Arrowed (Arrowed Series Book 1)

by Gryffin Murphy

  “Well isn’t that sweet of you, Mark,” Dhruv commented with a smile. Mark shoved him off of the counter and looked back at me with a shrug.

  “It’s a good excuse to make sure I’m always working with my friend,” he added. My smile widened at the word ‘friend’. Once I had gotten him out of his shell, Mark and I had really hit it off, thanks to our similar senses of humor. Since then I had been wholly accepted as the fourth member of the friend group. It was really gratifying to have made friends. Especially as I had spent the past couple of days feeling lonelier than I had in a long time, our interactions were a welcomed relief from my misery.

  “I was thinking that Noah was going to be your personal chauffeur in this time of need,” Akemi said thoughtfully.

  At the mention of his name, my smile vanished and I felt a familiar twist of guilt in my gut. I waved my hand dismissively to not raise any suspicion of a problem. “Wolfsblood Ranch is on the other side of town. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience him like that.”

  “It wouldn’t seem like an inconvenience to me,” Mark muttered before turning his attention to the woman who was glaring at Dhruv and Akemi. They hopped down instantly as the woman started to place her items on the belt. She could have very well come to my open counter and it was clear she was unamused by Dhruv and Akemi’s antics. Not wanting to get us into trouble, they whispered their goodbyes and ran out of the store laughing. Grateful for the end of our discussion, I turned my back to Mark and focused my attention on replacing the receipt paper on my counter’s printer.

  I knew the instant I asked Noah he would have come to give me a ride. In fact, he probably was thinking about it even without my prompting. I just couldn’t bring myself to ask him for favors like that, particularly when I couldn’t bring myself to see him at all just yet. Every night I tossed and turned with nightmares about real-life monsters. I was also worried that everything was going to be different from now on, that when I looked into his beautiful green eyes all I would feel is that fear and confusion I felt when I saw Benji.

  If only he had been doing something illegal. Things would be so much simpler.

  I caught myself at that thought. Did I really mean that? Was I more likely to accept him as a drug dealer than I was to accept him as a shifter?

  I let out a frustrated sigh as I slammed the printer cover shut. I still had so many questions about what it even meant to be a shifter, but I was too scared to see the one person who had the answers. In the interim, I was looking over my shoulder every second expecting to see any other monster from mythology to appear and assert their existence to me as well, as if I were going to turn the corner and bump into Dr. Frankenstein’s creation.

  I knew from the moment I saw Noah that he had the potential to rock my world. I just never imagined that it would happen like this; breaking down the very foundation of things I thought I knew to be true.

  ➹➹➹

  Noah

  “How long has it been?” Benji asked, folding his hands on the table. I looked up to see both he and Milo had sat across from me. What was this-an intervention?

  “Four days,” I whispered. My voice sounded foreign from barely speaking a word for over 48 hours. I returned my attention to my phone, mentally willing it to light up with her name and photo.

  “And she said she’d call you?” Milo asked. I didn’t remove my eyes from my phone as I nodded. I had memorized every fleck of dust and scratch on my screen. I could draw an exact replica with my eyes closed.

  “Those were her exact words?” Benji asked. His high-pitched tone set me off and I snapped my head up, glaring at the two of them. I could practically feel the bags under my eyes.

  “She said okay. She said she’d call me. She said she just needed a moment.”

  “Well then, maybe it is okay. Maybe four days is her definition of ‘a moment’,” Benji shrugged. I knew he was just trying to help. He still blamed himself for how everything went down. Maybe Sophie wouldn’t be running scared if she hadn’t been introduced to our world by witnessing a rage-driven transformation.

  “She backed away from me,” I remembered out loud. Milo took in a deep breath and folded his hands as well, mirroring Benji’s solemn position.

  “I don’t mean to be funny when I say this,” he began, “but she is only human. Her whole world must be shaken up from this revelation. She just needs time. She’ll come around. She will call you.”

