Chapter 21-Savage

As Roe screamed she thought, Shit this hurts a lot more than I was expecting it to.

Both Adrian and Shane pulled back, releasing her shoulders from their bites, at the same time. They each licked the wound they had made, prompting it to heal. Then all three of them fell over toward the head of the bed, exhausted and breathing hard.

After a minute, Adrian wearily asked Roe, "Are you alright?"

She took a deep breath and said "Yes, I think so, are y'all?"

"I seem to be fine, just tired."

"Me too. But I'll amend that to exhausted. I feel like I've just run fifty miles." Shane replied.

WHAM! BANG! They heard the hallway door slam open and a voice yelled. "What the hell is going in here?" They heard footsteps quickly entering Roe's room.

OH, shit! Roe thought. My ward fell when we did that. They heard me screaming.

Adrian and Shane looked at her and both jumped off of the bed. Adrian pulled Roe to him and off the back side of the bed, while Shane stood guard in front of it.

What do we do? Shane asked in her head.

I can hear you! Roe exclaimed. Can you both hear me, now?

Yes, we can. Calm the guards down, please. Adrian replied, pushing Roe behind him protectively, as the guards practically ran into the room.

Roe turned her attention to the guards to see Savage, Boudreau, and Parker in the room with guns pointed at Shane and Adrian. "STOP!" She yelled, stepping out from behind Adrian, and holding up her hands.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE?" Savage screamed at her.

"Calm down." Roe said, speaking slowly and softly to him, like she would to a wild animal. "Everything is fine. I was just doing what Mr. Marsden wanted me to." When she said that, Parker and Boudreau slightly lowered their weapons.

"WHAT?" Savage yelled.

She continued talking in the same tone of voice. "I was doing what Mr. Marsden wanted me to."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Savage continued to yell at her.

"I'm not explaining anything to you when you're yelling at me." She said to Savage, then turned to Parker and Boudreau. "I'll answer any questions y'all have, but I'm not going to explain while I'm being yelled at."

"YOU DAMN WELL WILL EXPLAIN WHAT YOU WERE DOING." Savage yelled once again.

"I said I would, but not when you're yelling at me." Roe said with exaggerated patience.

"YOU WILL EXPLAIN." He yelled.

Roe just looked at him. I'm not going to engage him any further. If they want to know, they'll get rid of him, or at least make him stop yelling at me.

"Savage." Parker said. "I think it would be best if you waited outside."

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE."

"I hate ta say it, but I agree with Parker here. I thin' ya should lissen ta 'im." Boudreau said.

"Who asked you?" Savage snarled at Boudreau.

Shane looked over his shoulder at Roe and Adrian. I see what you're talking about. I don't think he's a full werewolf. He's showing enough tendencies that I think he's part wolf, but he probably can't shift.

That would explain why he doesn't like me. He can probably feel that I'm not human, but doesn't have a wolf to explain the feeling to him.

That's probably it. Shane said as he turned back to face the guards again.

Boudreau had an almost angry expression on his face. "Now, son, ye'd best be listenin' ta me on this 'un. Either ya calm yerself down now, or get outta here."

"I'm not-" Savage started, but stopped when he caught sight of the look on Boudreau's face. "Fine." He snarled, then whirled around and left the room. They all heard the hallway door slam behind him.

"Okay." Roe said cheerfully. "Now that he's gone, we can talk. As I said before, I was doing what Mr. Marsden told me to."

Boudreau and Parker looked at each other, then back at Roe. "What do you mean?" Parker asked.

"Didn't he tell you why he had me here?"

"No, he just said to give you what you wanted." Parker answered her.

Boudreau just shrugged.

"He told me that he wanted me to get them to create a vampire werewolf hybrid." When Parker and Boudreau just stared at her, she asked "What do y'all think you're doing here, if not that?"

Boudreau answered her. "I was tole tha' this was a sorta prison facility for rogue wolves and vampires. Parker, do ya know wha' she's a talkin' 'bout?"

"I was told we were experimenting on rogues to see why they were like that." He said slowly. "I never questioned it until you were involved because they always seemed crazy to me."

Roe nodded. "I think we may all have been lied to." She looked at Parker. "Why did you think that humans were brought here?"

"What humans?" Parker asked. "There are no humans here, besides you."

"Mr. Marsden told me that he would provide me with humans for them to experiment on, in order to create his hybrid."

"I haven't seen any." Parker replied.

"I've seen a couple 'round 'ere." Boudreau said. "But they all seemed like they'd done los' their minds. They acted crazy."

"Where were they?" Parker asked. "Why haven't I seen them?"

Boudreau looked away. "We were tole na ta letcha see 'em. Savage said 'twas Marsden's orders."

