Chasing Time

Chapter 1

What am i doing here? This had to be a mistake.

That thought kept running through her head. Over and over it looped, causing her nerves to worsen as she pulled her beat up old car to a stop in the car depot at the edge of the Reserve border.

A Kindred Reserve. Was this real? The predatory kindred were rather scary for some plain Jane human like her. Men and women who could become beasts and were ruled by the instincts of their other half. Fate believes her happiness lies here? Not that the place would be run down or anything. From stories she had heard over the years kindred loved old fashioned craftsmanship and took great pride in their border towns. But this small town will be filled with predators in human skins.

Humans and kindred didn't always get along. And unlike some of the other races in the world, they were unknowns, reclusive beings living within their own lands, especially the predators. She had met members of some of the other races in the world, had even spotted a vampire or two from a distance since they liked to live in the shadows of human cities. Her best friend, a witch, was actually the reason she was stuck in her current predicament.

Maggie tucked her scarf tighter around her neck to ward off the chill as she contemplated getting out of her vehicle, tucking her chin into the tick folds just as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Speak of the devil.

"You will not believe where I'm at right now," Maggie exclaimed before Gwen could say anything.

"Did you finally find the end of the rainbow?" Gwen sang back with a laugh. The girl was rather unique but that was one of the best things about her. Gwen had been her best friend for years and was her rock when they lost her gran last year. They had both been crushed since her Gran had treated them both like her own daughters.

Over the last few months Maggie had started to feel bereft, wondering where she was going in life. She made an okay living selling her artwork around the city, but she wasn't really flourishing. Dave, her last boyfriend, broke up with her after he said she was boring. He wasn't wrong. She had become complacent, stuck in a rut. She had come to a point where she was just waiting for life to hand her her happiness and it was looking like that wasn't going to happen. At least not without an intervention. When she talked about it with Gwen, her suggestion was a little extreme, but definitely not boring.

She had chosen to have her future told of her own free will but over the last few days Maggie had really started to get annoyed at this compulsion. After driving days on end with no end in sight she had reached her limit. When this started she viewed it as a new adventure, but the novelty had worn off some time yesterday. Just a few days ago she was just a broke artist trying to sell her work at different fairs and festivals, poorly she might add, no roots or family to speak of other then Gwen. Why not have her fortune told? And not by some tacky roadside human novelty performer either, although that was what her friend liked to pretend to be to her human clients.

Gwen didn't talk about her family and their practices with strangers but Maggie had know for years. She was an open secret, one Maggie swore to never talk about with outsiders since coveners have a history of being taken advantage of by those with less than ideal motives. That's why most coveners hid among the masses and didn't show their abilities, preferring to work their magic in secret.

Gwen always liked to use her gifts to find lost people and items by reading their past. But foresight was another thing entirely. Everyone knew to beware of the Seer's sight, for a future unseen in a future untold. As soon as you put your trust in fate, free will goes out the window and fate's draw becomes undeniable. Your future becomes set in stone, and until the vision is fulfilled your actions are not your own. No one wanted to become a slave to fate but Maggie had come to a point in her life were finding her happiness outweighed the risks.