Taken (h.s.) **EDITING**

Taken: Ch. 6

First Draft. Will be changed. Once so,  the following chapters will not make sense nor correspond with this chapter. You will be alerted when each chapter is redone.

MAYA'S POV

"Thanks, Liam," I say in less than a whisper as I hit the sheets of my bed. I breathe out a sigh of relief, as my cheek doesn't burn with pain.

"You're welcome," I hear him say as I drift off to sleep.

3RD PERSON, MAYA'S DREAM

The sprites dance around a dreaming Maya. She "wakes" with a start and stares with fear at the ethereal beings.

"Shush child, we will protect you from that fiend," a light blue spirit says, her face -which has grown from one of the dancing wisps- contorts at the last word. She fully materializes and her striking blue hair falls down onto her shoulders. Azaela is her name. She wears full blue and seems to sparkle.

"What are you talking about?" Maya says, confused.

A few of the ever-materializing sprites exchange worried glances.

"You mean... Yahlae didn't harm you?" Azaela says, surprized.

"Yahlae?"

"The Light and Day goddess...?"

"Oh, her!" Maya's face lights up with a smile. "No! She'd never harm me-- She said as long as I do something she, the First Mother, would protect me."

"What.... What did she ask you to do?"

"Not to trust them.... Whoever 'them' are." She giggles.

"This is worse than we thought," a dark red spirit named Jhansom whispers into Azaela's ear.

"Huh?" Maya says brilliantly. The sprite women look over at her, and Jhansom sighs.

"She.... She wants you to become distant from the one who will change your life. She knows you can have powerful influence" -Maya tries to interrupt but Jhansom stops her- "Over people around you and that makes you special to her. She needs people to believe she's good- which she isn't -to keep her power strong. She can't let you change the balance of the world, she needs you to betray your kind."

"What are you saying, that I'm a- a- a- a spirit?"

"No," Azaela laughs. "Definitely not."

"Then what ARE you saying?"

They sigh and share a reluctant look, as if that one look has great meaning.

"Stay true to Harry, Maya. Love him with all your heart."

"What!? He's my kidnapper!"

"He's your saviour."

"No, he isn't! I don't believe you!"

"Look inside you. What does your gut say?"

"My gut says that you're lying about the Harry part," she says stubbornly. Azaela and Jhansom sigh in desperation.

"Fine. Just-- stay away from Ÿahlae. And please, whatever you do, trust the vampires." So thats who Ÿahlae didn't want Maya to trust. "They will save you when you need it most." Jhansom looks like she has more to say, and Maya catches it.

"What else?" she questions.

Azaela speaks this time, "She is not your 'First Mother', Maya. You weren't born for the day, or the 'light'. You were born to be good, and that happens to be us and a few other species. You were born to be--"

"What?" Maya says quietly, anxious for the answer and afraid of it at the same time.

Jhansom is about to answer when Maya is pulled out of her otherworldly dream by the opening of a door, and the streaming of light.