Vanilla Moon: Awakening Read online

  Vanilla Moon

  Awakening

  Airiel Hawkins

  Vanilla Moon: Awakening

  Copyright © 2014 by Airiel Hawkins

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  First Printing: 2015

  Second Edition: 2020

  Airiel Hawkins

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/airielhawkinsauthor

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  Partial edits by Andrea Mouser, Chadd Hawkins, Jessica Grimm, Sabreena Barton, and Nicole Ludwig

  Dedication:

  This book is dedicated my family and my writer's groups.

  Thanks for the encouragement, dedication, and unwavering faith that I could get this far.

  The Call of the Wild

  “He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed.”

  -Jack London

  Introduction

  They say that when people were nomads, they used wolves to teach them how to function as a society. The wolves taught man to hunt, to raise their young, and to love without conditions. One not-so-special day, a wolf bit her human under the full moon. It was shortly after his return from the rite of passage that signified his advancement from childhood to manhood.

  He found himself astonished that she could do that to him. Never before had a wolf turned on its human and no one quite knew what to think about it. He struggled with what he should do for weeks. His companion urged him to slay the wolf. She insisted that the animal would harm their two sons.

  The man gave into his partner's demands. He took the wolf out, away from the camp since their law forbade him to harm the wolf. He gripped his knife in his hands and met the wolf's amber eyes. He raised the knife high, knowing that the wolf would just stand there and let him kill her.

  He stopped, just as he was about to make contact with her. Out of nowhere, he could hear her in his mind, begging him not to hurt her. She promised him that there had been a reason for her treachery. She promised him that what she had done had changed his life forever, and all he had to do was wait until the next full moon.

  As if by her promise alone, the man changed forms the next time the moon was full. He had been running with his wolf because she had asked him to follow her. As they ran, he was overcome with a sensation of complete freedom. Soon, he realized that he had shifted his shape and was running with her as a wolf instead of a man. The next morning, the pair of them returned to the camp and the man shifted back for all to see.

  They hailed him as a god from that point forward. They worshiped him and the wolf. He told them that he would not be the only one of his kind. His future children would also be just like him. They were a new race of men. They were Lycan.

  Of course, not everyone was happy with this new evolution. The man's eldest son was bitter because he had been born too early to make the change himself. He tried to convince the wolf to bite him as well, but she refused. He tried to make his father turn him, but such a thing was impossible. He began to resent his father and younger siblings. The resentment turned to hatred and he taught that hatred to his children, who taught it to theirs. Generations went by until one man decided to do something about it. He offered his soul to darkness so that he might have the power to fight and destroy the Lycans.

  He became the first Vampire. Bloodlust overcame him. He almost demolished the entire town before the creatures he sought to destroy brought him to his knees. It was too late. The damage was extreme.

  The next night, before they interred the dead into the ground, the corpses rose and began to feed on the remains of the living. Again, the Lycans revolted against them, but they couldn't destroy everyone. The Vampires were creating more of their kind faster than the Lycans could put them down. After some time, the Lycans had no choice but to flee their own homes.

  With time, the Vampires became stronger and realized that they needed guardians in the day to protect them. They knew that the Lycans were perfect guardians and extended an offer of peace to them. The Lycans accepted the offer. They had grown weary of fleeing their villages because of the unknown plague that would reanimate the dead.

  The Lycans could not break this bond of slavery.

  Half a century passed. A final descendant of the original Lycan cried for a way to end the torture of her kin. She begged for a way to release each one of them from their demonic bonds. A being who claimed to be a goddess visited her that night. The goddess granted her the power to wield the elements. She then approached the Lycans with a promise of freedom... if they would help her to destroy all the Vampires.

  The Lycans agreed, but only to the extent of their own freedom. It wasn't important to them to annihilate the entire species. The Vampires were eager to let the packs free of their bonds of servitude and the Lycans rejoiced. They were at peace with both the Vampires and the Witches.

  Peace, like all things, did not last. The Witches decided that the Lycans were abandoning their job half-finished. The Witches wanted to destroy the Vampires and they would not find satisfaction until they reached their goal. When the Lycans were no longer interested in war, the Witches grew furious with them. They decided that it meant war on all three sides and turned the war into a three-way battle no one could ever win. No one would be able to gain the upper hand. It began to become obvious that perpetual war was the only thing all three races had in common...

  Chapter 1 ~Ceres~

  The airplane landed with a jolt and I found myself grateful that they made seat belts mandatory when landing. Otherwise, my nose would have crushed against the seat in front of me. I looked through the small airplane window at the world beyond it and saw a bleak and wintery world. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground beyond the tarmac and I could almost feel the chill through the glass. The world here didn't look much different than the one I had left. Early January looked pretty much the same across the country in the states that had snow. While there wasn't as much of it here as there had been back home, it was nice to know that I wouldn't be in a completely unfamiliar world.

