It was the key to what your magic represented. Witches haven’t been able to heal anyone for centuries. We needed that power, but it was gone. When I brought you back, we could all feel that element again, but your mom began to shield it from us. Once you awaken, we can do so much more with your gifts. We can start saving human lives again.”

I thought back to my childhood, and how I knew I was different. Hearing more about my magic brought a feeling of sadness and anger that my mom had hidden that part of me. The people I could have helped, the lives I could have saved, were no longer here because ofher.

Caleb continued. “You can move objects with your mind and telepathically speak to someone. Spirit allows you to use all five elements without having to pull them directly from us like others would have to.”

“This is crazy,” I said, still trying to wrap my mind around this new information.

He smiled at me and gingerly brushed my cheek with his hand. I moved back, removing his touch from my cheek.

“You kidnapped me, Caleb,” I reminded him. “You don’t do that to someone you care about.”

“I would never hurt you, but I also know what’s best for you. You don’t have your memories, and you don’t truly understand what’s at stake. I can’t have Lily and Joel trying to stop what we need to do. They don’t understand,” Caleb explained. Still, it didn’t make me any less irritated by how he had handled the situation. “You were destined to fight evil and save other witches from being destroyed by the demons created to kill them. The angel couldn’t destroy her own child, but she hated what she had helped create. So that is what we’re to do in her stead.”

I had read a few books about vampires and werewolves, but I suspected nothing like this could be real. I searched for my thoughts. “What else is real?” I asked. “Dracula?”

Caleb snickered. “Come on Mercy, you know that’s fiction.”

“Doctor Frankenstein?” I always tried to be funny when I was nervous, but this time, I was serious. If witches and vampires were real, what else could be?

“Also, fiction.”

I paused for a moment before I said, “So, I killed a vampire.” I hoped saying it aloud would make me feel better about what I had done, but I still felt sick.

“I couldn’t just come out and tell you everything in your room the first time we talked. It would have overwhelmed you. Finding out through visions wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to play out, either, but now you know.”

“Now I know.” I looked up at the ceiling and rubbed my eyes. The lack of sleep the last few nights was getting to me.

“What did the male vampire I killed do to deserve death?” I asked.

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