  “That’s what Ma said,” I retorted, getting up suddenly and grabbing my phone, “I just don’t know how much longer I can sit waiting around by the phone.”

  “Where are you going?” Frankie asked around the spoon in her mouth. She had come in from the kitchen with a yogurt in her hand. I looked at all three of their faces and recognized the expressions of apprehension. They were expecting me to fly off the handle at any moment.

  I decided to do something else worthwhile with my time. Without answering Frankie’s question, I walked out the door as I pulled out my phone and searched for her name in my contacts.

  “Noah Mactire,” her voice spoke as it came through on the second ring, “It’s been a couple days. I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me.”

  “Hey Chloe.” I opened the door to my truck and got in, grunting slightly at the soreness that still coursed through my body. “Are you available to meet up right now?”

  “Well I had a little something planned-” she took a long dramatic pause- “but I can make some time for you. Where would you like to meet?”

  “Bean There Done That,” I said automatically, “That little coffee shop across from Wilson’s Grocery.” I chewed my lip and hoped my choice of location wasn’t a mistake. I couldn’t help myself, my whole body craved to be closer to Sophie. Going to her favorite coffee shop was one way of keeping her in my life.

  “I know the one,” she responded, “See you in ten.”

  I got to the coffee shop later then planned, after taking a long route that just-so-happened to pass by Sophie’s house. It didn’t seem like anyone was home and I wondered where she might be instead. It suddenly dawned on me that she might be spending the day in the coffee shop, and would witness me having a private meeting with another girl.

  As I looked around the small café, however, I didn’t catch sight of her gorgeous golden red hair. Instead, my eyes fell upon Chloe who was sitting in the exact booth Sophie and I had sat in the day we got together.

  She stood up and smiled slowly as I walked over to her. I could not believe how much she had changed. Her skin was still a dark umber and shiny as ever, but she had grown her hair out naturally and it flourished wildly with tight curls framing her face. She was wearing a simple long black dress and her arms and fingers were adorned with multiple gold rings and bracelets. I assumed each piece of jewelry had some magical purpose, particularly the stone she wore on a long chain around her neck.

  “Chloe.” I smiled, pulling her into a hug. I cursed myself for sounding so breathy. I didn’t want to encourage her to bring up old affections or give her any hope that she had any chance left now that Sophie was in my life. I couldn’t help my pleasure in seeing her, however. Once upon a time she had been a really good friend to me.

  She pulled back quickly and motioned for us to sit. The Chloe I knew would have been cracking jokes already, but this new woman was all about business.

  “You left me hanging in suspense for quite a while, Mactire,” she scolded, stirring her tea. She looked up at me with reprimanding eyes.

  “I’m sorry.” I massaged the back of my neck. “A lot has happened since that day I called you.”

  “You were in an accident.” She nodded in understanding. “Are you feeling better?”

  “I’m still a little sore, and there isn’t a pill in the world that’s strong enough to last very long in this body.” I leaned back in wonder. “Actually, I’m surprised you heard about it.”

  “You enlisted the help of Dr. Acula.” Finally, the girl made a joke. “Of course I heard
about it. As High Priestess of my Coven it’s my job to hear about everything magical and supernatural that occurs within in my borders. As for the pain-” she turned to her purse and rummaged through it for a moment before pulling out a small glass vial with some sort of powder in it- “Put a pinch of this in some tea every morning. It should take away most of your discomfort.”

  I took the vial gratefully. “It’s not wolfs bane is it?” I asked, pausing before putting it in my pocket. She rolled her eyes.

  “If I were going to poison you, Noah, I’d have much more creative ways of doing it.” She smiled sweetly, but her eyes were serious. I could see why she had been elected to lead the coven, even at her young age. She was good at being intimidating.

  “Speaking of wolfs bane,” I said, eager to get down to business, “That’s sort of the reason why I called you. Do you remember one of our pack members, Beau?”

