Alice: Recovered Memories

Shelly and Steve

"They come in peace," I explained to Jasper.  

After I explained to him that we were expecting visitors, he stood very still, frozen, for about two minutes.  Then he inhaled deeply and nodded.  "I can smell them."  Even though I wasn't nervous, I could feel that Jasper was spreading a sense of calm over me.  We stood and waited for the next minute.  Soon, my keen vision caught a flash of orange, like flames.  The female.  They darted forward.  The male, the one with jet black hair, led her.  They leaped over a branch and stopped about ten feet from us.

The male held his hands out, palms facing us.  "We're not here to start any sort of trouble," he explained.  "We just want to talk."  The female looked from around his shoulder, her eyes a bright crimson.  Her red hair hung down to her waist and was extremely straight.  She looked to be about nineteen or twenty and wore a crocheted top and patchwork quilt skirt.  The male had hair so black that it almost had a bluish tint, which contrasted greatly against his chalky complexion.  He looked to be closer to age thirty and also had bright red eyes.  He wore a ratty looking t shirt of a punk band from the eighties and worn jeans.  

Jasper took a defensive position in front on me.  "We'll hear you out.  I do need to warn you though, to refrain from hunting in this area.  We have a permanent home here."

"I understand," the man continued.  "I actually know a lot more about you than you think." He smiled wryly.  "We're both originally from Seattle.  We were created by a vampire named Victoria, a nomad.  Perhaps you knew her?"

I hissed involuntarily and sprang into a crouch.  Jasper gestured for me to calm down, and again, I felt his relaxing presence wash over me.  I stood back up.  "Sorry."

The man shook his head.  "It's OK.  I'm no fan of her either, believe me.  She created us, though we only found out later who she was.  Our leader was Riley.  Once we started to piece together what his plan was, that he and Victoria were only using us, we decided to make a run for it.  We came back to this area about a month ago and found out that they'd all been destroyed."

I nodded.  "It was not an easy win, but yes.  Victoria and Riley were both destroyed.  She held a vendetta against a member of our coven."

The female stepped out from behind the male.  "That's only part of it, though.  Of course, we knew the chances of our survival were slim if we went into this battle.  Also, we didn't want to fight someone we didn't know.  Riley's reasoning sounded questionable to us. And for another thing..." she trailed off.

The male urged her to continue.  "It's OK, Shelly.  You can tell them."

Shelly squinted her eyes.  "Steve here and I are both gifted.  We found out that it's rare amongst our kind to have extra abilities.  We didn't want to be their pawns!"

I nodded.  "Well, I'm Alice and this is my mate, Jasper.  We're actually both gifted as well.  It's nice to meet you, Shelly and Steve."

"Likewise." Steve held out his hand and shook both of ours.  "My gift is that I'm a tracker.  Prior to our departure from Victoria's army, we were advised that your family was very gifted.  I overheard Riley talking to Victoria about it.  I don't think he meant for me to hear.  He said that your family had a psychic."

I glanced at Jasper.  He nodded at me.  "That would be me.  I'm precognitive.  I saw you two coming.  I've always had visions, even as a human.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember the majority of my human life."

"I have a gift also," Shelly explained.  "It's really hard to explain.  With the touch of a vampire's hand, I can see visions of what their human past was like and transmit the image to the person whose hand I'm touching."  She smiled at me.  "I think you and I need to have a talk, Alice."