Chapter 1
"What is it?" I asked. Micheala was staring at the bushes. Suddenly a boy came out of the them. He had cuts and bruises all over his face and arms and there was blood on his lips.
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said "Hey there," before he collapsed on the ground.
"Oh my god!" I said, "We have to help him!"
"We can’t help him, he's a stranger!" Shelby said.
"So what? He's hurt and he looks about our age, how do we know that he's not a new student? We have to help our fellow students don't we?" Michaela insisted.
"Yeah I guess you’re right." I said in a mocking tone.
"Ok so.... let’s get him to..... our tree house, that way our parents don't see him," she said.
"Ok....... I guess."
"You grab one arm and I’ll grab the other."
"He's moving." Michaela said in a whisper, stepping away.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"I said he's moving,” she said again.
"Oh my gosh," said Shelby. "What do we do now?"
"I guess we can wake him up and see if he can walk to our tree house." Michaela walked over to the boy and shook him.
"Careful! We don't know how badly injured he is," I said. When she stopped shaking him he got up right away and growled at them. We all jumped and Michaela ran behind me Shelby and me.
The boy looked at us. “Sorry,” he said and walked towards us. We all walked backwards to keep a large space between him and us. "I won’t hurt you," he promised and stopped walking towards us.
"Do you think he’s telling the truth?" whispered Michaela.
"I think I'm telling the truth so can’t you trust me?" The boy asked.
"Hmm..... What’s your name?” I asked.
"Zev,” the boy replied with a smile.
"Ok Zev, what happened to you?" Shelby asked.
"My brothers did this to me."
"Oh really, what are your brothers names and how did they do this to you?" I asked.
"My brother’s names are Gryphon and Darius, but I can’t really tell you how they did this and even if I could, you wouldn't believe me."
"Well if you can’t tell us, then that means you don't trust us and we can’t trust you", said Michaela.
As she said that my stomach started to have that funny feeling. My heart was racing, but i kept quiet and let all the commotion continue. "Let’s go," I said as I turned and slowly walked away.
"Wait!" said Zev. "I’ll tell you, just let’s go somewhere more private and you have to promise me you won’t freak out or tell anyone."
"Ok fine, we won’t do any of that. Come on we need to get to my…I mean our tree house."
"Wait!" said Michaela.
“What?" asked Shelby and me at the same time.
"I feel someone else’s presence," she said softly.
"Michaela! We told you not to say things like that in front of other people,” said Shelby eyeing Zev’s reaction.
"But I feel someone else’s presence and it’s not human or animal its.... it’s more like a mixture of the two."
"What? Please don't say things like that. You always scare me when you say things like that," I said.
"She’s not making it up that thing you feel is my brother, but how can you feel his presence? Only witches can feel him when he is around.”
"Um... we are witches."
"Oh my god. That means my brothers were right.” When we all looked at him confused, he said, “My brothers and I got into a fight about whether or not there are three 'to be' powerful witch sisters."
"Really?! Did you hear that! We’re going to be-," Michaela started.
I cut her off. "Don't get too excited, he might be lying or bringing us straight into a trap."
"You’re half correct,” said a boy as he and one other boy came out from behind the trees. Then suddenly, there were three boys standing there looking at us.
"Eeeeekk..." squealed Michaela.
"What do mean ‘half correct’?" asked Shelby. When i heard Shelby’s voice I could hear the worry inside of her.
Gryphon grabbed Zev and turned him to face us. "This is not what Zev looks like,” he said.
"I still don't get it,” Shelby said again. There was an awkward silence, and everyone was staring at Zev, wondering who or what he was. As I stared his features began to change. His eyes changed from a grayish red to a pitch hollow black. His black hair melted into a light honey brown. At the same time his height stretched as he grew a little taller. As all this is happening the three of us had our mouths wide open and we traced our steps back. Gryphon laughed because of our looks on our faces. In my head I was thinking of how this wasn't possible and just went straight into shock.
Gryphon and Darius started to advance on us. I wanted to run, but I was still in shock. Gryphon grabbed me while Darius grabbed Shelby. Gryphon yelled at Zev to grab Michaela but before Zev could grab her, she started running away. Darius and Gryphon started laughing because they knew Michaela couldn't out run a vampire. As I watched Zev run off, I instantly knew we were out of luck because within two seconds Michaela was in Zevs arms.
"Where are you taking us?" Michaela asked, trying to get out of Zev's arms.
"You'll see," Zev whispered in Michaela’s ear. Before we could ask what he said, Zev flew up and was gone, Michaela with him. Then Shelby and Darius flew in the same direction, leaving me and Gryphon standing there. He just stared at me with his sparkling dark blue eyes. I got lost in his eyes, but before I could say anything, he flew after his brothers.
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Michaela and Zev were the first to arrive at a mysterious house. Zev couldn't stick the landing so Michaela landed on Zev's stomach. They were face to face and they looked into each other’s eyes. Michaela slowly got up, but then instead of running away, she sat on the floor, aside Zev.
Darius and Shelby landed, but not where Michaela and Zev are.
"Where are we?!" Shelby screamed.
"I don't know," Darius answered.
Shelby started going on about how mad she was and how she blamed all of it on him. She wasn’t paying attention to the ground so she fell off the small cliff behind her. Luckily, she caught on to a branch and Darius jumped down to get her. They were both hanging on the same branch and it couldn't hold both of them. Darius pushed Shelby up and the branch broke. He fell and hit the ground hard. Shelby ran down to him. "You saved my life,” she exclaimed.
"Ah! It was nothing but my leg really hurts,” he said giving her a pained expression.
"Oh my god it’s all my fault, I am so sorry."
"It’s fine,” he said groaning. Shelby felt so bad that she hugged him tight. He hugged back and didn't let go. Then Shelby stopped her nagging and they went out through the woods with Darius limping.
