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Rachel Wehrli

Bloodlines

The Descendants

First published by Blurb 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Rachel Wehrli

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Rachel Wehrli asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Rachel Wehrli has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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To everyone who knows that fan fiction is legitimate writing.

To those that began writing at twelve on a family desktop computer, hoping not to receive judgment.

To all that sat watching and reading and imagining themselves in worlds different from our own.

This book is a for us all.

Contents

1. Acknowledgement
2. CHAPTER ONE
3. CHAPTER TWO
4. CHAPTER THREE
5. CHAPTER FOUR
6. CHAPTER FIVE
7. CHAPTER SIX
8. CHAPTER SEVEN
9. CHAPTER EIGHT
10. CHAPTER NINE
11. CHAPTER TEN
12. CHAPTER ELEVEN
13. CHAPTER TWELVE
14. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
15. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
16. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
20. CHAPTER NINETEEN
21. CHAPTER TWENTY
22. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
23. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
24. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
25. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
26. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
27. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
28. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
29. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
30. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
31. CHAPTER THIRTY
32. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
33. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
34. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
35. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
36. About the Author

Acknowledgement

I almost never imagined that this book would make it this far. I always thought it would remain on my computer, collecting digital dust, while I refused to give it a chance. While it is easy to give credit to my obsession with witchcraft and early 2000s teen movies as the inspiration for the content, I would rather take this opportunity to thank those that supported me and made this possible.

I am beyond grateful to my mother, Carey, who took time out of raising four children to always read my work and give me honest thoughts and endless support. Who read twelve rough drafts before I was ready to take this step. Who caught all the spelling and grammatical mistakes my eyes skated over.

I am so thankful for my father, Dean, who told me and my siblings amazingly creative and improvised bedtime stories night after night. Who is also a writer and passed the gene and restless imagination to me.

It is also an honor to have a friend like Savannah Lewis, who read my work and shared her opinions whenever we had time. And sometimes when we didn’t. Who created amazing artwork dedicated to this story and its characters.

CHAPTER ONE

It felt undeniably lucid to her. But she always felt a tolerable lightness to her, making her feel like a ghost watching over the living. She was simply a whisper of life, watching a version of other living people. Now, she felt that same palpable lightness, that surreal voyeur feeling that creeped up on her whenever she gained sight of something coming to pass. It left her naked under the discomfort of it, but she’d grown used to feeling like that over the years of growing up with such a gift.

The night moon loomed over her, the sky dark and the air tempestuous up on the higher cliffs. The cool breeze softly wrapped around three teenagers as they waited on a precarious plateau, looking down the beach below where the end-of-summer bash their peers always held before the fall term was picking up. She didn’t know how she knew just what they were waiting for, but she had a feeling of knowing that told her it was the truth. One boy stood off behind the others, away from the edge, leaning against a white picket type safety railing.

They didn’t know they weren’t alone. She was there, but not there, standing just off behind them, slightly hiding behind a tree. Why she bothered hiding half the time was beyond her comprehension. It was instinct. She knew they couldn’t see her or feel her presence. And even if they did, what would they do? She couldn’t be harmed in a vision.

She did not know why she was there. Why she was witnessing this moment. She never knew the reason. What she knew was that it was important. Every vision was important. She just had to keep her eyes open.

She couldn’t suppress the startled jump her petite frame did when another teenage boy strut past her, not seeing her in the open woods. He startled the others at first, too. One of the boy’s hands went up, producing a flame. When she looked closer, she saw the ball of fire floating in the palm of his bare hand, not touching his skin or burning it at all. He held it up as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The wind picked up around the approaching boy, practically floating him to the others as if on a cloud. “What’s up guys?” He had platinum blond hair, eyes like blue ice, and skin as pale as marble.

“Where have you been?”

She turned her attention to the other girl there, who spoke. She had wavy dirty blonde hair–idly bringing to mind the image of copper wire–and light brown eyes like caramel. Her face was soft with youth and her voice didn’t sound like it could hold malice, even for the evilest of foes. “You were supposed to give me a ride. I had to call Sam.”

The new arrival didn’t have such a voice, his being cocky and drawn out with the attitude of a guy who knew just how striking he was and was not afraid of flaunting what he’s got. He answered the younger girl while leaning a hand on her shoulder casually. “I was otherwise occupied.” He peered down at the beach curiously. “How’s the party?”

