I push a black curl out of my eye as I continue painting. Stroking carbon black paint on the body, I tilt my head to the side analyzing it. Mary wanted me to do this for her sister since she liked the last one, I made for Alexander. It's quite similar just the background is different, the sky is a dark purple with black and white clouds.
Mary was right, I should sell some of my paintings. For years now, they have been cluttering my room, sometimes in the middle of the night I find myself tripping over them.
I grip the worn-out clothes on my thigh and wipe the access paint on it so I can use some more purple for the sky. I stroke the purple paint over the canvas, suddenly I feel my hand start to lose control. It moves around erratically all over the canvas, the once moody sky is now black like coal. The grass is dead as dirt, it feels like someone or something is taking control, making me write something. Fear starts to overcome me, I see something is being written out, like a message. A P is written, then the letter O. Fourteen other letter are followed after it.
In an instant, I gain control of my arm, it falls limp in my lap. Slowly, my head rises to the canvas board, the painting is now completely ruined. A gasp escapes my lips as a rather hair-brained message drips down it. It says, 'Pomozi nam lotisia'. Now, I know the Lotisia is my given name, that's what Sasha said, but the rest I have no idea. It isn't French or Spanish, certainly not Russian. If I would guess I'd thought it was Italian. The paint drips down like crimson blood, horror engraved on my now ruined painting.
Running to my computer, I type in the quote. My hands twiddle impatiently on the keyboard, the loading sign goes around and around. Taunting my nervousness and making me go insane, in a matter of a few minutes it loads up.
The language for the saying turns out to be Bosnian. It means, 'help us Lotisia'. I push my computer away from me scared to know more. Grabbing the canvas in hand I chuck it out my balcony door not wanting to see it again. My breathing becomes unsteady, my heart beats like a drum. This is something I need to ask Sasha when I go back and see her tomorrow.
It must be the first power, challenging me to help them. How can I help someone if I don't know where they are at?
Downstairs, the door opens up. I can hear voices come from the foyer, it's my Grandpa and Irene.
"Quinneth, come down and help with the bags." I slide on my red tennis shoes and head downstairs. I grab the left-over groceries and carry them in the kitchen, as I walk in Grandpa and Irene are making out in the kitchen. Once they are met by my presence, they back up and recuperate themselves.
"Sorry honey, we didn't see you there." Irene mutters, fixing the button on her white silk shirt.
"It's ok." A laugh escapes my lips. "You guys can go hang out I'll put the groceries up."
"Are you sure. . .you usually hate putting up the groceries." My Grandpa looks at me like it's a new person standing in front of him.
"Yes, I can do it. Go on." He grabs hold of Irene's hand. I really didn't want to put them up on my own, I just needed to be alone and away from eyes. From that incident, my trust is at a all time low. What if it wasn't just me, what if they take over Alexander, Lyra, Ida or even my grandpa. It's not about my safety anymore, but theirs too.
"Thank you, honey." Irene pats my shoulder as her and my grandpa walk to the Living room, their laugh fades as they further on. Now it's just me, the groceries and the creepy abandoning painting laying in the backyard. It takes charge of my eyes; fear runs cold all over me.
A few hours go past as I sit on my balcony. I loom over it, staring intently at the cursed painting down below. No one, besides me, knows that it's down here. I've been scared to go and retrieve it. The last creepy thing that happened like this was the Black Lotus painting.
I suddenly realized something, Sasha said that the first power lived on an island, called The Black Lotus. The flower- no it couldn't be. Their dead how would they send a necklace to me from the grave? Well, they were able to take over my body and send me a message in a foreign language, I wouldn't put anything past them.
Plopping down on the yarn-knitted chair by my door, I slump down trying to hide myself from the world. Why are they targeting me? Why am I so special to them? Last night when I was trying to go to sleep, Sasha's words kept ringing in my head, 'you have immense power that needs to be used'. Immense, that's the word I'm fighting with. Immense Is only used when it's big, like you have immense talent, or something like that.
Sasha also said that Alexander and the others know about it, but are keeping things from me. I understand Alexander keeping the werewolf thing from me, it was to protect not only himself but the pack. This right here is a whole other situation, this is about my future and what I can do, according to Sasha. Why would he keep this from me? I know Sasha is the enemy, but she's the only one keeping it real with me.
While being deep in thought, rain starts to come down in ruffles. Leaning over the balcony the black paint drips off the canvas staining the once green grass. The words start to disappear into nothingness, like it never existed.
