Moonless

Aftermath

Waking up this morning I felt a very inexplicable feeling in my heart. I dreamed of the werewolf chasing me again. It always ended where we were about to grab each other's hand. I can't stop thinking about it, it keeps running through my mind, the warm feeling I get when I stare into those dark green eyes and the warmth I felt when my hand almost touch his, even thinking about it is making my heart go crazy.

Shaking myself out of it I started to get ready for the day

When Kaiden and I had teleported back to the village we were told news that we weren't the only ones in a dilemma, many other witch clans were attacked and/or destroyed. I started working at once, I took to the medical tents while Kaiden went out with the other Guardians, I just came off a 15-hour shift 4 hours ago. I came home to rest my eyes and put something in my stomach so I could go straight back to work.

It's been two whole days since the wolf attack and security became super intense. Kaiden is always on patrol and they've built searching stands at the village entry so every time someone tries to enter they get their whole vehicle searched and need to show their emblem or permission pass, and some proof of identification.

When I finally got a chance to see Kaiden last night, he looked so exhausted and only talked about the search parties they had for missing family members and the scouting groups.

The Elders of the clan had given word to the nearby clans who were also attacked that they were more than welcome to receive medical attention and warm food from our village. Our predicament was luckier than other towns since we were at the festival grounds that night, our actual village buildings didn't undergo a strike which means housing, hospitals, and schools are still intact. However many other villages weren't so lucky, somehow the werewolves had managed to sneak past their barriers and wreaked havoc. Some of our witches who had managed to not get harmed are going to other clans to aid them.

 So far I've helped at least over 200 patients and many of them weren't severely injured thank the goddesses. However, there were others who weren't so lucky, the most critical cases included werewolf bites. 

It's common knowledge that a werewolf's bite is deadly to a vampire, but what many don't know is that a werewolf's venom can affect a witch too. In hopeful cases, nothing severe happens except a small infection that's easily treatable with the right care, but in other's, it can cause a witch or warlock to slowly lose their minds or have a severe reaction leading to long-term physical or mental effects, and obviously in the worst case scenario death.

I've only had a handful of patients who were bitten by a werewolf and so far none of them had shown any symptoms of them losing their minds or anything like that. 

Walking down the stairs I saw my grandmother pouring some coffee and placing down some oatmeal and boiled eggs. "Morning Grams" I gave her a small smile half hoping that it showed her I didn't look as drained as I felt.

She gave me worried look "Ali'bear you don't have to go in today" she's using my old childhood nickname against me, clever.  For the past two days I've been working random shifts and 'haven't taken care of myself lately' her words not mine, so she's been after me to relax and get some rest and has been using new things to try and get me to stay home so I can 'recharge', again her words not mine. 

A few strands of brown and gray hair escaped from her loose-knit bun and fell onto the sides of her face. My grandmother is currently working in a nearby school building that is temporarily a soup kitchen that is sending food to the other clans.

I sighed at her statement and sat down in the chair across from her picking up the spoon from the bowl "Yes I do grams, they need more healers and the number of injured keep piling up. It's bad enough that most of our healers are injured from the attack and many of them passed out from straining out their magic veins" putting the spoon full of porridge in my mouth I relished in the warmth it provided. For the past 2 days, I've had nothing but snacks or cold food from the soup kitchen so it felt good to have something as simple and warm like porridge in my stomach.

"You're injured too!" she exclaimed and pointed down at my leg, the claw marks that I'd gotten two nights ago were still visible. When I came back to the village I was immediately taken to a healer tent and had it checked. Although I had already cauterized it they still wanted to make sure there wasn't a serious problem, so they did some spells and put an herbal paste on it and gave me some stuff for the pain, but I gave those to another person who needed it more than I did.

"And! you look like a zombie with those bags under your eyes, you haven't eaten anything solid for the past couple of days, and you just got off a shift," she said with conviction while judging my expression as I ate another spoonful with a smile growing on my face 

"Grams I'm fine, If I have strength then I need to use it to help down at the hospitals" I couldn't even convince myself with that pathetic line, I'm sleep deprived, my magic veins are being strained way past normal, and I'm pretty sure she's going to hit me. 

Grams didn't look at all convinced and she snatched a couple of berries from the fruit bowl that sits in the center of the table and threw them at me. I quickly dodged it since I predicted that she would either hit me or throw something small at me "You're so stubborn! Just like your mother" my ears perked up at the topic of my parents, they were currently in Europe helping other witch clans in any way they could. They do send money back twice every month along with a gift from a new country they visit. I have a whole shelf dedicated to the trinkets, so far there is an elephant made with china glass, a crystal ball that floats and contains a mini snow storm in the center of it ( they sent it to me from Russia), and many others that take too long to explain.

I leaned forward and grabbed her hand that was on the table and gently held it with mine. Looking her directly in the eyes I saw the same silver eyes that usually get passed down every generation through the Ivy Lineage.  "Grams, I really need to go and help our people" my voice didn't plead, it didn't whine, but had a calm reassurance that everything will be fine.

She looked away and inhaled a deep breath, she knows she'll never convince me. It took her a moment before she looked back at me. She scanned my face and finally sighed "Alright sweetheart" She placed her free hand on my cheek "Go help your people, but please be wary of your magic" she gave me small smile before she got up and went into the other room.

Peering at the clock it showed that it was about 5:25, I finished up my bowl and placed the dishes in the sink. The enchantment I put on my kitchen kicked in and the cleaning supplied came to life to clear the mess. My grandmother teleported back to her house and I started up the port key in my fireplace to the healing tents.

Here goes another shift