The Beast Within (The Beast Withon Book 1) Read online

  “You’re the key to ending the curse, so they go after your bloodline more than the others. They fear you most of all.”

  I asked him what that had to do with me. Why would they fear me above the rest of the maga? He became quiet again, and added:

  “The two who fall in love and destroy the curse are both of royalty, a prince and a princess.” With that he left my house and I have not seen him since.

  All that did was leave me with more questions. I also did not feel that he had given me the whole of the story.

  -7-

  “Apple or orange?” Robin glared at me over the two lip glosses she held in her hand.

  “What?”

  “Apple or orange, what flavor do you want?”

  “Apple.” I said rather quickly, I was still just trying to process. It’s been three days and I need clarification.

  “Wow, consider my head bitten.” She threw the clear tube with the green cap at me and just narrowly missed my face.

  “Sorry, I’m just not feeling school today.”

  “Or yesterday, or the day before.” Callie chimed in before Robin could.

  “Never mind that,” Robin scolded Callie, “what time are we meeting for Mike’s party tonight?”

  “Oh my… I forgot about the party.”

  “What did you think the gloss was for? You have got to wear a flavor tonight, or you’re going to taste the last thing the guy burps up.”

  “And now I want to vomit.”

  She rolled her eyes at me and started her scan of science class for Mike. She’s had a crush on him since the 3rd grade. Only Mike was more into girls like Callie, less involved with themselve.

  “Oh, come on Ren, we have got to party. You’ve been a certifiable zombie since your mom left you guys, you have to start living.” Robin found her target. Mike was hovering over his teammates in the back of the room trying to spin balance a basketball on his index finger.

  “Way to be sympathetic Robin.” I felt the air move under the table as Callie tried to kick Robin in the shin.

  Robin brought her gaze back to her own table, “What?” “I am living, and right now I’m living a nightmare.” I looked down as Mr. Hock dropped a tray on our table. Inside the tray was a half dissected frog.

  “That is so gross Mr. Hock.” Robin professed.

  “This is biology Miss. Fuller,” he said to Robin, and then he motioned to the rest of the class, “biology is the study of all living things. Frogs are the only thing the department of education is willing to let you youngsters put a blade through.” You could hear the chuckles from the boys in the back of the room.

  “Ugh, this is gross. I’m having my mom excuse me from this section.” Robin pushed the tray closer to Callie and me.

  “That’s fine Miss Fuller, but that will get you a definite zero for this section as well. If you try to participate maybe I’ll give you a D.”

  “Fine.” She sat upright in her chair.

  “Minus.” Mr. Hock added while the rest of the class chuckled. After the last bell you could hear the normal hooting and hollering as the weekend was officially upon us. Even though, I had no interest in going to Mike’s party, I really did feel like letting loose for a few hours. As I started to make a mental note as to what I was going to wear, I noticed one of Ty’s brothers, waiting at the curb. He was not enrolled in school; apparently he could not be bothered with pretenses. It was rumored around town that his bad-boy routine had gotten him expelled from his last school, so now he was being home-schooled.

  I started to walk past him and he turned and lined in step with me.

  “Can I help you with something?” I asked without looking at him.

  “No, but I would love to gut you.” He smirked a little, and stopped walking. “Don’t worry principessa, I have been given strict orders not to harm so much as a hair on your head.”

  “Then why are you here? This isn’t exactly your scene.”

  “I’ve been sent, by my uncles.”

  All the blood rushed to my face just then. Ty made me promise never to go to his house, never to see his uncles. They still believed me to be the enemy.

  “Why would they want to see me?”

  “That’s between you and them.” He turned on his heal and walked off in the opposite direction.

  It did not take me much time to realize I was going to break the promise I made to Ty. Speaking with his uncles could get me more of the answers I’ve been looking for. I figured I could go see them and still have time to make it to the party, after a quick stop at home to change. Well, as long as they don’t kill me.

  I knocked on the front door half expecting Ty to answer, but found myself being greeted by a squat round man, whom quickly ushered me inside and closed the door. We walked through the foyer into what looked like a living room, down a hall way and passed a few doors, and into what appeared to be a very crowded den.

  The room had two very large wooden desks, each in its own corner of the room. If I had not seen the amount of furniture in the rom for myself, I would have never believed that it could all fit.

  The two men were not what I had imagined. My imagination was thinking about intimidating lords, but they weren’t intimidating at all. The man that answered the door looked like he was in his late-forties, balding with dirty blond hair, and a full beard. He was only 5 feet tall with a round mid-section. The other man looked to be in his sixties. He was thin and tall with a full head of white hair, but his skin seemed to be lacking melanin. His face and hands were ashen and almost white. He reached to shake my hand and I noticed his hand was as cold as ice.