"Nice to see you again." said Sasha. Her once matted curly hair is now full and vibrant. No more dirt or chapped lips, it's like looking at a whole new person.
"Fine, kind of scared from yesterday. You look better." I pointed out.
"What happened? Mostly, I wouldn't ask but I have nowhere to go, and the only gossip around here is Clint." My eyes revert over to Clint's who's burrowing his in the small of my back. "Turn around Clint, your creeping out my friend." He hesitantly turns around towards the dirt filled wall.
"Friend." I say surprised.
"This is the second time were meeting, I've consider you a friend." If I'm not mistaken there's a bit of glint in her eyes. I wonder if she's ever had a friend before?
"That's nice. I have something to tell you." She repositions her body so she's totally facing me. "Yesterday, when I was painting. . .someone took over my hand and wrote a message."
"What did it say?"
"Um. . .Pozomi Nam Lotisia. When I looked it up in google translate it meant hel-"
"Help Us Lotisia." She finishes up for me. How did she know, was she the one to sent the message? "Just to let you know, it wasn't me."
"Who was it, then. Why me?"
"Most likely just sending you a message. They want you to find them."
"Wait, you don't know where they are?"
"No one does. When they were burned their bodies, well what was left had been put in a random tomb. The only one that can find them is. . .well you." She says pointing at me.
"How do you- you know Bosnian?" I asked curiously.
She leans her head up against the concrete wall, her curls lay still between the cracks. "My father made sure I knew almost every important language in the world, makes me more worldly and I can understand things faster. Also, people may lie you about what's actually being spoken."
"How many languages do you know?" I know English and like 20 percent of Spanish, three years of Spanish and the one thing I know from memory is Hola, como estas.
"7. It's English obviously, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Swahili and Bosnian." Wow, I feel so not smart right now.
"Since you're a princess your father's a king. A king of what Kingdom?"
"He's the king of Insofar, I'm heir to his throne. Before, I wasn't, it was my sisters throne." I didn't know she had a sibling.
"Who's your sister?"
"Her name was Shilah, she died during childbirth. When she died, I was reinstated." I see her eyes revert to the ground.
"Wait, if you're the oldest then why was she ahead of you, then?" I don't know much about monarchy's, but I do know the oldest takes the throne.
"In the eyes of Selene, the moon goddess, I'm not legitimate. Werewolves are only supposed to have children with their mates. My mother, Stella, was not my father's mate which made me illegitimate. When my father met his mate, Princess Tura of Luxor, they instantly married. But before marrying her, he divorced my mother. To this day, my mother has never forgiven my father. Once Tura was pregnant, it knocked me out of the line of succession to being second in line, my mother was also enraged about that too.
When Tura gave birth, the baby died the next day. Since I was my father's only living child, and he most likely wasn't going to have anymore he legitimized me. Making me his one and only heir. Is this what you came to talk about, how I know many languages, and my dysfunctional family. Also, how did you get in here aren't their like two big dudes in front of the door."
"It's a long story."
"I got time Quinn, where am I going to go? The other side of the cell." I let out a sigh and explain.
"I told them that in the North wing there was a fight and they needed to break it up." Her eyebrows lift.
"That was the long story, you told me it in 5 seconds." I roll my eyes.
"People say long story so it sounds more interesting- you know what- never mind I wanted to know more about the Zastitnik."
"Well, after Meghyn, there were many other Zastitniks. Like Alessandra, Unonia, Yenmon and Rhella. Oh, Rhella is my favorite. She was the first Zastitnik to ever go bad." I scoot myself closer to the cage, intrigued.
"What did this. . .Rhella do?"
"Well, during the 1800's, she was apart of this tribe, very sacred and worshipped Selene and all that hippy crap. The King at the time wanted to make new houses and such on some land, the land that belonged to Rhella's tribe. They vowed not to move, since the land was sacred to their people. So, they decided to kill them all. The only one to survive was Rhella. She vowed to seek revenge, even if it took her an eternity."
"Years went passed and she flourished, people described her as the prettiest woman in the land. The Kings son, Bernulf, thought this to. Luckily to him she turned out the be his mate, and to her this was great because she could be in on the inside."
"Since he's her mate she'll love him and the revenge feeling will go away, right?" I asked hoping she would say yes.
