Elementals

Chapter 6 - EL CHUPACABRA PART 2

The gasp that comes out my mouth is followed by a silence that although lasted no more than thirty seconds, felt like it lasted thirty minutes. I stared at my mum, waiting for her to confirm that this is true, that this could even be possible but only see a vacant look in her eyes, as if she is reliving a moment in the past as she circles a spot on her left arm. The scar. I was never told how my mother got that scar and the look on her face whenever it was mention by someone told me not to. "Mija, I'm so sorry," she whispers as a small tear falls from her right eye.

I stand there confused and give her time to expand but she stays silent, a few more tears drop from her eyes making me want to walk up and hug her and let her know that everything will be alright.

But I don't.

"Sorry for what? I don't understand what you mean, what are you sorry about?" I look around the room and all eyes turn away, not wanting to look me in the eye, everyone knowing the secrets that I don't.

"We made everyone who knew promise to never tell you, we just wanted you to have as much of a normal life as possible without the pressures that are about to come," my mother's voice cracks half way through. I struggle to understand what she means; I patiently wait for her to continue but it isn't until my father takes her hand and gives it a squeeze, giving her strength to continue. "I was fourteen, almost fifteen at the time. The attacks were more common then, when we lived in Puerto Rico, my parents and I." My mother paused, taking a deep breath, the tears finally stopping, "it happened at night, we weren't prepared. The sound of the window shattering woke me up, it was four in the morning, I heard my parents screaming and ran down, shocked at the sight before me, our living room was torn apart, my parents were fighting a man with the qualities and strength of a beast."

An image flashed through my mind, the man from my nightmare, there was something about his teeth something unnatural about him that made my hairs stand to attention. The sound of my mother's voice brings me back to reality, "I was frozen with fear, my parents screamed for me to run and when I final could he chased after me, I was almost at the door when I felt my body being knocked to the floor and flipped over. The door burst open and a man charged through, knocking El Chupacabra off of me. Saving me, but not before he managed to bite my left arm." She held up her arm as I walked towards her, entranced by the story, seeing the scar with new eyes.

"I screamed in agony. The poison making his way into my blood. With the three of them fighting against him and all his own warrior's dead outside. Samuel Blackthorne had died about a hundred years ago now but his grandson (we age different to humans), Christopher Blackstone, having dealt with them before, was the first person my father called to help us. Outnumbered, he laughed and jumped out the broken window by the door. It took almost three hours after he left for the agonising pain to leave my body. My parents, afraid that he would come back for me shipped us off to England, your father, who I had been friends with since we were born moved to England a month later with his parents, it was then that I realised how deeply he cared for me."

My mother smiled as my father took her hand and kissed it. "A small price to pay to be with the woman I was destined to be with." I'm glad that my parents had what appeared to be a happy ending, that through everything they've been through they stuck together. The intensity of their love never faded; it only grew stronger.

It takes me a few seconds to realise what I missed, there is more to the story, more I haven't been told. "Wait, I get that you went through this, and how terrible it was but I don't understand. You apologised to me; how does this affect me? And why does Tiana, Tyler, and I'm assuming their parents know about this when I've never been told?"

My parents look up, my questions breaking them from their silent moment. This time however, it was my father that carried on. "I went with your mother to every appointment about the scar once we had come to England, all tests ended with the same results. There was an anomaly in your mother's blood, yet that anomaly didn't seem to be affecting her health. We thought we were safe, that the terror was behind us, with nothing but a little scar to remind us of the tragedies that once were. We were wrong.

We met Nikita and Raphael our first year in university, we became friends instantly, it helped that they were both Supernaturals, we could sense each other, and we were living together. A week after we graduated I proposed to your mother, we were married before the year was up and we found out that you were on the way two years after that. We were so happy, finally starting our little family, anxious to meet you."

He stopped and stared out the window before continuing, "It was when your mother was three months pregnant that it started, the flashes of pain and the fainting, no one knew what was wrong until one of our Supernatural doctors noticed that the poison from the bite had started to seep into the embryonic sack, they were positive that you wouldn't live past the age of three and that was if you survived the pregnancy."

Tears threatened to spill as I watched the small one slide down his cheek. "But they were wrong, I'm fine, I ... I've always been fine, I'm hardly ever sick, they were wrong." The look in my parent's face told me that the story was not over. I shake my head, not believing in the possibility that there was a time in my life that my future wasn't as certain as it is now.

"It took us a few months until we found something that was useful in our goal of saving you but even then, there wasn't any guarantee that this would help but we had faith and followed through, willing to do everything and anything to protect you." It was then that they proceeded to tell me about how Mr Blackthorne had told them about the sacred mountain, where those who remember its location come to ask for a miracle from above.

They told me about their journey and the Goddess as well as the promise they made so that I could have a full life and the kindness she showed in doing more than they hoped, if she hadn't removed the tainted blood, Chris and Cam would never have been born. They told me of my role in the fight against El Chupacabra and his followers and what the power and strength that was blessed onto me before I had taken my first breathe. How Nikita and Raphael helped them throughout the rest of their pregnancy and with anything they needed whilst preparing for the twins who were born three months before me. The secrets they kept to keep me safe, Tyler and Tiana having started their training because they are the children of the Alpha and Luna of the second strongest pack in England. I was also told that I was born just after half three in the morning which is probably why my powers came now rather than at midnight.

I take a seat in the nearest chair, keeping my breathing steady as I process all the information that I just learnt. I still wasn't completely sure how I felt about it, I was, without a doubt angry, everyone was lying to me, my whole life, my own parents, my best friend's. They hid a part of me, they hid a part of themselves.

I sigh, knowing that despite this, the rational part of me understood why they did it.

"So, you guys aren't Elementals, you're werewolves?" I tried both words on my tongue, it wasn't that they were new to me, more that this was the first time saying them that I actually believed they were true. I'd known they weren't Elementals as I hadn't missed that Tia said you're called Elementals instead of we're.

Now that my full attention was not on my parents I began to feel a pull, not to Tia but behind me, to Tyler, who hadn't spoken at all really. I thought I'd really liked him before, but this was a more intense, I felt not as if he completed me but as if he added on to what I already was, and now that I had discovered it, I couldn't let it go.

I let myself process that before I decide what I want to ask next, I have a lifetime worth of questions all wanting to be answered first and I needed to sort them out before I voiced them.

"Do you guys mind giving us some time together?" Tyler asked. "I can try to answer all of her questions for tonight but there are some things that she needs to hear in private." At that they all nod their heads and tap my shoulder as they come out.

I take a deep breath before turning to face Tyler. "I have a lot of questions."