A Witch Artifact: Unknown

Fantastic. Fucking. Fantastic. 

His hands couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. He read through the next few pages that talked about the other artifacts that had nothing to do with the ones he recognized. He didn’t have the patience to memorize the rest of them, still reeling from the fact that his family had two of them and he’d managed to lose one of them. That wasn’t including that his mom knew about the Mantels and had actually met them. 

He stared at the page for a moment, thinking over what he now knew. He couldn’t believe it at first. How he had realized there was another part of him that wasn’t human was understandable. However, he had yet again another problem on his hands.

He felt like a piece of him was slipping away. For his entire life, he’d been holding onto the fact that he was at least half-human. Vampires had done nothing but destroy his family. His father had gifted him with a curse that ruined his mom’s life and his own. There was no place for him and he understood his father never cared. He was some vampire that strolled into town, took what he wanted, caused pain, and left as if the small town Montis never existed. 

Too many thoughts swarmed him. He battled against them, but they were too much to handle. He’d been running from them his entire life, enduring the comments of others for so long, and now he had to face them head-on. And the only thing he could ask the world was why him? Why was he the one being tortured?

It was as if the universe had a score to settle with him. Everything he did was met with a worse fate and anything he did to try and stop the destruction heading toward him only caused more problems.

With a sort of numbness settling over his body, he continued to go through the book until he hit the next chapter. Vampires, Witches, Hounds…

Once more, he paused at the pictures. The vampires were ghoulish, barely human. They had long fangs that protruded from their upper lips and hung down to their chins. The look was comical, horrific, and hellish at the same time. He wasn’t scared of the picture. It was just a sketch of what humans thought of the vampire race, but he was disgusted. He didn’t want to believe that kind of blood was in him.

He moved on to the next picture, hoping it would be better. It was. In a way.

The depiction of the Witch was a young woman wearing close to nothing but a cloak. She was shown seducing a kneeling man with her palm outstretched toward him. A light shined from her palm, the man’s eyes locked on it. The woman wore a large grin, mischievous and most likely thinking about the way in which she was going to kill him.

Ren didn’t know if the picture was true. He just knew that his mom wasn’t like that. Up until now, he thought she was human. He hadn’t seen a difference.

The last picture was of the Hounds. They were part demon, part human as the text described. 

It was the Hounds he’d never heard about before. After reading about them residing in Hell, he decided that was enough reading for the day. He learned something about artifacts, though he’d been set on finding more research on the Hunter Society. The books in the school library were no longer helpful. He just didn’t know where else to look.

His next thought would be to look online, but the school could track anywhere he went. Besides, certain things weren’t allowed to be publicly accessed in Reginae. He’d probably hit another wall and get a bunch of news about the HS being disbanded for over a hundred years.

He tossed the book somewhere on the floor. It landed with a thunk.

An eery feeling settled over him. 

Without a second thought, he bolted from his bed and changed into more suitable clothing. He pulled on thick jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and threw on a hoodie just in case. Around the room he went, gathering what he thought he might need. Flashlight, gloves, hat, and an old pocket knife he found in the attic. It had a symbol on it but the rust from a leak had made it hard to tell what it was. He had to fight to open it, but it would do if he encountered anything in the forest tonight.

Tugging his hat down to cover his ears, he thought once more about what he was going to do.

Reason won for a moment until it was squashed by the dire need to protect his mom and figure out the mess he was in.

These things, whether they made sense now, were part of something. If no one else was looking to solve them, the girl’s murder most importantly, then there was only him.

He pulled on his gloves, slipped the flashlight and pocketknife into his jean pockets, and left for the forest. 

***

Ren was alone in the forest at night once again. This time he was prepared for a fight, his hand clenched tight on the knife in his pocket. 

Ashton had made it clear he didn’t want to be a part of this and didn’t want Ren anywhere near the dead girl. But a team vampire wasn’t his biggest fear. Being framed for murder was.

The woods were easy to navigate. The flashlight wasn’t bright enough to see farther than a foot.

He found his way to the clearing and noticed the boulder near where the body was buried.

His feet stopped there, in the middle of the jagged circle. He was going to do something incredibly stupid.

He was a Mantel though. And this was his place.

