Raven Saga 01 - Raven

hoped to get in on a bit of action. There hasn't been much going on lately,” she laughed and I felt immediately at ease. So these were the people Charlie had seen arguing at Christmas. Zoltan stepped forward and shook Jo's hand and then he turned to me to shake my hand but as our hands touched, he let out a deep snarl and snatched it back.
    I immediately felt defensive and took a step backwards, pulling Jo with me.
    “Don't worry about Zoltan. I got the same reaction from him when we first met too. You've probably realised that he is, in fact, a werewolf?” asked Tabitha and I nodded, “Well sometimes the wolf overpowers the man and that kind of thing happens,” she laughed, “but you'll find that he's pretty harmless... to us, anyway.”
    He turned to look at me and smiled apologetically. I forgave him easily.
    While we had been talking, the others had been into the cave to investigate what was there. I heard them whispering to each other about how they had not known of the cave's existence. How a witch had been under their very noses and they'd not seen what was going on. It perturbed them, which in turn, worried me a little.
    When they came back out into the sunlight, Rupert pulled both Vivian and Charlie up from the ground, ensuring the ropes were tied tightly enough and then we prepared to set off towards the Elders' home. I grabbed our bags and we began our hike back up the mountain. Jo walked ahead with Finley and Ursula; Vivian and Charlie were pulled in the middle of the group by Rupert, and I walked behind with Tabitha and Zoltan.
    Tabitha was eager to know what had happened and so as we walked, I relayed our adventure to her. When she commented on my British accent, I also told her about my life before and how I had managed to find myself in Canada in the first place.
    She was intrigued by my tale and impressed that we had managed to capture the witch. “I would have probably killed her,” she said.
    “Well, I was pretty close but, as Jo told me at the time, I'm not a killer. Vivian needs to take full responsibility for the evil things she has done. The Elders will make sure of that,” I answered.
    “Yeah, I guess you're right. You've got more self control than me though,” she added.
    “I doubt that. I'm sure had it been you, you would have been able to stop yourself.”
    We continued to tell each other about our lives and I discovered that Tabitha had been raised in New York but had moved to Canada as soon as she was old enough to fend for herself.
    “I always felt like I had some connection to this part of the world you know,” she said.
    “Well, it's not difficult to connect is it? Just look how breathtaking it is,” I said as we stopped momentarily to take in the utter magnitude of the view surrounding us. Tabitha laughed then and agreed with me but I knew she had meant it in a different way. There was some kind of pull that brought her here. She didn't know what or why but she wanted to find out.
    “But how did you find the Elders? How did you know about... you know... all this supernatural stuff?” I laughed, not knowing of a better way to describe it.
    “My mother told me actually. She had a lonely childhood, brought up by a strict mother and a father she rarely saw. When her father took off one day, her mother went crazy and started casting crazy spells. My mother freaked out and managed to run away. But after a few days, she decided to go back and when she did, she found nothing. Her mother had gone too. She'd just upped and left. Never to be seen again,” she explained.
    “So that's how your mother learned?” I questioned, thinking it wasn't really enough to make you believe. But Tabitha shook her head, “Oh no... God no. It was when her father returned one day that she finally understood about it all. He was different. Mum told me that he actually scared the hell out of her. He was so incredibly pale and his eyes would change colour from yellow to red. He told her that he had been made a vampire.”
    “Oh,” I exclaimed, “well, that would do it.”
    Tabitha smiled, “My grand-father was a vampire. He told my mum he loved her more than anything else in the world but that he had to go away. He said it was too much of a risk for him to stay near her. He couldn't bear her being in danger.”
    “Wow, that must have been hard,” I whispered.
    “She knew he was telling the truth and so she accepted it. She started doing loads of research into the supernatural,