Aradia sighed heavily as soon as she heard Melina slam the door. Neither one of them spoke not even when Aradia turned around to face her.
For a few seconds, the two just stood facing each other awkwardly and silently.
Finally, Aradia placed her hands on her hips and asked, "Well?"
Still Melina said nothing, but thankfully, that did not last long. "Does Roy hate me?"
"Huh?" Aradia asked, sounding stunned.
Melina repeated her question.
Aradia stood gaping at her but then she swallowed hard and asked, "What do you think?"
"I am asking you," Melina snapped.
Aradia sighed before answering her. "No."
"Why?"
Aradia was now even more stunned. Nevertheless, she tried to answer Melina by saying, "Considering he chased you into the woods, and almost ate you I think it's perfectly reasonable that he does not hate you. To be perfectly honest, I think he hates himself more."
"Why?"
"Didn't you hear the 'considering he chased and almost ate you' part?" Aradia asked with a sigh.
Melina sighed as well, but before she could say anything Aradia spoke again. "The truth of the matter is this Roy is sorry for what he almost did to you Melina and in his defense it was not really his fault."
"What do you mean?" Melina demanded.
Aradia sighed before explaining. "Despite what people think werewolves generally have control over their animal selves, but during the full moon all that changes. It is kind of like their time of the month, and their animal selves take completely over. It turns them into hulking, huge, bloodthirsty beasts! Worst part is on the full moon if they bite someone they too can become infected, and by the next full moon they later turn into werewolves themselves."
"But don't worry I checked you out," Aradia said reassuringly to Melina's worried face. "Right after I saved you, I saw no bite marks, so you are in the clear."
Melina sighed with relief.
Aradia continued. "For what is worth Lina, Roy does feel bad about what happened, and for the record he never asked to be a werewolf. He was born one."
"Is that possible?" Melina asked.
Aradia nodded and said, "If a man and woman who have a shred of werewolf DNA mate their offspring will most likely be born werewolves. It is rare that a child of any werewolf will be born human."
"So Roy was born like that? He grew up that way his entire life?"
Aradia nodded sadly. "We were all born like this (except for Dax of course and the other vampires) Roy, me, the fae, and the shape-shifters."
She sighed before continuing. "Our entire lives have been like this I mean yeah we got super powers and everything but let me tell you something Melina. If you ask anyone of us, I can assure you that we would all say in a heartbeat that we all wish we were human. None of us asked to be like this hell even with the vampires. I mean some of them did at one time probably did ask to be what they are, but I bet by now they wish they could go back in time and undo such a thing."
Melina was silent after Aradia's confession.
However, before Aradia could say anything further Melina asked, "Do you wish you were human Rai?"
Amazingly, Aradia laughed. "Of course I do. I hate being who I am. Sure, I have power, but what has it ever done for me except get me bullied, picked on, and isolated? Even now after everything has changed, and I do have friends I can assure that I still wish I was just like you!"
"Just like me?" Melina cried out stunned. "What the hell do you mean?"
"I wish I was human like you. I wish I wasn't the way I am."
"But," Melina argued, "I saw what you did to Roy. How on earth can you not want or like all that power?"
"How? I will tell you how! Because of my power, I have been picked on mercilessly since the day I first realized that people are not supposed to be able to do the things I can do. People pretend to be my friend or love me because I am powerful. Most of all, because of my powers I am now viewed as the biggest threat of the hidden world and..."
"Whoa whoa time out," Melina interrupted, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Aradia sighed. She knew she had no right to tell Melina the whole truth, but the fact of the matter was all the stress she had been enduring was starting to get to her. Therefore, she decided that she might as well tell Melina everything.