  When the flight attendants gave us the clear to disembark, I sat and waited for the other passengers to leave the cabin first. I had spent enough time in airplanes in my life to know that everyone wanted off right away. Honestly, it was easier just to let them struggle to get off first than it was for me to join the fight. I wasn't in a hurry. I wasn't planning to leave anytime soon, so it wasn't as if I had a deadline to meet. It was better than fighting through the insanity.

  When the crowd thinned, I stood from my plush blue coach seat and hoped I wouldn't hit my head on the overhead compartments. I pulled my carry-on out of the small cupboard above and grabbed the bag I had stashed under my seat for the duration of the flight. One elderly woman was nice enough to let me sneak into the aisle in front of her. I guess she wasn't in a hurry either, though it seemed that the man behind her was. I tried not to annoy him too much as I quickly walked toward the door of the plane that would let us into the airport.

  The terminal was in chaos. There were hundreds of people s
crambling over luggage and arguing with children, many of whom were screaming. Airport staff were trying to keep the calm, but delayed flights made angry passengers. I sympathized with these people. The storms had delayed my flight as well and I ended up spending an extra night in Michigan. Again, since I wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, I wasn't nearly as put off as the other passengers were.

  I looked around the airport. There were signs telling me what was in which direction, but I still didn't quite know where I was going. I followed the crowd in the hopes that it would lead me away from the gates and to where I would meet up with my stepfather. Well, my ex stepfather. He and my mother divorced the year I turned sixteen. It was a shock to a lot of people because they married before I was born. He didn't know that he wasn't my biological father. My mother only knew the truth because she had known that she was pregnant with me beforehand. Since she didn't sleep with Alan until their wedding night, she knew he was not my father. Luckily for her, we looked enough alike to pass as father and daughter, so my mother never bothered to tell him the truth. The only reason I knew was because the man she'd been having an affair with before the divorce was my biological father. He was also her new husband. If you could consider a husband new after a decade.

  Derek, my father, decided to come to America for a good education in business. He met my mom through a mutual friend and there was an instant attraction between them. It was one of those irresistible types that you read about in books or that only happen in movies. He and my mom started dating non-exclusively, but they were only sleeping with each other. While she was dating Derek, she was also dating Alan, my stepfather. Derek left town right before she found out she was pregnant, so he didn't technically skip out on her. She didn't know what she was going to do because her family was one of those Old Money families that didn't hold to that sort of scandal well. Luckily for her, Alan proposed. One shotgun wedding later, Mom announced that she was pregnant with me. Somehow, no one ever noticed that she was six weeks more pregnant than the marriage.

  Fourteen years later, Derek appeared out of nowhere. He needed some legal help due to a business contract he was looking to make here in the States. He found my mother's firm and contacted them. He insisted that she be the only one to handle his case and the affair began anew. They made it last for almost six months before I found out. I let it go because I didn't care; my parents spoke to each other only when they had to, and a divorce was on the horizon. Another year and a half later, Derek wanted to take my mother back to Scotland with him. Mom told Alan that she wanted a divorce and that she'd been having an affair for two years. Alan didn't seem to bat an eyelash at the news, which makes me think he'd known for a while at that point.

  Being only sixteen, I was sure that the divorce was going to ruin my life. I was sure that I was going to be stuck with the guy whose name was on my birth certificate, since she was leaving the country. Mom somehow arranged for me to be able to live by myself, so long as Jalena, our housekeeper, made sure that I still went to school. Graduating a year early made that a rather short run. I took a year off after that because I just wanted to be free. When the fall quarter started up for the closest community college, I jumped in with both feet. I spent a year getting my generals out of the way. When it finally came time to decide on what college I was going to finish my schooling at, I found myself torn between Harvard and Yale. On the one hand, I wanted to go to Yale because it was different from my parents' choices. I also wanted to go to Harvard because, in my opinion, it had the better law program. I wanted to follow in my mother's footsteps and become a lawyer. Wanting to be closer to my mother made it easier to choose Harvard.

  As I'd already gotten my generals out of the way, I only needed to focus on the law part of law school. As it wasn't hard for me, I finished it early as well. I had a law degree with emphasis on business, just like my mother, in under three years. Mom put in a good word for me and I started working at her old firm. I was there for five years before I realized how much I hated it all.

  I started to question my life and the choices I was making. Did I want to be a lawyer, or did I want to be one because my mother wanted me to be one? Was I happy with the choices I had made, or did I just go through the motions and smile because I knew it could have been worse?

