Aiden was still only standing on silence.
"What are you doing ? Other then being a total creep." I asked him.
I never noticed how his eyes were basically shifting between two colours. It looked like brown and red were fighting for dominance. It was quite intriguing to be honest.
He shifted his weight to the other leg and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'm just trying to figure you out." Aiden answered me.
"Well stop, you're freaking me out over here." I said.
I heard rustling behind me and turned to see Alexis walking over.
"Alice, it's nice to see you again. Nice moves out there by the way. You really did put on a killer show." Alexis said.
Alexis was the complete opposite of Aiden. He had light blonde hair and blue eyes for example. His entire vibe was a lot more relaxed and less on edge then Aiden's.
"Hi Alexis." I said.
"You know, I actually like this one. She's a lot more fun then most." Alexis said to Aiden and put his arm around my shoulder.
"She is standing right here. And what do you mean by 'most' ?" I asked.
"Ah well, you must know all about the witches and vampires feud that went down, seeing as your mother was part of it." Alexis said.
"Alex..." Aiden said but I interrupted him.
"No, wait. I want to hear this." I said and took a step back from Alexis so I could face him.
"It's the tale as old as time, Romeo and Juliet, a forbidden love. Your mother and one of our elders had a thing going on, but that was years ago." Alexis said.
"You mean to tell me that because my mom had a thing with an immortal, the whole feud started and you guys went MIA ?" I asked confused by it.
"Basically." Alexis said.
I looked over at Aiden who was just staring at the ground and trying to avoid me. I could read him very clearly, even if I didn't have direct eye contact with him.
"You know something." I said to Aiden and took a step closer.
He was now looking at me but again, he only stood silent. As if his lips have been sown shut.
"Sharp one, just like dad said." Alexis commented.
"I don't have time for games." I said looking them both in the eye before walking off.
I walked through the beautiful meadow and fallowed the path from earlier to find Peter. He was also on the mat now. He moved swiftly and so did his opponent.
I walked over to a tree with a rather big area of shade and leaned against it. I have no one else but Peter to talk to here and I'm not exactly good at making new friends. Most of the time people terrify me by the idea that I can read them without actually knowing who they are.
I slid down the tree and sat down placing my chin on my knees.
I hated being here. It feels like athletes day at school and I suck at sports.
Luckily Peter didn't take long and walked over to my side. He had a little blue hand towel that he was using to wipe off the sweat from his face.
He came and sat down next to me.
"You know, you riled up a lot of vamps today. Nice going." He laughed and bumped my shoulder with his.
"I didn't think this was goin to be a death match against kids our own age." I told him.
"Well I think you may have impressed Bearn. That's a good thing." Peter said and paused for a second or two, "We're not kids anymore Alice."
"I know." I said and huffed.
Growing up was the one thing I hoped I wouldn't have to do for a very long time. I want to enjoy my life and have fun before all of the serious stuff have to start.
I straightened out my legs and laid my head down on my knees and stretching out my arms to touch my toes. I drew in a deep breath as I put my back against the tree again.
"Alright, let's go. We can't hide away forever." I said and stood to my feet.
I dusted off my pants and walked back to where all the people were with Peter beside me. There were another group of two on the mat again. They sparred as the rest of us did.
Peter and I looked at all the different kinds of supernatural people that go on the mat, duel and then off again. We really had it all to fairies, witches, werewolves to sirens, shapeshifters and vampires. Basically any supernatural creatures you've heard stories about, live in the magical realms. There are three to be exact with Origano Magicae being the first.
"Alice." I turned to see Annabeth, "Damon will be your new partner. Here is your first assignment."
She handed me a location written down on a piece of paper.
"I thought we don't get new partners ? Where's Selene ?" Not that I wanted her to be my partner.
"The second part of your training will be to scout out area's where unexplainable actions occur and strange reports made to police departments." She flat out ignored my question, "Here you have two missing person reports with a great deal of reports."
Annabeth walked off before I could even ask or say something else.
"Well, enjoy." Peter said and walked off.
I now stood alone with Damon.
"Let's just get this over with." Damon said.
He started walking to a clearing in the trees, "Can I see that ?" I handed him the location that was given to me earlier.
"Alright." he said.
"You know where that is ?" I asked
"I do." He said and started creating a portal with his bracelet.
I can see why it was so necessary to give us a key like this. I thought it was really reckless giving a bunch of random people one each.
The blue oval was now shining in front of us. Damon stepped through without a second guess and I quickly jumped through after him before the portal starts to close and I loose a limb.
I got to the other side to be surrounded by trees again. Except, there was an old wood cabin in the middle of no where. We were in the middle of no where.
I looked around, but it was completely quiet around us. Usually, that would be a good sign, but you have no idea what could be hiding in the silence.
"A bit risky sending us in with no idea what might be ahead of us." I spoke to Damon.
"I thought you were some kind of bad ass witch that wasn't afraid of anyone or anything." He said sarcastically.
"I take it she's one of your friends."
"Who, Selene ? No. She's a raging bitch and got what she was asking for."
Well, now I do feel better about the whole fire incident. If I can even call it an incident.
We walked closer to the cabin to try and figure out why exactly we were instructed to come here. I spotted a strange plant growing on the side of the cabin. It was like it dug holes in the wood and intertwined within it, like it was becoming part of the house.
"Look familiar ?" Damon asked.
He walked closer, but I stopped him by pulling him back by his arm.
"Don't get close or touch it." I said.
"I assume you do know what this is ?"
"I have an idea."
I looked at my surroundings, trying to find something I can use. I grabbed a hand full of dirt and placed a revealing spell on it.