“Looks like the regular scene,” the gruff voice of the boy away from the cliff answered, coming closer to the group, the flame since extinguished from his hand. His figure was rougher around the edges than his friends, his hair falling around his eyes like a curtain of copper silk, his eyes light brown and his face the face of a warrior.

The girl who wasn’t really there with them took the chance as the teenagers peered over the cliff to survey the remaining boy. He was the tallest of them, and the darkest. His skin was a mixture of milk and chocolate. His hair was short and looked black in the dark night, but as the distant fires below them reflected upon the tresses, it looked more than a deep dark brown. But his eyes stood out among his friends as the deepest dark brown she’d ever seen. They almost looked black under nothing but the moonlight. He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome.

“Well, why don’t we drop in?” the blond jeered, standing at the precise edge of the cliff. Her breath caught in her throat as she thought he was going to jump. It was a deadfall to an empty road beneath them. Her body acted upon her impulses as she shot forward into a sprint as he jumped from the ledge. Her scream was soundless to the ears around her as she searched for the reason she was here, seeing what she was seeing and experiencing what she was experiencing. It took her a moment to realize that the boy didn’t fall. He was floating in the air in front of them. “Need a lift?”

The youthful copperhead grinned a Cheshire-cat grin, excitedly jogging forward to join him when the gruff boy grabbed her arm. “What are you thinking?”

“Come on, big brother,” she cooed. “Jesse isn’t gonna drop me or anything. And it’s either travel by air down there or walk the whole way.”

He seemed to grapple with the situation. “Guess it won’t hurt anything.”

“So, you say,” the last boy, who’d been quiet mostly, finally spoke. “It’s reckless.”

“I can be trusted sometimes, Golden Boy,” the blond, still floating, sneered. “Come on, Jo. I said I’d give you a ride to the party.”

She finally stepped over the cliff, hopping onto some invisible air cloud this Jesse character controlled. She sat on nothing with her legs crossed, grinning at the two boys still on the cliff. “Come on. Grace and her new friends are waiting for us. We can’t keep that girl waiting.”

Her brother turned to the other boy. “Come on, Warren. It’ll be fine.” With that said, he jumped into the air, landing on his back next to his sister. “Let’s go.”

Tall, dark, and handsome–or Warren as she knew him now–cursed to himself, looking down at where his three friends were floating. He looked like he wanted to turn around and walk away from them, take the more strenuous hike down to wherever they were going, but thought against it. Instead, he took a dead jump towards them and landed on the other side of Jesse.

Grinning, the blond let them float down like the dead drop on a vertical roller coaster. Ellie felt her non-terrestrial body float down with them, just as fast, letting out a scream from the adrenaline and fear. They came to a dead stop just five feet from the ground, and Jesse let them drop softly. Jo, the girl, knew he was going to, because she was the only one who stepped off before Jesse let the others fall softly onto their asses. She cackled a bit as they brushed themselves off and begun with the walk towards the fires and the booming music, letting them follow her with grumbling mouths.

Her breath came out in a choked gasp as reality ripped her from her vision. That was routine. Her body lurched from her bed, her legs getting caught in the tangle of sapphire sheets and her white comforter. She took a while to calm down, as always. Running a hand through her stringy hair, she felt the cold sweat on her clammy forehead. Her stomach did little flips as if she were about to upchuck her dinner, so she reached toward her nightstand for the glass of water waiting there for her to take it and she gulped it down hurriedly.

She heard the door open as her older brother peered inside, asking, “What was it? Are you okay?”

She nodded shakily, still trying to catch her breath. “I found… I found…”

“What? What did you find?”

She lifted her eyes to her sibling. “I found others. Just like you.”

Twelve hours later, the siblings packed up what little belongings they had and were ready to follow the beacon to San Catalin, California.

“If you know where they are now, then doesn’t that mean there’s a target on them now?” her brother asked.

“Others can sense them now, yes. They’re probably going to come.”

“So why bother? They’re not going to trust us or help us.”

“We have to try. We need them.”

Almost simultaneously, in a kitchen in Santa Fe, New Mexico, glass shattered on tile, the once pristine coffee mug in shambles now.