  “Welcome, please do take a seat.”

  Once inside the eldest man had closed the door behind us.

  “What do you want with me?”

  “Relax, we did not ask you here to hurt you.”

  “Well, I’ve been told you would like nothing more than to get rid of me. So, why shouldn’t I think you would wish me harm? Or that you would lure me here to get rid of me?”

  “Well, we simply want to talk. Besides il principe has requested you be unharmed.”

  “The prince?” I ask completely confused.

  “You’ve been studding your Italian. Yes the prince has asked that we not harm you. He is very fond of you.” The taller of the two men states.

  “Well, I find that very funny, I don’t believe I have met your prince yet.”

  “Be that as it may, we have simply asked you here to speak to you.”

  “Is your prince the one I am foretold to marry? Is that what this is?” I look at one and then the other, “Because I’m only 17. I have no interest in getting married.”

  “No, that’s not it. We just came to realize you are a new maga, which is so unheard of. We had to ask you for ourselves. When did your mother introduce you to magic?” The stout man asked as he poured himself a drink from the table in the corner. I realized the color of the room was that strange red as in the tra monde, but the walls were a stained cherry. The fire place was roaring, and with the door closed the room had filled with so much heat it was beginning to become overwhelming for me.

  “So, you’re assessing my skills with magia?” I start to feel faint all of a sudden, and my stomach starts to tighten. “It’s really warm in here.” I chose a green velvet chase lounge and sat on the edge of the seat, while removing the sweater I had on over my cheerleader uniform.

  “Our apologies.” The short man opened the door and turned a knob on the side of the fire place, which seemed to lower the flame inside.

  “How about we start over,” the taller of the two started, “I am Hogarth, and this fun-sized gentleman is my brother, Gareth.

  “I’m Renee.” With that each of them reached out to shake my hand. I had expected to feel some sort of electricity when my hand released each of them, just as I felt with Ty, but there was nothing. The sense of Buio was there, deep in my stomach. It was like I had a homing device for them or that they gave me indigestion.

  �
�To answer your question, my mother hadn’t told me about magic in our family until I was 15, so that would be one year before we lost her.” If I was going to stand here and answer questions, maybe I could ask them a few.

  “Do you know why the passages are closed?”

  “Yes, we do.” Gareth had his back to me, while he poured himself another two fingers of scotch I presumed. “We know why they are closed and we know who closed them.”

  Hogarth then continued, “We believe we know who. Let’s not jump the gun now brother.”

  “So then you knew the passage was going to close before it did?” I asked them.

  “Well, yes. We are the eldest of our clan. We were sent through the passage to collect the young ones before the passages were closed, to hopefully avoid them being trapped here, or to do this.” He motioned to the entire room. “Care for them in the chance we did not get them back in time.” Gareth then took over, like a well scripted show.

  “When the king heard the youngsters had come here, and he knew of a plot to close the passage for good, he sent us to get them.”

  “Why?”

  “He is our king, and he cares for all the children as if they were his own. In our world they are unable to be killed or even harmed.”

  “Wait… your immortal?” I jumped in and asked. I did not remember Ty saying anything about them all being immortal.

  “Not in the way you know. We can die, just not by another’s hands.”

  “Oh,” That really did not answer my question, but I decided to ask Ty to explain later.

  “Well, since we could not keep our natural form in this world, we do not know if the same is true for them here.”

  “Is it?”

  They exchanged looks, “I suppose you’ll find that one out for yourself eventually. So I’ll tell you. We do not know. While they are in this house they are, your definition of immortal.”

  Again they switch from Hogarth to Gareth, “The house has been spelled to make certain that any magical creature inside cannot come to any harm.” He glances at Hogarth who continues, “So, see, we could not harm you here inside our home anyway.”

  Gareth then continues, “While they are outside, they may be in danger.” He gives me a stern look.

  “If you think there in danger from me, then why tell me all of this?”

  “We have told you, to prove to you we do not think you mean to cause them harm. Besides, we don’t believe you are the enemy any more than we think you could hurt a fly.” He looks up at me, “Unless you have a good enough reason.”

  Then Hogarth continues, “You are very powerful, and as we have been told you don’t wish to harm them, we would acquisition you to help them, and not just the three that live here, but the others as well.”

  “I don’t know who you’re getting your information from, but I’m not a powerful maga. I have not even done magic, or any spells for that matter. My mother told me we were huntresses, not sorceresses. I had no idea about any of this until three days ago.”

