The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Vera-

"Build an army?" I ask her, repeating her words to her.

"Well, yes dear, we can't take over the other species without manpower," she says, as if this explanation was obvious.

I remain quiet and she rolls her eyes at my baffled face; it's as if her words registered only mechanically in my brain. I still don't know what she means.

"I might as well," she shrugs, "you'll soon make me truly immortal anyway," she says and I gulp. "my dear, Witches might be arrogant and dismissive of other species, I undoubtedly am guilty of such; but we're not idiots. We learn from our mistakes. Last time, the *traitors* banded with wolves and lycans to bring an end to Witch kind. You see, there was a small faction of *rebels* that no longer believed in our cause; which is ridiculous, of course. Our cause has always been the supremacy of Witches and Warlocks, but all of a sudden, these people just had a problem with it. Apparently, our methods, which they too participated in by the way, became too * unsavory* for them," she turns around, carefully cleaning the large knife. "So, as I said, I've learned from our previous mistakes. Now, with this new revival of our kind, dissenting voices will *not* be tolerated and we *will* eliminate all other species. We'll only keep humans alive, as livestock of course; they're life force isn't much, but they're numerous so they'll do." There's a long silence as I feel a chill creeping up my spine.

She plans to kill *everyone*?

Sofia and her babies.

Dr. Owens.

Violet and the girls.

Lucas, Eli, Elden...

Noah.

I feel tears begin to well up in my eyes. Despite how dehydrated I am, they manage to fall on my cheek.

The Witch Mother turns around, almost as if sensing this.

She comes closer to me with a smile on her face and wipes my tears away with a delicate finger.

"Don't be sad, my child. I'll make sure you don't live long enough to see it," she says, turning and nodding at Helena and Marcus.

Both of them carefully approach the table with the knife, linking their hands together and beginning to chant a spell. Slowly, each lifts up a palm towards the knife to channel their magic. While I'm looking at this scene, the Witch Mother is watching me closely.

She takes her slender fingers and places them below my chin, forcing me to look at her dead in the eyes.

"You know, your eyes seem awfully familiar for some reason. That shade of green..." she muses, lost in thought.

"Mistress," Helena calls.

The Witch Mother stares at me a little while longer and I even manage to narrow my eyes at her in anger, but it does little to nothing to intimidate her.

She lets go of my chin and my face falls; I have no energy to hold it up.

"Very well. Let's proceed," she says, turning around and walking towards Harriet.

My ears begin to buzz a little as the Witch Mother raises her hands over Harriet, chanting a spell

I don't recognize; however, I can feel the power emanating from her. This is the first time I've been in the presence of her magic. She's more powerful than I could've imagined. When she finishes the spell, Harriet is in tears, begging for her life.

The Witch Mother extends her hand towards Helena and she brings her the knife she had been cleaning earlier; the same one Marcus and Helena were chanting over.

"No, please, I beg you. I promise I can be of use to you, Mistress, if you only give me a chance," Harriet says through sobs.

"Mistress, I can bind her lips if you'd prefer," Marcus offers.

"Nonsense," she says, grabbing the knife and hovering it over Harriet, "I like it when they beg, she says.

With one swift and precise movement, the Witch Mother stabs Harriet in the chest. From the location, I know that must've been a clean stab through her heart. The With Mother's maneuver was so swift, though, that Harriet didn't even make a sound as the blade impaled her.

I watch the life drain out of her eyes as the Witch Mother further turns the knife inside her chest, coating it with blood.

The Witch Mother, Helena, and Marcus have their eyes closed as they chant again and again the same phrase, *in nomine tuo facimus hoc sacrificium.*

After a while, the Witch Mother removes the knife from Harriet's chest, letting her body fall limp and bloody to the ground.

I turn away from the scene. As much as I hated Harriet and wanted to kill her myself, I still find myself having mixed feelings about her death.

The Witch Mother holds up the knife with delicacy as it drips with blood. Only it doesn't look like normal blood, it's thick and black as it coats the white blade.

As she approaches me, I begin fighting against the restraints again. At this point, even my wolf has somewhat come up to the surface to grant me any strength she's got left in one last attempt to save ourselves and the baby.

"Stay away from me, you bitch," I hiss as the Witch Mother's careful steps bring her closer and closer to me.

"Marcus," she says unperturbed, completely focused on the task.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Marcus comes forward, ripping my gown at my chest, exposing it completely to her.

Both Helena and Marcus have their heads down in silent chanting; I can't hear what they're saying, but I can hear what the Witch Mother is chanting: *da ei vitam, da mihi lucem illam* over and over again.

Her eyes are completely glazed over as she reaches me, placing the tip of the knife to my chest, directly over my heart.

I start panting and my heart starts beating faster. Whatever her spell is, it's undeniably starting to have an effect on my body. I'm getting even weaker as her chanting gets louder and louder in my head. My limbs go numb. My entire body feels cold and sweat drips down my forehead. I'm slowly losing my vision as everything is starting to become blurry.

This can't be how I go.

This can't be how it ends for us; I still have to get back to Noah.

I close my eyes, trying to come up with something, anything, as a last resort.

My wolf has come close to me now, putting herself behind me as support. She's no longer protecting the pup. Her complete and undivided attention is on me, on us, trying to save us, for us, for our pup... for our mate.

I feel the tip of the knife begin to break my skin, causing a level of pain I had never experienced before.

I scream in pain and my wolf cringes, too. This not only hurts me, it's hurting her, too.

The knife inches closer to my heart with anguishing slow movements.

And then, out of nowhere, everything goes black.

I can't feel my wolf, I can't feel my pup, I can't even feel the knife penetrating my skin anymore.

My breathing has slowed down, as if I'm no longer in distress. It's an eerie feeling between relief and crippling grief.

There's only one thing that could be happening right now; a truth I'm going to have a hard time accepting.

I close my eyes, which is inconsequential since I can't see anything through the darkness, and let my tears fall to my cheeks with abandon.

This *was it for me.

I am, without a shadow of a doubt, dead.

But then, a blinding light warms up my face, forcing me to open my eyes.

I blink several times, adjusting to the change in light, and wipe the tears off my eyes.

Is this... is this the afterlife...?

I look around, surprised to find that this place is one I know very well.

Jade Waterfall?

"My child," I hear a warm voice behind me, "I've been waiting for you."