Chapter 18-Explanation

Roe, Adrian and Shane sat down on the bed. Roe was leaning back against the headboard, and the two guys had sat down, one on either side at the foot of the bed.

Roe took a deep breath, then began. "Most supernatural creatures mark their mates. Werewolves, vampires, faeries, they all mark their mates."

"Fairies?" Shane asked, incredulously. "There are actually fairies?"

"Yes, there are actually faeries, but they're not exactly the tiny little pixie things that you're thinking of, they're different." Roe shook her head. "We're getting way off topic here. My spell won't last forever. I'll tell you about faeries later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

"As I was saying, most supernaturals mark their mates, but traditionally witches don't. My line of witches actually do mark their mates."

"Why?" Shane asked.

"If you will hush for a few minutes, I can finish telling you. Please hold your questions until I'm done explaining. If I don't answer something, then you can ask." Roe said, slightly annoyed.

Shane nodded and pantomimed zipping his lips.

"Thank you. Anyway, my family figured out that they formed a connection to whatever type of supernatural creature they got marked by, so we started waiting until we got married to be marked. It had led to a lot of issues when a witch in my family was marked by a different species than the one they married. Once we're marked, we feel compelled to help the species that we were marked by, even if it's not the same species that we're married to. That has caused some major issues between spouses."  She paused then added ruefully.  "I'm not doing a very good job explaining this am I?"

"Well, sort of." Adrian tried to reassure her.

Shane looked at Adrian then back at Roe.  "I'm really confused."

"Okay, let me see if an example will help.  My great aunt Katherine got marked by a werewolf.  At the time, she thought she was in love with him.  Later, he actually found his mate and dumped Katherine.  Then she fell in love with a vampire, whom she married.  After that whenever a problem arose between werewolves and vampires, she was extremely conflicted. She was compelled to help any werewolf that needed her because of being marked by one, even if it was against her husband's coven. It led to a great many fights between them, and problems in their relationship.  Does that make sense?"

"Basically, whenever you get marked, you're tied to whichever species marks you, correct?"  Adrian asked.

"Yes, but it only works the first time you get marked. If you get marked again, it's just like a mating mark."

"Okay, so what does that have to do with your powers?  And why tell us this?"  Shane asked impatiently.

"The first time that we're marked is when we come into our full powers, and we share some of those powers with the one who marks us."

"Marked as in bitten or marked as in mating mark?"  Shane asked.

"As in mating mark.  It doesn't have to be a completed mating though.  Some of my family have wanted to marry other witches and marked someone else to have the connection with that species."

"I'm a little unsure why."  Adrian said.

"Why what? "

"Why your family would do this, and why others would allow it."  Adrian replied.

"Remember how you had heard of the packs and covens around here trying to get me to align myself with them? That's why."  Roe said, slightly embarrassed.

"But why would they want that?"

"Okay, think about vampire history for a minute.  How many times in the stories have you heard mention of a witch?  More than likely, it would be worded as 'his pet witch' or something along those lines."

"Quite often now that I think about it.  Why?"

"Who do you think those witches were, and why were they aligned with vampires? Sometimes even against their own kind?"  Roe asked him.

"Do you mean to tell me that they were your ancestors?"  Adrian asked skeptically.

"Not all of them, but a good many yes, and they were usually on the winning side.  Also have you heard of any of the vampires who were said to have a pet witch being able to do weird things?  Or knowing things that they had no way of knowing?  Anything that was an oddity for a vampire that wasn't known about before the witch came into the picture?"

"Well, yes.  I have heard some strange tales, but I never believed them."

"The ones with the witches from my family probably could do what the stories said they did.  It would be part of the sharing powers thing I mentioned earlier."

"Are you saying that whoever marks you not only will bring you into your powers, but gain some themselves?"  Shane asked.

"Yes.  That's why Joe and your father had meetings with me. That's why every Alpha and Coven leader around here knows who I am. They're all trying to get me to mate with someone from their group, so they not only get my allegiance but they get a member with a power boost. And once they get me, they don't lose me. It's almost impossible to turn on them once I'm attached to one of their members."

"What kind of powers would they gain?"

"I don't know. It all depends on the person and what species they are."

"What do werewolves usually get?"

"Not everyone gets the same things, but I've heard of them getting resistance to magic, ability to cast spells, enhanced senses, resistance to the effects of silver.  Any number of things."

"They get all that?"  Shane asked incredulously.

"No."  Roe quickly replied.  "They usually get one thing.  Maybe two if they're both weak powers."

"Oh, okay."  Shane said disappointedly. "So if that's all they gain, why are they after you so much?"

"I get power from both my parents.  They both have ancestors that were supposedly part of the original coven of witches."

"Original coven?"  Shane asked.

"Yes, like all werewolves are descendants of Luna, and all vampires are descendants of Cain.  All witches are descendants of the original coven.  But you know how some bloodlines of wolf and vampire are purer than others and traceable all the way back to Luna or Cain?  I get that from both sides.  Nobody knows exactly how powerful I'll be when I get my full powers, that's why they want me."

"I've heard of you, and that you're supposed to be extremely powerful, but there hasn't been any mention of you not having your full powers."  Adrian said.

"The reason for that is that no one really knows that I don't have them yet. Nobody knows how our family gets their powers, so everybody assumes that I got them when I turned eighteen like most witches. They're still interested in me because they want me connected to their group. Marking would do that, but I've been avoiding the issue."

"Avoiding the issue?" Shane asked.