"It is like this Lina," Aradia began, "Over three hundred years ago the Salem Witch trials occurred. Although no real witches were hung in the human world, in the hidden world not only were real witches hung but they were also hunted down, and executed. I suspect many of them used their powers to try save themselves but when you are one race against many...I mean majority always rules am I right? Furthermore, a hidden witch's powers is based on their energy, if we use too much we could likely kill ourselves. So to have the rest of the hidden races attack us and we only have our powers to defend ourselves it would be like using nuclear bombs against our enemies. It would be effective, but extremely dangerous especially to us. The other hiddens knew all this of course, which is why I suspect how it was possible to hunt down all the witches and make sure none of them lived. "
"None of them?" said Melina, "But what about you?"
Aradia sighed. "I am indeed a hidden witch and I was born in the same year as the Salem Witch trials, but thanks to the seer of my coven who had raised me when my mother died that I am alive today. She cast a spell to send me to where I would find happiness and that is how my parents found me that is how why I survived the extermination of my people."
"Extermination?" Melina repeated.
Aradia nodded sadly, and decided to finish her tale. "My people were completely killed Melina. Every witch coven in the hidden world was destroyed. None of them survived."
Now Melina look confused. "None of them survived? But Aradia that can't be true! I mean you are a witch, and yet you are still alive..."
"And I am the last one," said Aradia, "I am the absolute last of my kind. Yes, I survived the slaughter of my people but I was the only who did. I am the only one who is left Melina. I am the last witch."
Melina now stood looking completely stunned at Aradia.
"The last?" Melina said slowly, "But wouldn't that mean..."
"That I am all alone," Aradia concluded with a bitter smile. "Yeah."
For the first time since they ever met, a non-verbal warm comforting bond began to form between the two girls.
Unfortunately, it did not last long for at that very moment a tall, dark haired, skinny, freckled werewolf burst through a window, and landed on all fours on a nearby car.
Both Aradia and Melina turned to look at him extremely bewildered, but Aradia recovered quickly enough to demand who he was and what he wanted.
The werewolf laughed as he said, "Who I am is not important. What I want I think is pretty damn obvious."
Melina looked confused. Aradia, however, did not and raced towards the werewolf. She grabbed him by his coat, and then hurled him right out of the very window that he had jumped through.
Grabbing Melina's hand and dragging her away, Aradia fled into the back room. Temporarily reeling from the stench of oil and gasoline, Aradia let go of Melina. She then closed the door behind them, dug her small fingernails into a heavily dismantled car, and dragged it in front of the door!
"This will stop them," Aradia muttered to herself, "But not for long."
As if to prove her prediction true, there was suddenly a loud pounding on the door making the car in front of it slowly screech.
Aradia turned to face a trembling Melina.
After heaving a heavy sigh, Aradia knew what she had to do.
She went to Melina, seized her face in her hands, and told her to look and to listen to her. Aradia had to shake her a little bit in order to get her attention, but once she did so, she repeated her command.
"Look Melina," said Aradia, "The guys that are here they are after me."
"Why?" Melina demanded.
Aradia sighed heavily before she explained. "The only thing that sucks more than being the last witch is the fact that being the last makes people see me as some kind of political tool or to be more precise a political trophy that can be stolen or in this case kidnapped. It happened last year..."
Aradia stopped; realizing explaining would take too much time.
"Look Melina my point is this," Aradia said sharply, "These guys that are after us. I know they are not going to hurt me at least not much, but since you are human, the chances are if they find you, they might kill you. Therefore, I need you to hide somewhere in here where the oil will disguise your scent. They won't be able to find you."
"What will you do?" asked Melina.
Aradia gulped. "I will try to hold them off, but chances are that the werewolf has brought reinforcements so no matter how hard I fight it won't be for long. After they take me, I need you to sneak out of here and get help."
"You mean you want me to leave you?" Melina asked bewildered.
Aradia sighed and nodded while Melina stood stunned.
Slowly, she began to shake her head. "No. Aradia. Forget it! I cannot just leave you! You don't know what they will do to you!"
"I am pretty sure I do," said Aradia with a bitter smile.