Ask them if they know that Savage is part were, please. Roe told Shane telepathically.

"Did you know that Savage is part werewolf?" Shane asked.

"What!?" Parker exclaimed. "He can't be."

"Yes, he is. Haven't you noticed how much growling and snarling he does?" Shane asked them. "He probably can't shift. He may not even know what he is, but he is part werewolf."

"I have to tell Major Marsden." Parker said with a sense of urgency, then whirled around and left the room.

Boudreau looked out the door after him, then turned back to look at Roe. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Roe nodded.

Roe, look at him with your witch sight. See what you can see. Adrian said to her.

Roe didn't worry about asking him why, she just opened up her witch sight. He's glowing. Like there's a spell on him or something.

Okay. Adrian replied.

There's more to it than that, but I'll ask him about it later. "So, how about you let us go now that you know that we're not rogues?" She asked Boudreau.

"I don' kno' that yer not rogues. I dunno wha's goin' on 'round 'ere, but I aim ta find out." Boudreau said scowling, then he left too.

"Well, alrighty then." Roe said, moving out from behind the bed. "How are you two feeling?"

"I guess I'm okay." Shane said. "Exhausted, though."

"What did Boudreau look like to you?" Adrian asked her, avoiding her question, and moving out from behind the bed too.

"He looked like there was a spell cast on him. Why?"

"No, what did he look like with your sight? Describe it for me. Please."

"Um, okay." Roe said hesitantly. "He looked like he was covered in glowing greenish almost transparent paint....kinda. I can't really describe it well."

"Okay. And my chains are glowing a faint very light blue?"

"Yes. How'd you know that?"

"I can see it." Adrian said in wonder.

"You can see magic now?" Shane asked.

"I guess I can. How do you turn it off?"  He asked Roe.

"It's kind of hard to explain. It's like closing an imaginary eyelid, to me. How do you turn your hypnotism off?"

"What do you mean?"

"Release someone from it."

"Oh. I release it, like you do with a spell."

"Okay, how do you turn it on?  Like if you were going to hypnotize a guard?"

"It's sort of like flipping a switch." He paused, thinking. "Now I understand why you said it was hard to explain."

"The sight thing is different for everyone.  Different people imagine doing it different ways. Try imagining your sight has a switch like your hypnotism, and turn it off."

"Okay."  He was quiet for a few minutes, with a look of concentration on his face.  "That worked."  He finally said, sounding relieved.

"Good.  But it may take some practice to get it to stay that way.  With your hypnotism you have to turn it on, with this you have to turn it off.  It may turn itself back on if you're not paying attention to it, or if you're extremely tired."

Adrian nodded.

"Why do you get a new power, and I don't get anything?"  Shane complained.

"Some things show up before others."  Roe explained.  "I don't really feel any different, myself."

"So, how are we planning on getting out of here?"  Adrian asked.

"I need to look in my grimoire.  I'm sure there's something in there that'll help us."

"As I said before, you don't have a book with you."  Shane said sounding exasperated with her.

"I do, but you haven't seen it yet.  Give me a minute and I'll show it to you."

"Aren't you afraid of us stealing your spells?"  Shane asked snippily.

"Can you read Latin?"  Roe asked him.

"No, but what's that got to do with it?"

"My book's in Latin."

"Oh." He paused.  "What about someone stealing it?"

"I don't have the original with me.  The one that's with me is a rare spell.  Let me show you before you ask any more questions, please."

"Fine."  Shane pouted.

Roe slid her hand up her left arm, under the sleeve of her shirt, and up onto her shoulder.  She wiggled her fingers for a few seconds, then began sliding her hand back down her arm.  As soon as her fingertips emerged from under the shirt, the two men were stunned.  There was a tattoo of a book following her fingers down her arm.  She ran her fingers all the way down her arm and onto the palm of her hand.  Once the book tattoo reached her palm, she tapped it three times with her index finger, and it began to grow.  It grew up out of her hand until it was sitting in her palm, then it proceeded to get larger.  It grew until it was the size of a hardcover book, but very thick.  She then ran a finger across the front of the book before using both hands to support its weight.

Roe looked at Shane and Adrian, who were both staring at her with identical expressions of awe on their faces.  "Now do you understand how I've had it with me the whole time?"

They both nodded, totally speechless.

"Are you two okay?"  She asked them.

"What?  Oh, yeah.  I didn't know that was possible."  Adrian replied.

"Only powerful witches can do it, but they usually don't because it takes quite a bit of power.  In my case, I found a spell that makes tattoos sort of alive and almost self-sustaining, therefore I can do this without using too much power."

"Do you have any other tattoos like that?"  Shane asked excitedly, looking her over to see if he'd missed seeing one.

