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“Get back, baby,” her father said to Elena. “Don’t come any closer. The river is dangerous. I’m coming to you with your sister.”
He leaned down and picked Juniper up. As he did, she immediately sensed the presence of the enemy that had been haunting her visions. She saw a shadow standing behind her father.
It was the same wolf she had been seeing in her visions. She assumed this was another one of her visions and she tapped her father’s shoulder. “Daddy. Scary wolf.”
“Huh? Scary wolf? What do you mean?”
Before she could respond, the wolf lunged at her father. He sensed it but too late. Before he could turn out of the way, the wolf’s teeth sank into his neck, sending a spray of blood splashing on Juniper’s face.
He dropped her and rolled on the ground, and she could see the horror in his eyes. He held a hand to his throat and dark blood spilled through his fingers. He opened his mouth to speak but choked on his blood instead.
Juniper watched in horror as the light faded out of his eyes, and she knew her father was dead. She watched the lifeless body with shock and fear, a million thoughts spinning in her young head.
Elena’s screams pierced the otherwise quiet night. The wolf turned its head sharply toward the sound and ran at Elena, who froze in terror and fainted the next second after peeing on herself.
Juniper finally reacted by grabbing a rock beside her father’s still body. She aimed true, and somehow the missile struck the head of the wolf.
Without thinking, she ran forward and blocked Elena from the wolf. The wolf regarded her for some moments, then disappeared into the woods, in the direction of the town.
She breathed heavily, wondering why the wolf had spared her. It could have been because she was a witch, but she had no way of knowing for certain.
She was left with her father’s dead body and her unconscious sister. Somehow, she managed to drag Elena’s unconscious body through the woods and back to their cottage.
She ran to her mother’s room and found her reading a book. “Mother! Mother, come please! Come quickly!”
“Shut up, you dirty thing, why are you yelling at me?”
She ran back outside and dragged Elena into the house. Her mother emerged just as she pulled Elena through the door, and her eyes widened.
“What are you doing?! What did you do to my daughter?” She rushed forward and grabbed Juniper by her shirt collar.
Before Juniper could speak, her mother slapped her hard across the face, rocking her head. She tasted blood and her ears rang from the blow. She shook her head and tried to speak. “Dad—”
“Who’s your daddy?” her mother challenged. “He’s not your dad. What did you do to Elena?”
“He’s hurt,” Juniper said, ignoring her mother and holding her face. “A monster…a monster entered the pack. Dad, he’s hurt by the river.”
Her mother seemed to piece it together that they were under attack. She dumped Juniper on the ground and ran off.
A few moments later, Juniper heard the warning bells ringing loudly into the night. She shut her eyes, and tried to scrub out the image of her father clawing at his bleeding neck as he died.
***
“I saved your life!” Juniper screamed, pointing an accusatory finger at Elena. “I just didn’t know how to control my powers. The fault is yours for that night! I had been seeing that rogue in my visions for weeks.
“If only you and this shitty town had treated me better, and not hated my powers, I could have come to you with those visions. You could have prepared for the attack. Dad would still be alive today.
“The only reason you’ve blamed me for his death this long is because you hate yourself for how much of a coward you were that night.” Her voice grew softer and she stopped glowing. She looked away from Elena. “I blamed myself too, you know. For the longest time, I blamed myself.
“But I saved your life. That thing could have killed you just as easily as it killed father. I saved your life, despite how much you and Mom hated me and abused me. I did my best for a five-year-old. And you know it, don’t you? Don’t you ever accuse me of killing Father again. He was my father too.”
Elena crashed to her knees and tears poured freely from her eyes. Juniper watched her but could feel no sympathy for her. She had lied to her mother for years, saying that Juniper was the reason their father had died, despite being there herself.
She had lied just because she could. Juniper heard her painful wails and enjoyed it. She had never seen Elena like this. It was good to see that she was a normal person after all.
Out of nowhere, Juniper felt an arm draped across her shoulder. “Oh, wow. That’s a lot of rage in you, child.”
She turned slowly to the side in horror and came face-to-face with the handsome face of the ancient vampire she had been hunting for the last two months. The vampire that had plagued her visions.
