Disclaimer:
~Big thanks to Enemyoffun for making this universe to play in, and to all my beta readers for helping me hammer out some of the details in this chapter. Also, a big thanks to djkauf, who's edits are always awesome.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please comment on this, I enjoy reading your comments and learning from them immensely.

Chapter 19

November 4, 2011

My father insisted on driving Iris and me back to my apartment the next morning. Well, he insisted on driving us after I had insisted upon returning. I think he was trying to make up some ground that he had lost after he had fled from Mom and me all those years ago. The drive down passed in relative silence, broken up by my father’s attempts to strike up a conversation with me.

We didn’t speak much last night and that would have been the better time to do it. Instead, he decided to leave the house after dinner and probably spent some time wallowing in a bar; I could smell the alcohol on him when he returned to the house. I also noticed him head off to his bedroom when he got back, staggering and looking worn out as he walked.

When we got to the college campus, a few blocks away from my apartment, he asked me, “So, studying history and math?”

“Yeah,” I politely answered.

“Any good?”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“Care to tell me about it?”

“Not really.”

“Ah.”

That was the way the conversations in the car ride had been going. Iris seemed content to stay out of it, which was fine with me. She was probably thinking that whatever was going on between my estranged father and me was none of her business and wouldn’t help us stop whoever was after me.

We pulled up to the curb next to my apartment and proceeded to get out of the car. My dad grabbed my arm and held me in. Iris looked confused and I told her that I would be out in a minute.

I turned to my father after shutting the door and asked, “What is it? You know damn well that I can bust out of here if you tried anything.”

He smiled, and replied, “So much like your mother.”

I quickly interjected, “What? Do you want me to reintroduce you?”

His face paled when I mentioned that. I continued, “Ah, you’re afraid of facing her, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not,” he replied defensively. “I’m just… waiting for the right moment.”

“Uh huh.”

“Look here, it’s none of your business what happens between me and your mother.”

“Sorry. You made it my business when you got into the sack with her all those years ago. And then left both of us later on.”

“That’s not a fair account and don’t you take that tone with me, young lady!”

“I can take whatever tone I’d like. I’m eighteen and don’t live under your roof,” I quickly countered. “And you’re right. It wasn’t fair what you did to us.”

He blanched, opened his mouth, and closed it again when he couldn’t muster up a response.

“What is it that you want to tell me?” I asked with resignation in my voice, giving him a little bit of time to recover from my verbal assault.

“First, you have the number for the house. If you need help, please don’t hesitate to call.”

“Right,” I replied, with a bit of boredom. Grandfather had given me the number last night, as well as his own cell phone.

“Second, we’ll be in the skies, too. Keeping an eye on anything that could hurt you.”

“Uh, huh.”

“Finally,” he continued, sighing deeply, “please don’t tell your mother about me.”

“What?” I answered with notes of disgust in my reply.

“Please. I’m not ready for her to know about me right now. I will come and visit her before she leaves for California though.”

I grunted in frustration, and answered, “Fine. But if you don’t, then I’m coming after you and telling her how frightened you were about not seeing her when you had the chance.”

He looked down and answered, “I suppose I deserved that.”

“And a lot more, by my count.”

“Hey! I’m your father, young lady! Treat me with some respect.”

I opened the car door and answered, “You have a long way to go to earn my respect. You also may have given me half of your DNA, but you have a long way to go before I will consider you my father.”

I slammed the car door shut and walked over to the sidewalk where Iris was standing patiently. My dad started up the car and drove off, in the direction that we came. When he was out of sight Iris asked, “Anything you want to talk about?”

“Not right now.”

“Alright. I have to get going,” she told me.

“Oh?” I replied, surprised.

“Yeah,” she continued, “One of my contacts gave me some information about the possible location of where these guys may be hiding out. I’ll let you know when I know something.”

I nodded, feeling a little bit left out on what was going on.

She placed her hand on my shoulder and added, “Don’t worry. I’m not like some of the Alphas in town. I will keep in you in the loop.”

“Thanks,” I added, with a smile.

“Don’t mention it.”

She turned and headed down the street, while I climbed the stairs to the front door of the apartment complex. I heard her shout after me, “Oh! And good luck with your mom!”

I groaned and answered her, “Thanks!”

