A New Beginning Ch. 09-10

"I recognize him!" Beth exclaimed.

"How?" Cole asked.

"He's the one that turned Griffin," Raven answered.

"And he possessed Griffin so that he tried to hurt Raven and drive her to ground," Beth added.

"To stop us," Mage finished the summary. Beth nodded, glad her cousin was a quick study; it came in handy if you were a witch to be quick and clever.

"I can't believe he's the one that started all of this," Xavier said.

"I would not have had to resorted to kidnapping and rape and possession had Joe not failed me," the man in the circle grumbled.

"You turned my brother into the monster he became!" Beth exclaimed.

"Your brother was already resentful of your power not being bound. All it took was a nudge," the man answered with a smirk. Cole walked to the opening of the bar, ready to intercept Beth if she lunged towards him.

"You're going to fail," Raven said in a deadly tone.

"How's that?" the man snickered.

"First, Beth cleansed the evil out of him," Raven announced.

"That's impossible! I would have sensed it!" the man growled.

I'm a competent enough witch to make it seem to whoever was the puppet master would think that Griffin was still possessed. You'll never take hold of Griffin again," Beth said with a satisfied grin. She muttered something under her breath and waved her hand in the air causing the man's cloak to fall off of his head, revealing his identity. The girls' eyes widened and they looked at each other in shock.

"Marcus?" Raven whispered.

"Is he possessed?" Mage asked, glancing at Beth. The three girls clasped their hands together and chanted one of the most powerful spells they knew.

"He isn't possessed!" Raven gasped.

"Who do you think killed your grandparents and your parents?" Marcus sneered. Beth went pale at that and lowered herself to the floor as her knees began to buckle. Cole's eyes widened and he glanced at Logan and Xavier. The mysterious deaths of the girls' parents caused them to be sent to the only family left; the girls' grandparents. It was not something Beth liked to talk about, but Cole had managed to get her to open up.

"I don't see why we have to talk about this Cole," Beth grumbled.

"Because it's important Beth," Cole said patiently as he closed the room to the nursery before following Beth down the stairs and into the kitchen. He watched Beth punched down the bread dough.

"What do you want to know Cole?" Beth asked with a sigh.

"I need to know how you, Raven and Mage all ended up living with your grandparents," Cole answered.

"Our parents often went out together, we were all very close. Our mothers were triplets. Grandma Baylor, our mother's mom often called mom, aunt Jessica and aunt Tess chosen. The night they died, they were on their way to see a play. The breaks failed while they were on their way to the theater. The police said it had been tampered with. We knew they were murdered because after the van crashed, it was doused with acetone and set on fire." Beth paused and took a sip of water. Cole swallowed when he saw how shaky Beth's hands were, hated himself for bringing up the past, but he needed to know. Cole knew, in his heart, that despite Joe being gone, the danger wasn't over. "Mage was fifteen, I was thirteen and Raven was twelve. Joe had just turned eighteen and was in his second semester at college, but Mage and Raven and I were sent to live with Grandpa and Grandma Baylor. Grandma Baylor trained us all in witch craft; taught us how to control our powers and told us about how we would be required to defeat evil." Beth paused again and shaped the dough into loafs before depositing them into the bread pans and covering them with a cloth towel. "The day that Raven graduated from high school, the three of us stayed at Mage's apartment to celebrate after we had dinner with our grandparents. On their way home, our grandparents were in a car accident. The police said that grandpa Baylor was drunk and hit a telephone pole. Grandma Baylor never wore a seat belt unless we were with them, she didn't like being restrained. She was thrown from the car twenty feet. Doctors say she died instantly. Grandpa wasn't that lucky. He recovered from the crash, but when he was stable enough for us to tell him about Grandma, it was too much for him and he had a massive heart attack which the doctors were unable to save him from," Beth finished. Cole handed her a glass of scotch and Beth drank it gladly.

"You cut our parents break line," Raven said.

"And then doused the car and set it on fire," Marcus confirmed.

"What about our grandparents?" Mage wanted to know.

"I caused their accident too. I slipped a little something into your grandfather's glass of wine that made it seem like he was drunk. He acted all woozy after that. Don't you remember Beth? You tried to convince him to let you drive home," Marcus answered.

"And he refused," Beth whispered.

"Enough!" Cole shouted, unwilling to see his mate and her family to be in any more pain. In his haste to get to Beth, he nudged one of the crystals with his foot; a surge of energy released from Marcus had Cole sailing across the room. He crashed into an oil painting on the wall before falling to the floor.

"This isn't over girls!" Marcus bellowed before disappearing into thin air.