  “Sort of.” She scrunched up her nose in thought, “Wasn’t he the greasy guy, always hanging around your mother and yelling about everything she did?”

  “That’s the one,” I said, “He fled to Canada and has declared war on our clan through an envelope of wolfs bane addressed to my mother.”

  “Is she okay?” Chloe stopped stirring, “Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

  “She’s better now. She was human when she opened it.” I tried not to dwell on the memory as it always took me to a dark place and pushed through, “Anyway, it appears as though Beau is forming a pack of his own of sorts, by Ripping wolves against their will.”

  Chloe’s lower lip stuck out slightly as she looked down at her tea. I could tell this news bothered her as much as it did me. Ripped wolves were a danger to everyone.

  “I know you have an Aunt who runs a coven in Canada,” I continued, “so I was hoping maybe you could reach out to her and gain some insight into what witch could possibly be helping Beau with something so terrible.”

  “Witches don’t talk outside their coven, you know,” she said as she stirred her tea, “and Canada is a big place. It’s highly unlikely that my aunt would know anything about it.”

  “Still,” I insisted, “I’d welcome anything she could tell us. Also, if you could lend a hand here on the home front, my mother would greatly appreciate it.” I didn’t want to guilt her into helping by dropping my mother’s name, but I couldn’t ask her to offer her help for my sake.

  “What do you need from me?” she asked.

  “Anything you can tell us about Ripping, and what’s needed to perform spells of that kind. Also, I know we would all just feel safer with the trust that the local coven was on our side.”

  “Like an alliance?” she raised an eyebrow. I laughed and held out a hand.

  “Sure, an alliance. I like the sound of that. If Beau is planning on coming here to Rip wolves from our pack, we are going to need to band together to stop him.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” She shook my hand quickly, before her hands returned to the warmth of her tea. “Now, down to business.”

  “That was the business.” I furrowed my brows in confusion. “Wasn’t it?”

  “Not for me,” she said, shaking her head slightly, “I’m here because I want to hear all about her.” She looked at me meaningfully and I instantly knew the “her” she was talking about. There was no playing dumb. She already told me she knew about everything magical that happened in this town, so she had obviously heard about my Arrowing.

  “You sure you want to hear about that?” I asked, questioning whether it was a good idea. She rolled her eyes.

  “Noah, what happened between us was a very long time ago.” She spoke as if she were talking to a small child. “I’m over it-so are you. If we’re going to be allies here, there needs to be a foundation of trust. These are my terms: you want my help, you tell me the story of the girl that broke the two-decades-long Magical Love Famine.”

  I smiled and obliged, starting from that first day in that park. Despite her assertions of being over me I probably could have been more sympathetic in my wording, but I more or less gushed like a fool in love for twenty minutes. That is, until the story came to a halt and my misery came crashing back down on me.

  “And it’s been four days,” I finished. She furrowed her brows and set her empty tea mug aside, folding her hands like Benji and Milo had done earlier. I was getting pretty sick of people assuming that position when speaking to me.

  “So what are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Talking to you?” I looked around confused and she leaned forward.

  “No, I mean, what are you doing here?” I guess my face gave no indication of understanding because she scoffed and shook her head. “Always so clueless. I’m saying what are you doing here instead of driving over to her place right now? The longer you wait to see her the more she’s just going to get caught up in her own head and convince herself that staying away is the best option. You need to be at her door making her realize how much she needs you. Remind her of how good you are together.”

  Those words were like a bucket of ice-cold water dumped over my head. She was so right. Why was I wasting time allowing Sophie to put more and more distance between us? How could we move forward if we weren’t communicating?

  I jumped up and turned to leave, but she caught me on the wrist before I could go any further.

  “Is she beautiful?” she asked, a small smile on her lips.