"Yes. I want to help everybody, not just one species.  It's already hard enough as it is to do so, without adding a marking compulsion to it. Nobody wants to get along.  You two have actually pleasantly surprised me by being so cooperative around each other."  Although to begin with, I really did think I was going to have to beat them over the head to get them in the same room together.

Adrian and Shane looked at each other.  "I don't know what happened."  Shane said, confused.  "I didn't want to have anything to do with a vampire to begin with, but I don't have..."  He paused like he was struggling to find the right word.

"The animosity?"  Adrian suggested.

"Yes. I don't have the animosity towards him that I had when you first picked him up."  Shane looked at Adrian.  "How'd you know that's the word I was looking for?"

"I had the same feeling you did to begin with, but it's pretty much gone now."  He turned to Roe.  "Do you know anything about this?"

"I'm just as shocked as you are.   If I had done it, I wouldn't be pointing it out to you.  Y'all may ruin it now that you know about it."

"Good point."  Shane said laughing.

Adrian looked at him.  "You've mellowed where she's concerned, too."

"Mellowed?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, to begin with you acted like you hated me.  Now, not so much." Roe answered him.

"Huh.  That is odd." Shane said.

The three of them sat there for a few minutes and thought about why they had gotten more cooperative.

"Anyway, I've been avoiding getting involved with anyone because I don't want to be tied to one species.  I want to be able to help whoever I want to.  And to answer your question from a few minutes ago, most of my family wants to help create cooperation between all of the supernatural community, that's why we mark other species.  That's what I've been trying to do too."

"All right, but what's the deal with you insisting that we promise not to tell anyone this? What difference could it make?"  Shane

"I have young cousins.  I don't want some lunatic kidnapping them to use them to gain more power.  It would be horrible if somebody made an army of people who had marked a witch.  Even with only three or four of them, they'd be hard to stop. But I've got about twenty cousins, with all of them, they'd be pretty much impossible to stop, especially with the witches helping them."

Shane and Adrian started at her aghast, thinking about the ramifications of what she had said.  Then they looked at each other and back at her.  "You're right.  That would be almost impossible to win against without heavy casualties on both sides."  Shane said.

"I completely understand your reluctance to tell us about this, considering the fact that you don't really know us."  Adrian said.

"I do too, now." Shane said.  "I promise I will do my best to not tell anyone, even my father the Alpha what you have told us today."

"Thank you."

"Okay.  I think we're with you so far, but I'm not quite sure what this has to do with us escaping."  Adrian said.

"Yeah.  Well, I was thinking that we would probably need my full powers to get out of here unscathed."  Roe said sheepishly.

Adrian grasped the concept first.  "You're thinking about one of us marking you, aren't you?"

"Well, actually I was thinking about y'all both marking me."

"How would that work?"  Shane asked.

"Well, you'd both have to bite me at the same time."

"Would that work?"  Adrian asked.

"One of my great aunts did it.  I'm not sure what the two guys got out of it, but it worked."

"Were they two different species?"

"Actually, it was one vampire and one werewolf. What I'm suggesting has been done before."

"Did it work out well for them?" Shane asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. I know they always seemed happy when I saw them. And one of the guys found another woman who was okay with their situation. So, I don't think they were all involved with each other."

"Okay with their situation?"

"Yes. With us the mating mark, even without the actual mating, connects the two people. And there's no way to break that connection, even if they both find someone else to marry. So my aunt and both men were permanently connected."

"Connected how?"

"They never talked about it, but seemed like their own pack. You know how you have the mind link with your pack mates? They seemed to have that, and be able to know what each other were thinking." Roe shook her head. "I'm not really sure, or if there were any problems with them doing that, but they were together a lot, even after one found another mate. They kinda just added her in, like she'd always been part of their group."

"So, why did your aunt do that?

"She was like me, and didn't want to have to choose one species to help. By binding herself to two different species, she could help them both. She did wind up improving vampire-werewolf relations where she lives."

"Where was that?" Adrian asked.

"She lives somewhere on the west coast. I can't remember exactly where. I've never been out there, I only see her when she comes to our family gatherings."

"That would explain why I haven't been called to anything on the west coast for quite a while now. Your aunt has probably been taking care of everything out there recently."

"Probably." Roe replied.

"So, if we did this, all three of us would gain powers, correct?" Adrian asked pensively.

"That's right." Roe replied.

"You being at full power would definitely help us escape. As would us getting a power boost." Adrian said.

"This sounds too good to be true." Shane said. "What's the drawback to doing this?"

"Well, for one thing, I'm not sure what all happened when my aunt was marked by the two men. As far as I know, no one but the three of them know, and maybe the other woman. So, I can't tell you what will happen if the three of us do this."

"What usually happens when it's just between two people?" Adrian asked.

"I already told you that the witch gets their full powers, and the other person gets some extra powers too." She paused and they nodded. "Usually they also swap some other things. My aunt Katherine that was marked by the werewolf couldn't wear silver jewelry after that, she got that from the werewolf. There aren't many things that come of it that are negative, and most of them are small things like that."

"So, you can't think of anything big that would be a bad part of this?"

"Well, there is one thing. Mates can sometimes be an issue."

"What do you mean, mates can be an issue?" Shane asked her.

"Marking a witch can make it harder to find a mate."

"How? Just spit it out." Shane said, sounding annoyed.

"Okay. Some people that mark witches never find their mates."

"So? Most people don't find their mates now." Shane said.

"I don't mean true mates. They never find a mate at all." Roe replied.