Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (21 page)

"Rai-Rai,” Roy whispered
groggily.

He slowly opened his eyes, and
pushed himself up only to find himself staring down Aradia's
bathing suit. His heart stopped, and his breath got caught in his
throat.

"Roy, what is the matter?" Aradia
asked leaning in closer to him.

Roy was amazed and began to wonder
if either Aradia was a perfect mistress of seduction or if she was
really that naïve. Tristan, however, knew exactly what was going
through Roy's mind. He was standing with the others, and had a
perfect view of what was making Roy act so strange.

He smiled and said, "You know
Aradia, one of the things I find most unattractive about you is
your lack of awareness of your feminine charms."

"What do you..." Aradia
asked.

After following Tristan's gaze, she
realized what he was staring at. She then let out a squeak of
embarrassment, covered herself with both her hands, and ran back to
the picnic table.

Dax glared, walked over to Tristan,
and slapped him upside the head!

He left him and the rest of the
crowd looking shocked as he ran after Aradia.

"Hey, hey! Whatever is the matter
love?" he asked grabbing Aradia's arms and forcing her to look at
him.

Aradia didn't even look him in the
eye when she said, "Nothing Dax, c'mon let's go back."

Dax was hesitant but after a few
seconds, he shrugged. "Okay."

He then escorted her back to the
others.

When the two of them showed up hand
in hand, the mood changed dramatically. Roy glared at them, and
most of the others did too. Strangely, it was Tristan who kept his
smile on but apparently, he had a reason for this.

"By missing that ball," he
explained, "it puts my team ahead by one point!"

"What does that mean?" Aradia asked
Dax.

"It means he won," he muttered
bitterly.

Aradia gulped, and seemed to grasp
Dax's hand tighter. Roy noticed this, and began to growl under his
breath.

Tristan, however, said, "So Dax I
guess you are next huh?"

Dax said nothing. He merely nodded,
and reluctantly let go of Aradia's hand. No sooner did they step
closer to the volleyball net when they started to hear music
blaring.

Everrett then smiled as he cried
out, "I knew it. I knew it. I knew I could get it to
work!"

"Thank God," Aradia
whispered.

"More like thank Everrett," Felix
joked, his eyes still not leaving his comic book.

Aradia snickered, grabbed Dax's
hand, and said, "C'mon everybody let's dance!"

"What about the game?" Tristan
asked.

"We will finish later," Aradia,
suggested anxiously.

He glared at both Aradia and Dax
with an expression that clearly said, "I am not amused."

Finally, he shrugged. "Okay, but if
we do not finish the game I win by default!"

"That’s not fair!" Dax cried
out.

"Sure it is! Remember our deal?
Winner of two volleyball games win's a shot at Aradia's two
lips."

Aradia groaned at Tristan's comment
and muttered, "Just when I thought you could not be anymore
obnoxious."

Nevertheless, Aradia agreed with
Tristan and told Dax so. Dax, in response, just grunted angrily and
stalked off towards the food.

Aradia sighed while Tristan showed
up at her side and took hold of her elbow. "Now what was that about
dancing?"

"Yeah it was about me wanting to
break both of my own legs before I even think of about dancing with
you!" Aradia said angrily and shoved past him.

It was hard, but she managed to
make her way through the dancing crowd. It was not a very mixed one
though. No fae's were dancing with any werewolves, vampires, or
humans and vice versa. Aradia shrugged, mentally admitting defeat
and made her way to an empty picnic table. She sat on it, and
turned to look at the crowd moving rhythmically to Katy Perry's
California Girls.

However, as the minutes ticked by
Aradia began to smile. She saw Rhonda and D dancing, and Ginevra
dancing with a blonde, blue-eyed fae from Tristan's crew. She also
saw Xan dancing very closely with Roy's cousin Brenna who was a
short, skinny, lightly tan skinned Latino girl with long black
hair. Rhonda, Ginevra, and Xan's dancing partners may not have been
much a change, but it was a start.

All of sudden, she clutched her
head feeling pain as she received a vision. She saw one of the guys
she had talked to at Roy's BBQ at his house storming up with his
jeep with four bulky guys following him. As if Aradia's vision had
summoned them, the men in the jeep showed up in a mere matter of
moments. Roy spotted them first and froze. The music screeched to a
stop while the man with his friends approached them all looking as
angry as anyone could possibly be.

"Whats going on?" he
demanded.

No one answered and the man
repeated his question, but once again there was no
answer.

He grunted in frustration and
snapped, "Well it does not matter anymore seeing as you have
trespassed on our territory. You now have about five seconds to get
the hell out of here!"

"You can't do that!" Domitilla
shrieked.

"Oh yes I can!" he yelled
back.

"You can't talk to my sister like
that!" shouted Xan.

Aradia gasped. She knew that in
spite of there being humans around, when push came to shove the
hiddens would attack each other, and they would not hold back. She
thought fast, and then raced towards the man. Instantly, she jumped
on to his back, and started pulling off his shirt.

"What? What the hell...?" he cried
out as Aradia gave his shirt one final pull, and ripped it off
completely.

“Hey," Aradia remarked, "If you
wanted to join in the party you should have just asked."

She grabbed his hand and then
started pulling him towards the water. "Hey c'mon on in the water
is great!"

She then yanked his arm one final
time, and he fell in like a fish being thrown back into the
sea.

He came up sputtering while Aradia
grabbed a beach ball, turned to the shocked crowd, and said, "C'mon
everyone! Let's get into the water and work off those
calories!"