"Only one."  She laughed.  "My broom's a little shy.  I may be able to get her to come out a little later."

"Why only two of those?"  Shane asked.  "If I could do that, I'd have a bunch of them."

Roe laughed at his enthusiasm.  "These two are the only ones I could carry.  You have to have a certain amount of magical energy before you can sustain a living tattoo like this.  They live off of your energy, but need less than it would take to constantly recast the spell."  She shook her head.  "It was also very hard to make them in the first place, and took a lot of energy.  I had to have some friends help me because I couldn't do it on my own."

"Oh."  Shane said, sadly.

He looks like he was wanting one for himself, poor thing.  I doubt even being bound to me that he'll have the energy to sustain one.  Even if he did, I wonder what he'd want.  She smiled to herself then, returning to the issue at hand, said "Why don't we eat while I'm looking through the book.  Will one of y'all fix me a sandwich, please?"

"I'll make us both one."  Shane answered her, then went into her room to get started.

"You're full of surprises aren't you?"  Adrian asked Roe.

She shrugged.  "I guess.  I've learned that telling people everything about me generally isn't a good idea."  She turned and climbed back onto the bed again.

"What happened?"  He asked.

"Lots of things."  She replied.  "Let's get out of here.  When we're safe, and this has been handled, I'll tell you about it."  Maybe not all of it, but some of it, at least.

"Okay."  He said, then walked toward his refrigerator.  Shane walked in and gave her a sandwich and a drink, then they both walked out, leaving her to her reading.

Adrian and Shane were in Shane's room, when Roe finally drug herself out of her book. She walked into the room where they were, after stopping by the bathroom.

"Did you find anything?" Adrian asked her.

"I found a lot of stuff that I couldn't do before." Roe replied.

"What do you mean? How can you find stuff you couldn't do before in your own spell book?" Shane asked, confused.

"Being able to do certain spells takes practice. If you haven't gotten your powers yet, or if you haven't mastered a spell yet, or just want to collect them just in case, you put them in your spell book. My mom and my cousins have access to my spell book, so they add stuff to it too. It's become more like a coven spell book than a personal one." She laughed.

"A coven spell book?" Adrian asked. "Just how many cousins do you have?"

"I have a bunch of cousins." She smiled. "But what you want to know is how many cousins I have that are witches."

"Okay." He smiled back at her. "How many?"

"I have fifteen or sixteen cousins that are witches. Twelve of those are female."

"You have twelve female cousins?"

"Yes."

"So, including you, you would have thirteen. So you could make your own coven." Adrian said sounding interested.

"Yes. We could. But not all of them are that interested in being in a coven, and some of them are too young. I'm the oldest."

"And the most powerful?"

"Maybe. Probably. My cousins come from both my mom's and dad's sides of the family. I'm the only one that combines both lines."

"Are you named after your mom or your dad?" Adrian asked.

"I have my mom's witch name because she's the more powerful of the two."

"How did you get the name Roweena?" Shane asked.

"Two ways, actually. Both sides of the family like plant names. All of my cousins on my dad's side are named after trees. My cousins on mom's side are named after flowers or herbs." She laughed. "My dad's grandfather was named Rowan, which is a flowering tree, so they settled on Roweena."

"Your family definitely has unique names."

"Yeah, some of them aren't so bad, but some of them are just weird."

"Like what?" Shane asked.

"Well, Lilly and Violet aren't that bad as they are, and you can shorten Marigold to Mari and Gardenia to Dena, but there isn't really anything you can do with Acacia, Birch or Beech." She said ruefully, shaking her head. "There's nothing wrong with plant names, but some of my aunts and uncles went a little too far."

"I'd say so." Shane agreed.

"I guess we should try to get some sleep before we get out of here." Roe said, changing the subject. We could talk about my family's crazy names for a week and still not cover them all.

"Would you like to sleep with me in my bed?" Adrian asked her. "And I do mean sleep. You're right that we all need to be at a hundred percent in order to escape."

"Sure. I think yours is a lot more comfortable than mine is." She turned to Shane. "You can sleep in there with us, if you want."

"It would probably be safer if we were all together. They'd have less chance of sneaking up on us, and they couldn't separate us." Shane said.

He sounds like he's trying to convince himself to sleep with us. "I think so too." Roe said.

"Are you sure it won't be a problem?" Shane asked.

"It's perfectly fine." Adrian replied. "We all really need to sleep."

"Okay." Shane said. They all went back into Adrian's room and lay down on the bed, with Roe in the middle of the two men.

"I'm going to say goodnight, even though I'm not sure if it's night or not." Roe said.

"Works for me." Shane said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Adrian said.