In Too Deep

Chapter 26

“Why are you here?” I asked them after a shocked moment of silence, I needed to at least find out if they were here peacefully or not.

One of the women stepped forward, bowed her head in greeting, and met my gaze.

“My name is Katia, we are your family, your coven. We’ve come to take you home.” She said.

“Where is your home exactly? In hiding?” I questioned, she smiled.

“We have been searching for you for a long time, we want to protect you.” She avoided my questions.

“I don’t need your protection, I’m fine as I am.” She laughed.

“Clearly.” She gestured to the bodies littering the ground. “You’ve done well on your own, but you don’t have to be alone anymore.” Katia said.

“She’s not alone, hasn’t been for a long time.” Smithy stepped forward and put his hand protectively on my shoulder. “She’s not going anywhere with you.” Katia’s smile faded instantly, and I sensed her attack before she cast it. I stepped in front of Smithy and used my own magic to block her attempt.

“No.” I snarled at her. If she thought attacking my oldest friend was going to help her convince me to go with her, she was greatly mistaken. She held her hands up, showing she wasn’t going to try that again. “Why now?” I asked.

“We heard about this battle, we knew that the only reason for it must’ve been to kill one of us.” Katia explained. “They do this a lot.” Her gaze accused the people around me. “We’re trying to help you. We heard rumours about this Academy, but didn’t think they’d actually find one of us. That is, until we found out who was behind it.”

All eyes found Mr Jackson in the crowd. He glared at Katia and the other women. None of them said anything for some time.

“Who is he to you?” I asked Katia.

“He’s my father, and your grandfather.” She told me.

“So that makes you-“ I began, and she finished my sentence.

“I’m your mother.” I stared at Katia wide-eyed.

“You’re lying.” Smithy accused, I shook my head. Katia smiled. I knew she wasn’t lying, but in a way I wish she was. I didn’t know what to say. I had wondered about my family all my life, and here they were stood right in front of me. This knowledge didn’t exactly fill me with confidence or reassurance, they are the most hated coven in history. I turned to Mr Jackson.

“If she’s your daughter, why did you build this place?” I asked him, not liking at all that I was related to him. His eyes grew dark.

“They murdered my son.” He glared at the witches. Katia raised an eyebrow.

“Do you want to see what actually happened?” She directed her question at me, holding out her hand, intending to share something from her mind. I hesitated, but took a step towards her. Smithy grabbed my arm.

“Freya no. You can’t trust her.” His eyes pleaded with me.

“Do you really think I’d harm my own daughter?” I didn’t trust Katia, but I had to find out what really happened.

I took another step forward, releasing myself from Smithy’s grasp and placed my hand in Katia’s. She smiled. I could feel her magic flowing through our grasped hands, and images played like a film in my mind. She showed me a much younger Mr Jackson, a time before he became a vampire, he was with a woman with red hair, they seemed happy.

They had a child together, Katia. In time Mr Jackson began acting violently towards his wife, and the coven banished him, only keeping him alive for the sake of not murdering Katia’s father.

The story she was feeding me seemed possible, after all Mr Jackson did build an Academy so he would have an army ready to kill me once he found me. But it didn’t seem quite right. As carefully as I could, I used our mental connection to do some digging in her mind, I had to be quick, there was very little chance she wouldn’t find out what I was doing. She ripped her hand from my grasp and stepped back, glaring at me.

“How dare you invade my mind.” She snarled at me.

“It was the only way I was going to get the truth.” No one else around me knew the information I just found. I took a step away from her, my glare meeting hers just as fiercely.

“Freya?” Smithy asked softly from behind me.

“They have a tradition, they prey on men, have them impregnate them and then have no further use of them.” There was a moment of silence whilst this information sunk in. “They have to ensure the survival of their race somehow.” I stated.

“That explains why they’re all woman.” Ryan stated.

“Men are weak. Women make the most powerful witches.” One of the red haired witches snarled. I thought about that statement for a moment.

“What happens if your child is a boy?” I questioned, but I had a feeling that I would not like the answer.

“We have no use for boys.” Katia stated bluntly. She didn’t have to say the words for me to understand, if their child was a boy, he would be killed. I shook my head disgusted.

“They murdered my son, so I got my pay back. I became a vampire, and I took the next daughter born in to the coven, and hid her amongst humans, somewhere they would never find her. I even had a witch cast a spell on her so they couldn’t use magic to detect her.” Mr Jackson explained, I thought over his version of events, and something just didn’t quite fit.

“So why do all this?” I gestured around us at the Academy, the people brought here to kill me, the bodies on the floor.

“I couldn’t do what they did, murder a baby. But as you got older, and your powers grew, I knew it wouldn’t be long until you discovered your powers, and joined them. You became too powerful to be allowed to live. I tried sending rogues to kill you, but they were unsuccessful.” Mr Jackson explained.

“You sent the rogues that killed my family?” I asked in disbelief. Mr Jackson shrugged.

