The Werewolf's Sabbat Ch. 09

The drive to the cottage took a lot longer than usual, with all of the traffic and emergency vehicles blocking the roadways. Eventually, Mitch got tired of waiting and drove across the grassy median, heading back the way they came to take a different route. Janette didn't say a word the entire time. She just stared out the window as if in a catatonic state. The rain had finally stopped when they turned into her grandmother's driveway two hours later. Mitch got out of the jeep and ran around to open the door for Janette. He helped her out of the jeep and wrapped his arms around her.

"Are you going to be alright?"

"I'm fine, Mitch. I'm just tired, that's all." Janette tried to smile but she wasn't really feeling it. She was still shaky from what had happened earlier.

Mitch walked Janette up the steps of the front porch with his arm still around her shoulder. She opened the door and they both walked inside.

Rose and Marion were sitting on the sofa watching the news when they looked up at the couple standing there, soaking wet. Rose noticed the distraught look on Janette's face and stood to go to her. "Oh my, what's wrong, dear?"

"Grandma, there was an accident on the highway," Janette said. She slid her jacket off and hung it on the coat hook next to the door.

"Yes, we were just watching it on the news. They said it was a pile up, maybe 20 cars involved. You weren't there, were you?"

Mitch looked down at Janette and hugged her to him reassuringly. "Just tell her what happened, Jan. You've got to tell her."

"Grandma," Janette took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to cry again. "I saw it before it happened."

"I see." Rose nodded her head, understanding what her granddaughter was trying to tell her.

"We were driving on the highway and it happened to us first. We were right in the middle of the accident. Right behind the truck that caused the whole thing. I don't know. I guess it was a vision, or something. The jeep flipped and we were rolling down the highway. When we stopped..." Janette wasn't sure she could continue when she felt her bottom lip began to quiver.

"Go on dear," her grandma said.

"When we stopped... Mitch was dead. There was an explosion somewhere. Maybe a car exploded, I don't know." Janette wiped a tear from her eye. "It was so real. Everything felt so real. There was glass cut into my arm. I could smell gasoline fumes and something burning. Everything was so real," she said again, before walking over to sit on the couch. The TV was on and a news crew was covering the accident. Janette reached forward and grabbed the remote from the coffee table. She clicked the TV off, unable to watch it anymore.

Rose took a seat on the recliner that was next to the couch. She didn't seem the least bit surprised at what her granddaughter had just told her. She felt almost happy that Janette was finally finding her gifts. "So you have started having visions. I was wondering when it was going to happen," she said with a faint smile in her eyes.

Janette looked at her grandmother's smug face and tried not to glare at her. She knew that she belonged to a family of witches but she had yet to experience any unusual abilities and assumed that the gift had skipped her generation. "Do you not understand what I have told you? I was there, grandma. I saw everything. People are dead and injured." She shook her head, not knowing what to think of the situation. "If this is what having visions is like, I don't want it. I don't want any part of it." She suddenly remembered seeing her mother and father in the car as they were rolling. "Why didn't you tell me that I was in the accident that killed my parents?"

"What do you mean?"

"I had a vision at the hospital. I saw the car with my parents in it and I saw myself in the back seat. When we were rolling down the highway just a couple of hours ago, I was in the back seat of their car, not the jeep. I was with them when it happened, wasn't I?" Janette had always thought that they died alone, that she had been at school or with her grandma or something. Nobody had specified either way and she had never asked. She didn't know why it mattered but she found herself suddenly angry that that detail had been kept from her.

Rose stood and began slowly pacing the room. "What should we have told you, Jan? Of course, we had always planned to tell you everything but the time never seemed right."

"Well the time is right, right now." Janette found herself getting angrier.

Mitch was still standing by the door when he saw the anxious look in Janette's eyes. He walked over and sat next to her, putting one arm around her shoulders in an effort to comfort her. "Let's stay calm, please. Just let her explain."

"Jan, it's true. You were in the car when the accident occurred. I'm not sure what happened but you didn't remember your parents afterward. We assumed that it was due to the trauma that you had been through. Sometimes when something really bad happens to someone, they block out the event completely. We wanted to tell you everything but it never seemed to be the right time." Rose laid a hand on her chest, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to fall.