  I came to realize that I didn't want to be a lawyer. I didn't have the passion for law that my mother had, and I didn't want to have the same loveless life that she and Alan had shared. That was when I also realized that I didn't feel much of anything for my then-boyfriend, Todd. What I thought was love turned out to be comfort. He was someone I knew. He was someone who knew every event of my life. He was comfortable and that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted the kind of love my mom had with Derek. I wanted the instant, soul-shattering, earth-moving, I-can't-breathe-without-you-near-me kind of love.

  When I told Todd that I wanted out, he surprised me with gratitude because he had been having an affair with a girl from our old school. She was pregnant with their first child. By taking myself out of the picture, he could be with her, take care of their child, and not have to worry about other people. His was another Old Money family that would rather avoid the scandal. I heard they married about six months later, just in time for Junior to arrive.

  I'd reached a period in my life where I realized that I lost myself. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I did know what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to be a lawyer. I didn't want to stay in New York. I didn't want to be stuck.

  I knew I needed to get away from the city and the life I lived there. I needed to go somewhere where I could walk down the street and not look at the buildings where I had so many painful memories. I needed a small-town start.

  That was why I jumped at the chance to come out to Little Town, USA and help Alan. Yes, it was law related, but it was better than sitting at home in that huge house twiddling my thumbs. It may have been law, but at this point, an excuse was an excuse and I only needed one.

  I met Alan near the luggage claim. He stood there with his wife of nine years, Addie, which was short for Adelaide. He was everything I remembered from the mousy brown hair and green eyes to his height and slenderness. He still stood at six-feet-seven-inches and still wore button-up shirts and slacks.

  Addie looked nothing like the woman I remembered seeing in their wedding announcement. Although, it was obvious that that woman and this one were, in fact, the same. She had hair a darker shade of brown than Alan's and eyes that were just as dark as mine were. She wore fabric that the people who make flower-print sofas and quilts would have rejected over her plump frame. I couldn't believe that Alan would go from my mom, who was still a knockout with my platinum blonde hair and an hourglass figure, to this... Martha Stewart tragedy.

  I hugged my former stepfather and shook Addie's hand. They helped me get my luggage and then we all piled into the car for the three-hour drive from the airport to Adamsville. Adamsville was a small town near Vernal with a population of somewhere near three thousand. I was ready for the drive to be over before we were on the freeway and it didn't take that long to get from the airport to the road.

  That was when the questions began. Addie asked me questions about myself, ones that I wasn't ready for her to know, but I answered them regardless. Alan used up his twenty by asking me about things that may have been changing in my life since his departure. When he asked about Todd, I got quiet.

  "Ceres?" he asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror. "What happened with Todd?"

  I sighed. He didn't know because we didn't talk that often. In fact, before he'd asked me for help, it had been almost three years since we last spoke. My life and schedule were so chaotic at times that it was hard for him to reach me. "Have you ever stopped to ask yourself if your life is actually what you want it to be?" I asked. I know people ask that question a lot, but do they ever have an honest answer for it? "I tried to be as honest as I could be and I realized that Todd just wasn't right for me," I said. "Besides, he'd been cheating on me wi
th Mandy for about three years. He was happy that I broke up with him because he was too much of a chicken to leave me first."

  "Wow," Alan said. "I could have sworn that the two of you were going to get married someday."

  I let out a bitter chuckle. "Yeah, you and half of New York," I muttered. It was true. Everyone who knew us thought that it was our fate to make it out of college intact and still going strong. We were the perfect couple. We were smart, savvy, good looking, and complementary in our chosen career paths. As with my parents, Todd had a degree in business. That and business-law go hand-in-hand. We would have been unstoppable. Unfortunately, even though we had made it out of high school, and even college, intact, we weren't going strong. There were so many cracks in our foundation that it wasn't a surprise to me when I learned about Mandy.

  I knew we were lucky to survive grade school. The fact that we made it from sixteen to twenty-two was a miracle to me. I'd always known that we weren't going to make it until death do us part. It's obvious now that Todd and I had been the only ones who had come to grips with that knowledge.

  "What about the twins?" Alan asked, recognizing my need to change the subject.

  I smiled. "They're doing great," I said. "Selena is working at a veterinary clinic and thinking about starting up one of her own. Sophia is just starting her residency at Kravis Children's Hospital."

  "That's great news," Alan said with a bright smile. "I'm proud of them."

  Just as their parents had helped to raise me, Alan and my mother had helped raise the twins as well. We were inseparable from the moment we met. This was the first time I'd left New York without them for anything big. We'd gone on a couple of family vacations where they hadn't come along too, but for the most part, we were one big family. They were the only thing I was going to miss most.