"Not exactly, yes she did love him but she loved the revenge more. They had a pretty normal marriage at first, she never gave him children. She didn't want to bring any children from their bloodline in this world, they didn't deserve it is what she thought. After she did her duty and secured the throne, she was seeking her revenge. Once the moon hit its peak, she snuck into her husband's room and killed him. Also, ending the immediate Pergola line, if her people couldn't live on neither could they. Then murdered all the people who killed her tribe."
"Wow, what became of her?" I asked, drawn into the twisted, sadistic story. Why didn't Alexander tell me any of this?
"It took two Kingdoms to take her down, Zastitnik's powers are extremely powerful, I mean you do have the original power of the First Power. They killed her in the end, god she's my idol, I wish I could meet her." Her eyes gloss over.
"How powerful are these powers. Like they could take down a village?"
"More like taking down a whole Kingdom, if you focus on your powers maybe even the whole world." It's scary to know that I could take down a whole world, I can't even defeat a bug.
"What do the powers actually do?"
"You can manipulate the elements, create energy shields and forces. Also, can do some spells but not much. The First Power didn't want to give Zastitniks too many skills, they gave you enough so at least they can defeat you if you went out of turn, like Rhella." She tells me. "Hey, do you have my chocolate and chips." Oh yeah, I forgot, chocolate and chips are such a weird combination, also I had to stuff them in my bra and shirt.
"Here you go, I forgot." Handing her the food, she scarfed it down, Alexander did tell me that wolves had a big appetite. "Am I somehow related to the First Power, like a descendent it would make sense now how I have this 'immense power'. Also, what does Zastitnik mean? I say putting up air quotes.
"Far from it. It means Protector, also in Bosnian. The First Power never had children, people could take the children as collateral and distract them from their purpose. The First Power were made from the womb of Selene, so no living family members. You, and the other Zastitniks are not related to The First Power by blood, but by magic. The only way one could be a Zastitnik is to be a human, and mated to an Alpha. Zastitniks can be a girl or a boy, but there hasn't been one in centuries, well until you."
"So.. . I'm special?"
"Very Special." She gives me a warm smile. "I told you about myself and your powers, now it's time for me to ask the questions." I give her a weird look, but fair is fair.
"Fine, ask away."
"Is that lover boy a really good kisser?" I look at her likes she's crazy.
"I'm not answering that." She tsk's at me, while shaking her head.
"You have to I answered all yours." I let out a deep sigh and readjust the way I was sitting. My butt and legs are starting to go numb, also the concrete floor is as cold as ice.
"Yes, he's a good kisser." I confess, also adding in a little spice. "Even good with his hands." I smirk, she eyes me while making a fake gagging noise.
"TMI! Next question, does your Grandfather know what Alexander is?"
"No, I haven't told him, Alexander doesn't want him t-"
Suddenly, I stop talking. How does she know that I have a Grandfather? Is she following me?
"How do you know this?"
"I have people, aka Myers."
"Myers? He was working for you." She nods. "That-that scummy dog."
"Well, I needed information." She says nonchalantly.
I answer her question, "No, I haven't told him, it isn't time." Amusement decorates her face; she rises up from the concrete floor and stands in a triumph position.
"Looks like your both keeping secrets from each other, like Grandfather like Granddaughter." What is she getting on about?
"Are you saying. . .my Grandpa has a secret he's hiding from me."
"Hey, I can't confirm or deny that. Just ask your 'honest' boyfriend." I raise up off the ground while gripping onto the jail bars. The harder I clutch the more blood that rushes up my arms and hands.
"Tell me." She zips her lips shut, while holding in her laugh. She can be really sick. "If you tell me, I'll give you something." She looks at me intrigued.
"What?" Her eyebrows lift up.
"This jacket, I know it gets cold down here."
"Not needed, I'm a wolf, warm blooded." Damn it, I don't have anything else except-
"I'll take your bracelet, it looks really. . .vintage." I grip onto my bracelet; this is something my Grandmother gave me before she died. It means a lot to me.
"No, this means a lot t-"
"No bracelet, no secret." I hesitantly take off the bracelet and give it to her. "Thanks, your Grandfather is Milo Worthingshire, who also goes by Count here. He's the pack doctor, he knows about everything." My mouth opens agape.
"That's not possible. My grandpa sits at home and reads, hangs out with his girlfriend and gets locked out the house. You must have the wrong person." She comes eye to eye with me, they burn lasers.
"I'm never wrong. NEVER!" Her voice rattles the jail bars.
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