Marion stepped up and stood next to her twin sister. "We almost lost you, Jan. After the accident, we moved here. You wouldn't even speak for the longest time. We had trouble getting you to eat for weeks. You became so thin. All you would do is sit in your room and stare at the wall. You snapped out of it after a month of being withdrawn. I'm not sure why." Marion grabbed a tissue from the box on the end table and handed it to her sister. "One morning you came bouncing into the kitchen asking for breakfast as though nothing had happened. We carefully asked you about what you remembered but you couldn't remember anything. You couldn't even remember anything about the old school you went to."

Rose dabbed at the tears in her eyes, remembering her thin, sickly little granddaughter and how she had worried about her. "I was afraid to tell you. I didn't know if it would send you back into whatever state of mind you had been in, or not. We had you back. That's all we cared about." Rose cleared her throat and sat in the chair next to the sofa. "Before the accident, you were starting to develop your abilities. You were starting to have visions and dreams. Your mother didn't want us to encourage them because of some issues she had as a child. We tried to abide by her wishes but found ourselves helping you to grow anyway we could. After the accident, though, all of your visions stopped. As far as I know, you haven't had one since, until today."

"Actually, I have been having them. I just didn't know what they were. I thought they were just dreams, or something." Janette looked at Mitch, wondering if she should tell her aunt and grandma about him.

"They already know," Mitch said when he saw the question in her eyes.

"Wait a minute," Janette said slowly with a look of disbelief. "You two know that Mitch is a werewolf?"

The twins nodded their heads. "We have known for some time now."

Janette shook her head. She didn't know if she could take any more surprises. First, the visions, then finding out that Mitch was a werewolf... what next? "What do I do about these 'visions' I am having, if that's even what they really are? Why would they have started now, after being dormant all these years?" she asked, her head beginning to throb. "Grandma, I'm serious, I don't like it. I can't live like this. It's... it's just too much." She cringed when she remembered the crying baby on the highway. Was that baby even still alive?

Janette's grandma looked at her with pity in her eyes. "I admit, it's hard at first. Your visions are different than ours." She waved a hand to her sister and herself. "We only have visions in our dreams but you seem to have them when you are awake, as well." Rose took a deep breath trying to think of the best way to explain things to Janette. "Jan, you have to learn to control them. Don't shut them out. They are too helpful. If it weren't for our visions, and yours, you likely wouldn't be here today. What do you feel when you start to have one?"

Janette remembered the pulling feeling in her chest. "Well, the last two times it happened there was a feeling in my chest as though I was being pulled by something. The first time I was actually pulled through a tunnel. But that didn't happen this last time."

Rose's eyes lit up. "Okay. So next time you feel that pulling sensation, I want you to relax. Realize that what you are seeing isn't real. Let the vision flow through your body, like a breeze. Keep the visual part of it but let the emotional part go. It's not easy. But it's necessary." Rose caught the look of uncertainty in Janette's eyes and went over to hug her. "It's not easy, at first, but you can do it. We did it. I'm sorry that I didn't prepare you better for this but we didn't know what your abilities would be. There was no way to properly prepare you until we found out what they would be."

Janette looked confused. "How will I know that it's not real? It feels so real."

"Pay close attention to the next one. I'm not sure how yours works exactly, but most of the time you will notice discrepancies in your vision. For example, a door might be in a slightly different place than in real life. Or perhaps the room will be a different color."

Janette shook her head and rubbed her temples when she felt the beginning of a headache start behind her eyes. She didn't want to deal with this right now. It could wait until later. She hugged her grandmother close. "I love you grandma. I'm sorry if I was being difficult earlier. It's just that everything seems to be happening all at once. I don't understand it."

"It's okay. I understand and I love you too. You'll get the hang of things. Just trust in yourself. You have always been a strong woman. I know you can do this."

Janette felt the need to get out into the fresh air. The rain had stopped long ago. It was already getting into the late afternoon and she needed to feed her horse before dark. She didn't like being out after dark. "I'm going to change and go out to feed Calico. Mitch, do you want to come?"

