Along with witches, there are other beings in the world. We all live alongside of humans, usually without being noticed. We don’t really associate with other beings, so I did not know much about them. It wasn’t that we didn’t like other beings or were afraid of them, we just kept separate from them. When too many different beings are together, we become more noticeable. So, we stay away from each other. I think that has turned into hatred and fear over the years, especially with the vampires.
Most of the grimoires we have hold very little information, and I was an inquisitive child. I always wanted to know more, especially about other beings. I wanted to talk to them, understand them, make friends with them. I wanted to understand what made us different, why we didn’t spend more time together. We had a common fear of being discovered by humans, but that wasn’t enough to bring us together.
I knew the basics of where each being came from and how they evolved, but after keeping separate for so long, I wasn’t sure what was true and what was just a story. I wanted to know if there was a way we could all live together, maybe not with humans so easily, but alongside them, in harmony with them without fear, without the fear of always being hunted. Maybe humans would understand, maybe they would not fear us any longer. We are the myths and legends they tell their children about. What if they could see that we weren’t all like that? The world is a magical place, and humans believe miracles happen every day. Without magic, the world would be lost, broken.
Each being has a different story and most keep their stories vague. It allows humans to create the myths that surround each of us, explaining away our gifts and making it easier to dismiss our existence as just a story, warning young children to behave. Like vampires only come out at night and steal your memories, werewolves only turn on the full moon and if they bite you, you’ll turn into one. But also creating greater fear around us. Fear that grew and turned into the witch hunts that have occurred throughout history as well as the humans who hunt the werewolves and vampires for sport. A fear of the unknown, a fear of our power. Power greater than those who rule and do not like it. There are times in human history when a being ruled or was in a position of power. But it never ended well for those beings and often started a new wave of hunts.
I know the most about witches, being one myself. Witches come from a union with a demon. Demons were once angels, and although they kept their angelic looks and powers, after being banished from heaven, their souls and powers were twisted, broken and damaged. Some became so dark that the witches born of those lines were wiped from history. There are still a few, but they are trapped, bound by other witches to keep our secret.
Lucifer only allows his most trusted soldiers time on earth. Most of the time, the demons move on and have nothing to do with the women or the offspring they produce, if that happened. Demons feel no love, only hatred of humans. Their union is a different form of torture, one that often ends with the human arriving in hell when their life has ended. Any darkness in the human is brought to the surface during their time with the demon. Some are no longer recognisable as human.
Each witch has different powers coming from the demon they are descended from. There are no dark or light powers, only how the witch choses to use them. Some witch families are more powerful than others. Our family line comes from Lucifer. Therefore, we are the most powerful witch line. Most families don’t like to talk about which demon they descend from; Some don’t even know where their powers come from. Our family more so to protect ourselves, though many suspect who we descended from as our powers are so much stronger. Those descended from Lucifer’s strongest soldiers are powerful as well, but still not like our family. If a witch denied their powers and stopped using them, they would fade, and each generation would become weaker than the one before. Though sometimes a child would be born who had power again. It was rare and no one really knew why or how this happened. Often the child would be shunned and given up by the family, left to look after itself. Some of the luckier children would be taken in by families who still practiced, including my own. For others, it did not end so well.
Most of Lucifer’s trusted circle are male demons; some believe that Lucifer doesn’t like powerful women. But it is also said that one of Lucifer’s most vicious and twisted demons is female and is part of his most trusted circle. She is also supposed to be the most beautiful as well. But there have been no sightings of her and nothing about who she is. She is just a myth to us all. It was said any child of hers would be too dangerous to allow to live.
Beside witches, there are also vampires, werewolves and fey along with the demons and angels who walk the earth. Angels who could be just as vengeful as their Creator.
I had so many questions as a child about each being. I was always asking questions, I wanted to know everything. Most of the time, my mother had no idea how to answer me. She either didn’t know the answer or she didn’t want to talk about it. Like many of the older generations, they didn’t really associate with other beings. She had kept her distance. I could tell she didn’t like it when I asked so many questions.