I reached my door a few minutes later, and placed my key in the lock, ready to open it. I sighed deeply and took a deep breath, getting ready for what may be on the other side of that door.

I had never run away from home, and the most I was away without telling anyone was when I was playing in the woods near my home and didn’t tell mom where I was going. I did come back just before sunset, and when my stomach was growling at me. My mother displayed her worry for me, before she gave me a dressing down for not telling her what I was up to.

Pulling myself from that memory, I flung open the door and headed inside. Lying down on the couch, and looking very distraught, my mother rested. She was wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, and was breathing heavily. It looked like she was staring out the window at the college and the lake beyond, trying to see if I was coming back from that direction.

I softly called out, “Mom?”

She moved around, but didn’t really acknowledge my presence. I went around and shook her and loudly said, “Mom! Wake up! It’s me!”

She groaned and eventually came out of her stupor. “Mikaela?”

“Yeah, Mom. It’s me.”

“Mikaela!” she exclaimed, wrapping her hands around me in a deep hug. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I’m okay, Mom. It’s a long story.”

My mom didn’t seem to want to let go of me. As if she thought that I would disappear again, and cause all her worry and sadness to come back worse than before.

“I thought I’d lost you,” she whispered in my ear.

“You won’t lose me, Mom,” I replied, rubbing her back and giving her lots of love. “I’m like a bad penny, I’ll always turn up.”

She laughed at that bad joke that I threw in, before pulling back from the hug. “Well,” she replied, smiling, “then, I’ll just have to make us some tea so you could tell me all about it. And don’t leave any details out, got it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered, with a smile.

My mom got to her feet and quickly began to make some tea for the two of us. I started to tell her what had happened at the Halloween party. After the water boiled and she poured the tea, I filled her in on the rest of it.

She showed me some sympathy when I told her of my troubled feelings when Justin came in the picture, and gasped as I narrated my adventure through the forested mountain. She was intrigued when I told her about the Ravens, although I did leave out the fact that I met my father.

I didn’t know why I did that, but I guess I decided that I wanted to honor my father’s wishes. Although, I promised myself that if he didn’t tell her in the next week or so, I would.

After I finished my story, my mother insisted that I get into the shower and then change my clothes. I gave her no argument there. I had been dying to get into some other kind of clothes as my Zatanna Halloween costume had been worn extensively, and was showing some wear and tear.

After I while, I headed back into the living room and found my mother tidying up the mess that she had made during my absence. I could only begin to imagine what she had been going through when I was off on my own little adventure. I offered to help her out, but she insisted that she could take care of it. I agreed to that, but only after that she agreed to me making dinner tonight.

I also asked if it would be alright if Alex came over, so that I could relieve her worry. She vehemently agreed to that. From what she told me, Alex was filled with so much worry about leaving me out there in the wild. I asked my mother what happened to her after we separated, but she told me that was a story for Alex to tell me.

Alex came right over after I called her up and invited her to dinner. The look on her face clearly showed that tears had flowed freely across her face for some time. When I opened the door, she positively leapt into my arms and nearly squeezed the life out of me with her hug. After prying her off, I escorted her to the couch. I kept our dinner a simple meal, so sandwiches and chips awaited us. During our meal, I told Alex my side of the story, and she reacted very similarly to how my mom reacted when I had told her.

After I got up to replace our sodas, she began to tell me what happened to her. She had continued down the mountain trail at a brisk pace, determined to get back home and go get some help for me. She didn’t run into any more of the goons along the way, which made me think that I was the priority target, and that Alex could still be in danger in order to get leverage on whoever was the Wiccalore.

She managed to get back home after the party had concluded. Her mom had been looking around for her, and after they ran into each other, Alex told everything that had happened to the two of us. Cassie rounded up a couple of the other witches and they started to search the woods for me. They came upon the place where we had split up and continued their search along the other path that I had travelled along. Unfortunately, they didn’t find me or any of the goons that had pursued us.

Many of the witches that had come looking for me had thought that I had probably fallen to my death from the cliff side. Cassie believed that I had fallen in the river and would wash up along the shore. However, Alex became distraught and grief-stricken at the quite real possibility that I had died. Her mother did the best she could to comfort her daughter and to keep her hopes up. But, nothing much could really be done.