“Nora!” Blair Ruiz’s voice called out from the other room in the house. Her dyed cherry red hair swung from its ponytail as she walked in to see her brunette little sister standing at the kitchen sink–with the faucet still bleeding out water–simply staring with furrowed brows out the bay window. “What’s wrong with you?”

She slowly turned around, her mouth in a little upside-down U shape. “I think I just sensed Others.”

“Seriously?” Blair laughed in disbelief.

Nora’s eyes were wide until they turned into offended little slits at her sister’s remarks. “Why is that so funny to you?”

Blair shrugged. “I’m the one who senses Others—not you.”

Nora crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Apparently not always. They’re in San Catalin, California.”

Blair rolled her eyes. “Fine. How many did you sense?”

“Five, maybe.”

Blair laughed again. “Now I know you’re out of it. There hasn’t been that many others together since before the witch trials.”

“We’re stronger in numbers,” Nora said.

“We’re also more obvious in numbers,” Blair pointed out. “Since when has a coven of four or more made it?”

“I just heard of one over in Arizona,” Nora informed her sister, bending over the ground to pick up the large pieces of what had once been her coffee mug. “There’s like four elder ones and all their children living under one roof and they’ve lived through many attacks.”

“Really? That’s your big example?” Blair chortled. “They’re a myth.”

“They’re real. I checked out their names,” Nora protested. “The Bennett Manor in San Luis. They’re powerful and safer together than apart. They’re a family. Isn’t that the whole point of sensing others–to come together and be a family?”

“We have a family.” Blair gestured outside the window where their older brother and his live-in girlfriend were chatting over the flowers with their mom.

“Family like us.” Nora sighed as she got the dustpan to sweep up the little bits of glass. “A real coven. You’ve always said you wanted that.”

“I do,” Blair said. “I guess we can check it out. California sounds like a nice enough place to go. If mom even allows it. But what about school?”

“We can use a little bit of our tricks to get into school there,” Nora said. “The others are close to our age. At least it felt that way. If we can figure out who they are, we can go where they go.”

“Let the cyber-stalking begin.”

CHAPTER TWO

Just a few days later, after having her vision, Ellie Sherwood was drooling in the passenger’s seat of her brother’s car as he drove the rest of the way to the apartment complex they were set to move into. Kane looked over at her, smiling in amusement at her gaping mouth. Deciding they could unpack later, he walked around to scoop her up in his arms and carry her up the stairs to their new temporary home.

It was a modest place, just a living area with a kitchenette, two rooms and a bathroom. It was small, but it would do for as long as they’d be there. More than anything, he hoped it wouldn’t be particularly long at all. If the plan went smoothly, they should be back home safe and sound before graduation.

He put her on the provided couch, as they had no mattresses yet, and stripped off his jacket so he could lay it on her. He was about to make himself comfy on the floor when he heard her groan and stir under his thick leather jacket. “Kane?”

“We made it, sis,” he said with a fond grin. “Go back to sleep.”

She mumbled something sleepy, her eyes closing again before her head lolled over and her mouth went agape again.

“Are you coming out tonight?”

Warren rolled his eyes as his best friend dunked the basketball into the net. He then laughed when he forgot to bend his knees when landing back on his feet on the asphalt and fell on his back in shell shock and mild pain. “You deserved that for show-boating.”

“Whatever,” Sam whined, sitting up and leaning back on his palms, not bothering to get all the way up as the ball bounced away towards the grass. “Are you coming out or not? It’s the last first-of-the-year party we’re going to have.”

“I’m coming out,” Warren assured his friend, going to retrieve the ball. “I don’t see the point, though. They always get cut short at the beginning of the year.”

“We’ll go to the mid-year one too,” Sam compromised, standing up and yanking the ball away. He dribbled a bit before taking another shot and making it, grinning in satisfaction. “Are you going to be a wet blanket tonight again? Or will you actually have fun?”

Warren hooked his hands on his hips. “Unlike you and Jesse, I don’t need beer to have fun.”

“I don’t need beer. I have Grace,” Sam said.

Warren swiped the ball away as Sam tried to dribble past him and attempted to make a shot, but the ball bounced off the edge of the rim with a resounding metal echo. Warren closed his eyes, his groan drowned out by Sam’s taunting.