“They were only there to kill you.” He stated bluntly. I couldn’t believe it.

“Why have so many female students died over the years?” I asked him, he paused in shock, clearly not knowing I had this information.

“I wasn’t certain what you would look like as you got older, there are so many ways you could’ve changed your appearance. Anyone who showed any signs of extraordinary powers had to die.” Mr Jackson explained, I stared at him wide eyed, I couldn’t believe what he was saying.

“There must’ve been a point when you realised they weren’t me?” I asked.

“When they died easily.” Mr Jackson stated bluntly, I gasped.

“What about their parents?” I asked, surely there was no way they would accept this.

“They knew what Fair Lake was built for, if they failed to disclose their children’s powers, then they knew the risks.” Mr Jackson said.

“What if their kids developed new powers that their parents didn’t know about?” Smithy asked angrily. Mr Jackson shrugged.

“Not my problem.” Mr Jackson said.

“Why would they lie about how their daughter’s died?” I asked him, this still didn’t add up.

“What would they do? Go to the police and tell them that they knew what Fair Lake was for, but decided to enrol their child anyway?” Mr Jackson sneered.

I couldn’t believe it, that was the perfect restriction. There was no way the parent could confide in anyone, they had agreed to let their child be trained to kill me.

“You seriously did all of that?” Bastien asked Mr Jackson, I was glad to know that Bastien didn’t know about this.

“I established Fair Lake long ago, so we’d be ready whenever you surfaced.” Mr Jackson continued. “I’d need access to the pupils’ powers to have any hope of taking you down. I knew it was you as soon as I laid eyes on you.” Mr Jackson snarled at me.

“All that effort and you’ve still failed.” I said to him, I could see the rage in his eyes.

“No, I will not fail!” He shouted in anger.

“Look around, you already have failed.” Ryan told him.

As the rage in his eyes grew to dangerous levels, I was wary of his actions. I can’t exactly sympathise with him considering he’s been plotting my murder all these years, but I can only imagine what the loss of his son must’ve done to him.

I barely had time to react when he lunged at me, crashing in to me as we tumbled to the ground. He landed on top of me and wrapped his hands around my throat, squeezing so hard that I couldn’t breathe.

I thrashed at him with my arms and legs, trying to get him off of me. I heard Smithy yelling at Mr Jackson, trying to pull him off of me. Suddenly his weight no longer held me down and his hands were gone from my throat. I coughed and wheezed, trying to focus on getting oxygen in to my body again. Smithy knelt at my side.

I whipped my head to where Mr Jackson laid screaming in pain on the ground. I pushed to my feet, and saw the cause of his pain. His torso was peeling open, exposing his internal organs as his blood poured out. I looked to Katia and saw it was her spell causing this.

“Stop! Stop this!” I yelled at her. She ignored me and continued with her torture. I couldn’t decide which was more disturbing, the sound of Mr Jackson’s screams of agony, or the smile on Katia’s face as she caused someone that much pain. I’ve needed to kill many people over the years, but it’s not something that should ever be enjoyed.

Finally the screaming stopped and I looked over to Mr Jackson’s body, his skin almost completely ripped off of his bones, he was barely recognisable. The crowd of people around me stood in shock, but all I felt was sick.

“You didn’t have to do that.” I whispered.

“He attacked you. We look after our own.” Katia stated. Her words whirled around in my mind.

“I am not like you.” I glared.

“You may think that now, but you may find you are a lot more like us then you first realise.” Katia said to me.

“No one deserves to die like that. You should leave.” I didn’t want them here, I didn’t want to know them, I couldn’t stand the sight of them.

“We are your family.” Katia reminded me. “You can’t just turn your back on us. You need us, otherwise your powers will overwhelm you.” Katia explained. Regardless of whether this was true or not, I knew it was also her way of trying to manipulate me.

“Everything you’ve said about family is rubbish, all you want is your book back.” Something I managed to grasp from her mind whilst I was digging.

“It’s our heritage, our spell book. You could gain so much from it, let us help you.” Katia tried to convince me.

“Not interested.” I said bluntly.

“It was stolen. It belongs to us.” She growled. Katia visibly took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “We are not leaving without it.”

“It was destroyed.” I lied, she didn’t believe me.

“Give me the book, this is your last chance.” The threat was clear in her tone, not bothering to pretend to be motherly anymore.

I met her glare with one of my own, clearly showing I wasn’t going to budge. I didn’t know why the book was so important, but as she so desperately wanted it, there was no way in hell I was handing it over.

I could feel the magic building up in the air again, I wasn’t particularly surprised that she’d resort to these tactics. I prepared for her attack, hoping I would have enough power to deflect it, they have had many more years to practice spells than I have. I braced myself as I felt the spell hurtling at me.

I was as prepared as I could be. The one thing I didn’t know to prepare for was Bastien throwing himself in front of me seconds before the spell hit. Taking the blow he fell to the ground in agony, a gaping hole in his stomach.