I started reading at the age of four before anyone really taught me how and as my powers grew, my need to understand them grew. I would sneak into my father’s library to read his books. I was often found asleep on the chair in his study with a book in my lap. On many occasions, I would look through our collection of magical books and take them down to my father’s study as well. It had a big black leather chair next to one of the windows. It was the perfect reading chair, and I could curl up completely in it. On one particularly rainy day when I was seven, I found a book on other beings. The rain was lashing against the windows and a storm was brewing. I could always smell when a storm was coming and as soon as I felt the rain about to fall, I would go outside. All I wanted was to be outside. I loved the rain, I loved a storm even more. I could feel the power in a storm. It was a beauty to behold and feel. It felt like a rival to my own powers growing inside me. But my mother didn’t want me to get sick. Even though I never got sick. So, she forbade me to go outside, forced me to stay in and told me to go play in my room. Instead, I went up to the locus sacer to look for a new book, something I hadn’t read yet, maybe something about other beings. There had to be something among all the books we stored up there. Then I found something: One of the trunks unlocked itself and a few books tumbled out. Sitting on the top now was a small book stamped with the words of each being on the front. It had been hidden in a trunk among a collection of grimoires. It was not a large book, but it had a section on all six beings: witches, werewolves, fey, vampires, demons and angels, their origins and their magic, as well as where these beings were often found. It answered some of my questions, but it was such a small book, with very little information. At least it was a place to start. I wondered whether I had called the book out, or if the book had its own magic, calling to mine.
I took the book downstairs to my father’s study. He was in London, so I knew he wouldn’t be there. I climbed up into the leather chair with a blanket from my bed, I stoked the fire and settled into an afternoon of reading. Along with the book on beings, I also collected a couple of grimoires from the same trunk, thinking they may have more information as well.
I started with the chapter on werewolves. Werewolves were born, like witches with their ability to shift. They do not have their first shift until they are sixteen. This age is when most beings are considered an adult, a coming of age. Werewolves are descended from a witch who had the ability to transform into other creatures, and often she would take on the spirit of a wolf as her first choice. The wolf is strong, fast and fierce. A wonderful predator and a loyal pack member. She did it to protect her people from humans and other beings that wanted to hurt them, but she also enjoyed running like a wolf through the forests and high into the mountains. Her power and strength were such as this creature that she chose only to shift into a wolf, neglecting her other powers. She shifted so often and for such long periods of time that all her children were able to take on this gift as well, and their children after them, each generation more powerful than the next. Within a couple of generations, they lost all their other powers and were left with only the ability to transform into a wolf.
Like vampires, werewolves have different family lines, some more powerful than others. Though hunted by humans and vampires alike, the number of werewolves has diminished. However, each generation is more powerful than the one before. They are bigger, stronger and faster and their transformations have become quicker and less painful.
Werewolves do not adhere to the myth that they only change during a full moon. They can change as they please. Most hunt in their wolf form, and they travel as wolves, in a pack. Their senses are heightened, and they can move faster. They are much more powerful as wolves. Though even in their human form, they are stronger and larger than a normal human. It is a wonder to watch a werewolf run. I wondered many times what it would be like to transform into another being. I hoped that one day I would be able to watch one transform. I knew from the book that it could be a painful experience, more so on their first few transformations, especially that first one. The change grows easier and less painful over time.
Sometimes I could see wolves running through the forest behind our house. They were so fast they were almost a blur. There were very few though, and I could never get them to stop to talk to me. Usually, when I realised one was there, it was gone before I could announce myself.
I did wonder why there were only werewolves. Why did other witches not transform into other beings and start new lines of weres that were not wolves? Perhaps there were other werekind that nobody knew of; well-hidden beings, in the deepest of forests, or blended well within the human world.
As more demons walked the earth, more angels were sent from heaven to stop them and balance their influence on humans. At one time, demons lived and fought alongside the angels. They had been friends, and some would often fall into bed with each other. On occasion, children were born from the union of a demon and an angel. The beings created from these unions were called fey. Fey were such unruly beings. Neither ‘good’ nor ‘evil’ with some angelic and demonic powers. But with both sides raging inside for control, the fey were not very stable. Fey are born with powers like those of witches, but not nearly as powerful. Due to their mental instabilities, their powers don’t develop, with most only having a greater knowledge of herbs and flowers with some control over the element of earth. Fey spend their time in forests, preferring to be among the trees rather than in the chaos of the human world. These beings are so afraid of everyone and everything that they stay well-hidden most of the time. Along with angels, they would be the hardest to find.
Fey love the forests. They can hide among the trees. The humans have stories of beautiful young women who live in the forests and beckon human men inside. But I am pretty sure that is a human man’s reason for committing adultery. I have never seen a fey. I am not sure if there are any in the forest. I hoped there would be. There were so many other beings in there, I was sure there would be fey too. I always felt that the forest next to our house was a mystical place. It was dark, and I thought it was enchanted as a child. I always felt protected in the forest. The humans were afraid, even my parents were too, but not me. I usually felt safe there, free to be me.