Cassie tried to enlist a few of the Weres in town to look along the riverbank for me, but they didn’t want to go into unfriendly territory, even on a rescue mission. The death of Vernon Stiles had rattled their cages a bit, and they were very hesitant to try anything that could escalate the situation. Although, from what her mom told her, she might’ve gotten one or two of the Lockes to go hunt for me, since they owned the property along the river that went up into the woods.

Alex, in the mean time, had spent days of barely doing anything. Her mother feared that her magic might have been drained or diminished due to the intense negative emotions she was experiencing. Luckily, before she could drown in her despair any further, I had come back to town.

So, that had brought me back up to speed with what had been going on with her. When I asked what had been going on in town, she told me that some interesting developments had taken place within the Were community. However, it wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know from my time spent with the Davidsons.

The topic of the Raven clan out in the forest definitely got Alex’s attention. She didn’t know much about them, which made sense from what they told me. But now, she began to have thoughts about what they were doing way out there and what they could be hiding from the rest of us. I told her that I didn’t know and that was the only explanation that had been given to me.

Iris was another interesting point that she brought up. Although, she also didn’t know that much about the Forsaken. She just shrugged that off as to being a Were thing, so why would they tell the witches about it. The hour began to grow late and I told her that I would see her tomorrow at her place. She smiled and told me that she was glad to see me again, and that her mother would be extremely relieved that I had returned safely, and gotten Alex out of her funk.

-----------------------------

November 5, 2011

I don’t know why my mom insisted upon going shopping with me for most of the day. Maybe she just wanted more mother-daughter time, to make up for me being chased through the woods last week. In any case, she was being very clingy.

She practically dragged me through every clothes store she could find, including a few that I didn’t even realize were there. We did make a stop by the comic book store, and told my employer about me getting lost in the woods. He nodded and told me that he understood and that he expected me in to work in a couple of days. I thanked him for being so understanding.

After stopping off at home to drop everything off, I noticed that my closet was now packed with women’s clothes and accessories, where it once wasn’t. Was I becoming that much of a girl that quickly? And where did I stand on wanting to have a more serious relationship? Retelling the story of my adventure dredged those memories up and brought the confusion back into my mind.

I headed out for the Drakes, walking this time, and with my cell phone fully charged. Mom wanted to make sure of that last part, so that I could get a ride from her if need be. I think she was still worried about what happened a week ago. Looking around the town, I could still see some leftover Halloween decorations hanging around. From what I was told, this town loved Halloween. My guess, it probably had something to do with the Unseen population here.

When I approached the Drakes’ front door, I noticed that they had cleaned up their Halloween decorations from the party. Probably Alex had spent some time doing that to keep her mind off of me. I felt a pang of guilt that I couldn’t get back sooner. But, those Ravens were insistent that I rest up and be able to fight off those goons should the need arise again.

Cassie opened the door for me as soon as I knocked. She smiled when she saw me, and said, “Mikaela! It’s good to see you again!”

She wrapped me in another hug, and looked me over to make sure that I was okay. I assured her that I was, and then we stepped inside.

“Don’t worry about telling me what happened,” she said, waving me off as we walked into the kitchen. “Alex told me all about it last night. Although I think I’m going to have to have a talk with Tobias Locke about the Raven clan out in the forest.”

“What? Why?” I asked, surprised.

“It’s his job as head of the Were Council to make sure all Weres are accounted for. These Ravens,” she shuddered, “I don’t like what they do. Spying on us. Makes you distrustful of their intentions.”

She shuddered again before offering me some lemonade.

I accepted and asked, “What makes you think Locke knows anything?”

“I don’t,” she answered. “But, he’s the best bet to find out information. And he owes me a couple of favors.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I commented, trying to downplay the Ravens out there.

“It’s alright. I just want to know what they’re up to.”

We sat down at the kitchen table, sipping the lemonade, and Alex joined us a few moments later. She ended up surprising me by wrapping me up in a hug before taking her seat next to me at the table.

She smirked and asked, “So, how you doin’?”

“Fine,” I answered, “after you gave me that heart attack right there.”

She giggled. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s alright. Next time, warn me.”

She and her mom giggled again, while I took a long drink from the lemonade. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those visits.
I decided that I would have to change the subject. I looked over at Alex and said, “So what’s an elementalist?”

