The Covenant: Seeing is Believing

In 1692, in the colony of Ipswich, Massachusetts, five families with supernatural abilities, they called 'the Power,' formed a Covenant of Silence to protect themselves from the rampant persecutions spreading across the land. Four of the five bloodlines survive to this day. One family lusting after more power was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace. However, the decedent of the fifth bloodline reappeared, seeking to destroy the covenant that his family had been expelled from. He returned to steal the power of the decedents of the four remaining bloodlines, who are now known as the Sons of Ipswich. He did not succeed in gaining the power he lusted after and was defeated in battle, his body never found. But it is his reappearance and the sudden, unexpected return of an old friend that would mark the start of a new chapter in the lives of the Sons of Ipswich, once again putting their Covenant of Silence in danger. On the pages of the Book of Damnation their destiny is written and it is a destiny that they can not deny.

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Every 200 years, a girl; daughter; sister will be born into the Covenant. She will have powers as did her ancestors before her. The power within her will draw back an evil darkness, defeated twice before. The evil will return seeking more than it had before, it will seek to cause greater pain and greater destruction. Only now, the Power will not be strong enough to defeat the evil ounce more. It is only through the power of love, strong and true, that the evil will meet its final end, and never again return from the ashes death.

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Chase's ancestor stole a page from the Book of Damnation. A page that depicted the future of the Daughter that was born into the Covenant. Lux's story is complete, but what other mysteries were written on that page that the Sons have yet to learn of.

***

She awakened with a start her eyes adjusting to the surrounding darkness. It was that same frightening dream again. Stumbling out of her makeshift bed Peyton Holloway dressed and readied herself for the day she would leave behind the only home she'd ever known, all the while the haunting sensations of her dream plagued her mind restless mind. For as long as Peyton Holloway could remember her nights had been filled with dreams. However, they weren't normal dreams. Her dreams showed her things that no normal person could ever know. Her dreams she soon learned often had the tendency of coming true. Unable to control them the dreams would come to her night after night. While the future was what she most often saw she sometimes received flashes of the present and even the past on occasion. Sometimes the dreams were happy, other times they were sad and at times they were even frightening.

Eventually the flashes started coming to her while she was awake, as uncontrollable as they were in her sleep. However, her dreams weren't perfect. Like fate, Peyton's dreams were subject to change, even by the slightest of influences. Over the years she learned to embrace and use her unique talents.

But, the night came when everything changed. She saw it happen in her sleep. She remembered seeing the car run the red light, the driver too drunk to notice. She remembered seeing her mother's face as she saw the car coming at her as she crossed the street on her way home from work. She remembered her dream going blank and the voice screaming through the nothingness only to realize that they were her own screams.

The dream had been real, happening in reality during the same time that she had seen it happen in her sleep. Her mother had never even made it to the hospital alive, her injuries to extensive. The time she spent in the hospital seemed a blur, as if it had never happened, as if she herself had died along with her mother.

This new dream was different, much different from any other dream she had ever had. The same dream that had been plaguing her sleep since the night she received the phone call from her father. The father she'd never met, never known until her mother had died in the accident two weeks ago.

It was strange for the meaning of her dreams to elude her the way this one did. Yet, the dream seemed to call to her, drawing her to that place. Ipswich. Something was waiting there for her; something dark and evil. Yet, she could feel something else through the dream as well. What she felt through that darkness and evil was light and good. Both were waiting for her. Why, she couldn't understand, but, she knew for whatever reason it was where she was meant to go.

For the last two weeks she had been living alone in the apartment that she and her mother had shared for the last 17 years of her life. The first week after her mother's death had been the hardest. It had been difficult to get up in the morning and pull herself out of the misery long enough to even feed herself or go to the bathroom. After that first week of walking around in a gloomy daze the pain began to fade, being replaced by the memories of all the happy times she shared with her mother. Peyton knew that she would want her to move on rather than wallow in sorrow for weeks on end.

The phone call came during that depression filled part of the last two weeks. George Simms, her father, had called with his condolences and offered for her to come live with him in Ipswich, Massachusetts and attend Spencer Academy with her brother, where she wouldn't be alone and would be taken care of.

At first she hadn't known what to say. She had never known her father, but she had never blamed him for the separation during her 17 years of life. When she was eight her mother had explained to her why she and her father had split up. He had recently suffered the loss of his wife at the beginning of their relationship and left with a year old son when she had died. Their affair had been brief and when it had ended it ended on common grounds and at the time they had been unaware of her mother's pregnancy. Despite his offer marriage after discovering the news her mother had refused and moved to New York where the two of them had lived happily. However, Peyton had to admit that she had had her suspicions of George Simms sending them money every so often to help out. She was not naive enough to think that the money that both of their waitressing jobs brought in would be able to cover their living expenses as easily as it seemed to.

In the end she agreed to make the move to Ipswich to live with her father and her older brother. Taking one last look at the now nearly bare apartment where she had grown up Peyton shut the door behind her and left for the airport. All her belongings had already been packed and sent off to her new home where they would be ready and waiting for her arrival.

As she sat on the plane thoughts of the plaguing dream filled her head and she couldn't help but wonder at what she would find in Ipswich or what would find her. The strong feelings of evil and darkness that the dream gave her forced her to push the thought aside and instead she thought about the people that she would soon meet.

She thought of her father, a man that seemed kind and generous from what she had been told by her mother and the brief conversations she had had with him over the phone. She thought of her brother, older than her by a year. They would be close enough in age where hopefully they would be able to get along well enough. She wondered what he would be like and what his friends were like.

It was then that the nerves began to set in. Having never been able to mix well with people her own age, especially those of the opposite sex, Peyton had few friends. It wasn't necessarily due to her dreams and flashes, although they didn't help. It had always been more in her nature to be the quite studious type. Rather than going out to parties or hanging out with the other kids she preferred to curl up with a good book or pursue her studies; she always had been an excellent student, at the cost of a social life of course. However, she had always felt the need to break away from her calm, quite and studious life to get out, take more chances, make friends, have fun and be a little wild for once in her life. Only it seemed that it was never going to happen, things were already to set in their ways to change.

Along with a dead end social life her romantic life had never been much better. For starters her lack of a social life made it difficult to meet guys and her constant nervousness around them made it almost impossible to really talk to them.

Peyton knew well enough that her looks were quite plain, nothing to draw anyone's attention to her, let alone a guy. Her hair was a deep red color with soft natural curls that reached down past her shoulders. Her mother had always loved her hair, telling her she found it adorable that it went well with her quick temper, but she had always thought it ugly and unruly. At one point in time her vanity had her attempting to tame the rioting curls into the sleek straight look she admired about other girl's hair. However, it didn't take long for her to give up on her unruly red locks.

In her mind the only thing she found appealing about herself were her eyes. They were ice blue in color ringed with a smoky gray that gave her eyes a mysterious look that she enjoyed having. She'd settle for her mysterious eyes if she couldn't have sleek and sexy straight hair.

Peyton considered herself to be too tall, taller than most of her few friends including the even fewer guy friends she had, who were shorter than most other boys to begin with. Of course she knew she didn't lack in the curves area, which she could admit she was happy for. However, nothing changed the fact that people almost always saw her as plain and boring.

If she had to be honest with herself it was that fact that made her nervous about the move. Peyton hoped that with the move things would be different, that she could make a change in what she thought of herself and what others thought of her. She wanted the chance to be a little wild and crazy, to make new friends and possibly even meet a boy. And she'd make that new start with her brother and his friends. Peyton only wondered how long she would be able to keep her flashes and dreams from causing her problems.

Little did she know what and who would be waiting for her in Ipswich, Massachusetts.