Mitch stood. "Of course." He kissed Rose on the cheek. "Thank you."

"For what?" Rose blushed.

"For being you." He left her with a look of confusion on her face and followed Janette to her bedroom. He had wanted Janette to meet his family today but was glad that he had brought her here instead. The events that morning had even him baffled. He didn't know what to do or say to calm her or explain things.

Janette closed the door of her bedroom behind them. "If you want I can throw your clothes in the dryer. It would only take a few minutes and they'd be ready to go."

"No, I'm okay."

"Well, I'm freezing." Janette slid her shirt over her head, and opened the drawer of her dresser to search for another one. For some reason, she didn't feel a bit awkward about being topless in front of Mitch. The more time she spent with him, the more she felt as though they had known each other forever. Not to mention, after all the chaos that happened that day, being topless was the least of her worries.

Seeing her standing there in her bra, shivering, Mitch suddenly realized there was something he could do. He pulled his own shirt off and stepped up behind her.

Janette found herself being pulled up, her back pressing against his chest, and realized that it felt almost as though his skin was fevered against her. She luxuriated both in the heat of his touch, and in the shameless way her body responded to his closeness. "God your body feels good, but I think you might be getting sick. You feel fevered Mitch." The answering chuckle in her ear sent wonderful tingling feelings down her neck.

Mitch wrapped his arms around Janette's waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Werewolves generate much more body heat than you humans do. Our metabolism is weird. We burn through fat almost four times as fast as you, which is why we eat so much red meat. However, we heal so much faster that we live longer and age slower. I am not getting sick, I am just warmer than the average human. It comes in handy if we have to shift in the winter since our clothes don't shift forms with us." He felt her shiver and turned her to face him. He pulled her close and allowed her to rest her head against his bare chest. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, stroking her hair with his hand.

Janette sighed and looked up at Mitch. "I'm fine. Still a little bit shaken up by everything, but I'll be fine."

Mitch smiled down at Janette with a mischievous look in his eyes. "You know... you are standing here, topless, with me in your room. The door is shut. Your grandma and aunt are occupied with God knows what, probably something having to do with knitting and rocking chairs. I think it's safe to say that..."

"Mitch," Janette rolled her eyes at him. "Just shut up and kiss me already."

Mitch laughed lightly. "Yes Ma'am," he said before crushing his lips to Janette's. He let out a low growl when she slowly slid her small hands up his well-muscled chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, melting into him.

Janette pulled slightly away from him with a giggle. "So you're growling at me now?" she said, one eyebrow raised.

"God I want you." Mitch looked down at Janette, no longer smiling, his eyes filled with pure, uninhibited lust. He pressed his mouth to hers even more desperately than before, deepening their drugging kiss. He let his hands roam up her back. They stopped at her bra strap, his fingers itching to unclasp it. Instead, he slid them back down to cup her firm ass and pulled her hips against him, intent on showing her just how much he wanted her.

Janette sucked in a sharp breath when she felt the not-so-subtle bulge in Mitch's pants pressing against her abdomen. She moaned when he slid a hand up to cup one of her breasts, squeezing it gently, his tongue still sliding in and out of her mouth. She jumped when she heard a knock at her bedroom door.

"Jan?" her grandma called. "I'm starting dinner. Would you two mind going out to the greenhouse and gathering some lettuce for the salad?"

Janette pulled away from Mitch's embrace. "Yeah. We'll be right there." She looked up at Mitch's half grin and blushed. She sat on the edge of the bed and tried to calm her rapid breathing.

"Your grandma has got some pretty lousy timing, huh?" Mitch looked down at her and laughed. He had never seen her so worked up before. He watched Janette get up and walk to her dresser. She pulled out a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He couldn't take his eyes off of her as she quickly stripped off her rain dampened jeans and pulled on her dry clothes. He saw her gazing at a shelf on the wall and noticed all of the dolls and trinkets sitting there. His heart swelled when he realized that they were all of the objects he had left for her on the boulder as a child. She had taken such good care of them.

Once Janette was dressed, she pulled her shoes on and turned to him. "Lousy timing is an understatement."