"Hidden, our eyes cannot see. Make those secrets clear to me." I whispered into my hand and blew it all over the plant.
The earth underneath our feet began to shake and move just as I had hoped for. At least we found whatever wasn't supposed to be here.
I stood examining the growing flora in front of me. It just kept on getting bigger and bigger. By the time it stopped growing it stood taller then the cabin.
It was still moving and revealing it's true form and that's when I could see what it really was.
"Shit." I said.
"What ?" Damon asked.
A huge green head came to view.
You know those little Venus Fly Trap pot plants you can buy ? So imagine that, but a lot bigger. This you call a Soul Seeker. This plant was originally from the forbidden realm. Who ever put it here must want a lot of people to die.
The mouth started opening and it looked like a snake ready to kill its pray. The plant started hissing and snarling. It sounded like a wild beast.
I saw that it was targeting Damon.
"Damon get back."
Both of us started taking a few steps back, but the Soul Seeker was following our every move.
It was ready to attack at that moment.
"Damon get down !" I yelled and pulled him to the ground.
We were crawling around on the ground and took shelter behind a tree stump that was laying on the ground.
The plant was definitely threatened by us as it was throwing all kinds of attacking methods at us.
Damon and I tried protecting our selves and covered our heads from the pieces of dirt and rocks flying through the air as the Soul Seeker drew some of its roots from the ground. This way we would be easier to grab hold of.
"Run !" Damon yelled and made a run for the trees and I did the same.
We were both standing behind thick trees to hide from the monstrous plant. I peeked from behind the tree to see that it was actually walking on its roots.
"That's not good." I said.
"A giant plant with snapping heads and fangs walking around, no shit." Damon said, "What is that thing ?"
"Its called a Soul Seeker. It tricks people in giving it a sacrifice to bring back another soul, but they never come back with a soul."
"So it takes two souls ?"
"Yip."
"Alright, how do we get rid of it ?"
"I would suggest fire, but..." Damon cut me off.
"The light that damn thing on fire."
"Do I look like a lighter to you ? You can't just create fire."
Damon dug in his pockets just as the sound of an explosion rang through the air and so did a few boulders of ground and rock.
I held my head to protect myself from it all. I could feel a bit of ringing in my ears.
I looked over at Damon when he whistled at me. He tossed a lighter at me. I looked at him not knowing why you would just have a lighter on you.
"It's Luke's !" He yelled over the rumbling sounds.
I breathed deeply for a few times before coming out behind the tree and walked closer to the monster. It was still going crazy trying to find whatever disturbed it, so it was a bit distracted.
I got the lighter to make a flame and drew my power from it. It managed to make an entire pool of fire and struck it.
As you could imagine, it was not happy. The roots swung around wildly and managed to get a hold of my arm. I yelled out in pain as the roots were covered in tiny thorns to make the grip more intense and powerful.
"Alice !" Damon yelled from behind me.
"Stay behind me !"
It had hold of my right arm so I was still able to do my magic with my left hand.
Smoke and flames were swallowing up the plant whole, but it still had me by my arm and it started to pull me closer. My feet dug into the ground as I tried to not be pulled into the flames along with it.
You could hear the screeching from the creature as it got burned alive.
I started to really feel the heat as Damon grabbed me from behind. He had a switch blade in his hands and managed to cut me free from the plants grip. We both fell back on the ground and watched as the Soul Seeker started moving less and less by the second until it completely stopped.
We got up and got closer to get a better look at it. We stepped over black pieces of burned plant and got to the back which it tried most to protect.
It had two pods where the dead body would be held and the sacrifice. I bent down to make out who the people where.
"Hey, can I borrow that ?" I pointed to the blade Damon held.
He handed it to me and I started to cut open the pods. In the first one was an old lady. She was covered in tiny green veins and a jelly type of substance.
I placed my balance to my other foot to cut open the second pod. I pulled it open to see a little boy and he was in the same condition.
I stepped back and covered my mouth with the back of my hand.
"Holy shit." Damon said.
"I'm guessing the boy was the sacrifice. The younger they are, the more years the person coming back gets."
The poor kid couldn't have been older then five years.
I was so focused on the scene in front of me that I only now really felt the pain coming from my right arm.
I looked to see the blood dripping down my fingers.
"That looks bad." Damon said.
He walked closer and took my arm in his hands to take a proper look at it. I was wearing a long sleeve, so he just ripped the sleeve off. Now you could see all the slashes clearly.
"Those are really deep. We have to get back to the academy so you can get stitched up."
He took the ripped off sleeve and tied it around my upper arm really tight to cut off the blood flow to make it bleed less.
I was still staring at the smoking creature and corpses in front of me when Damon spoke, "Someone's coming."
And not long after, an old blue pick up truck pulled in next to the cabin. An old man came running to the scene. The old woman must have been his wife.
"What have you done ?! No, no, no !" he stood holding his hands above his head.
"Do you realise what you have done ? You killed an innocent boy !" I ranted on and got up in the man's face but Damon pulled me back.
"Alice, it's too late." Damon said.
"I don't care !" I yelled and step up to the old man again, "You don't deserve to live. No, wait, you deserve to live a long and lonely life without any love and then to die alone a horrible death. I hope you get everything you deserve."
I walked off and left Damon to deal with the man. I was now standing where we jumped out of the portal earlier. I was leaning against a tree and held my arm. It was really starting to hurt now.
"Are you okay ?" Damon asked from behind me.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Well we can go. I locked him up and called for clean up."
Damon made a portal so that we can get back to the academy and we jumped through to the other side. Now we were back at the clearing where we made the first portal to the cabin.