"We don't have calories or even
body fat you idiot," Titania muttered. Dax, eager to distract
everyone from Titania's comment, grabbed his sister Ginerva's hand
and raced into the water. Xan took the hint and followed. Oddly so
did Brenna, and soon everyone was in the water batting at the beach
ball like playful kittens. Titania and Tristan were the only ones
who remained on the beach watching and thinking.

"She is so simple and naïve,"
Titania finally said, "And so full of good nature and sweetness
that I think I would be willing to punch out my own teeth to avoid
her kind of cavities."

"She is also an annoying, loud,
obnoxious, and huge royal pain in the ass," Tristan concurred with
his bride.

Titania nodded, but froze once she
heard Tristan speak again. "However, she is also clever, inspiring,
a natural leader, and draws people in of any race. She is also
strong enough to go through with anything."

"So?" Titania pouted.

"So my dearest Titania,” Tristan
added while putting his arm around her shoulders. “A woman like
that would make one heck of a helpful ally.”

"I doubt she would be willing to
help you with anything," Titania said scoffing.

"Maybe not now, but with a little
prodding..." Tristan began as he started to grin
wickedly.

While most people shivered when he
did that, Titania was used to it because she already knew what it
meant.

She then said, "So that's all that
witch is going to be to you? An ally?"

"That and so much more. In the end,
I guarantee that if I was to bag Aradia I would have more of the
one thing that all hiddens desire."

"Oh yeah?" Titania said, rolling
her eyes. "And what would that be? More headaches and a temptation
to staple all redheaded women's lips shut?"

"No, although the lip thing would
be tempting. No, with Aradia I will have something much more
valuable than anything else."

"And what's that?" Titania finally
asked, tired of Tristan's riddles.

Tristan responded with only one
word, "Power!"

Chapter
Eleven

Aradia had not really expected it,
but apparently throwing the guy whom she learned was Roy's Uncle
Felipe (Phil for short) in the water was a smart move. Not only had
it single handily prevented bloodshed, but it also helped the party
to really get going. Aradia was now satisfied of how things were
turning out. At least until she saw one of Phil's friends waddling
out of the water looking freaked.

Aradia immediately rushed over to
him. "What’s wrong?"

"It’s Brenna!" He shouted
frantically, "She got caught in an undertow! I think she is being
swept out to sea!"

Everyone stopped, and looked at him
with the same scared expression.

"We should call the coast guard!"
Phil yelled.

"That will take too long!"
Domitilla yelled back.

"Then what should we do?" he
responded looking livid.

Aradia and the others all paused in
eerie silence.

Suddenly Aradia heard Dax shout,
"Xan, what the hell are you doing?"

Aradia turned around to see Xan
march right up to the water, and dive in.

"It’s alright," Ginevra argued.
"Since he's a vampi...I mean a really good swimmer," She said after
noticing Rhonda staring. "He can't possibly drown!"

"But what if he gets swept out to
sea too?" Phil demanded.

“And what if he can't find Brenna?"
Roy added shouting.

Everyone stood facing the water in
scared anxious silence. No one said anything or even moved. The
minutes ticked away mercilessly while they scanned the horizon
praying for a sight of either Xan or Brenna. After a few awful more
minutes, Aradia began to feel her heart sinking into the bowels of
her stomach.

All of a sudden, she heard
Domitilla screaming. "Look! Look over there!"

Aradia raised her head, and
squinted in the direction that Domitilla was pointing. A dark
figure appeared to be ascending from the water, and holding someone
in his arms.

"Brenna!" Roy cried.

He ran towards them with everyone
else from the party following.

Upon reaching them though, he
continued to cry out in horror. "She's not breathing!"

Aradia ran over forgetting that she
was supposed to hide her powers and if she used them in front of
Rhonda and the others the consequences would be amazingly horrific.
She was only thinking of one thing to get to Roy's cousin, and do
whatever is necessary to save her. However, before anyone even did
anything Xan raised his fist high into the air, and brought it down
hard on Brenna's chest. Brenna then spewed out a huge gush of
water, and started coughing heavily.

"Oh thank God! Thank God! Brenna!
Brenna, you are alright!" Phil cried as he wrapped his arms around
her. Roy followed his lead in addition to the other
werewolves.

Soon everyone, hidden and human,
began hugging each other and crying out in relief and
joy.

"Okay, the first one to start
singing Kumbaya will be the first one I beat up!" Titania
muttered.

Everyone turned to glare at her
maliciously. She, however, just shrugged it off.

However, attention was taken from
Titania as soon as Brenna asked, "What happened?"

"Xan saved you!" Aradia
exclaimed.

Phil glared at her while Brenna
just looked over to Xan who was still hovering over her.

"Really? You saved me? But why?"
Brenna said softly.

Xan grunted before muttering,
"Because I had nothing better to do!"

He ignored the look of hurt on her
face, stood up, and walked over to the picnic table. Seeing all the
food that had now been laid out, the guys jumped up and rushed over
to join him.

Brenna chuckled uneasily. "It's
funny that what seems to be more important to guys than women is
food."

"Yes well," Aradia shrugged, not
thinking of anything good to joke about.

Still she managed to add. "You
okay?"

“Well considering I almost drowned,
I feel pretty damn good I'd say," Brenna grumbled.

Aradia chuckled, and helped Brenna
to her feet.

After everyone had finished
consuming their dinner, Aradia suggested they make s’mores. It took
some coaxing, but eventually Roy and his relatives were convinced
to build a bonfire. Dax and his siblings helped to set out the
various ingredients. Everrett was still playing music, Felix was
reading yet another comic book, and Rhonda was helping Calvin haul
the coolers filled with drinks out of Calvin's car.