“Seriously, though, try to have fun for once tonight.”

Warren knew the words were coming from a place of friendship and not peer pressure. But he couldn’t promise anything when it came to going out with his best friends. They were more than a handful and since they were kids, watching out for them had always fallen on his shoulders. It wasn’t a responsibility to be dropped for one night of reckless abandonment. The High School senior in him told him to have fun while he could. Next year it would be college exams and soul-crushing stress to prepare for real life outside the comfort of his hometown. But the responsible part of him–the side that always won out over the rest of him–told him he’d be right back home when all was said and done, no matter what he did on this night or any other night.

“I’ll try,” he promised his friend, keeping his words careful and vague and void of any real oath like the future lawyer everyone expected him to be.

“Awesome.” Sam cheered as he made another basket.

Later that day, a platinum blond named Jesse fished through his bed for his ringing phone, only to find it on the floor underneath his bed. Dust flapped into his hair as he reached for it, making him cough out his greeting when he accepted the phone call.

“Dude, are you dying?” a female voice deadpanned over the line.

“No, coughing,” he corrected. “Thanks for sounding so concerned, though.”

“No problem,” she sarcastically replied. “Are you going tonight?”

Jesse would have rolled his eyes if she could see him do it, but he settled for speaking out, “No, you know me, I don’t do parties,” sarcastically.

“You must really be dying then,” she quipped. “Come on, I need a ride. When could you be here?”

“That depends. Do you want to be on time, or fashionably late?” he asked her.

“It’s like you don’t know me at all,” she teased.

“Party supposedly starts at seven, so I’ll be over at like eight-thirty,” he surmised. “Sound good, Biddy?”

“Sounds fine,” she answered. “And don’t you dare call me that in front of any hot girls. I can’t have you ruining my game.”

“You’re a lesbian. You don’t need any game, Jo,” he teased her. “I’ll see you later.”

She could have come up with something pretty witty–he knew this–but she didn’t and instead just said, “See ya,” and hung up on him.

He dropped the phone on his bed haphazardly right as he heard a crash downstairs. He raced down the creaking stairs, but when he came upon the scene, he judged himself for being in such a rush for such a regular occurrence. His mother lay strewn on the hardwood floors, a now-shattered glass in bits and pieces around her. He saw her chest rising and falling and knew he didn’t need to get her to the ER again. So, he just got a broom and pan and swept around her–one thing at a time–until he cleared the glass away. Picking up her dead weight used to be a challenge, but now he’d grown used to the amount of strength he needed to carry her back up the stairs and into her room. He laid her on the bed–it didn’t look like she’d slept in it for months.

Going back down the stairs, he was glad their cleaning lady had gone home for the day. She had never seen his mother the way she truly was, and he was grateful for the fact. He didn’t need the attention and humiliation that would follow such a scandal. He padded his way into the kitchen, grabbing a glass–this one he hoped she wouldn’t break–of water, and some painkillers for the headache she would be sure to wake up with.

He whispered to himself, “Come on, mom, it’s not even night yet.” Laying the objects on her nightstand, a photograph on top made him stop for a moment. He didn’t know why it was out, but no doubt it caused the state he’d found her in. It was a graduation photo of his father. His mother wasn’t in it, only him and one of his best friends–the father of one of his best friends now. Grabbing the offensive frame, Jesse took it with him to hide away from her. Seeing his father’s face did nothing but throw her in the whirlwind of her addiction. Not that he was anyone to talk about handling such a thing as addiction.

There was time to kill before she woke up to wretch out all the food or the entire lining of her stomach if she hadn’t eaten that day, which he suspected she hadn’t. He sighed, flopping down on his bed, flicking the television on. He hoped he wasn’t late tonight.

CHAPTER THREE

Elsewhere, at San Catalin’s most prestigious boarding school, Ashby Prep Academy, a beautiful mocha-skinned girl named Grace Howard had just hung up with her boyfriend, Samuel Hemmings, when she heard a knock at the door of her dorm room. She peered at the empty bed on the other side of the room and sighed, figuring she would not get the room to herself this year after all. She answered the door to two girls, a petite brunette and taller cherry red head. They both looked pretty and trendy enough for her to think having one of them as a roommate wouldn’t be all so bad.