Alex looked at her mom, with a gulp. Cassie nodded at her, and Alex launched into her explanation.

“We're a type of witch that has an affinity for elemental magics,” she started. “The classic elements: air, earth, fire, and water, those we can use to our will.”

I looked a little confused from her explanation, and she continued, “Remember how I made the branch smack that one guy in the face, and how I flung the water up on the other, froze it, and then shattered it?”

I nodded.

“Well, we can do that and more,” Cassie added. “We can conjure fireballs, shoot lightning bolts out of our hands, make the wind move where there isn't any, and the list goes on. Although, the more impressive the magic, the costlier it is.”

Alex picked up, “We can do other things as well, but the elemental magics come most naturally and more powerfully to us.”

I whistled in amazement, “Damn, I really don't know much about witches.”

They both laughed at that. “It’s alright. There are some things that we don't even know,” Cassie stated.

“But, we always try to learn more,” Alex added.

We all had some more lemonade, before I asked, “So, can you show me some of this magic?”

“Sure,” Alex answered with a smile. “C’mon, let's go out back, so no one will see us.”

The two of us began to head out the back door when Cassie instructed in a motherly tone, “Minor only, Alex.”

She groaned, “Yes, Mom.”

We headed out the door and into a fenced off section of their backyard that I haven't been in before. I always assumed that it led to a hot tub or something like that, but it was just an open field that headed straight for the lake. The gap between our shore and the opposite one in the forest was vast, and it probably was one of the largest stretches of water on the lake for privacy. There were a few large boulders and a bunch of gravel sitting on some dirt in one area, while in another there was a large pile of ash sitting near some grass. To me, this looked like a place where they could camp out under the stars, roast s’mores, and have a good time. But, I had a strong feeling this place meant something else entirely to them.

“We only come out here at times to practice when we know that we won’t be interrupted by prying eyes,” she explained. She thought that over for a bit and added, “Well, when we have a good idea that no one else will be out on the lake.”

I smirked. “Makes sense. Too bad my apartment isn’t closer to the forest so that I could be a Wolf more.”

She smiled and replied, “So, you get the idea of what we set up here. A place where we can be ourselves and not have to worry about the Norms.”

“Yep. So what're you going to do?”

“A little bit of everything,” she looked at me wearing a devious look and smile.

If I didn't know her better, I would’ve been a little more frightened. But, I knew she was just going to put on a small show.

She cracked her knuckles, and said, “Let’s see what I got today.”

She loosened her body up like she was getting ready for a sporting match of some kind. Then, she closed her eyes and looked like she was entering a meditative state.

I looked out across their little training yard, trying to figure out what she would be doing first. I thought, ‘Maybe something with water again. Since, she’s already done that with the goons that were chasing us. That flash boil was pretty cool.’

As my gaze turned towards the lake, half-expecting her to do something with the water sitting out there, I felt a breeze blow directly at us from it.

“Is that you?” I asked her.

“Huh?” she asked, confused. “I haven’t done anything yet. I was just trying to clear my mind. Which I now have to start over.”

She grunted in frustration, and I giggled. I stopped suddenly when I smelled something familiar. Something potent. Something definitely male, judging by the woodland musk. Where had I smelled that before?

I gazed out across the lake and saw something move from between the trees. I ran over to the water’s edge, while Alex tried to clear her mind again. I craned my head out over the edge and placed my hand above my eyes, and strained to get a better view. I was about to give up when I saw it there, staring at me from across the lake. A wolf, a familiar wolf. Where did I know that wolf from before?

“Alex,” I called out to her.

I her heard grunting and huffing. “What now? Don’t you want to see something?”

“Later. Come take a look. Do you see that wolf?”

She walked over to me and asked me, “Where?”

I pointed the wolf out to her and she looked in that direction. The wolf, probably seeing what I was doing, turned back into the foliage and ran off.

“Are you okay? Sure you’re not seeing things?” she asked.

“I’m fine. I know what I saw. There was a wolf spying on us. Probably on me.”

“If you say so,” she shrugged.

“C’mon. I need a drink.”

She giggled and we headed back into the house. My interest in Alex’s magic now diminished. Were the Lockes spying on me for some reason? And who was that familiar wolf that I smelled. I could’ve sworn that I ran into him before.