Mitch put his shirt back on and followed Janette out the door and into the kitchen. He took the bowl that Janette handed him and went with her to the greenhouse. He watched her as she grabbed a small pair of scissors from a shelf and began snipping leaves of different types of lettuce and placing them in the bowl he held. She really seemed to know her way around plants and he couldn't wait to show her the greenhouse on his property.

"You really know what you're doing with this kind of stuff, huh?"

Janette smiled at him, placing more leaves in the bowl. "I was raised around this stuff. Sometimes I feel as though I was born with a garden fork in my hand. Grandma and Aunt Marion taught me everything they know."

"You're going to love the greenhouse at my place. It's probably three or four times as big as this one."

"Why so big?"

"We like to grow a lot of our own food. We do buy some things at the grocery store but a lot of times we rely on hunting and gardening. It saves a pretty penny."

"I agree," Janette said, placing the scissors back on the shelf. "We grow a lot of what we eat but not everything. We do a lot of canning at the end of the garden season. It doesn't take a lot considering that it's only Grandma and Aunt Marion here. I still come out and help, though. I don't like them having to do everything themselves." She took the bowl from Mitch and headed for the door of the small greenhouse. On the way, she led him to different areas of the yard, showing him the asparagus bed, strawberry patch and fruit trees that she helped plant and nurture. "I like my place in the city but sometimes I ache to be back out in the country. You can't do much gardening in the city." Janette opened the back door of the cottage and turned to Mitch. "Wait right here. Let me put this in the kitchen and then you can help me feed the horses if you want to."

"I'd love to." Mitch watched Janette walk into the house and noticed a big pot of nasturtiums sitting by the porch. He reached down and smelled one of the flowers.

"Those are edible, you know," Janette said, stepping out the back door. "We put them in salads quite often. They also deter rabbits from the garden. Rabbits hate nasturtiums."

"Hmm... learn something new every day, huh?" Mitch gave Janette a wink and walked beside her, entwining his fingers with hers.

They walked into the horse stall and Janette began filling Calico's food trough and refreshing his water from the water hose. "Do you want to go for a ride?" she asked, still leaning over the trough. She looked back when Mitch didn't respond and found his eyes on her rear and a silly smile on his face. She rolled her eyes and stood to face him. "I meant on the horse!"

Mitch couldn't contain the laughter coming from him. "I know what you meant. I think I'll pass though."

"What? You're not scared of a little horse are you?"

"Of course not."

"You should try it. He's a pretty fast runner."

"Not as fast as I am." Mitch said with a cocky grin on his face.

"Oh really?" she said. Janette walked the horse out of the stall and into the open. She stepped up onto an overturned plastic crate next to the door, and used it to heave herself up onto the horse's back. "You think so, huh?" She suddenly spurred Calico into a run straight towards the woods, not sparing Mitch another glance.

"So, she wants to play," Mitch said aloud to himself while slowly taking off his shirt and pants. He was in no hurry and carefully folded his clothes, placing them neatly on a small shelf on the wall. He growled deep in his chest and shifted quickly and smoothly into his wolf form. He took off in a mad dash in the same direction as Janette had gone on her horse.

Janette raced as fast as she could through the thick trees with a huge smile on her face. She couldn't see him behind her anywhere and laughed. He thinks he's so tough, she thought to herself. She almost lost control of the horse when she spotted him ahead of her, his lean naked body leaning lazily against a large oak tree with his arms folded across his chest as though he had been waiting there forever.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here," he said, feigning a bored yawn.

Janette gawked at him. "How did you do that?"

"We move unbelievably fast, Janette." He reached up and helped her down from the horse. "Now it's my turn to ask. Do you want to go for a ride?"

Janette's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean on... you?"

Mitch nodded his head. "It's okay. I won't let you get hurt. Just jump on my back after I shift and hang on tight."

Janette watched Mitch shift to his wolf form. "I don't know about this, Mitch," she said. He nodded to her and then lay down, encouraging her to get on. She reached out hesitantly to touch his fur. Even laying down, the huge wolf came up to Janette's waist. "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm really going to do this," she said nervously before climbing onto his back and hanging on tightly.