51 - The Lunar Effect

Just after sunset, Braeden and Alexander Delling left the mansion they had recently been gifted. 

While Tessa Delling prevented her stepsons from inheriting her wealth by disowning them, she had no will drawn up and had died without naming an heir, so her residence and all her possessions were sold by an auction house. Being a multimillionaire herself, Maia had purchased the home and all its furnishings and given it into the brothers’ keeping for Rowan and the quads to live in once they were older.  Despite the bad memories it contained for some, the house was an ideal dwelling for witches and vampires, and hopefully a new generation of Dellings could make happier memories there.

The vampire brothers decided it was time to lay their own past to rest as well.  They visited the site where Tessa had told them their parents were buried and decided to move the graves into the town cemetery.

They had the gold statue of Tessa put up in the cemetery as well, as a reminder of the fate of those who value wealth and self over compassion and family.

And then they lovingly returned their parents’ tombstones and ashes to the earth and said their final goodbyes.

The ghosts of Marcus, Calais and Serafin gazed lovingly upon their grown sons.  They lingered for a brief moment before slowly fading away.  Finally, they were at peace.

Braeden and Alex turned to leave, but something stopped them; a moaning sound that came from the depths of the earth.

Beneath the light of the full moon, zombies were beginning to claw their way up from the ground!

The vampire brothers raced off to warn the townsfolk about the zombies, and an emergency NRAAS meeting was called at the local alchemy shop.

As many witches and alchemists of the town that could be found on short notice were gathered together. After a brief consult and the gathering of supplies, they left the shop by LLAMA to stop the uprising of the zombie horde. And though she was still only a teen, Rowan, the Red Witch, lead them all.

Once they reached the cemetery, the witches of Moonlight Falls were met with a terrifying sight.

But they all knew they must protect the other citizens of the town, and though they were afraid, they fought with skill and determination.

After a long night of fighting, the zombies were eventually defeated and stopped rising from the ground with the sunrise.

The witches were exhausted, but were proud and excited that by working together they had been able to defend Moonlight Falls. And they realized that they owed their success in part to the Delling brothers and their early warning. Everyone knew that Braeden and Alex were people who cared about the community and could be depended on, and together they cheered their mutual success.

Things had been a bit crazy in Moonlight Falls for awhile, but soon settled back to normal. Well, except for Arielle, who was her normal, everyday kind of crazy.

So Maia returned to her routine. She taught the teens to drive.

And she taught the werewolf twins their toddler skills.

The fairy triplets and their IF’s went to prom. Aylin was elected Prom Queen and Jasper was Prom King.

It was also time for Rowan and Patterns to age up.

Happy birthday Rowan!

Happy birthday Patterns!

At their commencement the following day, both Rowan and Patterns graduated with highest honors, and Rowan was named class valedictorian.

They would be moving into the Delling mansion with Rowan’s father, Braeden, and her Uncle Alexander. Rowan was eager to begin her future as the Red Witch of Moonlight Falls and was full of potential ideas to bring up at the next National Registered Association of All Supernaturals meeting that could help everyone be more prepared and fight the zombies even better the next time the full moon came around. Patterns was an angler and planned to specialize in the collection and breeding of the species needed for various alchemy potions.

Maia hugged both girls goodbye.

But before they left, Maia decided that Rowan should adopt her macaw familiar, Rin, to help regenerate her witch power more quickly, to be better protected on the full moon nights when she would need to draw on her powers more than usual. 

But then Maia heard Rowan calling from the library, “Mom, come quick! Something’s wrong with Rin!”

Maia ran into the library.  “What happened?” she asked, fearing the bird had died.

“I don’t know! He was talking kinda crazy! Something about a Kadru, whatever that is.”

“Tell mom, Rin,” Rowan said to the macaw. “Tell her what you said about Kadru.”

Rin flew onto Maia’s arm. “Tell Kadru!  Tell Kadru!  Awk!”

“Tell Kadru? Tell Kadru what, Rin?” Maia asked him, suddenly bewildered and afraid.

“Awk!  Clever Rin!” the bird cawed.  “Tell Kadru!  Maia Lee! Moonlight Falls! Awk! Clever Rin!  Good job!”

Maia’s mind spun.  She abruptly had a memory of another one of Kizzy’s predictions. On the right, I see an exotic bird bearing a message; be certain to take note of any unexpected communications. But how had her macaw gotten this information?  And how was it possible Kadru knew where Maia and her children were? And then she remembered. Lady Delling had made at least one phone call in this library.  Rin must be repeating some of what he had heard Tessa say!

Maia swayed; stunned by the realization that Moonlight Falls was no longer a safe haven for her. She had been discovered by her former abductors.

“How much longer before we get there?” Valafar asked Adramelech.

“I don’t know; we’re still pretty far away.  But I’m driving as fast as I can without getting pulled over. We’ll have the witch soon.”

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t want to inform Kadru as soon as we got the tip. She wouldn’t be pleased if she knew we were keeping secrets from her about our progress.”

“This isn’t exactly the first time we’ve gotten a tip that turned out to be nothing,” Adramelech reminded Valafar. “Remember how furious she was last time? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a repeat of that. My ears are still bleeding, and had we notified her of our failure in person, neither of us would still be alive, and you know what she would’ve done with our souls.”

Valafar said nothing.  He knew Adramelech was telling the truth.

“Besides,” Adramelech continued, “if we just bring the witch to Kadru without telling her we were informed about her whereabouts, it will look like we found her ourselves and we won’t have to give that snobby vampire woman any credit at all. Imagine how much greater the rewards will be!”

The genies grinned at one another with greedy satisfaction and then drove on in silence, each imagining all the rewards they’d receive when they had accomplished this task for their mistress.