SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Twenty-six
I patiently wait to hear my doorbell ring... Okay, I don’t wait patiently! I pace back and forth until I hear the chime and then immediately fling the front door open. Lori stands in front of me and takes a step back as I throw the door wide. “Good Lordy babes, calm down. What’s got you all hyped up?” She is smiling from ear to ear, so I know she knows my excitement is because I’m dying to see Ash.
“You’re such a butt Lori!” Her grin only gets wider at my statement and so I push by her, shutting the front door and then, grabbing her hand, I make her run down the front steps, across the yard and over to Ash’s house. As I go to knock on Ash’s front door, I hear a beeping from his Jeep Renegade, and I turn to look at the vehicle. I hadn’t even heard it running as we dashed by it.
Lori ‘kindly’ lets me sit up front with Ash. As soon as I slide onto the seat, Ash leans over and plants a kiss upon my lips. So much for deciding which I will do first, since he sort of took the options away from me by kissing me. “Okay love birds!” I hear Lori say as she climbs into the back seat. “You two can do as you wish later. Let’s go see this Charlie lady. I’ve been dying to meet her since you guys first spoke about her!” I roll my eyes at Lori, but I am just as excited to see Charlie again myself.
After Ash backs out of his driveway, and then throws his car into drive, he takes my hand in his, interlocking our fingers. I look at our entwined hands and then glance up to see him smiling at me adorably. Though adorable as he may be, I am still mad had him for disappearing on me and I must keep my resolve at being mad at him!As the thought flickers across my mind, I see Ash arch an eyebrow towards me. Don’t be mad. I promise I will explain why I left in a hurry without telling anyone that I was leaving.
Realizing he was reading my thoughts; I attempt to give him an angry glare for doing so. However, it was fleeting and replaced quickly with wanting to know the why’s and where’s of his reasoning for disappearing on me the way he did.
The ten-minute drive felt more like a half hour and when he pulled into the cul-de-sac, I was surprised to see how it looked like any other housing community. I guess with a name like the Nest, I was sort of expecting to see actual nests scattered about. Dumb, I know but truly the image I had in my head.
Charlie’s house is at a spot I guess one would call a dead end, the roundabout area of the majority of a cul-de-sac. Her’s is the center of the circular area. Two nearly identical houses sit on either side of her house. The yards are well taken care of and even though it is barely into the second week of January, I notice that all the yards have grass growing lush and green as if it were the first week of summer instead of the middle of winter.
Ash parks his car at the end of the cement driveway near the very simple black mailbox stuck to a white post in a small section of yard that divides the sidewalk from the road which leads into the housing complex. He would have (or so I assume) parked in the driveway itself except the drive is already full of vehicles. Standing near his Jeep, I suddenly feel very nervous as I stare at Charlie’s home. I do not have any explanation as to why I feel this way but then Ash takes hold of my hand, that beautiful current of energy courses between us and I hear him say in my mind; you have nothing to be nervous about, I promise, I won’t leave your side.
Offering a wink of encouragement and a squeeze of my hand, Ash, Lori, and I walk up to the front porch. The solid black door feels slightly intimidating, and I would like nothing more than to run away, for once I enter Charlie’s home, everything about my life is going to change. Not that it hasn’t already been altered but I have this feeling that once I go beyond the door frame, a whole new world will be thrust upon me...
Seeing me hesitate, Lori steps up in front of me and raising her right arm, places her hand upon the brass knocker and clanks it three times. Tell me why the sound resounded through my head like someone banging against a gong? Thankfully we only stood at the front door for a couple of seconds before it is opened, standing on the other side is Charlie, smiling widely at the three of us. “Oh, good, good! Right on time.” Hearing her say this I look over at Ash, my eyebrows creased in confusion because I didn’t know we were supposed to be here at a certain time... I mean, Ash had just returned after all. He, however, shrugs his shoulders at me as though he is just as confused, and I hear; she IS the seer.
“Well, come in. Come in! Everyone is waiting to meet you dear.” Charlie offers a toothy grin once more and then moves aside so that we can enter the front hallway. As the door is shut behind me, a shiver runs the length of my spine. There is definitely no going back from here on out, not that it had ever been an option but still.
We are led through the hallway that we had walked into, and I don’t notice much of the house except BLUE, so much blue. The walls, ceiling, furniture, appliances, everything is in shades of blue. Thankfully just as I am starting to feel overwhelmed by the blueness of the home, Charlie opens a set of French doors that lead out to her backyard. And OH, MY GOD! The world around me changes. I blink a couple of times to make sure my eyes aren’t playing a trick on me and as I realize I am truly seeing this new world around me; my jaw falls open and my eyes go extremely wide in shock.
“Um, what the bleep just happened?” I look to Ash, and then glance over to Lori who is standing to the right of me, looking just as baffled and shocked as I know I am looking.
“Tee-hee,” I hear Charlie titter; “welcome to The Nest!” Let me say ha! My first imaginings of what I thought the nest would look like were correct. Score one for me! Trying to take everything in around me, my mind seems unable to comprehend what it is seeing.
We have seriously just entered a tropical paradise. Let me tell you how bizarre it is to know I am in Ohio and yet, I am staring at palm trees. PALM TREES! Once the initial shock has worn off, I continue to look about in awe. There appears to be every type of nest imaginable, from the very tiny, possibly hummingbird to insanely large ones. I do not want to know what type of creature inhabits that style of nest, that is for sure.
However, there are not just nests scattered about. There are actual homes some of which look like they are part of nests, but then other homes seem to lead into jungle like settings but beyond that there is still so much more to see. Deeply wooded areas, fields of tall grass, snowcapped covered mountains; it seriously goes on and on. “How in the world is this possible,” I ask dumbfounded.
“Why magic of course! Here at the Nest, it isn’t just shifters that dwell here. There are witches, werewolves, vampires, fairies, elves, the list is a vast variety of supernatural’s. All are truly welcomed here. There are rules though. No one is allowed to harm another and really that is the most important rule and the only one you need to worry yourself with, dear.” Charlie has taken my hand at some point while she speaks and pats it a couple of times before adding; “all the homes you saw as you drove into The Nest Complex are a façade for each house is actually a doorway leading into habitats that have been built with the help of magical beings of Tenebrae.
Lori and I just continue to gaze at the scenery all around us. “I feel like we just walked into an alternate universe or something.” I can hear the amazement in Lori’s voice as she states this and all I can do is nod my head in agreement.
“Okay,” Charlie claps her hands together, rubbing them back and forth a couple of times. “We are going to the Sanctuary where you will be introduced to the Heads of Order.” I glance over at Charlie as we follow her to a very ancient looking building, looking at her curious to know what the Heads of Order is.
What I am assuming is the Sanctuary is made from a dark stone and looks sort of gothic or medieval in style but with probably a thousand windows or more. As we enter, I understand why the place is called the Sanctuary. It truly looks like a bird sanctuary and birds of all kinds are flying and fluttering about us as we walk a cobble-stoned pathway where end up finding ourselves entering an auditorium or very large classroom that is packed full of ’people’. The seats in the room are set that you must walk by them, descending downward to the main floor where there is a dozen or so bodies seated by a long white table which looks out to the audience. However, at this exact moment, the dozen or so sets of eyes are staring blatantly at me!