“Hi,” the redhead greeted. “I’m Blair, your new roommate. This is my sister, Nora.”

“Hi, I’m Grace.” The socialite shook both of their hands and led them in. Nora rolled in a large black suitcase as Blair carried in two boxes from the floor.

“You don’t have a lot of stuff,” Grace said.

Blair shrugged. “I don’t need much. Anything I end up needing, I can steal from Nora.”

The younger sister clicked her tongue against her teeth. “No, you will not.”

Grace giggled at their antics. “If you’re sisters, why aren’t you rooming together? Not that I mind having you here.”

Blair and Nora exchanged a look before the elder answered, “It’s imperative to maintaining our relationship that we don’t spend every waking moment together.”

“I understand.” Grace grinned.

“Do you get a lot of new students here or not?” Nora wedged herself into the conversation. “We got quite a few looks on our way in here.”

“You guys are basically new zoo animals for the rest of the year,” Grace teased her. “Everyone here basically grew up together. But you’re not the only new ones. My friends got a new roommate. And I was at the gas station last night and bumped into this really hot guy. Said he and his sister just transferred in. It’s like there’s something in the air this year–because there’s never been this many new people all at once.”

“Well, it is one of the best prep schools in the country,” Nora shrugged. “That’s got to be quite the allure to this city. Despite the traffic.”

“Traffic can be a bitch,” Grace grinned. Then her eyes lit up with excitement. “Hey! There’s a big party tonight. The last kick off until the new school year starts, and everyone gets stressed out of their minds. It’s over on the beach. You guys need to come. I can introduce you to the best people here.”

Blair and Nora shared a look between them, as if silently debating if a party was in their best interests. Ultimately, they must have decided in favor because Blair said, “Sounds awesome. What should we wear?”

That same night, a petite brunette named Ellie was pulling at her clothes with a frown as she watched her brother, Kane, clear off the dishes from the table. They’d eaten a small dinner before getting ready to head out to this big party they knew would happen at the beach. “Do I have to go?”

“You’re the one who said we had to move here to find these people,” Kane pointed out, unceremoniously dumping the plastic dishes into the sink before turning on the faucet over them, counting it as cleaning.

Ellie rolled her eyes and walked over to actually clean the dishes, grabbing the dish soap and a sponge before setting to work.

“And you said they were going to a party in your vision,” he continued, backing off to let her do the work.

“I didn’t say it was this one,” she huffed, seriously not wanting to go to a High School rager. It was against her nature as an introvert.

“What else could it be?” Kane guffawed, laughing at her. “How many parties do you think these stuffed shirts have?”

“Probably a lot if every teen movie has gotten anything right,” she quipped. “Besides, we’re about to be a part of those stuffed shirts come Monday.”

“But we’ll wear them ironically,” he responded quickly, as if he’d had the comeback ready in the back of his head for this exact moment.

“I don’t want to go,” she whined. “It’s gonna be a bunch of drunk idiots. And crowded. How are we even supposed to find them and know who they are?”

“You saw them in your vision, their faces,” he said, taking the wet yet clean dishes from her to dry them off with a paper towel. “You point them out to me, and I’ll make sure we bump into them somehow.”

“You’re sure?”

“Leave it to me, sis.”

CHAPTER FOUR

The parties at the coast were always too big for their britches, with bonfires littering the sandy ground. Someone brought a bunch of kegs and the incoming seniors set them up throughout the party and beers and other drinks in coolers along the edge of the crowd. They set a DJ up on a makeshift stage, blasting music throughout the beach, drowning out the waves as writhing bodies crowded into an improv mosh pit. Other teenagers gathered around the several bonfires and chatted, the vast majority holding a plastic red cup in their hands.

Grace Howard—in her beautiful bronze glory—flashed a smile at everyone who passed by her and her two new friends. While Grace dressed shiny and chic, Blair had opted for the dark and mysterious look. She hoped this meant no one would really approach her. Meanwhile, shy and subdued, Nora had dressed as understated as her personality, as if this were the first real High School kegger she’d ever been to in her life. And it might as well have been with the scared doe-eyed expression she was giving the hoards of teenagers around them.

Blair feigned a social

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Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 23.12.2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-2829-9

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