  “Like she carries the sun around with her on a leash. Everywhere she goes there is sunlight.” The words came out of me before I could think to maybe be more sensitive, but Chloe didn’t seem upset by my words. Instead, she looked pretty happy.

  “Good,” she said, releasing me, “Now go get her, tiger.”

  “I’ll talk to you later,” I said with a grin, “And thank you.”

  She waved away my words as if she hadn’t just granted me a piece of wisdom that had saved my life.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sophia

  I paced back and forth across the carpet on my bedroom. I was in my favorite black slip, the lights were off, and I was all ready for bed. There was just a slight problem: I couldn’t sleep. Anytime I tried to close my eyes my brain flooded with images of imaginary beasts. I felt like a child that was scared of the monster under the bed. It didn’t help that there was a loud and violent thunderstorm occurring outside that seemed to shake the house with every roar of thunder and light up the entire room with every bolt of lightning.

  For the fifth night in a row, I contemplated picking up my cell and calling him. I had promised him I would. It wasn’t fair of me to keep him in the dark like this. I was surprised he was respecting my space, as a secret part of me hoped he would be the one to call me and force me to get out of my stupid head. I just wouldn’t know what to say if I had to make the first move.

  I replayed our conversation over and over. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by showing how scared I was of him. I had fought so hard to remain composed and pretend like everything was okay. At first I was calm, comfortable enough with the idea of Benji being a shape shifter because I was expecting it. Once I learned Noah was one too, however, for some reason that comfort disappeared. All I could do was replay Benji’s transformation in my mind. I couldn’t even imagine how I would feel if I ever saw Noah angrily transform into something like that. I knew most of my fears were stemmed from ignorance that could be solved with a conversation, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that I had a bad habit of evading difficult situations.

  There was another crash of lightning outside my window and I thought I heard a barking sound out in the yard. I jolted in fear but I calmed myself down with the realization that it was probably just my neighbor’s dog again. I walked over to the window and tried to find a sign of Ginger, but the rain pelting the glass made it difficult to see through. Braving the cold, I opened up the window and tried to squint into the night to find her. I placed my hands on the sill as I leaned over to try to get a closer look at th
e yard down below. Suddenly, my hands slipped off the slick wet surface and I felt gravity pull me down. My body lurched forward, but a sudden hard force knocking into my stomach stopped my fall. I was pulled back into my room and sent flying back onto my bed.

  “Oof,” I grunted as I bounced on the mattress. I sat upright in fear as a tall dark figure closed the window and then shook the rain out of his hair. The way he moved his head was all too familiar.

  “Noah?” I whispered. He turned and flicked on the nightstand lamp, illuminating the beautiful face that had been missing from my life for days. Only his expression wasn’t as loving as I remembered.

  “What the hell, Sophie?” He hissed, tossing a bouquet of flowers on my nightstand and running a hand through his dark wet hair. A long wet curl dripped raindrops down his forehead. “What were you thinking?” He gestured toward the window with a frantic hand, and I was pulled out of my distracted gaze.

  Defensively, I wrapped my arm around my stomach and the sore bruises that were protesting in pain. “I was looking for Ginger! How did you- how did you even-“

  “I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, so I came over and climbed your tree so I could give you these flowers. I was just about to get your attention when I saw you slip, so I swung in and saved you. Thank God I was here just in time!” Gosh, that sounded like it would have been romantic. If only I hadn’t ruined it by being a klutz.

  “You ‘swung in’?” I asked as the thought hit me, “I’m sorry-are you part wolf or part monkey?”

  He flashed a smile for a second, but it was all-too-quickly replaced with the most tortured expression I had ever seen. It was then that I truly noticed the state he was in. He hadn’t shaved and he had the largest bags under his eyes. My heart began to ache as I took it all in. Had I done this to him? I wished desperately that he would continue to yell at me, as I clearly deserved it.

  “Why haven’t you called me?” he asked, finally breaking the silence. I looked down at my hands and played with the ring on my finger. I was a coward.