A chill swept through the forest. Ren’s hoodie was no match for it and he shivered. The leaves rustled—what was left of them anyway. Most of them had already fallen. Every step he took was noisy. Anyone listening closely would be alerted. He expected Ashton to be here by now. The last two times he’d come at his own volition. And the last time, it seemed even more so that he’d been watching Ren. That feeling, like someone was tracing their fingertips up the back of his nape, was there again.

Hot aches—like burning coals—bloomed in his chest. The seconds ticked by and he feared he’d jumped to conclusions. There had really been no reason for Ashton to keep tabs on him any more. If he’d been paying close attention to Ren in the first place. 

It was all in his head. Messed up. Fucked up even because he couldn’t think clearly these days.

But Ren wanted to get this over with.

So, instead of turning back, he opened his mouth.

“Ashton!”

The yell pierced through the quiet forest. He flinched, hand on his knife, scanning the forest. There was nothing. It was quiet as ever.

There had been another expectation from him then. He wanted Ashton to come racing like he did the night before. Ren didn’t know what it was about Ashton that terrified him and drew him in at the same time. But his feelings were irrelevant. Ashton was the only one who knew the Hunter Society was forming again. He knew about the dead body.

And so it had made sense in Ren’s head that Ashton should know about the thing that had taken control of Ren’s body.

He hoped Ashton could help. But it was dawning on him as he stood in the middle of the forest where a killer was lurking, that asking a Mantel for help was the equivalent of selling his soul. Truth be told, he hoped it was only that bad.

“Ashton!”

He opened his mouth to yell again when he was shoved from behind.

The knife was ready in his hand and he turned with every intention of sticking the blade into the gut of the person behind him.

That was until he saw Ashton’s piercing red eyes and a fiery look to go along with it.

“I should fucking beat the shit out of you for this!” Ashton snarled.

Ren backed up in surprise, still holding the knife out in front of him. Ashton looked down at it, batting it away like it was some toy. Ren let him do it, though he couldn’t be sure if it was because he knew it was him or if it was from shock.

“What are you thinking?” He stalked up to Ren. Ren was too taken aback to do anything but stand in shock.

When Ashton was an inch away, Ren couldn’t help the way his eyes fell to Ashton’s lips. This wasn’t the time or place for this, but the temptation to just lean in was too hard to resist.

He was a breath away and for whatever reason, Ren thought about taking the chance. But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he batted it away, hoping it would be the last time he would think it.

“I need your help.”

Ashton glared at him. His eyes flashed red for a brief second before it faded to their natural brown. The look he gave Ren after sent a chill through his body which he ignored as best as he could. The knife was still in his hand. He didn’t think he would need to use it, but he didn’t know Ashton that well. He barely knew him at all. He’d put his faith into him blindly only because he was the only person who knew what had happened and hadn’t already killed him.

He could have let the Hunters find and kill Ren, but instead, he saved him. That had to count toward something.

They stood facing each other, watching, waiting. Ashton scanned Ren’s face.

He rolled his eyes and turned away. “Go home.”

“Wait!” Ren grabbed his arm.

He wiggled out from Ren’s grasp. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m not going along with it. If you think what you saw was the worst of it, you’re dead wrong.”

“How—What do you mean?” Ren tried to grab his arm again. Ashton growled in frustration as they fought against each other. It was more like two toddlers fighting over a toy. Ashton slapped Ren’s hand as he tried to touch him again.

“Will you cut it out?” He gave an exasperated sigh and grabbed both of Ren’s hands, holding them up in front of Ren’s face.

Ren was caught between wanting to be held down by Ashton and the want to push him away. Either choice would have been better than just looking at him. Ren didn’t know what had gotten into him in these past few days. Ever since he met Ashton, it was like his life had been turned inside out.

Ashton held his stare, not once faltering when Ren couldn’t say the same for himself. There was something about Ashton’s eyes that made Ren uneasy. They looked past his physical form and right into the center of his being. He would have laughed if he was in any other position. It was the forest, the moonlight, and the way Ashton’s hands tightened around Ren’s wrists that made this unfunny. And though the thoughts filtering through his head were embarrassing, there was no other way to describe what was happening here, between them.