  “Well you are principessa stregone, and the last of your line, as it seems. You are of the bloodline that supersedes all maga.” Hogarth says this with such ferocity; I know he’s trying to convince me.

  “I grew up a human, and then was a huntress. I am no princess, and I’m sure as hell not magical. I can say I will not harm any of your boys, nor do I wish to. I just want to open the passage and get my mother back. I have no idea if she’s ok and it’s killing me.”

  “Child,” Hogarth starts, and again Gareth picks up, “your mother is the regina madre, she is fine. I can tell you she is with her clan, and quite possibly with your father. No harm is going to come to her. The passage will never be open again, unless you can commit to your heritage, and magic.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Because, luce maga may be responsible for the passage being closed, so it would only be fitting that you should be able to help open it.” Gareth sat on the arm of the red sofa, he sipped his drink and at the last sip he gazed at the bottom of the class while holding it up in front of the fire.

  “Ok, how am I supposed to help them, and the rest? I don’t understand.”

  Gareth, without looking away from his glass added, “All in good time.”

  -8-

  The conversation with Ty’s uncles had me reeling. Ty had tried to tell me I was a princess of my clan, and now they were telling me I was princess of all the clans, and powerful with magic. I did not ask them if they were able to teach me. Ty made me promise not to go there. Now more than anything else, I was afraid he would be angry with me for it. Plus I had not gotten any more answers from them than I had from Ty. I should not have gone there.

  Now I was back at home, my father and brother were in the kitchen getting dinner on the table. As I entered the room I could smell the fast food dinner of choice for this evening… pizza.

  Then I heard them arguing, which was not like them.

  “You can’t just decide when you’re going to work, that’s how you get fired.”

  “I figured it would be ok, you can just give them a note or tell them I wasn’t feeling good or something.”

  “Just because I got you a job at my office doesn’t mean you can count on me to let you slack.” My father was setting the table for dinner, while Xander sat at the table eating a fudge pop.

  “Having desert before dinner again Xander?”

  “Shut it Renee.” He said with a kick to my ankle, while trying to take a bite of his pop. His foot missed my ankle and jerked him in his chair, which made his pop go right into his eye.

  Laughing I hugged my father and grabbed the silverware out of his hand.

  “I’ll help. My hands aren’t broken.” I said with a nod in my brother’s direction.

  “I was craving chocolate. Leave me alone.”

  “On your period again?” I ask.

  “Ok Renee, real funny.” He said, still wiping fudge from his eye.

  “You know, since mom’s been gone all you do is eat and sleep. Dad was nice enough to get you a job, and you’re treating it like school. Instead of working in the college, why not just go to college so you can ditch class instead. You made a career out of it in high school.”

  “First of all, mom leaving us was tough sure; I had to cope in my own way. I’m not saying I’m depressed or anything. Anyway, that has nothing to do with my need to NOT go to another scholastic institution, as a student at least. I am not a very good student so why pretend I am.”

  “Well, I’m not supporting you for the rest of your life.” My father said as he filled the plates with pepperoni pizza.

  “Wait… what do you mean mom left?”

  “Renee, honey, it’s been over a year. Don’t pretend you did not realize she’s not here.”

  “Dad, I’m not pretending anything. Mom did not leave, she’s stuck in the other world…remember?!”

  “Funny spaz…”

  “Don’t call your sister names.” My dad said to Xander who was shoveling pizza in his mouth now, “I know it’s hard, but making up fairy tales is not going to make it easier to handle. We have to move on.”

  Oh my, what was going on? My brother and father have no idea what’s happened to my mother. I tried to talk to them about Ty and my father said he’s lived with his uncles for ten years in that house. I could not believe my ears. The worst part of it was when I went to my father’s desk in the living room. All the books on supernatural activity, magic, sorcery and everything thing non normal, all those books were gone. Not an old leather book anywhere in site.

  I went to my room and changed out of my uniform. Something new was happening and I needed to talk to Ty.

  I left my house and headed for Mike’s party. Maybe he would decide a high school party was what he needed to fit in more. I doubted it, but it was the only place I could think to look for him. I was at his house not an hour earlier and he did not seem to be there.

  -9-

  The house was already overrun b
y teens from every class. I spotted Robin and Callie flirting their way to the back of the house where one could only assume a keg was hiding. Mike’s parents worked out of town a lot, and since he started his senior year at 18 years old, it was no wonder he was left alone most of the time.

  I made my way to the back of the house and managed to locate the beer keg. With a red cup in hand I joined Callie pool-side.

  “Where did Robin disappear to?”