Melina tried to argue further, but Aradia cut her off. "Look, there is no time to argue I need you to hide like now!"
Nevertheless, Melina shook her head once again. Aradia then exhaled a breath and with no further warning she, head butted Melina, knocking her out completely. She then dragged Melina behind a pile of oil rags. She also grabbed an armful of the rags and threw it over Melina, covering her completely!
At that very moment, a gang of werewolves stormed through the previously barricaded door. They turned slowly to look at Aradia, all of them smiling evilly.
Aradia forced a nervous smile before saying, "So who wants to dance with me first?"
The werewolf that was the first to storm the shop rushed towards her, still in his human form, but with his claws extended long and sharp.
Aradia quickly sidestepped, narrowly avoiding him, and said, "You huh? Well in that case let's mambo!"
Chuckling dryly, the werewolf raced towards her but once again, she avoided him. She was tempted to use fire in order to make them back off permanently. However, since this was a mechanics shop there was gasoline everywhere so Aradia deduced that one spark of fire could make this whole place explode with her and Melina in it. I am going have to use brute strength to solve this one, Aradia thought to herself with sarcastic smile. She then kicked the werewolf right into the pole, which helped keep a blue car up in the air. At least, it had until he hit it and caused the pole to bend so far that in a mere second the blue car fell on top of him!
For a few tense seconds the rest of them stood looking at the car awkwardly until Aradia chuckled and said, "My bad."
Snapping out of the stunned silence, another werewolf lunged towards Aradia whom threw a roundhouse kick that sent him flying!
Aradia chuckled. "Let's hear it for women's lower body strength!"
However, it was while she was chuckling that two werewolves lunged forward at the same time and grabbed hold of both of Aradia's arms.
"Oh crap!" She muttered as she struggled, trying to free herself.
"Careful with her boys," Another werewolf chuckled as he walked towards her. "We don't want to take damaged goods to our client!"
"Hell Dude! By the time, I am done with you! You won't even be able to take me to the prom!" Ironically, using the two guys who held her as suspension Aradia raised her right leg to kick him from below his chin and then her left to get him away. He fell several feet away flat on his back, groaning softly in pain.
Aradia laughed, but her victory was very short lived. She had been so busy fighting that she did not notice that one of the werewolves had snuck up from behind her with a pipe. He hit her with a loud clang, making Aradia slump forwards.
"Jesus! Don't tell me you killed her!" the werewolf holding her left arm shouted as he laid her down.
The one on the right quickly felt her pulse and then sighed, "No. She's okay. Just out!"
"Thank God!" The last one exclaimed who stood in front of them, and was looking down at Aradia. "The last thing we want to do is kill our next paycheck."
"What were the rest of our instructions from our client?" the one on the left asked while scooping Aradia into his arms.
The last one dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.
After looking at it for a few seconds, he said, "We take her to this address and then we get paid."
"That's all?" asked the one on the right.
"Hey," The one with the pipe interjected, "Do you really want there to be more? I mean look what she did to Bjorn."
Using the pipe like a pointer, he gestured towards where the blue car had crashed.
"Is he still alive?" The one on the right asked.
The last one shook his head sadly and said, "If he was he would have let us know by now."
An awkward silence now filled the room.
It lasted until the one on the left said, "It's a shame really. He was a cool guy."
"Yeah well," The last one exclaimed, "More money for us!"
The reaction to his statement was surprising.
The others either laughed softly or murmured, "Oh yeah," under their breath.
The left one now said, "Hey guys I don't mean to be rude but do you mind if we hurry up and get out of here."
"What's your hurry?"
The left one shrugged and said, "It's just I got plans tonight."
"That's all?"
"Well there is that," he added, "And I really don't like holding onto this chick longer than I have to. She smells really weird and she is kind of heavy."
He gave a small grunt to illustrate his reasoning.
The others all laughed before agreeing. One at a time, they shuffled out of the shop not noticing the unconscious African American girl lying underneath the oily rags.